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]

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

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Treadwells

Here's a selection of talks at Treadwells. Full descriptions of all events are to be found now on website, http:www.treadwells-london.com

Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2
Places booked on 0207 240 8906
or by email info@...

Hoodoo: A Folk Magic Tradition and Its Historical Evolution
3 August (Thursday) Lisa Mead, Practitioner and Researcher 7.15 for 7.30 pm start £5.00
Hoodoo is an African-American system of folk magic, famed for its practical and direct approach: ‘come to me’ sprays; good luck powders, and money-drawing floor-washes. Its practitioners are called doctors, and its products – many of them herbal mixtures ritually prepared – are made with secret elements. Hoodoo’s history shows its hidden depths, and its roots lie in the fusion of immigrant and native lore in the Southern States of America. Lisa Mead was initiated into hoodoo by her Brooklyn godmother and is now a doctor in the tradition. She is of the Gullah people of the South Carolina islands of the USA. She now lives in London is writing a history of the tradition.

Witchcraft – An Esoteric Approach
5 August (Saturday) With Len Roberts 2pm – 5 pm (please arrive 1.45) £2.00
In this afternoon talk, a longterm practitioner of witchcraft shares a personal perspective on the witchcraft path, focusing on the aspects he feels are due more attention than they are sometimes given. One of these he would call ‘the esoteric path’, with its focus on the inner life, and the unspoken, the sense of mystery. The other lies in developing the relationship with the land, with its intuitive exploration of sacred places. The aim of the afternoon is for people interested in witchcraft to hear about the tradition from someone whose life within it has been committed to the magical, spiritual, inner life. Len Roberts is an Alexandrian initiate whose journey on this path started in London the early 1970s. He now lives in Sussex and works rather more quietly in smaller, more intimate contexts.

The Sex Life of Fairies
24 August (Thursday) Geof Downton, Founder of the Fairy Museum 7.15 for 7.30 pm start £5.00
This evening’s talk looks at sexual elements of fairy lore and fairy tales. It commences with their classical origins, then goes on to the Victorian and Edwardian use of fairies as soft porn. The final section explores the modern sexual abuse of fairies, from the misuse of language to Japanese Hentai. Geof Downton has been a student of myth and fairy lore for about 25 years; he has been collecting statues, images and books for some fifteen years. He founded fairymuseum.com three years ago to show off his collection. The quote to spark your interest: ‘Can you wonder that People of the Hills don't care to be confused with that painty-winged, wand-waving, sugar-and-shake-your-head set of imposters? Butterfly wings indeed!" Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill.

The Moot with No Shame

Alternate Wednesdays, 7.30 for 8pm. Upstairs, Devereux pub near Temple. £2. (Unless otherwise stated.) Directions: Opposite the main entrance to the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand (near Aldwych) is a Tudor-style pub called the George. Go down the alley next to this and the Devereux is at the bottom. There's a map at .

16 Aug Steve Wilson The Cunning Folk of London
For centuries if you wanted to find a ritual magician, an astrologer, a healer or a diviner in London, no problem – they were all the same person. The Cunning Folk, ranging from "respectable" astrologers to downright thieves and pimps worked the London population – and now more and more information is becoming available. Especially useful if you thought you had been cursed by a witch – and expect to hear also of the last woman killed for witchcraft in London – at a place very close to home! Learn of a few of the hundreds of fascinating characters that worked just a stone's throw away from where the moot takes place.

30 Aug Steve Ash The Enochian Magic of Edward Talbot
A look at the "invention" of Enochian Magic by Edward Talbot (aka Edward Kelly) and his relationship with John Dee. The talk will explore some of the methods Talbot may have used to trick Dee into this project, as well as some anecdotes on their relationship. It will also briefly analyse "authentic" Enochian Magic and contrast it with the "distorted" system as developed by the Golden Dawn and their heirs. In addition it will explore the possibilities of a Neo- Enochian magic currently under experimental development. Steve Ash has recently explored this subject in some depth for a two-part article currently published in Oracle occult magazine, copies of which will be available on the night. It is hoped the talk will be suitably controversial.

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.

