Tag: Ina Custers van Bergen

Merlin’s Secrets

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

Do you know that mythology and ancient folk tales contain powerful techniques for self-development? Do you know that these ancient stories contain powerful patterns of the deep mind which can be used for self-empowerment? These patterns can help you discover your unique talents and abilities.

People think that it is a hard job to work at yourself, but surprisingly fantasy is the most underestimated tool and imagination has been proven to be an important bridge to contact the deep mind. Both these tools make this work into a meaningful, a joyful and even an ecstatic experience.

The weekend retreat “Merlin’s Secrets” is based on very ancient and proven methods for self-development. Beauty, wonder and mystery open the gate to the Realm of the Imagination, where you enter as a Grail Seeker into the Enchanted Lands of your deep self. Can you imagine yourself experiencing your life’s adventure as a valiant Knight or a beautiful Faery Lady at the Court of King Arthur at the Round Table?

“Merlin’s Secrets” takes you on a quest to the Enchanted Lands of your Inner Self. You will participate into a quest for your personal mission to become the best version of your Self. The carefully chosen mental and spiritual exercises pave your way on the age-old Search for the Holy Grail. How to find the Grail Castle? In it are hidden the secrets to develop your unique talents and discover the hidden treasures of your Deep Mind. Do you dare to pass the Gates of Wonder and pass their challenges?

During this weekend you will transform into a Knight or a Faery Lady of the Round Table, enter your enchanted Inner Kingdom, and make an adventurous journey on the quest for Inner Treasures.

We look for Knights and Lady who yearn to join our Fellowship of the Grail and accompany us on this adventurous journey, to find the Grail Castle and learn how Merlin’s Secrets are the Key to the unfolding of your inner riches. You will learn to illuminates your Inner World, and to take care of your Enchanted Land. It will flourish and develop into an unending source of wonder, beauty and magic, an inner treasure that makes you a true Knight or Lady of the Court of Joy.

“What is the Grail and whom does it serve?”

Dare to answer these age-old questions and walk the Beautiful Road of your inner development! The Quest for the Grail is both a solo mission and an adventure taken on as a Fellowship. Join the Court of Joy, and enjoy the company of fellow travelers on this exciting path. Join us and discover Merlin’s Secrets.

FOR WHOM: It’s for everyone over 18 years of age who is interested in self-development.
WHERE: the Eulenburg in 37520 Osterode, right at the border at the enigmatic Harz mountains in Germany.
WHAT: We will spend the weekend using guided meditation exercises and even ritual drama to explore the Arthurian mythological landscape for our own personal development.
WHEN: Start August 19th Friday evening 20.00 – 22.00, Saturday 20th from 10.00 – 22.00, Sunday 21th from 10.00 until +/- 17.00 O-Clock.
PRICE: € 295,00 handouts, coffee, tea and one Magical Banquet included

We can assist you in finding fitting accommodation near the workshop site in various price ranges. The places for this unique event are limited and enrollment will close soon, so don’t hesitate and ENROLL NOW!

ENROLL NOW

The Fisher King

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

I am happy to announce that the online meditation for the fourth Tarot Trump is ready. In the Smith-Waite tarot this card is called the Emperor, but this title does not give much information about the nature of this card, nor about its history or mythology. To understand the full impact of this card, it is important to know that the Arcanum of the Emperor is connected to the month of Aries wherein the feast of Easter is celebrated.

The fourth Arcanum reveals the Mystery of the Sacrifice of the Corn King. These mysteries are described in many stories, among which the Parzifal from Wolfram von Eschenbach. Here we find the story of the wounded Fisher King and based on this myth I have developed:

 

Trump IV The Fisher King

 

“You raise from your cubical throne and grab your sword to defend yourself, but before you stand upright, a knight in black armor pushes the lance into your groins with an enormous push. You fall to the ground and roll back and forth, desperately trying to protect a deep bleeding wound ….”

For this Arcanum I have developed a guided meditation of 50 minutes that takes you right into the experience of the Wounded King and the different challenges he has to face. Unravelling starts with a basic question: Who is this wounded king, and what causes his incurable wound?

