Pan’s Road By Mogg Morgan (reviewed by Charlotte)

£7.99/$25 isbn 186992889x

Mogg Morgan's new novel 'Pan's Road' opens with a contemporary archaeological dig that unearths a magician's box from the rubble of an Egyptian tomb in Coptos, Upper Egypt. The opening of this box 'propels us on a supernatural journey across space and time' to an ancient and very threatened Coptos where we join a small group fleeing the Roman army by taking the route along Pan's Road and eventually into the City of Ombos -Citadel of Seth, the Egyptian God of Chaos.

Well written, beautifully crafted and interspersed with exquisite pieces of verse from ancient Egyptian tomes 'Pan's Road', is quite simply a wonderful book that fulfils in style, polish and content many of the promises and potentialities laid before us by its predecessor 'The English Mahatma' (Mandrake of Oxford 2001).

'Pan's Road successfully animates and peoples a time in the long distant past and for those like myself with a patchy, at best, knowledge of Egyptian culture and history there is a small but a much appreciated glossary of terms.

However this novel will be appreciated all the more if it is read in the context of Mogg Morgan's other writing. Mogg Morgan's body of work, which is primarily focused on Egyptian and specifically Sethian magick, needs to, like a hall of mirrors, be explored in totality to fully appreciate it. 'Pan's Road' should be read alongside its non fiction counterpart,' The Bull of Ombos' (Mandrake of Oxford 2005) and just as a gazer into a mirror can lose the sense of which is the true reality so can the reader of these two works wander the dreamscape of what was/what could be and what is perhaps, just imagined.

One of the incidents that most aptly demonstrates such parallels is when the 'The Bull of Ombos' describes a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum to view the Was Sceptre found in the Ombite temple of Seth whilst a scene from 'Pan's Road' describes a similar pilgrimage.

These are haunting, memorable and different perspectives which prove to be pivotal points of the two books.

Then there are the 'Pan's Road' connections with 'Tankhem; Seth and Egyptian Magick' and the aforementioned 'The English Mahatma' which precipitates further wandering on the readers part through halls of mirrors and alternative and literal realities; interconnected paths with different routes and endings which seem to shift as much as the sands of time on which these roads travel.

Perhaps I seem wax a little too lyrical; I don't think so though. To read a book that takes one on a journey that absorbs, entertains, educates AND inspires dreams deserves more than just a little lyrical praise, in my opinion. [Charlotte]

'Occulture' Rides Again

Jonathan Tapsell has reemerged after an absence of several years following the triumph (and disaster?) of the Brighton conference. For those who weren't there, is was probably the best occultural event since Ananke! See www.cultvault.com for retro. There are plans for a 2007 occultural happening circa July 2007, this time in London. He writes that this will be 'a large esoteric festival in London, along similar lines to Occulture.' Funds are tight so if anyone reading this can offer donations, sponsorship or loan of equipment etc, please do make contact now.

jon@...

In the meantime Jonathan's Brighton based Cult Vault has the first of a series of speaker meetings.

July 7th – (talk/film) ‘Origins of the Da Vinci Code’ by Michael Bott – 7pm@Friends Meeting House, Ship St, Brighton

July 14th (talk/party) ‘Forget the Gurus – what 30 years of the occult has taught me’ by Gary Lachman -7.30pm -1am @Sussex Arts Club, Ship St

These gatherings are approx 100 people strong and entitled the Cultvault see www.cultvault.com – it is a sort of retrospective of what I have done at Occulture and Cultvault in the past.

Canadian website dedicated to Jean Overton Fuller http://www.angelfire.com/va/violetteszabo/overtonfuller.html

OLD EGYPT AND THE NEW AGE by David Conway

Those poor Egyptians! Over the centuries maligned, misunderstood and capriciously misrepresented, their tombs pillaged, their sacred sites violated and, as if that weren't enough, being made to endure plagues, the drowning of their army and a cannon ball smashing into the face of the Sphinx. Not much of a reward for being what Herodotus described as the most religious people on earth.

