Magister Templi (8=3)

Postby Jim Eshelman Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:16 am

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"The essential Attainment is the perfect annihilation of that personality which

limits and oppresses his true self.
"The Magister Templi is pre-eminently the Master of Mysticism, that is, His
Understanding is entirely free from internal contradiction or external obscurity
He is the Master of the Law of Sorrow (Dukkha)." [OSIS]

"MAGISTER TEMPLI. (Master of the Temple): whose functions are fully described in
Liber 418, as is this whole initiation from Adeptus Exemptus. See also 'Aha!'."
[OSIS]

"The Order of the Star called S.S. is, in respect of its existence upon the Earth,
an organized body of men and women distinguished among their fellows by the
qualities here enumerated. They exist in their own Truth, which is both universal
and unique. They move in accordance with their own Wills, which are each unique,
yet coherent with the universal will.
"They perceive (that is, understand, know, and feel) in love, which is both unique
and universal." [OSIS]

"The Order of the S.S. is composed of those who have crossed the Abyss; the
implications of this expression may be studied in Liber 418, the 14th, 13th, 12th,
11th, 10th and 9th Aethyrs in particular.
"All members of the Order are in full possession of the Formulae of Attainment,
both mystical or inwardly-directed and Magical or outwardly-directed. They have
full experience of attainment in both these path. [OSIS]

"Any neophyte of the Order (or, as some say, any person soever) possesses the right
to claim the Grade of Master of the Temple by taking the Oath of the Grade. It is
hardly necessary to observe that to do so is the most sublime and awful
responsibility which it is possible to assume, and an unworthy person who does so
incurs the most terrific penalties by the presumption." [OSIS]

TASK

"His principle business is to tend his 'garden' of disciples, and to obtain a

perfect understanding of the Universe. He is a Master of Samadhi." [OSIS] "His word
is to comprehend the existing Universe in accordance with His own Mind." [OSIS]

"The function of the Magister Templi is to cause the desert to blossom by

transmitting the Logos of the Aon to those that are below the Abyss." [Commentary
to Liber LXV, IV:61-63]

"They are all bound by the original and fundamental Oath of the Order, to devote
their energy to assisting the Progress of their Inferiors in the Order. Those who
accept the rewards of their emancipation for themselves are no longer within the
Order." [OSIS]

THE PATHS: Vav, Heh, Daleth

"TO ATTAIN THE GRADE OF MAGUS he must accomplish Three Tasks; the renunciation of
His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself as the Finite [Heh];
the acquisition of the practical secrets alike of initiating and governing His
proposed new Universe [Vav] and the identification of himself with the impersonal
idea of Love [Daleth]." [OSIS]

Liber Viarum Via assigns to the Path of Vav, "The Forthcoming of the Hierophant,"
Liber VIII, and to the Path of Daleth, "The Incarnation of the Inmost Light," Liber
DLV (Liber Had). To the Path of Heh, it assigns "The Formulation of the Flaming
Star," Liber V; most likely this should now be adjusted to read, "The Adoration
under the Starry Heaven," Liber XI (Liber Nu).

"to him who would be a Master of the Temple, the reverse applies. He wishes to
remain perpetually in Samadhi, and it is therefore his renunciation to descend
further and further into matter. He has volatilized the fixed; now he must fix the
volatile. He has ascended from his particular body to the Universal Soul. That
Universal Soul must now incarnate itself ever more completely in that body, and in
the bodies and minds of all men. He has made his darkness light; that light must
illuminate the darkness of all. The Great Work is accomplished. The new Great Work
is proclaimed. He has finished with Solve. He must begin Coagula." [The Temple of
Solomon the King]

VISION OF WONDER

"Only one other [grade besides 5=6] is equally cardinal: the grade of Master of the
Temple, which is the Threshold of the Order of the A.'.A.'.. I have called the
vision corresponding to this the 'Vision of Wonder' which permeates one's daily
life in a similar way. The difference [between this and the 'Beatific Vision' of
the 5=6] is that penetrating beyond sensory perceptions, one is aware of the
mechanism of events, of the subtle chain of causes which connect them. One
perceives in detail how each impression necessarily succeeds its forerunner. The
effect is that one is lost in wonder at the ingenuity of the universe, to use a
very inadequate word, as being the only one available. One feels the intense awed
admiration which the greatest masterpieces of Kant, Beethoven, Shakespeare,
Rembrandt, Riemann, Kelvin, and such as they inspired, with this difference: that
all impressions are equally puissant to produce it." [Confessions, Cap. 78]

