The Seth Meditations

Philip Matthews

An Addendum to Activating the Spiritual Organs.

On Michaelmas Day 1994, shortly before the Seth Meditations began, I set out to paint a simple geometric work, in essence a vesica balanced on an associated crescent. I thought at first that the motivation to paint this picture lay in the geometric nicety that the pattern expresses. But I was drawn to the reproduction of Dürer’s The Virgin on the Crescent, which is on the cover of my copy of The Chymical Wedding. I was aware then that this event signalled the beginning of a new spiritual task, one that would involve ‘virgin water / light: pristine’.

I will place these images here at the beginning of this account of the Seth meditations:

The Seth Meditations are unusual in that they involved a set ritual, so that all the disclosures had their source in this ritual. I had brought three beechnuts with me from Brighton, harvested from an exceptionally fine tree in Preston Park. The ritual involved placing one nut on the tip of my extended tongue, and one each in the centre of the palms of my left and right hands. My hands were extended before me at waist height, palms upwards and open, but they would move at times during the meditations in response to the sensations experienced in each: weight, heat, lightness and the like. I faced west, eyes closed, and I concentrated inwardly in a relaxed way. Notes were made immediately after each session. The meditations form a thread through much other spiritual activity, but I was aware when each meditation impended, though sometimes the notice was extremely short.

Something of the purpose and meaning of the meditations has been discussed in Activating the Spiritual Organ, so I will restrict myself here largely to giving details of the Seth meditations and other closely associated experiences.

The Seth meditations themselves were prefaced by a short series of meditations in which a specific preparation was made.

On the 10^th October 1994 I was made aware of the origin of the beechnuts I would use in the Seth meditations: that they came from the Rose Garden in Preston Park, Brighton. On 14^th October I clearly saw the seeds as though grown to full height. Then on the 16^th I saw one of the trees, ‘The Tree’, stripped to its bare form and understood that ‘we glimpse heaven in trees, and in flowers death’. I cried ‘votive tears’ then, ‘lamenting the veil’.

I The first Seth meditation then took place on 4^th November 1994. The ritual produced a powerful emotional reaction. I came to understand that this was a kind of test and that I was of sufficient purity for the process to continue.

II The second meditation, on 14^th November, began with a direct reference to the first meditation. I then experienced ‘red’ on the left and ‘pale yellow’ on the right, with ‘fire in the centre created by the interflowing of left and right: [a] passage opens down and down.’ I noted at the time that this may still be a period of preparation, though I also noted that ‘the fire is perfectly correct’. In brackets I remarked that ‘seed is planted in autumn’.

III This meditation took place in 18 December 1994, and details of it appear in my notes in the form of a commentary. I will quote the entire entry:

The trident of Neptune is the Tree of Fire: fire and water join here: the trident is the three Zeros in Kether, the power is triple, active side to side, back to front, still at centre, where activity is joined in measure, like a fire the Caduceus, Neptune’s embrace of his weapons, like rain in a desert (hot – fire earth, congealing air to slime), earth molten living water = Kether: three parts: BEHIND LIGHT THERE IS AN ABYSS THAT GIVES A PLACE TO LIGHT, BEHIND THAT IS NOTHING, PLACE ITSELF, the first thought: ‘Light requires limitlessness in order to be; the limitless is that which can only be itself’: and understanding of this will help explain why light is always incomplete; no identity, a presence lacking life.

The next three meditations occur in quick succession.

IV on 20^th December: I see a knight on horseback made of stone, red and blue light at the edges, left to right. I will later understand that this is a vision of Osiris – see entry for 29^th December below.

V on 21^st December: I see this and feel that the veil is at last being drawn back.

VI occurred later on 21^st December: I see the image from that morning’s meditation (V) turn into an exclaiming human being, then see the top part replicating, like many people in a line, ‘like angelic choirs’, but also like ‘tree/bush growing before my eyes’. Then I noted:

If this is following RS[teiner's] plan, then there should be one more, the dark comprehending the light – the Pentagram – shining forth in greatest darkness.’

VII This is the entry for the seventh meditation, which took place on 27^th December:

Left is fire, right is a drawing silent cold; one rising the other counterbalancing this rise, extending like a plant so that in the centre the dark is surrounded above and below the rays are bright: silent and modest.
A frightening kind of abyss beside me afterwards: beyond solitude, there’s nowhere else to go: I feel alone, then I remember Christ, embracing him into me again, his light lustrous on his shoulders and arms, his face all aglow: - I know this latter, though I cannot see it: it is the means by which I see at all. This means that the shoulders and arms that I see are? MYSELF?

The following entry expands on this aspect in relation to the fourth meditation:

29^th December: ‘Seth med[itation] IV; the knight is Osiris, he guided my vision from the [sic – that] point on: this is the Gift of Seth. Osiris is the face of Christ, the light there, an intellectual light + so dark to the senses – OSIRIS IS THE LIVING LIGHT FOR US.'

VIII The eighth meditation was undertaken on 30^th December. This is the journal entry:

Towards the dark: left a glowing pearl, right an intense fire, only it[s] glow bearable: in the centre a long shining rod, extending forward, curving up and then down. Together a lively fire, behind a shadow of a flame, that begins to grow up and bend over right : orange backing. A LIVING SHADOW – discernible behind the flames. Soul’s first freedom: now await its growth – avoid phantasy. BEHIND LIGHT IS THE SOUL.

