The understanding and use of polarity in a magical group or lodge is very important to the long-term health and stability of the inner and outer magical line. The balance of power between the people, the beings, and the lodge dynamics are very important, as without that balance one form of power begins to dominate the magic, which in time degenerates it or can even destroy it.
When polarity is talked about in a magical context, most people think about the priest and priestess, the male female polarity, which brings the magic into balance. Yes, that is terribly important in a lodge, but it is not the only form of polarity that needs to be in balance.
When you construct an inner temple and bring through a consecrated line, the chances are that the powers used will have been of one realm or inner direction. For example the methods in this book that relate to the construction of the line, inner temple, and egregore all use angelic powers, Abyss Divinity and inner elements. These are all very powerful streams of consciousness and are all one type of unconditional inner power. That is offset to some extent in practical terms by the human elements within the magical lodge and the fact that the lodge is an outer physical expression of the inner temple, which anchors it and gives it ballast. But the sheer level of inner power that is used when creating such structures needs a great deal of anchoring and counter balance within the outer temple.
This can be achieved by working in the outer temple with some deep conditional beings, some of which would be defined as demonic in today’s world. By rooting the physical temple in the depths of the underworld through repeated underworld visionary work the lodge can achieve a balance of power. This coupled with a balanced polarity within the working group will help to sustain the balance of power within the lodge for generations to come.
DEMONIC GUARDIANS
If the lodge construction incorporates angelic consciousness, then beings from the other side of the coin are needed to balance the power and stabilise it. This can be done by using elemental stone beings, human beings (who are dead with their body buried in the lodge), or demonic beings. I am concentrating on demonic beings for this section because killing someone and walling them up in the temple is not socially acceptable these days, and the use of elemental beings should not need much explanation. The use of elementals produces a weaker counter balance to angelic beings but they are safer.
Using demonic beings is riskier but is also a much better counter to the angelic powers. The lodge should have a balance of light and dark, conditional and non-conditional — demonic beings rebalance the unconditional powers of the angelic structures. They also keep you and the lodge on their toes: if you have a demonic being swanning around the temple you have to be very clear in your mind about what you are doing and why. Any weakness will be taken advantage of and any chance of manipulating lodge members will be tried. In days gone past, this problem used to be sidestepped by binding the demonic beings to the will and service of the Hierophant indefinitely.
Well, I’m not that into slavery and I am certainly not into binding another being just because I may get tempted by them. Curtailing the freedom of a being that hasn’t done anything wrong just in case it might make me do something wrong is a step backwards in spiritual evolution. It is better to work with the being and use the situation to strengthen the will and discipline of the adepts and it also facilitates a deeper understanding of these beings which is really necessary. Such an example was laid before us in the time of Christ and of course was completely ignored along with many other deeply profound spiritual wisdoms.
Demons are best put to work as guardians because they are powerful, can be nasty and they make sure, if they are paid well, that nothing gets into the lodge that should not be there — god help anything that tries. In the early ancient temples, these beings were worked with (as opposed to bound) and they were and some still are very effective guardians that will unleash all sorts of unhealthy and unwanted situations on those who would breach the temple. As time went on, the ancient priesthoods found it was cheaper and easier to bind them, so they did. That was a symptom of a much wider movement within the sacred temples of degeneration, power grabbing and greed, all of which contributed to their demise. When you tap into the inner temples of those times, the guardians are still bound (unless you let them go…teehheehee) and they are not happy about it.
But if you go further back to very early temple structures, then the guardians you find are not bound but are employed in service and some are committed by devotion to certain temples. I found this quite shocking at first — years ago I came across an ancient inner temple to a particular Goddess and found demonic beings guarding her. They were there out of total love and devotion to her and were willing to be there throughout time for her. This was the beginning of my understanding that demons are not terrible wicked things, they are just very powerful scary conditional beings that are often not much good for our wellbeing. But they do have a valid place in the universal order and can be worked with.