Nor have they fared any better at the hands of their admirers. Occultists, for instance, have accorded them few favours, consistently misappropriating their mythology, their symbolism and, at least until Champollion, their hieroglyphic script. And all too often done in order to impress people afflicted by a naive fondness for what seems old and mysterious, as well as deliciously exotic. I've even done it myself, though in my case I can plead the callowness of youth by way of mitigation. For I had barely turned 12 when, inside the cover of Alan Leo's Astrology for All (1910 edition, purchased from a second-hand bookshop during the school holidays) I drafted an advertisement offering "amazing revelations of your character and fate, using the unique astrological system of the Ancient Aegyptians ". Not surprisingly, since none but me ever opened the book, there were no takers. Which is a pity, for I went on to boast of having consulting rooms not only in my home town of Aberystwyth, but also "at Strasbourg, Bonn, London, Las Vegas, Burma and Victoria". (The choice of locations is bizarre, even for a twelve-year old, especially the final two.)

Already by that age I had begun to marvel - scepticism came later - at the number of occultists who routinely beefed up their C.V by laying claim to past incarnations spent on the banks of the Nile. Spent, I should add, as priests, priestesses, court physicians and, best of all, pharaohs but never, so far as I recall, common labourers or slaves. One of my favourites was Mrs. Grace Cooke (1892-1979), a spiritualist medium and founder in the nineteen-thirties of the White Eagle Lodge, who claimed to have formerly been Ra-min-ati, a protegée of the High Priest, Is-Ra. Under his sensitive guidance she had been initiated into the Mysteries of Osiris before going on to better herself by marrying Ra-hotep, soon to become Pharaoh of the Two-Lands. There have been numerous others, chiefly women, whose recollected lives are no less distinguished. And such recollections may well be accurate. Just as my twelve year-old self might well have had consulting rooms all over the world. I might even still remember them, were my memory only half as good as Mrs. Cooke's.(1)

Someone else who, like me with my "unique astrological system", exploited things Egyptian, was the celebrated Count Cagliostro (1743-1795). In his case he used them to add lustre and questionable authenticity to the Egyptian Lodge he established in Rome, a creation inspired largely by his acquaintance with Freemasonry. (He had been initiated into the Craft during an earlier visit to England). For although Masonry is permeated with the the legend of Hiram and the building of Solomon's Temple, drawn largely from the account provided in King's 7:13-45 and (with added detail) 2 Chronicles 2:13, few would deny that the story is a re-working of the myth of Isis and Osiris. It is no surprise therefore that the Great Pyramid of Giza (flat-topped to indicate work still in progress) features prominently in Masonic symbolism, usually surmounted by what is taken to be the all-seeing eye of God but which, correctly understood, is the Eye of Horus. Neither is it surprising that the same theme is represented in that eclectic mix which forms the "matter" of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.(2) After all, the three W's who served in a sense as its midwife - The Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, Dr. W. R. Woodman and Dr. W. Wynn Westcott - were all committed Masons. And whatever truth there may be in the account of a manuscript picked up on a second-hand bookstall (rather like my copy of Astrology for All) and drafted in Enochian or the existence of a mysterious Fräulein Sprengel and her Rosicrucian Order, the Egyptian content of the Golden Dawn's teachings is not only pervasive but also, in a sense, its raison d'être. For it is nowadays acknowledged that from its inception the true, if covert, purpose of the Golden Dawn was to initiate - but no more than that - the realisation in Time of what lay behind the great myth of Isis, Osiris and Horus. Through sources of their own, a few members of the Order, Mathers possibly but Crowley certainly, were equipped to discern this higher purpose, just as some people can discern the face of Isis behind the veil of Nature.

It would nevertheless be wrong to pretend that the occult purpose of the Golden Dawn was uniquely its own. Or, as we have seen, that the Egyptian/Masonic connection was in any way novel, still less accidental. Already in the 15th Century, the Illuminati possessed more than an inkling of what was intended. (Incidentally, Adam Eishaupt, the young lawyer who re-organised the movement in 1776, was himself a Mason, as were his closest collaborators.) Linked to the Illuminati were the Martinists of France, ostensibly followers of Louis Claude de St. Martin (1743-1803), with our old friend Cagliostro often serving as an intermediary between the two. It is also noteworthy that one of the Illuminati was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe whose work (but especially its esoteric content) hugely influenced Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Society and, fleetingly, an associate (at the very least) of the Ordo Templi Orientis, itself a legitimate successor to the Illuminati. Crowley was to join the O.T.O some six years after Steiner's brief flirtation with it ended.(3)

