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Video Description
Is the quiet practice of meditation enough, or does ritual carry a hidden power of its own? In this lesson, Lyam Christopher makes a warm case for the magical path. He points to the idea of light in extension, that radiant essence flowing out from beyond the world and into the things we can touch. Meditation waits for the light; ritual stirs the waters and calls it forth into the middle of daily action.
The heart of the teaching is the Golden Dawn neophyte ceremony, where officers of the temple step into god forms like actors stepping into roles. Osiris sits still in the east, the buried and invisible one, while Horus rises and strides across the floor, the same light now extended into motion. He traces the mystery of three and four through the old mnemonic INRI and the Hebrew letters, showing how the hidden always shines through the visible. The adeptus wand tells the story in miniature, with the white, gray, and black of the supernals glowing between the four elemental bands of red, blue, yellow, and green.
Then the practice becomes something felt in the body. When the ego steps aside, he says, a tingling energy may climb the spine and light up the head, and some old artists even drew that as horns of light or a halo. He connects it to the caduceus and to the experience of authenticity, the rare moment of being truly present as what you are rather than as the usual character. The full curriculum is laid out step by step in Kabbalah, Magic & the Great Work of Self Transformation, and the closing counsel is at once freeing and cautious: this is a power that comes on its own, not by command, and those who carry it may sometimes need to practice the quieter art of staying unseen.
Full Video Transcript
Okay, the sound seems to be working.
This week we are talking about the light in extension.
Ritual versus meditation.
A lot of people who contact me mention that, oh yes, I meditate every day and meditation is very important for spiritual practice.
Hmm, and yet the Kabbalah magic curriculum doesn’t seem to require much meditation.
there are some things in it that are called meditations but they’re more like visualization
exercises so um what i’d like to talk about today is uh that um the the path of magic
is more of a tantric path and what i mean by that you sort of have these um purified ideas
about what a spiritual practice should be and i think these purified ideas are highly
influenced by iconoclasm and maybe even by um iconoclasm let’s say um and maybe also by um
protestant beliefs where you know imagery images or idolatrous and any rituals or trappings of
ritual or instruments such as cups and wands and things like that these are all magic and they are
evil and therefore you should really just sit down and meditate and get rid of all that stuff
because somehow using all these equipment is akin to doing magic and magic um has a bad reputation
in many cultures okay well uh and then along comes tantra and says oh no no no no uh if you know how
to do the magical techniques the rituals and using the wands and the cups and the swords and
the daggers and things like that if you know how to use this equipment and you know how to do ritual
gestures and chanting words of power uh these techniques are stronger better than just sitting
there meditating okay so i’m going to talk about the principle behind that all right i’m not saying
one of these is better than the other i’m i’m basically just saying that the principles of
magic have been denigrated way too long and i would suggest that they are much more powerful
and if you have like a general just meditation practice that’s like zen or something like that
it might be worth it to incorporate some more magical techniques into that practice what i’ve
noticed is that some Zen masters techniques eventually do take on a few interesting little
imagination tricks and visualizations to help the students out. Because once again, the tantric
techniques or the imagination techniques tend to be more powerful than just sitting there waiting
for enlightenment to come to you. The way to talk about this is to talk about the Golden Dawn’s
concept of light in extension light coming forth from the divine into this world that’s kind of
what that means and i saw this really cool term used by israel rigardi in the introduction to
the golden dawn book he he said that the the student of magic can learn how to experience
the a cosmic essence and so a cosmic simply means not of this world or not of
this cosmos and so the idea is that transcending this cosmos or this
physical universe is another realm and then you can experience sort of what’s
there whatever’s in that realm sort of gushing forth and you can kind of feel
your connection to it and this is the concept of a light in extension the a
acosmic essence really cool term so how does one do that well in golden dawn magic um most of the
techniques of golden dawn magic are revealed in the neophyte grade in the neophyte initiation ritual
yeah uh they’re all sort of more or less hidden in there and when one studies the ritual and go