NATURAL GRADE

"Every active Member of the Order has destroyed all that He is and all that He has
on crossing the Abyss; but a star is cast forth in the Heavens to enlighten the
Earth, so that he may possess a vehicle wherein he may communicate with mankind.
The quality and position of this star, and its functions, are determined by the
nature of the incarnations transcended by him." [OSIS]

"Every person, whatever his grade in the Order, has also a 'natural' grade
appropriate to his intrinsic virtue. He may expect to be 'cast out into that grade
when he becomes 8=3. Thus one may, throughout his career, may be essentially of the
type of Netzach; another, of Hod. In the same way Rembrandt and Raphael retained
their respective points of view in all stages of their art." [MT&P, Cap. VII, Sec.
5.]

MISC.

Magisteri shall be addressed as S.'.H.'. (Supremely Honored) Frater/Soror. (NOTE:

This was a later development. The original designation was G.'.R.'. (Greatly
Revered) Frater/Soror.)

"10 reflects 3" [NW Ms.]. That is, the Neophyte Grade (1=10) is a reflection, on a
lower level, of the Magister Templi Grade (8=3).
"All members of the Order are in possession of the Word of the existing Aeon, and
govern themselves thereby." [OSIS]

"They are entitled to communicate directly with any and every member of the Order,
as they may deem fitting." [OSIS]

"Members of the Order are each entitled to found Orders dependent on themselves on
the lines of the R.C. and G.D. orders, to cover types of emancipation and
illumination not contemplated by the original (or main) system. All such orders
must, however, be constituted in harmony with the A.'.A.'. as regards the essential
principles." [OSIS]

THE OATH

(Oath taken by Him that was to become To Mega Therion on His initiation to the
grade of Master of the Temple.)

I. I, ___________, a member of the Body of God, hereby bind myself on behalf of the
Whole Universe, even as we are now physically bound unto the cross of suffering:
II. that I will lead a pure life, as a devoted servant of the Order:
III. that I will understand all things:
IV. that I will love all things:
V. that I will perform all things and endure all things:
VI. that I will continue in the Knowledge and Conversation of my Holy Guardian
Angel
VII. that I will work without attachment
VIII. that I will work in truth:
IX. that I will rely only upon myself:
X. that I will interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my
soul.
And if I fail herein, may my pyramid be profaned, and the Eye closed to me.

REMARKS

"And by the power of this transcendent faculty [Sammasati, "constant recollection

and keeping in mind of holy things" grade of Adeptus Exemptus], rising through
the Eight High Trances to the very threshold of Nirvana, he at last, in the Trance
called Nirodha Samapatti, attains, even in this life, to the Deathless Shore of
Nirvana, by the power of Sammasamadhi, Right Concentration. Such a one has finished
the path he has destroyed the cause of all his chain of lives, and has become
Arahan, a Saint, a Buddha himself." (Science & Buddhism)

"it's true that as 8=3 one gets a sort of look round at the Supernal Triad, but it
can only be a glimpse." [Crowley letter to C.S. Jones, 1916]

[Following a commentary on "The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon":] This story marks a stage
in my own understanding of the formula of initiation. I began to see that one might
become a Master of the Temple without necessarily knowing any technical Magick or
mysticism at all. It is merely a matter of convenience to be able to represent any
expression as x + y = 0. The equation may be solved without words. Many people may
go through the ordeals and attain the degrees of the A.'.A.'. without ever hearing
that such an Order exists. The universe is, in fact, busy with nothing else, for
the relation of the Order to it is that of the man of science to his subject. He
writes CaCl2 + H2SO4 = CaSO4 + 2HCl for his own convenience and that of others, but
the operation was always in progress independently." [Confessions, p. 68]
In The Vision and the Voice, the attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple
was symbolized by the adept pouring every drop of his blood, that is his whole
individual life, into the Cup of the Scarlet Woman, who represents Universal
Impersonal Life. There remains therefore (to pursue the imagery) of the adept
'nothing but a little pile of dust'. In a subsequent vision the Grade of Magus is
foreshadowed; and the figure is that this dust is burnt into 'a white ash', which
ash is preserved in an Urn. It is difficult to convey the appropriateness of this
symbolism, but the general idea is that the earthly or receptive part of the Master
is destroyed. That which remains has passed through fire; and is therefore, in a
sense, of the nature of fire. The Urn is engraved with a word or symbol expressive
of the nature of the being whose ash is therein. The Magus is thus, of course, not
a person in any ordinary sense; he represents a certain nature of idea. To put it
otherwise, we may say, the Magus is a word. He is the Logos of the Aeon which he
brings to pass." [Confessions, Cap. 81]