 

Buy now

 

The Magic of the White Goddess

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

Are you a seeker for meaning? Do you want to develop yourself? Do you long for that expansion of consciousness that takes you into the deeper aspects of your soul, beyond psychology and right into cosmic experiences? Are you searching for the wisdom teachings that result in inner illumination?

Hidden in ordinary fairytales, in classical books, operas, sculptures and paintings is an authentic mystery teaching, that takes you right into a very ancient form of western shamanism.

The key to unlock these wisdom teachings is the Hermetic Tree of Life. Hermetic meditation exercises are keys that open doors to worlds of inner riches. They train your mind to access cosmic wisdom. By using a balanced series of very advanced techniques of meditation and applied imagination, you will gain access to the higher spiritual realms. A unique combination of meditation techniques with arts and crafts, with trance journeys, founded on a solid theoretical background, the doors of your Inner Worlds open to Inner Treasures and Healing experiences.

 

https://vimeo.com/644745364

Listen to Ina to learn more!

 

This coming trimester we will be working with myths and legends that contain the instructions and techniques of classical western shamanistic and magical practices and we will be discovering even more hidden treasures.

Are you interested in discovering this spiritual path? Do you want to know the secrets of the Paradise Garden, where you find the western shamanistic techniques for Soul Retrieval, or do you want to discover the true nature of the Minotaur? Then enroll for the upcoming trimester. We will start a third series of 18 webinars. We will explore the sacred teachings of seasonal myths via guided meditation and we will be hunting for magical treasures! (The two previous series will be put online in Autumn for backorders.)

For whom: The webinars are for everyone who is interested in personal development, who wants to explore the meaning of life and who wants answers to existential questions. These webinars are of interest for both beginners and for highly trained practitioners of the Western Mystery Tradition: they are chock-full of new information, applied techniques and surprises!

What: 18 webinars of one hour, chock-full with theoretical explanation, meditation exercises, magical techniques and magical treasure hunting.

Place: Zoom. During 18 Wednesday evenings we will gather online, starting on April 20 2022 until August 17 2022, from 19.30 until 20.30 CEST/CET.
For more information and enrolling, write to info@hermeticartsandsciences.org

 

Our debute at Dutch National TV – Iedereen Verlicht – NPO2

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

Voor mensen die de uitzending van onze samenwerking met NPO2 televisie gemist hebben: hier kun je de opname voor het programma Iedereen Verlicht nogmaals bekijken.

For everyone who wants to see our cooperation with the Dutch National Television (NPO2), here is the video. It will be translated to English soon.

 

The necessity of grounding

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

In esoteric circles people love to share their knowledge with their peers. Not everyone understands the dynamics of the spiritual principle they are lecturing about. In this way some strange esoteric myths developed over the years. One of these myths is about the necessity of grounding.

It happened years ago, but I remember it vividly; I visited a healer who told me that I was not properly grounded. How he noticed this? I had cold feet and that was because I did not absorb earth-energy properly. That was the cause of my issues. I was flabbergasted and immediately knew that I had been given a complete silly advice.

Do people sometimes tell you that you are not properly grounded? Or did you tell this to someone else? What is being grounded, and what isn’t?

What is ‘being grounded’?

Being grounded means that you are able to translate the fruits of your rich spiritual life into your daily life: into your work, your family, and it reflects the choices that you make.

When you are properly grounded, you ask yourself questions like:

  • Does my day job reflect my your spiritual mission in life?
  • Are the products that I use produced in a sustainable and ethical way?
  • Do the products that I buy help me to realize my spiritual vision.
  • Do you give worth to things that you consider worthwhile?
  • Is my own behavior an example for my vision of how to  interact with people in my environment?
  • What do the events that happen in my life tell me?
  • What lectures do I need to learn?
  • How do I become a better version of yourself, so that you become a more effective channel for the divine?

Being properly grounded means that you not only reach for Heaven, but that you are also rooted in the Earth, and you are actively contributing on making Earth a little bit more like heaven.

