INSANE IS THE NEW NORMAL: POST THIRTY

Wind Poppies, Chinese Purple Houses
After Rough Fire

REBOOT, REFORMAT

     I think I've always known that I need to leave my society far behind in order to heal myself on the deepest level, which explains why for many years I have journeyed into the woods at every opportunity. For me, at some point on just about every trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I lose my personality, and my soul surfaces; I sometimes even experience knowledge that transcends my five senses, intuitions about events in the future and beyond the range of my perception. On each trail I experience anticipation and dread as well because with that shift also comes the fear of annihilation of my identity. Authentic spirituality, I believe, cannot exist without that moment when the personality vanishes and the divine spark communicates with the soul and the soul communicates with the conscious mind—the psyche aligning. I have come to seek that shift in ritual as well, not only to align the divine spark with my soul and with my conscious mind, but to connect my soul with healing cosmic forces, invisible forces represented by angels and Tarot archetypes and gods. Whether I'm worshiping Gabriel or the Moon or Khonsu, Raphael or Mercury or Thoth, Uriel or Saturn or Ptah, I am using the symbolic representation of the God as a bridge to extremely powerful subtle forces, and I must leave my personality, with all of its social conditioning, outside the door of my spiritual room in order to connect with them.

     When I was in junior high school, I was a jock, and I hung out with other jocks at recess and at lunch. We would usually roam the halls as a herd without ever saying a word to one another. We were members of the “in-crowd,” providing protection for each other, clearly showing the other kids that individual members of the group were not to be messed with, ever. After about six months as a member of the herd, I felt a strange emptiness as we drifted through the halls. I turned my head and gazed at the boys beside me and realized that I had not said more than two words to any one of them. One day I couldn't stand the feeling of emptiness any longer. I started hanging out with someone who was less cool, more vulnerable socially, but far more fun.

     So often as I was growing up, I just went around on auto-pilot, half-asleep. My family and my society conditioned me to maintain the unexamined self as a survival mechanism. I adopted their beliefs and developed physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual habits as I learned to play by the rules. In the process, I became passive, allowing others to control and manipulate and crush my imaginative powers, and it was this very habit of inner passivity that became a veil within consciousness. Even though these habits and beliefs interfered with my ability to live fully and creatively, since nothing challenged my belief systems too much, and life didn't treat me too badly, I remained passive and didn't question anything. But as I grew up this tower that I was building was hit by lightning. For me a thunderstorm formed from the inspiration and exaltation I experienced within nature and the arts, and that, along with my chronic illness, compelled me more and more to step away from the herd.

Ithuriel's Spears, White-tipped Lupine

     The more I separated myself from the herd, the more I became aware of my ego, which I realized is concerned primarily with survival and gratification, not with sympathy and union. After many years away from the herd, I recognized that my ego has dominated my soul, my higher self, driving it deep into my subconscious, so far down into the depths that for over thirty years I was not even aware that I have a soul. As soon as I began to live more in the higher self, I recognized that my ego is willing to compromise the truth for security and status—my soul is not. I am keenly aware now that those who step out of the herd and insist on truth are often treated as troublemakers and traitors. Fortunately or unfortunately, now that I am aware of the higher self, I cannot turn back and live in the personality that my ego has formed, even though it is often more painful to live in the higher self. My soul has shaken up my ego without any apologies whatsoever. At times Mars is a lot like Shiva, burning away everything except the essence of the soul. When Mars burns the transitory away, the spirit remains.

     I realize now that over the years my excursions into nature, my spirituality, my art, my blogs have all pointed me to one key event: rebooting, reformatting, and installing a new operating system. In other words, I have to dissolve my conditioned self, access my divine core, purify, and rise from the ashes. I hope to retain all my software, my memories and knowledge and wisdom, but lose my ego and cleanse my soul so that I am completely renewed. Hopefully after that when I recall bad times, I will remain detached, like when I'm watching a video.

     With war, global terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, environmental degradation, species extinction, global warming, overpopulation, the volatility of capitalism, and on and on, humanity is approaching a time when many others will need to reboot and reformat as well. The more I purify my mind and lose my sense of ego and personality, the more I see how much conditioning has thwarted my creativity and fragmented me, how deeply I have been damaged, physically, mentally and emotionally, by my disease and by the herd instinct. Our problems collectively are becoming more and more acute—a reflection of the deep inner conflicts and schisms created by social conditioning and the veils within consciousness. Cleansing our psyches and becoming balanced is truly a revolutionary way to manifest harmony in the world. All other revolutions are just noise and violence in comparison.

