Outer Order grades 2: Neophyte 1=10

Neophyte 1=10

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

After his eleven months metaphorically sitting outside the temple doors, and the period of examination prior to formal initiation, the aspirant has been invited to undergo the ritual T'raa (aort), the Ritual of the Gate. I will not discuss this ceremony here, but I will recall some of my own thoughts and feelings afterwards in my own case.

Having spent the night waiting for the ceremony it seemed very brief, an hour perhaps, full of events that whirled in my mind as I put it all together. After the ritual I was unceremoniously released from the house of initiation into the street, in the very early morning. It was summer so the sun was up, but only just. I left the place where the ceremony had taken place into the bright reality of a town beginning its day. You might say I landed with something of a bump. Stinking of pungent oil and the residue of incense, with my newly presented Neophyte's robe and freshly signed oath papers in my rucksack. I felt oddly out of place, but at the same time this mundane landing was exactly what was needed to start the Neophyte journey, I was brought down to earth, since this is exactly where a Neophyte is supposed to start, with the ground beneath my feet, so it was fitting to behave accordingly: After a hot fried breakfast and coffee in a nearby cafe I got on the train and made my way home to begin the work.

The Neophyte has been invited in from the temple steps, and now stands within the porch. It is as if the door has been opened, and he has been invited to stay, as long as he knows how to work and what to work on, which come to think of it is a lot like graduate school. Yet he is still only in the hall and must make his own way to the courtyards of the Outer College. He has been given clear directions during the ceremony of the gate that he has just undergone, and he has a syllabus to follow. If he follows these instructions, understands the nature of the work and focuses on it's achievement to the exclusion of all that might inhibit this one end, he will be through in his allotted eight months.

The syllabus of this grade is nothing to be sniffed at. To all intents and purposes the A.'.A.'. Neophyte grade contains all of the technical teachings of the old Golden Dawn Outer Order up to the Portal grade. This grade stands in stark contrast to the previous grade of Probationer, wherein he had so much leeway that the aspirant could more or less do whatever he liked. Here he has no such freedom. He has a lot of work to do, and while he may race through in eight months, more likely it will be a few years before he has completed the allotted tasks. 

I was one of those who tore through this grade like an arrow to the target, but then I came to the A.'.A.'. with nearly 20 years of prior reading and practice behind me and was already intimately familiar with the syllabus. That doesn't mean it was easy, but I did have something of a head-start. My advice to new Neophytes would be; make a plan and stick to it. I planned out my grade-work, and with the blessing of my supervisor approached it as a series of tasks to be completed by set dates, much as you might if you were attending a university course. My approach was to complete the reading list, and using the GD syllabus of grades as a guide, work my way up the tree of life in a series of pathworkings as far as Tiphareth in Assiah, the world of formation which opens out into Yetzirah, the objective of the 1=10 grade. This completed the astral aspect of the grade in an organised and timely way. I would advise that neophytes approach the work systematically, completing the various tasks at definite intervals so that you know exactly what is done and what yet remains, and importantly, don't stop, hang around or get distracted.

The task of the Neophyte can be summarised as follows: "To obtain control of the nature and powers of my own being." Contrast this with the Probationers oath, where he has to obtain knowledge of the same. The Neophyte now has to translate knowledge into action. Therefore while all the reading is important, the real driver of his progress is the capacity for work and for self organisation. This work is carried out ideally in silence, i.e. away from prying eyes, not shouting about it, bragging on the internet or in other ways involving oneself in the drama of the marketplace. The work is called 'Hermeticism' for a reason.

The robe of the Neophyte is plain black and hooded, he resides in the darkness of matter and has not yet earned the eye in the triangle that marks a Zelator; he must know the secret of work first, which is the key to the realm of disks in which he works, both figuratively and literally. He must be self-contained and self-directed. While his supervisor waits in the wings in case of problems, on the whole contact should be infrequent and suggestive rather than instructive. The last thing we want is needy Neophytes, that is not how you earn your freedom. Equally though, the last thing the Neophyte needs is a supervisor hovering overhead like a helicopter mum, ready to attempt course correction at the slightest provocation. The Neophyte must be allowed to make his own mistakes and learn from them, if he is to make the wisdom acquired in doing so his own.