 

Magnum Opus

Western Esoterism is not only focused upon Heaven above, but also actively working at the realization of the Heaven inside and the Heaven on Earth.

Spirituality is not an excuse for escapism. It is a system where you can develop yourself esoterically, psychologically and materially, in a way that contributes to making this world a better place. This is called the Magnum Opus, the Great Work. Because you transform yourself by the spiritual process, you transform your life and spiritual forces will materialize through your work. That is grounding!

 

In LVX
Ina Custers van Bergen
Magical Order Temple of Starlight

Do you want to do the Great Work, and better yourself and the world, than the Solo Magical Training might be something for you.

 

Magic isn’t real, or is it?

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

The famous Paracelsus thought that epilepsy could be cured magically by grinding the horn of a unicorn in a mortar. That is quackery, isn’t it?

For a very long time, important magical books of great scientists gathered dust in the libraries of the World. The magical grimoires from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance lie mostly undiscovered and undervalued in the cellars of our museums. The presumption is that this material is not worthwhile being translated and studied.

The difficulty of these books is that in order to understand them one needs to train different areas of the brain. In our time, the rational side of the brain is trained continuously, the creative part is often neglected. Among the specific skills of the creative brain are all the arts, but also prayer, meditation and ritual. In ancient times these skills were considered to be crucial to understand the reality, to generate healing and receive insight and inspiration about the Divine Nature of the world surrounding us.

Ora Et Labora

These processes were investigated and described by ancient scientists; to understand the books of the Mediaeval Alchemists, Magicians and Astrologers and to benefit from the results of that training, one needs to follow their methods. They searched for the Divine Principle and Pattern of Creation in each and every appearance. Only by following the same methods we will understand the magical connection Paracelsus discovered between epilepsy and a lightning strike, and why he wrote that the cure of this disease was to grind the horn of a unicorn in a mortar.

Everything present in the greater World is not more and not less, also present in the human body. Similar kinds of wood, stone, herbs etc. that are present in the outer world are also present in the human, only not in the same appearance as in the elements…

Whoever is capable of recognizing the appearances in the human body – thus: this is the sapphire in the human, the Mercury, the Cypress, the Flos Cheiri etc – he has studied the book of the human body and seen through it.

Paracelsus

Fortunately the Magical Grimoires are gradually being taken seriously again the last couple of years. But to extract the pearls from the material, it is necessary to push aside the rational mind for a minute, and to train the spiritual side of the brain; to make a shift in consciousness to an ensouled world, and then you will experience that magic is no superstition, but really works!

Meditation

The nature of reality is not material but spiritual. Matter is crystallized consciousness. The Spiritual Vision on reality learns us: God is comatose in stones, asleep in plants, dreams in animals and is awake in humans.

 

In LVX
Ina Custers van Bergen

If you are interested in developing these meditation techniques then read more about our Solo Magical Training.

 

The Book of the Caves – Tarot project

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

As you know when you follow me on Facebook, I am currently working on a tarot deck.
This is a long term project which will develop gradually. During the process of the making, I will publish images of the cards and audio files with related meditations. If you want to listen to the meditations and follow the creation of the Tarot Deck, follow me at the @Western Mystery School group on Facebook and subscribe to my newsletter.

In LVX
Ina Custers-van Bergen

 

 

The Mages

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

The temple community consists of trainees and initiates of different degrees.
Initiates serve as models for every member of the group to create awareness of ideal archetypes. The functions – not the people themselves – serve as transpersonal models for development of every member. These projections are part of the initiation process, called the “Illumination of the Interior Stars”, which I describe in my book “The Mystery of the Sea”.
Initiating trainees indiscriminately leads to ego-inflation and chaos  because the people who hold the grades need to be able to carry the load of the archetype and must be able to teach by example.

Ina Custers

 

Deep Night

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

While the World sleeps I float through the streets at night
Throwing billions of sparks around me
Bejewel the blackened sky
sew them as diamonds on my black mantle.

Thus I create that Mystical Space to give the Inner Self a Universe to fill:
with expectations, ripenings and potential.