and maybe goes through it um literally um these um magical formula formulas are imprinted on
your psyche and they eventually awaken over time and you can start to do them or you can develop
your own formulas based on them so we will talk about some of these magic formulas well mainly the
the formula of the of light and extension and there’s a there’s a portion during the the
neophyte ritual where the adepts say cobs um pecked conks um pox light in extension and there’s
some dramatic knocking noises going on while they do that uh and uh and you’ll notice that these
three incantations are three word uh phrases uh and the number three is very important to
spirit as we’ve talked about in previous videos and we’re going to talk about that a little bit
here uh and the main importance of the neophyte ritual zero equals zero initiation is this concept
of light in extension light in extension is something that the adept experiences on a regular
basis okay um and in the neophyte initiation ritual if you have um adepts who are worth their
salt they can have you experiencing that light and extension during the ritual itself the um
cobs on pect is supposedly ancient egyptian i’m not sure how these scholars the golden dawn people
derive these things conks on pox is supposedly greek though i don’t think it is they say it’s
greek so i’m not sure where they’re getting it um uh apparently it was something spoken during
the illusion mysteries so uh interesting uh the the effect of these mysterious words during ritual
is quite dramatic now the principle of experiencing light and extension okay or the experience of
becoming enlightened through magical ritual same thing really um is based on the the most
fundamental principle of magic and that is the aspects call forth the essence okay it’s not so
not really so difficult a concept i’ve talked talked about it in the in a previous video
it’s kind of like what an artist does when he wants to conjure up a theme or get you to feel
a certain theme he will uh incorporate into the stage and into the behaviors of the actors and
and into special effects all kinds of um manifestations of that theme and if these
manifestations of that theme uh these aspects of it that is if they’re presented in the right way
in a sort of ritualistic magical way uh the audience then experiences the essence of that
theme okay and of course we know this to be true we see it happen in movies all the time
really good movies that is all right so in the neophyte ritual in the zero equals zero ritual
there are various god forms and these god forms mainly exist at certain stations within the
neophyte temple okay some of these god forms are stationary they do not move and some of them
do move and they follow they pretty much the um the temple uh officers the the magicians who are
performing the ceremony adopt these god forms and then the god form moves around with that person
on the floor of the ritual space and um we’re not going to go into all those various god forms they
are egyptian god forms in the zero equals zero ritual of the golden dawn the zero equals zero
ritual is the neophyte initiation ritual in case that’s not clear they’re both the same thing and
uh the arguably the most powerful or the most prominent god form in that temple space is the
god form of osiris who sits in the throne on the throne of the east so he’s pretty much sitting
along that eastern wall in the center of the eastern wall and he represents the rising of the
sun or the spirit you know of light dawning in the morning sort of thing right uh osiris in this form
is what we call his passive form this is uh him mummified so you can see his feet are basically
bound together he’s a mummy and so after he dies he um disappears into the underworld and he rules
over the land of the dead and as such he can be seen both in the east and the west because you
know um where do you go when you die you go west right so you sink down you go down with the setting
sun and you go down into the land of the dead which is under the earth and then um in the in
the east where the sun rises that’s where um the soul is born and the the soul comes back into this
world from the east uh and in the neophyte ritual the god form of osiris is in the east he does not
move from that position even though the hierophant which is an actual person who adopts that state
that officer’s rank in the performance of the ritual does move occasionally from the throne
to do something on the temple floor when the hierophant gets up from the throne that’s in
the east he leaves the uh the osiris form there and he adopts another god form which is the active
form of osiris auroras something like this anyway and um auroras is basically a form of horus which
is the son of osiris very interestingly okay uh but auroras is referred to as horus the elder
and that means this is horus when he has already proved himself capable of ruling egypt he’s
already defeated set and he has now become an embodiment of his father osiris so the interesting
Interesting thing is when the Hierophant gets up from the throne, he takes on this form
because this form is the offspring of Osiris, because Horus is his son, Isis is his mother.