     My higher self, despite all of my angst about being isolated, would never let me remain in a herd. Due to my chronic illness and my compulsions, I have to stand alone to renew myself, dissolving my personality so that I live in my higher self, at the point of consciousness where the essence of the self meets the divine. Then I can manifest harmony down the planes into my sphere of influence on a regular basis. So I have devised a ritual intended to pull away the veil between the self and the divine, the ritual of the Fool.

Path 21

THE RITUAL OF DIVINE MADNESS

     First, a little review. The glyph of the Tree of Life reflects both the archetypal structure of the macrocosm (the cosmos) and the microcosm (the individual), the top sphere, the Crown (Kether), representing the most profound spiritual energy, and the bottom sphere, the Kingdom (Malkuth), representing the densest physical manifestation. These spheres, known in Hebrew as “Sephiroth” (“Sephira” singular), are considered objective states of being and are treated as the first ten “paths” of the Tree of Life. Twenty-two other paths, eleven through thirty-two, are treated as subjective states that connect the Sephiroth.

The Tree of Life

     Behind the first state of manifestation, the Crown, are three veils of “negative existence,” aspects of the Source currently unknowable to the human mind. The process of the original creation, known as involution, takes place in the first ten paths, or Sephiroth, in the Way of the Lightning.

     Over an evolution, the divine spark, or spiritual core, represented as the Crown within the individual, extends into various levels of manifestation, taking on diverse forms and personalities to experience a range of spiritual, mental, astral, and physical vibrations. The essence of these experiences remains as the soul, also known as the evolutionary personality or Individuality, which layers the divine spark like a pearl around a grain of sand. The soul is the subtle body, which can perceive with subtle senses the unseen vibrations that surround and penetrate the aura. Over an evolution, the human soul experiences many energies, from the finest spiritual vibrations to the grossest physical manifestations, the Fire, Water, Air, and Earth of the wise, until experience of these energies forms the human Individuality. Cultures in modern industrial and technological societies tend to emphasize concrete mentality, which focuses primarily on the material realm and tends to ignore, even vilify, the other aspects of the psyche, conditioning the individual to accept a reality that excludes the subtle energies. All too often, the subtle body shuts down its senses. Because collectively we have agreed to shut down the subtle senses of the soul, a kind of spiritual insanity has gripped modern society, leading to horrific wars and social catastrophes. Slowly opening the subtle senses of the soul, essentially a healing process, is the main purpose of my rituals, with the ultimate goal of allowing all aspects of the psyche to function harmoniously. The way back up the Tree, known in the Qabalah as evolution, follows the path of the serpent, with its tail in the earth, Malkuth, and its head crowned in the highest heaven, Kether. The serpent sheds its skin continuously, following the way of Gnosis, of transformation and transmutation, of understanding and growth.

     The three uppermost Sephiroth form the supernal triad above the Abyss, in other words, they are transcendent states of being “above” manifestation. The path of The Fool, path number eleven, connects Kether, the Crown, with the second Sephira, Chokmah (Wisdom), where the Source, after the first emanation, sees Itself. In the microcosm, Kether is the divine spark, the spiritual core of the individual, and Chokmah is the Sephira in the individual where the divine core is aware of itself, the first self-conscious awareness of the Individuality, which becomes comprised of all experiences through an evolution and is quite different from the personal ego formed during an incarnation in the material realm. The Ritual of Divine Madness focuses on dropping the veil where the spiritual core meets the Individuality, reestablishing balance at the deepest level of the psyche, and eliminating negativity and dis-ease in the other Sephiroth.

Click here to Review the Basics of the Tarot Pentagram Spread

First, Lay down foundation cards (Aces). Then invoke The Fool 

with the Active Invoking Pentagram.

Add the Modifiers:

First the card associated with the zodiacal sign,
then the card associated with the planet,
then the number card from the Minor Arcana.

Two of Wands: Lord of Dominion

Mars (The Tower) in Aries (The Emperor)

Two of Swords: Lord of Balance Restored

Moon (The High Priestess) in Libra (Justice)

Two of Cups: Lord of Love (See post 28)

Venus (The Empress) in Cancer (The Chariot)

Two of Pentacles: Lord of Harmonious Change

Jupiter (The Wheel of Fortune) in Capricorn (The Devil)

     The Two of Swords on the individual level represents the mind maintaining balance deep within the subconscious, where the first manifestation of Individuality connects with the divine core; around the blindfolded figure balancing the swords are symbols of the subconscious: water and the moon. The suit of Swords represents the element of Air, astral consciousness, containing thoughts and emotions that enable the psyche to deal with the material plane. At the cosmic level (known as the macrocosm), Chokmah is the first emanation from the Crown of creation known as Kether. In the microcosm of the individual, Kether is associated with the divine core within the individual. Chokmah, the second sephira, establishes the basis for balance in the cosmos and the individual mind. In the Two of Swords, the conscious mind is blindfolded—the archetypal energies of the harmonizing intellect anchored deep in the subconscious.

