The Columns of the Temple
The Symbolism of Duality in Western Esotericism
We mentioned in the third class of “The Ancient Mysteries” series that the ‘House of the Lord’ must be build within ourselves. We said that this ‘house’ is the human soul, the dwelling of our Interior Divinity, our Inner Being, the Intimus. It is the Temple of God which must be built within our human organism (“your body is a temple”).
There are 2 columns which are at the entrance of the Temple of God: one white and the other black. These represent the Binary, the Dualism of Nature, the Yin and Yang of Eastern philosophy: those two opposing forces which we must learn to balance.
Eliphas Levi tries to help us understand how to reconcile these extremes in a very beautiful way:
Reasonable faith, authorized liberty, rights merited by accomplished duty, and capital as the son and father of work; here, as we have already said in other terms, are the formulas of the absolute.
And if someone asks us which is the center of opposition, which is the fixed point of equilibrium, we already responded that it is the essence itself of a God who is at the same time sovereignly free and infinitely necessary.
That the centripetal force and the centrifugal force are two contrary forces is not something to be questioned; but that from these two combined forces results the equilibrium of the earth, is something else that would be equally absurd and useless to deny.
The agreement of Reason with Faith, of Science with Religion, of Liberty with Authority, and of the human Verb with the divine Verb, is no less evident…”
-Paraphrase from the ‘Preliminary Discourse’ to the Second Edition of Dogma of High Magic
The Two Columns of the Ancient Temples
-From Ch.24 of Tarot and Kabbalah
-Paraphrase of Ch.2 of Dogma of High Magic
-From the Bible, 1st Kings 7:21
and Boaz, the left-hand column, is Black, Woman, the Feminine Principle.
Between the two columns “J.” and “B.” is the Great Arcanum, and it is precisely this which many Masonic brothers do not understand.”
-Paraphrase from Ch.2 of Tarot and Kabbalah
-From Ch.2 of Esoteric Course of Kabbalah
What is Between the Two Columns?
What then, in truth, is this stone or rock? It is the foundation of the absolute philosophy, it is supreme and unshakable reason. Before even dreaming of the metallic work, one must be permanently fixed upon the absolute principles of wisdom, one must possess that supreme and unshakable reason which is the touchstone of the truth. Never will a man who is full of prejudices become the king of nature and the master of transmutations.
The philosophical stone is then necessary before all else; but how is it to be found? Hermes teaches us how in his emerald tablet. We must separate the subtle from the fixed with great care and extreme attention…”
-Paraphrase of Ch. 19 of Dogma of High Magic
The Great Principle of the Absolute: Equilibrium or Universal Balance
-Paraphrase from the Ch.3 of Book 2 in History of Magic by Eliphas Levi
-Paraphrase from the Introduction to History of Magic by Eliphas Levi
The peacock, the ram and the serpent represent the same hieroglyphic sign: that of the passive principle and the sceptre of Juno, the cross and arrow, are the active principle, willpower, magical action, the coagulation of the dissolvant, the fixation of the volatile by projection, and the penetration of the earth by the fire. The union of the two is universal balance, it is the great arcanum, it is the great work, it is the equilibrium of Jakin and of Boaz.”
-Paraphrase from the Ch.2 of Book 6 in History of Magic by Eliphas Levi
-From the Introduction to History of Magic by Eliphas Levi
-From the ‘Preliminary Discourse’ to the Second Edition of Dogma of High Magic
they must become Alchemists, so that they can return to the Ain Soph.”
-From Ch.2 of Esoteric Course of Kabbalah
The Two Forces: Opposing Polarities
Absolute unity is the supreme and final reason of things. Now, this reason can be neither one person nor three persons: it is a reason, and it is the ultimate reason. In order to create equilibrium one must separate and unite: separate by the poles, and unite by the center.“
-From Ch.22 of Dogma of High Magic
Between lovers that magnetic force is particularly powerful and its action goes a long way. Sexual Magic (The Sahaja Maithuna) between husband and wife is based on the polar properties which certainly have their potential element in sex.”
-Paraphrase from Ch.1 of Mystery of the Golden Blossom
The Magnetic Pause
As we studied in the Gnostic Tarot & Kabbalah series, the Kundalini is raised through the spinal medulla or medullar channel of our spine by practicing Sexual Magic while we do not spill the Mercury of the Philosophers, the Ens Seminis, the Jing of Daoism.
The Arcanum A.Z.F., Sexual Magic, or Maithuna, may only be practiced between HUSBAND AND WIFE IN LEGITIMATELY CONSTITUTED HOMES.
