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a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
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a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
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[obtained from http://www.visi.com/~invoke/camp/library/ ]
1975-76 Tarot Meditations by Bill Heidrick
All Rights Reserved. Copyright (c)
Transcribed 8/24/87 e.v. and 5/22/89 e.v. (additional
proofreading needed)
HTML Markup by Bruce Kroeze Jan 19, 1997 e.v.
These mediations may work best with a BOTA (Paul Foster Case) or
Rider Pack (Waite) Tarot Deck.
____________________________________________________________
Subject: MEDITATIONS FOR THE MAJOR TRUMPS
Fool Meditation 9/30/75
Adapted from "Understanding the Tarot", column six, by Bill
Heidrick (First published in "Gnostica")
The Fool embodies whirling wind blowing between worlds. The Fool
is pure existence, without substance or form. This spirit falls
into the abyss of mortality. This spirit becomes all that is,
seems locked into form. Yet this one being rises freely back to
the silence of formlessness. The wandering Fool is like a
spinning dust-devil that comes from no visible place, assumes a
cloud of matter and then vanishes back into the unknown. All
other Tarot cards are images frozen in time of the whirling Fool
that is beyond time. When the Fool rules the world, he is the
Emperor. When the Fool sits alone in thought, she is the High
Priestess. When the Fool is terror and explosion, -- that is the
Tower. All are bound in the oneness of the Fool. The Fool is
bound by no-thing.
____________________________________________________________
Magician Meditation 10/6/75
Adapted from "Understanding the Tarot", column seven, by Bill
Heidrick (First published in "Gnostica")
Before becoming the Magician, the Fool is a breeze blowing in
light gusts everywhere in space. When the Fool becomes the
Magician, the breeze becomes a whirlwind of concentrated force.
When glazed, absent-minded eyes become suddenly bright and
hawk-like, the Magician wakens.
Look at the picture on the Magician card. Imagine yourself as the
magician. Your right hand rises to receive a ray of warm and
brilliant light. The light travels through you, influenced by
your mind. Power issues from your left hand and the world is
molded in the image of your thoughts.
Imagine yourself alone in a vast place. You cannot see the walls
or the ceiling. Air stirs about you in soft, random touches.
Inside your body, near the navel, a great force dwells. Your mind
is clear, with a golden light about your head. The light reaches
down and sends out a wave of force, like a great curved and
shapeless arm from the center near your navel. The arm of force
catches the air about you. Winds begin to blow about you in
circular motion. Feel the whirling vortex of power strong about
you. Below you a light dimly shines. It brightens. Beneath you in
the light is a great hall lined with many doors. The doors open
and close at your bidding. One door attracts your attention more
than the others. Let the door open. See what is beyond it.
____________________________________________________________
High Priestess Meditation 10/13/75
The Fool is a soft breeze blowing everywhere in space. The
Magician is a mighty whirlwind reaching from earth to sky. The
High Priestess is the quiet within the wind, the peaceful eye
within the storm. She dwells in a place where the air stirs not
and even thoughts are quiet. This vestal is a child become almost
a woman. Her days of protection and trust are with her yet. With
her also is the first bloom of the mysteries of the Moon, the
mysteries of later spring turning to summer in her body.
Look at the picture on the High Priestess card. See the
priestess. Let your eyes meet hers. Her eyes flicker and then
still. They look deeply into yours. In your heart a question
grows. It slowly rises to clarity. The Priestess waits to answer
it.
Close your eyes to the outside world. Let the blue and white of
the little goddess shimmer before your mind. From your heart a
need has reached out. From the temple of the Priestess a soft
answer comes. The answer is not in words, for the need surpasses
words. Let the soft blue and white of the goddess dissolve in
silver moonlight. In the radiance find meaning.
____________________________________________________________
Empress Meditation 10/20/75
The Empress is a soft breeze issuing from the calm of the High
Priestess. She is the light of the sun vitalizing growing things.
She is the dance of inspiration; her touch is the life of the
world. When pain burns and fear threatens, the Mother Empress
balms and protects.
Look at the picture on the Empress card. Let your eyes see the
bright sky of the morning. Listen to the sound of falling water.
Feel the softness of the wind that stirs tall trees in rustling
imitation of a waterfall. Feel the solid coolness of stone
beneath you. Enjoy the warm garden of the Empress.
Close your eyes but hold the images and feelings of the Empress
card close about you. Your are in a great forest of ancient
trees. It's the kind of place people sometimes fear to enter, yet
you are at home. The air is refreshing. There are sounds of
leaves brushing leaves, of water flowing, of branches moving at
the caress of the cool and fragrant air. A great Tree is close to
you. From the Tree a presence seems to grow. There is a vast
invisible being dwelling in the tree. A breeze moves past the
Tree to stir your hair. Mother blesses you.
____________________________________________________________
Emperor Meditation 10/27/75
The Empress gives birth to forms and ideas. The Emperor shapes
and chooses. Thoughts of Empress sing around the Emperor like
wind around a great stone. Wind shapes stone and stone gives
voice to wind. A soft and slender hand is gently held by a rough
and battered hand.
Look at the picture of the Emperor. Let your eyes see the river
and the mountain. Feel a wind blowing coldly about you. It
refreshes, the waking wind of the morning. Close your eyes.
Imagine yourself on a hike in the high mountains. Sit upon a rock
in a windy place. The air stirs your hair. It feels cool and
good. In your right hand is a wooden staff -- shining golden in
the sunlight. In your left hand is a juicy red apple -- it will
take away your thirst with a sweet, cool crunch.
In your wanderings you have found a cave. It is a place of cool
shadows. A clear stream runs out of it. There is room to pass
into the cave beside the water. You enter. Walk far into the cave
beside the water. You have reached a grotto where ripples of
light dance over the walls in blue, green and silver. Rest there
in a patch of Sunlight. Sunlight? Look up to see a golden
radiance streaming down from an opening in the grey rock that
covers the grotto. If you wish, climb out of the cave through the
window of light.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Heirophant 11/3/75
In the crudely shaped world of the Emperor's dominions, song is
heard. Once the winds of thought sent dust clouds flying across a
land half formed. Now shapes appear and voices call. The fiery
air has burned earth to clay and shaped the clay. The world has
added features to its planes and hills. Echoes of the inner mind
have fashioned words in the outer places.
Open your eyes and look at the picture on the card. Imagine
yourself before a magical teacher. Prepare to receive knowledge
of great mysteries. To enter the circle of the Hierophant's
teachings, grow inwardly quiet and listen until the earth speaks
your thoughts. At first this speaking is only an echo from the
Emperor's dominion; in time the mind asks questions which the
world answers. The inner and the outer join further when the
world asks and the mind answers. This dance of recognition and
communion sets the mind and world singing a duet of evolving
discovery --- the teachings of the Hierophant make outer world
and inner mind one being and one knowing.
You are tired. Many experiences and visions are behind you. You
stand before a group of people. No thought comes to your lips. No
idea waits to be spoken. Yet you must speak. You are expected to
teach. Open your mouth. Say: "This is ..." words form in your
mind. Your lips echo them. Thoughts you never had before flow
through you to bring light into those before you. You have the
best seat at the lecture.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Lovers Trump 11/11/75
You have been lonely. In places where others embrace warmly, you
have felt the cold. At times another person's eyes have met your
own. Yet the glance was not trusting. There was no sharing of
life. From the dark a soft touch comes. Warmth radiates an aura
like the scent of a rose. A blessing upon two minds that are as
one. A joy in loving and being loved.
Look at the card of the Lovers. The man is as a flame that knows
only light and passion. The woman is the bright taste of sweet
fruit on a spring day. The Angel is their union. Close your eyes
and fantasize.
This will reach inside and beyond, to a lover not of the earth.
Let the things of this world be at peace. Obligations of the day,
hour and year are satisfied. Say these things aloud or in your
mind as you wish. Let the images that accompany them rest in your
mind -- or see what your mind gives you. (10). I have not done
anything wrongly or incompletely. Imagine a clean house or an
orderly place. (9). I have not dreamed in fear or imagined in
shame. Warmth spreads through you. (8). I have not planned
anything harmful. A golden light fills you. (7). I have not
desired to hurt anyone. The golden light spreads about you. (6).
I have not turned away a friend. Happiness fills you. (5). I have
not feared. A presence comes near you. (4). I have not closed. A
golden veil shimmers before you. You may pass beyond it to the
beloved. Zain Hay Resh When you wish, return to this place.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Chariot Trump 11/17/75
Remember the last time you were in a fast, exciting ride. Perhaps
it was a sports car, a boat, even a roller coaster or other
amusement ride. The wind rushes past your hair. The Scenery
flashes past. Turns and accelerations thrill your body. Laughter
and shouts of joy are all about you.
