Oxford Pagans Meditation Collective

Shadow Tarot / Liber 231

2009-03-21T02:52:00.000-07:00

Shadow Tarot – a suggested protocol

Liber 231, the GD text that is the original source for the Shadow Tarot was intended as an exercise to develop astral and trance abilities that can be used in other more elaborate rites. The night side aspect requires some care and alertness in case of accident. Apparently the correct attitude is one of self or egoless witness.

1. Before the session everyone must draw their own version of the sigil in the correct colours and order – perhaps using one of the full realised versions as a guide – Jan Fries’ version has the advantage of being in black and white and lends itself to being coloured.
2. Note any dreams and introduce these into the trance if you like.
3. Devise an opening rite – for example the LBR – perhaps a more static version sitting round a séance type table – so you intone the gods names but visualise the rest – try and engage everyone in this – if one person leads the chant – the others coming in as soon as they hear the note – you will be in tune. Practice this bit until you are pleased with the result.
4. Settle down in a circle, holding hands, comfortable. The coloured card and sigil is placed in the centre of the circle or table or whatever arrangement works. When read the first person begins the process of ordinary language trance – as suggested down in works of Jan Fries and the chapter on W B Yeats in Tankhem.
5. Everyone has a go at describing the card and entering the tunnel etc – slowly speaking quietly out loud whatever they see, feels, etc. The leader may have to quietly prompt people to speak by asking leading questions perhaps as in the Crowley’s Vision and the Voice
6. When one has finished the next in the sequence has a go and so on until everyone has spoken –
7. You can see quietly in private meditation finished with the gentle chanting of ‘Awen’ to coordinate the emergence from the trance.
8. Close the circle by repeating part of whole of LBR
9. Relax and take it in turns to read any material from previous explorers – perhaps the appropriate chapter from Kenneth Grant’s Nightside of Eden.
10. Designate someone to make some sort of note of how it all went.

Golden Dawn Egyptian Gnosis 2009

2009-01-30T03:25:00.000-08:00

[Feedback and constructive comments welcomed]

This year we are going deeper into the Egyptian roots of Golden Dawn magick - learning more and using it as the basis for various forms of meditation - And with an eye on how it goes when new people get involved thought it might help if we had some core texts around which we work - nothing too expensive or difficult to access but nevertheless - crucial.

These books reflect philosophical and technical sides of Egyptian magick - although their titles associate them with Greek thought they are mainly Egyptian magick but synthesising the best of Greek & Babylonian tradition :

You need access to the following material:

The Hermetica :
The edition of the Hermetica that probably "best" is one
with forward by Adrian Gilbert. isbn 1873616147
There is a rather nice one from Cambridge UP translated by Copenhaven
but its double the price at 25pounds

[Avoid the Gandy and Freke edition]

The Greek Magical Papyri In Translation by H D Betz
Also , more accurately known as "The Theban Magical Library".
A small selection is published as "The Leiden Magical Papyri" (Dover Books)

Tankhem Mythos/Mogg Morgan
"Supernatural Assault in Ancient Egypt"
"Tankhem: Seth and Egyptian Magick"
"The Bull of Ombos: Seth & Egyptian Magick II".
If you do look at the above, let me know as there are some updates on some of the more tentative material. So the experimental opening rite now changed and clarified (latest version). The "yeatsian" twenty-eight day lunar calendar is still valid although the later books work with a more wholy Egyptian 30day lunar month.

Various others: maybe Stephen Flowers "Hermetic Magick".
various recent publications from the Temple of Set.

There are a number of other editions and commentaries
people can use -
which might also help -

To join us you probably need to live in Oxfordshire or join one of the other
GD powerzones.

Meeting times
Full Moon/"White Nights"
(why? See "Supernatural Assault in Ancient Egypt".
If you are not there in flesh then join us on the astral.

