The Memory Palace and The Body of Light
From Ad Herrenium:
"There are, then, two kinds of memory: one natural, and the other the product of art. The natural memory is that memory which is imbedded in our minds, born simultaneously with thought. The artificial memory is that memory which is strengthened by a kind of training and system of discipline..."
The Art of Memory, Method of Loci, and Memory Palace exercises serve as an excellent direction for my Body of Light. The body of which I am referring goes by many titles: Prana, Chi, Astral, and so on. By sitting stationary with eyes shut, imagine walking into an adjacent room or moving about a familiar place. This is a glimpse of the Astral self.
The Memory Palace is the storehouse of content. In popular culture refer to the Hannible novel by Thomas Harris or perhaps the Stephen King film Dreamcatcher. This warehouse can be an imagined or intimate place from memory that can assist an individual remember information by placing mnemonic keys.
"...The artificial memory includes backgrounds and images. By backgrounds I mean such scenes as are naturally or artificially set off on a small scale, complete and conspicuous, so that we can grasp and embrace them easily by the natural memory — for example, a house, an intercolumnar space, a recess, an arch, or the like. An image is, as it were, a figure, mark, or portrait of the object we wish to remember; for example, if we wish to recall a horse, a lion, or an eagle, we must place its image in a definite background. Now I shall show what kind of backgrounds we should invent and how we should discover the images and set them therein..."
One of my backgrounds is my Grandmother's home. As it was when she resided there. I remember the curio cabinets exactly where they were. I always enter through the back door as customary. As I begin to pass the curios I see her bell collection behind the glass. Then I will notice something out of place with in them. This image or object, is a symbol charged with information. As I move through the house I recognize more symbols. These symbols tie together information that I wish to remember and fall sequentially one behind the other as I make my routine path.
"...For the backgrounds are very much like wax tablet or papyrus, the images like letters, the arrangement and disposition of the images like the script, and the delivery is like the reading. We should therefore, if we desire to memorize a large number of items, equip ourselves with a large number of backgrounds, so that in these we may set a large number of images..."
Meemaw's house is but one background I can select from a preceding foyer: The Rothko Chapel located in Houston Texas.
"...these backgrounds ought to be of moderate size and medium extent, for when excessively large they render the images vague, and when too small often seem incapable of receiving an arrangement of images. Then the backgrounds ought to be neither too bright nor too dim, so that the shadows may not obscure the images nor the lustre make them glitter. I believe that the intervals between backgrounds should be of moderate extent, approximately thirty feet; for, like the external eye, so the inner eye of thought is less powerful when you have moved the object of sight too near or too far away..."
The skylight within the Chapel is a dynamic light yet never too luminous, nor too dark. The entrance of my Grandmother's home is lit from the foyer by a lavender light. Signifying Yesod, Luna, the moon crescent that creates the number 9 within the Cabalistic tree of life.
"...Now, since in normal cases some images are strong and sharp and suitable for awakening recollection, and others so weak and feeble as hardly to succeed in stimulating memory, we must therefore consider the cause of these differences, so that, by knowing the cause, we may know which images to avoid and which to seek...
nature herself teaches us what we should do. When we see in everyday life things that are petty, ordinary, and banal, we generally fail to remember them, because the mind is not being stirred by anything novel or marvellous. But if we see or hear something exceptionally base, dishonourable, extraordinary, great, unbelievable, or laughable, that we are likely to remember a long time. Accordingly, things immediate to our eye or ear we commonly forget; incidents of our childhood we often remember best. Nor could this be so for any other reason than that ordinary things easily slip from the memory while the striking and novel stay longer in mind. A sunrise, the sun's course, a sunset, are marvellous to no one because they occur daily. But solar eclipses are a source of wonder because they occur seldom, and indeed are more marvellous than lunar eclipses, because these are more frequent. Thus nature shows that she is not aroused by the common, ordinary event, but is moved by a new or striking occurrence. Let art, then, imitate nature, find what she desires, and follow as she directs..."
The curios are filled with her bell collection of course. I would count them for her as a child. For the purposes of memory I look into them and find an array of 'images' or objects that intentionally do not belong in her cabinet. I place objects that often facilitate remembering information pertaining to the Cabala. The magickal weapons: Her fuzzy house slippers and some sort of perfume. The magick stone: Her quartz prism hanging in a window casting rainbows. An elephant my Mother gave her. Its butt towards the door. Signifying Vishnu,Ganesh, the lingham and anus. etc...
"...In every discipline artistic theory is of little avail without unremitting exercise, but especially in mnemonics theory is almost valueless unless made good by industry, devotion, toil, and care. You can make sure that you have as many backgrounds as possible and that these conform as much as possible to the rules; in placing the images you should exercise every day. While an engrossing preoccupation may often distract us from our other pursuits, from this activity nothing whatever can divert us..."- Cicero?
THELEMA
Rising on the Planes is an exercise prescribed in Liber O to further develop the Body of Light. While conversing with my dear friend Cory, he struck me with his reference to some of the imagery from the film of Donnie Darko. It reminded me of this exercise and I went back and found an interesting line:
- Probably he will see figures approaching him, or become conscious of a landscape.
- Let him speak to such figures, and insist upon being answered, using the proper pentagrams and signs, as previously taught...
- Let him travel about at will, either with or without guidance from such figure or figures.
- Let him further employ such special invocations as will cause to appear the particular places he may wish to visit.
- Let him beware of the thousand subtle attacks and deceptions that he will experience, carefully testing the truth of all with whom he speaks
- Cory said made a statement about the bunny, and I replied something to the effect he may have encountered something assuming a familiar form.
"
The new seers deemed it imperative to see the Indescribable Force's emanations in order to find a more suitable way to move the assemblage point. As they tried tosee the emanations they were faced with a very serious problem. They found out that there is no way to see them without running a mortal risk, and yet they had to seethem. That was the time when they used the old seers' technique of dreaming as a shield to protect themselves from the deadly blow of the Indescribable Force's emanations. And in doing so, they realized that dreaming was in itself the most effective way to move the assemblage point.One of the strictest commands of the new seers was that warriors have to learn dreaming while they are in their normal state of awareness. Following that command, I began teaching you dreaming almost from the first day we met..."
I digress from Zhine atm.
In other news:
Exu=Fox=Set=Jackal
The Eleventh province of the Western Lands...The Sephira DAATH.
My symbiote came forth as a pig....
The standard for the 11th Nome is topped by a Set animal, and the name of the main town, Sha-shtp, means "The pig (Set) is pacified"