The Green Man and the Dragon (review)

By Paul Broadhurst, isbn 0951323679, £12.95, illustrated (some in colour)

George, in origin a Greek name meaning 'farmer' or 'tiller of the soil',. St George was a Roman military tribune martyred at Nicomedia in 303. The dragon-killing legends were attached to his name later. His cult was brought to England from the East by returning Crusaders; he was said to come to their help under the walls of Antioch in 1089 and was then chosen as their patron by the Normans under Robert of Normandy, son of the Conqueror. There are 126 churches dedicated to him in England. But George as a christian name was slow in taking root. The earliest example noted is one George Grim at the end of the 12th century and there are occasional occurences in records of the 13th and early 14th c. Edward III had a particular devotion to St George and in 1349, on St Georges Day, founded the Order of the Garter, which he placed under his patronage and dedicated to him the chapel of the order at Windsor. From this time he was regarded as the patron saint of England.'

Of course when you examine the early part of the myth - the trail soon runs cold and one is left with the unsatifactory conclusion that there must have been more than one 'holy Geo' - or is he some sort of god in disguise? The saint in roman armour is precisely the form than late images of the god Horus take on in Roman Egypt. This last fact has led many to suppose that the glyph of St George and the Dragon, is a cypher for the Contending of Horus Seth, a theme explored in one of the many chapters in Broadhurst's book.

The Complete Magician's Tables, by Stephen Skinner

Golden Hoard isbn 0954763971, 432pp, hardback £30/$46 (even posher edition available)

'Tarot without number' which is one possible title for this review. Now a revision of 'Crowley's' 777 or as its known in the trade, The Qabalah of Aleister Crowley, might seem a bit nerdy. We've probably all been tempted at some time or another to prepare our own revision of what's seen as the essential text - well actually not me but I know a few who have been so tempted. BTW - the apostrophes around Crowley are meant to indicate that the old bull's authorship of said text is not without its doubters, as Stephen Skinner points out in his introduction.

What's it for - I hear you say? Indeed, it's a while since I looked at my battered old copy but there is a school of magic (I'm not saying how old) that recommends that all magical operations should be beefed up with information from such a book of tables. It all goes back to the old doctrine of signatures and correspondences. The power of magick seems to reside in the ability to assign the many things in our imaginal world to various classifications. The ancient pagan world was full of classificatory systems - perhaps that was then the nature of knowledge - the obsessive making of lists?

As very many of these lists have come down to us from posterity principally via the grimoires and kabbalistic texts such as the Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation), The Bahir (Book of Light), The Zohar (Book of Splendour) etc etc. Rescued from obscurity by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, these books and their lists were given a new lease of life and form the basis of much modern magick including the schema underlying the Tarot, perhaps the ultimate 'list'.

If you're not a list maker yourself how might you use them? Well received wisdom says that if for example you want to construct a ritual to Seth, the Egyptian god of Chaos, you might use the traditional 'correspondences' of that god - colour red, constellation Ursa major, planet Mercury or Mars, depending whether you follow the views of the ancient Egyptians or the later traditions. They can also be used to check on details of a vision - this usually done during a practice called Path working. This entails an imaginal journey over the various ascending paths of the Tree of Life. I should point out in one of his many revisions, Skinner recommends a return to the Lurianic Tree i.e. that of Isaac Luria (1533-1572) as opposed to the Golden Dawn version, constructed by Macgregor Mathers, but considered by most experts to be inferior. Even so, Skinner acknowledges these GD attributions have become a discreet if problematic tradition in their own right. So for completeness and easy comparison both sets are list often side by side for easy comparison, as on page 133 of the Tables. So if our astral traveller received a toothy vision he or she might later conclude that they were either on course on the path between sphere 10 to 9 at the bottom of the tree or had strayed into the 'path direct' and was actually on 3 to 2.

In a sense all classificatory system have an arbitrary quality. It's like astrology, many swear by the use of the tropical Zodiac - despite the fact that it hasn't quite be in synch with the actual constellations for a while now. It's a conventional system, where the relationships between the parts is maybe more important than the underlying reality.

