The Church of the Hermetic Sciences

Associate Member Program

Lesson Number 1

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Legenda of the First Degree -- Pastophoris -- Fellowship of the Grail

Nosce te Ipsum

Worthy candidates for initiation are seated on a bench facing The Gate of Men, which is the gap
between the menhirs of the Moon and the Realm of the Fixed Stars (Luna and Crater) 1 The
Thesmophores, their guide and sponsor, reads The Cult of the Sangreal to them.

Here follows that poem, which traces the history and mystery of our Hermetic Tradition;
in this case interspersed with commentary explaining each section:
CULT of the SANGREAL

© 1976 by C.H.S., Inc.

Commentary © 1998 by Carroll "Poke" Runyon

It was scribed on tablets at ancient Ugarit,

In the days of Melchizedek,

Of a Golden Goblet of the Gods --

Brimming with Life's Liquor upon the High Place

In the time when Abram made Souls

In the far land of the Star Kings,

Even in the dreaming Temples of Harran.

 Most of our knowledge of ancient Canaanite mythology and religion comes from the Ra
Shamra archaeological discoveries in the late 1930's. These clay tablets from the ancient city of
Ugarit on the Syrian coast give us the epic of Baal and his sister Anath (who would eventually
become the Goddess Astarte). The myth speaks of Baal having a goblet so great as to awe
mortal man, brimming with liquor (probably mead, rather than wine). This account was written
down a thousand years before the Hebrews appropriated the Semitic All-Father El, or Latipan,
and gave him a new name (YHVH).

The Biblical Melchizedek was actually a Canaanite priest-king of Jerusalem in those days.
He was a "Priest of the Most High God". Father El was always called "The Compassionate" in
marked contrast to the appellations"jealous" and "vengeful" so often applied to Yahweh. El did
not meddle in the affairs of humankind (except to have sex with occasional human females). He
was not a punisher. This aloof and benign deity was much closer to that impersonal NeoPlatonic
God-Force conceived by the later Hermetic-Kabbalistc philosophers.

In those days Abram, the mythical founder of both the Jewish and the Muslim religions,
had set out from his native city of Ur and trekked northward to the mysterious City of the Moon
God, Harran of the Pagan planet-worshiping Sabians, where, it is written in the Bible, he "Made
Souls"; perhaps the earliest reference to the magick of Golem making?

To Khem did he journey and thence to Canaan,

Where the Zaddik who was High Priest of El;

Creator-of-all-Created in the Womb of Asherat,

Even he who was King in Salem,

Did give old Abram to drink of the Dew of Heaven,

And to eat of the Cakes of Light;

His dispensation; how soon his sons forgot

Their gift from the Mount of Armageddon.

This verse reprises and amplifies the first. Abram went south from Harran (which lies between
the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and into Egypt. He retraced his steps
northward into Canaan where he met Melchizedek (the zaddik, or adept) who was high priest of
El at Jerusalem. Jewish tradition holds that Melchizedek was Noah's son Shem from whom all
the Semitic peoples had descended. The Communion Melchizedek gave to Abram was recorded
as "bread and wine" in the Bible, but we hold that it was the life-sacrament of the honey-mead.
Armageddon refers to the sacred Canaanite mountain of Meggido, not the "last battle."

And, yet, King David sang the mystery of Wand and Cup

And Hiram, Priest-King of Pagan Tyre,

Did he not rejoice in building the Temple of Solomon?

In the lusty embrace of the Cherubim;

Sun-God symbol of Mighty Emanations,

Begetting Prince and Princess upon the Mother-of-the-Sea,

Lords of Fire and Water, Air and Earth...

The very Tetragrammaton!