For I am the Keeper of the darkened Gateways
of deeper and truer Understanding
As the Mother of Sleep, of Dreams and Death,
I separate Time and create the Immortal Hour
that Magical Space of Mythical Atonement.

(Ina Custers – The Body of Osiris)

 

The Deep

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

How do you experience your life?
As a wasteland, a barren place where nothing can flourish?
A place of constant trauma where you roll every day into the next drama?
Then come with me on a journey; I invite you to visit the Deep.

The Deep… a place that is not a place.
A force that reacts on our behaviour, desires and dreams
The Deep organizes the world around us.
creates events based on blockages, suppressed emotions and fears.
on wishes, dreams and ideals.

A world in which unknown forces cause the nexts events to happen,
A world loaded with … Magic
When you know how that hidden creative force works, you can master its rules.
Then the Deep will illuminate the wasteland around you,
reveal it’s enchanting beauty
and unlock its hidden mysteries.

(Ina Custers – The Enchanted Land)

 

White Lady

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

Flying away from the world I meet twilight’s dream;
The White Lady leads me to the forest fen
Illuminates my face and reflects me in Moonlight.

Where does she come from and where does she lead me?
She is neither human, nor night itself,
woven from ancestral memories and veils of fog.

She floats in misty fields, causes whisperings in nightly stillness:
“Remember me from long ago, I awaken you for lucid dreams
and open the Gates to the Otherworldly Magical Nights.”

(Ina Custers – The Body of Osiris)

 

Eternal Eye

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

I am the Everlight, the Eye of Timeless Space,
Constant and immortal, white and bright.
No shade has force to bind down my might.
I reclaim my Throne, and poor down a golden beam
Create the Shining Stairway seen by Jacob in his dream.
Set foot on that path of light, I open it in your heart,
I cause the frozen to evaporate,
the buried truth and cracked values.
I bring out your inner glow,
Emerge as I ascend!

(Ina Custers – The Body of Osiris)

 

Light

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

When the world is still In the darkness,
I lay on my dewy bed
My rosy cheeks glister with early morning dew.
I feel the blood-dimmed tide is loosed
and the ceremony of innocence begins:
The darkness drops and birth blood fills the sky.
I feel It is moving slowly now,
passing the gate in between my thighs.
a chorus of morning leaves sets in
and all nature starts to sing.
I catch It, wrap It carefully in my multicolored robes
Then, with a radiating gaze
It ascends the Golden Stairway

(Ina Custers-van Bergen – The Body of Osiris)

 

THE DREAM

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

This morning I had a lucid dream. A very familiar voice was talking to me: it was the voice of the Inner Plane Teacher that I work with most often. He took me to a very special place and started a very serious conversation with me…

You have to understand that the teachings of the Magical Order Temple of Starlight are deeply rooted in the Western Mystery Tradition. They are based on the teachings of the adepts that went the journey before me. They are based on the teachings of the teachers who went before me and the school I was trained in. But ten years ago, yes almost exactly ten years ago now, I was called by Him who is the Contact of the magical tradition; there was important work that needed to be brought through.

The Teachings that he communicated through me come from what we call the ‘Inner Planes’. They come from a Field of Wisdom that one can learn gradually to tap into. These Wisdom Fields exist for all professions. They are the planes where Mozart listened to his new compositions and where Einstein received his relativity theory.

Over the years the Teachings came through like the creation of a series of Art Nouveau paintings. First the visions came, together with auditory teachings in deep meditations. They were followed by studies like sketches in notebooks, translated into rituals and retreats. I often felt I was the canvas being prepared. Like a painting, series of single Teachings developed after a lot of sketches and studies.