And therefore, Ororus, or this god form of Horus, is a personification of the principle of light in extension.
light extending forth from the east and coming into the action of the temple floor the temple
of neophytes and doing something there doing something very important initiating the new
neophyte into the outer order of the golden dawn in this case along with the other officers who
who adopt other forms okay and when that when the hierophant sits back down in the east then he’s
back in the passive form of osiris this one here back in that mummy form he the hierophant is now
dead again but of course he’s he’s not really dead he’s alive forevermore and he holds the
keys of hell and of death etc etc right um this is the goal of the initiate in the golden dawn
ultimately is to achieve this sort of power of osiris so that even when you’re dead you’re not
dead okay and that’s sort of what it means in the east to become free of the wheel free from the
wheel of birth and death you continue existing no matter what even after your body dies you keep
going and you can come forth a new incarnations sort of like as a body sattva or something like
that um interesting idea all right so um a repeated theme in um light and extension is uh the numbers
three and the number four okay uh it’s like if you want to figure out for yourself how can i
experience light in extension well the keys to this are all over in the golden dawn system
and it’s important to master them and then experience them in your daily ritual practice
okay it can take a number of years before they click okay and of course going through a neophyte
ceremony and various other initiation ceremonies can be a big help also studying the neophyte
ceremony can be a big help um and you’ll notice that uh when it comes to light and extension um
ice isis apophis and osiris are really important okay um now osiris is is a a dying and living god
he’s dead and alive at the same time okay so and he was betrayed by set and uh killed and his body
was cut into pieces and he was reassembled and um isis used magic to conceive from his dead body
oh necromancy necrophilia um well anyway she was able to um draw forth his essence from the
underworld and so um basically give birth to horus his um rightful heir okay this is really
more a mystical reference so that it’s a really a reference to the adept who is able to die and
then of course be reborn in new forms okay this is something that happens while people are alive
okay they experience an ego death and then they come forth as a new persona and this is something
that the adept can do consciously and it’s not that really that hard to figure out because there
are many you know musical artists who do it or attempt to do it they basically do away with one
persona and they kind of disappear for a while and then they come back with a totally new look
and a totally new theme and they explore that for quite a while and then they sort of go through a
death process again and then they come up in a new incarnation again you know so um madonna is a good
example that madonna did that in her career she came back several times as different personas
um and the numbers three and the number four are important in the magical formulas okay and um and
of course since osiris is a dying and resurrecting god he is very much like jesus of nazareth okay
and i think many christians would agree that the sacrifice of jesus on the cross um is is a formula
for light and extension as well and the golden dawns are some really cool stuff with this
i-n-r-i which was with those are the letters that hung over the um cross which stands for
jesus of nazareth king of the jews in latin um many other things have been attributed to that
including the names of the hebrew the hebrew names for the four elements okay i would be for yam
N for Naur
R for Ruach, which is air
among other things in breath
and I for Yeveshas
which is earth
and INRI
the number four corresponding to
the four elements, or in this case
because it’s the
sacrificial INRI
it is the sacrificing
of the four elements, or the relinquishing
of the four elements
so that the elements
can be sort of let go and then the spirit that’s behind them can shine forth and so you have the
numbers three and the number four so the number four tends to be what you can see and the number
three represents what’s invisible behind it and this is really more of a numerology thing
where the essence of numerology is that the odd numbers represent the betwixt and the between
of the invisible energies that emerge into this world in the form of the even numbers.
The even numbers are visible, and the odd numbers are, I don’t know, invisible or essential.
And an easier way to look at this is you look at the two pillars of King Solomon’s temple
or the two pillars in the golden dawn neophyte ceremony one of them is black one pillar is black
and one of them is white and these represent the extremes of manifestation or the end points of
vibration okay and whatever is in between is really the essence that’s emerging within that
field that’s visible the only thing the only thing you can see are the two pillars and the essence
of them which which is generating them is invisible okay so in the world of the physical
senses we can only see even numbers if that makes sense all right um that’s the principle of
numerology that’s behind all this stuff and once again all this stuff sounds really irrational and
silly unless you’ve been working with these principles for a while and the connections
start to form okay all right see uh as many of you know there’s something called the tetragrammaton
in Kabbalah, and it’s Yud-Heh-Vau-Heh, four letters, and in this case you read them from
right to left, okay, that’s Yud-Heh-Vau-Heh, but here, oh, there’s five letters, we have
Yud-Heh-Shin-Vau-Heh, okay, and then of course Yud-Heh-Vau-Heh, those Hebrew letters are,
that’s the name of god um jehovah or yahovah um and uh when you add the letter shin to the middle
it becomes yaheshua or joshua or jesus the interesting thing is that if all you have
are the four letters everything is sort of external and visible okay and when you operate
only in terms of what you see in the external world the world is really a harsh place okay
It’s just a bunch of physical forces beating up on each other and whirling around pointlessly, okay?