Open your eyes and look at the Chariot card. This is a figure in
a parade. It's the time of Mardi Grass and the streets are filled
with strange sights. People in outlandish costumes are dancing.
Devils and angels revel. Sphinxes prance and dragons belch crape
paper flames. The night bursts open with fire in the sky.
In a cold, dark room, warm cloths grand soft dreams. A bright
fire on the hearth sends flickering heat about the room. Dawn
draws the sunlight to form warm patches on the floor. A cat
purrs, a bird sings and music fills the room. You rise up and
discard the garments of the night. A warm bath is followed by a
good breakfast. The day has begun. Set aside the comforts of
home. Prepare to face the eyes of strangers. All is right in your
world. Outside soft clouds move across the sky. People smile and
wave. Your heart is glad. Happiness fills you. This day you are
going to live well!
____________________________________________________________
Strength Meditation 11/24/75
The Chariot is a moving hollow place, and Strength grows inside.
Strength is natural energy and power. The heart beats, sending
blood of life coursing through serpentine channels. Food passes
through the body by a great winding passage. Might answers need.
Arms and legs shake not. Mind follows twists and turns of hidden
knowledge.
Look at the two cards of the Magician and Strength. Compare them
in your mind. The Magician stands tall and firm in his garden.
Lo, a change! The Red Robe falls to the garden floor. It moves,
changes, becomes a Great Red Lion. The roses below entwine with
the serpent and chain the man and the beast. Roses to calm the
raging beast. Lilies change into white, sharp teeth. The Man has
become woman as inner humility makes humble the beast. Jaws of
Roses and lilies have closed to open the mouth of nature.
This one you will mostly do yourselves. Take a look around you.
See where the objects are in the room. See where people are
sitting. Now, close your eyes. Imagine a great mass of dark
golden light near the base of your spine. Let it move and churn.
Let it grow. The light rises to your abdomen and grows a little
brighter. From the mass of light arms and tentacles of light move
slowly outward. Try to feel the texture and position of things
about you in the room through the arms of light.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Hermit 12/2/75
You are in a great round building, shaped like a planetarium.
There is an unbroken dome of concrete overhead. There are no
windows. The place is dark and cool, the air is fresh and scented
with pine and musk. There is a great park inside the round
building. You wander among giant shadowy trees. The roots of the
Trees are long and spidery. There is a sense of tension in the
air like that just before a thunder storm. Other people in the
park of the giant dark trees become afraid and leave. You are not
afraid and remain. You wait to discover the meaning of the moment
to come in the park of the Trees of the gods.
Open your eyes and look at the High Priestess Trump. Imagine
yourself waiting for something in such a sacred place. Soon you
must go into the outer dark to light a spark. Look now at the
Trump of the Hermit. You have gone into the darkness of the
night. Raise high the lamp of clay with the light of heaven, the
Nar Ha- Aritz Ba-Ar Ha-Schmim. With your will, cause the golden
radiance of the lamp to slowly force away the darkness.
This is the technique of the ever-moving spark. Take firm in hand
your soul. Sit fixed, not rigid, not relaxed/ Send thoughts about
the place. Let one thing be another. DReams lie. Eyes see. What
can you see? Find a fitting lightness -- let it fasten on
nothing. Trace letters and swirls and spirals with the divine
spark. Let it alight nowhere. Draw near. Rush around. Go past.
Fly back. No calmness and no fear. Only swift dartings of the
mind and eyes behind closed lids. Following the darting thought.
Move quickly with it. Pay no heed to the fantasies that form
where it has been. Let your awareness follow only the darting and
dancing spark.
____________________________________________________________
Wheel of Fortune Meditation 12/8/75
This will be mostly your own thinking and not much of my talking.
Starting with Spring, imagine the weather of the four season. Try
to put your mind into the state it has for going outside and
doing things out of doors in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
Think of the temperature, the growing things and the length of
the day. Try to actually pretend to the point of believing it
that you are going outside in Sprint, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
See how many times you can cycle through all four Seasons in the
next two or three minutes.
CAUTION *** CAUTION
Look at the Empress Trump. Even if you are a man, try to imagine
yourself sitting as she does in her garden. Imagine yourself in
the later months of pregnancy. There is a bulging, warm fullness
inside you, below your diaphragm. You reel blissful, sometimes a
little uncomfortable, usually a little vague -- like being
slightly drunk on a summer day. From time to time something moves
inside you and gives you a shocking but not painful poke. Faint
and smothered hiccups can be felt rather than heard from inside
your belly. Now, holding the image of pregnancy as well as you
can, look to the Wheel of Fortune Trump. Concentrate on the Wheel
itself. Stare at it without moving your head. Let the color
brighten and dim, let the wheel seem to move in your vision.
Slowly bring the sensation of the flashing wheel inside your
belly. Close your eyes. Imagine a whirling life inside you
glowing with sanguine orange life. Feel it growing brighter. Know
that it is an entire life, whole and complete. Let it grow
brighter and stronger until you reach the limit of your power.
Then let it rise up to your forehead and be born through your
mind instead of below. If you can, imagine the contractions,
stretching and tensions of natural birth happening up through
your body instead of down.
____________________________________________________________
Justice Mediation 12/16/75
For the first part of this meditation, examine the events and
activities of your day, today. Start with the time and manner of
your getting up in the morning. Continue through breakfast or the
lack of it. Take up each action or omission in order through out
the morning, at noon, through the afternoon and evening -- right
up to now. When you consider each activity think of how it set
with you. Did you do what you wanted to do? Where did you do
more? Where less? Don't let yourself feel guilty or worry, just
try to see the weaknesses and how they might have been made
stronger. Let the successes take their rightful place, but don't
let them override the recognition of there improvement is needed.
Concentrate on actions or inaction. Examine your day for the next
three minutes.
Now look at the Emperor Trump and the justice Trump. Let your eye
start in the upper left corner of the Emperor card. Look at the
same corner of the Justice card. Compare the two part by part,
from left to right and from top to bottom like you would read a
written page. Look for differences and for similarities.
For the last part of the meditation on Justice, concentrate on
your body. Start at your feet. Try to wiggle your toes --
separately if you can. Let your concentration rise slowly up your
legs -- try to tense or slightly move each muscle a little. Bring
your attention up through the body in the same way. Feel the
muscles of your arms, your fingers, your neck, your face. Even
the crown of your head. When you have finished this, go back to
your toes and retrace the same route, -- but this time relax, let
sensation fade from each muscle, let each part be suffused with a
warm light. When you are finished, stay relaxed for a little
while.
(NB. Pythagorean examination of day -- 1. Method of analyzing two
objects -- 2. Body awareness exercise followed by -- 3. Yoga
relaxation. Dead man's posture. Strain followed by atunement)
____________________________________________________________
Hanged Man meditation 12/23/75
In some ways this is the opposite of last week's starting
meditation. Instead of going through the events of the day from
Morning to now and making decisions about them, reverse the
process. Starting with now, go back over the events of the day in
reverse. Try to see what led to or caused each variation in your
activities. Don't judge yourself, just try to retrace your steps
of this day. If you prefer, a good variation is to send your
memory back step by step over the events of your life. If you can
penetrate far into childhood memories, do so. This process of
reverse remembering is sometimes used by people who want to
remember previous incarnations. Whichever you want to do, retrace
the events of the day from now back to morning or the events of
your life from now back as far as you can -- you have three
minutes before the next part of the meditation.
Take a moment to compare the two painted cards: Hanged Man and
Hierophant. Think of the Hanged Man as an example or instructive
story. Think of the Hierophant as one who uses a story to teach
something -- a moral, an abstract idea or a practical idea. Now,
take an idea that you learned about the hanged Man Trump. Try to
get the particular idea clearly in your mind. As soon as it is as
clear to you as you think it can be, pretend you are a teacher
teaching that idea about the Hanged Man to a room full of people.
In your imagination, describe the idea to the people. Take three
minutes to do these things.
