Philosophy is the preparation for death. Our rites are the alchemical refinement of the subtle body, the vehicle of light, the numinous form that must ascend through the lower seven planets to the eighth and ninth.
We have direct transmission from alchemical masters, the elixirs, the visionary methods and skillful methods from our collective initiations. We claim with anonymity, with no need to validate or glorify our name and ego, that we have beheld the True Vision in this very body.
Therefore, we claim to be initiates, and the lifetime process is of Mastery, the consolidation, the theurgic gathering of Nous, of this Light, of incessant refinement of exoteric and esoteric Being. We do not delay teaching the skillful methods to attain the Supreme Vision, and we invoke Community and Filiation to these teachings and the Priests of this Temple.
Thus we teach to be healed and to heal. The training in the sacred herbalism and elixirs, medicinal and visionary. This is of The House of Life is to provide priestly (heri heb) training in: theology, mathematics, ritual expertise, alchemy/spagyric, sacred languages, hieratic liturgy, hermeneutics, genealogy, astrology/astrotheology, sacred geography/geomancy, divination, mineralogy, metallurgy, medicine,mythography, architecture, the science of theurgic talismans and image-making. We likewise present the exoteric tasks of Mastery, in Hermetic finance, in the rural template of farm/temple/retreat in the mountains, in the planetary pathworking of the Hebdomad that empowers the authentic Theurgy.
It is to learn to be an aristocratic soul, from Hermetic economics, aesthetics, ancestral Art and Culture, to manners and traditional attire to reflect nobility, character, education, a type of chivalry (or what is known as adab). This is an expression of True Humanity, of empathy, compassion decorum, decency, respect and politeness, and appropriateness that is befitting to be ancestors of the Gods, the heroes and those of our bloodline, our folksoul that have sacrificed and given us our life and divine inheritance, and this precious incarnation to Remember and Return.
Gnosis, Ecstasy, Self-Restraint, Perseverance, Ancestral Custom, Community, Alítheia
The Hermetic Virtues are grounded in Gnosis of the Way of the Gods, the attainment of Divine Nous, the drinking of the Memory, the baptism/immersion of the Light. This leads to a freedom and exaltation of ecstasy. To this bliss we invoke and apply Self-Restraint in the concentration and containment of that energy and force. Thus, we endure through Perseverance through the internal and external vulnerabilities and obstacles that hinder the Way. We seek Nobility and Justice through Ancestral Custom, the proper order and appropriate action of the accumulated wisdom of the Ancestors. This is the foundation of fellowship, of filiation, of Community, which is the recreation of the World, the microcosmos of order in the rural esoteric hermitages and homesteads. These aggregate to Alithei (Alethea) (the antithesis of lethe as “oblivion”, “amnesia”, or “concealment”) the banishment of forgetfulness, the recovery and Remembrance of Immortal Memory. Thus we proceed to the 12 Houses and their attendant Ordeals and avenging aspects:
Two Translation (Myatt, Copenhaver, of the 12 ‘tormentors’, twelve in number, but under them are many more besides)
Vengeress (a feminine form of avenging wrath) is Unknowing; the second, Grief. The third, Unrestraint;
the fourth, Lascivity. The fifth, Unfairness; the sixth, Coveter. The seventh,
Deceit; the eighth, Envy. The ninth, Treachery; the tenth, Wroth. The eleventh,
Temerity; the twelfth, Putridity
and misery and ignorance are banished, Corpus Hermticum XIII the means of Rebirth, the alchemical purification from these toxins of Soul
This ignorance, my child, is the first torment; the second is grief;
the third is incontinence; the fourth, lust; the fifth, injustice; the sixth,
greed; the seventh, deceit; the eighth, envy; the ninth, treachery; the
tenth, anger; the eleventh, recklessness; the twelfth, malice.
To us has come knowledge of joy, and
when it arrives, grief will fly off to those who give way to it. [9] The
power that I summon after joy is continence. O sweetest power! Let us
receive her too, most gladly, child. As soon as she arrives, how she has
repulsed incontinence! Now in fourth place I summon perseverance, the
power opposed to lust. This next level, my child, is the seat of justice.
See how she has expelled injustice, without a judgment. With injustice
gone, my child, we have been made just. The sixth power that I summon
to us is the one opposed to greed – liberality. And when greed has
departed, I summon another, truth, who puts deceit to flight. And truth
arrives. See how the good has been fulfilled, my child, when truth arrives.
For envy has withdrawn from us, but the good, together with life and
light has followed after truth, and no torment any longer attacks from
the darkness. Vanquished, they have flown away in a flapping of wings.”
We instruct in the Ordeals that one must master to encounter through the ascent and return, the Anodos (ἄνοδος), to cross the vast Ocean of the Abyss. It is the Way and Path that trains of the passions and emotions and of the exalting and theurgic/alchemical sublimation of lust and orgiastic and erotic Eros, that of the hunger, and the key of fasting, that of the dream state and dream incubation, that of the solitary retreat in the mountains and wilderness, that of the Black Chamber of pure darkness.