Episode 2 - Introduction to Hermetic Thought, part 2 - Alef and the Law of Correspondence

TRANSCRIPT

ASSISTANT:

Dear unknown friend, welcome to the Temple of the Living Fire channel, and our second episode. Today we are continuing our introduction to Hermeticism, with special attention to the first arcanum of the tarot, and the Law of Correspondence.

MAGUS:

One of the most profound spiritual and hermetic texts of the twentieth century came from Valentin Tomberg, whose magnum opus is considered to be “Meditations on Tarot, A Journey Into Christian Hermeticism”. In his first Meditation, he invites us to contemplate the first Arcanum, known as the Magician, or Juggler. It is this arcanum that is the Master Key to the remaining 21 Arcanum. The Arcanum reflects an aspiration towards a state of unity between the conscious and unconscious mind, between the divine and personal will. The very goal of Carl Gustav Jung's transcendent function, a state of mind necessary to proceed into the depths of the night, or as Tomberg says, “a zone of silence”, necessary to enter into the mysteries of the Book of Thoth, or simply, Tarot.

Taking note of the image as it is depicted in the Rider-Waite deck we find the four instruments of the magician, the wand, chalice, pentacle, and sword, which are symbols of the tetragrammaton, the four cabbalistic universes associated with the sacred name, the four elements, and expanding this concept further, the four Jungian functions. Above his head is the symbol of infinity, which is also suggested in the Tarot of Marseilles, by the hat placed upon the Magi’s head.

This suggests the connection to infinity, and to the Principle of Rhythm. The other name the arcanum is known by, the Juggler is a key to understanding the arcanum’s relationship to the experience of concentration and accordance with the rhythms of various planes of existence.

The card, in its most essential details, depicts a state of consciousness which the mystical Hebrew traditions call “Kavanah”. It is, in a word, mysticism, and it is this mystical state of consciousness which becomes Gnosis in the following card, the passive High Priestess, and dynamic catharsis in the third arcanum, which is sacred magic. This state of consciousness is that which is needed for all fruitful contemplative, alchemical and magical work. It is the state of consciousness which is truly attuned to both the above and below, and because of the magician’s state of harmony with the rhythmic movement of higher planes of activity, he is able to bring the laws and principles of higher planes of existence into activity in lower planes of existence producing alchemical change, or simply a Miracle. As it is rendered by the Master of Masters, “The Father is working, and I am also working.”

It is interesting to note The Alef, has the value of one, the monad. The letter itself is composed of 2 Yuds connected by a Vahv and these letters when analyzed for their numerical values are 10 plus 10 plus 6, equalling the number 26. Which is the same value, through gematria, as the great name Jahweh.

Alef then is the point of unity in seed form, containing all potential, which unfolds, or reveals itself, in a plurality of diverse expressions, in this context the four Olamot or Cabbalistic universes.

The author of the aforementioned book makes some profound statements in regard to the problem of achieving this individualized state, which means to say, undivided, and working with the Law of Correspondence. When he says, quote,

“All practical esotericism is founded on the following rule: it is necessary to be one in oneself (concentration without effort) and one with the spiritual world (to have a zone of silence in the soul) in order for a revelatory or actual spiritual experience to be able to take place. In other words, if one wants to practice some form of authentic esotericism—be it mysticism, gnosis, or magic—it is necessary to be the Magician, i.e. concentrated without effort, operating with ease as if one were playing, and acting with perfect calm. This, then, is the practical teaching of the first Arcanum of the Tarot. It is the first counsel, commandment or warning, concerning all spiritual practice; it is the aleph of the “alphabet” of practical rules of esotericism. And just as all numbers are only aspects (multiples) of unity, so are all other practical rules communicated by the other Arcana of the Tarot only aspects and modalities of this basic rule.

Such is the practical teaching of the Magician. What is its theoretical teaching?

It corresponds in every point to the practical teaching, its theoretical operation being only the mental aspect of the practice. Just as the latter proceeds from concentration without effort, i.e. puts unity into practice, so does the attendant theory consist in the basic unity of the natural world, the human world and the divine world. The tenet of the basic oneness of the world plays the same fundamental role for all theory as that of concentration for all practice. As concentration is the basis of every practical achievement, the tenet of the basic unity of the world is the same with regard to all knowledge—without it no knowledge is conceivable.

The tenet of the essential unity of all that exists precedes every act of knowledge, and every act of knowledge presupposes the tenet of the unity of the world. The ideal—or ultimate aim—of all philosophy and all science is truth. But “truth” has no other meaning than that of the reduction of the plurality of phenomena to an essential unity—of facts to laws, of laws to principles, of principles to essence or being. All search for truth—mystical, gnostic, philosophical and scientific—postulates its existence, i.e. the fundamental unity of the multiplicity of phenomena in the world. Without this unity nothing would be knowable. How could one proceed from the known to the unknown—and this is indeed the method of progress in knowledge—if the unknown had nothing to do with the known? If the unknown had no relationship with the known and was absolutely and essentially a stranger to it? When we say that the world is knowable, i.e. that knowledge as such exists, we state through this fact itself the tenet of the essential unity of the world or its knowability. We declare that the world is not a mosaic, where a plurality of worlds which are essentially strangers to one another are fitted together, but that it is an organism—all of whose parts are governed by the same principle, revealing it and allowing reduction to it. The relationship of everything and of all beings is the conditio sine qua non of their knowability.” End quote.