Conveniently - and not before time - this brings us to the present and the true purpose of the Egyptian Mysteries in magical practice,(4) a topic often alluded to but seldom addressed. The trouble is it is not possible to address it openly and frankly, at least not yet, because much of the relevant information has been imparted under conditions of secrecy. This is done not for the sake of mystery-mongering (though, sadly, there's much of that about) but because of the grave consequences that would follow, were the power contained in it, hitherto implicit, to be disclosed prematurely. Silence, as Eliphas Lévi never tired of stressing, is incumbent on those who cross the threshold of the Adytum.(5)

Some things may nevertheless be said with impunity. Before doing so, however, it should be emphasised that the Egyptian mysteries now being explored by a growing number of magical groups represent truths of universal significance. This means that the same truths are embedded in other systems all over the world, no matter how varied their expression. The fact is that no tradition, no ancient mythology, no antique culture has an exclusive right to them, something the more rigidly sectarian of our modern occult groups might care to bear in mind: outwardly different they may be, but essentially all are the same. Which serves to explain how my initial encounter with them - as it happens, in the very year I set up those ubiquitous astrological practices! - occurred within the framework of a Celtic, allegedly Druidic, tradition very different, at least superficially, from its Egyptian counterpart. In this case the precise connection was revealed to me by the late Joan Grant, author of several past life biographies, mostly set in ancient Egypt. (Her interest in my 'Celtic' experience was due in part to her once having had a nanny who was both Welsh and a witch.)

Some occultists with access to the Akashic record maintain that these scattered truths are fundamentally the same because they share a common hieratic source. And that source was in Atlantis. According to them, the custodians of this sacred knowledge quit the doomed continent before it was too late (its destruction not, as commonly supposed, a single event), with the majority journeying westwards to Asia via Africa, whence their successors migrated to the Middle East and finally to Europe. (Both chronology and route vary from one account to another.) True or false - and I remain uncommitted - it is indisputable that what we now encounter in different guises is one central and universal truth, something that inspired Mme. Blavatsky to embark on her first book, Isis Unveiled. "What we desire to prove" she wrote, "is that underlying every ancient popular religion was the same wisdom doctrine, one and identical, professed and practised by the initiates of every country...."

What is indisputable is that for many contemporary occultists this fundamental truth has become accessible in a new and startling fashion through the Egyptian Mysteries. Which is why, in what is regarded as the nascent Aeon of Horus, it is above all on this tradition that the minds and magical endeavours of so many are focussed. No single group has exclusive rights to it, whatever some may fondly (and self-importantly) believe. Instead each of us has a particular task to perform, a particular contribution to make towards completion of the Great Work. The alchemical term is appropriate for what lies ahead is a transmutation of reality, nothing less, on both the micro- and the macrocosmic levels. By our separate, even disparate, efforts (though these may be more co-ordinated than we imagine) what has been present only in myth will finally become real inside Time, redeeming our environment and us so that both may return (with apologies to Teilhard de Chardin) to that Omega point which is our end and our beginning, the selfsame Alpha from which manifestation emerged.

That, then, is why today so many esotericists, whatever their magical preferences - wiccan, gnostic, Thelemic, tantric, Rosicrucian, Enochian, Christian(6) - are 'working', consciously or not, with constituent features of the Isis-Osiris-Horus myth. Some accord special prominence to the Isis/Hathor aspect, others to the more virile, yet compromised, role of Osiris, while most in one way or another pay homage to Thoth/Tehuti, the presence that converts darkness into light. There are also some content to devote their magical (and chakric) energies to Set, often maligned by those who see but the part, never the whole, while others are intent on discovering the plenitude of Nuth in the awesome void of the Abyss. (All such divinities, it need hardly be said, are essentially conduits of force, however theurgically "real".) Meanwhile what these practitioners have in common is an abiding awareness of the Divine Child. For it is the divinity represented, indeed anticipated, by the mythical Horus that will shortly be realised within the space-time reality we occupy. And his will not be a benign influence remotely exercised from some supra-physical realm but an incarnation, a sacramental presence in the world about us. Best of all, a privileged few among those now working towards that glorious end will enjoy an intimate acquaintance with the same divine peson sub specie hominis.

But with that, I have already gone too far. Suffice to say that those maligned, misunderstood and misrepresented Egyptians have finally been vindicated. No wonder the Sphinx is smiling.

