INTRODUCTION

The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.1

efore all beginnings The One existed. Beyond understanding, transcending comprehension, alone in unutterable bliss, The One dwelt from eternity to eternity. Deep within the secret counsels of its being, The One desired to create. From the overflowing of the eternal love arose the desire to mirror Its bliss, to pour forth the plentitude of Its infinite life, and so to express Itself in a multitude of beings. Since there was nothing but The One, Its contemplated creation could occur nowhere except within Itself. The One, becoming the Great Initiator willing that creation should commence become the primal sacrifice; whereby The One became the many. There sprang forth from the heart of the Eternal seven great spirits. These where the Elohim, the Seven Spirits of the Throne.

Job: 38:7. This, and all biblical quotes in this book, are from the king James Authorized Vision.

The Elohim act as prism through which the supernal white brilliance of The One is refracted. They are the agents by which the creative Will is executed. Seven are the Elohim, seven prices having cosmic rule Uriel, Tzadkiel, Khamel, Raphael, Haniel, Michael, and Gabriel seven archangels of the Presence, through whom the divine splendor shines unobscured. The archangels are formed of pure light/force/energy, and are referred to in ancient texts as the Lords of Flame. These unfolded into being the planes of existence, which are reflections of The One, emanating down from fiery spirit, forming the mental and astral planes, till through the interaction of the elements which are reflections of the living Letters of the Name full physicality was created. Throughout these Four Worlds,2 as they are termed in the Qabalah, the divine life flowed, holding within Itself the potential of the of living creatures. All things were dreamed in the mind of God. By the will of The One, mediated by the Elohim, there came into actual existence the angelic hosts, spirits of pure light without number, celestial hierarchies to fulfill the innumerable functions required by a creation. About the white sun of the Eternal the angelics ranged, like a corona of countless crystals, reflecting and refracting the divine glory. Each angel was created a deathless entity, a being of pure consciousness, unlimited by time or space. Each single angelic is in profound union with The One, exulting in perpetual bliss as it bathes in the radiant energy emanating from the Godhead. Because angelics reflect the Creator, each angel, in their degree, is a focus of power, wisdom, and love, and, like The One, is beauty. An angel channels the divine light without distortion, and functions in utter accordance with the will of The One. It has no will save that of God.

The spiritual plane became inhabited when the angels came into existence. That the will of The One might be completed, the angels (the Sons of the Morning) became as cups into which The Infinite One poured Its power, so that through them the worlds, and all that was destined to live in them, might come into actuality; so that by the angelic ministry, those worlds might be upheld and sustained. The archangels, being pure consciousness, received the thought-form of creation directly from the divine Mind. Like an architects blueprint placed on the trestleboard for builders to view and follow, the angles received the Great Plan directly into their consciousness from the Grand Architect of the Universe. In this way, by the communication of archetypal ideas, the mental plane began to be
2

These are traditionally named the worlds of Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Manifestation.

developed. As children of the Creator, the angels have the power of creation too. As The One projected forth the divine ideas from Its mind and they came into existence, so too the angelics, in their degrees, holding in their minds details of the Great Plan, were and are - able to create. It is popularly thought that The One, the Godhead, created all things personally. Images of the Creator painting each butterflys wing or gilding the scales of each fish, were popular in Victorian religious schooling. However, like an architect, The One envisages and wills all that is to be, and the angels, the builders of the universe, execute the plan and cause the Divine Artists vision to manifest. But the angels are not automatons who only build, they are also craftsmen who adorn and beautify that which is willed from Above. From the level of the spiritual and higher mental planes, the angelics project, from their immortal minds, the energy patterns upon which matter is built. It is as if The One were a great sun, raying out illumination everywhere, with the angels drawing into themselves the light/energy, focusing it through themselves and beaming it outward to their area of specialized ministry. On whatever plane of existence the angels are working, their first function is to lay the lines of force. These lines are similar to currents in the sea. The allpervading energy of The One is focused by the angels into patterns, making templates upon which forms can be built. These primary lines of force are the RingsPass-Not, sometimes call the Cube of Space. They define the perimeters of creation its height, depth, and breadth. They are the boundaries of the enclosed garden of time and space in which life will be grown. An archetypal idea is held in the divine mind of The One. By the agency of the Elohim it is mediated onto the spiritual plane where the archangels give it substance and force. It is then stepped down to the astral plane where the angels give it prematter and multiple forms. So, for example, the archetype of the cat will become the many cats in all their different varieties and breeds. Upon this astral image physical matter the combined four elements adheres, grows, and so comes into full manifestation. Everything that exists upon the physical level does so because it was first conceived in the divine mind, then given a spiritual force (or an energy pattern), and then an astral form out of which it could grow and by which it could be maintained. Creation flows from the inner planes (divine, spiritual, and astral) into the physical, and everything that we see is, in origin, an idea in the mind of God. Because The One is a Living God, the ideas in the eternal mind are alive, too; and, in their innermost essence, they are likewise eternal.

