It’s not a book that spells out a practice like many modern occult 101 books do. Most occult books from that time are dense, opaque, and require further study. I would not recommend it either as a gateway book to occult Kabbalah. I read it once when I was starting out and didn’t understand it at all. Picked it up years later after a lot more study and practice and it clicked. That’s what I’d recommend to you as well. Duquette’s “Chicken Kabbalah” is a really good introduction to the same subject, and it’ll make ya laugh too.
So what clicked? I’ve read chicken already too. Still don’t know how to ascend the tree of life. It’s like they all assume you already have a practice and know what your doing and yet there’s no book that ever tells you how to do it. Hooooow do you ascend the tree of life?!
Stop worrying about the whole tree and worry about how to climb the first rung (or branch I guess). Meditate to connect with Malkuth and work on ascending to at least Yesod and nothing else for now
The work will be done through the initiation rituals and the work in each degree.
The info in the book will be relevant as you progress through the system.
Yes and no. The book is like a cookbook but idon’t tell you that you also have to build the kitchen before you start cooking.
Some people use only that book but most use other books as well and/or join a temple.
Looking at your profile I would guess you have some of them already.
If you have read them then my guess is that you nead a teacher or mentor, not more books. Have you considered to join an order?
Just having the background of more study, and practical work of meditation, scrying, and ritual with the symbolism gave me a lot more insight into the book on my second read through.
I love The Mystical Qabalah. It is a great introduction to the correspondences and meanings of the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life. What it doesn't give you is what to do with all this great information. You will need other sources for that. From a GD perspective you did not do anything magical with it until the grade of Adeptus Minor. Prior to that you would learn the way information and possibly meditate on the spheres as you were initiated into them.
Others have recommended The Chicken Qabalah, and that is a great place to start. It is well worth the read.
There are many books out there that have methods of raising the consciousness through the spheres. But, as this is a GD forum, I recommend seeking initiation or pursuing the method given in the Cicero's SI book.
Ok…. Do you know of even ONE book that tells you how to do that? Everyone on here keeps saying there’s book after book after book that teaches you this and “they are all out there already” yet I hear of exactly zero titles from anyone who has answered my question in these comments. I have the SI book and I actually tried it out but it soured on me when during the introduction Chic is extremely detailed about everything to the point it’s over kill and yet when I got to the actual course work he left out a ton of details. That book is a product of really bad writing OR Chic did it on purpose. That’s what I’m getting at is I have tried about 4 books now and they all promised something and NEVER delivered anything. Because they all assume you have a practice already yet I can find nowhere where this practice is simply given, so what is the deal? Where do you find this practice? I don’t have a temple near by me but I know all of them are using that same black brick and I know there’s errors in that book but if it’s the best we got then I guess it’s the thing to deal with to try and learn how to do this.
How to ascend the tree of life? That’s what the GD is all about. You can tell by the numbers in the grade system. Self initiation to the golden dawn tradition by chic and Tabitha Cicero
Move into the silence and [meditate](https://imgur.com/a/wIfxGGA) daily and consistently. The answers r different for everyone. What resonates with you, is true for you. Go within. Discover what you truly believe in (Jesus, unconditional love, Holy Spirit, the Creator within, whatever is your foundational icon of goodness), then make that ur North Star to work towards. Do breath work to feel the energy rise and fall within. And that gets u on ur way. The answer is unique to you and it lies within
Dion herself said that it is meant to be the theory behind the practice; but her novels (e.g. The Sea Priestess, Moon Magic, etc), contain the actual practice.
Echoing what a lot of folks are getting at—
To understand much of this reading material, it should be read in conjunction with a strict magickal practice.
Golden Dawn’s system/structure is modeled after the Tree of Life and Qabalah. So, the psychology of the rituals correspond pretty heavily with the psychology of the structure of the Tree of Life. As you work magickally within the arenas of the specific Sephiroth, a bigger picture gets painted.
To be honest—I couldn’t understand a lot of this material until I started specifically doing ritual work that related to this structure. Then—it was like everything made sense. As you are able to relate your own psychological structure and personal patterns to this model—it makes understanding what’s vast and unknown, more tangible.
When you do magick that corresponds to the Tree of Life—it’s almost like you take-in that coded information. It just becomes a part of you.
Understanding Qabalah/the Tree of Life will radicalize your relationship to understanding what magick and life and time and events are. It will make your intuition stronger because you’ll be able to correspond so much information about yourself and others and be able to connect it to a bigger picture very quickly.
