Tumblr Witchy Book Club: The Pillars of Tubal Cain Book Crawl
Chapter 1-3
Look, friends, I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not this. I'm still pretty new to the whole mythos of Tubal Cain, and its involvement in everything witchcraft-related, and while I've been in traditional witchcraft for a bit now, I have yet to be involved in a group that studies together. So this myth or group of myths had yet to cross my path hard enough to actually be explained. I initially bought this book looking for in-depth information about the pattern of seemingly Christian materials embedded into traditional witchcraft. I'm hunting for the Whys and Hows of subjects like the Fallen Angels, the Watchers, the Watchtowers, and the Elementals are involved in witchcraft. I knew the theory aligned in the structure of the Universe, but according to whom was my lingering confusion.
"None of us practice in a vacuum," was one of the reasons offered to me by the Reverend Johnathan Sousa in a discord discussion not too long ago. In further reference to this book crawl, I'm seeing just how true that really is for traditional witchcraft topics.
Chapter 1 after the break
Chapter 1 felt like a deepening the reserve of questions I maintain in the back of my mind about magical topics. It's a quick review of all the groups and communities that had witnessed or aligned with the roots of angelic magic. This pulls many cultural representations from the biblical communities. I had bought the book looking for more info on Canaanite lore, but the rest of it was also deepening my understanding of the environment around this specific work. Here's one of my favorite passages from this chapter:
"The great epitome of angelic transformation in the Western occult tradition and the goal of the magia lies in the exaltation of the psyche to its essential angelic nature, the realisation of the inner angel within the human of matter, the assumption of that nature which involves transmutation into a divinised being or 'perfected one', and the transformation of one's environment into a paradisal or heavenly world state," (Jackson & Howard, 2000, p 21).
This quote tells us that the goal of angelic magic is to change our energy, our space, our lives, our selves, to be more divine. To become more god-like, and to identify our role in that as magician who seeks inner transformation or transmutation. This is an alchemical approach to raising the inner world of the human to a godly-like arena. This is not a surprising reach, and we see this in alchemy, we see this in the HGA approach of Crowley, as well as many other occult texts across the field of magic and witchcraft. To achieve this, the individual must develop in the following ways:
Awaken from the sleep of materialism
Seek glimpses of self-knowedge through initiation
Ascend gnosis into the pure mind state of unbroken primal bliss
There is way more to be said about these, including their relation to alchemy and the states of matter, but I'll leave these for other readers in case someone else finds them fascinating like i do.
Pure Mind, in transpersonal psychology (TP), is considered the realm of pure thought, the function of the self when embodied in a healthy way, and the ability of that self to see unity between all subjects. When we talk about the Realm of Mind in TP, we are discussing its impact on the physical, the mental, and the emotional. Pillars also suggests that this realm of mind must also interject some level of self-awareness, and the next step is ascension or transcendence. I don't think that transpersonal disagrees, and I find it amusing. Thus far, the book itself does not highlight practical ways in which to do this, only that this transcendence of self is the point, purpose, and goal of angelic magic. This is a pretty routine occult style to be wrapped into the core of traditional witchcraft.
No one practices in a vacuum, indeed.
Art above is Transcendent by Susan Card
Chapter 2 - The Children of Heaven
Chapter 1 really talked about the theories of angels coming to Earth and the process of magical alignment with their skills. Chapter 2 really discusses who they are, why they arrived here, and what their purpose was in doing so:
"The angelic revolt was a sacrifice of Promethean proportions in which the angels incarnated themselves within the material dimension of time and space in order to transmit the luminous seed of gnosis into human beings. They endowed themselves with the capacity to realise their innate divinity and achieve release from the bounds of material existence. The fallen angels, according to hidden doctrine, were not malign or 'sinful'. On the contrary, they were transcendent avatars of humanity's spiritual salvation and eventual redemption through gnosis. ...The redemption of the dark matter (hyle) by the transmission of the Lux Angeline, or Angelic Light was the Watcher's purpose in descending to the earth plane. Their mission was designed to lead to the eventual liberation of all entities and, ultimately, the raising of the whole world to its original paradisial state," (Jackson & Howard, 2000, p 29-30).
This passage kicked me in the brain because of how often I've heard the idea of "Lust" or "Sin" being the reason why the angels fell to begin with. Seeking the Fallen Angels takes on new meaning when their true purpose exists in assisting the world to self-transcend as opposed to the edgelord of demon pit dwelling they've been socially assigned to becoming. The demonization that has occurred does not fit this definition culturally in the arena of witchcraft and magic. Their purpose is to help humanity find themselves and transcend physical reality into the liberation of a state of paradise. Pillars doubles down on this in the following statement about humans:
"The existential problem of 'fallen' humanity is defined in terms of the ignorance of our true, unborn and immortal nature, of misidentification and entanglement with the impermanent world of material appearances, of the consequent limitation, amnesia and suffering experienced therein. The key to release and mystical 'regeneration' lies within, through the realization of our unfallen essence, in the realm of gnosis or transcendental knowledge," (Jackson & Howard, 2000, p 35).