The Twenty-third Psalm refers to the Grail Hallows. . . . In The Book of Kings Hiram, Priest-King of
Phoenician Tyre, said: "Praise the Lord" when Solomon asked asked for his help in building the
great Temple at Jerusalem. The "Lord" in this case was El, and there is sound reason to believe
that Solomon built the Temple for El and all His "Ba’als", perhaps including Yahweh (see The Ba’al
Astarte Mythos in TBOSM). . . .The Cherubim on the Ark are traditionally

male and female -- and there is an inner tradition that recounts that they were locked in sexual
embrace! The most ancient formula would have been: El and Mother Asherat begetting

Ba’al and Anath (Astarte), i.e. "Father-Mother-Son-Daughter; Fire, Water, Air and Earth -- Sha
Mah Ah Tah, or Ah Mah Sha Oh (the 24 letter form) -- the original Tetragrammaton.

Was not Solomon called a wise and even Wizard King?

Who did confine the two-and-seventy rebellious spirits

In the Vessel of Brass, metal of the Sphere Mercurial,

With mastery of Brazen Shield and Sword of Iron --

Did he not call them to appear in the Triangle of his Art,

Led by the first of their number, Lord Cloud Rider,

Whereafter Solomon did build a Temple to His Consort,

The Fair Astarte.

Arabian and Talmudic legends hold that Solomon was a Master Magician and founder of the art-
science of Ritual Magick. The idea of 72 celestial "Gods of the Decans of the Zodiac," was ancient
Egyptian and predated the time of Solomon (800 b.c.). During the Dark Ages (600 a.d.) these
spirits were said to be "The Fallen Angels" whom Solomon had sealed up in "A Vessel of Brass" --
a metal attributed to the planet Mercury which could be polished to form a reflective surface,
and which was also a philosophical analog for the human brain-case (skull). They were evoked
into a Triangle, which was a Pythagorean geometric demon-trap (see TBOSM Chapter 3 and
Appendix 4). . . The first spirit of the medieval Lesser Key of Solomon's Goetia is "Bael", who is
obviously the Canaanite God Ba’al -- and it is a matter of record that Solomon built a temple to
Baal's consort the Goddess Astarte.

Her Prince the very Dying God, born from the Myrrh Tree
Whose funery resin invokes the Planet of Resurrection.

From Sacred Aphaca, high in the Lebanon --

His yearly blood reddens the river Adonis

And stains the Mare Internum even to this day --

When from Summer Solstice to Autumn Equinox,

He lies entombed in the Back-o'-Beyond; Awaiting

The Nectar of Life sparkling in Her Chalice,

Spiraling down through the Seven Gates of Seven Worlds,

Born by the Dancing Maiden, eternal Princess of the Grail!

An ancient Egyptian myth recounts that Astarte helped the mourning Isis to discover the body of
her slain brother Osiris imprisoned in a Myrrh tree in Lebanon. The sacred resin of the Myrrh
tree was used in embalming and as a funeral incense. It is Kabbalistically attributed to the planet
Saturn whose glyph is the Tau Cross of resurrection. . . In her classic study on the ancient origins
of the Holy Grail myth , From Ritual to Romance, Jessie Weston held that idea of a Holy Cup of
the Year King's blood originated at the ancient Shrine to Baal and Astarte, called Aphaca
thousands of years before the death of Christ. At that location in the mountains of Lebanon a
waterfall emerges from a cave, and drops into the wild gorge of the river Adonis (Nahr Ibrahim).
Every spring the water rises to reach a hematite layer making the river run red as blood all the
way out to the sea. . . .Traditionally Baal is killed by The Dark Lord Mot at Summer Solstice in the
season of parching draught. The Year King lies entombed in Mot's cavern kingdom, called "The
Back-o'-Beyond", to be rescued and reawakened at each Autumn Equinox (heralding the return
of the rains) by the Goddess Astarte. . . Like Her Babylonian counterpart Ishtar, Astarte passes
down through Seven Gates -- but in the Canaanite version, which we reconstruct from clues
surviving in the Biblical tale of Princess Salome's "Dance of the Seven Veils", the Goddess leaves
a colored veil attributed to the power of each sephira of the Tree of Life at each portal. . . And we
should not forget that in medieval legends the Grail was always born by a maiden.

