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Video Description
Can an archetypal image actually come alive and teach you? In this lesson, Lyam Christopher says yes, and he treats the idea with the kind of wide-eyed excitement you feel when you peek behind the curtain for the first time. The Golden Dawn adepts would visualize a god around themselves and then step up into that form, letting the deity’s virtues give the ritual its power. It sounds like magic, but he keeps it grounded in something familiar: it is a lot like method acting, the same trick an actor uses to become a character.
The history makes it feel less strange. In the late Middle Ages, people who wanted to rise as scribes and clerics sometimes turned to the Ars Notoria, the notary arts, staring at intricate diagrams in hopes that the image itself would hand them knowledge they had not studied for. The idea is that gods and god forms are archetypes, living patterns in the collective unconscious, and when you tune into one, it shares experiences and understandings from far beyond your own life. Osiris, Christ, Odin, and Quetzalcoatl all point to one virtue, self-sacrifice, while Mars carries courage, Venus warmth, Mercury cunning, and the Sun magnanimity. Even a beloved superhero or a figure like James Dean can work, because the image is the doorway.
Then comes the careful twist: you must learn to fill the god form from below, not let it smother you from above. He walks through four kinds of charisma, presence, warmth, focus, and power, and offers a simple trick, feeling your feet on the floor, to pull your attention fully into the moment. The deeper levels of the soul get names too: Neshama, the higher self, Ruach, the rational mind, and Nefesh, the animal soul. And when the work is done, you blow the form off with three slow breaths, so it does not linger and inflate the ego. It is a strange, beautiful discipline, and the video closes as an open invitation to try it before your next presentation and see what answers.
Full Video Transcript
Okay, we are back with another video. This one is about the assumption of God forms. All right, so this is a very important technique in the Golden Dawn.
as any of you who have studied the neophyte ritual know that the people who participated
in that ceremony each of them pretty much adopted a god form and they were attempting to become the
embodiment of the virtues of that particular deity and that god form and those virtues would
empower the ritual pretty much the way it needs to be empowered whatever role that they’re playing
the ritual okay so the idea is that you can put on this sort of visualization of this god around you
and then it pretty much will direct you in terms of what should be happening it’ll also give you
power to do things okay um but let’s talk about how this actually works okay it’s not really
rocket science it’s more like method acting let’s just go back in time a bit to the late medieval
medieval period where um one of the best ways to improve your lot in the medieval world was to
become a scribe or a cleric uh it’s possible for you to go very high in social rank that way
whereas most people were pretty much stuck with their rank and so um but in order to become a
good cleric in medieval times you required a lot of education and it was difficult at that time
because there were a couple of foreign languages you would have to learn in order to read and
write latin possibly greek who knows what other languages you would have to be learning probably
latin you definitely would have to make sure you understood and could read latin because
not every language was written at the time or very well written at the time so naturally the clerics
of the medieval times they resorted to magic to try to learn more without having to study so much
Because the impression was that there are many truths that you can learn, which simply come to you through recognition or through an introduction to some kind of construct that you finally understand.
Like everything clicks into place.
Oh, now I understand.
So the idea about the Ars Notoria or notary arts is that you could construct images that would then instruct you in the liberal arts.
