I.

The Laws of Magic (and magic has many laws, despite what we might think) can be condensed into the idea of Polarity.  In whatever form you experience these, with whatever name you call them, the pull and flow of circuit is the underlying structure of magic. The best analogy for magic is not magnetism or light but the alternating current of the electrical circuit.

Let us listen to what the esteemed Dion Fortune has to say on the topic, in her opus magnum The Mystical Qabalah:

“The esotericist sees in Malkuth the end-result of all operations; not until the Pairs of Opposites have achieved the settled equilibrium which gives the state of Earth, or coherence, can then be said to have completed any given cycle of experience.” (249)

“Malkuth is the nadir of evolution, but it should be looked upon, not as the ultimate depth of spirituality, but as the marking-buoy in a yacht race. Any yacht that puts about on to the homeward course before it has rounded the marking-buoy is disqualified. And so it is with the soul. If we try to escape from the discipline of matter before we have mastered the lessons of matter, we are not advancing heaven-wards, but suffering from arrested development.” (252)

 No [magical] operation is completed until the process has been expressed in terms of Malkuth, or, in other words, has issued forth in action on the physical plane.” (257)

Successful magic depends on being brought to earth. All magical operations begin and end in malkuth; they must do, for magic is the human’s negotiation and renegotiation of personhood as it encounters the divine. 

When it comes to ‘High’ magic and mysticism, many devote their lives to the Path without it ever occurring to them to clear a space for return. This is what the medieval mystics had over us esoteric, what the hermits forgot: if the work is only ever in one direction, the work is never complete.

The Path you are on is your true path only if it leads you to act with Love and Understanding towards Others. The nature of the Work of the Art of the Soul is that of refining base metals to create a precious stone. The Holy Grail was sought to free the land of its curse. What is the point in stealing Keridwen’s cauldron if we do not use it to feed our countrymen?

We recognise the duality, the twisting of polarities encapsulated in the divine androgyne, which it is necessary to experience and understand in order to reach knowledge of the highest Mysteries.

Somehow we forget that polarity works in all directions, all at once. To the same extent the great work is a mixing of polarities sideways, as it were, two twisting snakes up the tree - to this same extent is the work both an upwards movement and a downwards movement at the same time.

We are not setting off away from earth, but deepening our understanding of its glories, its mysteries. The cabalistic would be better understood as a series of sphered encased in one another, with Kether in the centre, like the burning core of our globe, and malkuth on the outside, the crust whereupon we walk. Our Work is not an attempt to break out of humanity toward the divine, but an attempt to break into humanity, to find the divinity that already resides there.

And this work would be meaningless if the circuit were not completed - if the knowledge was not brought to earth, that it might fertilise even as it has been fertilised by the earth’s call. Thus is the visionary compelled to share what she sees, and thus too do we work. 

This is a certain chance we must take here, a generosity of spirit, a faith in humanity. And indeed, it may be possible to achieve the cycle and return alone in your white tower, and so be it. But you will never know the unimaginable joys of earth.

II.

What is the model we should take for our community? For we all must work from a model. We cannot help it, for this is how language works. In order not to be a slave to the language game, one must learn to play with meaning, to manipulate. Fraternity, Order, Brotherhood, Society, Sisterhood, Priesthood, Church. We are none of these, though we draw elements from them all.

Bitter experience has shown us that the model of Knights in armour that occultists so adore is outdated and misogynistic. It - as with Brotherhood - relies on absolute principles, which are the downfall of all practical philosophies.

We are all so desperate for community, we take community to mean a blind sense of belonging, rather than something living, moving, becoming. Community should be modelled on our cells and bodies, not projected down from carven monuments.

Since we are living in the proto-apocalypse, why don't we take a more mythic approach?

We consider ourselves Companions. We are those who feast together, those who share the bread of life. We are those with whom One is All.

We are not tied by oaths and promises, but by purpose. We do not make one choice and then sit in complacency. We choose anew every day and every second to devote ourselves to that thing which is the heart of life itself. The Spoken Unspoken. Being. Joy. Love. The Gods. Divinity.

We have gotten used to the esoteric being secret. In today’s excess of communication we crave secrecy. But remember, there is secrecy and there is secrecy. Do you veil because the truth would burn, or because you can charge gold to peek behind the curtain? Remember: the Eleusinian mysteries were open to all, even slaves and women. There is no social restriction that can be rightfully placed on the mysteries, and anyone who argues otherwise is clouded by vanity.

Thus we have no creed, no secret, no trademark mystery. To be a companion one must do very little, only this: to devote every second, every action, every moment of becoming, to the Great Work of realising Divinity in flesh.

We are Companions in the Abyss.

We serve, and receive the service of others. This is the circuit of community. Seen thus, needing help is not a burden upon the other, but an opportunity for our sister or brother to do the work of Love. The shame of vulnerability is disappeared, for vulnerability becomes a Holy Act before our sister-god. But this exchange can only take place when the act of serving is similarly seen as holy.  The divine circuit of exchange.

We are working to provide a trail of breadcrumbs through the forest - a rest-stop and a running partner in the great race. The Abyss is not crossed once, but everyday. We are companions in the eternal crossing.

III.

The Temple of Our Lady of the Abyss is still at its earliest stages of growth. 

It is our aim to create a community of devotees committed to service. A community that does not claim exclusive access to divinity, but which is divinely inspired. A community that has authority not because some old man said so, or because we claim we can trace apostolic lineage back through thousands of hands laid on thousands of backs. A community in which our divine inspiration, our truth, our mission, shines out from all of the work that we do, to be seen reflected in the faces and the lives of our members. 

We are not an Order, nor a Fraternity. We don’t have a long membership shpiel, shiny inductions nor secret occult keys.

We are companions on our many paths, which together weave the immense, infinite plait of the one true path, which is All and None. We seek to create a new kind of occult community, one that is not hierarchical, nor secret for the sake of secrecy.

We do not teach, but seek to help our members learn, to support our companions and offer guidance and community as they go through their own initiations, their own journey.

We seek not to alter your will to fit our own, but to work together to manifest the divine harmony of infinite wills working together, infinite rays of light refracting over a waterfall to create a rainbow. infinite vibrations bringing together a holy song.

We do not seek to promulgate, but to seek out others who are on or approaching the path, and to aid them on their journey as companions.

We are hoping to create a collective, a group of people with skills, both magical and practical, which we can put to use in our shared work and service. 

Joining us at this stage means helping us grow into ourselves. It means you will have the chance to help direct where we go, and to truly help in the construction of this egregore.

We seek members who will want to actively participate in our community and help us create and expand. This is not a place to win fancy hats and titles.

Members are expected to actively contribute to the Work of the Temple, contributing their uniques skills in order to make our Temple stronger. 

We want incense blenders and leather workers and ritual writers and website builders and metalworkers and spell-workers and musicians and artists, creative and technical, working together to build something new.

We seek to create a collective, a group that is stronger than the sum of its parts. A space of joy, of jouissance, a space where we can be more than we are by working together in the service of Our Lady