Fire and Ice: The Brotherhood of Saturn by Stephen E. Flowers

Author:Stephen E. Flowers [Flowers, Stephen E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780875427768
Amazon: 0875427766
Goodreads: 211942
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Magical Work

The magical work of the Fraternitas Saturni takes place on many levels. One strongly emphasized aspect is the regular curriculum of private magical training.

This is undertaken essentially in solitude and is shaped by the progressive curriculum outlined in the degree system. But powerful and elaborate group rituals, some of a sacramental nature, are also regularly practiced. The complete rubrics for four of these are given below. Perhaps what the FS is most notorious for are its sex-magical practices. Although the importance of these practices seems exaggerated when put into perspective, they are a core aspect of the order—given its Gnostic cosmosophical understanding—and one that deserves further exploration. Among the many unusual features of Saturnian magical usage are its use of Freemasonic ritual formulae, its Luciferian emphasis, its full complement of sacramental rites,

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the use of electrical technology in a magical framework, and the detailing of sex-magical practices. Finally, the undisguised way in which most of these features are treated also is notable. This latter aspect is entirely due to the fact that we have been made privy to the old interna of the order, which were not originally meant for “public consumption.”

Magical Training

Magical training of the chela (a Sanskrit word roughly meaning “student of a master”) is something the student is expected to largely glean from the extensive graded internal literature of the FS, which comes in the form of the Papers for the Applied Art of Life, the Papers for the Applied Art of Occult Living, other instructional letters, and a vast reading list of books to be studied at various levels.1 Gregorius was in a good position to provide the published literature, as he was in the business of selling new and used occult books. The grade system of the order provides the curriculum of magical study, and the literature specific to each guide constitutes the lessons along the way; the formal workings provide the grounds for demonstration and ceremonial affirmation of the progress made by the student.

Elements of the chela’s private magical training include the disciplining of the will through progressive exercises in visualization or imagination, autosuggestion, contemplation, and meditation. In

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addition, exercises in mantra-mysticism (i.e., incantational formulae) are linked to the awakening of the chakras. This also includes work with “vocalic breathing”2 in conjunction with visualization and concentration. Dream-work is also engaged, wherein the initiate observes and learns to control his dreams.

While the chela is engaged in these exercises, he or she is also encouraged to begin to develop a comprehensive “physical culture”—that is, a regimen of physical fitness and what amounts to a “cult of the body”—

and also to cultivate a general love of nature. Once these things have progressed sufficiently, practical magical re-designing of one’s personality and magical experiments in influencing the environment are begun.

In the sex-magical sphere, the chela is encouraged to master the sexual drives and direct them in harmonious and magically beneficial ways. The experience of sexuality becomes spiritualized and the initiate learns to polarize the sexual “odic”3 forces.

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