they would impart various virtues to you okay uh and in the notary arts it was more like you
would do an incantation or a prayer and then stare at a particular diagram uh study a particular
diagram of weird boxes and triangles and forces and things like that and supposedly that diagram
had a lesson to teach or multiple lessons to teach okay uh interesting idea uh there there is
clearly some reality to it okay and so the most interesting thing about a spirit or a god or a god
form is that the presence of its image uh can be instructive can communicate with you okay can
connect you to knowledge that you didn’t acquire in this life okay that’s supposedly because it’s
an archetype and archetypes exist in the collective unconscious and a collective unconscious if you
tune into these archetypes the archetypes can then relay to you experiences and scenarios
and intimations of the universe that you did not encounter in this life before that they are pretty
much part of the collective unconscious or the collective memory of human beings okay so whether
or not it’s possible to learn this way by having an image teach you things that’s for you to
discover in the art of god form assumption i can already tell you that if you’re doing you know
the outer order golden dawn stuff if you’re doing the grade signs okay like you know sign of
philosophers um things like that um or the sign of the enter which is a neophyte those are god
forms as well okay they’re partial god forms uh once you get to the grades of adeptus minor beyond
um then you can adopt every everything comes together you have the words of power you have
the color scheme of golden dawn you have the egyptian god form images that you’ve collected
and assembled or possibly greek god form images if you wanted to use those um those are all
available to you now and they come together as you create various god forms that you can then
assume okay and a god form need not necessarily be a god of egypt or greece or who knows where
it can also be an archetype that you recognize that occurs to you or maybe comes to you in a
dream or it could even be something like a movie character that inspires you or a comic book
character that inspires you or a hero from legend you have as long as you have a clear visual
representation of what that hero might look like these can also serve the same in the same way
sort of like you know there’s an archetype of james dean uh it still would work it would
basically it’s almost like a god of teenage angst or something like that that’s become
embedded in western society uh these can be powerful god forms as well okay spirit forms
god forms uh and of course the idea was that you could learn this way for the liberal arts okay
not sure it’s that effective i think for the liberal arts in the college world you
still have to do a lot of reading studying but yes the archetypes if you are in tune with them
you can learn much faster much much easier and you can acquire the liberal arts okay in other words
what liberal arts used to mean supposedly it still means this you acquire the uh the shrewdness of
intellect and the cunning to free yourself from all kinds of thought forms all around you you
become a kingdom unto yourself you can now legislate for yourself it’s a little bit
heretical of course um but the liberal arts were were kind of um in medieval times if you were
capable of becoming a cleric through the liberal arts, it really set you free. You elevated your
class to a higher level as a scribe, as a scholar, as a librarian or something like that. And that’s
another reason they called it the liberal arts, because when you learn these things from the
college world, they supposedly set your mind free and you can rise in status. I think we still
believe this about college today. And I do have to say there’s a great deal of truth to it.
Working in the college world, there’s still a great deal of truth to that, even though not
everyone succeeds in raising their status or succeeds in acquiring the knowledge of archetypes.
And the idea was that you could, as long as you know what the educational virtues are,
you can appeal directly to those educational virtues and have them instruct you in terms of
images. Okay. We’ll talk about how to do this. Okay. So, so what is an archetype? Okay. An
archetype is a superstructure that sits behind the visible appearance of reality. Okay. But it’s also
visible in the images or the symbols that it bodies forth. Okay. So in other words, the archetype
of it’s pretty much represents sacrifice and egolessness. Christ on the cross would be a good
archetype for that also um osiris would be another powerful archetype to represent that sort of
selflessness the death of the ego uh and there are various other sacrificed gods that would be
odin would be another good one uh quetzalcoatl okay these would all be good archetypes of
self-sacrifice or self-negation of course there are other archetypes archetypes of war
archetypes of love archetypes of male and female all right so well let’s look at osiris okay the
uh one reason the golden dawn used egyptian god forms was the egypt was all the rage during that
time during the victorian times okay um another reason they used egyptian god forms is that egypt
has been around for thousands of years so these images are supposedly embedded deeply in the
human psyche in the collective unconscious okay and have a lot more association and power staying
power than stuff that’s only been around for 50 years okay uh naturally there are many other types
of god forms that one could use okay and even so if you use a comic book image as a god form
if that comic book character conveys something archetypally powerful to you
it’s perfectly valid to use that as well okay the nice thing about the golden dawn system is that
you also have a whole array of words of power and color systems to apply into that to really beef up
supercharge your god form okay so that being said um in modern times i think you you there’s
one thing missing in this in the assumption of god forms that’s really important okay
and that’s your ability to view yourself as noble or royal okay uh so you have to be able to see
yourself as somebody who has noble virtues okay and what we’re going to talk about that in a bit
um what that usually yeah what that usually involves is you being able to stand at attention
have good posture, not fidget, maintain good eye contact. So there’s a whole array of social
skills of what it means to be sort of noble or regal. All of these archetypes are archetypes
of human power and presence. And so these are all the types of virtues that somebody of nobility
or royalty would be instructed in okay and the magician learns these all these virtues as well
okay now the nice thing about the magician though he’s not literally the king so he can pretty much
use these various forms and virtues for his own purposes he doesn’t doesn’t have to
serve the kingdom so you could say that the magician is sort of a step above the king where
he pretty much is now truly liberated by the liberated arts liberal arts okay so um it’s
perfectly fine to use like superhero type forms okay and the reason i’m showing you these is
because um whenever you fill a god form it’s sort of from the bottom up okay so the god form you
pretty much have that around you and then you kind of see yourself puffing up and filling it up okay
not that it sinks down onto you and now contains you and like you’re smothered by the god form no
you are you have risen up inside the god form and you are enough you are regal enough you are
noble enough to take on these powers you’re also humble enough to learn from them okay uh and in
doing that um you do have to adopt a sort of regal or noble posture okay and so learning how to do
that means that I think some method acting training is usually very helpful. Okay. So that
you know how to not only visualize the God form around you, but fill out that God form. So to talk
about this, whatever God form it happens to be, it could be James Bond, could be Jesus. All right.