This last part of the mediation has to do with reasoning by
antinomy. The trick is to get one view or opinion clearly in your
mind and then replace it by the opposite idea as quickly and as
completely as you can. Start with simple things. Close your eyes
and picture a white light. Let eh white light fill you with
happiness. Then picture a blackness, a darkness. Become as happy
about the dark as you were about the light. Continue with more
complex things. Imagine an object that you like. It could be a
vase, a table, a car, a house -- anything like that. Let the
fondness you have for that thing grow until it fills you. Then
reverse the process. Think of all the negative characteristics
you can about that thing until you hate it. Lastly do the same
with a person -- better make it someone you won't be seeing for a
few days at least. Start by concentrating on all the unpleasant
things about that person. Continue freely and guiltlessly finding
fault until the person seems thoroughly evil to you. Now reverse
the process and home in on the good characteristics. After all,
that person isn't so bad. The faults are not that different from
your own weaknesses and little failings. As a matter of fact that
person is a lot like you. Some of the same things that are hard
for you are also hard for others. There are some good qualities
too -- keep it up until you love the person you hated a moment
ago. Perform reversals of this sort with simple concepts, things
and people until you are finished with the meditation.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Death Trump. 12/29/75
For the first part of this meditation, think of life as it was
lived at some time in the past -- perhaps around the turn of the
century. Go through the usual events of your day from rising in
the morning to going to bed at night, but no electricity, no
frozen foods, no cars, no TV, no radio. Take each thing that you
normally do and imagine doing it within the conditions of a
century ago. If you are feeling ill, home remedies are the only
available thing. If you are cold, warm cloths -- homemade or a
wood fire are the ways to warm up. If you must go some place,
walk or use a horse. If you want entertainment, visit friends or
attend a meeting or game. Do this without considering the modern
versions of these things. Do this with a feeling of happiness at
having so much. Don't compare the time of your imaginings with
this time -- just try to feel as though you were living in a
little town or in the country around 1900. Take three minutes for
this.
Look at the Trumps of the Lovers and of Death. Each involvement
with life is a bright thing. Each love is a harmony. Yet
everything must rise, prosper for a time in the sun and then pass
back into silence. Every moment of life has its proper end within
itself. Strive to see Love and Death as one thing, not total life
followed by the absence of it, but all life. Use images like a
letter written and enclosed in an envelope only to be reopened
and read. Let these matters occupy your thoughts for a little
while.
This is important. It begins as an metaphor. Your life is a
string of beads. Each waking day is a bead. Each sleep is a
string or chain between beads. The shapes of the beads are
sometimes different. Some are round. Some start or end sharply.
Some are of wood, some of precious metal with strange designs;
some are plastic. Many of the beads of your days are dark and
thin. Some are clear and filled with beautiful light. A few are
larger than the others. Between the beads of day are the lengths
of night -- these also are different. Some are dull thread,
others bright with gleaming dreams. At more or less regular
points special beads appear -- perhaps every seventh bead is
bigger and gathers the light scattered among the rest. Perhaps
there are special beads at 365 spaces apart. Let a vision of your
life come upon you as a necklace about the throat of a goddess or
a strand in the curtain of a god. Beyond the length of the beads
of your life there may be other strands and other beads. When the
metaphor becomes real enough, you have passed beyond the domain
of death and time; and all that you have ever been and will ever
be will never pass away. You are an immortal ornament of delight
the eye of the Creator.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Temperance Trump 1/6/76
This first part will cover the events of the day again, but in a
different way. You can either go systematically through the day
from Morning to now or select particular points to concentrate
upon. For the next three minutes examine the things you do
without much thought. These might include listening to radio or
TV, purchasing food or other things, saying hello to people you
meet casually or any of the little things of daily life. For each
of these "taken-for-granted" activities, consider what part
others have had in providing services, establishing customs and
so forth. Try to see how you live with the cooperation of people
you will never see.
Look at the two Trumps: The Chariot and Temperance. Consider that
the meanings of the Temperance Trump start on the Chariot at the
winged sun and take in the lower portion of that card. From this
beginning compare the symbols on the two cards and consider how
their meanings interrelate.
A moral philosopher once said: "I will do nothing that could not
be done by everyone." This is a variation on the "Golden Rule'"
and a basic statement of temperance. Meditate on this,
intellectually. Think of how this rule helps in society and how
it harms individual freedom. Consider the meaning of "moderation,
but only in moderation."
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Devil Trump 1/13/76
Once again, consider the events of the day up to now. Or, if you
wish, consider the chief events of your life. This time, try to
identify the causes for feelings of guilt and for limitations on
your behavior that seem to come from within. Ask yourself if
there is a true relationship between what you have done or not
done and what would have helped you to a happier and more
valuable life. Try to identify those half-unconscious limits that
you have set upon yourself. Are there any limits to your feelings
that need to be removed? Are there any new limits that need to be
set? Consider especially the little things like the food you eat
and the way you dress. If you are strong enough, consider also
the more difficult questions of faith or the lack of it in
yourself and others or matters of duty toward yourself and
others. 3 minutes.
Look at the three Trumps: Magician, Strength and Devil. Consider
that the Magician is the knowing use of what is symbolized on the
Strength Trump. Consider that the Devil is the unconscious use of
the powers of Strength. Identify the Woman of Strength with the
Magician, and the Lion of Strength with the Devil. After you have
pondered this symbolism for a time, take one of the events you
examined in the first part of the meditation and try to see the
roles played by the Magician, Strength and the Devil in that
event of your life.
Above all the changes of the world is a great eye. It looks
downward upon a swirling cloud of images without passion. In the
world is an eye that gazes to and fro in nervous fashion. All
that it sees as beauty seems to fade or break -- it sees with
passion. Between the light and the dark is a great eye that
sometimes flashes fire and sometimes brims with tears -- yet its
vision never dims. Magician knows. Devil imagines. Strength sees
life. The eye of the Magician never separates in judgment. The
Eye of the Devil never unites in faith. The eye of Strength
doubts and trusts with glances like a needle stitching the
garment of life.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Tower Trump 1/20/76
This time, think back to a time when you were very excited about
something or someone. Focus on the emotions of the experience.
Fantasize about the exciting experience. Try to get inwardly just
as excited now as you were then -- three minutes.
Look at the three Trumps: High Priestess, Hermit and Tower. The
simplicity and calm of the High priestess is in the mind of the
Hermit. From the strength of the Hermit, this inner mind
manifests as a shining light. The Tower is the Hermit's mundane
existence. When the light of discovery manifests, material
affairs must be changed quickly or the light will fade. Continue
meditating on the three Trumps for a time.
Take the experience of excitement that you used for the first
part of this meditation and check it against the three Trumps:
High Priestess -- Was the mind prepared before the experience, or
were there thoughts of doubt and hanging back? Hermit: Was the
experience itself a complete thing, or was it interrupted? Tower:
Did the experience have a lasting effect or was it merely a
distraction? If something went wrong at any of these three
points, what would have caused it to be better? The ultimate test
is not the pleasure or lack of it that the excitement carried
with it, but whether you can reach back to the memory of that
excitement and draw benefit.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Star Trump 1/27/76
To begin, take inventory of all the little things that you do
differently from other people. Consider matters of clothing,
interests in crafts and education, the way you relate to friends,
strangers and disliked people. Think also of your health and the
things that give you pleasure or pain. Try to form an image of
yourself as you might appear to others. Build up an image of your
unique personality.
Look at the three Tarot Trumps, Empress, Wheel of Fortune and
Star. Let the Empress be the inside you, the totality of your
beliefs, emotions and knowledge resting in the inclosed garden of
your mind. Let the Wheel of Fortune be your changing moods and
inner vital cycles. Let the Wheel of Fortune also be the changing
opportunities and energies that surround you in the physical and
social world. As for the Star, let it be the outer manifestation
of your own particular Empress. -- meditate on these things.
Try to see your own star. Let your mind pass over and through
hall the members of your body in search of the meaning of the
word "I." Seek behind your face, in your heart and everywhere for
this darting point of vital individuality. Then let your search
pass into the things that fill your mind, seek there for "I." Do
not use reason to pick and choose what is and is not the star.
Let the feeling of life guide your quest for the divine spark
that draws the picture of you on the stream of time.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Moon Trump 2/2/76
Take a moment to remember a time when you seriously planned
something for yourself. It should have been a semester of
education, a marriage, a party, a change of address or anything
like that. Mentally go back to the plan. Send your thoughts over
the same path that you followed then. Build up the original plan
as it was before being put into practice. When you have done
that, search your memory for the actual event. What changes did
you have to make in your original plan to put it into practice?
How did events influence the matter? Compare point by point the
differences and similarities between your abstract plan and the
actual attempt.
Look at the three Trumps: Emperor, Justice and Moon. The Emperor
plans, the Justice goddess mediates between plan and application.
The Moon is the actual process of doing what is planned. Try to
feel the desire to mentally organize things when you look at the
Emperor. Try to feel pressures and prodding from the physical
world when you look at the Moon. Let Justice balance these two
influences.