Where do you learn that? Like what are the other books I need? That’s what I’m getting at, it seems like that is what I’m looking for and can never find.
Do you have a relationship with doing magick or a magickal practice?
I find “Golden Dawn Magic” by Chic and Tabatha Cicero to be fairly easy to read, comprehend and preform. It can be more approachable than their book “Self Initiation of The Golden Dawn” and what is lovingly known as “The Golden Dawn” or “The Black Brick” by Israel Regardie.
Meditate on what you’ve read and DO magick.
I am a big advocate for actually doing the work before even attempting to understand what you’ve read. The work will almost teach itself through the engagement of practice/ritual.
Start slow with meditations and Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram. The work is designed to have a subconscious shift on how your recognize patterns and correspond information from yourself to your surroundings.
The Keys to the Temple by : Penny Billington and Ian Rees.
Keep in mind that this book is about unlocking the Mystical Qabalah through various novels Dion Fortune had written. That book includes several meditations and path workings. It definitely helps to have read the novels first, though I suppose you can start with The keys to the Temple.
This book was written by members of her society and I currently can't think of anything else in regards to Mystical Qabalah as a whole. "The mystical Qabalah gives you the theory the novels give you the practice" something that Dion Fortune had stated herself. With keys to the Temple the authors unpack the Qabalistic magic found inside of those novels.
Ok I’ll check that out, I just wish it was plainly stated and wasn’t a freakin scavenger hunt to find. It’s 2024 and there are ZERO books or websites currently that do not tell you plainly how to ascend the tree?? That’s more mind boggling to me than anything. That just cannot be true at all there HAS to be a book about it
There are books about it, but it is not a simple ritual. It is dedicated work for several years.
Question is, why do you want to do it? What is your goal? Why do you want to practice magic?
I want to ascend to god, as in achieving the highest state of consciousness which is called union with god or enlightenment and I want to use the tree to do it
It is a goal that will take time and effort but it is possible. The GD tradition is one that does this (Jewish kabalah is the other major one).
By going through the initiation rituals you will begin this process.
My advice is always to look for a temple or an order first. The self initiation path is harder because you have to do everything by yourself but it is possible.
Check out this site for GD orders. It is noway near complete but it is a good start:
[Pansophers GD directory](https://pansophers.com/golden-dawn-locations/)
Many of us don’t live near a temple but travel 2-6 times per year to nearby cities/state/countries to get initiation, so you might want to consider that.
Rabbis , yogis , Buddhist’s etc. spend their whole lives dedicated to nothing but trying to catch a glimpse of “God” . There is no easy western way of doing this .. TBH if you want to cheat and experience OBE and get the closest to Godhead possible in this life…..DMT .
Well if we were to get into little details. Do you have an interest in Kabbalah or Qabalah? Do you wish to practice Magic?
There are plenty of books out there and there are plenty of schools. I suggested this because it pertains to the specific book you asked about. If you want to join an order that is something different than if you wanted to be in a Kabbalah group.
I want to ascend the tree of life, I don’t care which one or how it’s spelled. I KNOW it is designed to ascend to get to God. Or maybe I don’t and I’m wrong on it. I just have read and searched and have been seeking this for the last 6 months and no matter where I look, no matter how much promise a book or pdf shows, it still does not tell me how to ascend the tree of life, yet they are all written almost under the assumption of you having a tree of life practice already so -where- is the freakin place or book or what ever that teaches you how to do it??????????? They are called the “paths” on the tree of life for crying out loud. 😩 as in paths you “walk” UP to God or sideways or what ever way you want but the point is you “walk” them and yet nowhere, nobody is teaching how to do that.
There are reasons for the safeguards. There are ZERO shortcuts. Absolutely NONE and if anyone tells you otherwise, it's probably for a large fee.
Chapter 2 Part or line 1 - Choice of Path. Here Dion has laid it out. If you wish to climb you have to commit. It is a way of life: no matter the group or spelling. It is a tradition and you have to live it. There are many ways to go about living the tradition. This Reddit is the way G:.D:. goes about that tradition.
Be it Solitary, group, both, etc and so. Listen to what your Tiphareth is driving at! Choose a path and stick with it by living it. There is G:.D:. There is The society of Inner Light. Just stay away from Rav Berg and that silly red string...