Working for many years, testing and dismissing, the final forms started to take shape. The various teachings turned out to be different aspects of one big diamond with many facets that needed to be brought through and understood in their associations, correlations and their multi-layered nature. All the Inner Plane work needed to be tested by me and a group of very devoted and trained Adepts; we have been working on that for many years…

 

 

Then last night I received this dream. He called me to follow him to that place on the Inner Planes where the Book of Wisdom is always opened at the right page. We went through the entire teaching model, flipped through the pages of all the stages of development and then He said:

“The time has come to explain more about the work we have been doing, to a wider audience”. I was really flabbergasted; for the last 20 years he has emphasized to keep the teachings of the Magical Order Temple of Starlight Under the Rose. Now He asks me to start lifting tips from the Veil! So that is where I am right now… in my mind and heart I am looking a bit confused in all directions. Feeling strongly that I need to test these unknown waters …

 

In LVX
Ina Custers van Bergen

 

MEETING THE INNER PLANE CONTACTS IN THE FLESH

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

There are written reports of magicians who met Inner Plane Contacts ‘in the flesh’. Other magicians dismiss the idea and regard it to be fraud;

‘What Fortune appears to have ruled out completely was the idea of physical secret chiefs? Anything on earth that was special was an initiate and she did not appear to mention any physical secret chiefs meeting her in parks.’ Nick Farrell

Who needs to meet an Inner Plane Contact in the park when there is so much communication and signs following? Who would believe Dion Fortune, Ernest Butler or me, when I would state that the amount of contact can become so dense that the Inner Plane Master becomes almost touchable?

I remember very clearly an intensive conversation going on while I was about to visit the market in Rotterdam, and because He became so real that I got so distracted that I was unable to pay enough attention to the traffic. ‘Now you need to postpone the rest of your teaching until we are home, because otherwise I will get run over.’

“After all these ages of dealing with humanity, I am still not used to your physical time bound environment. I will be back soon” …. and He disappeared immediately to continue his conversation exactly where we stopped it several nights later in a lucid dream.

In LVX
Ina Custers-van Bergen
P.s. When you want to develop your psychism and learn to work with the Inner Plane Contacts then maybe the Solo Magical Training is of interest for you.

Quote from: Nick Farrell, The democratic secret chief: Dion Fortune’s view

 

Merken

THE TRAINING OF AN INITIATE

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

The training modules of the Magical Order Temple of Starlight prepare you for initiation. During that training you will develop your psychism. As Dion Fortune and Ernest Butler emphasize; there is ‘wild’ psychism and trained psychism. Ernest Butler states ‘Fantasy is the ass that carries the arch’. The challenge is to find out exactly where fantasy ends and the Inner Plane Contacts start a genuine communication with you.

This is because the training of an initiate starts with bringing up subconscious mind stuff and healing suppressed parts of the Self. But it develops into sometimes very abstract cosmic teaching. People have to learn to tune into that vibe. Discriminating and fine-tuning to the energy is an essential part of the training.

We train through specialized forms of meditation, special training modules and rituals where the connection with the Contacts is trained and where students learn to open themselves as channels.

This always is very tangible in a working temple. The overshadowing becomes visible for everyone who has developed a little bit of psychism. When the Contacts come through, the magical energy becomes very strong and people report similar physical reactions.

 

The Baby in the Bathwater

Not every magician feels comfortable to work with the Inner Plane Contacts;

‘Israel Regardie said that after his 5=6 initiation he was summoned to hear one of the orders Secret Chiefs provide him with a personal message. He thought it was rubbish pouring from the unconscious minds of the channellers. He also had similar feelings about Crowley’s Books of the Law, which were obtained using a similar approach. That prejudice affected several strains of the Order which reject channelled messages completely.’ Nick Farrell

This is caused by injudicious application of the techniques by partially trained people. This is a really pity, because in this way the  baby is thrown away with the bathwater. Although psychism is developed from the subconscious mind, it needs to be filtered, cleaned and healed to become a razor sharp piece of magical technology.

The subconscious mind is the starting point, and of course in the beginning a lot of personal suppressed mind stuff appears in the teachings. But when the initiate applies the maxim ‘Know thyself’ in specially designed meditations, the different parts of his personal mind stuff start to communicate as entities as well, and personal issues start to heal.

Then even deeper areas of the psyche are contacted, the areas where a person communicates on the subconscious level with the living world around him. It is where the personal boundaries are crossed where the communication with external entities begins.

In LVX
Ina Custers-van Bergen

 

PS. When you want to develop your psychism and learn to work with the Inner Plane Contacts then maybe the Solo Magical Training is of interest for you.

