Inside Voudon Gnosis

This essay is a shortened and edited version of a talk given by David Beth (Tau Melchizedek) at Treadwells, London, in January 2007. We will touch upon the Monastery of the 7 Rays and the 4 Year Courses and their place within the continuum. The Voudon Gnostic Workbook will be mentioned and its connection to the LCN. Rites of Initiation, sexual magic, the mysterious points chauds and conferements will all be part of this essay.

Monastery of the Seven Rays and the 4 Yr Courses:

The Monastery is technically a separate and independent body but factually is connected to the O.T.O.A. and acts as its major teaching vehicle through the 4 Year Courses of the Monastery (which will soon be 8 Courses). In regards to the Courses, there is often initial confusion and many people experience this at first, including myself when I began the work years ago. This confusion however is caused mainly by the quite demanding nature of the material, it being very technical and abstract at times, presenting a network totally different to any of the systems you usually encounter, and thus also contradicting things one may have previously learned.

However, the courses demand a lot of close attention and they are not designed to be understood rationally only, on the contrary, the principles are to be integrated into your magical persona in order to really get the full benefits. Michael Aquarius is a 'Being' speaking through and related to M.B. and it makes sense when he claims he is the master of everything (related to the system) as the system and universe of the courses is M.B.s magical universe or rather M.A.s magical universe in which he is the supreme ruler. A very logical gnostic argument.

The Courses state clearly that this system presented in the courses is a subjective system, created by M.B. with certain 'aid' from higher beings, utilizing the keys and secrets of his occult backgrounds, O.T.O.A., L.C.N. etc. So what you get is a product of this 'using of the keys' which is perfectly designed to lead by example, to help a student step by step to create his own magical universe, to inspire students to build their own magical world rather than becoming mere imitators.

One thing you can be sure of - all that is presented in the Courses works beyond any doubt. There are no mathematical equations to support this, but we are talking about a gnostic type of science and knowing. It is the transformative qualities and usability towards a gnostic transformation which are proven beyond doubt. And keep in mind, you are not supposed to copy everything that is said in the Courses - you need to understand the principles and then construct your own magical universe - this is the treasure of the courses as such, applicable for anyone. For Initiates of the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. these materials of course possess many more additional qualities and usabilities - and we have many additional materials, guidance and initiations, etc. to supplement them.

The secrets are not in a a book! The Courses are not the secrets of the Orders and nobody will be able to penetrate to the deeper layers of the O.T.O.A. as such, who has not got anykind of link to the Orders and any kind of guidance,. The same applies to work with the VGW as will be explained in due course.

The original Monastery courses, at least the major part, was written by Bertiaux on commission for an esoteric Templar group active in Europe and South America mainly. These people were brought to Bertiaux by Jean Maine.

Bertiaux wrote chapter after chapter sending them to this group. Now it is easy to see that what went into the monastery Courses were, amongst other things, direct results obtained through O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. work and teachings, but to this Bertiaux added a lot of other ideas coming from his diverse spiritual and intellectual background like theosophy and philosophy and created a complete path to Gnostic initiation. So what we see here in the courses is partly a result of working with O.T.O.A. keys, they are not the keys themselves.

Bertiaux intended the Courses to be of gnostic and magical inspiration, something that people like Kenneth Grant understood well and they used it. The Courses did not however provide initiation into the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. or the Voudon Gnostic current in their own way.

When that templar group disintegrated, Bertiaux and the Orders bought back the copyrights because they thought the materials to be too precious to get lost in history and used the Courses as the basic training tool for the correspondent students of the O.T.O.A. It was found that the ideas and tools presented in the Courses provided a perfect basis for higher work in the Voudon Gnostic societies. These outer students or the outer order was headed originally by Ken Ward. So this is when the Courses became an integral part of the O.T.O.A. curriculum and the basis for initial study. For those aligned with the O.T.O.A., the Courses hold many surprises and many doors are inserted which lead the observing and dedicated student deep into the labyrinth of the Voudon Gnosis. With the help of mentors and guides within the orders, the student is led on a magical journey. Potential students can get many extra papers, initiations and empowerments upon showing that they successfully enter the deeper layers of the order's work through the Courses.

The Voudon Gnostic Workbook and the La Couleuvre Noire (L.C.N.)

The VGW has a slightly similar history as the Courses. Some of the initial papers making the core of the VGW were intended as scripts for a weekend seminar on the LCN in New York. That seminar never materialized but H. Slater of Magical Childe was so impressed with the papers that he asked Bertiaux to expand on them and then to publish them as a book. This was done and what we got was the great VGW!