Now, this is the world of the Old Testament, where everything was really harsh and, you know, dictated by harsh principles.
And supposedly in the New Testament, at least for Christians anyway, then the letter Shin comes forth and redeems those four elements.
And of course, in order to come forth, the god gets incarnate as a son, Jesus.
Or, same thing that happens in Egypt, right?
Osiris incarnates as Horus.
My, my, my.
I guess the Christian pantheon of deities is not so much different from other kinds of spirituality.
and so when you want to work with light and extension one of the chief emblems of light
and extension is the wand it’s really quite big isn’t it um this is the adeptus wand which i have
students make in the kabbalah magic book um the construction of this wand is mostly if you can
see the whole thing um mostly um an initiation uh project so the building of this one hopefully
it gives you some ahas about the numbers three and the number four as you can see there are four
elements here the red the blue the yellow and the green that’s fire water air earth and in between
them you have the colors of the supernals on the tree of life okay and that is kether hakma and
bina so that the white the gray and the black that’s the principle of three shining through
the veil of the four which is the even number of the four elements okay and you can see it goes
from extremely bright to dimmer and then to darkness okay so principle three is the principle
of light in extension even the darkness is a manifestation of the light and so that ray of
light is shooting through this wand so to speak it’s really only visible through the four elements
at least to our physical senses anyway okay and you can see it also has the tetragrammaton on it
the yud, the hey, and the vau, and the hey as the letter shin for the pentagrammaton up top.
So sort of invisible, but of course not invisible when you look at the top of the wand.
And of course on the bottom we have the pentagram. Okay, so it’s a very nice initiation
tool to make. You can use it too. Yeah, it has, I go through some detail about how to use the wand.
um but really once you’ve done that kind of exercise you can every wand becomes that wand
for you so the principles of light and extension really begin to sink in for you and you can you
can even create your own rituals or your own wands this is my wand actually it’s quite ordinary
it’s a an oaken dowel i do some fancy stuff to it like i anoint it with olive oil and stuff like
that but um really i mean um in many cases the adept adopts much more simpler much simpler tools
than um the initiate might um need the new initiate might need you know in order to um
to learn his craft okay because once it’s all sunk in you may or may not keep some of those
outward trappings of um like the stuff that you were building when you were learning all this
stuff and becoming initiated all right there’s also the principles of yin and yang which are
very important i did go over them i think in the last video i went over them um and remember that
yang extends forth from yin this is a very elementary basic basic principle okay um yin
is the feminine force supposedly okay or the force of darkness and the um and yang is the male force
or the force of light all right the reason we say that is because yin is invisible and yang is
visible okay not so difficult a concept to understand because when you come out of your
mother you are visible here i am i’m in the world now right and then when you die you go back into
earth back into the mother and you disappear and now you’re invisible in other words before you
were born you were osiris uh in the underworld that is the mummified dead god and uh after you
were born you are horus or auroras and you are now come forth okay it’s a simple principle now um
now you might notice that this yin and yang principle yin isn’t really the underworld per se
but um she’s the background behind uh horus okay so when horus dies or when this incarnation of
osiris dies he goes back into his mother or it’s really more like he goes back through his mother
into the underworld okay so really behind yin there’s doubt there’s the concept of dao remember
and we’re doing yin and yang here so these are um taoist concepts and so behind both yin and yang
are dao okay um without yang the male principle yin the female principle does not exist okay and
without yin in the foreground without without yang in the foreground yin in the background
also does not exist you can’t have a foreground without a background right and you can just
imagine this very simply like you have if something’s going to become visible both yin
and yang need to come into play there’s the background which you cannot see and there’s
something that extends forth from it in a phallic sort of way light and extension okay um so then
suddenly yin appears because there’s a background and there’s something that stands forth from
yin in the foreground okay so yin’s in the background yang’s in the foreground when yang
withdraws back into the underworld or whatever it is um both concepts disappear and there’s nothing
okay all you have is dow which is something you cannot see all right um i’m bringing that up here
because we also have the concepts of these god forms in the neophyte temple okay um there is
the idea of toth being a deity of light and extension he is the patron god of magic along
with isis okay and uh but he has a consort okay and his consort um is not as visible in egyptian
