Welcome back to this journey through The Kolbrin.
So, we are currently working our way through The Sacred Registers; and this post will, like the previous three, deal with more of the relatively short chapters (this time, Chapters 10, 11 & 12) that we find in this section of The Book of Scrolls (aka The Book of Books, The Lesser Book of the Sons of Fire, and The Third Book of the Bronzebook).
These three chapters are extremely short and seem each to deal with an unconnected theme. The first, Chapter 10, is a kind of appeal that comes from the mouth of an adept, somebody who has managed to pierce the veil between the material and spirit worlds, either while he (or she) is still alive, or just after he (or she) has died. The text is a bit ambiguous in places so it’s very hard to tell.
Chapter 11 is a straightforward appeal by a person to their kohar cataloguing how good (or not) they have been during their lifetime.
Chapter 12 is a lot darker and heavier. It’s written in the foreboding voice of a being that I really want to call a ‘place guardian’, one of the disembodied entities that many believe watch over the special places – the standing stones, the sacred groves, the consecrated waters. It speaks words of comfort and encouragement while, at the same time, issuing a dire warning. Beware!
Anyway, let’s dive in and see what the actual text has to say . . .
Chapter 10 is written in the first person of somebody who is presenting their credentials to the entity that they consider their God.
They liken themselves to the ‘victorious battle-bludgeoned warrior’ after many years of learning lessons on the instruction ground that is Earth. This person reckons they’ve done pretty well – they’ve learned heaps, haven’t been lazy etc. etc. – and now deserve to be admitted ‘home’ i.e. back into their version of heaven.
But the text also suggests that this individual has passed this way before, whether as an adept who has mastered the art of inter-world (astral) travel or in a previous incarnation is not made clear. In fact, the whole passage is a bit garbled as the speaker talks of his virtues being invisible heralds of his inherent goodness to the bright spirits, while – if I read the text correctly – the small not-so-good part of him alerted the Dwellers in Terror (whom he claims to somehow ‘remember’) but he predicts he will not be joining their dread company.
The litany of what a good boy the speaker has been goes on and on: he has ‘surmounted the trials of existence’ while incarnate, he has sorted his own affairs, he has studied the books of instruction and heeded their interpretations by wise men. He is, he says, ‘A Cool One’ (no, not a proto-hippy, but because his thoughts are peaceful) and not a Hot One (one of whose thoughts and emotions consume them). I guess what he’s getting at here is that he possesses the ability to rein in passion when it tries to take hold; in other words, he employs Reason to overrule his emotions.
The text of the chapter jumps around all over the place at this point as the speaker first claims that he has ‘passed the Nameless Ones, to come into the presence of the Great One whose name is not knowable to men’ and has donned ‘the mantle of immortality and the robe of light’ which the Heavenly Weavers made for him, but then tells us he is ‘a Little One’ who comes in littleness and humility and, yes, he’s occasionally blotted his copy book while on Earth, but not badly.
And then comes the passage that makes me think the narrator is or has been an adept or initiated one, because he addresses the ‘Watchers’ and asks them to report to the Lords of Light that he has penetrated the Mystic Veil but is destined to return to the realm of matter as a self-knowing everlasting spirit to fulfil his destiny in a life of service and purpose.
And that’s where Chapter 10 ends. All-in-all it’s a tad too disjointed to wring much sense out of and I rather suspect that what we have here is an instance where the scribe has rolled a couple of distinct narratives into one and bundled the result with the preceding chapters because the last passage contains material that is pertinent to initiation.
And so, onto Chapter 11 . . .
Unlike the awkwardness of the preceding chapter, this one is a straightforward address of a person to their kohar giving a very honest appraisal of how they have carried themselves in their earthly life and hoping the scorecard comes out in their favour. Every paragraph deals with an earthly vice or temptation, and how well (or not) the narrator has dealt with it, and every paragraph ends with a formulaic entreaty to the kohar to speak to the heavenly referees on its earthly twin’s behalf. The almost liturgical nature of this passage makes me think it was a standard text used in religious rituals, but let’s pick the bones out of it anyway.
The reciter begins by giving himself the out that nobody is 100% perfect but, even taking that into consideration, he has, on balance, been one of the good guys. He has not deliberately or spitefully done anything bad to anyone, and so believes that adopting that attitude should help him avoid spending the afterlife with the baddies.
The reciter goes on to insist he has led a decent life and managed to avoid temptation and the incitement to do anything wicked. He has lived peacefully within his community and not stirred up animosity by gossiping or joining cliques, but he does admit that being such a goody two-shoes did mean that others provoked him on occasion, something that made him bad-tempered at times. But that happens to all of us under those circumstances, he says, so it shouldn’t be made to weigh heavily against him. He’s a tryer this boy!