Well that's just to discuss the issues raised in one of the many hundred of seminal tables presented in this crucial book. Although at its strongest when dealing with the material related to High Magick, the Grimoires, Alchemy and the Kabbalah, I was glad the author had ditched that piece of cultural imperialism, that reduced Kabbalah to a mere filing system then 'used' to bury every other system under a semblance of false knowledge. Kabbalah is far from the last refuge of the lazy thinker. I'm glad to see the message is getting through at last - that all belief systems need to be embraced in their own context.

Skinner's revisionism is extended to the Tables, which ditch the clunky and confusing system adopted by Crowley, whereby everything was mapped onto a 33 row table (10 spheres, 22 paths and a couple extra for the awkward ones that don't fit.) Skinner instead returns to the older more user friendly ZEP system whereby everything is classified according to either the Zodiacal, the Elemental or the Planetary attribution..

Stephen Skinner has very kindly allowed me to reproduce a small extract from the introduction that presents many other startling (and to some alarming) new revelations. One of which I've immediately taken to heart - forget about the numbers of the tarot Trumps - that's a relatively modern convention that has generated more problems than it solves. Recommended [Mogg]

The Nature of Correspondences (© Stephen Skinner)

extracted with permission from:
The Complete Magician's Tables, by Stephen Skinner Golden Hoard isbn0954763971, 432pp, hardback £30/$46 (see review)

To understand how the correspondences are built up, it becomes important to see, and to test, the links in the chain. The basic Kabbalistic texts underlying these correspondences are the Sepher Yetzirah, the book Bahir, and the Zohar. It is no coincidence that Wynn Westcott (co-founder of the Golden Dawn with Mathers) published a translation (from the Latin rather than the Hebrew) of the Sepher Yetzirah in 1887, as this is one of the main links of the chain of correspondences that links Western Magic through astrology to the Hebrew Kabbalah.

There is no problem with the Sepher Yetzirah correspondences for the 10 Sephiroth which are clearly documented in many Hebraic and Latin sources, but the 22 Paths connecting the Sephiroth have had scant attention paid to them in much of the literature, and it is these Paths that are the crux of many Western correspondences. At this point I recommend that anyone who is quite happy with the internally consistent Golden Dawn synthesis, or who is new to it, skips the rest of this section. If you proceed to read the rest of this section, prepare to have some of your basic preconceptions shaken a little, but at the end you will be standing on a firmer conceptual ground.

[Diagram simplified here]

1. Tree of Life -
2. Paths -
3. Hebrew Letters -
4. Astrology ZEP -
5. Tarot

The Hebrew letters are central to the chain, and to the Kabbalah. You can also see that the Tarot is actually a long conceptual distance from the Tree of Life , and we will later see why this has caused both Mathers and Crowley to make various tweaks to links 3 and 4 (like swapping the cards Strength and Justice, or the cards Emperor and Star), without perhaps addressing the root of the problem.

Taking each of the links in turn:

1. Tree of Life - Paths Link
The Tree of Life diagram comes in three main 'flavours': the Gra, the Lurianic, and the Kircher/Golden Dawn Tree. The most familiar to modern readers is the Golden Dawn Tree shown in Figure 2 which shows three Paths radiating from Malkuth at the bottom but with only 4 paths crossing the so-called Abyss. The Lurianic Tree (named after its promoter Isaac Luria, the 'Ari') in Figure 3 shows only one Path leading from Malkuth (it also occurs in older sources like the Bahir). All three Trees have 22 Paths, but obviously the numbering of the Paths differs, so this link yields variable results, and is not as firm as most commentators imply. I will be comparing the three Trees later in this introduction. Let us now look at how the chain of correspondence proceeds from there.

