Descriptions:
Video Description
Money and magic make strange companions, and Lyam Christopher begins with a memory that many practitioners will recognize. Years ago he kept a small rule for his temple space: no wallet, no pocket change, nothing of the marketplace allowed inside. The quiet belief behind it was that business and spirit belonged in different worlds. This video gently asks whether that separation is wisdom or superstition.
A story from his college days cracks the question open. A psychology professor who studied the paranormal once tested a woman who claimed she could pick winning racehorses with perfect foresight, and her gift vanished the moment money entered the wager. The lesson, Lyam says, is not that money destroys magic, but that wanting a certain outcome ties both hands. The shift happens not in the coin but in the mind that grasps it.
Then he offers a clean, generous resolution. If a reading or a teaching truly helps someone, letting that person pay is not a corruption; in a win-win exchange, both sides thrive. The Kabbalistic view even widens the picture, with dimensions beyond the familiar three, as if abundance and service were simply two names for one flow. The curriculum in Kabbalah, Magic & the Great Work of Self Transformation shows how practice stays intact while life stays livable, money need not be the devil if it is carried with clear hands.
Full Video Transcript
I remember when I first set up my temple space years ago, I had a little rule for myself,
not to bring any money into that space. That space was supposed to be spiritually pure.
And so if I came home from work, let’s say was going to do ritual at night,
had to make sure that the wallet was stowed away and no pocket change was in my pockets.
And that’s back when we used to have carry cash, right? And that idea apparently was
spurred by the belief that somehow business practices and money and making deals with
people like merchants and things like that, that these are impure activities.
And there’s some reality to that actually. So we’ll talk about what it is that makes
spirituality and money sort of odd companions and maybe something philosophically that can help
reconcile making money and doing magic or your spiritual practices. So I remember in college I
had a psychology professor who was happy to share stories from his past when he was doing research
into parapsychology. Parapsychology is a study of paranormal phenomena like psychic phenomena
and ghosts and things like that. And he did some research with psychics and he found a woman who
supposedly was able to predict, she had clairvoyance I guess or the foresight and was
was able to go to racehorses and she claimed that she could pick the winner every single
time in a racehorse. And very strange too that a psychic would get drawn into the world
of gambling and racehorses and things like that. But anyway, he and his colleague took
her to the racehorse track. I guess that’s what you call these places. It’s not the dog
track it’s the racehorse track and uh so they sat in the audience and sure enough she was picking
the winner every single time she was apparently able to tell which one was going to win and at
one point uh the colleague that was with this professor uh pretty much said i i can’t take
it anymore i’ve got to bet on one of these horses you know and so he did he he dismissed himself as
as though he were going to go to the bathroom. And he went
quickly and he bet on the horse that she said was going to come
in next at the psychic said was going to come in next. And lo
and behold, that was the only horse that did not win. Very
interesting. So she she picked the winner and then he and then
his colleague decided to go bet on that horse. And then that was
the only horse that did not win. As though there were forces that
play that somehow knew that something dishonest was going to be happening. And so, they misinformed
her or something like that, right? So, apparently, there’s some kind of moral dimension to psychic
phenomena. I thought that was always, that story always stuck with me. And I think that’s a very
interesting acknowledgement that there apparently is a moral dimension to psychic phenomena and to
magic, let’s say. Now, is it unethical then to mix money making and magic? For instance,
Israel Rigardi decided to publish the bulk of the Golden Dawn materials. And in order to do so,
he broke his oath of initiation. The oath of initiation pretty much guarantees that he
keep the magical formula of the order secret. It’s part of his initiation process. And it was a very