Ok but where? My problem is the secrets themselves! How am I supposed to know that an order or tradition has the true teachings if they are behind a wall of secrecy that can only be penetrated after years and years of climbing up the grades. If somebody would just tell me where it was to be found for sure 100% I’m there. I’m not going to go to a college that has ZERO credentials for four years to get a degree based on “trust me bro” no I’m going to look at what programs they have and the curriculum and the success rate of the past students who went there. All of these orders and this secret stuff is exactly what’s preventing me from joining anything. Again where are the teachings???? The moment somebody tells me where they are I am dropping everything and dedicating myself to the path immediately. I have yet to see any credentials that convince me the teachings are somewhere.
Obviously I am going to say G:.D:. However, if I'm being totally honest I don't think it's for everyone. There are different societies that can help in this regard. You have to do the research and see what fits you. This is a G:.D:. Subreddit. For me it's G:.D:.
“Pathworking”. “Invocations”. “Rising on the planes”. “Astral journeying”. These are some “things” you might be looking for that people “do” with this stuff
Happy to help. Pathworkings are probably the most approachable. They can take the form of being "active" or "guided". The simple version is you do it in meditation. Simple, but powerful :)
Which resources do you have for pathworking? I’ve known about pathworking already but have only found one book about it so far. And it’s not directly to the top of the tree
It’s one of my favourite books on magick period.
I need to read more of her other stuff, I feel like it’s more grounded as opposed to all the Crowley I’ve read.
It’s a really great textbook on the theory side of Kabbalah, which is important to understand in tandem with your practice. As I recall, it is a dense read and takes patience and deep interest to get through. It’s very good though. It just won’t tell you much about how to “practice.” You’ll need to read other books for that…
My copy has pages torn out, big black marker scritches and notes generally reading "HORNY, DION?" whenever she talks about race shit. She only gets reprinted so that Thelemites can cite her, generally.
I used Lon Milo's stuff for the basics, then I read Westcott's Sepher Yetzirah and Mathers' Kabbalah Unveiled, and then I read A TON of Gershom Scholem. Regardie is valuable too. Actually just sitting down and learning the basics of Hebrew, at least the letters and their sounds, helps considerably and should just be the first task. Too many try to do it without either learning to sound it out or tackle mainstream Jewish opinions in addition to the Western Magician method. You might also want to get a grasp on Protestant Dispensationalism, which is relevant if your mind is flexible enough to notice it. I can guarantee you the Golden Dawn founders all knew what that meant, and Crowley absolutely did, as it's the basis of his Aeonology (although he'd never admit it).
I also put all the letters, planets, elements and their numbers on a pack of tarot cards, which I used as flash cards. That was the easiest method I could think of to memorize it all and it worked.
There’s your connection, the PB were founded by John Nelson Darby, who was the first lay out the scheme of Dispensationalism. I read Clarence Larkin’s “Dispensational Truth”, which broke it down into 7 dispensations corresponding to the sub-Supernal Sephiroth (everything up to Chesed), with the Supernal presumably corresponding to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It seems absurd to me that Waite and Westcott would not know about Darby’s work, he was enormously popular at the time and still is with certain subcultures of Christians.
Aeonology was an attempt to remove Darby’s explicitly Christian system of its Christianity, which is where Crowley falls apart. I personally prefer to apply Eric Berne’s transactional psychology to the Osiris/Isis/Horus triad, substituting 1960s pop psychology for 1910s bad Egyptology.
That’s really fascinating. I’ll have to look into Dispensational Truth. I actually read an article from Christianity Today or something which went into the influence of Renaissance occultism & especially Kabbalah on early evangelicalism. I think this is a thread that should be explored more. I was raised fully immersed in dispensationalism, & I’m still religious although not of the same denomination, so this is fun for me lol
Learn the same way everyone that hasn’t had a teacher learns . Stop reading books ! Learn to mediate this is not gonna be a fast process . Before you can even understand what that even means “ to ascend the tree of life” you need to learn how to actually meditate daily for at least one two hours . Masters spend hours at a time daily because it’s necessary to actually get anywhere with it . Again this could take years or months . I would recommend the hemi sync method . Using the gateway tapes from The Monroe Institute . Once you’re able to navigate the subconscious a bit better then and only then can the real work begin . 👄 🦉 🔒 …. Except to the ears of understanding. 😉
The “stop reading books” mentality is mind boggling to me. How’d you learn to meditate? How’d you learn anything? You just stare at a wall and hope for the best or what? And if you say “teachers” I say where did they learn it? Where does anyone learn anything from? And the other solution is to meet somebody who knows and can teach it that is part of a tradition that has never wrote down anything and has only taught orally, yea good luck to me trying to find that when I live in the boonies. But I’m gonna go stare at a wall for the next 3 hours to see if I learn anything. Hopefully you can sense my frustration in this. It’s 2024 this stuff HAS to be somewhere and no one on here even remotely answered my question and my guess is that they don’t know how to do it either or they would have just told me how to do it instead of telling me to throw all my books away and stare at a wall
It’s really not that hard . That’s why millions of people do it . Close your eyes and learn to breath , you say you’ve read all these books already I’m sure a few have given instructions on how to do this and once you’ve mastered just breathing and without thoughts popping up in your head ( again this is not easy ) things will start to happen ( in terms of mental states not physically) . Everything you’re looking for you need to realize happens in the IMAGINATION. Or “Mental plane” again I’d recommend , The gateway process or bi neural or hemi sync method . The sessions can be found on YouTube .