The Emperor is a flame that leaps brightly from one perfect world
to another. The Moon is a thick water that moves slowly from one
world to another. Justice is agate between the flame and the
great sea that blends the fire of imagination with the
substantial flow of events in the world of matter. Close your
eves and see flames leaping up in one pan of the balance ans
water settling in the other. Feel the pan of fire struggle
upwards. Feel the pan of water sink downwards. Let your will hold
the balance until the fire cools and the water boils -- this is
the nature of mind in action with matter.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Sun Trump 2/10/76
Close your eyes. let a warm vision slowly build within. Swirls of
soft mist drift about you. There is no fear, only a warm yellow
light that slowly brightens overhead. You are a child again
playing in the sunlight upon soft green grass. Send back your
thoughts to a place of comfort and peace. Let your memory build
about you the soft caress of being loved.
Now look at the three Trumps, Hierophant, Hanged Man and Sun. The
Hierophant is an old friend from childhood telling a strange tale
about the Hanged Man and all the dangers he overcame. You are a
child again in the garden of the Sun hearing your favorite fairy
tale from your favorite story teller. Let the tale unfold in your
imagination.
Now and then we must return to the innocence of childhood. We
must set aside cold webs of work and struggle to return to the
land beyond the World's edge where dreams are gifts from a loving
teacher. In the arms of love all pains vanish. Adventures liven
the child within with delightful images of princes, perils and
princesses. Beauty sleeps inside an enchanted garden without
concern for thorns that slowly hide outer sunlight. Beyond time
and care she will awaken in the land of the eternal Sun.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Judgment Trump 2/16/76
Close your eyes. Imagine an icy-blue flame burning somewhere
before you. This flame is not as earthly fire. It has no heat. It
devours nothing. The light it gives does not illuminate anything
on earth. Draw near to the immortal flame. Step inside it. Let it
fill you. Let the touch of it cleanse you of all weakness and
fear. Your skin feels as though you are in a wonderful shower of
tiny sprays that stimulate every part of you. Bask in the living
flame for a time.
Look at the three Trumps: Lover, Death and Judgment. The Lovers
create the flame of life. Death cleanses the flame of all
limitations. Judgment opens the vision of the dweller in the
flame to realms beyond all worlds imaginable. Meditate first on
love to start the flame. Then sweep away all that dims the flame
and is not of the light. Lastly, take a deep breath and let your
eyes see without looking at the physical world.
We live in a box formed by our beliefs and those of the people
about us and behind us in time. That box has no hold on the
inmost part of the soul. With a summoning of great light it is
possible to rise above and beyond such limitation and rise on
beams of radiance to the endless space of the limitless light
that is beyond even the thought of time and the question of
death. It is good to do so.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the World Trump 2/23/76
(NB. This meditation includes a transcript fragment of the class
where it was first offered. You can find the Lesser Pentagram
Banishing ritual in Crowley's "Magick in Theory and Practice",
"OTO Newsletter" Vol. I, No. 4 or my "Magick and Qabalah #1" if
you want to use it. OTO members may wish to obtain cassette tape
M-6, which includes the ritual with examples and studies.)
"This is not an easy thing to do, but I think you will find it
valuable for divination and other things. What we are about to do
is experiment with the time sense, to reverse it if possible.
This is a good warming-up exercise for divining with or without
the cards. Although I will be using a special warming-up ritual
now, the basic technique which comes after is the main thing. "To
start I will be performing the Lesser Pentagram Banishment, a
little bit like I did for the Emperor Trump. This time, I want
you to follow it yourselves. Listen to what I say as well as
chant. Try to eliminate all distraction. Try to clear your mind
of the events of the day and any feelings of discomfort or
anxiety. "Before we begin, take a moment to think of a question
you want answered about your own future. Get it clearly in your
mind. Hold it through the banishment ritual (actually any method
you can use to relax is just a good; this ritual is just an
example for group use today). "Use the next few minutes to select
the question you want answered -- you will answer it yourself,
but not yet. Now, select and concentrate on your question.
(At this point the Lesser Pentagram Banishment ritual was done
with extemporaneous chant. The chant included a suggestion on
clearing the mind. The ritual was also chanted, not the loud
version. Visualizations were described during the chant
insertions in the ritual to assist the listeners. Light paths
were described during the Qabalistic Cross portions. Glowing
pentagrams during the use of the four Names to the quarters.
Pillars of elemental colored light with the Archangels and a sort
of gyroscopic effect in the center of the ritual with the
elemental pillars bending to touch above and below. The
gyroscopic part came after describing how the white ring of light
appeared connecting the four pentagrams through the arcs of the
pillars. The whole visualization tumbles on three perpendicular
axes simultaneously. This means three colored hoops spinning on
each other's central axes where the axes intersect the hoops. The
tumbling hoops describe a sphere about the person performing the
ritual. Difficult, but worth the effort. If this doesn't make
sense, don't worry. I plan to expand this portion someday.)
"Ok, take just a couple of seconds to concentrate on your
question again. "Ready? Here's the time reversal technique:
1. Imagine a grey light behind you. Use your visual memory to
fill the grey space with details of the PAST that relate to your
question. Concentrate on it. Let emotional contacts from the past
liven up the vision in the grey space.
2. Now, pull your attention forward into the space around your
body. Imagine a white light surrounding you. Dimly feel the grey
space of the past behind you. The white space about you is the
present. It's where you are now. It's what the question means to
you now. Let yourself feel the tension of wanting to know the
answer to your question, the question that grew from the grey
past behind you. The question that burns in the white light of
now.
3. Before you is a great darkness. It is like a wall of black
cloud. With great effort you try to see the answer to your
question in the dark unknown of the future before you.
4. Hold for a moment the image of the grey past behind you with
its emotions remembered, the white light about you with its
tension to know the answer, the trembling darkness of the unknown
future before you.
5. With an effort of will, force the grey are to move toward you
from behind. At the same time force the dark area to move toward
you from in front. Let the grey and the black pass into the
white. Let the black pass through you into the behind space. Let
the gray pass through you into the before space. SEE AHEAD!
Remember what will happen. Remember the answer to the question
you will ask in the past that is the present and the future all
in one. NOW!
____________________________________________________________
MEDITATIONS FOR THE WAND MINOR TRUMPS
by Bill Heidrick
"Drawn in part from the work of Isaac Luria"
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Ace of Wands 3/1/76
This is a Qabalistic way of seeing the creation of the universe
and the beginning of all things. In it light is spoken of as
though light were the essence of the Creator. This is necessary
so that the human mind have something to fasten on, not because
light or any other perceivable thing is truly the essence of the
Most High.
Let your mind calm itself. Send away all the cares of the day,
dispatch all your concerns from their inmost places. Relax even
the feelings of self and ego a little. For this is the place
where such things had not yet come into being. Close your eyes
and let a vision of warm and featureless light come upon you. In
all directions there is a soft glow of brilliant light. Even the
idea of direction is meaningless, for only the limitless light
exists. Hold that for a bit. Within the vastness of the limitless
light there is a sense of glowing. This is not separate but it is
tangible. Light is about you like a thickness in the air. Soft
and clam, bright and warm. Within the light a feeling of
imminence grows. There is no change yet, but you feel that a
change must occur. The light is featureless but it is about to
move. Within you builds a feeling that something must be changed.
It is not enough to be in a place of perfect limitless light.
There must be difference. There must be a place within the
infinite different from all else yet still of the infinite. The
limitless light changes. Far off there is no change, the light
extends away in featureless brilliance. Within you the light
gathers to a greater brilliance, near about you the light dims.
At the center of your being the light forms a brilliant smooth
point of radiance while all the nearby light seems to flow in
toward the center. When the point is firmly glowing within, there
is an established darkness about you. Far off there is a great
and distant shore of light, as bright as it was before the
beginning of the universe. Thus is the universe begun, a point of
self and being concentrated in the center, about the point a
great expanse of outside and something else. Far away, a great
sphere of light that is that is as true as the point within and
as limitless as the beginning. This is the circle with a point
inside, the symbol of the invisible sun, of Keter on the Tree of
Life and the greatest mortal image that is reflected down through
myriads of worlds as the Ace of Wands.
A parallel in human thought:
When we are fully involved in doing, working and resting, it is
as though there is no boundary between the world and the self.