     The decan correspondences of the Two of Swords are the Moon in Libra. The Moon is associated with the soul, the subconscious, psychism, the Holy Ghost, feminine energies, as well as the middle path across the abyss leading to union with the Divine. In the ritual, in order to heal myself, I have chosen to go deep into my subconscious, connecting with forces associated with Water and the Moon so that I cleanse and renew the primal energies of the intellect and regain a sense of balance at all levels. The Two of Swords is perfect for the ritual, especially since the Tarot card Justice is associated with Libra, the sign of balance. The other Twos in the Minor Arcana also manifest the same principle of balance.

     I am “rebooting and reformatting” as a way to help myself overcome a chronic illness. I do not recommend that anyone else try this ritual without first doing a great deal of inner work. For this ritual to be effective a person needs to purify the aura and know how to open the psyche to subtle forces. Without a wide range of experience path-working on the Tree of Life, a person is likely either to experience nothing or dramatic and potentially life-altering changes within his or her life. One, of course, also needs to know how to perform the LBRP and the SIRP effectively.

     The greatest impact of the ritual for me occurs during the invocation the Gods associated with the Tarot cards. As I have mentioned, one should always stay with the same pantheon of Gods to avoid confusion. During the ritual I improvise invocations revolving around the same theme, such as the examples presented below.

HARPOCRATES (The Fool)

Great Harpocrates, God of the newborn sun,

Path 11

Horus the child, God of silence, 

eternal child within a vast field of change,

return me to the beginning, renew me

so the veil between the self and the divine

drops away, so that all dis-ease and negativity

fall away, so that I become an eternal child

through all of the changes, aware

of the divine within my being

and all Being, aware of my very core

so that I live in my higher self,

serving thee and the Source

for the highest possible good.

In the name of Yeheshua I invoke thee. Amen.

HORUS (The Emperor, The Tower)

Path 15

Great Horus, God of the higher self,

one eye the sun, the other the moon,

burn away what does not serve me.

Consume all disease and negativity

so that I may live where the self

meets the divine spark—my spirit

connected to all Being. Let the Sun

of spirit shine down through the soul,

manifesting in this world so that I

live fiercely within my higher self

and manifest harmony in the world,

serving thee and the Source

for the highest possible good.

I am resurrected in thy light.

In the name of Yeheshua I invoke thee. 

Amen.

MA'AT (Justice)

Path 22

Great Ma'at, Goddess of harmony,

Goddess of balance, Goddess of justice,

consort of Thoth: Balance my psyche

so that I live where self meets spirit,

manifesting harmony in this world.

Eliminate all disease and negativity

so that I live in perfect health.

Let me manifest the righteousness

of beauty, the righteousness of balance.

Let me live in my higher self,

serving thee and the Source

for the highest possible good.

I am resurrected in thy light.

In the name of Yeheshua I invoke thee. Amen.

NEPTHYS (The Moon)

Path 13

Great Nepthys, sister of Isis, Goddess

of the depths, let me go deep, deep

into darkness, deep into my mind,

finding where self meets spirit

so that I may rise into the light.

Let me go down that I may rise.

Let my personality dissolve

so that my higher self may shine

with knowledge of the depths.

I am resurrected in thy light.

In the name of Yeheshua I invoke thee. Amen.

MIN (The Devil)

Path 26

Great Min, God of creation,

God of fertility, maker

of gods and men, God

of the life-force that thrills

through the cosmos, let me live

where self meets the divine

so that the life-force manifests

as my higher self in the world,

anchored deep in the Earth.

Eliminate disease and negativity

so that the life-force thrills

through spirit, soul and body.

Let me dance in harmony

through all the changes.

I am resurrected in thy light.

In the name of Yeheshua I invoke thee. 
Amen.

     Yeheshua is the secret name of Christ formed by the Hebrew letters associated with the pentagram: Yod Hed Shin Vau Heh. Since the pentagram is central to the ritual, the secret name has a powerful effect.

     If you do not wish to step away from the herd, you should avoid this ritual altogether. If, however, you do the ritual, you should perform the LBRP without fail at the end of the ritual and at least once a day afterwards for forty days.