In our day and age we must tread very carefully if we are to work with demonic beings to polarise the angelic power, mainly because the world around us is so corrupt. Therefore most initiates coming into the temple will have been touched by such corruption and will need support to develop an internal discipline. This is not about morality, as I keep stressing in my writing, as none of these dynamics have anything to do with morals but with a balance of power within the initiate. We are in a society that is ‘dog eat dog’ most of the time — greed, power and lust are everyday energies that are all around us, and our society is encouraged to consume, work and not bother about the person next to us. A lot of people struggle against that and fight for another way to be; and when that dynamic plays out in the new initiates, they will need support, education and guidance. Morality is a culturally constructed baby step towards balance. After the first step comes self responsibility and the understanding of cause and effect. The demonic beings within the lodge can be a part of that education.
BRINGING IN A DEMON AS GUARDIAN
To bring in a demonic being as guardian, the first step is to find an outer vessel for it. Having a demonic being without an outer form running around a lodge is begging for trouble — if it has no form, there is nothing to contain it and nothing that you can grab if it gets out of control.
So working with a form helps the being contain itself and also gives it a vocabulary by which it can express itself. This can be seen in use in Tibetan temples where the demon guardians are painted onto the walls — the inner beings are embedded in the walls (albeit trapped and bound) as barriers or guardians and their outer form expresses their inner abilities (sharp teeth, many eyes, weapons etc). So if you are using more than one demonic being, they can be painted onto the walls.
Usually though, demonic guardians are held in statues that express their power and abilities. The statue becomes the vessel that anchors the being in this realm and allows it to flow into the lodge unhindered. If they are placed within the vessel and the demonic being is a lesser demon, i.e. closer to humanity, then they tend to not stray too far from the outer vessel. This is why it is important that the vessel has adequate power expression, i.e. many eyes, teeth, arms, weapons etc so that it can do its job. If the temple is sealed, particularly if the inner temple is sealed and then is merged with the outer temple, the demonic being cannot leave the temple boundary.
If it is a larger demonic being, then it is best to bring them only into the inner temple precinct and not the outer temple itself. The outer temple can have a statue, which acts a window, but the demonic being is only invited into the inner temple, not the outer world. Usually, this contains them within the inner temple, where they provide protection, guardianship, and polarised power balance. For a demonic being to be in the outer world, it has to be invited by a human. While it is in the inner temple, if the inner temple is merged with the outer one, it will be able to affect things in the outer temple itself, but will not see anything beyond the outer temple: the outside world will be unseen to it.
So you have your statue or vessel. First you need to exorcise it and clean it so that it is truly an empty vessel. Then it will need customising and probably some touch up work with paint etc and the painting of the lodge sigil on the bottom. Ensure it is clear, clean and ready to work, at which point the founding members and the Hierophant gather in the temple to work. One founding member should be assigned to care for and be the Keeper of the being once it is in place.
The group go into the inner temple in vision, with the statue on or aside the main altar. The vision then leads through the back door of the temple into the Abyss tunnel and walk until they get to the ledge. As they stand upon the ledge, the Hierophant calls for the Keeper of the Abyss to come and help the group. The Keeper of the Abyss will appear as a massive human being that stands within the Abyss. He will hold out his hand for the group to climb onto. Once everyone is on his hand, the Hierophant asks the Keeper to take them all to a place within the Abyss that holds demonic beings who would be willing and appropriate to work as guardians in the inner temple.
The Keeper will carry the group down the Abyss to a ledge and place everyone carefully on that ledge. Beyond the ledge will be a dark tunnel and the Hierophant leads the group down the tunnel to the chamber beyond. When the group enters the chamber it would be wise to remember that you are all in the realm of beings that have been attacked on a daily basis by some strands of humanity and may or may not be friendly towards humans. Usually though, the Keeper will not put you in harm’s way for no good reason, but will guide you to an order of demonic beings that have a history of working with humans in an appropriate way.
In the chamber the Hierophant addresses the beings present and tells them that they are looking for a being willing to be a guardian for an inner temple. If one steps forward, then the negotiations begin. These are conditional beings and do not do anything for nothing. They may work for nothing if the lodge is undertaking deep planetary work that naturally involves them somehow, or major clean up work that they can get involved in or are already involved in. For example, when society is breaking down, demonic beings are akin to bacteria — they feed off the decay and speed the process up. It is all part of nature and has its balance. So if the group is involved in that type of work, then they will most likely work happily with you.