Lectures and other Online Sources
Check out "morganfilms" on Youtube for several shorts on "Typhonian Magick"
and "The Wheel of the Year in Ancient Egypt"
Check out my blog for some background on Hermeticism:
http://mogg-morgan.blogspot.com/
"House of Life" ebook - ritual basic - available free with "Tankhem" etc
Various lectures online and in the flesh through 2009 (details on request)

Intent: To build in Oxford, a physical temple, manifesting our astral work. Can you help?

Notes & Queries
1. Occult Elements and the Directions
Wondering if there is a clear tradition associating occult elements and the cardinal directions before the Renaissance? The ancient Greeks had some correspondences between the seven sacred vowels and the directions eg:
Alpha - East
Epsilon - North
Eta - West
Iota - South
Omicro - Below
Upsilon - Centre
Omega - Above

But is there an elemental correspondences to the seven vowels??

And what is the order of the occult elements?
One Greek system has five elements in order:
Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Space
Contemporary Hindu ordering is:
Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space.

Rituals tend to use them in the evolutionary order.

One tradition I found groups deities, directions and elements thus:
Isis - Earth
Osiris - Air
Typhon - Fire
Nephthys - Water

Is there a good summary of this?

-------------------------------

2. Changes to opening rite
Having experimented with that a few times it needs something to improve the flow.

The opening "Abydos Arrangement" is fine.
Vibrating the sacred vowel is fine - but the "Horus Fighting" gesture should be completed in one movement for four direction and omitted for last three - which is in effect its own gesture - "Typhon Rising".

Second part should use the "vowel chant" "Ay EAO" to call the quarters
- which is close to Middle Egyptian "Oh Hail"

Repeat "Abydos Arrangement" with gesture.

in construction - please revisit as there is more material to upload.

Study Group

2007-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Meeting every two weeks

Meeting V

2006-12-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

'Remote Presence'.

2006-11-14T02:38:00.000-08:00

I note mention of Ingo Swann on the OPMC page 'Remote Presence'. You might be interested in some of our research at: http://www.starstreamresearch.com/ Not to everyones taste I must warn.

IV Meeting

2006-11-11T01:40:00.000-08:00

meeting III

2006-10-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Experience of the Heart
The experience of the heart is the secret core of a lot of Tantra. The actual practice is surprisingly simple. You can experience the heart today, you can do it now. However, you may need a bit of practice it get used to it, to explore the creative, pulsing, vibrating void, and to understand what it is all about. For a start, it may be useful to find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Lie down on your back and put a piece of cloth over your eyes if you like. Some imagine more easily against a dark background, others against a bright one. What do you prefer? Are you more imaginative in a dark or bright space? Or do this sitting on a chair. Sit erect, allow your body to settle into the posture, take some deep breaths and look around before you close your eyes. You might start by being aware of the Kula around you: what do you sense of the outer world? Then move inward to the periphery of your body, where the sense organs are. You can feel the ground (or the chair), you can sense the clothes you are wearing, the presence (or absence) of light before your closed eyes, the sound and feel of your breath as it moves out and in smoothly. Take a while to explore the sensations, give yourself time to slow down and turn inwards. I prefer not to recite mantra or speak suggestions as I go inward to the heart. The heart experience is simplicity, so I keep the process of introversion simple. The next step is in the imagination. Step back from the periphery of your body. Withdraw from your skin, your sense organs, your face. Leave your limbs out there. As you move inwards, your shape becomes diffuse. The outer shell of experience defines so much of what we sense of ourselves. As you go inwards, your body and your self-definition dissolve. Become smaller. Then sink down into the cavity of your heart. Do this leisurely, peacefully, slowly. How big are you? In the ®vet€vatara Upaniad your self is as big as a thumb. It can be atomic if you will, or virtually non-existing. As you descend within yourself, you enter the vast cave of the heart. This is the entire centre of your manifest experience (®akti). We are not talking about the physical organ. We are talking about the voidness of the pre-create. What is the nature of your heart? As it is void, it can take on any form. What is the nature of yourself? As it is void, it can take on any form. Both heart and self are undefined, diffuse, pulsating. The void may be empty of form and definition, but it is not static or inert. There is vibration, there is pulsation, there is contraction and expansion. From this womb all realities arise. Any thought can manifest in the heart. You can explore the play of consciousness and matter/energy in this vastness. (C) 2007 Jan Fries