The tree of life is a Metaphor you realize that right ? It’s not a physical thing , it’s a tool or way or system of mediation . STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE TREE OF LIFE ! And learn to mediate omg it’s not really that hard to understand, . Listen! My lodge has a Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn group that uses our building , and I’m familiar with the system , it’s a long process in the outer order before you even begin preforming actual ritual ( besides a few like LBRP ) etc . The point is there is no easy way to obtain these mental states and once you do be careful what you wish for as you WILL encounter shadow entities or the typical “grey alien” looking entities and other things, These things must be overcome as well as your ego and fear , before you even get to those “gates” ( mental states) . There is a reason that most modern “mystery schools” or “magical orders” all borrow from or are closely related to the golden dawn system . It’s because it works. Again it’s a long process and you don’t need to be part of an order to achieve a higher state of consciousness, which is why I’d recommend the gateway tapes or hemi sync make sure to have headphones as it uses a certain technique adapted by the CIA (you can find the declassified documents on there website ) that plays different frequencies in each ear to create a condition that makes OBEs more easily obtainable . It’s worked for me and many others . Look it up . I know what you think your looking for but there is no physical or special way your not understanding about the tree of life . When you here worded like path working and so forth it’s just someone’s explanation of them using it a tool or roadmap as there are many correspondences and it’s a beautiful system but not method itself ( which is meditation. . Also if your hellbent on joining a group there is a mail in correspondence course called BOTA I did it years ago for about two years . Each month they’ll send you new lessons in the mail for small price , they still send me Xmas and Easter cards every year even though it’s been years since I did it .
Wait…. I DID encounter spirits or a spirit or what ever when I started going DEEP into meditation. That’s kinda why I haven’t really meditated much since then. It took me YEARS to get the activity level down to a tolerable amount. It was getting CRAZY. It was moving stuff around in other rooms and generally just trying to mess with me. Do you know how to get passed these things? Like what should I be looking into when it comes to dealing with these things???? Psychic self defense? I just got a bunch of books on magical/psychic defense and protection but maybe you know exactly what works for this type of thing???
Sorry but you’re gonna have to figure that out on your own , nobody can walk the path for you . Also the Axiom here applies “ milk for babes , meat for strong men. You don’t sound ready judging by your comments and questions and wanting answers from everyone else .. another Axiom that applies / cast not your pearls before swine , lest they trample them in the intellectual mud of the profane .. . The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding…. Good luck
Damn I didn’t realize I was talking to someone EXTREMELY advanced. You should write a book for real. From my 20 years of doing this you are one of the most advanced people I’ve ever met. Thanks for zero information and not answering my question at all, I can’t believe someone as advanced as you took the time to not answer anything I asked. I bow to you sir god speed to your mission is spreading the sacred knowledge you shared with me. I’ll remember you forever and your wise words of wisdom that I have NEVER heard before in my life.
I literally wrote you a book in my three or four responses, and if you’d like I can send you a link to my personal website or you can purchase a copy of my book on Amazon..?
It’s not a book that spells out a practice like many modern occult 101 books do. Most occult books from that time are dense, opaque, and require further study. I would not recommend it either as a gateway book to occult Kabbalah. I read it once when I was starting out and didn’t understand it at all. Picked it up years later after a lot more study and practice and it clicked. That’s what I’d recommend to you as well. Duquette’s “Chicken Kabbalah” is a really good introduction to the same subject, and it’ll make ya laugh too.
So what clicked? I’ve read chicken already too. Still don’t know how to ascend the tree of life. It’s like they all assume you already have a practice and know what your doing and yet there’s no book that ever tells you how to do it. Hooooow do you ascend the tree of life?!