The trees bend their leaves to the same breeze that blows
throughout all the world and moves the hair upon the head. This
is the moment before creation. When something disturbs our
revere, consciousness pulls back from oneness with the world and
hides behind the eyes. Then the world with it's people, places
and things is outside and the self is inside. Somewhere beyond
what we see there is a knowing that all the world is one place,
and we are one with it forever. Yet those things about us are
separate seeming and perhaps even dangerous to the precious spark
of ego that hides like a bright point behind the eyes.
A parallel in the world:
Look about you. Take in the sights of this place. See the many
books (or whatever else there is in large number about the
place). They are all books. Their number can be counted. Yet they
are all different from one another. Their covers keep them from
being one vast and undifferentiated book. Even when two copies of
the same book are here, they are not truly identical; some stain
of a page, some speck of dust on a cover makes each one different
from all the rest. One among these books has been touched or read
by you last. It is closest to you. It is the point where you
contact this world of books. All the others are alien, more or
less, compared to that one book. Yet all the books are but dim
shadows of the great and invisible Torah, the Book of Books that
never yet has fully entered this world.
The understanding and the wisdom of such things is the essence of
the Ace of Wands and of Keter on the Tree of Life in Atziluth.
Let the circle with the point at its center be the symbol of
this.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Two of Wands 3/7/76
Let yourself relax. Return to a peaceful state. Let the image of
the meditation of the Ace of Wands come upon you. In the center
of your being there is a bright point of pure brilliant light.
About you is darkness, featureless darkness. At a great distance
from you is a vast and perfect light like the point at your
center. This is the form of pure existence, light gathered in a
single point from surrounding space with infinite, limitless
light beyond. The circle with a point at its center, the sphere
of existence with the focus of the existing one at its center.
Hold that image about yourself.
From the distant and limitless light above you a single beam of
light begins to descend down toward the point of brilliance
within you. The beam becomes a line of light, slowly crossing the
darkness toward you. You can see it now, approaching you from
above, carrying with it a contact to the limitless light from
before the beginning, from the eternity before the point of light
that is your particular existence became separate from the
vastness of the limitless light. The line of light touches the
point of light and stops its evolution downward. You were alone
in the silence. Now you are linked with the eternal light by a
single line of light. All the essence of all that can ever be is
drawn into that line of light from the head of it, the place
where it emerges from the limitless light so far away. All that
you shall ever know descends to you by that single brilliant
chord across the vastness of the silence, the silence that was
left behind when the light that it contained drew together into
the point of brilliance that is you. The light of the line from
infinity descends no farther. It is a touch of the All Existing
that reaches only into you to embrace only you, to establish for
you one path from the beginning infinite to the ending infinite
that is your particular existence. This is the image of the great
Sephira Chokmah on the Tree of Life and the highest image of the
Two of Wands --- A vast sphere beyond which there is endless and
undifferentiated light. A point of brilliance at the center of
that sphere. A line of the same brilliant light, a radius to the
sphere drawn from above to the center point.
Parallel in human thought:
At times we dwell in solitude and see the world as though it was
a thing wholly other, a thing apart, not of the self. Yet
somewhere beyond that world is the greatness that holds all, the
totality of existence that is one with the world and the self. In
answer to this need, in consolation of this aloneness, a single
awareness sometimes descends from the highest hope in the
infinite. This ray of Truth passes through the great void of the
outside world, lighting by its passage all the highest things in
that world, showing that all the world draws its nourishment from
the same root as the self. This line of thought and inspiration,
this moment of mystic insight reaches from the infinite to the
inside of the self. At the moment of its touching there is no
more loneliness. There is enlightenment in the void. And the void
is void only by comparison to the light.
Parallel in the world:
Imagine yourself in a room filled with books. You have tried to
read them and have failed. they are in a strange language. Their
words are unknown to you. Their ideas are closed to you. High up
above the other books sits a dictionary. Through its aid you can
cast the light of understanding upon the other books and unlock
their meaning one by one. The dictionary, like the line of light
from the infinite, is not easy to comprehend. Yet it can be
studied, it can be learned; and through such study the void of
unreadable ideas is peopled with familiar forms.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Three of Wands 3/15/76
Calm yourself. Let the image of the meditation on the Two of
Wands form about you. A point of light at your center, darkness
all about you. At a great distance in all directions the same
light that is concentrated at your center extends away to
infinity. Hold that image. From above, a line of light descends
toward the point of light at your center. Let that be the
beginning of this meditation. Visualize the line of light as a
thin beam reaching down from the luminous infinity far above.
Within the line of light are strange shadows and brighter
glowings. Patterns seem to appear and vanish inside it. Some of
the patterns illuminate the darkness a little to either side and
grant visions of other realities than your own. From dimly
perceived images in the line of light, you form ideas and learn
to see the elements of your own world. Below the bright point of
light at your center is a vast darkness. Rays of light descend
downward in imitation of the line of light. These gleamings are
the efforts of your mind to penetrate the darkness. By their
means the darkness is rendered less empty. One by one the
glimmerings of thought find more and more tangible images in the
darkness. The mind extends by stages of evolving awareness the
patterns of the line of inspired light. These images grow with
understanding, first being very dim, then having rational form,
then becoming almost solid and at last having the appearance of
matter. This is the way in which we learn about the outside. This
is the beginning of discovery of form through exercise of
Understanding. The gradual outward spread of that part of self
called form and perception is the function of the Sephira Binah
on the Tree of Life and the Activity symbolized in the Three of
Wands.
When a new idea comes into the mind by inspiration or more
outward instruction, at first that idea lays dormant. In time
other abstract expressions of the new idea are seen. Later the
new idea becomes a principle by which truth is discovered in the
world. The idea becomes a tool, a power to shape and change the
details of life. Finally objects come to embody the idea and what
came first as a flash of awareness in the mind becomes in its
turn a thing of the senses.
Often we learn the meaning of a new word or phrase. Soon after,
that word is heard from radio or read in a book or perhaps even
uttered by another person. Soon such a new word becomes a part of
our thinking. In the end, we say it or write it when we wish to
express an opinion.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Four of Wands 3/22/76
Four flames burn between heaven and earth. Four tongues of fire
compose the holy name. Yod is a single radiant light in the
darkness of beginning creation. From this light all knowledge
radiates. Hay is a triple flame. One tongue of fire leaps upward.
One tongue of fire burns across the sky. One small tongue of
flame dances within the other two like the light in a lantern.
Vau is an elongated flame seeking to dart upward. The last Hay is
flame within flame, burning forever in the darkness.
When the spirit of the Yod moved to create all things, it first
darted three ways and formed the first Hay. This first Hay was
like a window filled with too much light. The light grew until it
burst open the window and sent sparks of ungraspable truth
flashing into the night. The sparks are the stars in the sky and
the unexpressed dreams of all who live in the world. Then the Yod
extended itself gently downward. It formed the Vau with its
careful light. The scattered sparks were gathered to form the
second Hay after the pattern of the first. This second Hay became
like a window with a curtain so that it could contain the light
without burning the eyes of those who look to it for wisdom. The
Vau gently entered the prepared place and illuminated the
universe.
When we first discover something new, the light of the discovery
often blazes up in ecstasy and impossible hopes. This is like the
Yod burning too brightly in the first Hay. Soon the new discovery
burns away the new hopes and ecstasy passes into sadness and
hopelessness. In time fragments of the new idea reappear like
lesser inspirations. These do not lead to the great ecstasy of
the first appearance of the new idea, but they are promising and
full of hope in a lesser way. We become aware of ways to express
the fragments of the new idea, ways that are possible and do not
lead to the sadness of failure. From such things our life grows
slowly and well.
Imagine a person trying to cook rice for the first time. The
grains are so small and the pot seems so large. Too much rice is
put into the pot. The cooking rice expands and overflows the pot.
After cleaning up the mess and recovering from the shock, a
little bit of the half cooked rice is taken up and put in a
stronger pot. This cooks well. To try to capture and use all of a
thing is to attempt too much. Use what can be used and don't
worry about the rest. That is the secret of the Four of Wands and
the way of success with learning, inspiration and all mortal
labors.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Five of Wands 3/29/76
Imagine a pentagram, a five pointed star about your body. Let one
point rise above your head, one point rise out of each shoulder
to either side and one point descend from each hip. Imagine the
star softly glowing with light. Make it sharp and well defined
about you. Work on the image for a bit.
Now, an extra touch. Keep imagining the points of the pentagram
as before. Let the points burst into flame: A red flame at your
right hip. A blue Flame at your right shoulder. A yellow flame at
your left shoulder. A dark and smoky flame at your left hip. The
point above your head is a pure white flame. Let the flames dance
at these places.
Now, what color is the middle place in the center of your body?