Here we see that the understanding of the Fallen Angels has been likewise spread to those humans who practice the arts as a transcendental activity, creating the potential for growth in a human being and helping the angelic ones to enact their purpose over the earth. This continues to feel very Christianity-related, but I expect it will shift some the further we get into the rest of the book.
The last note I found of high personal value are the segments about Phoenix and the 'stone that fell from the sun' as they are parts of my own practice and lived experiences in magic given mythological form. If you know me, then you know how important the Phoenix is to me, and the 'stone' is referenced abundantly among Alchemical works. These are pieces of mystery in my practice that will be dug into further at a later date.
Art by L.K. Summer @Medium.com
Chapter 3 - Tower of Titians
This chapter begins with the idea that the Nephilim had began to overrun the world with their great power and that one of the Archangels had come with a warning to the people about the Deluge. This also talks about Nimrod, the tower of Babel, and the changes that could occur to the learning of the Angels as it had begun to discriminate across the cultural groups the Fallen Ones had connected with. Their job was to illuminate the darkness for the humans, and the deluge was reducing the ability of humans to reach beyond their mortal plane. The Tower of Babel was a structure of both myth and reality, assuming the levels of development to reach transcendence. Nimrod was building a path through the material represented in previous chapters, and that path was brought to rubble by the deluge.
The chapter alludes to the knowledge of the angels being pulled into places away from the flooding waters and further inland, to higher plateau areas, though it does not discuss those places in depth. One of the terms used for this movement was the 'Atlantean migration' and is somehow connected to Noachite Masonry or Prussian Knights Masonry.
There are other groups of Titians mentioned in various nations, communities, and spiritualists. Madam Blatvasky in particular has a page and a half or so towards her community of spiritualism wherein her discovery of this material is tied in. There are several parts here to dig into if one is curious. The former pieces seemed more interesting to me.
Nimrod and the Tower of Babel by Unknown
Thanks for joining me for this month's Book Crawl post. I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's experiences of these chapters and how the material sat for you. Feel free to write as much or as little as you wish.
Up Next:
December - Ch 4-8 - Pg 55-124
Tumblr Witchy Book Crawl: The Pillars of Tubal Cain
Since almost no one can afford doctors, apothecaries are our healers.
~~~
I cannot afford to get upset, to leave this room with puffy eyes and a red nose.
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He pulls a white paper package from his jacket pocket and holds it out to me. I open it and find cookies. These are a luxury we can never afford.
~~~
That part about her being ill might be true. I've seen her bring back people suffering from immobilizing sadness since. Perhaps it is a sickness, but it's one we can't afford.
Royce is questioning the dead being dead, why? and he mentions there's things to learn from the dead - what does he expect to find?
the way Will describes Royce reminds me a lot of how GRRM later describes arya
Will's skill being able to move silently in the forest reminds me of arya too
gared wants to light a fire for bears and direwolves which makes you think that the watch has definitely dealt with the direwolves before even if Ned later mentions (in chapter 3) that the Others haven't been seen in 8,000 years and Direwolves haven't been seen by a living man in 200 years.
its literally so dark that will mentions the Others shadows being white which makes me think their shadows are actually just moonlight being refracted by their armor.
why did Royce's sword not break at the beginning of the fight? It wasn't until the Others sword was soaked in blood that it shatters Royces sword..?
Will tells us the others have their own language
I think it's interesting that Bran mentions Ned "changing faces" between being a lord and being a father
I really liked the small details from Brans POV about jon's relationship with his family. He doesn't always call Ned "lord Stark" but does it in a way to persuade his father to keep the wolf pups. He and Robb get into trouble regularly per Jory and Neds comment. And Jon and Theon have a rivalry, it's very apparent that Jon dislikes Theons sense of humor.
I found it really interesting that Robb was the one to find the direwolf, and that it died on the riverbank as opposed to the bridge the way the show portrays it. Possibly another parallel in the location that we hadn't considered before?
in cat’s POV she -like bran in chap 2- mentions "darker things" beyond the wall and everyone seems to have a fear of magical things in the North.
IMAGINE if Ned's plan for the family to go to the vale had actually happened instead of Robert being a dumb fuck and taking his family to WF. How different the story might've been if the Stark kids had started out there instead of being separated. But I think Jon would've still gone to the wall because I doubt Cat would want to take him with her to her sisters castle.