So what happens is that you’ve got the levels of the soul. Okay. There’s supposedly the higher
self the neshama okay and then we have the ruach underneath that which is the rational mind and
then underneath that we have the animal soul the nefesh okay and the interesting thing is that
you could say that the higher self bodies forth a root or a potential for ruach which is sort of
empty shell nothing there yet and then of course from below that it’s the animal soul which picks
up the power of the elements and things like that from nature okay uh and then the neshama or the
higher self exerts pressure um upon the nefesh to uh grow a ruach okay in other words to grow
a personality up into that ruach that pretty much matches what the higher self uh envisions for
that ruach okay this is kind of what’s happening as you’re growing up becoming a super adult
um you are eventually you’re exploring your potential and you are realizing aspects of
yourself um and you’re gradually filling out whatever god form was planned for you by your
higher self okay well uh the funny thing is we begin to play with this when we get into the
level of the adept where we can just pretty much adopt god forms uh fill them up and then
uh and learn from that contact and of course another thing about adopting god form is that
it’s important to be able to blow it off let it go probably well it’s really the ability to
let go of a god form is probably more important than the ability to take one on to adopt one okay
so uh because uh if a god form were to linger it’s potentially a form of self-induced schizophrenia
And as you try to fill out that majestic form, bad stuff can happen.
You can get ego inflation and stuff like that.
So the ability to blow off a god form is really important.
You know, once your ritual work is done, just blow three times when you see it dissolving off of you, breaking off and falling down, gone.
And it’ll continue to sort of talk to you in the background, but at least you are demonstrating the ability to let it go.
It’ll still be, you know, any archetype that you have regular contact with is going to be teaching
you on and off. Okay. Here I have listed the various virtues that the archetypes can teach you
simply through imagery. Okay. Being able to call it those images by using the power of the golden
non-color system as well added to those god form images okay these are the virtues of the seven
planets or the seven planetary deities okay uh there’s something very something very important
about this list though okay so at the very top we have saturn which which could be seen as a god of
austerity okay then there is jupiter which would be a god of generosity abundance okay then we have
mars which could be seen as a god of courage okay and then we have beneath that we have the sun
and which uh the virtue could be magnanimity which is a kingly virtue okay uh but what you’ll notice
is that if you have any familiarity with these archetypes let’s say mars okay mars the ultimate
warrior shield and spear right helmet armor shield spear anger justice vengeance okay surgery those
kinds of archetypes you can see there’s so much more to mars than there is than simply courage
this is a very important lesson and this is why we adopt god forms okay is if i adopt
the god form of mars let’s say with spear shield helmet burning red skin maybe something like that
right um the god form will teach me things that i don’t even expect i was expecting to get courage
but lo and behold, I’m also getting discipline, anger, and a sense of justice out of this God
form as well. Surprise, surprise. Okay. Because they all come as a package under that archetype.