Dear unknown friend, let us also present the words of the book ‘The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians’, from many decades ago for comparison.

“The Principle of Correspondence manifests in a certain correspondence or analogy or agreement between manifestations of the various planes of activity in the Cosmos. It is indicated by the old Hermetic aphorism: "As above, so below; as below, so above," and by the Arcane axiom: "Ex Uno disce Omnes," or "From One know All." The Rosicrucians, and other ancient occultists, hold that the laws governing the nature and activity of the amoeba, likewise govern the nature and activity of man and beings higher than man. What is true of matter is true of energy and of mind. The occultists make a practical application of this universal principle, in the direction of studying the unknown by means of the known, with the knowledge that the same laws govern each. Thus, just as the solar system may be known by means of studying the atoms and molecules, so may the higher planes of being be studied by an examination of the lower planes in manifestation before us.

After discovering the operation of certain principles in one thing we may safely reason by analogy based upon the assumption that these principles exist in other things on a higher plane, and thus discover the nature of the unknown "x." Thus the occultist reasons that there is Law and Order manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Vibration manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Rhythm manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Cycles manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Polarity manifest on every plane of being; that there is a Principle of Sex manifest on every plane of being. And the further that human investigation is pushed into the Unknown, the greater is the proof of the existence of these Cosmic Principles reasoned out by the ancient occultists upon the fundamental basis of the Principle of Correspondence.

A writer has said of this Cosmic Principle: "There is always a correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of life and being. The grasping of this truth gives one the means of solving many a dark paradox, many a hidden secret of Nature. There are planes beyond our knowing, but when we apply the Principle of Correspondence to them we are able to understand much that otherwise would be unknowable to us. This principle is of universal application and manifestation, on the various planes of the material, mental and spiritual universe—it is a universal law. The ancient Hermetists considered this principle as one of the most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside the obstructions which hid from view the Unknown. Its use even tore aside the Veil of Isis to the extent that a glimpse of the face of the goddess might be caught. Just as a knowledge of the principles of geometry enables a man to measure distant suns and their movements, while seated in an observatory, so a knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown. Studying the moneron, he understands the archangel. End of Quote.

What was said up to this point about the First Arcanum, in its direct relationship to the Law of Correspondence, and with respect to it being the key to unlocking the mysteries of the remaining 21 arcanum, may also be said to be the key to unlocking the mysteries of the six remaining hermetic principles.

The importance of this principle cannot be overstated, and is found to be the basis of Carl Jung’s acausal connecting principle, Synchronicity, which recognized the peculiar experience of an uncanny correspondence between the subjective and objective domain of human experience. The experience of Synchronicity testifies to the fact of the underlying and fundamental unity of all things, and as was mentioned, accordance and agreement between manifestations of the various planes of activity in the Cosmos. It is in fact not actually acausal, but simply a law and principle that is as of yet, not understood through the empirical method.

Spiritual practice, meditation, prayer, theurgical rites, engaging the transcendent function through art, poetry, writing, spending time meditatively in nature, keeping a dream journal, all facilitate development of the Ruach, to use the terminology of Cabbala, and sensitivity to the spiritual mind, or Neshama. All spiritual practices, worthy of being called such, will be found to have the principle of unification, synthesis, integration, and the balancing of the polarities within them.

The Christian cross, the Yin Yang, the mandala are all symbols of this integrated wholeness. The act of bringing one’s hands together in prayer, is a symbol of uniting the opposites. The petition of the Lord’s Prayer contains the essentials of hermetic understanding.

The medicine wheel of the Native Americans, is essentially the cross in a circle, and resembles many forms of the hermetic theurgical rites. In addressing the four directions in ceremonial work, one is also working with the tetragrammaton, the four elements, the four jungian functions, the masculine and feminine energies, and in all cases, above and below.

While such ideas and teachings often have little meaning to the concrete, conscious mind of the undeveloped man, or “hylic”, such symbolic rites speak directly and clearly to the unconscious, and higher levels of mind, symbols being the language in which the unconscious speaks to us, know, dear unknown friend, you can also, in a sense, speak back to it by this same means. And due to the accordance with the various planes of existence, if you are sincere in your efforts, you will get results.

Let us leave this episode with a quote from Sefer Ha Zohar. It reads as follows:

Come see: In any place where male and female are not found as one, The Holy One does not dwell in that place. And blessings are not found except in a place where male and female are found, as it’s written: “He blessed them and called their name Adam in the day of their being created”. It’s not written: “And He blessed him and called his name Adam”—for [a human being] is not even called Adam except [when] male and female are as one.

So Mote it Be.

Namaste, dear unknown friend.

ASSISTANT:

Our next full episode, intended to assist the aspirant on the path of hermeticism, will be an examination and commentary on Mabel Collins’ work “Light On the Path”. We will also have a bonus astrological forecast and commentary on the U.S. election, coming soon.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment, let us know what you liked, or what you would like to have clarified in another episode. Be sure to give us a like, and share it with someone you believe will appreciate the information. These little gestures will help us greatly!

Thank you and Namaste.

The Philosophers of the Living Fire.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Some images were generated using artificial intelligence.

More info to come...