And so it goes on for passage after passage. The reciter insists he has not slagged anyone off or wilfully (he uses a lot of this type of mitigating or exculpatory terminology) caused pain or suffering. He has done nothing to make widows or children cry – which is not strictly true because he qualifies it with without cause – has treated his and others’ servants well and been loyal to his own masters. He has not slain unlawfully (another mitigating word) or wounded wilfully (and another). But despite all this well-intentioned claptrap, the reciter finally admits that he did get a bit testy when things were getting on top of him and even spoke harshly on occasion.
He has never used his position to deprive the poor or oppress the weak, nor has he cheated ‘in the substance of metals’ whatever that means (possibly his job involved the minting of coins?). He has never taken advantage of a disadvantaged woman by demanding sex for favours such as food, nor committed adultery or seduced a child – all of which things, he says, are abominations. But (and there’s a but in everything this guy says) he insinuates that he may, at some time, have thought of doing at least one of those things.
The reciter has never taken another’s water supply, nor diverted it, and has always fed his cattle and taken good care of the pastures. As regards children, he has never, without reason (another mitigator) made one afraid, or beaten one in a bad temper. He has not broken any of the laws of the king. And then he says something very interesting: Yet no man is perfect and sometimes that which is right in its day becomes wrong in another. What’s that all about then? We’d better have a go at dissecting that little snippet in the self-help section at the end of this post.
As regards other so-called ‘sins’ the reciter has never stolen or used deceit to commandeer possessions, nor broken up families or households. He has never quarrelled with another from a position of ignorance (that’s another good one for the self-help section) has always fulfilled his duties and obligations, and always fessed up to his cockups while never trying to brush them under the carpet.
Onto his treatment of sacred places now (something covered in more detail in Chapter 12) and the reciter says he has never played up in one or defiled one. In his job (he sounds like some kind of government official) he has treated everyone civilly and has never falsified words or writings for his own advantage. But it seems that he often got grumpy because those he encountered were frequently working to their own perverted and selfish agenda.
The reciter has not allowed envy to gnaw away at him nor let malice take him over. He has not been mouthy, boastful, or slanderous and has never lied. He also claims never to have ridiculed what somebody else has said if he has been unable to understand them and to have always kept an open mind to things that might help him find enlightenment (some more goodies there for the self-help section).
He has never spied unseen on others, nor grassed on anyone’s secret designs unless they carried evil intent (presumably these were secret designs they’d told him – or somebody they’d told had told him – as he’s just stated he never hid himself to learn what others were saying or doing).
And then comes a very big claim. Our reciter says that when he has done wrong (which he’s spent most of this chapter professing to the contrary) he’s always compensated for it by doing good. He hasn’t tried to sweep his failings under the carpet, he reckons, but has openly fessed up to them and done his best to make good. Hmmmmmm . . .
And he’s still not done. He has not spoken lewdly nor spread sly gossip about private affairs and has not played Peeping Tom on naked people nor invaded another’s privacy. He repeats that he has respected the modesty of women and children before building up to his summarising statement that he always knew the distinction between right and wrong and tried always to do the decent thing. He finishes off by claiming always to have heeded the advice of those wiser than himself and to have helped those less privileged. ‘Can man do more?’ he asks.
Well, what do you think of that then? Plenty of contradictions in that little lot, but all-in-all a formulaic attempt at whitewashing a life to paper over the cracks and convince anybody listening (either in this life or the next) that, although not perfect, our reciter has done enough to pass the test.
The chapter is at one and the same time a statement about the innate fallibility of man and what, given that fallibility, is the acceptable minimum level of behaviour still to be considered decent.
We’ll come back to that consideration at the end of this post, but, for now, let’s move on to the next chapter which is far more eldritch and otherworldly.
Chapter 12 is comparatively short – there are only seven passages in it – but it’s pretty darned powerful. It is written in the voice of a potent entity that can be invoked by ritual – but only by those who know what they’re doing, so tread very, very carefully.
The format bears a similarity to the previous chapter, but only in the sense that its style is formulaic, with each passage ending in the statement that the entity is ‘an Uplifter’ who provides support for ‘the Climbers’. I have taken that to mean that it is there to help those who pierce the veil, either through death or as adepts/initiates who still live, so let’s begin . . .
The first passage opens with a sentence that is both a command and a warning: ‘Know me and understand my ways’. In other words, if you don’t fully get what you’re about to meddle with, back off! The entity then informs us that it can see into the past, the future, and the hidden places; that it can be reborn and understands the speech of the ‘released’ (I am assuming this means the dead). When the Climbers come to it, it supports them, lifts them and strengthens them, so give it the ‘sustenance of smoke’ it says (invoking incense, probably).
