Dreaming at the Feet of Hades

So, let us begin by recognizing that everything that is experienceable, all phenomena, all “objects of awareness” are of a dual nature. Form and emptiness, awareness and objects of awareness, all that. I will not give extensive examples of these identifiable dualities, and you already have many methods and tools which which to explore and identify them, like studying the tree of life, meditations, or simply experiencing, as all things are of a dual nature, and all you need to do to recognize that is experience.

Now, let us also recall that all dualities are empty. Not empty in the sense that they do not exist, but rather, empty in the sense that they are illusory. Upon further inspection and investigation of any specific duality, one finds that there are not two opposing things that compose the duality, but rather One whole, upon the face of which various experiences of the specific duality exist on a spectrum. Love and hate, male and female, etcetera.

But a question that is not often asked, I believe, is what of the spectrum that lies within form and formlessness, objects of awareness and awareness? These dualities are quite easy to look over, seeing only the extremes of the spectrum, and not the experiences that lie within the undefinable space of the spectrum.

The easiest identifiable space on the spectrum is experience itself, which we know to be the perfect harmony. This is easy to identify because it is ever present.

But some others are harder to identify, because of habit, and because of societal conditioning.

Let us remove the “upper” level of this duality for a moment, in the sense of things either existing or not existing. And let us remove the “lower” level of this duality for a moment, in the sense of causes of things existing, and their interactions upon existing.

This should, if I am successful, lock your attention to the level of awareness of this duality where things are perceived, or not perceived. It should not matter for the sake of this thought exercise whether things truly exist or not, or why they exist or not. All that matters is whether they are perceived or not.

Phenomena in the corporeal world around us are very easy to identify as being perceived. The senses of the body have been fine-tuned over millions, if not billions of years to be very acutely aware of, and thus perceive, corporeal phenomena.

But on this spectrum of form and formlessness lies another “form” of perceived phenomena, further from the “form” extreme of the spectrum, and closer to the “formless” extreme of the spectrum.

The perceived phenomena I am referring to here are thoughts, imaginations, visualizations, concepts, feelings. These things, when perceived, have no corporeal form. They may be linked to corporeal forms, but the thoughts themselves are perceived in their own right without a corporeal form of its own.

In this society, we have been conditioned to pay little attention to these “formless” forms. They serve little purpose to the average individual, who is expected to work, be obedient, and contribute life-energy to the machinery of society. One does not need to think or visualize to do peon work.

We have also been conditioned with a sense of “object permanence”. For those unfamiliar, babies actually have to learn object permanence. It is not something that is natural to awareness, it is something that is taught and learned. Before learning to hold object permanence in mind, when something leaves a baby’s awareness, it is really gone. This is why babies cry when their mother is gone, for fear that she is really truly gone, and may never return. This is why “peek-a-boo” works as a game for young babies. Now let us apply the concept of object permanence to the “imagined” world. McDonalds fries. Recall the thing, and there it is. Now you may be thinking of a variety of traits of McDonalds fries. You may smell them, you may feel the crunch of the fry, the taste of the potato and salt. The golden appearance of the fry. The red sheen of the fry container. These things were completely gone from “imagined” existence, and suddenly, there they are again, in as real as a form as you have ever perceived before. And so, this is to point out that object permanence too, is of a dual nature. It’s opposite is object impermanence. And the truth of existence of this dual nature is once again a spectrum. The fries are simultaneously gone, and there. Experience need only recall the thing, and there it is. The mother has left the room, and it is gone. Experience, the baby being aware, need only recall the mother, and there she is.

This lack of emphasis on this imagined space might lead many to believe that it does not matter, or possibly that it does not exist at all.

But, recognizing that all dual natures are equally empty, this makes the visualized and imagined world just as real as the corporeal one. It interacts with it, as our thoughts influence our actions and perceptions of the corporeal world. On it’s own level, thoughts and visualizations interact with other thoughts and visualizations in a very real way, just as a cup interacts with a table in the corporeal world.

And so, in your training, this should stand out. Most are unaware of the non-corporeal world of thought and visualization. But as a witch, with the goal to become aware of that which we are normally unaware, this includes awareness of the visualized world. This is one of the reasons why meditation is encouraged. It helps to cultivate awareness of the visualized world by shifting your focus of awareness from the corporeal world to your “internal” visualized world.

The goal should be to be aware of this “internal” visualized world completely and entirely at all moments of experience, not just during meditation. If that can be achieved, it becomes clear just how real the visualized world is.

It is so real, in fact, that when you do a pentagram ritual for example, you are not just visualizing the archangels and guardians and such. They are REALLY THERE. There is no such thing as a “fake” visualization. A visualization is a visualization, and following the logic of the empty dual nature of things, all visualizations are real. An impulse you have, an imaginations of an action you may want to carry out, are real. Not real on the corporeal level, but real on the visualized level, which is arguably half of all experience itself.

This is what makes things like arising as the deity and practicing a pentagram ritual so incredibly powerful. You’re not just pretending or practicing it, you are really doing it, for real. The god or goddess is visualized, and they are really there. Michael is visualized, and they are really there.

So, you probably already are, but I would like to encourage you to pay attention to this “imagined” half of existence. Pay as much attention to it as you do the corporeal world. Because the “imagined” half of existence is part of that duality of form and formlessness, and therefore as empty and real as any other perceived thing. Do a pentagram ritual and know that it is really there, in reality. Arise as the god or the goddess and know that you really are the god or goddess, you’re not just imagining or visualizing it.