IX The ninth meditation followed on 5^th January 1995. here is the entry:

The penis of the dancer: right has weight, earth, from which grows a strong plant/tree, then with a surge it becomes a green flame. Left is hollow, then a globe, then a ring of fire. Both rise strongly together. The centre is dark until the serpent (the Lions) extends falling into this world – then a tongue of light, curving up to the right, lesser tongues around it: light tongues very smooth + firm
Began with awareness of base of rump warming, a ring of light in my mind: prompted me to do the med[itation]. Pulled out very quickly at end, both a sense of a ‘gross’ overextension and a finer awareness that burden of tongue of light could not be borne long at this point. The living shadow has become light: like a tree becoming a huge flame: this is about life, its relation to something characterised as fire (light).
Very down to earth… this med[itation] practice should run parallel to central concern: preparatory knowledge. SYNESIUS – guide now.
The Seth Meditation is about experience – direct experience only – I have no mental copy of the tongue of fire, tho’ I saw it clearly. – Seeing trees light up in a green flame, and looking at the sun at zenith, the world dark afterwards: how the very intensity of the light creates the shadow we call the world.

X The tenth meditation occurred on 9^th January:

White blue flames – fingers – on right, a white globular star rising to left: guidance in the centre: five sparks of pure light (red tinged?) arrayed : I of course was looking for more and thought at first that the med[itation} had failed:

I noted on the following day that ‘TO WITNESS BEING IS TO BE DIVINE.’

XI On the 19^th January the eleventh meditation took place. This is the entry:

Low key tho’ I wanted more: heavy balls of fire in each hand, zigzag up arms to shoulder and head: using water to purify from here on.

XII The twelfth Seth meditation occurred on 23^rd January 1995:

Reluctant tho’ suddenly drawn: with weight in my hands heavier (still impressing, an hour later): forced back by weight of all seeds: then realised I could push up: the resistance gave way immediately: a slight flaring of white light, as (sic – at) bottom, then(afterwards) a[t] top of vision: DRAWN UP <no more images now, after 13/1/95> MATTER.

XIII It was some weeks before the next meditation was undertaken, on 16^th February 1995:

Spontaneous: seed successively R[ight]L[eft]C[entre]: weight, strength, channel: a fountain : very specific, very strong.

XIV The final meditation did not take place until 6^th July 1995, five months later:

<nuts brought from ‘City of Defeat’> dark downpouring on L[eft], pillar of fire weighing down R[ight]; two green shoots () to centre, descending yellow rays of light: then clearly: The Pentagram! - this seems so obvious to me that I don’t want to comment on it. Reluctant to write this. This is being involved, how hard to grasp the entire image: (1) the Pentagram (2) truth (3) relation. The Penta[gram] was pearly (Being Identity) fading: no analysis: <disappointed by this>

The Seth Meditation is discussed in Activating the Spiritual Organs from the point of view of the interplay of the solar and lunar powers. Here I want to examine the meditation cycle on its own terms.

Though I considered the first meditation at the time to be a kind of test, it would seem now that it also serves to create an initial “space” for the forthcoming process. The enactment in the second meditation leads to the creation of the Trident form that appears in the third meditation. Once established, the motions of the Kether triplicity are then indicated, the first side to side, the second from back to front, and finally the third still at the centre, and later elaborated in terms that are in fact an introductory description of the three stages of what will be a process of generation: “Behind light there is an abyss that gives a place to light, behind that is nothing, place itself.” It was typical of my experience of this process that the unrealised stages appeared as disquietingly empty and vacant.

The first stage is fulfilled in the fourth meditation, where Osiris appears as the “face of Christ, the light there” (though this was not understood until some time into the second stage). The beginning of the second stage itself is heralded by the realisation that a veil has been drawn back. Then in the fifth, sixth and seventh meditations can be seen the growth of the plant being that serves to make visible the locus for what will be realised in the second stage. This is revealed in the eighth meditation as the Soul.

The third and final stage begins in the ninth meditation. It is clear that some kind of conception is witnessed here, how the descending serpent interacts with the “strong” plant by means of fire. The remaining meditations indicate stages in the gestation of this being, until the moment of its generation in the final meditation, signified by the Pentagram.

The full course of the process can be indicated now. The first stage concerns the establishment of the “Light”, which appears in the form of Osiris, who is the “face of Christ”. The next stage involves the creation of the plant-like being that makes possible the discernment of the Soul itself. This is an important precondition for the final stage, in which the Pentagram appears in the Soul.

It can be asked, what is the Pentagram, that its appearance here is such a mighty and obviously overwhelming event in itself? The Pentagram permeates the whole Mystery, centred on the Brow Chakra and symbolised in bird forms from Dove to Eagle. Its role seems best defined in the course of the encounter with Christ, where I construct a boat with a mast and sail modelled on the Pentagram to serve as a vehicle for both Christ and my own Ego. Thus the Seth Meditations served to establish the actual spiritual vehicle which is an essential precondition for the incarnation of the Ego, a process that has been detailed in the Activating of the Spiritual Organs essay above.

21 December 2001-26 May 2005