serious deal for him to actually do that. He saw what was happening to the Golden Dawn system,
and he saw that it was going to disappear from view, or it was going to be put forth by people
like Crowley, you know, who were putting his own sort of narcissistic spin upon the whole
magical system. And so he apparently decided to break his magical oath and then to publish the bulk of the Golden Dawn rituals and the Golden Dawn system of magic in the Llewellyn publication. And many people are grateful that he did that. Now, of course, what we know from if you’ve been if you’ve been watching this channel, you know that many people who view this Golden Dawn material, they don’t necessarily understand that if you try to if that’s the first book you
you get you try to read it it’s it’s almost impenetrable you can’t seem to understand
what’s going on there and yet that hasn’t stopped people from trying to turn it into
a magical system that they can use to get what they want like your your lucky lotto numbers or
maybe a pick a pick your winning racehorse at the racehorse track um so using magic in that
particular way not realizing that the golden dawn system of magic is a system of enlightenment
practices okay it doesn’t mean you can’t use magic to get practical results but magic it really can’t
be used that way if you’ve been following this channel I’ve been explaining that you know off
and on for one video after another that magic is a system of attainment ultimately and what happens
is that you just enter a more magical frame of mind or a magical universe in which you appear
to be living a magical life, at least to other people around you. You appear to be getting what
you want. You sort of end up living a charmed life. Okay. It’s hard to describe that. I think
in the Eastern traditions, sometimes it’s called wind horse when you have, when things just start
going your way. Okay. What happens to adepts who get attainment through magic? It’s hard to
describe, but it’s kind of like what happens with artists. They don’t, they’re not making a lot of
money, let’s say, and yet they have this ability to make everything around them beautiful or
interesting or have a lot of character. And so what eventually happens is, you know, their style
of living becomes the next fashion trend and so you have like the loft style of apartments
who which is basically based on a poor lifestyle but based on artists who were able to take
uh ordinary cheap stuff and make it into a beautiful uh you know home and eventually
that big image style all into itself and of course the style of trying to imitate that
style is now very expensive and you have to buy these expensive um designer furnishings and and
industrial style into your design things like that but but all that really came from was um you know
people who had the artistic ability let’s say they had some initiation into the realm of the psyche
and they were able to i don’t know somehow bring forth beauty into the world without necessarily
needing lots of money to do it and so uh the situation is similar with me i was in a golden
dawn temple raharaji temple and that was up in washington state and i got the impression that
magic just wasn’t out there it was it was really i think i was fortunate to enter a temple where
I was getting some legitimate teachings and I had teachers who were on a non-dual path
and were able to embody the inner teachings of the Golden Dawn. They were the real deal.
And I was sort of lamenting that this was such a secret thing. And eventually,
I did the same thing. I basically created a book in my own way that would put forth the teachings
at the golden dawn putting a sort of dark dramatic spin on it and uh ran into some trouble for that
too i think my my teachers um for for a brief instant claimed that i was breaking my oath of
initiation and what i said really quickly was i think i outgrew my oaths of initiation already
when i was in the zelada grade it was i saw them mainly as ritualistic elements of initiation not
as literal oaths. And they quieted down really quickly because I think they realized that, oh,
he understands. These oaths are no longer considered literally binding. They’re just
part of the tradition of ominousness and secrecy. And so, that didn’t bother them so much, I think.
And then they pretty much didn’t put up any fuss after that point.
Now, of course, I published these inner teachings in a particular format, which I didn’t really
take the wording, let’s say, from the original rituals, unless I was quoting them directly.
In many cases, I do quote directly.
And so, I made money off of this a little bit.
At least the publisher made a lot of money.