Okay. So yeah, if I want more courage, I could appeal to Mars. I could also appeal to
the sun, which corresponds to a God who is willingly sacrificed. So in other words,
and sacrificial deities usually correspond to the archetype of the sun all right anyway um
and you can see uh sentiment would be venus cunning would be mercury and domesticity okay
so the ability to take care of a house and have a nest at home and have children or pets or things
like that domesticity is a virtue that you can cultivate not one of my strongest virtues um but
behind these virtues okay it doesn’t really help if you kind of if you’re taking on a god form and
that god form sits on top of you like it’s an oppressive thing it’s like oh i have to learn
what this god form wants from me like um the attitude is more like you have to fill out the
god form so remember that your your higher self is pressuring the nefesh to grow a ruach that
fills out a particular form, okay? Of course, there are a number of different forms you can
learn to how to fill out, okay? And of course, each of the god forms can represent a particular
virtue that you learn to embody, okay? And the cool thing about, you try to get one virtue out
of an image, and of course, as I just demonstrated, a whole slew of virtues and vices can come out of
that image as well. So interesting to explore stuff like that. In order to fill out a god form
so that you are taking charge of it and it’s not taking charge of you, there are four types of
charisma that you need to at least be aware of and start to play with. So remember the challenge
is for you to rise up into your god form and take charge of it, not for it to weigh down upon you.
okay so that you’re sort of written on by the god form it’s not not the way to adopt a god form you
adopt it as though this is like ah like i’ve got this it’s like now i am this deity okay sort of
like self-induced schizophrenia just for a while though all right um the master form of all kinds
of charisma is presence charisma your rock star presence okay um presence charisma is something
that cannot be faked you must be present so if you’re doing ritual you’ve got to be present
if you’re doing ritual with others then of course it’s uh it’s even more pressure on you to be
charming and charismatic okay so you have to demonstrate presence uh in order to do
magic or in order to um be very effective in the world uh especially when you’re working
with people okay um one of the tricks for for presence charisma and you can try this uh is to
focus on your feet so if you’re on if you’re doing ritual and you’re having trouble uh keeping your
mind focused on what you’re doing spend some time focusing on your feet the way they feel as they’re
touching the floor it’ll bring back your consciousness back down into your body and
tell everything and every including yourself it’ll tell everything around you and every as well as
yourself that i’m here i’m here and i’m attentive i’m here for you okay so some if somebody’s sitting
next to you and they’re focusing on their feet the impression would be like wow this person just
really wants to be sitting here with me right now okay it’s a very magical thing you can do you can
even do this in traffic uh by focusing on your feet and really being there because if you’re
driving there’s a tendency to daydream and disappear out the top of your head and go out
to the beach somewhere or somewhere like that if you reverse that and then focus on the sensations
in your feet suddenly you’re really present in that car and you’ll be amazed people will wave
at you from other cars like that’s presence charisma okay uh warmth charisma would also
be important depending on the type of archetype so if you if you are uh going to put on the god
form of isis let’s say uh chances are it’s going to be a very nurturing spirit of isis that you’re
going to be going for so warmth charisma is going to be really important for you to master okay
warmth charisma is it requires presence but it is tremendously dedicated toward empathy so and
of course inclusion so in order to have warmth charisma you have to have a sort of body language
and imagery going on in your head
that is inclusive of everybody.
Everybody’s welcome at my party, so to speak, okay?
Everybody can come in and have a seat at my dinner table.
And just thoughts like that,
what that kind of imagery does as you contemplate it,
it adds a twinkle of warmth to your eyes, okay?
And then your warmth charisma starts to come out, okay?