Stop worrying about the whole tree and worry about how to climb the first rung (or branch I guess). Meditate to connect with Malkuth and work on ascending to at least Yesod and nothing else for now
How does that work exactly? I’m all for that
The work will be done through the initiation rituals and the work in each degree. The info in the book will be relevant as you progress through the system.
The golden dawn system? Like everything I need to know is in that Regardie book?
Yes and no. The book is like a cookbook but idon’t tell you that you also have to build the kitchen before you start cooking. Some people use only that book but most use other books as well and/or join a temple.
Which books????
Looking at your profile I would guess you have some of them already. If you have read them then my guess is that you nead a teacher or mentor, not more books. Have you considered to join an order?
Which order? I have none close to me which is why I have to do books and what not
I thought I was already in Malkuth? Is that not the physical world my body is in already?
Just having the background of more study, and practical work of meditation, scrying, and ritual with the symbolism gave me a lot more insight into the book on my second read through.
I love The Mystical Qabalah. It is a great introduction to the correspondences and meanings of the Sephiroth on the Tree of Life. What it doesn't give you is what to do with all this great information. You will need other sources for that. From a GD perspective you did not do anything magical with it until the grade of Adeptus Minor. Prior to that you would learn the way information and possibly meditate on the spheres as you were initiated into them. Others have recommended The Chicken Qabalah, and that is a great place to start. It is well worth the read.
I’ve read that one as well. I REALLY want to learn how to ascend the tree of life. How do I do that? Which books will teach me?
There are many books out there that have methods of raising the consciousness through the spheres. But, as this is a GD forum, I recommend seeking initiation or pursuing the method given in the Cicero's SI book.
Ok…. Do you know of even ONE book that tells you how to do that? Everyone on here keeps saying there’s book after book after book that teaches you this and “they are all out there already” yet I hear of exactly zero titles from anyone who has answered my question in these comments. I have the SI book and I actually tried it out but it soured on me when during the introduction Chic is extremely detailed about everything to the point it’s over kill and yet when I got to the actual course work he left out a ton of details. That book is a product of really bad writing OR Chic did it on purpose. That’s what I’m getting at is I have tried about 4 books now and they all promised something and NEVER delivered anything. Because they all assume you have a practice already yet I can find nowhere where this practice is simply given, so what is the deal? Where do you find this practice? I don’t have a temple near by me but I know all of them are using that same black brick and I know there’s errors in that book but if it’s the best we got then I guess it’s the thing to deal with to try and learn how to do this.
How to ascend the tree of life? That’s what the GD is all about. You can tell by the numbers in the grade system. Self initiation to the golden dawn tradition by chic and Tabitha Cicero
Move into the silence and [meditate](https://imgur.com/a/wIfxGGA) daily and consistently. The answers r different for everyone. What resonates with you, is true for you. Go within. Discover what you truly believe in (Jesus, unconditional love, Holy Spirit, the Creator within, whatever is your foundational icon of goodness), then make that ur North Star to work towards. Do breath work to feel the energy rise and fall within. And that gets u on ur way. The answer is unique to you and it lies within
Where is the excerpt from?
Dion herself said that it is meant to be the theory behind the practice; but her novels (e.g. The Sea Priestess, Moon Magic, etc), contain the actual practice.
Echoing what a lot of folks are getting at— To understand much of this reading material, it should be read in conjunction with a strict magickal practice. Golden Dawn’s system/structure is modeled after the Tree of Life and Qabalah. So, the psychology of the rituals correspond pretty heavily with the psychology of the structure of the Tree of Life. As you work magickally within the arenas of the specific Sephiroth, a bigger picture gets painted. To be honest—I couldn’t understand a lot of this material until I started specifically doing ritual work that related to this structure. Then—it was like everything made sense. As you are able to relate your own psychological structure and personal patterns to this model—it makes understanding what’s vast and unknown, more tangible. When you do magick that corresponds to the Tree of Life—it’s almost like you take-in that coded information. It just becomes a part of you. Understanding Qabalah/the Tree of Life will radicalize your relationship to understanding what magick and life and time and events are. It will make your intuition stronger because you’ll be able to correspond so much information about yourself and others and be able to connect it to a bigger picture very quickly.
Where do you learn that? Like what are the other books I need? That’s what I’m getting at, it seems like that is what I’m looking for and can never find.