first time publishing deal you don’t you only get like five percent you know of of each sale and uh
so one could say oh liam sold out what you see with you know musical groups
back when rock rock music was big um people would say that oh like when you two was a big band
uh they were really cutting edge experimental punk-like and uh but eventually they become
really really popular and people who just claim that they sold out or like led zeppelin they sold
their souls to the devil for in for so they kind of um sacrificed their integrity for the sake of
being famous and rich and whatnot and um this idea of selling out uh it stems from a view of business
and or a view of thriving in the world that is mistaken and what i’d like to propose is that
there are ways of doing business in the world and thriving and living in the marketplace let’s say
that have integrity and then there are ways of doing that that do not have integrity and so we
can talk about um these things i i don’t know if this is kind of maybe kind of a dead issue because
um nobody is really giving me given me any flack for charging people for consultations and things
like that i was expecting to catch you know a lot of heat for that that say oh you know
he’s just charging people for money for teachings and magic and i understand that criticism because
throughout the ages there have been many people who have been selling things illegitimately or
you know selling holy relics in the marketplace for really high prices claiming that oh this is
a piece of the true cross things like that right um yeah there’s a lot of charlatanry going on of
Of course, of course. And it’s up to you, the buyer to beware, and to decide what you’re going to spend money on. And even if you do end up buying things that are sort of designed to rip you off, let’s say, or to just make a buck, it doesn’t mean you can’t derive some kind of special meaning from them anyway, like a souvenir type quality.
but any in any case when you are participating in this marketplace there are people possibly who do
have integrity when they’re doing this kind of business with you and there are people who do
not and we can talk about the hidden dimension of what that integrity is and now is the time to have
a commercial so as you guys can probably tell if you look at the comments on the videos I haven’t
been really engaging, uh, as intensely as before, uh, because the comments
are becoming very numerous now.
So I can’t really get, I don’t have time to go into a back and forth
in the comments on the videos.
Um, so what I’ve decided to do is create a Patreon page.
Guess I should apologize for that.
Cause like every, everybody on YouTube seems to have a Patreon page.
Um, I did look at other services and I have to say, Patreon was a pretty good,
it seems to be a pretty good product so i i’m going to be one of those people who says hey
you could support me on patreon sorry about that but um so uh this sort of commercial because you
can actually go to patreon and this is kind of a benefit for you guys because as you guys know i i
do do consultations and i charge money for them and that can be quite pricey but the benefit is
that you can follow the curriculum in the Kabbalah Magic Book and then you can work with me maybe
once a month or whenever you feel like it and then sort of get course corrections and you can
also if you want to customize some of the self-initiation materials for yourself,
I can help you do that because if you operate under your own guidance then of course you risk
sabotaging the work okay by the work i mean if you follow the uh golden dawn curriculum
you have to remember this is a curriculum of enlightenment practices you’re basically working
your way towards enlightenment if such a thing is possible okay and in order to do that it is best
to have a teacher or a guide of some kind and uh so this is possible now if you join the patreon
page it’s only five dollars a month and then you can have intensive back and forth chats with me
basically on keyboard okay and of course i’m still available for consultations uh um basically
through um through internet uh meetings that’s also a possibility okay uh but five dollars a
month is much cheaper and i’ll start putting posts up there and um there will be a chance
to communicate with me privately one-on-one with intensive back and forths not only that but also
to have discussion boards in which case my back and forth discussion with you guys will be much
more intensive and responsive and attentive all right and so has liam sold his soul to the devil
So, one thing to talk about real fast is that in Kabbalah, there are more than just
three dimensions, like three-dimensional space or four dimensions. There are at least seven
dimensions, so you could even say 10 dimensions, okay? And we have the three dimensions of space,
in other words, there’s length, there’s an abyss of height and abyss of depth,
there’s a there’s an abyss of the east and an abyss of the west there is an abyss of the north
and a bit an abyss of the south okay these are the dimensions of the three dimensions
but there’s also the fourth dimension of time we what we should backtrack a bit here so if you do
dimensions on a two-dimensional plane you could decide to meet me at a particular location okay
You could say, oh, I’m going to meet you at the corner of 5th and Elm Street, okay?
That would be two coordinates.
That would be like your x, y axis coordinates, okay?
So I’m going to meet you.
You follow Elm, and then you follow Elm all the way to 5th, and then at that corner, then you and I will meet, okay?
