Commentary
by Frater Yechidah
Ancient and Honourable Order of the Golden Dawn
This Flying Roll by Dr. Edmund William Berridge provides some insight into the core principles that make magic work: the use of the Imagination empowered by the Will.
The key to this paper is that Imagination, the construction of a virtual form within the mind, is real within the appropriate realm ofits existence (the astral and higher planes). It may not have a physical presence, but that does not diminish its reality. To the dreamer the dream is real.
Imagination is not, therefore, merely fantasy, a suggestion that we a rc commonly led to believe by popular culture. We tend to think of i magination as the realm of the child, and that something imagined is hy virtue not real, but imagination, when utilised by a magician, is more than this; it is, as Westcott appends, “an orderly and intentional mental process, and result.” It is crafted and directed, channelled towards that point whete manifestation begins.
Eliphas Levi, who was a significant influence on the Order’s teachings, wrote that “for the wise man, to imagine is to see, as, for the magician, to speak is to create.”10 Imagination is part of this creative process.
Imagination is about form, the creation of an image. An image is not merely a visual thing-it can be a concept, an idea. As soon as the image, the tzelem, is created, we have constructed a form, even if that form is purely located in the mind, even if it is completely abstract.
But imagination alone is powerless. It creates something that only has what Berridge describes as “a transient existence,” like an inanimate golem or a clay Adam bereft of the vitalising Breath of Life. That which animates is the Will, the driving force behind creation. It is, as it were, the Chokmah to the Binah of form. It is what breathes life into what might otherwise be merely a shell.
Both are equal and necessary for the practice of magic, but Imagination must come before Will, because there must be a container of form within which the Will can be poured. Without this there is no direction for the energy, and with no direction it easily disperses, causing little effect-or perhaps even undesirable outcomes, as the chaotic energy instils life into the inanimate images of others.
“‘ Levi, Transcendental Magic, p. 64.
To see how this works in practice, the magician might construct a thought form, a mental image of an entity or being, and then invoke energy into this form to bring it to life. Names might be intoned, higher powers might be beseeched, and various visualisations and energetic manipulations might be used to direct the Will into the imagined form. This extends to more tangible types of magic, such as work with talismans, where the form is literally constructed before being charged. Imagination before Will, the candle before the kindling.
While the iconic phrase “for by Names and Images are all Powers awakened and re-awakened” was not used in the original Order, being a later Stella Matutina addition, we can see how the Imagination, the images we construct of godforms, etc., and the Will, the names that we vibrate, infused with emotion and the knowledge of their divine potency, create successful ritual. Golden Dawn ceremonies depend on the Imagination of those present, aided by temple furnishings and regalia, to craft a vessel for the energy raised through various ritual motions, gestures and invocations, the tools of the Will.
We know the power oflmagination and Will when brought together in many mundane aspects of life. For example, a hypochondriac may imagine he or she has a certain illness and fret and worry about it, thus empowering the image created, resulting in the manifestation of symptoms. So it is with magic.
Imagination is like the malleable form of Water, which must be balanced by the creative spark of Fire. Both are not only necessary to create successful magic-they are necessary to keep each other in check. Will that is not properly channelled is chaotic and dangerous, while images void of life are shells that may become inhabited by malevolent forces.
Berridge was particularly worried about this information becoming widely known, fearing it could be used for evil purposes. He expressed concern that a black magician might empower and protect him or herself, using some of the techniques he describes in his illustrations, and so he believed the knowledge “should not pass beyond our Order.” Thus we see one of the importances of secrecy. Nowadays, however, this knowledge is more commonplace, and Berridge’s own paper has been published several times-so there is a responsibility to the dissemination of accurate information, that the knowledge might be used for good. lhe five illustrations given by Berridge demonstrate how Imagination and Will can be utilised together in practice by even a Neophyte to the system. The basic concepts given are the visualisation of a fluidic shield and the construction of an imaginary being representing an opposing ti>rce before banishing it. The Will is used in the concentration of the mind and the desire for the effect to take place.
The importance of Imagination and Will in magic, and particularly within the Golden Dawn’s teachings, goes a long way towards explaining why so many artists and writers were, and still are, attracted to the Order, for these same faculties are in operation in the painting of an image or the writing of a poem; they are as much the tools of the muse as they are the magician.
It is this creative faculty which differentiates us from, and indeed elevates us above, the rank of angels, a comment that Westcott makes to good effect at the end of his explanatory note. We can create and they cannot. Magic is, by its very nature, an act of creation, and so we are made in the image of the Creator; and we were created as an image and empowered by the breath of God-thus we see that even God uses Imagination and Will to make the wonders of the world.