Warmth charisma, it can be faked, but not very well.
as psychopaths tend to demonstrate they try to imitate warmth and they don’t get it right
however if you have trouble showing warmth for a particular archetype you can learn how to do it
by pretty much adopting uh various internal scenarios okay one of the scenarios you can
do is to see everybody around you with a halo an angelic halo and all those halos are reaching out
to other halos and bathing them in light and everybody all everybody’s light is um bathing
everybody else and in divinity and we’re all here to help each other sort of thing right so that’s
that’s the whole so every everywhere you go you are visualizing people around you with halos
angelic halos just like you you’ve got one too and everybody’s halo is helping everybody else’s halo
okay watch what that does to your demeanor when you visualize that you you will start to take on
warmth charisma okay warmth charisma is important for you to fill out an archetype of isis okay
also hathor which is another goddess of love that would be important too or venus focus charisma
uh that is more like a laser type focus okay um and of course uh that would be some like a judge
would have that so if if you are adopting the form of osiris as the judge of the living and
the dead you could use focus charisma if it’s a sort of judgment hall of the dead sort of thing
where he pronounces guilty innocence or something like that um that focus charisma could be very
important for that um focus charisma would also be very important for the god toth for mercury
uh for the for sun gods as well yeah and of course for uh war gods and combat gods like mars
focus is very important but even more important to the gods of mars let’s say uh is power charisma
okay and power charisma is important for adopting god forms and power charisma is mostly accomplished
through body language. So I have an article that’s called How to Project Power, and it goes
over how to be the alpha, having the chest puffed out, different ways of standing that convey
different kinds of power to people around you. So one of the importances, so if you’re going to
be feeling out of God form, you have to have this idea of centrality. And so you’re not afraid of
being the center of attention as being a beacon unto others okay so you can see yourself so your
ability to um if you let’s say if you show up at a party okay uh what are you going to do are you
going to drift around the edges of the room maybe sort of a wallflower and not really participate
right away okay um or are you going to be like uh somebody from the nobility or from the royalty
when they arrive they walk right into the center of the room they level a warm gaze at the people
around them okay sort of a magnanimous gaze and then they proceed to some kind of action whether
it’s to the food or something else just let everybody know i’m here and i’m awesome okay
this is the same way that you enter a god form right into the center of it wow this is amazing
i’m here examine the whole thing okay and you’re completely um present for everybody in the room
okay and then of course um you are going to stand of almost like at attention and you’re not afraid
to fill out the space of that god form so you’re not afraid to fill out the space around you okay
might be like if you have to go to a meeting at work or something like that notice how you sit
around the table are you timid and you really don’t want to take up a lot of space so you keep
all of your things close to yourself and you sort of sit back and like a good little person right
or are do you relax and sort of spread your spread your things out around you even put your arm over
the chair next to you so those who are not afraid to take up space project more power okay so you’re
that sort of attitude of being able to fill up a space is really important for adopting god forms
okay um and of course god forms can be very powerful in just very practical ways you can
very quickly uh adopt a god form before you are doing some kind of presentation uh to draw
upon some of the virtues of that that deity uh and visualize yourself for maybe like a minute or so
you know encased by that god form or visualizing that god form do various triumphant things okay
you could even make gestures yourself uh things like that um a lot of people do like a victory
sign and they put up their foot on top of something as though they’ve just killed something
and like haha like those are powerful archetypal images and of course you’re adding deities to that
which have a lot of archetypal power plus the color system of the golden dawn more power and
then words of power on top of that. Okay. So I hope this helps. This last part here about the
different types of charisma, you can look at the article that I wrote in Forbidden Realms. It’s
called How to Project Power. So these would be the basic skills needed to then, so you learn how to
fill out a god form. Okay. And then of course, once a ritual is over, you have to be able to
blow off the god form did i just talk about this um that’s probably even more important the ability
to adopt a god form uh something you need to learn by learning these different types of charisma okay
um and the ability to blow off a god form which is quite simple all that effort you put into
visualizing all the colors and the articles of clothing and the implements and things like that
you want to do like three breaths and just poof it off and see it just dissipating into little
bits and then those bits disappearing into nothing okay about three breaths just gone okay and don’t
think about it anymore and your contact with that god form will continue to work its magic upon you
throughout the day okay but don’t you don’t want to walk around with this god form like you i need
to become this deity okay now there’s there’s a lot more lots of other deities that are vying for
your attention as well so try not to walk around with one god form all the time all right i hope
this helps and we will put out another video next week keep those comments coming
Source: Lyam Christopher