I have two questions in mind through which I’ll try to, in return, give my point of view to these questions.Nahumatarah wrote: ↑Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:21 pm I would be interested to hear your ideas, and experiences about practical magical applications to meditation diagrams, such as the yantras or mandalas or any sort of “mystical diagrams”.
Tattva vision, the basic exercise of "scrying in the spirit vision" used in the Golden Dawn system. is one practical exercise than comes to mind when thinking diagrams or simple geometric representations. Similar tools to tattva cards are for example the Zener cards designed by perceptual psychologist Karl Zener to conduct experiments for extrasensory perception. --I'm interested to hear has anyone here done any experiment with these sorts of tools especially relating to their claimed aid for astral clairvoyance, scrying or ESP?
1. What did Golden Dawn seek to accomplish with tattva cards?
There might be actual information available of this in books (perhaps in ’The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic’?), but as it is often more interesting and useful trying to get to these reasons by one’s own means first, I will entertain myself with such an attempt. Perhaps this could open up the subject more for discussion.
First comes the idea of basic geometrical shapes pointing to more archetypal stage of forms. The simple forms one looks in to in a tattva card might bring the contemplative mind from the more complex forms (thoughts, sensed forms etc.) towards those more elemental. From here we get to the second question.
2. What is the kind of extrasensory perception that would be actually useful to practice one’s capabilities in?
The elemental forms in themselves will thus bring the mind closer to the archetypal world. When you are really familiar with the basic forms of geometry, you begin to understand the more complex forms, that are more or less just repetition and combination of these more simple ones. By knowing the first form, or better yet the formless, one gains a clear sight to its variations, progressions and complexions. Perhaps the extrasensory perception, the practice of tattva cards are made for, means something of this sort.
While the above is dealing with the basic and slightly dry stuff (only on surface, for we are talking about the actual source of wisdom one can practice in oneself), lets consider the concept a bit further. The elemental forms in themselves might start to mean something to one who contemplates their nature. By contemplation I mean something similar to the process of scrying, not by forcefully staring at the form, but perhaps having that form in one’s mind and allowing it to reveal something that will spark one’s imagination to the mysterious ideas behind this elemental form. One who is able to go further in such a practice might come to understand how imagination has to work in balance with other tools of the mind (the Hierogylphic Key is a diagram for such balance), or else one of these tools will lead the contemplation to the snares the over emphasised principle(s) hides within.
Let’s take vesica piscis or its alternative – the oval – as an example. The imagination might conjure up thoughts of a portal – an abstracted gateway. This gateway may lead to other concepts the aspirant has familiarized oneself with: beyond the gateway is a matrix all gateways connect to, and through this matrix everything connects to everything with certain laws. These portals are like eggs within the womb matrix. Here the imagination has established metaphysical meaning to the elemental form. The form has brought the mind almost beyond form. Following this, the practitioner might have furthered their abilities in an extrasensory perception, a rudimentary training in clairvoyance. Not the sort where astral visions pour in without limits or where no truly meaningful understanding is gained through real effort, but one which reaches beyond and is able to steadily take steps further, for example to inspect the laws of how things connect to each other in the matrix. It is easy to just say that ”everything connects to everything”, but it needs some effort to actually see how different things that are in some cases on differen spheres or dimensions of existence connect to each other, and why there is some things that might have need for rules to connect in a certain way, on what basis limits and allowances are made, and what are the proper order of things, and to what extent these limitations are real, necessary etc.
A thought provoking record cover art:
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Mystical diagrams and geometry in architecture is something I’d be really interested to explore in the discussion, but this message has become already quite longwinded. I could continue in another message if the discussion awakes more towards that direction.
I have hard time understanding musical theory eventhough music is a form of art I've spent most of my time with. Are you suggesting the overtone series and reciprocal series are repeating cosmic laws on it's own field of aural manifestation? I like the idea that F not appearing on the overtone series would thus become a negative symbol of the Dark Mother's state of the non-manifest background to all manifestation. A question rises: is the overtone series always relative to the key note, meaning that F is only missing from the overtone series of C, or is the overtone series just one thing and not tied to a key tone? If the former is true, I would think the cosmic law repeating on it's own field of aural manifestation is perhaps more accurate expression than thinking that the one overtone series defines tha aural field in a very specific way, giving also tones and frequencies more deifinite meaning rather than relative to the scale. When writing songs I've tend to notice that notes have this relative meaning, but also a nuanced definite meaning of the frequency, so I guess both ways of thinking are to some degree true if we think frequencies and their meanings outside the overtone series.