Not a cup of wine; blood of death in mournful memory

Of a pale Lord returning, not 'til Earth Herself

Lies doomed under the Wormwood Star,

But a Cup of Mead; Sunborn Honey-Dew of Heaven!

The very Zraa of Macroprosopus --

For a Green and Horned Prince of Thunder

And His winsome, vernal Bride!

She dances her way down to the underworld bearing the Nectar of Life or the Zraa of
Macroprosopus (the honey-mead seminal sacrament -- quite literally "the Seed of the Stars") to
revive the dead Prince Ba’al. This Pagan life-renewing conception is more in harmony with the
idea of reincarnation than the depressing Christian notion of one brief lifetime not rewarded or
punished until some distant doomsday.

These same Tyrian Mysteries traveled thence --

To Egypt of the Ptolomies, even to learned Alexandria,

Where Thrice-Greatest-Hermes did declare in His Pymander

That He had caused to descend Earthward, A great Chalice;

"A Prize for the Souls" thirsting after Wisdom --

The only Gnosis of Immortality.

Our Hermetic magical religion was classical Paganism's last desperate effort to save its deepest
and most profound secrets from the destructive rampage of Christian fanaticism that swept the
Mediterranean world in the fourth and fifth centuries. The great university and library at
Alexandria in Egypt was the birthplace of our Hermetic Tradition. The Crata Repoa initiatory
system that we use in The Order of the Temple of Astarte is an amalgam of Alexandrian
Hermetic rites and teachings from this era. According to Hermes Trismegistus The Crater (or
Hermetic Grail) was sent down to earth and "Stationed in the midst as it were, a prize for the
Souls." In other words: look within yourself! The Crater is also an ancient symbol of rebirth

written in the stars (Plato's "Cauldron of Becoming"). Souls returning to earth must drink from it
before completing their spiral course to the sign of their nativity. The quest for the earthly Grail
is forever linked to an understanding of The Celestial Grail.

Is it not true that Theurgic Masters from far Harran,

Heirs of those ancients who had passed the Golem Secret --

To venerable Father Abram,

Those who yet worshiped the Seven Wanderers of the starry vault;

Sabian Wizard-Lords of Zodiac and Magick

Who were Sages to the Caliphs of Islam,

Did honor Hermes Trismegistus as Prophet

And preserve His teachings with their own Arcanum

At the Courts of Moorish Spain in the years of the Holy Kabbalah

By the word of She-Who-Blackens.

This passage refers to a fascinating series of connections, and re-connections in our Western
Magical Tradition. In the seventh century the mysterious cult of moon and planet worshippers,
who had lived for thousands of years in the city of Harran, were confronted by the leader of an
Islamic army. This emir demanded, in accordance with the Koran, that the Hurranians become
Muslims, Christians, Jews or "Sabians." (The Sabians had been the original Queen of Sheba’s
star-worshippers from southern Arabia, whom Mohammed had exempted from forced
conversion to Islam for political reasons.) Naturally the Hurranians picked the Sabian option --
but the Arab emir also demanded that they produce a "Holy Book" to prove their claim. The wise
Hurranian Sabians submitted not one but two books for consideration: the Corpus Hermeticum
and the more Biblical Book of Enoch. These works thus became the fundamental scriptures of
our Tradition.

These Hurranian Sabians were then in a unique position. Unlike Musilm Sufis, who had to
obscure their arcane arts in coded poetry, the Sabians could openly practice and teach astrology,
alchemy and ritual magick. They were very much in demand at the courts of the Caliphs and the
sultans of Islam from Baghdad to Moorish Spain. In the Spanish universities of the early middle
ages the Sabians star-magicians and Jewish Kabbalists came together and exchanged ideas.