2. Paths Numbers - Hebrew Letters Link
All three types of Trees have 22 Paths, and as the Sepher Yetzirah states, one letter of the Hebrew alphabet is allocated to each Path. The problem is that the Sepher Yetzirah does not diagrammatically show what this allocation is. There are however definite allocations of the 3 types of Hebrew letters to the Paths:

a) The 3 Mother letters (Aleph, Mem and Shin) are logically allocated to the 3 Elements (excluding Earth). On the Lurianic Tree, they are the three horizontal Paths on the Tree. The Golden Dawn Tree however applies Aleph to connect Sephiroth 1 and 2, Mem to connect 5 and 8, and Shin to connect 8 and 10: hardly a satisfactory distribution of these three most important letters.

b) The seven Double letters (Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Peh, Resh, Tau) are allocated to the 7 Planets. On the Lurianic Tree, these are the 7 vertical Paths on the Tree. On the Golden Dawn Tree they appear to be just randomly allocated.

c) The twelve Single letters (He, Vau, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tzaddi, Qoph) are allocated to the 12 Zodiacal signs. On the Lurianic Tree these are systematically allocated only to the diagonal Paths on the Tree. On the Golden Dawn Tree they fill the remaining Paths, with no obvious pattern.

Obviously for this link to work we have to establish which allocation is correct. The clue to the positioning of the three different types of Hebrew letters on the Tree (and hence the Paths) occurs in the very clear differentiation of the three different types of letters. It also occurs in the last section of the Sepher Yetzirah (which is in fact dropped from some editions). This section lists out the qualities of each of the 32 'Intelligences.' The symbolism of the first ten Intelligences show clearly that they are meant to be the 10 Sephiroth, and the texts show some interesting secret connections between the Sephiroth. The next 22 Intelligences are from the 22 Paths, and from the hints (particularly in the original Hebrew) you can see which two Sephiroth are connected by each Intelligence or Path. Crowley clearly did not understand the significance of this section when he wrote of it:

"Column XII…These attributions arise from the description of the paths in the Sepher Yetzirah. This is one of the most ancient books of the Qabalah; but it is far from clear how the ideas correspond with the general scheme of symbolism. They seem of no use in practical magical work."

On the contrary, they are the clearest available indicators of the correct order of the Paths. I will not pursue this here, except to say that these indications taken together with the real meaning of the Serpent and Lightning Flash give the correct order for the Path numbers. They also indicate the correct order of meditational practice. Note that I am only talking about the numbering here. 3 - Hebrew Letters - Astrology (Zodiac /Element/Planet) Link This link is perhaps the most important for Western magic, as most of the other non-Kabbalistic correspondences depend upon it. Let us look at the parts:

a) The three Elements Aleph=Air, Mem=Water, Shin=Fire is clearly set out in Chapter 3 of the Sepher Yetzirah.

b) The Zodiac. This correlation of the 12 single letters to the 12 signs of the Zodiac is agreed upon by all commentators and is very clearly laid out in Chapter 5 of the Sepher Yetzirah.

c) The Planets however are a different matter, and occur in more than four variant arrangements in Chapter 4 of the various editions of the Sepher Yetzirah. The main variants are discussed below.

Westcott Kaplan in their translations of the Sepher Yetzirah show:

Beth - Moon
Gimel - Mars
Daleth - Sun
Kaph - Venus
Peh - Mercury
Resh - Saturn
Tau - Jupiter

It is very curious that Mathers did not use this arrangement, especially as he probably had a hand in the translation of the Westcott version.

For some reason, Mathers gave an order which is not included in any of these versions of the Sepher Yetzirah. This is the order that has influenced all of 20th century esoteric thought, but it is not an order with foundations in tradition:

Beth - Mercury
Gimel - Moon
Daleth - Venus
Kaph - Jupiter
Peh - Mars
Resh - Sun
Tau - Saturn

By far the largest number of versions of the Sepher Yetzirah (including both the Long and Short Version of the text) give an order which follows exactly the order of the Planets on the Sephiroth, which is therefore the most Kabbalistically logical. This is also the arrangement favoured by the translation by Gershom Scholem, who could be said to have a broader perspective on the Kabbalah than any other 20th century scholar. More impressively, this order is reflected in the pediments of the Ziggurat of Ur, suggesting it also has the most ancient pedigree:

Beth - Saturn
Gimel - Jupiter
Daleth - Mars
Kaph - Sun
Peh - Venus
Resh - Mercury
Tau - Moon

There are other hints of the rightness of this order, especially when using the Lurianic Tree which puts the Planets on the Paths connecting the Sephiroth vertically. The only conclusion open to us is that the planetary attributions in Mathers' working are in fact incorrect. I think it strange that Mathers preferred to preserve the fairly recent sequencing of the Tarot trumps in preference to retaining the considerably older and more valid instructions of the Sepher Yetzirah. I feel therefore that the time has come to turn back to this older attribution.