David Conway, author of Magic: an occult primer (Cape, London 1972, subsequently The Complete Magician (Aquarian Press, various editions) There is also some background information in Secret Wisdom:the occult universe explored (Cape, 1984, new edition - Secret Wisdom: the occult universe revealed, Vega/Chrysalis, London 2002)

Notes

(1) Mrs. Cooke's previous selves included not only Ra-Min-Ati but also a Mayan priestess, Minesta who lived over ten thousand years ago. As the latter, she claimed to have been admitted into something called The Plumed Serpent, also known as The Brotherhood of White Magic. ("White" and "Brotherhood" are words that appear irritatingly often in esoteric literature: the Golden Dawn was held to be the 'outer' version of The Great White Brotherhood, an august fraternity that numbered Mme. Blavatsky's controversial Masters among its more exalted members.) Throughout her lives Mrs. Cooke's mentor remained the same whatever his intermittent identity: Is-Ra in Egypt, Ha-Wah-Tah in Central America, possibly Hiawatha, and, most recently, White Hawk, a deceased Mohawk chieftain who served as her spirit guide. (Just as B &Q makes a point of giving jobs to pensioners, Spiritualism keeps countless Native Americans in post-mortem work.) More credible, despite their noveletish style, are the descriptions of previous lives published by Joan Grant. Of these, her first book, The Winged Pharaoh remains the most popular but equally worth reading are the autobiographical reflections in Many Lifetimes and Far Memory, the latter written in collaboration with her (third) husband, Dr. Denys Kelsey. The author has left on record her revulsion on first meeting Crowley - "the toad", as she called him - but, to be fair to both, she was only six or seven at the time.

(2) I use the term 'Golden Dawn' to cover both the First (Outer) and Second (Inner) Orders, the latter characterised by Gnostic-Christian influences reminiscent of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, a quasi-masonic order to which the founding fathers belonged and which was inspired by (if not copied from) the Rose Croix of Regular Masonry.

(3) For the next twenty years Steiner did his utmost to downplay his association with the O.T.O, choosing not to refer to it by name in his autobiography. He claimed to have approached the Order only to obtain from it a charter - one it was historically entitled to grant - empowering him to set up his own lodge, its sedate purpose to conduct "symbolic-ritualistic exercises" far removed from the hanky-panky indulged in by the O.T.O. Only a few months ago the Anthroposophical Society announced - with sighs of relief audible far beyond Dornach - that recently discovered correspondence confirmed that the revered Steiner had never been involved with the O.T.O. Ironically, my former doctor in Munich (the late Frau Dr. Wiegand), herself an eminent Anthroposophist, assured me that in his early days Steiner (who left his first wife to marry the dancer Marie Sievers) was notoriously fond of women and strong drink. As for the O.T.O, the less said, the better, if only to avoid the wrath of the several squabbling factions that nowadays claim to represent it - none of which would appreciate being relegated to a footnote.

(4) So far as concerns theurgic (or goetic) practices in Egypt itself, these are commonly referred to as heku (of which "Hecate" is a possible, if improbable, derivation). Several books exist on the subject but despite their scholarship (sometimes more apparent than real) it is advisable to read them critically, accepting only what "seems" right or is confirmed by one's own experience. Two stalwarts are E. A. Wallis Budge's Egyptian Magic (Dover Publications, New York, 1901) - though Budge, rumoured to have been a member of the Golden Dawn, is nowadays distrusted by most Egyptologists - and the idiosyncratic but informative Secret Teachings of All Ages (originally published in 1928 but re-issued in 1977 by The Philosophic Research Society in 1977) from the pen of Manly P. Hall. Of more recent publications, the respectably academic are, arguably, the most reliable, though not the most enlightening from an esoteric point of view.

(5) Lévi (Alphonse-Louis Constant) is rumoured to have suggested he was the reincarnation of François Rabelais whose fictional Abbey of Thelema, set on the banks of the Loire, (v. Gargantua, I. lvii) was revived by Crowley, together with his own adaptation of the commandment set above its entrance: Fay ce que voudras (Do what thou wilt). Appropriately enough, Crowley in turn claimed to be a reincarnation of (inter alios) Lévi who is said to have died on the very day Crowley was born (12 October 1875). The Theosophical Society had been founded in New York a month earlier.