Before King Solomon's time the Kabbalah had originated in Pagan Assyria -- whose Gods
were cognate with those of Canaan. There the Gods and their planetary palaces had been placed
on a "Tree of Life" design. During the era of Pagan Samaritan Gnosticism in Palestine and
Alexandria, Pythagorean geometric and mathematical elements were added. Jewish rabbinical
scholars then monotheistically sanitized the system -- but, when they encountered the Sabians
in Spain, the inevitable process of re-paganizing what was to become a "Hermetic Kabbalah"
began.

The reference to "She Who Blackens" refers to a remarkable book of Arabian and Sabian
celestial magick called The Aim of the Sage, or Picatrix, which contains all that survives of
Sabian star-lore and ritual.
Did not these same Sabian Magi entrust their Key

Unto the Knights and Ladies of Montsalvat,

Companions of the Sangreal in lost Languedoc --

In the bygone days of the troubadours...

And was it not written in the Parzifal

That in the Season of Saturn, the wounded Amfortas,

Did lie in cruelest agony; the land laid waste and barren

About the Castle; the ancient curse of Mot...

Demanding of the Hero a forbidden question.

Modern scholars have found a fascinating connection between the star-lore and magick of the
Sabians, and that most mysterious of the medieval Holy Grail accounts, Wolfram von Esenbach's
Parzifal. The enlightened civilization of early medieval Moorish Spain was equalled in the
southern French province of Languedoc. This was the prosperous and cultured society that gave
birth to European chivalry. Arthurian and Holy Grail literature first flowered here -- and the
famous "Courts of Love" of the Troubadours, where our concepts of romantic love originated,
flourished in this actual counterpart of a mythical Camelot.

But, in the 13th century the popularity of mystical (Gnostic) Christianity in the area
brought down the wrath of Mother Church in the form of an unholy "crusade" that laid waste to
the beautiful land and slaughtered its gentle, cultured people. Over a million were killed. The
Gnostic Christian Cathars were exterminated along with the less known and more secretive Cult
of the Sangreal whom we have reason to believe had rediscovered the origin and significance of
The Grail as written in the stars.

"The Season of Saturn" refers to the last and most remote of the medieval planets, the
final place of divestiture before rising to the Ogadad, or Eighth Sphere. The earthly analog is the
parching draught of summer before rebirth in autumn (brought on by The Dark Lord Mot). The
forbidden question is simply, "What ails you, father?"

The answer is equally simple, "I'm afraid to die, my son."

If Darkness be the everlasting Chalice of Light,

Why then do we fear Death as an ending --

Rather should we but respect it as a voyage beyond --

Perhaps to service at the Circle-Round --

If, therefore, the Call sounds clear in thine heart,

Enflaming the Diamond of thine own Rose-Rayed Star,

Know then that thou art of the Twice-Born

And the Great Work lies before thee;

Initiation is but an awakening and a coming home.

Wolfram von Esenbach described The Grail as a glowing green stone having its origin in
the stars -- in other words, the human soul! We all have this Divine Soul within us. It whispers to
us in our quiet, reflective moments. Most humans die without ever finding The Grail within. They
have immortality but they can't share it because they are not aware of that element of their own
nature which survives.

"The Diamond of thine own Rose-Rayed Star" refers to this Holy Grail Stone within each of
us. The Great Work of Western Magick is literally the Quest for this Inner Grail. The allegory of
purification and ordeal in the Quest Myth is symbolic of the transcendence of selfish physical
vanity and emotional gratification necessary to behold the Inner Divinity and eventually merge
our consciousness with it.

The Secret of the Grail is the four-fold nature of The Work --

Four-fold within as without -- and in subtle realms beyond.

Man, even as God, writes with the Wand and emblazons with the
 Sword,

Letters and Symbols in a spectrum of Fire.

Woman, like unto Goddess, nurtures the Glyphs in Her Cup,

Giving them substance from Her Pentacle: the ineffable Vowels

And yet there is that in Man which is Womanly

And that in Woman, that which is Manly --

Hence, all tools of The Word should be thine in tasks of The Art.