If not, then you need to bargain around the matter of wages. Some lesser demonic beings are happy with energy food (sugar, honey, coffee), some want shiny things, some want blood, some want exposure to certain elements (full moon, the sea, fire etc). Pete and I once worked with a demonic being that fed off fire magic, which was really handy because at the time we were having tons of fire magic thrown at us by an unstable magician and the being just ate it all up happily. Job done, demon paid.
The Hierophant must be sure that they can deliver what the demonic being wants as payment and it must be something that can be given ethically and willingly (no virgins, puppy sacrifices, or babies!). When the negotiations have been bashed out and everyone is happy, then it is time to take the demonic being into the inner temple. To ensure that the demonic being does not trigger off any current guardians within the temple boundaries, the Hierophant must pull out one of their hairs (if they don’t have long hair, any founder that does will do) and tie it around the wrist of the demon. Going back down the tunnel, when the group and the demon gets to the ledge, the Hierophant calls upon the Keeper to take them back to the tunnel of the inner temple.
If the demon is wanting to work with the group because the group work is something that the demons are involved in, then it may be a situation whereby the demon is brought into the group as a member. As a conditional being, the demon can be consecrated into service and will be bound by the same rules and powers as the humans. The only down side of this is that once consecrated to the line, that is it for however long the temple exists. These are the types of demonic beings that you meet in the very ancient Egyptian temples: demonic beings that have been consecrated into the service of a temple or deity.
The decision to do such a thing should lie between the Hierophant and the demon. The Keeper of the Abyss, as an angelic human bridge, can also be consulted for advice, which will be balanced and impartial. If the consecration is the right thing to do, then it must be done of the ledge of the tunnel by the inner temple. The Hierophant places a hand upon the demon, exorcising it, cleansing it, and then consecrating it into the temple line.
When the group arrives at the door of the inner temple, either the demon will be consecrated and therefore will be given full access to the temple, or the hair of the Hierophant given freely on the wrist of the demon will give it access so long as it is standing with the Hierophant.
When the group are all in the temple, it is time to prepare the vessel for the demon to take up residence in. Regardless of whether it is consecrated or not, it will reside in the vessel as it will give it form to work through. The main difference is that if it is consecrated, then the demonic being will be taken into the outer temple as well as the inner temple and will be brought into our world to work with the group.
The Hierophant stands in vision before the vessel that is on the inner altar and also stands physically before the outer vessel on the altar. The demonic being stands behind him in the inner temple and the Hierophant places his hands upon the vessel. The Hierophant calls upon all the powers that run through the consecrated line and upon the powers of light and dark equally balanced within the line. When the power is suitably built, the Hierophant opens himself as a doorway and pulls the demon through himself, through his hands and into the vessel. When the demon is fully in the vessel, the Hierophant marks the forehead of the vessel using consecrated oil with the sigil of the consecrated line. He then asks the demon what its name is. The name will filter through the mind of the Hierophant and its name is breathed over the vessel. This will be the name that is used to address the being in the future, both physically and in vision.
The Hierophant then charges the demonic being within the vessel with its tasks, telling the being what will be expected of it and what it will receive in return. These words are spoken in the inner temple with the inner voice, and simultaneously in the outer temple with the physical voice.
It is wise to remember when doing something like this, that although most of the work is done in vision and therefore in the imagination, it is still real and very dangerous. If the group has been successful, there will be a very powerful conditional being living in a form inside the temple and this being will need attending to. It will be the job of the Keeper of the demon to make sure the demon has what it needs and what it was promised, and in return to tell the demon what needs doing. The Keeper will have to be very careful and disciplined in their approach towards the demon and not be taken in by any temptations or plots the demonic being might try to hatch as sometimes these beings get bored and will try to have fun at your expense.
The other very important thing to remember when you have one of these beings in the temple is that when the temple is being cleaned and exorcised that you don’t inadvertently exorcise the working demon out of the temple. Not only does that flush a lot of work down the drain, it tends to piss them off quite a bit too (been there, done that one).
If the group and the demon work within their boundaries, the demon will be great ballast for the temple and a pretty effective guardian, and the demon gets to play out in the outer temple and get fed. Everyone is happy.
HUMAN POLARITY
If the Hierophant is sure the temple structure and beings are balanced and polarised, it is then time to think about the human element within the lodge. In times past, a lot of magical lodges/groups were predominantly men with the occasional woman as a figurehead/goddess stand-in, or as a seer. The original Golden Dawn took a step away from that dynamic by having powerful women in the group, but their polarity dynamic was still off, which created problems.
