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The Holy Heptangle- the Seal of Babalon One of the most powerful tools at the disposal of ceremonial magicians is astral projection. Strengthening the astral body and learning how to traverse the astral planes forms a large part of the elementary training of Hermetic schools of magick like the Golden Dawn and the Argenteum Astrum. Whilst becoming adept at using the astral body is largely a mechanical process much like any physical training regime; interpreting the experiences that are had on the astral planes requires a wide knowledge of occult symbolism. My latest book, The Sword & The Serpent is an account of a series of astral journeys that are filled with occult symbolism that express the essential nature of each of the planes. To adepts these symbols, the entities that we meet and the messages that they convey to us have subtle meanings that reveal some small part of the subconscious to ourselves. These planes are the real training ground of the magician who learns many of the truest arcana through their interaction with these astral worlds. "With his mental body he will visit the different spheres of the elements, transfer himself to the kingdom of the gnomes, or earth-sprites, afterward to the kingdom of the water nymphs. He gets to know the kingdom of the fairies and finally that of the salamanders, the so-called kingdom of fire. To a non-magician all this will be rubbish and he will regard it as a utopian idea. But neither fairy tales nor sagas exist for the true adept, because they are to be understood as a sort of symbolism concealing many deep truths.- "Franz Bardon, Initiation into Hermetics In order to interpret these experiences it is necessary for the magician to become fluent in the language of Hermetic magick, the Holy Qabalah. The entities on the astral planes will exhibit forms and colors that correspond in meaningful ways to the qabalah of the magician and the names and words that they use will almost certainly conceal magickal formulae that can be discerned by Gematria and made legible through an initiated understanding of general occult principals. Much of my own magick has been carried out on the astral planes, such as the twenty-two visions of the Paths of Sepher Yetzirah that are described in The Sword & The Serpent and, after many years of retrospective contemplation, I am able to interpret the meanings behind these experiences with greater clarity than I could at the time. While looking through my Magick Journal recently I found an interesting record of an astral journey that I made in September 1997 in which I used the seven-pointed star of Babalon as a gateway to the corresponding astral plane. I thought that this journey would make a good example of the kinds of experiences that are encountered on these planes and the interpretations that can be drawn from them. TRAVELING ON THE PLANE OF BABALON Babalon and the Beast Whereupon She Rideth "I meet with strong resistance as I try and push my way through the symbol but, after redoubling my efforts I am able to penetrate the purple & yellow gate revealing a featureless yet desolate gray landscape beyond that is seething and formless. Over the eastern horizon I sense that the new moon is rising invisibly into the deep grey firmament and simultaneously beneath the dark orb of the moon there appears a feminine figure. She is an ancient crone, near the end of life and her withered countenance is fearsome yet as I watch, and as the moon grows towards her first quarter a shadow passes over the woman and she suddenly appears as a young maiden. Before me, as the moon waxes to fullness she blossoms into a mature woman reaching the height of her beauty and her power as the moon approaches its fullest phase." The resistance to my entry onto the plane indicates that it is a step in my progress, that I am grasping at something that was yet beyond me and that it would require a genuine effort to wrest any secrets from the plane. Yellow and purple are the colors of Sol and the leaden grey sky is indicative of the Sphere of Saturn. The solar nature of the gateway (yellow ground with purple inscription) indicates that the plane represents some aspect of the conscious awareness of the magician and the saturnine leaden grey sky represents that this solar energy is limited by its temporal form. This is confirmed by the vision of the woman who is shown to be the manifest form of the continual change that is represented by the growing moon. "I recognize the woman as Babalon (who I had previously encountered on the 19th Path of Sepher Yetzirah: see The Sword but you must not try for this for thereby will you surely fail. If it will be it will be- So Mote it Be! "Now I ask her of her magick and her power and she replies, "I am the force of attraction, I am lust and the drive of all of the desire of life. My magick is of the Graal conjoined with the Lance; as thou knowest already." "Find a sacred whore, some woman, no matter, and come to me by my Star, which thou must learn more fully." (Here Babalon is rebuking my laxness in preparation for the ceremony and tells me that only by the quickness of mind did I prevail even now.) "Build the spiral in my mantra and, fixing the sigil of the daemon in the mind's eye, discharge the energy of that spiral, directing the spirit to do thy bidding and it shall be so!" (Now Babalon is telling me that this work is hard for me and so she shall make it easy; whereupon she showers me with stars and light!)" Babalon positively identifies herself with the Scarlet Woman from the Book of Revelation and the Book of the Law and admonishes me to seek her knowledge without the lust of a result. She goes on to define her spiritual dominion and indicates that she is the drive to procreate and that I had already learned this on the occasion of our last meeting. Next Babalon explains the mechanics of her magick, revealing a method for creating subservient spirits and gives very exact details of how to perform the operation. As a corollary to this Babalon also confers this magick power on me in a very specific manner, moving from a universal archetype to an individual one. "All of this time the full moon has been stalled in the mid-heaven and now Babalon shows me the vision of the lunar disk progressing through its phases and as the moon begins to shrink to a thin crescent Babalon ages to become the withered crone once again. Once again she advances upon me and menaces me but I stand my ground and, with the rapid progression of the moon's phases, she is once again a powerful young female growing towards her most potent maturity. In this guise she is no longer threatening to me and she informs me that I am "solid" and on that basis my progress will be easy. With this her vision is finished and she tells me to return to my Holy Guardian Angel for my further instruction." Finally; Babalon shows me the full course of the lunar cycle and its connection to the cycles of earthly life. As the potently mature woman Babalon is at the peak of her powers, connecting the efficacy of sexual magick with the feminine cycle and with the waxing and waning of the moon. At the same time she shows me that for works of malediction and death the greatest power will be derived from the crone in the dark of the moon. To end she tells me that I am solid, that is that I am entirely filled up with her vision now and that her knowledge would make the path ahead easy for me. The Sword & The Serpent With a very small amount of practice it is possible for the magician to obtain similar results to these. There are many excellent manuals that give the elementary instruction in building up and then traveling in the Body of Light with Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae by Aleister Crowley being perhaps the most complete. While study is important to making progress in magick, practical works like this contribute much more to the development of the magician's individual knowledge and ability with magick. A practical general ceremony for invoking specific astral planes as a specific preparation for traveling in the body of light can be found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/60946139/A-Ritual-for-Opening-the-Paths-of-the-Serpent and for more examples of the kinds of experiences that are to be had on the astral planes read my latest book The Sword & The Serpent.
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