(6) And this despite the fact that such groups - "Orders" always strikes me as pompous - include a variety of diverse ingredients, superficially incompatible, in their meditative, magical or liturgical practice. (True also of the Golden Dawn, it is now regarded as testimony to the comprehensiveness of S. L. Mathers' researches.) Thus one often comes across a hotchpotch of the kabbalistic, the neo-platonic and the gnostic, to which a generous dollop of Egyptian, Classical, and neo-pagan mythology or symbolism has judiciously been added. All this, remember, before the inclusion of astrology, abstruse bits of numerology and a generous pinch of tarot. At some point, too, the chakras (and much else that's that's yogic or Eastern) will join the mix. Fortunately the final dish is all the tastier for the richness of its composition, though a less indiscriminate approach is usual when operations specific to a particular tradition are undertaken.

Worth mentioning is the phenomenon known as as esoteric Christianity. Many occult-minded organisations have sprouted "churches", some more ostensibly Christian than others. All, however, borrow from the sacramental and liturgical (usually pre-Vatican II) practices of the Roman Catholic Church and even imitate its hierarchical structure. Such has happened in the Theosophical society under Besant and Leadbeater (with the latter's take-over of the Liberal Catholic Church), in the Anthroposophical Society (Christian Community) and in the "official" - Karl Gemer - version of the O.T.O (Gnostic Catholic Church). This tendency has always struck me as odd. In any case Rome does it far better.

Quimbanda webpage

Wendy Rule

Wendy Rule /The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury High Street/18th June.

I was told about Wendy Rule's tour of England by an Australian friend whose artistic judgement I had great faith in and who assured me that she was an `amazing performer' and that `I must not miss seeing her live'. Thus, finding myself in need of some creative and musical stimulation I went to her gig at The Assembly Rooms in Glastonbury. The venue being the most prohibitively expensive in Glastonbury (and surrounding Somerset it would seem) gave me to expect wondrous things.

In this I wasn't let down…

Pre concert Wendy was publicly reprimanded by the imposing blonde American organiser clad in a floor skimming PVC coat, for leaving her dressing room and trying to greet a member of the audience. Disconcerting enough just to watch…god knows what it must have been like to be on the other end of that sort of aesthetically displeasing discipline.

The event was opened with an exceptionally long introduction by the aforementioned organiser and host, which seemed to focus a lot on encouraging the audience to chant `I DO believe in Fairies' repetitively. By this stage anxiety was rapidly engulfing me, (alongside my usual Glastonbury High Street headache) only to be enhanced by a god-awful smoke machine with an incompetent operator which started noisily belching out hunks and hanks of noxious fumes, and continued to do so for the remains of the concert.

However there was one redeeming feature to this extremely disturbing evening; the music.

Wendy Rule is an amazing musician and despite the extraordinarily disturbing setting she held me captivated. A seasoned performer with many world tours under her belt, 5 full length albums and a experience in a wide range of musical styles she really has the most incredible voice and stage presence.

Opening with The Circle Song in which she invoked the elements in a powerful piece of combination performance art and music Wendy had the audience in awe of her musical ability as she proceeded to take us on journeys through the mythologies and magic's that inspire and influence her.

After an intermission (spent on my part sitting on the bench in the main street quaffing paracetomol and trying to distance myself from the smoke machine and the entourage of small children in fairy wings rampaging through the Assembly Rooms) Wendy seemed to finally wilt; the final straw being when she opened the song `Think of the Day' by asking for some silence from the audience as it was very personal and special song for her…and a flatulent burst of fumes from the smoke machine followed by the rampaging of the juvenile fairy troop, led by what I can only term as a young `commando fairy' started roaring across the dance floor under the benevolent eyes of their be winged, prosthetically eared smiling parents.

The prime focus of this concert seemed to be less about the unnerving idolatry awarded to the music and performance of Wendy by the rather glazed eyed audience, and more the showcasing of the group WES who ran it. I'd hate to make a sweeping statement, but as my opinion was shared also by those that I attended the gig with, I will. The general feeling was that of being at an event run by hard core glazed eye Pagan versions of Xtian fundamentalists (wearing fairy wings and pentagrams).

There are certain elements of Glastonbury that are indicative of how that which is of value can become commercialised, superficial or rotten…

This concert encapsulated those elements.

An amazing musician in a chaotic and quite warped environment who managed to shine initially before getting overwhelmed by the Glastonbury spiritual self-promotional snow job. If it wasn't for the waste of the opportunity to fully enjoy such a formidable talent as is that of Wendy Rule's coupled with the high cost of the entrance fee, I could have simply walked away with a series of amusing anecdotes about probably one of the most surreal and awful evenings out that I've experienced in a very long time!

Charlotte

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