This is where the thinking of an occultist is so different from that of most people. The student of occultism knows that the power of causation lies in the inner levels of being. What is brought about upon the inner levels will automatically, by universal dynamics, seek to manifest upon the physical plane. So what appears to the uninitiated as magic (in the popular sense of the word) is really the science of applying little-known laws, whereby things are brought into manifestation seemingly out of nowhere. Most people think that the physical plane is reality, and if they think of inner levels at all, they image them as rather insubstantial and vague. Whereas in truth, the inner levels are more real, and they give birth to the physical. Anyone who has had direct experience of the inner planes knows this. Whether through a near-death experience or by using a consciousness-raising technique (meditation, astral projection, shamanic spirit travel, or deep pathworking), they have briefly seen the power, the beauty, and the wonder of the inner levels of existence of which the physical world is but a shadow. This is not to decry the physical level, or to advocate escape from it for matter, like everything else, is divine in origin and physicality is the garment of the Eternal. But many confuse the garment with That which wears it. Sadly, the same holds true of much thinking regarding human individuality. So strongly do some identify with their physical garments, their bodies, that for them it is the all. Others, with knowledge of the psyche, the soul level, gained through analysis and self-observation, think that this level of whirling emotions and reactions is the true center of being. Whereas the mystic and the magician know: Thou has made us to be an image of Thine own eternity; we are created immortal spirits to mirror God in earth.

Creation
AFTER THE LINES OF FORCE of a universe have been laid upon the astral level, the building atoms of matter begin to adhere to the web that the lines have defined. Incalculable numbers of hydrogen atoms gather and bank upon each other to form huge clouds. Then, when there is sufficient material gathered, one of the solar archangels takes on the cloud as a body for itself. Ignition occurs, and a star is born! The multitude of stars are the first physical embodiment of the divine light, but they are also the physical bodies of the cosmic archangels. The Sun, the day-star of our own solar system, is the physical body of a great archangel, one of the Lords of Flame. This particular type of angelic being is a Stellar Logos. The stars are the physical bodies, and their auras extend throughout the whole region of the solar systems that form around them. Their chakras, their centers of specialization, are the

orbiting planets within the solar system, born from the parent sun. For all life birthed in a solar system, the archangel that is its Solar Logos is the source of all light, life, and love. On our own planet, everything is an adaptation of solar power and every living creature is a channel for the currents of life-force which proceed from our Solar Logos which is the creator of this system. The planet Earth, itself, came out of the heart of the Sun; and all the life-forms that have subsequently lived and developed on it are solar/stellar in origin and continue in physical existence by adapting solar energy. Wisely did the ancients worship the Sun as the visible cipher of the Most High. Our Solar Logos receives the influences of the Elohim through the other star lords and, in turn, rays this influence upon its attendant planets. Each planet in our solar system is an actual embodiment, a planetary chakra, of a specialized type of spiritual energy that pervades creation. This knowledge forms the basis of esoteric astrology and planetary magic. Once a Solar Logos has birthed its planets and established its system opened its lodge different angelic hosts come to assist the evolution of sentient life in that solar system. These angelic hosts supervise the development of the planets and their moons so that, over the course of eons, each one may unfold as a perfect expression of the primal idea held in the creative mind of The One.