The VGW was thus not written to give away the keys to the Voudon Gnostic system, but to explain how things may work there and examples of what is being done. It is clear by reading it, that many extra initiations and empowerments are needed to be successful in that work. Here again, the role of a mentor and guide comes into play. The L.C.N. is also a very specialized course of studies which is not for everyone. It deals with very negative qualities (not in the profane human sense) and to work with these is not business as usual for the western initiate. If one truly enters the LCN type of work, lots of mental stability and equilibrium is required - we do not banish!

To really work the L.C.N. type of system in its deeper aspects, personal tuition and guidance are absolutely needed as is the Aflatus, the mysterious direct connection through the Voudon Gnostic current and its spirits. Without this, all the higher work with the VGW and ultimately L.C.N. is impossible.

In accordance with the true ancient magico-mystery traditions, the keys to the work with the systems are given orally in personal initiation and via esoteric transmission. No other way is possible.

Rites of Initiation:

In the O.T.O.A. as well as the L.C.N. there do exist initiations. However, up to now there have never been formal initiations into the 16 degrees of the O.T.O.A., simply because the degree system is only supposed to be a guideline to what the students are studying. All degrees have the same importance and no one member is better or 'higher' than another. There are a few people in the orders who possess a superior position, due to administrative or sacramental reasons.

We see no reason to give out formalized initiations a'la O.T.O., Golden Dawn etc. as we do not see a real magical power and value there. We consider these initiations dramatic theatre style activities designed to work on the psyche of the candidate and in good cases this may be so. These rituals are sterile, often out of date and relied on the surprise effect which often they do not have anymore.

As said before, in the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. there exists initiations - they are given to special students, who have distinguished themselves and have proven their loyalty and abilities. Those are the people who enter from the outer orders (studying courses, etc.) to the inner orders and layers. Here there exist quite a large number of initiations and empowerments, which are given from a 'master' to a student. There are different kinds of such 'rites'. At this point, only a handful of masters are able to give out any kind of initiation; L.C.N. type of initiations and higher initiations and empowerments are only given by Michael Bertiaux, Courtney Willis and David Beth (Tau Melchizedek).

Empowerments and initiation rites are being given in a 'freestyle' shamanistic method, meaning that whilst they do follow certain guidelines and esoteric rules, they are individually prepared and given to each candidate who is ready to receive them.

One such initiation into the LCN type of work requires amongst others the anointing and activation of certain points on the naked body of the initiand, while the initiator who is possessed by the patron spirits, speaks and chants in the Langue Mystere which to 'receive' and 'utter' he was trained. The initiations and empowerments in the LCN are only concerned with magical transmissions.

It is not unusual for a candidate to experience vision, trance, possession and extreme emotions and altered states of mind totally different from the experience of a usual initiation ritual. Pure spirit force is activated here and is transmitted from the master to the candidate in order to unlock power zones in the body, or to activate sexual centers or prepare the 'meat' to receive spirits as permanent residents.

Other initiation rites are hinted at in the VGW, although they are at times quite conceiled. We can refer you here, for example, to the Guzotte papers of the VGW.

Sexual Magic:

Speaking about Guzotte, this is a good time to move into the field of sexual magic. Of course many know that the work of the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. is based on a sexual magical structure. For those who have studied the 2nd Year of the Monastery Courses, know just how elaborate and multilayered sexual magic can become. I am very confident in fact that the sexual magical system taught in the O.T.O.A. is far more complex and elaborate than most if not any other sexual magical system out there.

As we have no time to enter the whole field of the sex-magic of the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. I have picked out one area, the very elemental type of sexual magic we also use in the Orders.

Here now we are concerned with the sexual magic of the very powerful elemental voudon sorcerer. It is the kind of magic that generates the most powerful magical energies as it draws from the most archaic and aboriginal elements of man and indeed his animal-heritage. The untamed raw animalstic powers are accessed and released and can be put to use by the sorcerer. Plus this is a way of working directly with certain groups of spirits accessible only though such more extreme forms of sexual magical work.

We are not concerned here with a theoretical and methaphorical idea of sexual magic or a description of only inner processes. This form of sexual sorcery is physical, it is extremely challenging to the mental stability and it is about the 'descent'. There seems to be a contradiction here. Should we not only be concerned with the 'higher', the ascent, higher evolution, higher goals and higher striving of the Soul? This exactly is what we aim for, but to empower and forward these goals, we can make use of a source of power which rests within the aboriginal, archaic Self of man which he still carries along with him to this day.

Many are aware that the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N. include some of the most highly elaborated forms of gnostic thought and magical philosophy. In fact Master Bertiaux said once that without having studied Hegel and the German philosophers which he considers highly esoteric, one cannot be his student. He and other adepts of the orders have and had great intellectual training and were thus able to incorporate highly abstract and theoretical systems of philosophy and thought into the occult and gnostic framework of the Orders. But unlike the philosophers, who were in most cases 'only' thinkers, maybe esoteric thinkers, but not occultists, the adepts of the O.T.O.A. & L.C.N. were indeed able to bring these systems alive in a magical way, to empower and feed these theoretical systems and turn them into practical magical and spiritual systems for the use of spiritual and magical evolution.

They empowered these theoretical and philosophical and highly elaborate systems with the most primitive, powerful and elemental kind of sexual energy accessible, thus uniting two powerful poles and giving birth to a new creation. In the elemental temples of the orders we are convinced that we must build out of and focus the energy upon the low and elemental powers. We want to stir up ancient powers and cosmic emotions and memories. We prefer the low to the high vibrations to achieve this.

In the secret research laboratories of the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N., especially during its Haitian phase and in the 60ies and 70ies in the US as well as in the branch of the Choronzon Club closely tied to the Voudon Gnostic continuum, much work in these fields was conducted. Only very few and naturally talented magicians, both male and female, are able to enter the deepest layers of this area. These temples are fully operative within the continuum of the Jean-Maine Voudon Gnosis today. In the following you can read an excerpt from a secret paper authorized for the inner elemental cell of the OTOA by the Choronzon Club within our continuum:

Seated in his throne in the north of the temple, in the place of the least light, the master will sing the conjuration of elemental being: "Numesama, Alfragor, Darteama, Kasqecot - I am without beginning and without end, I am the wideness of space and the thinness of time, I am nothing and I am everything, for my name is darkness and my essence is the firstborn of all potencies. Come forth and worship me, I am your master and your god"

The servitors will now break forth and worship the master and his body with their lips, mouths, tongues and hands. The Master rises and is possessed by the invisible and terrible powers of darkness and weirdness, as strange voices are heard and a great fear descends upon the assembly, a fear of death and loss of one's very being. The Master begins the second conjuration in a mysterious tongue[?.]

And then later in the text the Master proclaims: 'I am Gog and Magog, there is no power to restrain me!' - if he wishes to practice ritual sexual intercourse of any type, he will hold them and have them stand next to his throne.

This was a very tame part of this rite which is also an initiation rite. But I think you can see the point and the direction it takes.

Lycantrophy, time travelling and esoteric psycho-analysis are all amongst the techniques employed by the initiates of these elemental sexual temples.

The adept will be confronted with forms of energy and practices which he may find extremely unsettling and against his civilized nature, so only those who feel a calling to travelling back to the beginnings of time, to the creature of instinct and raw power will be able to sanely survive this trip.

During the work with the elemental sexual sorcery there are often times when we work directly with the spirits who of course do not suffer the same problems as we humans do. They have not the same moral codes or confinements.

The guardian spirits of the voudon gnosis delight in sexual magic as it is a direct link to them and a way of communication and exchange. And it is not the theoretical highly abstract forms of sexual magic or what some people call Right Hand Path sexual systems or what usually is understood by Left Hand Path magic in the West, but the most direct, primitive forms of sexual sorcery that creates the most powerful effects when working with the dark mysteries of the Voudon Gnosis. In these our dark temples of primitive powers, the sexual magic of secret cults of ancient times are being continued.

In the initiations into the dark mysteries of the High-Priests of Hades, of Guedhe-Nibbho and Bacalou Baca, strange rites are carried out which bring us back into contact with the elemental powers of our pre-civilized Self.

We will not go into detail here and explain exactly the rites and methods of those specialized inner order cults as this is reserved only for those few adepts actually entering this field of work. Only so much. To work in this field, it is not only necessary to have a fundamental understanding of the usual forms of sexual magic, like we find in the O.T.O.-system or in the other systems of the East and West, but one must have done intense and thorough investigations into the self and must have thrown off most of the conventional and modern shackles that keeps the primal man in bondage, also and especially regarding sexuality.

A preliminary work before entering the shadow sorcery could be the work explained in the Guzotte papers of the VGW, especially the development of the 'Eros of Les Loa' and of course the development of the points chauds. All this involves a very explorative mentality and the potential initiate must be ready to venture far into the dark realms of the Self and magical universes.

These inner cults of elemental sexual sorcery are not the same as the inner cults usually spoken of when discussing the more advanced work of O.T.O.A. & L.C.N. These inner cults and inner order work can be very well accessed without ever moving into this field of which we speak here. In fact most inner order adepts will never enter and descend into those temples of the High Priests of Hades as they lack the natural predisposition for such work.

For most members and higher adepts of the OTOA and LCN it is more than sufficient to make use of the results of the fusion of the highly elaborate and advanced thought systems with the most elemental and primitive sexual magic. They will surely be able to reach the highest summits of spiritual and occult attainment.

Their talents and abilities are put to use on other fronts and research laboratories of the inner Orders. Their contact with sexual magic will also be very challenging and intense of course as the sexo-magical energies are the foundation of all our work. And surely they will be able to use all the results and benefits created by the adepts of the elemental sexual temples as well as those adepts will be able to use their results and their creations.

But there remain those masters in the secret laboratories and temples who will continue to explore further those dark realms and perform these rites of sexual magic to create pools of strong raw elemental energy and power from which all the High-Priests of the O.T.O.A./L.C.N. can draw energies to empower or initiate their students along the lines of the system.

Lycantrophy

We have mentioned Lycantrophy, which in the L.C.N. is a very important mode of work. It is used by the Shadow Power Shamans from our tradition. Kenneth Grant has hinted correctly at some of the reasons as to why we employ this work. Always keep in mind that the system of Les Vudu is a very spontaneous one, one of possession and rapture, not unlike the cults of Dionysius in the ancient world. So if we want to work with Lycantrophia, we do not use a precisely written out formula, but we have a 'way of procedure' and an interpretation of our actions.

You do not prepare for possession by animal spirits, but you may open your psychic doors, by setting up a room for this purpose, by the use of perfumes, oils, incense etc. This way you can set a stage for the spirits. These spirits however must not be ami-animals, goody goody spirits, or friendly, but probably are raw elemental forms governed by basic desires. Once the spirits have come upon you, the energy is very Dionysian and very wild. Loas for this work would include Ti'Moufette and Mystere Blatte.

Conferements:

We will only shortly address the issue of the Conferements here. The only reason to speak about this in the first place is the seemingly great misunderstanding and confusion some people have when using the phrase in connection to our work. First of all, there never was an ultimate or final conferement in what we call the Hyde Park days of the orders in Chicago, nor was there one before.

However the orders do employ a series of 16 conferements used as 16 empowerments to activate 16 different powers within the body.

Points Chaud:

As the Points Chaud are a very important and a central component of the work of the Voudon Gnostics, let us discuss some basic ideas. This is also apparently needed as all over the cyberspace people claim many things in regards to the points chaud, too often displaying their ignorance about it.

The Points Chauds are intelligent entities and dynamic processes of energies.

They have their roots and source of power in the bisexuality of esoteric voudon and thus are ultimately principles and communication-energies of Les Vudu, the Gods of the Voudon Gnostic World.

We have 336 hot points - 16 basic axioms and the 64 magical interpretations plus the 256 amplifications.

After they have been opened they merge with the mind and psychic field of the Voudon Gnostic initiate. As they are radiations of the Voudon Gnostic archetypes and spirits, they are being sustained by these specific energies unique to our system. And thus one can loose the activated point chauds if one becomes disconnected from the current.

All of these points need to be inducted into the individual system of magical operations (his [in]visible bodies) in order for an initiate to function perfectly as a voudon Gnostic magician.

The Points Chauds are centers that when activated can release specific Kalas/Ojas manifested through sexo-magical work. So how are the points chauds given or received? Well, there are different ways in our system to do this. Let us briefly touch upon the system described in the VGW and it relates again to the Guzotte system.

We know by now that one needs to be attached formally and magically to the Voudon Gnostic System as a preliminary.

Q: Are the Points-Chauds of this system entities or are they processes?

A: Both. Everything in this field is both an intelligent entity (beyond human levels of intelligence) and a dynamic process or energy. When the candidate is with the system, these points-chauds merge with his mind and psychic field. They do not when the same person is separate. They are like psychological complexes of the most creative sort, which being radiations of the archeytpes are sustained by the planetary energies in question. Hence, it would be possible to lose the powers if you withdrew from the gnostic continuum of the system."

The points chauds are closely associated to what we call the 'presentments' which are in their essences very powerful 'appearance elementals'. These Presentments are the way in which Les Vudu, the Gods of esoteric Voudon, interact with the body of the initiate. It is the communication of initiatic energies.

These Presentments now need to be developed and then become Hot Points. This development must take place through viewing and understanding the Presentments as Pheonismes. The understanding is done through a process of 'esoteric logic of the body' as Bertiaux terms it. This process is both individual and experiential but also guided through initiatic transmissions from the High Priest.

Pheonismes are thought forms of an extremely sensual and sexual and exotic character. Wherever the Pheonismes are present the athmosphere is one of intense lust and excitement. The Pheonismes are also artificial elementals and thus can come and go from the magician.

When this process of understanding the presentments as pheonisms is achieved, the pheonisms become hot points and then can be mapped out in the various power zones of the body.

Upon receiving the points chauds a link is established between the sexual energies and the cosmic lifestream.

The perfect voudon Gnostic whose points chauds have been opened also thus becomes a living vampire (but in a very different way than is usually thought).

David Beth (Tau Melchizedek)
S.G.M. O.T.O.A./L.C.N.