Hermes teaches us that our Soul is androgynous, therefore the first task of the magician should
be to develop and balance both the male and female aspects of his or her personality. In
psychological terms this is the Jungian process of Individuation. In the O.T.A. we symbolically
accomplish this on our astral journey up the 31st Path to the Sphere of Hod. This fusing of the
four elements into an integrated spiritual identity that can come to know that Shining Being
Within is the secret purpose of the four Grail Hallows. These are the traditional working tools of
the magician. We may also speculate that these implements in their most primitive form -- the
spear, the knife, the cup, and the dish -- are the very weapons and tools that once made us
human.
Who so enlivens the Microcosm shall transcend

As a free and winged Soul to follow the Raven

Beyond the Western Gate where the Dragon rides the Quarter,

Marching in Precession with the Grail to Equinox...

Even as the Seven-Veiled Goddess brings death unto Death,

So shall the Epoch of the Self-Borns be soon adawning --

When the Seekers shall be Masters. . .

And the Life Blood shall be Light!

This final passage reveals the Great Mystery and Prophecy of The Celestial Grail, or Crater of
Hermes. In the Summer 1976 issue of our journal The Seventh Ray we published the revelation
of the Return of the Holy Grail in the Age of Aquarius-Leo. We can briefly summarize this
phenomenon by pointing out that as we enter the new astrological Age (Aquarius-Leo) at the
turn of the Millennium the Autumn Equinox meridian in the heavens will precess to bisect the
constellation Crater -- while on the other side of the celestial sphere, the Vernal Equinox line will
bisect the stream pouring from the jug of the Water-Bearer, thus (by the doctrine of astrological
polarities) The Grail is symbolically filled. "Following the raven" refers to the constellation Corvus
the Raven, the bird of death, who rides behind The Crater on the back of the Great Sea Dragon
Hydra (or Lotan in our Canaanite Tradition). The "Seven-Veiled Goddess" who "brings death
unto Death" refers to Astarte's annual victory over Mot. The French magus Eliphas Levi once
remarked that, "Death is man's way of conquering immortality." The American author H. P.
Lovecraft wrote that ". . . With strange eons even death may die," and the mystic Terrance
McKenna suggests that we are approaching "The end of history."

Our revelation confirms all this, while declaring the coming dawn of a glorious New Aeon
when the Gods will again walk the earth, and yet remember with compassion that they were
once more human than divine.

After the reading of the poem (without the commentary) is completed, the Priest and
Priestess circle the Henge and enter through The Gate of Men. The Priest, and Priestess open the
Henge in due form, and the Priest, or a Deacon, performs the invoking Pentagram rite.

The Thesmophores bids the candidates to rise, and knocks three times with his staff.

The Priest inquires the cause of the alarm.

The Thesmophores declares that he brings worthy candidates who would join The
Fellowship.

The Priestess asks: “What do they seek in our company?”

The Thesmophores replies: “Love which knows no bounds.”

The Priest asks the candidates: “If it knows no bounds, why do you seek it here?

The candidates recite their answer in unison, and the Priestess bids them enter, showing
them The Entrance Sign, symbolizing the parting of the veil.
 The candidates gather at the altar in the center of the Henge.

On the altar is the universal planetary design called the Eneosphere, which depicts the
Earth, the Seven planets of the ancients, and the Realm of the Fixed Stars, in a series of
interlocking circles. 2 The Priestess explains the symbol and its relation to the Henge, concluding
that: “The Henge is the oldest Temple, uniting the Stars, the Planets, the points of the compass,
and the Seasons of the Year in one design.”

The Priest requires of them a verbal pledge to follow “The Path of Love, Light and
Wisdom,” before they may proceed.

Following this affirmation, the Priest and Priestess personally involve each candidate in
“The Alchemical Mystery” of the degree, starting the sequence in the South where the Priest
lights a fire in a brazier, and explains that before the aspirant can begin his return journey up the
Ladder of Ascension 3 (the Tree of Life), “He must master the Sphere of the Elements, Malkuth;
this being the work of the First Degree. It is accomplished through the Alchemy of the Sacred
Year, which progresses with the Seasons of Nature, and prepares the Prima Materia of You Being
for the Great Work to come.”

