VI Guest Blogs on His Soul Reading

VI is my first guest blogger. I thank him for his efforts in that regard. His blog can be found here. 

When Robert asked me to guest blog on my Soul Reading, I was a little nervous. I've been doing magic(k) for over 15 years, and engaged in serious Work for 12, and to be honest, what I know is but a drop in the ocean. It's a lifetime gig, the Great Work or whatever you choose you call it – which is as it should be.

Like you, I read this blog and have watched Robert's shift towards a less traditional style, and such trials and tribulations as he chooses to make public. I've read his reports on Soul Readings and healings. Like you, I've been curious, and wondered what it entailed, and the rational side of me wondered just how much validity there was to the whole thing.

I say that, because I believe a certain level of open minded scepticism is required in occult work – a guard against insanity and delusion. I say that because I've lost my mind, and found it again, due to the praxis of magic. I've done terribly foolish things, out of arrogance and ignorance. I'm only human, as it were.

So when I tell you that, despite my open minded scepticism, the faculty I've long called my Deep Mind was regularly poking me to make contact with Robert for a reading, you may begin to understand something.

That something is quite simple, quite undeniable. Every bit of my magician's instincts were convinced this was the right thing to do. Those instincts, in various ways, have kept me alive and prospering in situations which were less than ideal. I've learned to trust them, to use the edge they give me. Other people have apparently learned to trust my facility for making connections, too. I won't mention any names, but anyone who follows our little corner of the blogosphere has probably stumbled across my brothers in arms.

My instincts were right, as usual.

I've never met Robert before. Never chatted, bar the emails we sent back and forth to arrange the readings. Aside from his words here, he was a stranger in California, and I was a man up at 2am in the NW of the UK. He's said it himself – there was an unusual chat before the reading. For me, that was a point of connection from my end, irrespective of the mystic connection Robert forges to do the reading.

So when we began, any nerves I had were easily assuaged. I sat back and let a new friend do his stuff. Unsurprisingly, the man knows his onions. I'm not a Ceremonial Magician by nature, but I know enough about the 'occult filing cabinet' known as the Qabbalah to be getting on with. It's not my system; too full of lines and angles for my taste, but it makes a useful reference map.

So when Robert outlined the various soul-portions, I had a rough knowledge of what he was talking about, even though we don't use the same map. That's the first thing I noticed, you see – that though the map and system were different, the insights were deeply accurate. I think back to a dream I'd had a couple of days before, which culminated in the realisation that we're all more whole than we think we are.  That in fact the narrow perceptions we have of ourselves and others are but shards; broken angles of a looking-glass which, if we were to put them together, would reveal the world of Primal Images.

Not so much a realm of Platonic Forms, but perhaps the All-At-Once, the Night of Pan which contains the Light of Creation?

Perhaps.

Certainly, if I were a betting man, it would be that fundamental holographic wonder of the universe on which I would place my monies as to how Robert does what he does. Now, I don't know how he came by such skills, aside from what he's mentioned here, and I'm certainly not the kind of person to breathlessly remark that 'We Are All One.'

Instead perhaps I shall quote Liber AL vel Legis:

"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union." (AL I:29).

There is, I think, a certain boundless curiosity which is endemic to healers and seers the world over. Even if they don't like what they see, some part of them has a love of gnosis. Not necessarily in the Chaos Magic sense of the word but the inner knowledge of the Wholism, the Pleroma or Whatever.

I'm no healer, but I recognise my own curiosity and wonder within Robert. He's even said quite openly that the work is an honour, and I recognise that honour and acknowledge it. It'd be disingenuous to say that there is no honour in looking at my soul, or the soul of anyone. Robert has found his path, and it is part of his own Great Work, and to find that is an honour beyond measure, as any magician  worth their salt can attest.

To find that which opens one to the kosmos, to discover the way home, even as a first step, requires acknowledgement of one's own nature as being worthy of that Return. To recall once again that we are sons and daughters of heaven, children of all the worlds that ever were.

What Robert does is quite simply provide another pair of eyes, an acknowledgement of your own nature. He may discover imbalances, flaws or impressions of the world upon the soul-complex which at first may seem like damage, but in fact are doors and ways to rediscover the knowledge for yourself. Working on and with them gives you the keys to your own Whole.

 He does not push, does not enforce, and oftentimes, the wonder of yourself is obvious in his voice. He simply tells you what he sees, and communicates with you on as deep a level as you allow. I don't know for certain how much Robert knows what he's doing on multiple levels, but I can tell you for certain that he does. The thousands of miles between us meant nothing, and there was only, to my perception, joyful exploration.

I am glad and happy to have seen myself reflected in his inner eyes, because as with many things, much was confirmed that I already knew, and yet was unsure of the provenance of. To those of a more sceptical mind  I only say that his surprise regarding something he had never seen before was unsurprising to me, given my life and practice.

I'm completely sure that the advice he gave me was accurate, and in fact, from a practical point of view, implementing it has already produced some interesting results!

So, as we bring this guest post to an end, I'd like to thank my host, and offer you a few ideas to think on:  

guest (n.)

O.E. gæst, giest (Anglian gest) "guest; enemy; stranger," the common notion being "stranger," from P.Gmc. *gastiz (cf. O.Fris. jest, Du. gast, Ger. Gast, Goth. gasts "guest," originally "stranger"), from PIE root *ghosti- "strange" (cf. L. hostis "enemy," hospes "host" -- from *hosti-potis "host, guest," originally "lord of strangers" -- Gk. xenos "guest, host, stranger;" O.C.S. gosti "guest, friend," gospodi "lord, master").

How much of your soul is strange to you?  How much remains unexamined, or locked away? How much can you answer the call of the Oracle at Delphi:

'Know thyself.'

Do you remember what it's like to be whole? Or perhaps, are you, like I, like Austin Osman Spare:

“I know too many gods… yet the greatest stranger to me is myself. And those who speak so glibly and knowingly of God (alleged Absolute), who know his ways, wills, desires, etc., are committed to their inferiority. The word 'God' once uttered seemingly proliferates into all ungodliness.”

For Spare also wrote:

“Myself, I have not yet seen a man who is not God already.”

So let me ask you; if your soul, your self is a stranger to you, then what will happen when you welcome it in and treat it to hospitality? What if you know it, love it for all that it is, this stranger at your hearth?

Didn't some guy make it clear, before they crucified him? Before they crucified a snake and fixed the volatile? You know the one – the gematria is clear: Nachash to Meshiach. Or maybe that's just the Gnostic in me – regardless:

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Just some things to think on, perhaps.

Be seeing you! - VI, 09/12