Oh Syzygy! What it is and what it could have been are two different things. Sound harsh? Oh dear god no because, to be honest this book could have been a retread or yet another exploration of the works of Michael Bertiaux as a spooky, bogeyman hiding in the shadows of the left hand path and here, in Syzygy by Tau Palamas, is a brilliant little examination of Bertiaux's Voudon Gnostic Workbook from the perspective of an aspirant of the Monastery of Seven Rays, the Gnostic arm of the Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua.
Like a great song, Syzygy, rolls through it's subject matter in mind boggling highs and cathartic lows. Not to say any part of this piece is depressing or sad. By cathartic I mean a release, an emotional release. The beauty of the language is lyrical, emotional and inspiring. Passages extracted from the VGW chosen carefully to illustrate Palamas' point in the whole book which is that the work of the Monastery and magick in general is, well, devotional.
Palamas opens with a discussion about the approach of the book being an and/or style. The work is both, similar in concept to Spare's Neither/Neither, Palamas ventures into territory that not many authors have delved into to date. One author I will discuss in the context of this book within this review as an examination of two students of Mr. Bertiaux and the two different approaches that emerged from his system and mentorship. One thing Palamas makes clear in this introduction is that he won't be quoting from the private Monastery of Seven Rays lessons, but from the VGW itself.
Syzygy is actually 2 books in one, the first being divided into 4 parts with four chapters each. Book 1 is called Ora and book 2 is called Labora. Prayer and Work. These two terms play a very important role in the entirety of the book, interlacing through each and every chapter, providing that vision of "mind boggling highs and cathartic lows" I spoke of earlier, and giving the book its lyrical quality. Part I of book 1 is titled "A Monk in the World" and followed by Part II "Monastic Life", Part III "The Dark Knight of the Senses" and Part IV "Transmutation" followed by an Epilogue. Book 2 is also in four parts, "Ritual of Oblation", "Breviary", "16 Saints" and "16 Psalms". Book 1 could be said to be the thoery part of the book and Book 2 is the practice. While the author's Christian Gnostic influence is felt through the book with it's emphasis on Psalmery and the Saints, the author quotes or discusses aspects of Crowley's work that left a deep impact on his psyche that I will address in turn.
The book proper begins with an examination of the Gyrovagi Monks, despised by St. Benedict but the example of the type of monk or adherent that develops in the Monastery of Seven Rays, or M7R. The gyrovagi were travelling monks, never settling. These monks were not the hermits of the Benedictine tradition. In this chapter Palamas paints an image of deep romance but also of practicality in our modern world. It is clear through the writing and his anecdotes peppered through the text that Palamas was deeply affected by the monk lifestyle in his spiritual life while also pulled towards the world itself.
With the introduction to the Gyrovagi Palamas pulls out a very important phrase in modern magical practices: True Will. Palamas compares the wandering of the Gyrovagi to the magician performing his Will. The great disdain that Benedict felt for the Gyrovagi was that they never made roots and sought to satisfy their Wills. Here Palamas lays out the roots of the book, the central thesis of the text. A new interpretation and claiming of the word Gyrovague to define the way of work and prayer he is unleashing upon the world.
Each chapter examines different elements of the Monastic lifestyle. The two that stand out to me most in writing this, as being key to development of the magico-spiritual life is the practice of Lectio Divino and the concept of Caritas.
Lectio Divina follows a chapter on Opus Dei, which focuses on the Sacralizing of time, making time Sacred and Holy through the observance of the hours of the day with prayer followed by reading of Psalms assigned one of the 8 hours called for in Opus Dei. Opus Dei is observed in Monasteries on a daily basis as a part of their lives and is quite complicated for someone not living in a Monastery in the traditional sense. Palamas makes the case not just in the Opus Dei chapter, but through the whole book, that just getting in the routine of observing just one of these holy hours in a day is better than none at all.
Opus Dei, or Work of God, is followed on by the practice of Lectio Divina, or Sacred Reading. Now some of you may be asking "why is a Thelemite raving about a book about Christian Monastic practices"? Here is where I get to the nitty gritty on this, throughout the text Palamas discusses Lectio Divina and not just in the chapter dedicated too it. This is one of the two things he really emphasizes throughout the book, the other I will address in a minute. What Palamas really gets after here in this case is the model of the Monastic life as a way to approach the lessons of the M7R. In the M7R the student studies a two or three page lesson a week and then moves to the next one as the spirit of the lesson, not often identified, works it's energy where needed on the postulant.
For Lectio Divina practices, Palamas suggest that the student of the M7R read their coursework or if they are outside of the M7R they read the VGW. The idea here is to read mindfully and let go of pre-conceived notions and accept the words for what they are, sounding them out, reading a sentence at a time, or whole paragraphs that stand out to the postulant and then compose themselves to a period of silence following the reading of the lesson, or Silentium. It's very beautiful in practice.
These are just glimpses of the gems of wisdom in the book and taking the whole of book 1 one receives a process that can be applied to anyone of any path, much like the Monastery itself. The Monastery has often been mischaracterized as a Thelemic Voudon order, or a left hand path group and neither is true.