Terra
A PLANET IS NOT AN INAMINTE MASS that orbits a sun. It is a living being that has chosen to evolve through ensouling the planet. This planetary being is not of the angelic kingdom of evolution; it belongs to the higher end of the elemental kingdom. The angels of nature can be thought of as a planets midwives who oversee and facilitate incarnate growing life. The first few millennia of a planets existence are spent with the titanic elemental forces seeking to achieve a relative state of balance. As the stresses and dynamism of the elements gradually come into harmony, each power then enhances the other three. An example is a single elemental cycle: water is evaporated by fire (solar heat) and transformed into a gaseous cloud, that condenses again and falls as rain, nourishing the land and passing through the Earths subterranean depths to emerge as springs that feed rivers and flow back into the seas, enriching them with silt. Some water emerging in our time from bubbling brooks fell as rain ten thousand years ago. This cycle is very complex, with many ramifications. Only an angelic consciousness can be constantly aware of it at every stage, working the fine adjustments of the powerful forces inherent in it and maintaining the balance.

A planet evolves by and large through the lives of the creatures it sustains. In the early stages f its existence, our planets need to experience and grow was met by the elementals, the spirits that indwell the elements at the etheric level, and this was sufficient. Later, more sophisticated sensors, more complex life-forms, became necessary for the Earths expanding awareness. The devas, the angels of nature, began to build advanced forms through which life could express itself; first bacteria and single-celled organisms; then more complex forms that could extract energy directly from the Sun (the plant kingdom); then forms that extracted the energy held in other life-forms (animals which extract nourishment from their environment via plants or other animals). By their absorption of energy, these flora and fauna were able to sustain a body in existence; and in due course they shed their bodies, which then nourished the rest of the ecological system. Each time a more sophisticated organism was brought into physical existence, the planets awareness was correspondingly raised.

A body, a vehicle, is necessary for the indwelling soul to be effective upon the level from which the body is constructed. Without a body, the soul cannot sense or react to the stimuli of that particular level. So it needs a body to acquire the experiences that are part and parcel of existence on that level of being. This holds true of all realms. There is an etheric body, which is the web of energy that sustains the physical vehicle; an astral body whose sense organs are the emotions, which functions upon the psychic levels; a mental body that moves in the bright realms of the spirit. These vehicles enable an otherwise diffused consciousness to focus and be effective in whichever realm they are manifesting in. The multitudes of species of minerals, plants, and animals (twenty-four known varieties of dragonfly, millions of fish, the great whales, the plethora of birds that fly between Earth and Heaven, all that swims, creeps, flies, runs, or walks) are each a unique expression, in Earth, of the vision of the Eternal Artist, brought into existence through the instrumentality of the angels. The incredible beauty we see around us on this wonderful planet was created through the angels. The sense of beauty, the numen we sense in nature, is our psyches response to the angelic mind that conceived and manifests the natural phenomena before us. The beauty of this world is indeed a creation of the created. But at the heart of every atom is a photon of light that is the omnipresence of The One, Who is All-in-All. Legends speak of the Archangel Haniel beautifying the Earth. They tell how Haniel touched all natural things and made them beautiful wit the Root of Creation. The Root of Creation is identified in the Orient as the ginseng, and in the

West as the mandrake root. In this guise as Oberon, King of the Faeries, Haniel caused the Earth to be clothed in emerald splendor, with forests, jungles, and wide plains of verdant grass; with plants, flowers, and blossoms; until the Earth was as adorned as an altar as an offering to The One.

The magical application of this legend is that, once in an incarnation, one may invoke the Root of Creation to bring into existence a thing of great beauty to assist in ones lifes work. The astral realms, where we see the wonders spoken of in spiritualist literature the inner plane landscapes and temples beyond the images of mortals are also the results of angelic image-building.