art but she does make occasionally make an appearance um uh she mat is the principle of
order in the universe okay um that would be inaccurate to call her the principle of order
because then you think well she’s all you know lawful and she’s dutiful and she behaves really
well and she i don’t know she enforces the rules not really um she’s more like the principle of
dao in the background um the natural order of just things how things spontaneously evolve
not according to laws she is more the principle behind laws as they evolve into the foreground
and become visible and then disappear and become other laws okay i’m saying that because
um the the sole boat of the egyptian pharaoh the egyptian king um is said to be steered by
mat and talith sometimes and that’s very interesting too because um in other words if you
see the um the egyptian pharaoh the egyptian king on his boat steering a course through the cosmos
okay um the two principles of steering that boat are you could say yin and yang right well it’s
really the background and the foreground okay so behind the pharaoh you’ve got this background
of universal order uh that’s not not really visible unless Toth comes forth in this sort
of beak-like way and then he starts to discern where to go this is Toth’s beak right so he
extends forth from that and he starts to discern navigate where to go um and that’s a really cool
image for like you know steering your course through life okay so you’ve got this yin and
yang principle at work within the um the boat of the soul let’s say and it helps the the person
steer a course through life consciously okay and when the person dies that sort of print that
thoth principle withdraws back into mat and they everything disappears right for a while and then
things come come forth again and they start to happen again okay these are principles when you
study the egyptian god forms these these kind of become a reality for you and you can then you can
do like you know finger puppets like i’m doing right now what does this all mean you’ve you’ve
heard you know a saying in um new age circles uh the most important thing is that you just get out
of your own way your life is none of your business and you keep meddling in it in the wrong way and
and so um the experience of light and extension is that the um the divine takes over or that osiris
within you comes forth and begins to run things rather than the personal you who runs things or
the ego so the ego just dies and but there’s still a manifested principle that’s guiding things
along okay um so you are getting out of the way of that which is your own osiris current or your
own manifestation of light and extension okay your own metaphorical magic wand what does it feel like
to have light and extension going on okay so you do magic over a period of time and what’s
happening is you’re you’re playing around with all these images you’re doing sigils and words
of power and you’re you’re playing around with these principles of three and four and magic
circles and wands and cups and daggers and swords right um and if you do it right or you do it under
proper guidance okay according to a curriculum like the kabbalah magic book and hopefully with
teacher as well um then these rituals that you do on a regular basis are sort of stirring the
waters around you and causing this light to come forth okay so there really isn’t any meditation
necessary um and if you think about it meditation is kind of like just sitting there and waiting
for enlightenment to come to you why would you want to do that might not come okay um if you
stir the waters properly the waters of your soul or the waters of your imagination if you stir them
well it’s going to cause light and extension to happen and the really cool thing about light and
extension is that it is enlightenment experienced in the midst of action and most of the time when
you hear people talk about enlightenment it’s like well it’s like you can only realize it when
you’re holding absolutely still and there’s nothing going on right okay um and so yeah a lot
of people will look at it meditation like well you have to hold absolutely still forget about the
body not be doing anything shut off the mind okay um that’s fine but of course um that’s very
passive it’s very osiris trapped in the underworld okay and so ultimately what’s desirable is to be
able to experience that in the field of action in your life and what what that feels like is that
that power of the osiris current overtakes you in spite of yourself not because you call it forth
necessarily right it just happens okay yes the rituals you do daily are calling it forth but if
you try to do that deliberately it ain’t going to happen really it has to happen of its own accord
it just does its own thing okay and so while you’re doing your daily activities running around
helping people do this or that the osiris current can well up inside you and it can feel very much
like uh you know um kind of like when you’re watching a really good movie and you get tingling
sensation okay or you hear a zeppelin song and you get that really tingly kundalini sensation
um yeah and it can often feel like the there’s an energy rising up through the head um because um
kind of what’s happened is that in the process of our formation of our ego persona we have this we
have this ego persona in our head that’s sort of taking everything over and it’s keeping the
whole body from lighting up from bottom to top it’s sort of suppressing the energy of their body
saying i’m in charge right if that kind of poofs away energy rises up it really does it rises up
through the body and um it sort of lights up the head so the um usually when the ego is in charge
there’s some stress going on that is dumbing you down and the brain is not fully awake um but when
you surrender and just let let go of control sort of like luke um uh in star wars when he’s going to
um uh destroy the death star right um luke let go trust your feelings
that’s a very real experience and that can happen in the midst of daily life even in stressful
situations and if they happen during somewhat stressful situations if it’s if the enlightenment
experience happens even in the midst of that that’s the experience of light and extension
and it’s the experience of ultimate authenticity it’s like oh i’m really here working with you
right now and i’m working with you as i am okay not as liam is or not as the ego is but really as
this manifestation being here as it naturally comes forth it’s authentic now and that’s the
sort of it can be a tingly sort of energy sensation very often experienced in the head
um and i bring this image here because apparently some people can even see it
happening and it can look like a halo or horns of light okay so i have to remember that very
interesting is that the horns of light were originally a sign of wisdom and power or
light and extension okay um and yeah interesting thing is in the east there’s usually one chakra
the very top of the crown that lights up let’s say but of course really that’s the two hemispheres
of the brain are now filled with static electricity and there might be some horns of
light activity going on there okay maybe you can see it maybe not it’s it’s very interesting because
if you if you try to see people’s auras it’s not really necessarily a matter of seeing them
it’s almost like a matter of looking at them and then closing your eyes right away
and what’s the after image like what is your impression of them look like and there can be
some very interesting things going on there it’s like oh there are horns of light or there is some
kind of halo or something like that or there’s a demon munching on them from behind or something
like that right and of course light and extension we have to mention this um it is the caduceus is
definitely an emblem of light and extension and you can see that um you know it’s very much similar
to in the east they have the idea of the energy going up the spine okay this is the you know the
persona has evolved into various phases up the spine from the base and there are side energies
okay so um a magical path or a tantric path would basically leave that central channel there of the
caduceus alone because you really can’t call upon that when you want it it does its own thing but
you do have control over those side whatever they are the currents okay and those side currents
really all they really represent is the things that you can perceive around you which you can
tweak to call forth some sort of essence some sort of real authentic something or other okay
from um the a causal universe okay um or the a cosmic essence right okay and so yes light
and extension can feel like this too it can feel sort of like a caduceus okay this is something
that will eventually overtake you another sensation you might get is that oh i’m going
forward in life and this thing is catching up to me from behind and now sort of um empowering me
to do what i must what i need to do okay sort of like in star wars when um guai gan jin says
i shall do as i must obi-wan it’s a very mystical thing to say but basically saying i i’m doing
what is what’s in my nature to do it doesn’t matter anymore what the rules are i’m following
the dao not the rules set down by you know some organization okay and that’s what it can feel like
it’s naturally a very dangerous current obviously to the social order okay and it is more powerful
than any other external current okay um but yeah of course if you experience light and extension
on a regular basis you can get in some major trouble okay unless you know how to stay invisible
and you might want to check out the the video on invisibility interesting thing is um in this in
this video we have talked about the principles of invisibility and visibility again. Basically
who’s the one who’s invisible? Osiris. Who’s the one who’s visible? Horus. Okay so learning the
god forms and the formula around Osiris and Horus also confers the principles of visibility and
invisibility not literally of course but um very interestingly okay so if you want to
go about your authentic business and live the life that’s the real you you also have to learn how to
stay sort of hidden sometimes okay because living an authentic life can get you in a lot of trouble
your very presence in the room can demolish a system of logic that has been in place for
many eons and it can dissolve in a second and those who are the gatekeepers of society do not
take kindly to holes being poked in their system yeah so the principles of invisibility can be very
important to the adept all right unless you unless you come up with videos that are so cryptic that
nobody’s going to care nobody understands right um or um or only those who are ready to hear
will understand and then you’re more or less safe let’s hope all right well until next time
Source: Lyam Christopher