The second passage is very cryptic – almost a Gollum-like riddle. In it, the entity says that it only hears what others hear, it only says what others speak, and it only weeps when others cry. I think what this means is that the entity is a disembodied ‘power’ or ‘atmosphere’ which must be invoked or summonsed to make its effect tappable. When the Climbers come, it says, it consoles them and enlightens them with ‘words of hidden wisdom’.
The third passage is extraordinary. In it the entity reveals itself as a force that can be called upon by those who know the correct rituals – the formation of the circle, the lighting of the twin lamps, the appropriate incantations. The summonsing must happen in a consecrated place and, if effected accurately, will result in the entity manifesting bearing ‘the staff of power’. It knows the secrets of blood and the dark waters and does not fear to walk the strange and forbidden paths. When the Climbers come, the entity says, it will reveal the way.
The fourth passage is just as mesmerising. ‘I am the Opener of Tombs’ intones the entity, the ‘Dweller in Stone Caverns’ (wow!), ‘the Swimmer in the Waters of Wisdom’, ‘the Discoverer of Hidden Places’. The entity ‘hovers above the Still Waters’ and is ‘the Wanderer with the Winds’. When the Climbers come, it says, they are comforted, fed, and watered (and if that isn’t a metaphor for being given the hidden knowledge they have come for, then I don’t know what is!).
The fifth passage (which contains some almost Druidic elements) continues to describe the all-pervasive presence of the entity, displaying its credentials as an all-seeing, omnipresent, almost godlike (or nature spirit-like) force. It is ‘the Sitter Beneath the Sycamore’, ‘the Eater of the Rowan’, ‘the heart within the heat of the fire’, ‘the uprising hawk and the contented dove’. It is ‘the one who has tamed the serpent and drawn forth its secrets’, the one ‘who has many eyes’ to read what is written in the night skies, and ears to hear the whispers ‘at the edge of the Great Waters’. The entity bestrides the veil, it knows all spirits and their true natures. When the Climbers come, it says, it gives them peace (and, again, here, I read this as a metaphor for revealing to the Climbers the knowledge, the pursuit of and longing for which has burnt up their being. The entity has spent the passage giving its credentials for omniscience and by feeding the knowledge-craving Climbers the answers they seek, it thereby brings them inner peace. That’s how I see it, anyway).
The sixth passage confirms the entity as the force that bridges the veil and guards the way. It is also the beginning of the dire warning to come. It ‘gazes into the deep, dark pool, reading the things hidden therein’ and has the power to summon forth both the ‘Deformed Ones’ and the ‘Tongue of the Bright Ones’. It ‘provides stability to faltering forms’ (probably an allusion to being able to supply enough energy for forms either side of the Divide to stabilise and/or materialise) and is ‘the interpreter who spans the veil’. When the Climbers come, it says, it provides for them a Guide and a Guardian. This entity is the Guardian of the Way and it is extremely powerful. It has told you what it knows and what it can do, so you mess with it at your peril.
And so, onto the seventh (and last) passage in this fascinating chapter. It is a direct address by the entity directed at anybody out there – then or now – who burns with the need to experience what lies on the other side of the veil. I’m going to quote it verbatim as it says everything that needs to be said (complete with a reference to stone circles):
Know me and understand my ways. Invoke me through the rite of smoke and wine. Call me forth into the circle of stone, but beware, for lest you hold the seven keys and understand the nature of the three rays, you are lost.
There, told you so, you have been warned! What exactly the ‘seven keys’ and ‘three rays’ are is not something we can begin to investigate in this post, but it’s pretty clear from the portentous D&D terminology employed throughout this passage that only those who have undergone rigorous training and preparation should attempt the type of summoning hinted at here.
Now, that being said, I think we’d all agree that ‘sacred’ places – all types of ‘sacred’ places – have a certain atmosphere, a certain energy about them which is palpable – unless you’ve got the psychospiritual skin of a rhinoceros, that is. They function almost as batteries that both store and discharge spiritual energy. Incoming energy is supplemented by those who come to worship whatever it is the venue is set up for, but it is also there to be tapped into for those in need. The energy I am talking about, whether being stored or distributed, is somehow amplified by the sacred place itself; that is, by its geophysical location, its architectural dimensions, or both.
Taking it a step further, you can make up your own mind whether this energy that we feel in ‘sacred’ places is the same as what many traditions call a ‘Guardian’ or ‘Spirit of Place’. These Sacred Guardians (which, if you accept their existence, are possibly all aspects of a single entity) are said to protect against the abuse and defilement of their charge. What do I think? Well, I have always been susceptible to atmospheres and so I err on the side of caution. Before entering a stone circle, temple, church, sacred grove, holy pool, or any other place of worship, I always pause for a while and offer up a silent greeting to its protective entity to let it know that I have come in peace and reverence. Better safe than sorry is what I say!
OK, so a bit of a mixed bag in the three chapters covered in this instalment, but what can we wring out of them self-help-wise?