In today’s magical world, most groups have a mix of male and female; some groups dispense equal power between the sexes and some lodges do not. Some magical groups go to extremes, for example goddess temples run mainly by women, magical ritual groups that are nearly exclusively young men etc. All of these dynamics have their advantages and disadvantages.
For the long term balanced health of the lodge, it is important to have a good balance of polarity both physically and magically. The issues of balance within magic bring up all sorts of interesting magical issues regarding sexuality, power, status, and ability, all of which can have a devastating effect on the long term health of a lodge if they are not adequately addressed.
PHYSICAL POLARITY
The first issue is physical polarity: the balance of men and women. That does not mean that there needs to be an equal amount of women to men, just that there needs to be all variants of power expressed through the lodge on equal footing. It is also good for the balance of the lodge if there are variants in sexuality within the lodge such as gay or lesbian members, bisexual members, celibate members, as well as active heterosexual members. This is not a physical issue but a power mediation issue as two levels of polarity flow through a human: the physical expression and the sexual/power mediation expression.
The physical body of a woman, regardless of her sexual orientation, brings though power in a specific way; the same is true for a man (although in both instances there are always awkward ones who don’t fit the stereotype). If the woman has had her womb removed, that changes the power dynamic (but not if she has had her tubes tied), as does the issue of whether she is still ovulating or not because post-menopausal women bring through a completely different power to fertile women.
The same issue comes up regarding men who have had their testicles removed (i.e. after testicular cancer): the power dynamic changes and their power mediation method is unique to them. This is not true however of men who have had a vasectomy as their power dynamic does not change so long as the testicles are producing sperm.
So already, before you begin to take sexuality into account, the lodge has potentially five differing types of human mediation. The interplay between the different dynamics can be mind boggling and if harnessed correctly can greatly enhance the inner abilities of the lodge.
The first step is to understand the different qualities that each sexuality variant brings to the lodge. The power roles of an ovulating woman and a testosterone man are obvious and centre on raising power for regeneration, opening gateways, bridging worlds, and bringing through beings. The balance between the man and woman must be equal — any attempt for one sex to dominate the other, regardless of which way round it is, can potentially damage the power dynamic. Although sometimes the power tension between sexes can itself raise power, if it is not allowed to degenerate into fights. Because of this need for equality between the two fertile bodies, it is helpful if the Hierophant has an adept of the opposing sex to work with and who is given equal status and respect.
Within that equality there are dynamics of tension and struggle, which when worked with maturely can open doors to power.
If the Hierophant does not have an equal of the opposite sex to work with, then a deity of the opposite sex can be worked with in the lodge, but then the usual problems encountered when working with deities must be navigated. In many lodges, the magus/Hierophant often chooses a younger less experienced partner that is easy to dominate, mould and parasite off of. That is not the same as a younger partner who is a magical equal and who is treated as such. The Hierophant, regardless of whether they are male or female, must think very carefully about the partner that he or she chooses to work with to ensure that the partner can not only hold their own in the work but is also fully confident in their own knowledge. This sidesteps all the dark holes that can be fallen down when choosing a weaker inexperienced partner.
The same is true for the rest of the lodge. It is the responsibility of the Hierophant to ensure that working partners within the lodge are more or less equal in their strength and ability. Outer knowledge is not so important, but inner ability is. Outer knowledge is a peripheral skill whereas inner ability, strength, and experience is of the utmost importance to ensure that a weak link does not damage the whole group during a major working.
That dynamic does change however when a more experienced adept takes on the responsibility of guiding a younger less experienced initiate. Care has to be taken with the adept that he does not unconsciously take advantage of the initiate and end up playing power games. Guiding an initiate is a very important responsibility that should be taken very seriously. If they do start a relationship up outside of the lodge then that is their business. But inside the lodge, working partners must be equal regardless of what relationship dynamics play out outside the lodge.
The same must be said for gay and lesbian members as the sexual dynamics are straight forward and the same rules of equality and respect should be enforced. Power and tension can be built between varieties of combinations of sexuality but it must be understood that the use of sexuality for polarity tension and power is not the same as sexual magic, which is a different issue again. It is about using the power generated through hormone output and the affect that such output has on the rest of the group members, which in turn defines how the power is handled.