Next collective - provisional date

2006-10-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

1st Collective - 3pm

2006-09-17T03:20:00.000-07:00

open air

weather permitting

bring something to sit on and a wrap

start with simple meditation called
'just sitting'

discussion

second meditation

closing discussion

Remote Presence - more on that

2006-09-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Folks - Some discussion of this (being not physically present...) has
already taken place and various of us seem willing to give it a try.

Anyway, Mogg gave me a couple of leads relating to the "Maat Network"
and also the "Zee Cluster" - that was the extent of it, just the
names. So anyway, what I've found is a website
(http://www.horusmaat.com/silverstar/SILVERSTAR2-PG4.htm)with the passage:

"We've adapted the Elevenstar rite for internet use as follows:

Every new moon, participants meet astrally at Moonbase Temple,
situated in the center of the visible face of our satellite, while
acting in our individual temples physically. We discuss and agree upon
a word of power, an image and a sigil a few days in advance, then
employ these in rites of individual devising. We send our Magical
Records of the ritual to the HML list during the following few days."

Will continue to investigate this and ZC.

So the technique described by the Elevenstar rite seems to amount to
having a shared remote location where the group meet up astrally plus
some other shared artifacts (word, image, sigil). I can think of
several things we could do all or some of to adapt to our particular
situation:

* While the rest of you gather at a particular location to meditate,
those remote participants focus their minds on that location, either
thru having visited it or having seen a picture of it or by knowing
where it is on a map (Ingo Swann and remote viewing mean anything to
any of you?). Now this may be a problem for the "remotes" because
they'll have to focus both on being present at the location _as well
as_ whatever the subject of their meditation may be.

* Or we even things up by us all having a remote location we focus
on, like the Elvenstar Moonbase temple

* We all focus on a shared image to bring us together

The great thing about this being an experimental group is that, well,
we can experiment.

My suggestion for the first session if I can't make it is that
(assuming I can get to a quiet place during the session) I focus my
meditation on the location and a shared image which we'll try to agree
on before then and then I'll report back.

Meditation Collective

2006-09-05T02:49:00.000-07:00

Meditation is a core techniques of many spiritual
paths including paganism, witchcraft, tantrism, Druidry, heathens, khemetics,
neo-shamans and magicians. The intention is to be inclusive and focus on the common ground between all neopagan traditions.

It could include a number of related techniques - mindfulness, path-working, visualisation, seething, vibration and chanting.

No prior knowledge necessary.

Twenty minutes of meditational type practice every
fortnite to start - aimed at neo-pagan type interests.
Discussion afterwards, perhaps continued at a cafe.
Might have to start as an outside - au naturel group - but if we
collect a small amount of cash each time we can rent a room for
winter if necessary.

Meditational collectives also includes those not physically present
other than timewise - but their visions, messages, comments etc can be
collated via comments etc usually on a blog site.

If interested can you email me (either on or off list) -
or leave a comment and i will get back to you.
Once started - meditational collectives admit new members
at any time although the existing collective 'moderates'
new members.

recommended reading
Raja Yoga by Vivekananda (translation and commentary on the yogasutras of Patanjali)
Seidways, shaking, swaying and serpent mysteries by Jan Fries
Visual Magick: a manual of freestyle shamanism by Jan Fries

Virtual Meditation

2006-09-04T01:53:00.000-07:00

tanman said...
This sounds like a good thing in itself, plus - as you say - useful stepping stone onto other stuff. Particularly like the idea of being able to include those "not physically present" - do you have experience of this? How did it work out?

One of the developing meanings of 'meditation collective' is that there is an option for people to participate at a distance - either alone or in satelite groups. I don't have too much experience of this but it is something i heard of in connection with the MAAT network and something called the 'Zee cluster'. Check that online for more details.