This arrangement has also been pointed out by Carlos Suares. I have not however made this change to the Tarot tables from Tables T1 to T28, which follow strict Golden Dawn attributions. Columns T38-T41 show how the Tarot would look if the ancient Sepher Yetzirah attributions had been adopted by Mathers. It is up to you, the reader, to decide for yourself if you wish to implement this material. The effect of correcting this, is to bring the 7 Planets on the Paths into line with the Sepher Yetzirah and to put their 7 corresponding Tarot Trumps on different Paths. If this ancient Planetary order is accepted, then the attribution of 7 of the Tarot Trumps to the Paths changes in a way which is infinitely more logical. The connection between each Tarot trump and its Planet is however not affected (as we will see below).

4 - Astrology (Zodiac /Element/Planet) - Tarot Link

Mathers' alignment of individual Tarot Trumps with the Zodiac, Element and Planets is very cogent. By retaining this, 7 of the Planetary Trumps now fall on different Paths, but remain linked to exactly the same Planets.

Roman Numbering

I also feel it is better to jettison the Roman numbering of the Tarot all together, as it is a very recent addition, and intimately tied up with the basically wrong traditional French numerical attributions.

This is not as inflammatory a statement as it first seems. Remember that as Eliphas Levi put The Magician = Aleph, every one of his attributions is therefore wrong in Golden Dawn terms, or any other terms. Levi's excuse is that it was just a 'blind'. I don't believe in blinds. I think information should be given to the best of one's ability, or withheld, but not provided in an intentionally crippled form. Almost all writers of the French tradition followed this deliberately blinded attribution.

Accordingly the Roman numbering will always be out of step with both the Paths of the Tree and the Hebrew letters of any modern system anyway.

In addition, as the Tarot is itself a distillation of a series of broken emblem sets, something we will see in the commentary on the Tarot Table T, so the idea of assigning them a sequence of ordered numbers is intrinsically nonsense. In fact all the early packs were unnumbered. The current numbering of packs like the Visconti-Sforza was only applied in the last few decades of the 20th century). Finally, as Stuart Kaplan clearly shows, the order of the Tarot cards has changed many times in the 600 years of its existence, so the Roman numbering of the Trumps is at best a convenience, and at worst a very misleading distraction. These numbers have no intrinsic value, being useful only as identifiers, and the name of the Trump adequately fulfils that function.

So let me sum up.
The links in the chain are as follows:
1. Tree of Life - Path Link. There are three main Tree formats, the Gra, the Golden Dawn and the Lurianic versions, therefore this connection is not as fixed as one might think, and tables from Liber 777 would have to be re-arranged accordingly for whichever Tree was used. The variant Tree arrangements have however no effect on the rearrangement of the present Tables, as these are dependent only on ZEP order rather than Path number order anyway.
2. Path - Hebrew Letters Link. These attributions are also not fixed. The Lurianic Tree's use of horizontal Paths for Elements, vertical Paths for Planets and diagonal Paths for Zodiacal signs has much to recommend it, is more ancient, and is more logical than the Golden Dawn arrangement.

3. Hebrew Letters - Astrology. Link

As Mathers did not use any standard edition of the Sepher Yetzirah to associate the Planets with the Hebrew letters (not even Westcott's edition) his seven Planet to Hebrew Letter attributions are suspect. I recommend that you examine the realignment of the 7 Planets and their Tarot trumps with the Hebrew letters as shown in Columns T38-T41.

4. Astrology - Tarot Link.

Mathers' clever attributions of the Tarot Trumps to the astrological Zodiac, Elements, and Planets (as shown in the Golden Dawn Cipher manuscript) still holds good.

With regard to the Tarot, I recommend that you also ignore or remove the Roman numbering of the Tarot to allow the Trumps to be assigned to the Paths correctly and smoothly without the usual sense of numerical dislocation.

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