Preamble
Purposes
Studying how and the manner in which: archetypes, ideas, images, and impressions from many people and in many times connect and correspond, the Garden of Life seeks to enhance the interconnectedness of all Being and encourage Conscious Spiritual Evolution wherever it might appear. We wish to share our work in this process with others who so wish, in order to more fully participate in that meaningful human exhange often referred to as the Great Conversation, so that the pool of information and ideas increases to that critical point, where the evolutionary question of "How Fast is Fast" is more adequately addressed. The study of Correspondences is one of the many Gnosi which we believe contributes to this effort. We wish to provide our work so that others may compare it to their findings and that we all may have better tools and toys to facilitate continued growth and enlightenment.
In addition to the benefit of the study itself in stretching the mind and spirit, we do believe that Correspondences can be quite helpful and efficacious in the construction of various celebratory and ritual patterns and Circle works, which after all may be a becoming of the idea (NeuroLinguistically pure, at least to 93%, guaranteed! or not). Proof, Pudding, and so forth.
Reading this little preamble does take some time, but this saves you from wasting your time by further investigation, if our premisses seem to you not to be valid for you. And saves our time by not having to answer the same questions, numerous times since they are answered here in the Preamble (We hold these Truths to be self evident and so forth). And should it happen that you are willing to consider our hypothesi under these a priori assumptions, well, it better prepares you to examine our work with eyes wide open, which is after all the most desirable outcome from our viewpoint.
Currently this introduction is all that is posted here at the website. We are probably about 3-6 months away from posting the remainder of our current work (Many Megabits, No Blame). When we have it ready to post we will put the links here to continue. This notice is being posted on the 3rd day of
, Year of the Lady 11371,
24°
(23 April 2005ev). If you would like to be apprised of when the major posting of our recension of Correspondences occurs, please send an email to: garden@gardenoflifetemple.com.
Sources
It is not our intent, or even of any interest to us, to make any attempt to convince others of the accuracy of our observations. There will be no extensive documentation, certainly not early on in the process. We will try to make available notes on the development of the project in the interest of research (and for the love of the Great Conversation), but we feel no sense of obligation to do so, nor to justify any choices in any way. We welcome all feedback but make no guarantees that we will do anything with any feedback other than check it for usefullness. The Correspondences here published represent several thousand hours of work by a number of individuals, including but not limited to: experiential spiritual activities, standard research, intuitive leaps, trances, visions and interpolations amongst all of these and more.
Well . . . here we are . . . again. We are actually finishing up work on a ~30 year project, or at least finishing it up to the point where we would be willing to post it, for the divertissement and/or annoyance of our community of like-minded in the world. But in the meantime, this will serve as an introduction to the Correspondences section of our future compendium, as a part of the Garden of Life"Woodland Pagan Omnibus Compendium of Everything" [(that matters) from a Woodland Pagan viewpoint]. Where it will join hands with the "Premisses, Definitions & Info" segment, and sing and dance, etc.
It has been quite interesting in the past year, when this project has entered the ineffable "steamrollin" time, how much it's increased rate of development has helped with the other projects, the Phonetic Language project, the Reconstituted Ægyptian project, the Handbook of Ritual Celebration and others. It's been as if working on this part of our equations has removed a bottleneck from working on the others and brought it all together in some synergistic way, or perhaps synchronicitic way (is that a word? . . . not that we care! . . . as is evidenced abundantly thoughout these pages).
The concept of Correspondences, also resonates with the infamoose "Doctrine of Signatures" (don't worry if this particular explanatory essay disappears online, we've kept a copy and will post it here if it goes away elsewhere with all attached accreditations) and so forth, in all probability reaches well back into what our culture typically refers to as "prehistory", which is probably correct in many simple and ironic ways, certainly it goes back to before "his" story, into the human "her" story and actually "their" story. Most of you will be familiar with the most recent major work on Correspondences: young Alec Crowley's 777. It would be foolish to talk of Correspondences without reference to this work. In his references to the work he said that he tossed it off in a couple of weeks and would finish it later, and or someone should. However, I have yet to come across any metaphysical group which holds Circles and events, or even which is only involved in discussion of these ideas, which does not make use of this work, regardless of their attitude toward it's compiler.