The practice of the Arcanum must be realized only once a day, if one practices twice in a day one drops into the Negative, violating the Recuperative Magnetic Pause.”
-From Ch.24 of Tarot and Kabbalah
What is this ‘Recuperative Magnetic Pause’? This is something that we must understand and is related to the forces of attraction and repulsion. It is also called the ‘Creative Magnetic Pause’ and is used to build up the polarizing forces of the husband and wife so that they can take full advantage of the sexual connection. Its purpose is to avoid the desensitization of the spouses to each other so that they can work efficiently in the Great Arcanum.
a) A determined period of time intelligently and voluntarily established in between copulation and copulation.
b) Prolonged joy of metaphysical coitus, without orgasm, spasm and without losing seminal liquid.”
-Paraphrase from Ch. 18 of Mystery of the Golden Blossom
Man as a microcosm is required to walk in accordance with those living rhythms of infinite space which hold the universe steady in its course. In the same way that stars in the firmament come and go within their orbits without impeding each other and hence have their proportional luminosity, so too should husband and wife proceed to sexually unite periodically.
Even when it is impossible for determined couples to have separate bedrooms, there is an infallible remedy to prevent magnetic depletion, and since it would be very serious not to mention it, we shall give the formula:
and try not to interrupt the vital electrical current,
carefully avoiding the abominable spasm.”
-Paraphrase from Ch. 16 of Mystery of the Golden Blossom
Therefore it is recommended as a baseline for us to do the Practice about 1-2 times a week, with a maximum of once per day (every 24 hours). And as we covered in the class “Burn your Books and Whiten your Brass”, our goal for the duration of the Practice should be between 1-3 hours.
But obviously everyone is different and those who can not practice that much or for that long should work to achieve the best possible use of these tremendously powerful energies as is possible (keeping in mind the Creative Magnetic Pause and its application).
it is the duty so to do with a woman,
that which harms neither you nor me,
a hundred and four times a year is awarded.”
Zoroaster wrote to his fellows that man and wife should make love every nine days; because of that, the woman should ask the man nine times each morning: “Tell me, my lord, what should I do today? Your will is law.”
The wise legislator Solon awarded woman the right to be covered by a man three times in the course of four weeks.
Men who have passed beyond the age of fifty, are simply advised to obey the Creative Magnetic Pause which Nature establishes in their physiology of Eros.
These people, even though they want to practice Sexual Magic, must learn to wait for the appropriate moment; it is absurd to force the sexual organs or to undertake copulation with a deficient erection.
People of advanced years should never worry; it is obvious that Nature also establishes in them their sexual “plus” and “minus”, their periods of activity and repose.
The creative magnetic pause also resolves the somehow deficient function of the genitals and the chakras or sympathetic plexuses provided by them.
The sage Charles Waldemar said:
“The magnetic pause is necessary for the replacement of consumed energy.
Frequently, however, a participant even goes so far as to interpret this pause as a lack of love and conjugal desire, obliging their partner, in morbid vanity, to demonstrate their willing deference with new displays of excitation.
In a forced manner such participant will repeatedly give clear demonstrations of sensual fire, the other partner having no alternative but to escape the representative mimicry of sensations which are no longer excitable or experimental.
As a consequence of this, spiritual deviation increases until repulsion and desperation expand in such a way that vehement disputes become inevitable.
Shame and hatred of those affected increase, leading to spiritual disturbance and usually the conversion of marriage into a curse.
What are to blame here are firstly lack of knowledge and secondly disuse of the Creative Magnetic Pause.”
The magnetic exchange during sexual intercourse is especially positively manifested when husband and wife unite with the clear purpose of not exceeding the point of sexual culmination, that is to say, not reaching orgasm.
It is then that both husband and wife have prodigious sexual electric forces available, with which they can reduce all the psychic aggregates to ashes which in conjunction constitute that which is called the Ego, the “I”, the Myself, the Oneself.”
-Paraphrase from Ch. 16 of Mystery of the Golden Blossom
The Magnetic Exchange
The purpose of the Magnetic Pause is to strengthen the Magnetic Polarities of the Husband and Wife so that they can have a wonderful exchange of energy during the Practice.
Dynamic magnetic flames surround the couple during sexual trance like an undulating sea of terribly divine purple red gas.
It is a tremendous moment in which the masculine currents attempt to unite with the feminine currents.
…
It is imperative that the most important centers of the body make harmonious and calm contact, so that the exchange of magnetic forces is profound, edifying and essentially dignified.”
-Paraphrase from Ch. 18 of Mystery of the Golden Blossom