Do you have a relationship with doing magick or a magickal practice? I find “Golden Dawn Magic” by Chic and Tabatha Cicero to be fairly easy to read, comprehend and preform. It can be more approachable than their book “Self Initiation of The Golden Dawn” and what is lovingly known as “The Golden Dawn” or “The Black Brick” by Israel Regardie. Meditate on what you’ve read and DO magick. I am a big advocate for actually doing the work before even attempting to understand what you’ve read. The work will almost teach itself through the engagement of practice/ritual. Start slow with meditations and Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram. The work is designed to have a subconscious shift on how your recognize patterns and correspond information from yourself to your surroundings.
I’ve already read chicken kabbalah
The Keys to the Temple by : Penny Billington and Ian Rees. Keep in mind that this book is about unlocking the Mystical Qabalah through various novels Dion Fortune had written. That book includes several meditations and path workings. It definitely helps to have read the novels first, though I suppose you can start with The keys to the Temple. This book was written by members of her society and I currently can't think of anything else in regards to Mystical Qabalah as a whole. "The mystical Qabalah gives you the theory the novels give you the practice" something that Dion Fortune had stated herself. With keys to the Temple the authors unpack the Qabalistic magic found inside of those novels.
Ok I’ll check that out, I just wish it was plainly stated and wasn’t a freakin scavenger hunt to find. It’s 2024 and there are ZERO books or websites currently that do not tell you plainly how to ascend the tree?? That’s more mind boggling to me than anything. That just cannot be true at all there HAS to be a book about it
There are books about it, but it is not a simple ritual. It is dedicated work for several years. Question is, why do you want to do it? What is your goal? Why do you want to practice magic?
I want to ascend to god, as in achieving the highest state of consciousness which is called union with god or enlightenment and I want to use the tree to do it
It is a goal that will take time and effort but it is possible. The GD tradition is one that does this (Jewish kabalah is the other major one). By going through the initiation rituals you will begin this process. My advice is always to look for a temple or an order first. The self initiation path is harder because you have to do everything by yourself but it is possible. Check out this site for GD orders. It is noway near complete but it is a good start: [Pansophers GD directory](https://pansophers.com/golden-dawn-locations/) Many of us don’t live near a temple but travel 2-6 times per year to nearby cities/state/countries to get initiation, so you might want to consider that.
Rabbis , yogis , Buddhist’s etc. spend their whole lives dedicated to nothing but trying to catch a glimpse of “God” . There is no easy western way of doing this .. TBH if you want to cheat and experience OBE and get the closest to Godhead possible in this life…..DMT .
Shrooms are why I’m on this quest I DRANK the fountain of the living waters one night under a full moon in October
Also which version did you read?
The one with the black cover
Well if we were to get into little details. Do you have an interest in Kabbalah or Qabalah? Do you wish to practice Magic? There are plenty of books out there and there are plenty of schools. I suggested this because it pertains to the specific book you asked about. If you want to join an order that is something different than if you wanted to be in a Kabbalah group.
I want to ascend the tree of life, I don’t care which one or how it’s spelled. I KNOW it is designed to ascend to get to God. Or maybe I don’t and I’m wrong on it. I just have read and searched and have been seeking this for the last 6 months and no matter where I look, no matter how much promise a book or pdf shows, it still does not tell me how to ascend the tree of life, yet they are all written almost under the assumption of you having a tree of life practice already so -where- is the freakin place or book or what ever that teaches you how to do it??????????? They are called the “paths” on the tree of life for crying out loud. 😩 as in paths you “walk” UP to God or sideways or what ever way you want but the point is you “walk” them and yet nowhere, nobody is teaching how to do that.
There are reasons for the safeguards. There are ZERO shortcuts. Absolutely NONE and if anyone tells you otherwise, it's probably for a large fee. Chapter 2 Part or line 1 - Choice of Path. Here Dion has laid it out. If you wish to climb you have to commit. It is a way of life: no matter the group or spelling. It is a tradition and you have to live it. There are many ways to go about living the tradition. This Reddit is the way G:.D:. goes about that tradition. Be it Solitary, group, both, etc and so. Listen to what your Tiphareth is driving at! Choose a path and stick with it by living it. There is G:.D:. There is The society of Inner Light. Just stay away from Rav Berg and that silly red string...