The Garden of Life worldview embraces widely varied ideas and connections. When you begin to build a table of correspondences, the most basic effect is that you are putting down in words a representation of your worldview of the human consensus reality (long may it wave). For some this is a fairly simple process, for the absolutists and the fundamentalists (of any persuasion, religious and/or secular), there are really only two cubbyholes in which to sort into: Goodness and Badness, Left and Right, Yes and No, and so forth. For others reality is a more complex series of calculations, for better or worse. Obviously the finer the resolution on your "screen", the more subtle nuances one may detect, perhaps it brings the picture into better focus? Certainly that is our point of view. The number of columns in our tables and their raison de etres have evolved over the years to their current form, and the symbol to which we anchor them, a Caduceus, while it has remained the same symbol, has achieved massive alterations.
The Caduceus as a Referential Anchoring Symbol
We have anchored the framework of our Correspondences to a particular vision of the Caduceus symbol. The Red and Blue Serpents twinning around the Winged and Ball topped Golden Staff is an image which has been with me since childhood. And it seems to unfold naturally into points which develop into each of the columns where items from each proposed category may be sorted. Each Column reflects a particular Archetypal Sorting Field, and is represented by a variety of often similar images in various systems, past, present and future. We view our Caduceus as deriving from and anchored to: these images and Archetypes.
Our thrust will be somewhat different. We will start with the Archetypes represented in the full Tarot (and then some) and work from there. We will not hook it all to the Qabalic symbol referred to as the "Tree of Life", Hebrew or otherwise (however loudly we may hear the siren call of those backward 31s and 32s) Correlations are certainly there but we feel it is more a matter of cart before horse etcetera. In addition to book and online format, we intend to issue these Correspondences in the form of a program at some point where any end user would be able to modify the correspondences to their heart's content (In fact when I close my eyes I can see the Lady throwing that Golden Apple, . . . just watch it fly!), and revert back to the way they came if they wish, and/or keep both.
The Tarot, (and then some)
It is our position that the best way to start with the Tarot, whether one's intent is primarily towards divination or spiritual growth is to spend a period of time meditating on each image in one's chosen recension of the Tarot and recording one's own impressions from the image, before beginning to study what other people have said about them. This applies both the extant 78 (or so) images and the once and future, missing ~19-22 which we hope to retrieve. However, there is no damage, and there is much potential benefit from study of any of the various interpretations, in this or any field, after the original personal connection to the archetypes and images is made. Or anyway such is our belief, which has informed and enflamed this Werk.
Each archetype, the images by which they are represented, and each component correspondent may be used as a tool for growth in its own right, and each may be viewed on multiple levels of awareness. We also feel that it is rigorously important not to "mix the levels" (as always, but) especially in this field of study: Correspondences, or whatever you should like to call it. For example, on one level the Tarot Images are totally and completely NonHierarchical, that is, they exist as termini on the spokes of a wheel, each of equal weight (so as not to tump over the bicycle, tricyle, pentacycle or whatever the hell it is or may seem to be). Contrawise, on another level they are the most emphatically Hierarchical System ever devised, one representing a phase, condition and/or modality which leads inexorably into the next in a cyclic, rhythmic yet undeniably Hierarchical pattern. Both conditions are true, and helpful and educational, but only if they are treated as such within their own frameworks. If they are treated as Hierarchical in a NonHierarchical context, or as NonHierarchical in a Hierarchical context, much distress and little benefit will ensue. It is said that at one time, the images were painted, or somehow portrayed on the inner walls of circular temples, where the seekers would come to sit in front of the images and absorb all that they could directly from the images as part of a comprehensive system of Conscious Spiritual Evolution, and this is probably a handle on how to maximise the benefit to be had from this whole system.
We do not intend to seek a one-to-one correspondence in every row, except where the category lends itself to such. It seems to us that the additional Atu and Suite of Vorti do tend to make the assignations more natural both in specific and general. Some categories will have more than one correspondence in some columns and none in others. For one thing, the variations and crossovers between columns and rows make tables of correspondences so imminently utilizable in Natural and Ceremonial Magickal Traditions, and for Traditions which draw from both currents.
Premisses
We will make several other observations here, in an attempt to clarify our reasons for constructing these correspondence tables, and various items about our approach to same.
Frame of Reference Effects
We do concur with the idea that the complexity of one's chosen "Frame of Reference" has a direct bearing on the depth and bredth of the infinite Sea of Possibility that one is able to experience. Hence the oft heard reference to the limitations of living in a black and white universe, with the implication of a world view that only gives you one switch and two positions for that switch (usually on and off) We've tried to stay within the limits of the complexity of matrix which is possible to hold in one's mind, with as few limits as possible and no unnecessary consolidation.