But then I’m going to add a third dimension to that, and that is, well, I’m actually in the building on the corner on the 5th floor.
so you would have to meet me on the on the corner of fifth and elm but on the fifth floor so there’s
a third dimension added there okay um and of course there is a fourth dimension as well
according to einstein that is um and i would say well you’re going to meet me at the corner of
fifth and elm on the fifth floor but you’re going to meet me at 6 p.m at a particular time okay
because you show up at the wrong time that i won’t be there okay so there’s that is the fourth
dimension okay so the fourth dimension also involves time supposedly okay um even though
time doesn’t necessarily exist in a linear way when i talked about that in a previous video but
never mind that for now okay so now uh in kabbalah we add a fifth dimension okay and so you have an
abyss of height and an abyss of depth added there but you also have um an abyss of the past and an
abyss of the future that’s time past and future is now added to as your fourth dimension the fifth
dimension is one of providence okay so the fifth dimension is the one of uh it’s an abyss of good
and an abyss of evil but kind of quaint way of saying it but what you have there is um you have
a timeline that goes from the past into the future okay and that’s your fourth dimensional
you know, sort of, it’s not linear, but of course, the only way we can understand it is to try and
make something linear out of it. So, you have the past leading into the future, right? Now,
in Providence, in the fifth dimension, there are multiple timelines of past and future. So,
in other words, there are multiple futures possible. So, it’s not just one future that
you have there are multiple futures and you can you can of course pivot and then choose a particular
destiny okay so that is now the fifth dimension which is the one of providence and the fifth
dimension is basically considered to be a moral dimension you can go in a towards towards something
good or you can go towards something evil now you can pivot and choose a path that is either
i don’t know heaven bound or hell bound right if you want to get christian about it okay and so
originally the idea of the crossroads was that the crossroads were only three. And the idea of
the crossroads was like, there are two paths you can go down. And one of them is the left-handed
path and one of them is the right-handed path. And this basically is an allusion to the fifth
fifth dimension of providence where you can choose to go down a particular path, okay?
So, in mystical practices or magical practices, this is a dimension also to take into account.
There’s a moral dimension. And if we go back to what happened at the racehorse track,
that moral dimension seemed to be somehow coming into play there in some mysterious way when the
guy went to bet on the horse and that was the only horse that didn’t come in as a winner. Strange.
Okay, so apparently the fifth dimension of Providence was somehow going on there,
or there were entities in the fifth dimension who could tell what was happening and said,
oh no, we’re not going to let this happen. Now, this fifth dimension is not necessarily going to
be one where the good looks all full of happiness and evil looks all full of sadness. That’s
too superficial, okay? And this moral dimension to magic is more about a path that has integrity
and a path that does not have integrity. And then of course, what do I mean by integrity?
We have to talk about that, okay? So, if somebody is going to make money at teaching magic or
actually even doing magic for people like tarot readings and things like that,
there is a way to do that that involves that has integrity and there is a way to
do that that does not have integrity and this would be the path of good in the
path of evil more or less now if you’ve ever seen the television show house
house MD the house is a very interesting character because he was not necessarily
a good person but what you could tell is that he when he was acting as a mentor
to people that were working for him, he would insist that they follow their own code of ethics,
their own values. And he would give them a hard time when they broke from their own beliefs or
their own values, their own convictions, even if those beliefs were not his own.
So in other words, he would congratulate people for sticking to their guns and standing up for
what they believe in, even if that belief went against his own beliefs. And if they sold out
and just kind of caved in to his pressure, he would criticize them for that. In other words,
you basically just caved in to pressure from me and basically did not listen to your own guiding
star. That was a very interesting character to deal with too because there was no absolute like
sort of Christian good or evil thing going on there. He was not necessarily a good person,
but he would insist that people stay true to themselves. Okay, and this is the mysterious way
of maybe, this is maybe the real good and evil that we experience, at least on the hermetic path,
there’s a sort of hermetic good and evil, as opposed to, you know, just hell bound and heaven
bound reward and punishment. So, what is this integrity? It’s kind of simple to describe. This
is not rocket science. When you have the tree of life and magic, you have these various spheres of
operation, okay? You could maybe call them planetary spheres if you like, if you’re into
astrology. And all of these spheres of operation, all these virtues, all these powers that are
emanating from a single source which is the divine, they emanate out into the universe
and exist as separate entities. And this sets the stage for all kinds of problems because each of
these differentiated perspectives now potentially can be at odds with other perspectives on the
tree of life. So each of these spheres can now sometimes get into an argument with the other
spheres on the tree. So when you have a differentiation of perspectives, there’s a
potential for drama to happen there. Okay. Now, each person,
each human being is a constellation of these various
virtues and powers. Okay. In other words, the psyche of each
human being is not singular, it has multiple characters going on
inside it. Okay. And what might characterize a person who’s evil
you know who doesn’t have integrity is that they can act these spheres can act disharmoniously
they can conflict with each other they can fight with each other okay so now if all these spheres
act in accordance with a single harmonic principle then everything’s working together everything
everything is integral it has integrity everything functions as a whole that’s why they call it
integrity, okay? If these parts of the psyche are in conflict with each other, then that’s a
disintegration. That’s not integrity anymore. It’s disintegrity or a disintegration of the psyche
and where things crumble away and fall apart. And you can see the problem there because if you
regard yourself as a mere assemblage of parts and those parts now are rubbing against each other and
causing friction and not getting along with each other, everything tends to fall apart and be
irritating and you are now in conflict with yourself. Parts of you are in conflict with
other parts of yourself. But when all these spheres in your psyche are operating harmoniously
more or less, then you have integrity. Okay, so what does this mean for mixing money and magic?
Well, the sphere of money, you could say, let’s say it’s a sphere of Mercury. Money operates on
many of these spheres. You could say it’s also in the sphere of Tepharoth, let’s say.
And in other words, it has a place within the psyche. And the ability to do business and do
business transactions does have a place in our ability to thrive and live in the world, okay?
But the manner in which you do that has to have integrity. It has to function harmoniously with
all the other forces that are going on in your life. For instance, domestic things going on,
artistic things going on, I don’t know, spiritual things going on. All these things have to be in
harmony with also the things of Mars. In other words, the ability to fight for what you believe
in, even to engage in violence if necessary. That also has to be integral to the system and
function harmoniously with everything else okay uh and so now of course the ability to get all
these things functioning harmoniously that’s quite a task and can you maintain that all the time no
it’s probably impossible no but for for the most part um somebody who has an enlightened adept
supposedly is able to keep these things in harmony and the one thing that really marks them is that
they are true to themselves that they have integrity somehow okay even if it
means that they break their oath of initiation because remember there are
higher principles to follow than just an external oath that you took okay so for
like for instance if you make a marriage vow somebody eventually the two of you
will evolve apart it’s kind of guaranteed actually and then of course
you might you might evolve back together again but always possible too right but there’s for
the adept there’s no harm in basically getting a divorce and basically just saying this is okay
we’re done now this is we tried to make this thing work whatever that is right um and then
we have evolved apart and now we respect each other we go on our separate ways that all that
also has integrity okay so um trying to make things work simply because you promised something
that is a mark of integrity but there are higher principles at work here and there are higher
principles to stay true to other than just something you said you know five years ago
all right i hope that makes sense um you know kind of a lot of um really good fiction ties into that
where you have characters who are badass and break rules all the time but you can tell they’re
following higher principles other than just the laws of the land or the morals of the family.
They’re basically causing trouble but they’re badassery. It involves answering a higher power
than the more conventional powers that are going on around them, okay? And such people can be said
to be marching to the beat of their own drummer and you can tell that could be a selfish thing
but very often it is not. It is a higher principle that is operating through them,
which is a mark of integrity and highly respectable for those who can see it,
for those who can sense it. All right. So, can the money-making process have integrity?
Yes, it can. So, the easiest way to say that is that the problem that people run into is
is the problem of the win-lose scenario.
And so if you are operating,
if you’re doing business as a non-initiate, let’s say,
your attitude towards business is that,
oh, well, I did this for you and then I get a payback.
Now you owe me and then you, which is fine.
But then it’s, that’s more the view of the psychopath.