The memorisation task for this grade is less intense than for the previous grade. Liber VII is more earthy, cthonic, but still beautiful. The chapters reflect the planetary deities reflected into the sphere of earth. I chose the chapter of mercury, chapter V. Again this choice is left to the Neophyte. As before, I feel that the best way to memorise this is daily repetition (several times a day), from the first verse, adding a verse as each one is memorised before going back to the start and reciting the whole thing again with the newly acquired verse added on to the end. I punctuated this with long walks in the countryside, through the woods and fields of my native county. Getting back to nature, learning about plants, soil and sky are all good things for a Neophyte, since the rest of his work is based in the astral. Strong grounding not only makes him intimately familiar with the physical world around him, but also mitigates the risk of falling fowl of what Israel Regardie called "Cosmic foo foo". Indeed the Neophyte is strongly advised to 'fortify his body' get fit, engage in manual labour or take up some sport, and to fortify his mind against incursions of 'wooly thinking', idle day dreams and fluffy ideas of all sorts. Luckily the means to accomplish this are covered in his prescribed reading. 

The main tasks aside from this are work with Liber O, Liber HHH, and divination, which introduce him to the paths of Tau, Shin and Qoph respectively, although only Tau is traversed in full at this point. Liber O contains the fundamental ceremonies of the pentagram and hexagram, as well as instructions in journeying in the spirit vision. With much of this his diary will be his witness, however there are two practical tests for the spirit vision which he must pass before being admitted as a Zelator. I won't disclose their nature here, except to say that he will only pass if he is able to demonstrate the capacity to obtain new information from the astral that can be verified by his supervisor. Methods for this will probably vary between lineages.

Liber HHH (MMM) is an astral recapitulation of the ceremony of the gate. Weekly repetition of this exercise should remind the Neophyte of that ceremony, which he will also study having been given a copy of the ritual. (If he hasn't he should ask his supervisor).

He must pass the four tests called the 'Four Powers of the Sphinx'. A little to say about these tests without repeating too much what is readily available elsewhere. These tests are really tests of the conduct of the Neophyte, character tests if you like. We know that formally they are: To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Keep Silent, and they represent the four sides of a pyramid, the summit of which represents the fifth power 'To Go', which is handily represented in the Zelator insignia of the Eye in the Triangle.

In contemporary terms we might call these four powers: Knowledge, Focus, Courage, and Tact. Such tests will arise constantly in the life of the Neophyte, and to all of us really, it is a never ending test that continues as long as one lives and has interaction with other human beings. As a simple example, although there are others: when necessary can you demonstrate knowledge of that which you aught to know according to your station in life? With regards to your work, are you able to concentrate and complete your tasks in a timely manner without undue distraction? When challenged by difficult situations do you rise to the moment and act in the best way possible or do you retreat as soon as things get difficult? And finally, do you know how to exercise tact in your words and actions, knowing when to speak and when to remain silent, when to advance and when to withdraw?

It will be appreciated that without these four one is barely living a human life at all, let alone that of an initiate. This is the grade of Malkuth, the first task is really one of getting one's mundane life in order, living deliberately rather than being blown by every wind.

The Neophyte must also construct a Pantacle to represent the universe as per Liber A. The exact form that this takes is his own concern, although it must be approved by his supervisor. This task, along with his study of the Qaballah, Liber 777, divination and astral work should all work towards the same end, that of assimilation of the language of the A.'.A.'., which is based on the tree of life system with which he should be intimately familiar. Not that this system is in any way truer than any other, but that it is the language with which he will communicate in symbol with his subconscious in the first instance, learning to interpret and distinguish the impulse from the subconscious within from that which is outside and above him, which is the true aim of this grade, the tip of his earthly pyramid. His supervisor will be able to recognise this capacity. 