That other element that Palamas emphasizes through his selected quotations and his own writing is that of healing. Throughout the book Palamas discusses the healing of the Light brought on through the work of the Monastery, not just on the aspirant but those around him and the call to heal often heard in the Monastery. Inbetween the descriptions of beautiful astral vistas, intricate and inspired artwork, and the sounds of the spirits singing to you as you read the book, though that could be the sounds emanating from my Pandora station I usually choose while reading, but I doubt it, is the intense discussion of the healing work done in the Monastery and the Voudon and Gnostic Orders under the guidance of Mr. Bertiaux. This is so beautifully summed up in the chapter "Caritas" and the story of Palamas and his wife Salome that I have no words I can use to describe this aspect of the work and encourage my readers with even an inkling of interest in Bertiaux to get the book and treasure it.
Now in comparing it to the other major work to emerge from a student of Bertiaux, Voudon Gnosis by David Beth, we get a very different picture of the works of Bertiaux. Beth largely focuses on the magick of the OTOA-LCN and then his own S:.V:.G:. in the second edition of the book, with a strong emphasis on the powers and dark elements of the VGW that I think the balance in Bertiaux's work is lost in the shuffle. Beth's work is excellent but at times reads like an advertisement to the spooky Luciferian wannabes saying "look how cool we are in the OTOA-LCN continuum but you can't get this stuff without joining us because that's just how it works, sucks to be you". That sounds harsh, yes and it is more tongue in cheek as I enjoyed Voudon Gnosis enough to read it many times and find inspiration in the words to start the work with the VGW. But it lacks SPIRIT as in SPIRITUAL compared to Syzygy. While Voudon Gnosis is a sort of Voudon Gnostic run of the mill magick book about doing magick or rather, the theory behind the magick or open discussion from a Master of the system it pales to Syzygy in being a book about spirituality and living a spiritual, mindful life aside from Beth's exploration of the "merciless path" or as I sometimes call it "I'm more hardcore than you path". The latter is not an insult of Beth's work, more the attitude taken by some people who have read David's book and gotten the wrong impression. Bertiaux is quoted in Syzygy as having said in the VGW that "magick without religion is just psychology". Well, maybe not an exact quote but I am writing this after two twelve hour shifts at work!
The path of the M7R is actually one of cultivation of a relationship with the spirits. These spirits will manifest to you in ways that speak to your subconscious. In the case of Palamas, they manifested to him in the form of the Saints of the Church, tied so intimately to the Lwa of Voudon. For myself, after what will be, in November, 20 years of being deeply embedded in Thelemic thought and practices, they've manifested to me through my work with Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass and have told me to integrate elements of the Mass into my work with them. Palamas' writes of his experiences with the spirits occurring in dreams and that was exactly how they chose to manifest to me. They also appear through moments of inspiration and direct communication. The key here is to simply talk to them like they are already here and listening and responding.The second book of Syzygy takes the breviary of the church, psalmery etc. to create a very elegant path of devotion and dedication that is neither like that of a supplicant nor of a lesser being.
Now I want to discuss the artwork of Syzygy. It is the only real shame of this book and not because it is bad. Because it is beautiful and reproduced so small. The cover is a beautiful piece of work, colorful and, dare I say it?? Contemplative and meditative. The art, like a beautiful tarot, is evocative of the chapter it is assigned to. These should be prints that I can hang on my wall! I should note that the book is available in two editions, full color hardcover and a black & white paperback. If you can spring for the hardcover, it is worth the extra money not just for the color artwork but also because it will stand up to repeated readings much better.
Now, you may be asking, how is this book of use to a Thelemite? I hear you and I one up you. Read it, go buy it now, here's the Amazon Link, c'mon I am waiting here....
Looking on my bookshelf what do we have here? Magick: Liber ABA & Holy Books of Thelema. In Magick is a little ritual called... Liber Resh... performed at particular times of the day and then you do what? "Compose thyself to Holy Meditation"... OH...MY...GOD. Are you A:.A:.? Do you memorize Holy Books? There's your Lectio Divina. Don't have the time? Read a few verses and then silently think of them. Shit man, I do this at work every night. I silently recite the verses that pop in my head. The A:.A:. is as much about cultivating a lifestyle as it is about doing rituals. Without cultivating that lifestyle, you're really just playing at magick because you're just fucking with your head. See how even though it kinda, sorta emphasizes a sort of weird Catholicism, it is still of immense value to any occultist. Golden Dawn? Compose yourself to studying the initiation rituals or knowledge lectures. Muslim? The Quran. It goes on and on in ways that one never would have considered and if you take the whole process that Palamas expresses.... you have changed your life in major, positive ways and induced a sort of healing and depth awareness of your spiritual path. If anything, just for the inspiration, whether you care about Bertiaux, think he's a crack job nut bag with a boner for G.M/ Kelley and deserves to be put on the same shelf as the Necronomicon, reading Syzygy will change your magical life.
