Experiencing the Mysterious

I hear a lot of people who long to have ‘something more’ in their lives. They are unable to explain what exactly is lacking; but there is that longing, that desire to get more from your life than working, eating and sleeping.

In order to experience this mysterious depth you need to develop some skills that are potentially present in everyone. Developing these senses for the mysterious depths in life is comparable with learning to play a musical instrument or to start a sport: in the beginning it is complicated to get the hang of it and you can easily get lost in the chaotic offers on the social media. A lot of people don’t realize this. Out of ignorance they choose the most easy way and find … entertainment and fantasy.

Searching a genuine and trustworthy training

On the internet the lame help the blind and answer FAQs, thus adding to the confusion. You can find superficial and simple exercises everywhere, but how to get to the life changing experiences which are described by mystics and magicians? And the most important question is ‘Can I get those experiences myself?’

The answer is: YES you can! Assuming that you train your potential talent in a systematic way. These methods have been passed on over generations in spiritual traditions.

Profundity you learn in a spiritual tradition

Spiritual traditions consist of the knowledge that our ancestors discovered in all previous centuries. Generations before us have discovered how a spiritual development unfolds in stages. They figured out where you need to start, how to build further, how to get intensification and growing depth, how to use the training to improve your daily life? A spiritual tradition leads you through these phases. Within a tradition the teachers know in what stage you are, and how you can proceed safely and quickly. A spiritual training is similar to learning a skill or a craft; the more work you put into it, the better you get … as long as you learn from craftsmen.

Surfing on the internet you will discover a lot of different types of spirituality in a superficial way. When you want to go deeper, you need to choose a tradition. With the help of a proven method you will discover the hidden beauty and the depths of your soul.

In LVX
Ina Custers-van Bergen

PS. When you want to know more about the spiritual training in a Western Mystery School, read more about it here or you can email me.

The necessity of grounding

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?

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.

 

MEETING THE INNER PLANE CONTACTS IN THE FLESH

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

CONTACTING THE INNER PLANE CONTACTS

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

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

 

Merken

RECLAIMING FEMALE PRIESTHOOD

In our society women are still not able to hold the same offices as men. In religious societies the backlog is even greater. Women are excluded from priestly functions in many established religions. Was this always the case?

No, this discrimination dates from about 1200 AD!

And that has been scientifically proven. In his book ‘The Hidden Wisdom of Woman’s Ordination’ Gary Macy proofs that the conditions for the performance of religious offices in the Roman Catholic Church was changed gradually between the twelfth and thirteenth century. At the same time the church registers were cleared from every proof that there had ever been woman holders of their religious offices.

Prior to this decision of church politics the practice of the office of priest at all levels of the hierarchy was normal! When you investigate history further back to antiquity, you find the most beautiful literature wherein female priests describe their relation to Gods and Goddesses. Female priests were called Sibyls[1], Pythonesses, Oracles, Abbesses, High Priestesses etc.

 

 

High Priestess of the Moon

One of my favorite High Priestesses from antiquity was the daughter of a king. Her name was Enheduanna. She was High Priestess and wife of the Moongod Nanna in Ur, 2300 BCE.

‘In the rooms of the priestesses
Those royal shrines of cosmic order
We follow the journey of the Moon.
Moonlight strikes over our land
His Light touches every land’.

‘The King of the Heaven
Has built his house in the Shining Land
He erects his seat on the dais’ [2]

 

In LVX
Ina Custers van Bergen

 

PS. Do you want to learn more about the Priesthood in the Western Mystery Tradition? The Solo Magical Training prepares you for this journey.

 

 [1] The Sibylle of Cumae and the God Apollo
[2] Betty De Shong Meador: Inanna, Lady of the Largest Heart