This then is the crux of the Neophyte grade, that he is able to distinguish between the qlippotic imagery and impulses of his own subconscious mind and it's hells full of dog-faced demons, and that higher inspiration that should be beginning to glimmer in the darkness; One Star in Sight in a night of endless darkness. This star once perceived is again represented on his brow by the Eye in the Triangle, the result of his success in the grade and the light that will guide him through subsequent grades. Here also we find the greatest potential danger, and one by which I have seen good neophytes fall by the wayside. Not perceiving this star, unable to learn the lessons of the Sphinx, they drift from system to system, interest to interest, as the impulse moves them. They feel drawn to this or that practice and meander all over the lower astral and ever farther away from the straight path. Such may perhaps have some early success in astral work, and in fact the occult 'scene' is filled with people like this, with latent skill but none of the discipline required of an initiate. Failing to adequately protect themselves they let all in, paying heed to all the many voices of the unconscious, which they mistake for their True Will, as if True Will were the impulse of the day or the small insidious voice which tells you that they are on the wrong path, that they should not be constrained by any system (as if you could master a system by refusing to undergo it fully), they who are called by a higher road. Fears and insecurities are fed and with them the the ego in its self-assertion until they become unmanageable. 

When it gets to this point the supervisor can try to warn, but more often than not will be ignored, since "how can he possibly know what I am going through?" The supervisor and the system itself are seen as a tyrants hellbent on restricting the poor Neophyte with the demands of the grade, expecting him to fulfill tasks which he has no interest in fulfilling, the student then begins to doubt the supervisor, who is all too human in his eyes and therefore not fit to instruct. Then he doubts the system itself, determined to go the way of these willow-the-wisps that beckon from the darkness, he finally cuts himself off from the Order once and for all and is released. He is free, but free to do what? True Will has been spurned in favour of personal preference, Do what thou wilt may be given lip service, but in the heart of such a one is written "Do what we want", the we here being legion, giving no true sign, the dog faced demons of ones lower nature.

For the Zelator supervising there is one rule in this: Speak once, and then keep silence. Each candidate is entitled to fair warning, but the Zelator has his own work to do and cannot risk becoming engaged in battles with anothers Choronzon.

This is the ordeal of the Vampire. It may take many forms according to the weakness of the aspirant, the gap in his defense through which the vampire gains ingress, always by invitation! This vampire sucks the life out of the aspiration by causing the energy thus gained (for a Neophyte is a beacon of light on the astral, due to the work he has already done) to be frittered away on inconsequentials. Imagine a gun with holes in the barrel; the force needed to propel the bullet is lost and there is no energy left to hit the target. And the Neophyte, having not gotten so far as to perceive the target, will probably never really know what he has missed, except as a vague sense of loss with no cure, he may wander endlessly from system to system, teacher to teacher, yet nothing connects, since he lacks the staying power required to persevere with any one course of action to its conclusion. This is why I advocate strict discipline at this grade. Design a course of study, make a plan and stick to it. Stray not from the straight path, for beyond the limits of the path their power is infinite.

Warnings and advice heeded, the Neophyte if he is wise, one-pointed, courageous and tactful, will pull through and arrive at the other shore of the styx, having successfully traversed the path of Tau. This arrival from Assiah into the world of Yetzirah and the sphere of Yesod is marked by the experience called 'The Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel', which is again the summit of his mundane pyramid. The vision will dawn on the aspirant and change his outlook permanently. The arrival of this vision may not be obvious to the aspirant, but will be clear in his demeanor and will have the effect of increasing his devotion to the Great Work, since he is now certain that there is something behind it all. Once the formal tests confirm this he may be invited to the second and last formal ceremony of the A.'.A.'., Liber Cadavaris, which will constitute him a Zelator.

Love is the law, love under will.