Don't settle immediately on one color, but let a little time go
by before your decide.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Six of Wands ---- inspired by P.F.Case.
The Cube of Space as Viewed from the West:
East-Above Zayin Orange
.-------------------------------------------------. North-/:
South-/: Above/ : Above Above/ : / N: Bet Yellow / :S Tet/ o:
Tzaddi/ :o yellow/ r: : Violet/ :u / t: : / :t / h: West-Above :
Samekh Blue / :h
.-------+--------------------+--------------------. :| : E: : A
S: :E N : a: : b o: :a o : s: A : o u: :s r : t: l : v t: :t t :
: e : e h: : h : : p : East |: : : : h : t Dalet W: : W : : : o /
Green e: :V e : : : / s: :a s : North : North to South : / Shin
Red t: South :u t :
---+-------------------Taw-------------------+--- : : Peh :
East/: B\ : Resh :R : Red H: to West/ : e Center : Orange:e : a:
Mem Blue/ : l Taw N: :d L : y: West Y : o Black u: :| a : : Koph
e : w n: :O m : R: Violet l : : :r e : e: l : B: :a d : d: o : l:
:n : : w : u: :g G : :East-Below Chet : Yellow-Orange e: :e r :
.--------------------+--------------------+-------. e : / : G: /
e : /North- : r: /South- n : /Below : e: /Below : / Yod Gimel
Blue e: / Qof : /Yellow- Below n: /Red- : /Green : /Violet :/
West-Below Ayin Blue-Violet :/
.-------------------------------------------------. Aleph÷11
Bet÷12 Gimel÷13 Dalet÷14 Hay÷15 Vau÷16 Zain÷17 Chet÷18 Tet÷19
Yod÷20 Koph÷21 Lamed÷22 Mem÷23 Nun÷24 Samekh÷25 Ayin÷26 Peh÷27
Tzaddi÷28 Qof÷29 Resh÷30 Shin÷31 Taw÷32 (The numbers refer to the
"key scale" used in Crowley's "Liber 777")
The first form of the ritual: Vibration of the Hebrew Letters
with use of colors. The letters are taken in three traditional
groups.
1. Assume a comfortable position, one that need not be changed,
facing East if possible. You may either stand or sit, but you
should remain in the same position throughout the ritual. 2. Take
a deep breath, and expel it completely while saying "Aleph". This
should be said slowly, as: "Aaaaaaaa-aaLlllllllll-llEeeeeeee-
eePhhhhhhhh-hh". In this and each of the following utterances,
the letter name should be started with the beginning of the
expelling of breath and ended as the breath runs out. Visualize a
great column of yellow light rising from the floor and passing up
through your body into and beyond the ceiling. 3. Deep breath.
Say slowly: "Mem". Visualize a beam of blue light on a level with
your heart, coming from the East and going to the West. The beam
intersects the yellow column at your heart. 4. Deep breath. Say
slowly: "Shin". Visualize a beam of red light on a level with
your heart, coming from the North and going through your body to
the South. This beam intersects the yellow and the blue at your
heart. 5. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Bet". Visualize a vast
ceiling of yellow light above your head. 6. Deep breath. Say
slowly: "Gimel". Visualize a vast floor of blue light beneath
your feet. 7. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Dalet". Visualize a vast
wall of green light in the East before you. 8. Deep breath. Say
slowly: "Kaph". Visualize a vast wall of violet light in the west
behind you. 9. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Peh". Visualize a wall
of red light in the North, on your left. 10. Deep breath. Say
slowly: "Resh". Visualize a wall of Orange light in the South, on
your right. 11. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Taw". Visualize a point
in the center of the intersections of the three columns or rays
of yellow, blue and red light. The point has no color. It absorbs
all colors. The point may be visualized as black or blue-black
(indigo). 12. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Heh". Visualize a column
of red light in the Northeast, where the green and red walls
intersect. 13. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Vau". Visualize a beam
of red-orange light in the Southeast, where the green and orange
walls intersect. 14. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Zain". Visualize a
beam of orange light running from the North to the South above
the Eastern wall, where the yellow ceiling and the green wall
intersect. 15. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Chet". Visualize a beam
of yellow-orange light running from North to South below the
Eastern wall, where the blue floor and the green wall intersect.
16. Deep breath. Say slowly: "Tet". Visualize a yellow beam of
light running from East to West above the Northern wall, where
the yellow ceiling and the red wall intersect. 17. Deep breath.
Say slowly: "Yod". Visualize a yellow-green beam of light running
from the East to the West below the northern wall, where the blue
floor and the red wall intersect. 18. Deep breath. Say slowly:
"Lamed". Visualize a green column of light in the Northwest,
where the red and violet walls intersect. 19. Deep breath. Say
slowly: "Nun". Visualize a blue-green column of light in the
Southwest, where the violet and orange walls intersect. 20. Deep
breath. Say slowly: "Samekh". Visualize a beam of blue light
running from North to South above the Western wall, where the
yellow ceiling and the violet wall intersect. 21. Deep breath.
Say slowly: "Ayin". Visualize a beam of blue-violet (Indigo)
light running from the North to the South below the Western wall,
where the blue floor meets the violet wall. 22. Deep breath. Say
slowly: "Tzaddi". Visualize a beam of violet light above the
Southern wall, running from East to West, where the yellow
ceiling meets the orange wall. 23. Deep breath. Say slowly:
"Qof". Visualize a beam of crimson (red- violet) light running
from the East to the West below the Southern wall, where the blue
floor meets the orange wall.
End of Ritual.
Second form of ritual --- abbreviated. Vibration of Hebrew
letters with visualization of Tarot images. The letters are taken
in simple order from first to last.
I. Same as # 1 above. II. Deep breath. Say slowly "Aleph".
Visualize the Tarot of the Fool in the Above to Below position
(yellow column of # 2 above.). III. " " . "Bet". The Magician.
Above. IV. " " . "Gimel". The High Priestess. Below. V. " " .
"Dalet". The Empress. East. VI. " " . "Heh". The Emperor (var:
Star) Northeast. VII. " " . "Vau". The Hierophant. Southeast.
VIII. " " . "Zain". The Lovers. East-above. IX. " " . "Chet". The
Chariot. East-below. X. " " . "Tet". Strength. North-above. XI. "
" . "Yod". The Hermit. North-below. XII. " " . "Kaph". The Wheel
of Fortune. West. XIII. " " . "Lamed". Justice. Northwest. XIV. "
" . "Mem". The Hanged Man. East to West. XV. " " . "Nun". Death.
Southwest. XVI. " " . "Samekh". Temperance. West-above. XVII. " "
. "Ayin". The Devil. West-below. XVIII. " " . "Peh". The Tower.
North. XIX. " " . "Tzaddi". The Star (var: Emperor) South-above.
XX. " " . "Qof". The Moon. South-below. XXI. " " . "Resh". The
Sun. South. XXII. " " . "Shin". Judgment. North to South. XXIII.
" " . "Taw". The World. Central point.
End of Ritual.
The above two forms differ mainly in the order of the letters.
The visualizations can be exchanged at will between the two.
Other visualizations can and should be employed, especially ones
based on the correspondences between the Hebrew letters and the
terms of Astrology. The two parts of the Cube of Space Ritual to
be preserved at all costs are the speaking or thinking of the
names of the Hebrew letters and the visualizations of something
in the various locations and directions that form a cube about
the master of the ritual. The color visualizations may be easiest
to use at first. Try to visualize each part of the cube in
relationship to others immediately surrounding. Example: The
Yellow Aleph column of lines # 2 and # II passes up through the
center of the yellow Bet ceiling of lines # 5 and # III. The more
that can be visualized at any one time, the better the ritual.
Bibliography of the Ritual
The cube of Space is described in the "Sepher Yetzirah"
Translations: Friedman, Irving; 1977. Includes notes and
commentary. Heidrick, Bill; An edition of the Akiba translation,
with notes and commentary, 1976. Kalish, Isidor; First widely
published English translation, 1877. Includes a Hebrew text.