Well, let’s start with the statement in Chapter 11 which goes: sometimes that which is right in its day becomes wrong in another. In its context of human fallibility, this is about us not being aware enough to realise that situations and circumstances around us are in a constant state of flux and change. Social attitudes change, vocabulary changes, our own children grow up and change into adults with opinions and convictions that may be at huge variation with our own. This is no more and no less than the passing edge of time, which is, on a microcosmic level, the passing through of the razor edge of subatomic change. All things change. All things are subject to entropy and the release back of temporarily locally-congealed energy into the wider pool to create new forms. Simply put, the world moves on, so don’t get left behind, mired in old beliefs and old grudges and old hatreds. And if you feel yourself festering internally (or mouthing off externally) about how new laws prevent you from, for instance, using a slap to discipline your own wayward child or prevent you from exercising your (self-conceived) right to smoke in a public place (to name two personal-level issues – and there are far more contentious ones at a society-wide level) then stop and think and try to understand why those – what you might term ‘invasive’ and ‘rights-infringing’ – changes have been brought into play. You may not agree with them, but they are the prevailing code, so stop wasting negative energy over them and channel it into something positive. It is in the nature of things to change, and all things will eventually pass. There are so many other considerations to take into account on this topic, but we’ll leave it there for now and just say that while it’s not always possible to change society for the better, it is always possible to change ourselves for the better – even if only a little.
The next comment from Chapter 11 we can use for our self-help section is that part about never quarrelling with another from a stance of ignorance. Now, adhering to this advice can save you a lot of grief! Never, and I mean never, enter into a row (or even a debate over something) unless you are sure of your ground and know your stuff. Somebody I know well’s late father was a top policeman, and he was confronted on a daily basis by criminals who would lie through their teeth in an attempt to get off the hook. His policy was to never ask a question to which he did not already know the answer, and that always gave him the advantage in any exchange. Look, I’m not saying that you should be captious and deliberately provoke an argument or debate in which you hold all the cards just to look good and bolster your own self-esteem (although there are plenty of pompous and self-inflated twats out there who delight in doing just that in order to pump up their own egos and show off to anyone who can be bothered to listen). No, this is about having the decency and consideration towards another being to investigate the full set of circumstances behind any situation before having a meaningful discussion with them about it. Those circumstances could be anything from something your child, parent, sibling or other relative or friend has said or done, to a work situation that needs sorting out. If you are not in possession of all the facts and have not taken the time to assimilate them in an objectively rational way, then don’t go there! Believe me when I say that the extra time you take to become fully acquainted with why somebody is behaving or talking in a certain way, is time well spent. It saves frustration, escalation, even shouting and screaming on both sides of the confrontation.
On a slight tangent from that same subject, it is also never wise to grandstand and pretend to know more about something than you actually do – at any level, because (a) you never know whether the person with whom you are debating is an expert on the subject in hand and is about to wipe the floor with you – very embarrassing, and (b) you may, through your obvious ignorance of the subject being discussed be making a right old charlie of yourself in front of any bystanders – and you may not find out about that until word of your pretentious blagging has got around. No, best to stick with what you do know.
Another thing mentioned in Chapter 11 which is thematically connected with the above is to never ridicule anyone or anything, and always keep an open mind to things you don’t, at least at first, understand. This is a biggie and applies to many aspects of life – religion, politics, ethnic customs, knowledge, art, music, fashion, hairstyles, taste in food, sexual proclivity, teenage predilection for terrible pop groups – anything really.
Ridicule is very often a knee-jerk reaction to something that we do not get. There is very little in this world that happens for no reason at all, so the least we can do is try to understand what lies behind the things that manage to upset us. And it’s especially important – in my mind anyway – not to dismiss anything from which you can learn something, especially if that something can help you on your personal path to spiritual fulfilment. There are nuggets of golden knowledge spread around everywhere, even in things you may still end up disliking once you’ve investigated them, so, stop with the ridicule, open up that mind of yours and look for the pearls of wisdom. You never know what goodies you might find.
One more thing before I sign off this particular post is to point out another item of sage advice from Chapter 11, and that is to always, where possible, make our best attempt to fulfil our duties and obligations. I think that it goes without saying that when we commit to something, we are honour-bound to carry it through. If we don’t then it is not just ourselves that we let down, but those around us who are depending on us to do what we have promised, be they customers, managers, suppliers, spouses, children, friends, whatever.
Oh, and last but by no means least, try, where possible, to admit straightaway to mistakes and cock ups. Yes, there may be some short-term mess to clean up, but at least your conscience won’t be carrying around the deceit like a sack.
OK, that’s it for now. I’ll try to move more quickly through some of the upcoming chapters as several are in fragmentary form only, but we’ll nevertheless see what we can wring out of them to help us light a way through life. I hope to see you all there.