The Sacred Animal Powers

WHEN THE EARTH HD BECOME a balanced ecosystem, the angels began the manifestation and refinement of the animal kingdom. Animals possess a body, an etheric and a soul; and they have personality, too, as any pet owner can attest. Where animals differ from humanity is that an animal species has a collective spirit or higher self. If we take as an example one genus, the cat family, the higher self of all cats is an archangelic being. Ever since the feline family first manifested on this planet, this particular archangel the Great Cat has ensouled the spiritual energy pattern that is the collective spirit of all cats. This aspect of angelic ministry is very well portrayed in Charles Williams novel The Place of the Lion.3 This Great Cat oversees all the embodied cats, great and small. The angel has, over time, refined the physical evolution of the cat family, and experimented along certain lines, producing those species within the family most suitable for their environments. The Great Cat is fully conscious of every cat in existence from the lion to the alley cat and each separate creature enriches the original archetype with its own experiences. This angel of the cat family is the answer to the poet, William Blake, when he asks of the tiger, What immortal hand or eye framed they fearful symmetry?4 Because all cats are linked at the deepest level, to hurt one is to hurt them all. The purpose of the cat family its
3 4

Charles Williams, The Place of the Lion (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, n.d.). William Blake, The Tygre, in Blake: Complete Writings, edited by Geoffrey Keynes (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), lines 3-4.

destiny is to express on Earth a specific portion of the divine vision that no other life-form can. In our planets history, some species have become redundant. They were useful to this planet at a certain stage, but were then outgrown, and removed from the physical level. These extinct species can still be encountered in the upper worlds, and may perhaps manifest again upon other planets in the universe that are undergoing the same stages of development that our planet once did. The dinosaurs are an obvious example, but there are many others. Angels are the ultimate realists. Like any breeder, they will encourage successful strains and cut back what proves redundant. As one teacher said, No bird ever studied aerodynamics; but the angels did in fact, they invented it! There is nothing sweet or sentimental about the devas of nature. But their apparent ruthlessness is not a result of callousness, as is too often the case in humananimal relationships. An angel knows that life cannot be extinguished. A being may change, wear many, many forms in its long journey, but it is eternal. There is no death, only a change of worlds. Most animals come to maturity in a short space of time, compared to humans. Apart from a few basic lessons taught by their parents (even young eagles need a push), mot young animals have an amazing repertoire of skills. We call their innate knowledge instinctual. What we mean by this is that somehow they already have access to the information they need. This is because the entire experience of the species is pooled in the group mind, and is accessible to every member of that species. The group mind is ensouled by that archangel who is the species spirit, its Holy Guardian Angel. In the shamanic tradition, these angels of the species are often called the Sacred Animal Powers. When an entranced shaman journeys through the inner levels, he or she seeks out a powerful animal. Having found it, that creature becomes the shamans helper or ally in their work. The shaman will receive counsel and energy from the power animal. To distinguish between the members of an animal species and the ensouling angel, shamans speak of the Buffalo or The Hawk, thereby denoting the divine proto-animal, the angel, rather than the many physical animals which are radiated from it. Those who have experienced a spiritjourney to seek a totem will know that the power animal, when found, is imbued with divine energy which, long after the initial encounter, thrills the soul of the seeker on seeing members of that particular species.