Mordell, Phineas; 1912-13. Includes a controversial theory of the
evolution of Hebrew. Stenring, Knut; 1923 translation. Compares
several texts. Includes "32 intelligences". Suares, Carlo;
Includes extensive commentary, 1976. Westcott, Wm. Wynn; 1911
translation. Includes "32 intelligences". Work of the Chariot;
1970. Available with or without the Hebrew.
A modern and more detailed description of the Cube of Space may
be found in: "The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of theAges", by Paul
Foster Case, pages 67-69 and elsewhere. Anyone especially
interested in the Cube of Space and in both Tarot and Gematria
may find it to their advantage to contact Builders of the Adytum
(BOTA), an organization founder on the work of Case. The lessons
available through this organization are slowly paced, but they
cover much ground. The Address is: 5105 N. Figueroa St., Los
Angeles, CA 90042 USA.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Seven of Wands 4/12/76
For the first part of this meditation, examine a typical week
from Sunday to Saturday. This may be last week or any week. Just
try to think of the sorts of things you do and think on a given
day. Say the name of the day of the week and also say the name of
the matching color. Try to let the color pervade your mind as you
think of the events of that day:
Sunday: Yellow Monday: Violet Tuesday: Red Wednesday: Orange
Thursday: Blue Friday: Green Saturday: Blue Black
Now, don't try to think of any particular day or thing or action,
just the colors. As you concentrate on a color, let your mind
wander and see what else comes into your head. Take up the colors
in random order, and try taking some colors together.
For the last part of this meditation, think of something that
bothers you, or, if you don't have anything like that on your
mind, think of something interesting. Just go over the things in
your mind. Now imagine a great wheel spinning. It is a disk of
all the rainbow colors. It spins so fast that you can't see any
particular color. It becomes a luminous blur. Try to pick out a
color from the blur. What is it? Does it relate to what you were
thinking about in some way? Just think of the color for a while
and let yourself relax into that color. Are there any changes in
the color? Are there any ideas coming into your mind as you
meditate on the color?
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Eight of Wands 4/18/76
One of the valuable things that can be learned by meditation is
number pattern recognition. This meditation will help develop
such an ability.
First, here are several things to imagine. Try to see a sharp
image made of short lines of light for each one: 4 --- a cross. 8
--- A cross like a plus sign and one like the letter "X" right on
top of it. These form an eight rayed star. 16 --- Now try to
imagine what that double cross would look like if it had twice as
many rays, sixteen instead of eight. 3 --- Visualize a set of
three rays coming out on a center point. If the ends of the rays
were connected, a triangle would be formed. Just visualize the
rays. Three rays out of one point. 6 --- double the rays again to
get a six-rayed star. 9 --- Try to imagine what it would look
like with 9 rays. 12 --- imagine two six rayed stars together
forming a 12 rayed star. 5 --- imagine a pentagram of rays, turn
it into a ten rayed star. 7 --- visualize a seven rayed star.
Double the rays to get fourteen.
Now, make some patterns with small coins or other identical
objects. See them as being at the tips of rays like those you
have just visualized. (e.g. lay out successive patterns of 3, 4,
5 ,7 ,12)
Have someone else organize the objects into patterns and cover
them with a book, so that you can't see them. When the book is
pulled away, see how quickly you can discover how many objects
are in each pattern. Try it by looking for patterns of imaginary
stars.
Now just drop the objects. Count them by seeing groups.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Nine of Wands 4/27/76
Take a moment to discover something that bothers you. It may be
something that you don't like in someone else, or it may be
something you want to change in yourself. Just take a moment to
find such a thing. Let it be one of those annoyances that hover
in the mind and drain the strength of will. Choose something that
distracts you. If you can't think of such a thing, look at
something here in this room, perhaps your own hands or the light.
When something interferes with your thought, that's the thing
that bothers you.
Now, close your eyes. Imagine you are in a dark room, and the
thing that bothers you is a person standing before you. Let that
person be looking at you and trying to stare you down. In the
darkness between you and the personified annoyance, imagine a
golden five pointed star. Let the star be made of golden rays of
light. See the personified annoyance through the star as through
a lattice. Will that the star push away the annoyance. It will
help if you tighten the muscles of your abdomen slightly as you
do this. Through the force of your will wish that the person of
annoyance fade slowly away. Turn your head aside as though fro an
uninteresting and bare wall. Whenever the annoyance threatens to
return, imagine that same bare and dull wall in the direction of
the annoyance.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Ten of Wands 5/3/76
In Qabalah, One is the beginning and Ten is the ending. Yet Ten
and One are the same. Keter the One is Malkut the Ten and after
another manner Malkut the Ten is Keter the One. This is a very
difficult mystery in meditative Qabalah, but we can approach it
from several directions without unusual difficulty.
Close your eyes. Imagine a great white light surrounding all
things. The light is so bright that all vision is swallowed up in
it. Nothing can be distinguished in the light. Very slowly open
your eyes. As you do this the inner light lessens, and the outer
darkness permits you to see shapes and forms. Do not let your
eyes move at all. Just stare at one point on one thing without
blinking or moving your eyes. After doing this for a while,
things will begin to blur and darken. If you kept this up long
enough you would cease to be able to distinguish shapes and
forms, and the darkness would being to fill all. In time that
darkness would become lighter, and you would see things not of
the outer world. You would gradually return to the place of inner
light. One is the light and Ten is the darkness. Yet each is the
beginning of the path to the other. Each is he end of the path
from the other.
Alternatively, you could look at a light bulb (not too bright!)
and then close your eyes. The cycle is similar.
For another approach to this, meditate on the way events follow
events. Is not the birth of one from the death of one gone
before? All life comes from the nourishment produced from death.
Every perfection grows from an imperfection. Every flaw draws
forth a virtue.
As an exercise, for the next week see how many things end in the
same way they begin. A day starts from bed and ends in bed. A
journey starts at the door and ends at the door. Become aware of
such things.
____________________________________________________________
MEDITATIONS FOR THE CUP MINOR TRUMPS
by Bill Heidrick
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Ace of Cups 5/10/76
For the first part of this meditation, select a fit subject for
inspiration. This could be a problem you have with yourself or
with others. It could be a specific need like a subject for a
painting or a story or something to do tomorrow. It could even be
just a simple thing like a new idea to freshen your life for the
next few days. For now, focus on that subject. Let a sense of
need arise in you for a single inspiration that fills that
definite need like water filling a glass or light filling a lamp.
Next step. Hold that need close to you. Let it slip into some
part of your consciousness where it can rest but remain ready
wand watchful. Imagine yourself surrounded by a pearly gray light
like a cool gray morning. About you are solid walls holding off
all the cares and distractions of life. Inside your head, just
behind your forehead is an open space like a clearing of for on a
lonely night road. Gradually a soft light, a cool silver white
radiance, comes to fill the space. Hold this for a bit.
Last step. Let the need for inspiration, the definite and
distinct need form a shell about the silver white light. This is
like the shell about an egg. Inside it inspiration grows like an
embryo in liquid thought. It shall grow with or without you
attention until suddenly you become aware of its meaning.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Two of Cups 5/18/89
Imagine that you are home. It's an ordinary day. You're just
doing what you usually do, a little house work, perhaps reading,
watching TV, anything that is part of a normal day. The door bell
rings. You go to the door and there is a stranger. He is dressed
in a business suit and carries a large brief case. Soon it become
obvious that this is a salesman. He goes into his pitch. Continue
to imagine this encounter. Try to let the experience flow as it
would in an actual situation. The salesman doesn't bluntly ask
you if you want his product, he develops repour first and makes
the product look incredible. Get into this for a bit.
Now, for the second part of this meditation. I want you to just
think of the color pink. Look around and try to see the color
pink wherever it is in this room. Don't just look for solid pink
colors on the books and things, look for hints and touches of the
color in everything. Build up this pinkness until everything
seems tinged with the color. Now, look at an ordinary newspaper
page with an add on it. Does it appear pink?
Role playing and consciousness mood setting is a form of
centering. When you fine yourself involved in a pattern of
awareness, regardless of whether it's the pitch of a salesman or
something like concentration on a color or anything like that,
you are apt to let that pattern dominate other patterns. That's
single centering. If you always keep a channel open to another
awareness, if you are double centering, you will be able to enjoy
the pitch of the salesman without loosing sight of the need you
may not have for what he's selling. This is not always easy, but
it's valuable to develop the ability.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Three of Cups 5/15/89
For the first part of this meditation, recall a conversation that
you had recently with one person. Make sure it was an interesting
one, a conversation that had both of you closely involved in what
was discussed. Let this conversation grow in your mind. Let
yourself return to the patterns of thought that passed through
your mind then. Work on this for a time.
For the second part of this meditation, pick a single object in
this room. If you wish, take a coin that you may have with you
instead. Look closely at the object. If there are words on it,
read them. If there is a color on it, let that color pass deeply
into your thoughts. Consider the shape, hardness and nay other
qualities of the object you can perceive. Let these things become
the substance of your thought. Try to think of the qualities of
the object and of nothing else. Do this for a time.