Priest and Priestess then begin the first Alchemical operation.

This first operation in the Southern Quadrant, on the side of the altar marked with the
Alchemical symbol for Sulphur, is Calcination, which is symbolized in our Sacred Drama from the
myths of ancient Canaan, depicting the slaying of Prince Ba’al, the vegetation spirit -- or Green
Man -- by The Dark Lord Mot, “The Grim Reaper,” who comes with the searing fires of Sol
causing the Summer drought.

Calcination reduces the Prima Materia to a fine, white ash, which is carried Westward on
the Summer Wind...

On the Western Side of the altar, which is marked by the Alchemical symbol for Mercury,
the Priestess then explains that “The purified Essence of Being is revived in the Crucible of
Creation by the Alchemical process of Solution-- which we symbolize in our Sacred Drama
depicting Astarte’s descent down through the Seven Gates of Heaven,” (Ishtar’s descent, and
Salome’s dance of the Seven Veils) ... “Bringing the Water of Life to resurrect the dead Prince
Ba’al.”

“Solution enlivens the Essence of Being, which flows Northward, like a river -- into the
Earth...”

In the North, under the altar’s Sign of Salt, is a dish of Earth resting upon The Pentacle of
Earth -- which is also The Dark Mirror of Nature, in which the reflection of Man’s Immortal Soul
lured him into bondage. Now the Essence in Solution is infused into the salts of the Earth and
must be set free by Alchemical process of Separation. This is symbolized by our Sacred Drama
depicting Ba’al’s victory-- with the help of the Moon Goddess-- over Lotan, the Dragon of Chaos,
personification of the forces of Nature unrestrained, at Winter Solstice.

Separation frees the Essence of Being to fly Eastward, toward the Dawn.

In the Center of the altar, placed upon the Eneosphere, is The Solstice Grail, 4 a large
Golden Chalice filled with Holy water (in our case pure water infused with a few drops from a
Sacred Spring.)

Placing the Essence into the Grail, the Priest declares: “The separated Essence of Being is
finally reunited with purified elements of Nature in the Alchemical process of Conjunction 5 --
which we symbolize in our Communion of the Elements ceremony on the occasion of the ancient
Canaanite New Year when the Hieros Gamos, or Sacred Marriage of the God and the Goddess
was

celebrated.

“Conjunction is the sublime culmination of the yearly Alchemical cycle. The further
operations of Alchemy, from Coagulation to Projection, are to be perfected in the Microcosom of
the Magician.
 Now, harken unto the words of Hermes Trismegistus:”

The Priestess, or the Odos, reads from The Corpus Hermeticum, Book Four, Verses 1
through 4. (which see).

The meaning of which is this:

The Creator made the whole Cosmos with His Word. He gave all Men the gift of Speech,
but not all Men received Spiritual Wisdom (Nous). The Creator placed a Great Chalice in the
Center of Cosmos, filled with Nous, as a prize for worthy Souls to seek, and through his
Messenger He declared that those who would find this Cup and baptize themselves in its
Essence would know why they were created, and would be on the Path of Return to the
Godhead. 6

After this reading, the Priest baptizes the female candidates--while the Priestess does so
for the male candidates--with water from the Crater, declaring them, by their Magical Names, to
be Pastaphori of the Grail Fellowship.

They are then given their instructions:

The Sign, the Grip, and the Word are communicated.

All join hands for a moment’s meditation, and blessing.

 A banishing Pentagram ritual is performed.

The Henge is closed in due form.

_______________________

Notes:

1. The Master Frederick Adams built the original Wood Henge from railroad ties. After the first
Feraferian film, we used it for some twenty years before it finally rotted away. We replaced it
with a lighter version that could be dismantled and transported for erection at campgrounds,
etc. Both these configurations can be seen in Feraferian and CHS/OTA videos. For newly forming
groups I suggest a much easier and more portable expedient: paint your planetary symbols on

natural rocks, and set them out in the proper pattern. This configuration can even be used
indoors if necessary. Your rocks can be as small as you like, and you’ll have fun collecting them.

2. The Eneosphere (nine interlocking circles) is found in a Rose Cross design from the French
version of Crata Repoa. See Paul Christian’s History and Practice of Magic.

3. This Ladder of Ascension, from the Mithriatic Tradition, is actually a version of The Tree of Life.
Modern occultists have lost sight of the Assent-Descent principle so essential to Gnostic,
Mitriatic and Hermetic philosophy. The Chakras must go in this order if a meaningful Ascension is
to be achieved. See the Crata Repoa tracing board design, The Seventh Ray, Book III, The Green
Ray.

4. The British, the French, and now even the Russians, may argue over who has the earliest Holy
Grail legend, but the oldest on record is Canaanite. “Ba’al’s cup to awe mortal man,” from the
Ugarit Ra Shamra tablets. For an excellent interpretation of this read Jessie Weston’s From Ritual
to Romance. Next oldest is Hermes’s Crater from The Curpus Hermeticum, and its celestial
counterpart the constellation Crater in the heavens. In line with this see Macrobius Commentary
on the Dream of Scipio. There is also a Hermetic connection in Wolfram von Esenbach’s Parsifal if
one needs to look for the earliest medieval version.

5. These first four stages of the Alchemical process follow Sir George Ripley’s The Twelve Gates
1649. (See In Pursuit of Gold by Lapidus.)

6. For this reading we use Dr. Everard’s 1650 translation of The Divine Pymander from the Arabic
because it is the oldest version of the Corpus Hermeticum in English. However, for the best and
most meaningful recension I recommend The Way of Hermes translated by Salaman, van Oyen,
and Wharton 1999.

Commentary on the Initiation Ceremony

The First Degree is attributed to the Sphere of Malkuth on the Tree of Life, the Realm of the
Elements, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. The Priest instructs the candidates that mastering and
balancing these Elements in themselves is the work of this degree. This is why the degree is
structured around the Seasonal cycle of Nature, the personal Alchemical processes that relate to
Seasonal progression, and the Gods and Goddesses that personify these forces. You should know
that along with the Phoenician alphabet giving rise to the later Greek alphabet, ancient
Canaanite mythology was also a major influence on classical Greek mythology. Ba’al became
Herakles, Astarte became Aphrodite, and Kusor became Hephaistos (Vulcan and the Biblical
Tubal Cain). Canaanite-Phoenician mythology itself was influenced by earlier Egyptian, Minoan,
and even Atlantean mythic themes and archetypes. It is cognate with Sumerian and later
Assyrian mythology. It is the ancient, secret religion behind Old Temple Judaism, and the
kabbalah. It was the religion of King Hiram of Tyre, Hiram Abiff, and probably King Solomon
himself; certainly the religion of the Queen of Sheba’s original Sabians -- and the later Hermetic
Harranian Sabians.

When applied to the Tree of Life, this ancient Canaanite pantheon fits the characteristics
of each Sephira to perfection. We should remember that the ten lost tribes of Israel did not
worship YHVH; they worshiped EL, and his Holy Family. Therefore, if we are to re-empower the
ancient Magick of Solomon, and recharge the kabbalah with its original Supernal Fire, we must
return to The Source.

Not only do the Gods of Canaan belong on the Tree of Life, the Seasons of Canaan follow
the four primal operations of Alchemy. Summer is the time of heat, dryness and withering death:
Calcination. Fall brings the rains: Solution. Winter the season of storms: Separation. Spring the
season of mating: Conjunction. In this sense Alchemy is both micro and macrocosmic.

The original secret name of God was not YHVH. This was a later Levite creation--not even
present in the first book of the kabbalah, the Sepher Yetzirah. The original secret name of God,
according to Moses, was EhHehYah (I AM) and He was know as “EL,” the Canaanite God of
Melchizedek, and Abraham. The ancient four-fold name representing the force of creation
through the Elements was, and is, ShaMahAhTah, which a study of the kabbalistic diagram The
Cube of Space will confirm.

In converting medieval Hebrew back into ancient Phoenician, we have recovered the two
missing letters that give us the twenty-four letters necessary to fully encode the cosmic sphere
as the Gnostic architects of the kabbalah originally intended.

You may wonder why we use the traditional Angels if we are also employing Canaanite
God-forms. In order to understand this you need to get beyond the restrictive, dualistic
conditioning of monotheistic priests, rabbis, ministers, and imams. Angels are direct
representitives of the Highest Power (even higher than EL), whereas Pagan Gods, Goddesses,
and elementals are personifications of natural forces, urges, and attitudes. Therefore we use the
four traditional Archangels, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Auriel to guard the compass quarters,
protect us from excesses and caprices of the elements within us, and empower us with the
strength and wisdom related to the particular Elemental Kingdom each Archangel controls.

Practitioners of Voodoo have no problem operating their pantheon of Pagan Gods, and
their Roman Catholic Saints and Angels together in harmony, and neither should you. This is why
their magick is so effective while our modern all good Angelic, or all evil Demonic systems are so
lacking in potency. Recall that Ceremonial Magicians have always used such diverse
combinations of light and darkness, good and evil, and transcendental vs. elemental forces for
dynamic balance in the practice of their magical art.

Satanic magick is more dangerous to the magician than anyone else.

Exclusively Angelic magick denies the dark side, which is always present in every psychic
endevor, and will operate in secret if continually ignored.

The great magicians of the Renaissance never made pacts with demons. They got the
demons to do their bidding by invoking, and assuming, the Power of God!

Hence our motto: Nosce te Ipsum -- Tu es Deus.

Kown Yourself -- You are God.

King Solomon mastered the demons (or the Jinn) by the power of his God (El), so we
employ the original Gods and Goddesses from Solomon’s time, who were later declared to be
“Demons” or “Jinn,” in our system of Solomonic Magick. The Canaanite Goddess of Love, Astarte
became the demon Astaroth, and Her consort Prince Ba’al became Bael, both spirits of the
medieval Goetia of the Lemegeton.

The employment of these Canaanite Godforms in evocation, invocation, psychic center

(chakra) yoga, and magick, is similar to the Tibetan tantric’s use of Malakalas, Dikinis, the
Goddess Tara, and other apparently Pagan deities in their practice of Buddhism. They venerate
their “Gods” and bring them to life -- but they are still Buddhists.

We enliven, venerate and employ our Gods and Goddesses, and we are still Hermetic.

It is also suggested that you read Seasonal Rites of Ba’al and Astarte, and Prince Aqhat
and the Magick Bow.

Along with this read Chapter Seven in The Book of Solomon’s Magick, The Ba’al Astarte
Mythos.

Tu es Deus

Thabion VII
Greetings Fratres et Sorores:

Nosce te Ipsum

You have just received the first lesson in the C.H.S. Associate

Member's course in the Magical Art. This lesson is the Legenda for the

first degree of our Crata Repoa system, Pastophoris or The Fellowship

of the Grail. It is given outdoors in the Henge, and is related to the

Sphere of Malkuth, the Hermetic Elements, the Seasonal cycle of ancient

Canaanite mythology, and the four primal operations of Alchemy. The

test questions are simple, direct and in sequence with the material.

The answers are "plug-ins" that do not require analysis, just

comprehension. We simply want to know that you have read the material

and understand it. So, read the essay, and the notes and commentary,

once for content and comprehension. Think about what you've read, then

go over it again, looking for the questions, and filling in the blanks.

That's all there is to it -- remember: question 12 is from the notes.

After you complete it, email it back to me for grading. After that you

get the next lesson, and so on.