If you only see things that way,
it’s like I’m gonna poke you with a stick
just the right way and you’re going to put out for me and then i can poke somebody else in a
particular way and then they’re going to give me something right and in other words um there’s a
constant manipulation going on and when people come at you and with a sense of oh i did this
for you now you owe me that’s that’s very often a a win-lose situation going on where they just
see everything in terms of the surface world now the alternative to that is win-win okay in other
words um it’s not that i do something for you now you owe me it’s like no i’m going to do this with
you and we’re going to thrive together this is this is a chance for us to join forces and then
we’ll make something beautiful together and both of us are going to benefit from this it’s
completely different mindset. It’s not really a win-lose. And it’s really sort of an anti-vampire
way of looking at things. Whereas many people would say, I do this for you and I’m extracting
wealth from you now. Thank you very much. And I’m on my way. It’s sort of like I’ve sucked your
blood and now you’re weaker and I’m stronger. That attitude is the business attitude that
lacks integrity. And of course, if you are out there selling bogus magical secrets that don’t
work, let’s say, or selling pieces of the true cross, you’re selling religious relics that have
no magical power, right? And then of course, people give you money and you go away and you
say, haha, I got something from you and I gave you a piece of junk, right? That’s the win-lose
mindset. It’s vampiric, okay? But there are ways of doing business where, oh, I’m giving you a
product and now your life is better for whatever it is you’re doing with this thing and mine is as
well because now you’re giving me cash and i can do wonderful things with this cash we both have
benefited okay this is a very profound way of looking at things because um uh instead of me
taking from you instead of me deriving my life force from you i’m simply acknowledging that you
and i both have life force upwelling together like we’re two flowers in a garden right and
if we do something for each other in particular way we just help our we help ourselves thrive
in other words the energy we’re deriving from the universe is not coming from each other
it’s simply coming from the universe but we can help each other to you know get the conditions
right so that both of us can thrive all right so uh if you do a magic that way then of course
or if you do business that way then of course um that way of doing business has integrity
okay and it acknowledges a deeper level of existence where there is no give and take
really that’s only a matter of appearances okay the giving and taking is really a matter of us
thriving together. So in other words, we’re deriving energy from the universe together,
both of us, okay? So when you do a business transaction, you have to see past the surface
level of, I do this for you, now you owe me, sort of thing. Even though that’s happening,
you can see that if you do business transaction and you end up paying for something, paying is
actually um a privilege i don’t know if that makes any sense okay so um it’s kind of a matter
a matter like if if you walk down the street and you see a fire truck rushing past you
and instead of lamenting that oh my god it’s cost so much money for my taxes to pay for the
fire truck you’re like oh i’m so glad i’m paying money i’m paying taxes to support such a wonderful
institution that saves lives like that and to be happy to pay your taxes so that it goes into
supporting the local fire department things like that to be happy to give because everybody’s
thriving together because of this giving whatever taking such a scenario okay okay anyway that’s
it’s very important too because in order to do magic as a you know let’s say a true initiate
it’s important to operate in win-win in a win-win mindset or a thrive thrive mindset
everybody thrives together okay and if you operate in the other mindset of win-lose
then you are constantly going to be in a world of hard knocks where people prey upon you and
you prey upon them back and forth back and forth karma okay you can tell the win-lose mindset is
is highly subject to karma. It’s that wheel of, of endless, I give
you to you, you give to me, I give to you, you give to me and
now you owe me now, now I owe you, there’s no such thing
really. Okay, not really, if you have to look deeper than them.
Okay. So with that in mind, the safe, let’s say if you’re doing
tarot readings for money, or you’re doing astrology for
money, it just means that you have to be offering something of
value to your customers and they pay you for it. And so you both thrive together. What a simple
idea. There’s no give and take really going on anymore. That’s only a matter of appearances.
Okay. All right. So I hope that helps. I hope that’s clear. And as far as the commercial and
the Patreon page, I will put a link to that in the box below. Alright, until next time.
Source: Lyam Christopher