| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 1 | 46 | 93 | 139 | 185 |
|
----
[1] The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was the most important single source of the modern
magical tradition. For details of this Order see Dr Israel Regardie's Golden Dawn. (4 vols) Aries
Press, 1937-1940, reprinted (2 vols) Llewellyn Publications, USA, 1969; Francis King, Ritual Magie
in England. Neville Spearman, London, 1970; Francis King, Astral Projection, Magic and Alchemy.
Neville Spearman, London, 1972; and R. G. Torrens, The Secret Rituals of the Golden Dawn.
Aquarian, UK, 1972.
----
Just how many of these other worlds and planes are supposed to exist depends upon which particular
mode of classification the magician chooses to use. Today most of them prefer the fourfold
classification of the Golden Dawn version of the Hebrew Qabalah and therefore refer to:
1
2
3
4
. Atziluth, the Divine World Archetypal existence.
. Brian, The Creative World, sphere of Archangels and other types of spiritual entity.
. Yetzirah, the Astral World, lying immediately 'above' the plane of dense physical matter.
. Assiah, the Material World, the plane of ordinary physical existence.
For the purposes of practical magic the Astral World (Yetzirah), is of greatest importance, for by the
manipulation of its basic material, called by many occultists the Astral Light and bearing some
resemblance to the orgone energy of Wilhelm Reich, occultists believe that they are enabled to exert
control over dense matter and to produce changes of consciousness in themselves and others.
The magicians' belief in more than one plane of being implies the existence of more than one type of
'body' operating on those planes. Once again the vehicle of physical existence is thought of as being
comparatively unimportant; it is what are usually referred to as 'the subtle bodies' that are of greatest
interest to the practitioners of magic and, once more, their supposed number depends upon the
preferred system of classification.
Thus those magicians who use the Golden Dawn's Qabalistic system habitually talk about 'the etheric
body', thought of as almost physical in nature, a quasi-magnetic network of lines of force laying down
the pattern to be followed by the physical body; of 'the astral body', which it is believed can be
dissociated from the physical body and used by the magician to journey through the astral world; of
'the mental body'; of 'the spiritual body'; and of the Yechidah, or Divine Spark, the highest aspect of
consciousness, the fraction of Godhead which is held to be the central core of each human personality.
(2)
----
Page
Quick Jump
|