Quote from: Nick Farrell, The democratic secret chief: Dion Fortune’s view

CONTACTING THE INNER PLANE CONTACTS

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

Some schools call them the Secret Chiefs, others call the  Masters, in the Western Mystery Tradition we work with the ‘Inner Plane Contacts’. What are they, and why do we work with them?

‘The ideas of secret chiefs evolved under the British mistress of magic Dion Fortune into something which was more elaborate than had been seen even under Theosophy. Fortune regarded masters or contacts as the most important part of magic but rather than keeping them as the preserve of the chiefs of an order, made them a key part of any student’s training.’  Nick Farrell
 
 

Are Inner Plane Contacts still active today?

Today this is still the case. Historically the Magical Order Temple of Starlight developed from Dion Fortune’s lineage. The training – and especially the [Solo Magical Training] – aims at helping the student developing their own Inner Plane Contacts. This is done systematically and throughout the years that development turned out to follow a similar and predictable pattern in students.

‘Her system of three degrees emphasized the importance of contacts. In the first grade, a student would learn the theory of magic and start to develop the psychic skills necessary to start making contact with their astral master. In the second degree they would start on basic practical magic with the aim of making a deeper spiritual contact with the master. They would then make an “unreserved dedication” to that master who would agree to continue their teaching. At the third degree they would be working with the master to assist in its work.’ Nick Farrell
 

What happens in a Contacted Order?

The first phase of the training develops the psychic skills in order to establish a beginning contact. Over the years this contact deepens and more Inner Plane Beings are introduced by the Master to the students. It is fascinating to observe over the years that the messages of a specific Master come in waves and are similar to different people who are able to pick up the message.

Often the teachings are broadcasted multilayered: beginning students are able to pick up threads of the core teachings whilst more advanced initiates get the more detailed and more complex information. On the highest levels the teachings are abstract. They not only come as verbal information. But all the senses are involved, and often it is easier to note down the Inner Plane Communication in a kind of hieroglyphic drawing than as written text, to some people it can even come mathematically; depending on how your brain is wired.

We have noticed at several occasions that the teachings were coming simultaneously to students on different places in the world, which had no contact about that with each other.

This is the stuff that inspires great thinkers. This is the realm where Mozart heard his heavenly music that he wrote down. This is the place where the new inventions are picked up from cosmic wavelengths, new scientific ideas are born into people’s minds and new threads in human development are initiated. This particular part of the occult teaching that was trained throughout history until the Age of Reason came.

Similar to Dion Fortune’s Inner Light, the Hermetic Order of the Temple of Starlight has also developed a hierarchy of different contacts that are consulted for different types of magical work. We work with historical personalities as well as with Gods and angels.

 

In LVX
Ina Custers-van Bergen

 

PS. When you want to develop your psychism and learn to work with the Inner Plane Contacts then maybe the Solo Magical Training is of interest for you.

Quotes from: Nick Farrell, The democratic secret chief: Dion Fortune’s view

 

Merken

Merken

VACANCY: HIGH PRIEST M/F

Posted on by Ina Custers van Bergen

Within the Western Mystery Tradition priest offices of all levels are accessible to both men and women. Both sexes work together in lodges as equals. They both hold all offices up to the highest level.

And what is even more interesting: there is not only God, but he has the Goddess for a spouse. I am going to tell you more about her in upcoming articles.

In between the many texts of High Priestesses that survived the ages, there are jewels of poetry. This piece is worthwhile to meditate on, it will reveal your relation towards female priesthood:

Queen of all given powers, unveiled clear light
Unfailing woman wearing brilliance
Cherished in heaven and on earth.
Chosen, sanctified in heaven
You grand in your adornments
Crowned with your beloved goodness.
Rightfully you are High Priestess.

 

In LVX
Ina Custers van Bergen

PS. Do you want to learn more about the Goddess and her Mysteries? The Solo Magical Training takes you through several ancient traditions and you will learn to know her in your life.

[1] Relief-carved calcite disk of Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Kish

 

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