Humanity
A ZOOLOGIST ONCE USDED ONE YEAR as a model to portray biological history. Using this model, humanity arrived upon Earth at 11:40 P.M. on the 31st of December. With the advent of humanity, the planet Earths evolution underwent a quantum leap. A human is the mathematical mean between a galaxy and an atom. Poised between the vast and the infinitesimal, a human being is the microcosm the small face which may consciously look upon the macrocosmic countenance of The One. The human body contains the same number of cells as the number of human bodies required to make the mass of one star. The basic human body was evolved from the great apes, or primates. However, there is a difference between the human constitution and that of the animal kingdom. It is taught that the Elohim designed humans using themselves as a template; in Genesis, Elohim says, Let us make man in our own image (Genesis 2:26). This does not mean that we were made in appearance like the Elohim; the image is more subtle than that. Humans, unlike other creatures upon the Earth, contain seven chakras, the seven interior stars as they are sometimes called, which are centers for the reception and distribution of finer energies. The seven-branched candlestick the menorah that stood in the Mosaic Tabernacle and in the Temple of Solomon, symbolizes the seven-fold nature of humanity which reflects the creative powers. This means that the Elohim are within us as well outside of us, and this enables us to communicate with them. When the human form was completed, for the first time in this system, the Solar Logos called those divine sparks from the heart of The One who had elected to take on garments of flesh, to experience their own God-nature in fully developed consciousness. That this potential development might be total, they were given free will. Free will is not only the ability to make a choice, to decide; it is also the ability to function on different levels of awareness ranging from the superconscious to the unconscious. Will which is consciousness in action can be freely directed. Human beings have free-will because they have an individual higher self, one not shared with others of the human species. This means that each human being has full individuality, an independent higher self, and the potential to achieve conscious union with the Divine. The first humans were vulnerable, defenseless creatures in a hostile environment. It was to the sacred animal powers that primitive humanity looked for

knowledge of survival. By observation of the animal kingdom, our ancestors learned which roots, herbs, berries, and barks were nourishing or healing; how to hunt; how to foretell the weather; and how to exercise an empathetic sensitivity with the land. As humanity increased, certain of the sacred animal powers became clan or tribal totems, creatures of great significance for the tribes wellbeing. In time, the cults of the various tribal totems developed into early pantheons of deities, each with their myth and cult. So it was that the angels were the first gods worshipped by humanity. The ensouling angels of the animal kingdom, the presiding devas of mountain, lake, and tree, the genius loci, were venerated by early humans. In time, these cults crew into the great pantheons of classical history, the astral God-forms being thoughtforms created by humanity that the angels could wear, and so enter humanitys collective unconscious. In primordial times, there came to early humanity the great spirits that tradition names The Teaching Angels of Men. These angelic teachers came to prepare human consciousness for its task, to inform it of the nature of the universe and the place of humanity in the overall scheme. The teaching angels communicated with human individuals who were naturally sensitive to the inner levels. Nowadays we call such people psychics, then they were known as dreamers, individuals in whom the imaginative and intuitive faculties were highly developed. Imagination the ability to mentally formulate images is essential for communication between the levels. Mental images are forms, jut as concrete on their own level as a physical form is here. It is all a matter of vibration. The angels built everything by mental projection. The creation of the universes by The One was an act of mental creation. There is nothing we see in the physical world today that was not first imaged in consciousness. The human ability to imagine is part of the divine potential of our God-nature. Samuel Coleridge, the mystic-poet, wrote: The primary imagination I hold to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.5 The teaching angels instructed the early dreamers and seers by signs and symbols, and also by utilizing the vegetable and animal kingdoms as their messengers. In time, the dreamers became the early priests and priestesses, and crystallized the teaching they had received from the angels into a system of theurgy, of sacred magic. Its purpose was to empower men and women to invoke the help of the angels to assist their evolutionary journey.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, edited by George Watson (Boston: C.E. Tuttle, 1993), p. 167.

All human tribes, nations, civilizations, and cultures have accounts in their myths and legends of the Bright Beings. They tell how these Winged Ones have come to help and succor, to bring healing and liberation to those in need. Among some of the Native Americans, these celestials are called Manitous, the Little Mysteries. By the Hindu and the Buddhist they are named the devas, a name which has a meaning identical to the name given by the Celts (the dreamtime people of the West) the Shining Ones. In the spring time of the world, humanity and angels freely communicated with each other, knowing one another to be related, kindred by virtue of the life of The One. As humanity descended deeper into matter to develop other aspects of consciousness, the angelics seemed to withdraw. There is a prophecy that in the Age of Aquarius the current time angels and humans shall learn to walk together again. It is to assist in the fulfillment of this prophecy that the Sacred Magic of the Angels is now sent out into the world.