For the last part of this exercise, consider what happened in the
first two parts. When two people share thoughts, a third thing is
created. This third thing rises in power, driving out other
thoughts, opinions and the distractions of the senses. This is a
think of power that has a life and a manner of its own. It
depends on he cooperation of two people, but it is as real as the
wind and the sounds of music. The same is true of that complex of
awareness which arises from contemplation of a thing. Talismans
are nothing but objects that summon a separate awareness of a
controlled kind in the minds of those who use them. Once the
separate and third reality becomes strong enough, the object can
be put away and the people can depart. The separate reality lives
on in that particular manner that is called spiritual. Only a
touch of memory is enough to summon it into the conscious mind.
Closing exercise.
Sit back. Close your eyes and imagine an invisible human being
standing just a few feet in front of you. Hold that imagination
for a bit. Then relax it and see what is different in your mind.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Four of Cups 6/1/76
Imagine yourself in a dark place. There is no light. All is calm
and still. Slowly a dimness replaces the darkness, soft sounds
are heard. The light grows. The light has grown to a full
brilliance. Everywhere is light an the sound of a full symphony.
The light is steady and fills you with radiance. Slowly the light
fades and sound diminishes. This is like the first dimness. The
light fades almost into darkness. All is silent darkness as
before.
Imagine your home. Try to feel it as a presence. Keep awareness
of your presence here, but also visualize your home. Now, look at
your right hand. Think of your presence here. Think of your home.
Try to lo at the back of your hand, feel your presence here and
feel the strength of security from your home all at the same
time. Turn your hand so that you see the palm. Do you feel a
sense of glowing or a power in the palm of your hand?
Next time you need a little extra energy in a situation or during
a conversation, Visualize something you trust, feel good about.
Let the feelings you have in the situation pass into that object
of trust and see if you become more calm and more capable.
Closing meditation:
Imagine a dark sky. In the darkness, let the phases of the Moon
pass, early crescent, half, full, diminishing half, late crescent
and new moon.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Five of Cups 6/7/76
First part: Imagine a fire burning. Feel the heat of it, see the
light and color of it. Hear it crackle. Now, imagine a stream of
water running. Feel the cool moistness of it, see how it carries
things about and how it changes its color and shape. Hear the
sound of running water. Imagine the wind blowing. Feel it's touch
on your skin, the blowing of your garments and your hair, see the
blue of the sky and the white and gray of clouds. Hear the
mournful cry of the Banshee and listen to the whish of the wind.
Imagine a stone. Feel the hardness of it, see the color of it and
the shape that it has. Watch an ant crawl across it. Smell its
earthly musk. Hear the sound of stone sliding across earth.
Second part: Look into yourself and see how you are like the four
elements of fire, water, air and earth. How are you like the
flame that changes eternally and glows brightly? How are you like
water, cool and flowing? How are you like air, pure excitement
but never constant? How are you like Earth, firm and unchanging.
Third Part: Imagine a vertical column of rushing air before you.
Behind you is a great column of falling water. On your right hand
is a tower of fire. On your left hand is a pillar of stone. Hold
those images about you. Let a great light spread from above you
down and about you. Let it drift like a mist of light among the
pillars of the elements.
For a closing meditation: Summon the four elements to your
imagination, roaring fire, chuckling water, howling air and
grating earth. Let these be in your thoughts all at the same
time. Now let them all mingle and dissolve into perfect light.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Six of Cups. 6/14/76
Imagine yourself in a strange and busy place. You are not sure
what to do. Look around. There is someone who looks to be able to
advise you. Ask. The person does not notice you. Take a moment to
remember similar situations from your past. Try to identify the
exact feeling you had when you tried and failed to get someone's
attention.
This time, remember a situation like the one you have just
examined. One one difference, this time remember a time when you
were easily able to attract another person's attention. Try to
identify the feeling you had when you succeeded.
There are many situations which require a sort of second sight, a
sense of when something is right and when it isn't. Everyone has
body feelings. Often a sinking feeling in the breast for failure
to come or a slight tension in the back of the neck when success
is likely. These feelings are signs of the matching or missing of
effort with goal. They are often the same in all situations.
Meditate on your own personal signs of success and failure. Learn
to identify them and use them to gage your actions.
Short meditation:
Reach out your hand to something just beyond your reach. What do
you feel as you are doing this? Now reach to something you can
grasp. What signs do you feel now?
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Seven of Cups 6/22/76
First, think back to the last time that you got interested in a
new idea and didn't do anything about it. Maybe it was a project
of some sort or a change in routine. Try to remember the way you
thought about it. How far did that thinking go? Did you spend a
lot of time thinking about the best that could come as though it
had already happened? Take a little time to meditate on this.
Have you ever watched a moth fly into a flame? Put yourself in
the place of such a moth. You like light and warmth. All of a
sudden you see both. You dive right in and find only a greater
darkness. How does this relate to the first part of this
meditation? Consider the matter for a while.
When an idea for something new comes to mind, that idea is like a
seed. It must not be handled too much. Place it in a quiet place
in the earth of your thoughts. Water it with just enough
interest. Too much will rot it, and too little will starve it.
Give it just enough light and shade, depending on its need for
planning. Fertilize it with a little skepticism and humor. Let it
show you its needs in its own time. Never rush an idea before its
time. With a little care, vision can be nurtured into results
that will breed a hardy stock of successes.
Short Meditation:
Ideas are like old fashioned oil lamps. The object is to get the
flame burning brightly enough to be of value but low enough to
make the fuel last. Interest is a properly burning lamp, but
great excitement is only good for a short time.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation on the Eight of Cups 6/28/76
To begin: Pick out a feeling of restraint that you have now. We
all have many such feelings all the time. They usually manifest
as a kind of tiredness or a nagging little worry about something
or someone. There are big feelings of restraint and little ones.
Pick one that bothers you a little. It may be something you can't
do now or something that you said or didn't say a whole ago, or
even something you must do soon. Pick out such a feeling and
think about it; not with plans but with an effort at identifying
how you feel about it now.
For the second step, imagine yourself surrounded by a gray light,
like a warm mist or fog. Through this mist are many rays of
light. They are all different colors. Some are bright, and some
are almost indistinguishable from the mist. These rays come from
outside. They pull at your body in various places and with
different tensions.
Find the little ray that connects you to the feeling you though
about at the start of this meditation. Let it become clear to
you. Feel its pull. See its direction. When it is clear to you,
imagine a hand with a pair of scissors. Let the scissors cut the
ray. How do you feel?
Closing meditation.
Go back to the place of the gray mist. See all the many rays that
pass between you and the outside. These are the lines of life
that connect you with the world. They sometimes pass energy to
you and sometimes take it away. Happiness and health consist in
cutting a few of the lines that draw your life away and in
preserving a few of those that give you life. The art of cutting
and sparing is the art of life.
____________________________________________________________
Meditation for the Nine of Cups 7/6/76
This meditation will take off where the last one left us. To
start, let your mind wander over the events of the last week.
Identify those things which still seem unsettled or cause a
little tension. Expand your search to include things that still
bother you after weeks, months or years. Just cruise around the
shoals of your memory. Become aware of the tensions that have
accumulated. Try to localize them as to direction and distance in
space from where you are now. some of them relate to your home.
Some to the places where you shop and so on. Take a little time
to do this.
Now return to the place of the gray light and the rays of many
colors. Feel those differing rays contact the places where the
tensions are centered in you and the outside world. Test a few of
these rays of force. Do some make you feel weak and some make you
feel strong? Cast your mind about easily and without urgency. Get
the feel of this web of forces.
Imagine a great hoop of bright steel about you like a frame about
a picture. Think again of the rays. Return your mid to the hoop.
Let the hoop slowly revolve about you. Its speed increases. It
becomes a transparent sphere about you as it whirls rapidly. Some
of the rays pass through this shimmering globe; others are cut
away. Keep the sphere of ever-moving steel about you for a while.
Let a golden light slowly grow within it and about you. The light
comes from some of the rays, the ones that make you feel better.
You are bathed in a radiant mist of blessed light that heals all
wounds and soothes all hurts.
Closing meditation:
We dwell in a great web of life like a spider in her silken home.
At times it is necessary to let the dusty remains of past
concerns drift away and spin new ones in their place. Think about
this often in the week to come. practice this art in the way you
best understand it. Of in the place of such a moth. You like
light and warmth. All of a sudden you see both. You dive right in
and find only a greater darkness. How does this relate to the
first part of this meditation? Consider the matter for a while.
When an idea for something new comes to mind, that idea is like a
seed. It must
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