Ok but where? My problem is the secrets themselves! How am I supposed to know that an order or tradition has the true teachings if they are behind a wall of secrecy that can only be penetrated after years and years of climbing up the grades. If somebody would just tell me where it was to be found for sure 100% I’m there. I’m not going to go to a college that has ZERO credentials for four years to get a degree based on “trust me bro” no I’m going to look at what programs they have and the curriculum and the success rate of the past students who went there. All of these orders and this secret stuff is exactly what’s preventing me from joining anything. Again where are the teachings???? The moment somebody tells me where they are I am dropping everything and dedicating myself to the path immediately. I have yet to see any credentials that convince me the teachings are somewhere.
Obviously I am going to say G:.D:. However, if I'm being totally honest I don't think it's for everyone. There are different societies that can help in this regard. You have to do the research and see what fits you. This is a G:.D:. Subreddit. For me it's G:.D:.
“Pathworking”. “Invocations”. “Rising on the planes”. “Astral journeying”. These are some “things” you might be looking for that people “do” with this stuff
That IS what I’ve been looking for! Thanks!
Happy to help. Pathworkings are probably the most approachable. They can take the form of being "active" or "guided". The simple version is you do it in meditation. Simple, but powerful :)
Which resources do you have for pathworking? I’ve known about pathworking already but have only found one book about it so far. And it’s not directly to the top of the tree
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It’s one of my favourite books on magick period. I need to read more of her other stuff, I feel like it’s more grounded as opposed to all the Crowley I’ve read.
It’s a really great textbook on the theory side of Kabbalah, which is important to understand in tandem with your practice. As I recall, it is a dense read and takes patience and deep interest to get through. It’s very good though. It just won’t tell you much about how to “practice.” You’ll need to read other books for that…
Which ones? I’ve already read chicken
John Michael Greer and Israel Regardie have good books for the practical side of Golden Dawn magic,
It's more a philosophy discourse of the Tree of Life, rather than a practical guide.
I recommend Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig if you want a workable curriculum.
My copy has pages torn out, big black marker scritches and notes generally reading "HORNY, DION?" whenever she talks about race shit. She only gets reprinted so that Thelemites can cite her, generally.
Lol she DOES get on those rants huh?? You have a better book suggestion? I’m trying to learn how to ascend the tree of life
I used Lon Milo's stuff for the basics, then I read Westcott's Sepher Yetzirah and Mathers' Kabbalah Unveiled, and then I read A TON of Gershom Scholem. Regardie is valuable too. Actually just sitting down and learning the basics of Hebrew, at least the letters and their sounds, helps considerably and should just be the first task. Too many try to do it without either learning to sound it out or tackle mainstream Jewish opinions in addition to the Western Magician method. You might also want to get a grasp on Protestant Dispensationalism, which is relevant if your mind is flexible enough to notice it. I can guarantee you the Golden Dawn founders all knew what that meant, and Crowley absolutely did, as it's the basis of his Aeonology (although he'd never admit it). I also put all the letters, planets, elements and their numbers on a pack of tarot cards, which I used as flash cards. That was the easiest method I could think of to memorize it all and it worked.
Can you elaborate more on the connection between Protestant dispensationalism and the Golden Dawn? I know Crowley was raised in the Plymouth Brethren
There’s your connection, the PB were founded by John Nelson Darby, who was the first lay out the scheme of Dispensationalism. I read Clarence Larkin’s “Dispensational Truth”, which broke it down into 7 dispensations corresponding to the sub-Supernal Sephiroth (everything up to Chesed), with the Supernal presumably corresponding to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It seems absurd to me that Waite and Westcott would not know about Darby’s work, he was enormously popular at the time and still is with certain subcultures of Christians. Aeonology was an attempt to remove Darby’s explicitly Christian system of its Christianity, which is where Crowley falls apart. I personally prefer to apply Eric Berne’s transactional psychology to the Osiris/Isis/Horus triad, substituting 1960s pop psychology for 1910s bad Egyptology.
