Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge/Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge.iso/OCCULT/C_FORCES.TXT

Text File | 1991-04-16 | 27KB | 439 lines

Concourse of the Forces, Part 4 by Israel Regardie

Key entry by Fr. Nachash
Uræus-Hadit Camp, O.T.O.
Completed 4-1-91 e.v.

******************************************************************************


                                PART FOUR

                       THE CONCOURSE OF THE FORCES

                      ENOCHIAN OR ROSICRUCIAN CHESS


                 From The Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie
                   (c) 1971 by  Llewellyn Publications

        This is one of the sub-divisions of the Angelic system of Tablets
about which, sad to say, very little can be said. No one in the Order, or
my Temple, seemed to know anything about it.  Whether this same condition
applies to other Temples is hard to say,  though,  from conversation with
certain of  the  Adepti  of those Temples,  I  gather the same conditions
there prevailed.  Nothing that  was  of  practical value, as throwing any
light on the nature  and function of the game,  was thrown on the subject
by any of the Order members within  the sphere of my acquaintance.  It is
probable that  the  knowledge of this system died with the early members.
All that I ever heard were  fulsome  praises of its remarkable divinatory
capacity, together with quite a few amusing comments  by  those who mani-
festly knew nothing about it,  though  no precise indication was conveyed
as to its procedure. On two of three occasions I have asked Adepti of the
rank of 7=4 to play a game  with  me  using  my  chess pieces and boards,
though each politely backed out of  the  invitation.  Also  the unmounted
state of the Order chess-pieces  was  a  clear  indication  that they had
never and could never have been employed--like other aspects of the Order
teaching.   And the actual documents on the subject that were shown to me
were vague and obviously incomplete,  giving no indication as to the true
nature of this matter.  No doubt it was intended,  by those who wrote the
papers and devised the system, that the Adepti should  apply  his own in-
genuity to the bare-bones provided of the  game,  and formulate from that
skeleton outline,  as  from  the Enochian Tablets themselves,  a complete
system of initiation, and a profound magical philosophy. It is not there-
fore my intention to say very much  about  Rosicrucian chess, although it
can be stated that the perspicacious  student  will divine ideas of great
import and  discover  a  depth  of  magical significance hidden under the
cloak of an apparently trivial game.

However, the student who has mastered the foregoing sections of  the Book
of the Concourse of the Forces will no doubt be able  to  divine  the re-
lationship  existing between the profundities of the Enochian Tablets and
this chess-game.  It  will  have  been necessary as a preliminary step to
have become perfectly familiar  with  the attributions of the Squares, so
that any  pyramid can be built up instantaneously in the imagination too.
By this, I mean, that while playing a chess-game, the movement of a piece
from one square to another should provide much material for thought,  for
the squares on the boards, as on the Tablets,  may be formulated as Pyra-
mids. Some experience,  also in employing the Pyramids for skrying in the
Spirit-Vision will be required  before  any real appreciation of Enochian
chess can be acquired.

In this game, the pieces are Egyptian god-forms,  and the boards are cer-
tain adaptations of the  Enochian Tablets.  The Tablet of Union, however,
is not used.  Tablets are reproduced as Chess-boards minus the Great Cen-
tral Cross,  the  Sephirotic  Cross,  and  the  Kerubic  Squares over the
Calvary Cross in each Lesser Angle. This leaves only the Servient squares
in each of the Four Lesser Angles--sixteen  in  number,  which  gives  us
sixty-four squares per board--the  number  of  squares  in  the  ordinary
chess-board.

One of the papers written  by  Greatly  Honoured  Frater  N.O.M., gives a
short history of Chess as  it was derived from the Indian Chaturanga, the
Persian Shatranji, and the Arabic Chess. But since it contains very litle
that is of any practical import, I have thought better not to include it.

A few words now as to the nature of the Boards. The Boards consist of the
purely  elemental  part  of each Tablet. There is nothing in the symbolic
structure of the Board to  suggest  the operation of the Spirit in any of
its aspects through the Elements.  This  operation  of the Spirit and its
potencies,  however,  is  indicated not by the squares, but by the pieces
and their movements over the board.

To be of any real magical value, the board should be a sort  of  Talisman
or Flashing Tablet. That is, it should be fully painted,  showing all the
triangles of the Pyramids as brightly and as flashingly as possible.  The
little flat squares shown at the summit of  the  Pyramid,  indicating the
throne of the god-form, are not necessary on these boards.  The triangles
are completely formed, and the resulting pyramidal shape is not truncated.
The four Angles of each Tablet will thus stand out quite brightly,  since
the elemental colour of the quarter will show its nature, even though the
triangles of yellow,  blue, black and red will jostle each other by cheek
and jowl.  When fully painted, the board is most impressive as a flashing
Tablet.  The  student  may  know he has done his work properly when there
appear white flashings at the angles of the squares.  This  is important,
for the object of a flashing  Tablet is to attract an appropriate type of
force. And if these chess-boards are made as Flashing Tablets,  they will
automatically attract force and  their  utilisation  will become the more
significant. In brief, each square is, as it were,  the name and symbolic
address of a different Angelic force.  The  flashing squares will attract
the commencement of the operation of that type of Angelic power,  and the
movement of the Chess God-forms over the squares may produce even bright-
er flashes and indicate the operation of the divine forces therein.  With
these hints the student is left to work this out for himself.

There will be, in short, four different Boards. Each is representative of
one of the  Four  Quadrangles  or  Watch-towers of the Elements,  and the
Angelic Names on the latter will be implied on the  Boards  even although
no letters or Names  are  painted  on  them.  The  use of any of the four
Boards will depend upon the particular purposes,  and the attributions of
Elements as in the diverse schemes of  Divination will determine which of
the four boards must be used at any given time.  In Tarot, the Element of
Air,  the Sword suit,  indicates Sickness and Sorrow and unhappiness gen-
erally. Hence, in Enochian chess,  for divining for some such question as
touches upon trouble or unhappiness the Air Board would be employed.  The
Fire Board will represent the Tarot  suit  of Wands,  implying swiftness,
energy, activity.  The  Water  Board  indicates the Tarot suit of Cups of
pleasure, happiness, merry-making, and marriage.  The  Earth  Board  will
refer to all material plane matters of money, work,  employment,  occupa-
tion, and so forth.

The Four Boards of the Rosicrucuian game,  although  different, neverthe-
less  agree  in  certain  particulars.  In each board it is convenient to
speak of the  arrangement  of  the  Lesser Angles as an  Upper  and Lower
Rank--Air and Water forming the Upper Rank, and Earth and Fire the Lower.

It is evident that the columns of the one Rank are continuous with  those
of the other; and in this continuity a certain regular rule is observable.
Every column of eight squares commencing in the Upper Rank  is  continued
below by a column of the opposite Element.

Thus the Fiery columns below invariably stand on the Watery columns;  the
Watery on the Fiery;  the Airy on the Earthy; and the Earthy on the Airy.