It is also important that such dynamics do not overstep the boundaries of working partnerships. A powerful working partnership must be respected by the other members of the lodge and not be a target for other members to play out sexual tension dynamics as part of power games or manipulation — such immaturity has no place in a fully contacted working lodge. The sexual power dynamics in a lodge can be complex, powerful, and potentially dangerous and should be approached carefully.
The sexual power dynamics between gay and straight men or lesbian and straight women can be interesting and complex at a very deep level in magic. Each form of sexuality brings a certain quality of power to the table and when you have a wider range of sexual expressions within the group, then the potentials for magical work are enormous. Again, it has nothing to do with actual sex; it is simply the quality that a certain form of sexuality brings to the table. When the Hierophant understands all the different dynamics that the lodge has, then it is easier for the Hierophant to suggest work sections, partners and tasks to the appropriate people.
When the lodge has celibate members working within the group, then the lodge is presented with a different dynamic again and can be used to great advantage in magical work. It is all about experimenting to learn how power works through us and how the group dynamic fits around that.
Problems can arise when a member does not really understand their own sexuality or is sexually confused. This lack of internal clarity can be a weak link in magical work, which is why it is always best that the adepts of the lodge are older and have already ironed out a lot of their internal issues. Usually, by the time most magical people are getting interested in more powerful and deep magical work, they have already gone through a variety of magical experiences and groups, and have experimented with sexuality, drugs and power.
PHYSICAL POLARITY AND MEDIATION
The magical dynamics of physical polarity are more straight forward and are not littered with the landmines so common with sexuality issues. The physical body of a human mediates power a certain way regardless of the sexual orientation. So an ovulating woman mediates one type of power, a post menopausal or a woman who has had a hysterectomy another type of power, men mediate power another way and castrated men mediate yet another form of power. It doesn’t change according to how they feel or think, it is just pure simple physical dynamics. There are some people who do not fit into these comfortable stereotypes and the Hierophant needs to be sensitive to the dynamics that some members can bring to the table because such people can be sources of great power and should not be shoehorned into a stereotype.
A woman who is ovulating and has a womb has the ability to take another being into herself in a certain way. The estrogen in her body protects her system so that it can hold two spirits or more at once for a long time — she can hold, bridge and birth beings of any order. Women who are not producing estrogen at a fertile level, i.e. menopausal women or women with their ovaries removed, cannot draw beings into themselves in such way so easily. A woman who has ovaries but no womb can draw in beings but has no vessel to process the power to form, which can become very dangerous. Their abilities are different as they still have small amounts of estrogen which protect them, but not enough for bridging. They are however, much more able to reach into places and access different worlds and times — this is one of the reasons why, traditionally, old women were seers. Some women in their forties may notice that reaching into such worlds is easier before they ovulate, but after ovulation they get more of an energy kick back from such work.
Men are excellent catalysts and callers — their inner power is designed to call a being down into the vessel of the woman, to hold large amounts of power and to focus that power in pinpoint accuracy. Younger men can raise a good deal of power but are often unstable with it whereas older men can balance that power out and rein it in, controlling it and riding that power so that it does its job properly. Older men are also very good at creating patterns and do not fall into the trap that younger men do of getting lost within the patterns and ending up stuck in a dead end. The older men can create pattern, power it, and step back to let the woman fill it with consciousness; so, together, with such a combination of power abilities within a lodge, it gets very interesting!
For a healthy lodge, it is apparent then that a combination of both sexes of various sexual preferences and different stages of life gives a full rounded quality to a lodge that keeps it strong.
POLARITY PATTERNING
Another consideration within the lodge on the issue of polarity is the positioning of men and women during the work — the physical positioning of people around the lodge while certain work is happening is very important. Strong solid and earthy people make good door keepers, people sitting in a direction would be best worked with a person of the opposite sex sitting opposite them, sometimes the dynamic of heterosexual and homosexual working in opposites can be powerful — it is all something that should be explored by the lodge and the results worked with actively.
There has been a variety of things written over the years regarding sexuality, polarity, and magic and I personally feel it is best to practically experiment as a group rather than work with old rules and stereotypes. It is also important to take careful note of what dynamic creates what magical conditions, but the bottom line is respect, polarised balance, and proper boundaries.