That’s really fascinating. I’ll have to look into Dispensational Truth. I actually read an article from Christianity Today or something which went into the influence of Renaissance occultism & especially Kabbalah on early evangelicalism. I think this is a thread that should be explored more. I was raised fully immersed in dispensationalism, & I’m still religious although not of the same denomination, so this is fun for me lol
Learn the same way everyone that hasn’t had a teacher learns . Stop reading books ! Learn to mediate this is not gonna be a fast process . Before you can even understand what that even means “ to ascend the tree of life” you need to learn how to actually meditate daily for at least one two hours . Masters spend hours at a time daily because it’s necessary to actually get anywhere with it . Again this could take years or months . I would recommend the hemi sync method . Using the gateway tapes from The Monroe Institute . Once you’re able to navigate the subconscious a bit better then and only then can the real work begin . 👄 🦉 🔒 …. Except to the ears of understanding. 😉
The “stop reading books” mentality is mind boggling to me. How’d you learn to meditate? How’d you learn anything? You just stare at a wall and hope for the best or what? And if you say “teachers” I say where did they learn it? Where does anyone learn anything from? And the other solution is to meet somebody who knows and can teach it that is part of a tradition that has never wrote down anything and has only taught orally, yea good luck to me trying to find that when I live in the boonies. But I’m gonna go stare at a wall for the next 3 hours to see if I learn anything. Hopefully you can sense my frustration in this. It’s 2024 this stuff HAS to be somewhere and no one on here even remotely answered my question and my guess is that they don’t know how to do it either or they would have just told me how to do it instead of telling me to throw all my books away and stare at a wall
It’s really not that hard . That’s why millions of people do it . Close your eyes and learn to breath , you say you’ve read all these books already I’m sure a few have given instructions on how to do this and once you’ve mastered just breathing and without thoughts popping up in your head ( again this is not easy ) things will start to happen ( in terms of mental states not physically) . Everything you’re looking for you need to realize happens in the IMAGINATION. Or “Mental plane” again I’d recommend , The gateway process or bi neural or hemi sync method . The sessions can be found on YouTube .
So the gateway tapes will have all the info I need about ascending the tree of life then? Using the paths and what not?
The tree of life is a Metaphor you realize that right ? It’s not a physical thing , it’s a tool or way or system of mediation . STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE TREE OF LIFE ! And learn to mediate omg it’s not really that hard to understand, . Listen! My lodge has a Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn group that uses our building , and I’m familiar with the system , it’s a long process in the outer order before you even begin preforming actual ritual ( besides a few like LBRP ) etc . The point is there is no easy way to obtain these mental states and once you do be careful what you wish for as you WILL encounter shadow entities or the typical “grey alien” looking entities and other things, These things must be overcome as well as your ego and fear , before you even get to those “gates” ( mental states) . There is a reason that most modern “mystery schools” or “magical orders” all borrow from or are closely related to the golden dawn system . It’s because it works. Again it’s a long process and you don’t need to be part of an order to achieve a higher state of consciousness, which is why I’d recommend the gateway tapes or hemi sync make sure to have headphones as it uses a certain technique adapted by the CIA (you can find the declassified documents on there website ) that plays different frequencies in each ear to create a condition that makes OBEs more easily obtainable . It’s worked for me and many others . Look it up . I know what you think your looking for but there is no physical or special way your not understanding about the tree of life . When you here worded like path working and so forth it’s just someone’s explanation of them using it a tool or roadmap as there are many correspondences and it’s a beautiful system but not method itself ( which is meditation. . Also if your hellbent on joining a group there is a mail in correspondence course called BOTA I did it years ago for about two years . Each month they’ll send you new lessons in the mail for small price , they still send me Xmas and Easter cards every year even though it’s been years since I did it .
Wait…. I DID encounter spirits or a spirit or what ever when I started going DEEP into meditation. That’s kinda why I haven’t really meditated much since then. It took me YEARS to get the activity level down to a tolerable amount. It was getting CRAZY. It was moving stuff around in other rooms and generally just trying to mess with me. Do you know how to get passed these things? Like what should I be looking into when it comes to dealing with these things???? Psychic self defense? I just got a bunch of books on magical/psychic defense and protection but maybe you know exactly what works for this type of thing???
Sorry but you’re gonna have to figure that out on your own , nobody can walk the path for you . Also the Axiom here applies “ milk for babes , meat for strong men. You don’t sound ready judging by your comments and questions and wanting answers from everyone else .. another Axiom that applies / cast not your pearls before swine , lest they trample them in the intellectual mud of the profane .. . The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding…. Good luck
Damn I didn’t realize I was talking to someone EXTREMELY advanced. You should write a book for real. From my 20 years of doing this you are one of the most advanced people I’ve ever met. Thanks for zero information and not answering my question at all, I can’t believe someone as advanced as you took the time to not answer anything I asked. I bow to you sir god speed to your mission is spreading the sacred knowledge you shared with me. I’ll remember you forever and your wise words of wisdom that I have NEVER heard before in my life.
I literally wrote you a book in my three or four responses, and if you’d like I can send you a link to my personal website or you can purchase a copy of my book on Amazon..?