From "The Temple of Solomon the King," EQUINOX I:10:

"There had been a bar to the progress of Frater Perdurabo, a dualism in his
conception of the Cosmos. He had not fully understood that the Universe was One,
that one might in very truth eat and drink to the glory of God. He knew that by
eating and drinking one did not necessarily detract from the glory of God, but had
not fully understood the sacramentalism of the simplest actions. He had still the
old illusion that to succeed on one plane you must fail on another; still thought
the mind more than the body, the soul more than the mind; did not see that these
three must be one in exactly the same sense as the Christian Trinity (as understood
by the truest Christians) is One. It was in the course of this illumination that
the Truth was ceremonially conveyed to him on the Magical plane, although it was
not for three years later that it fully illuminated his mind.

"This illusion, of which it is here spoken, is a most necessary step for the
beginner, because to the beginner his ordinary life is not a sacrament. To him
things are really common and unclean. He must, therefore, cut them out of his life,
and hence to him the name of the Path of Renunciation. But to him who would be a
Master of the Temple, the reverse applies. He wishes to remain perpetually in
Samadhi, and it is therefore his renunciation to descend further and further into
matter. He has volatilized the fixed; now he must fix the volatile. He has ascended
from his particular body to the Universal Soul. That Universal Soul must now
incarnate itself ever more completely in that body, and in the bodies and minds of
all men. He has made his darkness light; that light must illuminate the darkness of
all."

"it is necessary to emphasize the very peculiar nature of the attainment of this
grade. In all previous grades the nature of the Initiation has been light through
darkness. In this it is darkness through light. The word of the Adept was L V X,
Light. The word of the Master of the Temple is N O X, Night. This is the Night of
Pan. The direction of the Path is definitely changed. The Master of the Temple
cannot go to the Magus unless bringing the Neophyte himself in his hand, and in
this task there is no consolation, as there has always been before. The visions are
no more. Silence and stillness and darkness rule the grade. The Adept has
throughout his progress been unifying himself. As it is written in Liber CCCXXXIII,
Chapter III, the Brothers of A.'.A.'. are women; the Aspirants to A.'.A.'. are men.
The Master of the Temple has given birth to a child, which child appears as an
Adept among men. But that which was the Adept is but a little pile of dust. Samadhi
has been attained once and for all. The process is complete and permanent. The
Great Work is accomplished. The new Great Work is proclaimed. He has finished with
Solve. He must begin Coagula."

"The Master of the Temple is not only the dust in the Pyramid, and the Blood in
the Cup, but he is also that which was cast down through the Abyss into the Heaven
of Jupiter. The brain reels before such a conception. And the human brain of the
Master of the Temple is but little more fitted to understand this in his life as a
man than if he had never entered the Path at all. For the Ego has been totally
destroyed, and he has nothing wherewith to bind together these things. He is not
any of these things, for there is no He. Those things are. And of the results of
this, and of how it may bear upon the question of his advancement to the Grade of
Magus, who can say? It is not the Master of the Temple even who could answer such a
question. For, in relation to his advancement, he is but that little pile of dust
which is to burn up, and from which shall be prepared a white ash by Hermes the
Invisible. And in relation to his true life, it is mixed with the blood of all his
fellows in the Cup of BABALON. And in relation to his body and mind he is but a
vehicle of the forces that are beyond the Abyss. He will therefore speak, but as a
man among men, of that which he has seen and heard. But he will claim no authority.
He will not proclaim dogma. For all that in him from which such things proceed is
no more. He will remain in the darkness of the City of Pyramids under the Night of
Pan, sitting silent through 106 seasons, the name of every one of which is Death,
ever seeking to make his understanding perfect, until the time comes for him to
seek that yet more fearful ordeal which must evidently be involved in the
attainment of the Grade of Magus."

THE EIGHT HIGH TRANCES

(NOTE FWIW: The current Praemonstrator of the A.'.A.'., signing himself in his 7=4
identity, wrote that the formal work of the 8=3 includes working the Eight High
Trances. - JAE)

FURTHER REMARKS

"Service Without Ego." This phrase summarizes, in practice, every listed detail of
the Grade. - Where Bhakti Yoga (7=4) & Karma Yoga (6=5) meet. - JAE