Ancient Life and Contemporary Experience
We base our observations primarily on 30 someodd years of Circle work and other spiritual and metaphysical activities in this lifetime. We are usually coming from what we call an ÆgyptoSumerian frame of reference (with some Arcadian flavourings). That is perhaps best considered as our ground of being, we have built many strange and fanciful structures, including bits and snippets, flavours and chunks, from many Cultures and Traditions, there in Durative Garden of Life Land, and some stolid and simple ones too, but they all rest on that basic Urth, and/or float above it and/or something.
Directional Perception
One of the important effects that our general ÆgyptoSumerian frame of reference may have for some is that we follow a North-Earth East-Fire South-Air West-Water path which differs in some important ways from our fellow Pagans who follow North-Earth East-Air South-Fire West-Water paths. Once the Correspondences are released as a program it should be easy to set up a toggling between those two, but for the time being we wanted to mention it as this will cause some anomolies for Frame of References which follow the other widely known path. I think that one of the primary reasons that in Ægypt, the Element of Earth was North and the Element of Air was South, was that in Ægypt, the headwaters of the Nile were always and instintively thought of as up, e.g.: "I will go up (almost invariably South) to the Source of the Nile" or "I will go down (almost invariably South) to the Delta". And perhaps this is something that should be adjusted within each Cultural context.
Pagan Perspective
Everything here is completely from a Pagan WorldView. We do not discuss, nor are we interested in any of the patriarchal traditions, particularily the Abramic ones (Including but again not limited to: Judaism, Christianity and/or Islam and their derivative traditions). Other persons may or may not find benefit in these traditions, but really we are not interested in hearing about it ever. Not interested, really not interested, . . . less interested than anyone might ever think. We do however include information from traditions that some sometimes include in that Abramic bundle such as for example most varieties of Gnostic, Grail Christian, Unitarian, all Mystery Schools and Occult Traditions.
Asyncretic Eclectic
We are not "Syncretists" (who try to distill concepts down to their smallest common denominators), in fact if anything we are near total "Asyncretists". Too much is lost through syncretism in our view. Like all types of linear thinking, it has it's utility in making things easier to grasp initially but in the field of spirituality so much is in the ambiance and gradations of thought, that the loss of nuance and detail limits it's usefullness. We are Eclecticists certainly and draw from many Pagan traditions, both ancient and modern (and a few traditions that we would consider like-minded, or fellow travelers, that are not necessarily Pagan and/or do not consider themselves to be), but we do not try to act as if they are all the same thing. For example among deity forms: Ast may have similarities to Inanna, and Utu to Heru Behudet, but we are not under any remote type of impression that they "are" each other (We have an essay further elucidating this idea, however it seemed excessive, and not in the "good" way to include all that here, we are already, after all, running off at the mind to a great degree). In fact teasing out the various threads that have long been lumped together for convenience and shall we say, for . . . less savory motives, seems to us to be of extreme value and validity.
Authority and Lineage
In one of his most astute observations, Master Crowley said (We're paraphrasing here) "If the forms, techniques and methodologies that I develope, don't work for you then no amount of "background", "documentation" and/or miscellaneous "HooHa" is going to change that; and controversly if they do work for you, then the same applies" (We are paraphasing, and I think it possibly may have been clearer in the original, but I can't find it right now.) We do ascribe to Aleister Crowley's thesis that no one should accept anything (metaphysical or otherwise but particularly in the field of metaphysics) just because someone else (who may or maynot have whatever credentials) put it forward. That if some form, technique, idea, etc. does not work for a particular individual that they should find some other one that does, and never have to consider whether anyone else shares the concept or not.
The Beginnings of this Work
ThirtyFive(ish) years ago in those first few hundred hours pouring over the Dallas Public Library's enviable copy of the Hieroglyphic Dictionary by Budge (more for the Hieroglyph combinations in words than the supposed pronunciations) and our copies of Aleister Crowley's 777, among hundreds of other works available to us, we were struck by the seeming lack of Natural Magick categories and assignments, some were there or could be easily interpolated, however many seemed to be missing or incomplete. Our Tradition, like most of today's Pagan groups always combined Ceremonial and Natural Magickal aspects in Circles and Celebrations, but especially in our beginnings, the Natural Magick was closer to our hearts. Our first werk was ferreting out and delineating our assignments of the Ægyptian Neters and concepts to the directions for Salutation purposes, and of course working out a pattern for the inclusion of the seasonal Celebrations of the vegetative cycles.
One of the other primary components which goes into construction of any metaphysical table of correspondences is the view of the attribution of the elements. We are posting a simplified table here (NOTE: this is not yet filled in, it's just a framework, it will be completed soon) to begin to explore these attributions:
