The Master was struck down…and the Pillar of Beauty forever lies in ruin

I had written this some time ago, and it has existed on some scraps of paper as an incomplete idea, I am posting it here as an incomplete idea… It was made clear to me that others read this journal, pathetic as it may be, and that has compelled me to reconsider my position that only finished works should be posited in the public view. Some ideas are to be left incomplete, for others to attach their ideas too, giving a rise to a new idea that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Dear Unknown Friend,

The Middle Pillar, known as such through the Golden Dawn, and subsequently Regardie, is the ray of Divine Light present in us all. However, it is not present in the same sense as the Pillars of Mercy and Severity. We have immediate and direct access to these Pillars, we deal with them constantly. The Middle Pillar, while always present as a potentiality, is not actualized, or manifest, except under certain circumstances. Like the fifth note, or harmonic, of the Baber Shop Quartet, which is made by the combination of the four other notes, the Middle Pillar is only accessible when the proper balance of forces is attained between the other two Pillars.

Masonically it works a little something this this…

J and B are the other two Pillars. Nothing exists between them in the Lodge, because the forces are out of balance. J & B represent poles of energy, postive/negative, or active/passive. As energy moves between them, the Middle Pillar is actualized through that movement.

This is of course an over simplification, neither Pillar is completely active, nor the other passive. Nor is the simple movement of energy between them all that is required. The process of balancing the pillars into a constancy is well beyond this mere missive. Suffice it to say, that it is attainable, and that it is necessary for the full potential of the Middle Pillar to be actualized. As one moves from the Square to the Compasses, one is said to be finding a balance between the 2 Nobles and the 2 Bases, not that one has removed the 2 Bases entirely, for such is not our position. We are endowed with both Noble and Base faculties, we must learn the wisdom of both, and balance between the 4. Balance is dynamic, all forces are made equal in motion. It is this motion, this movement that is key. Stagnation is not balance – it is death. This essential movement between opposing forces creates the third harmonic of our chord, the Middle Pillar, the glorification of the Divine Ray of Light in us all.

The Kabbalists Tree of Life is composed of Three Pillars, each pillar contain active and passive nodes, which is part of the aforementioned other missive on how this all comes together. One Pillar is generally active however, and the other passive. One Pillar is Wisdom, the other Strength, and the the Middle Pillar – Beauty[1]; the Pillar in Ruins. This is also the Pillar of Sol, the Sun, t s o a M L!

The Winding Stair is the perception of this Pillar, partially revealed to the Aspirant like an image through heat haze. So close, yet so far. Find the Middle Pillar, and find the path to that which was Lost.

[1] – Traditionally, the Kabbalists hold the Pillars to be Mercy, Strength, and Beauty, or other combinations. The variations of these combinations I think gave rise to Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty through the vagaries of translation, misunderstanding, and obfuscation.