Thursday, May 27, 2010

when i started doing the middle pillar it was amazing. Now, 6 years down the line I it doesn't do squat. Can you suggest a good exercise, previously unpublished in your books, that will I can do? Along the Tummo-kundalini lines?

It doesn't do squat because you have internalized the ritual and made the necessary changes to the subtle body.

Just like with exercise if you stick with the same 5 motions without upping the weight, it wont be long before you are not feeling any benefit from something that just a few weeks back was difficult to lift.

I would recommend my Pillar and Spheres exercise, but you specifically asked for something not from my books.

In that case I would simply say "go east young man!" Mantak Chia has AMAZING internal energy exercises and excellent instructions in his books. They are easily adaptable to people from a western background and do not require you to get involved in a special lineage or initiation like studying Tsa Lung or Kashmiri Kundalini Yoga would.

I am not a Middle Pillar fan. At the time it was written Eastern Mystecism was all the rage and John Woodruff (Arthur Avalan) was publishing books, and the Theosophical Society was presenting their spin on eastern practices. I see it as the GD's stab at making a Chakra like system for their order that aligned with the Khabbalah. The thing is that eastern subtle body systems (taoist, buddhist, hindu, jain, etc) are based on direct observation and not attempts at forcing everything in the known universe to conform to a glyph like the Tree of Life. I mean, c'mon, extending the middle pillar down the legs to the feet like its part of the torso? Thats just silly.

I did the MP twice daily for over 5 years so I know it well. Trust me, it sucks in comparison to just about every other internal energy system out there- even the lame ones.

Ask me anything

6 comments:

magickal_realism said...

I tried performing the Middle Pillar for about six months, and it seemed like it had some unintended side effects for me; according to a shaman I saw for treatment it was like I knocked loose some kundalini energy and then wasn't prepared to deal with it. (I wasn't!)

While I think it came in handy at first, I'm curious as to how/when I might assess whether it's "safe" to go back, or what other preparations I should take? Or perhaps just doing chakra alignment/yoga/physical exercise might be better/safer?

ChandraNova said...

Oooh, I'm all excited now - long-time reader but don't think I commented much.

I am a (broadly speaking, okay) tantric Saivite (14+ years on that alone, but also on the belief side back to childhood when I was raised with a Hindu family as babysitters etc, with a hefty dose of monistic animism as my native belief) and done mastered chakras, worked with ayahuasca etc and visited the chakras & saw my limitations, reviewed my dharma (or whatever, but worked for me!).

Then seen/been the No-Thing/Self, etc.

BUT still, I found (gawd help me!) the hoopy book "New Avatar Power" last year, and gave it a try, and found the 5 Gates in there (+ Bornless One - is that the purusha, I think it is?) and found it of genuinely new useful usefulness!

Mainly I observed that the chakras are how we are manifest "downwards" into this level, the 5 gates are how we can access divine power (back "upwards") to enact stuff.

Also I'm studying that we may "need" (at least at my level) the perceived "tension" of gates and so on, to cast Shiva's veiling grace back after samadhi, so we can cut out our "higher self"/The Self in order to create egoic magic(k) that is NOT just a form of Union. But rather to be just getting shiny things, be they healing others or gold bricks, if that makes sense.

Bit like the "barbaric words" and all that, to circumvent the rational/conscious (esp in terms of samadhi) and attain results.

It's almost like I glommed onto a step backwards, to create a step forwards as an occultist and not in terms of yoga.

I do and wish to do shamanic healing, especially de-haunting, psychopomp work, healing haunted houses etc... I have NO desire to go "home" right now!

This post is probably really ignorant, and I chucked too much into it all...

Any comments MOST gratefully received, the inter-relation of yogic thought/western occultism is my current study, the possible invoking of deliberate ignorance (bit like the whole "barbaric words" thing?) anyway, love the heck out of it all!

faoladh said...

There are a number of exercises derived from the Middle Pillar out there, too. I prefer to stick to more traditional exercises of this sort, and am especially fond of the one that survives from Irish sources, called (in translation) the "Cauldron of Poesy". There's been quite a lot of discussion about that poem in various Celtic-oriented magical and religious groups, some of those discussions being better than others.

The model resembles the Galenic model of Animal, Vital, and Natural Spirits. The two models are probably directly connected.

Mr. J. said...

Yes! Yes! Yes! I think the Middle Pillar is good if you are working the Golden Dawn system, but as a stand alone there are more effective practices. Regardie was a big fan of the Secret of the Golden Flower, a Taoist text, and a lot of his writings on the MP are referenced to, and based on it.

I think it gets better when you have the personal training of an adept in your corner, as there are most likely more plug ins and deepening of the practice, but we just don't know them as they haven't been shown outside the inner workings of the order.

But I know none of this for sure.

Argent said...

There are no secrets to the MP.
It is what it says on the tin, for better or for worse :S

Unknown said...

There is one not well known upgraded version of the middle pillar. It deals with building the tree of life in all the qabalistic worlds.