The Western Gate

Praefatio

In the realms of lucid dream;- more than wandering through the fantasies of the flesh we can, if we are gallant and fearless, face the nemesis of our fears.¹

Princeps

It has been said that, “The fear of God is more than to fear that of the Devil,” though this is a corruption of the original text ~ (Prov.9.10. תְּחִלַּ֣ת חׇ֭כְמָה יִרְאַ֣ת יְהֹוָ֑ה וְדַ֖עַת קְדֹשִׁ֣ים בִּינָֽה) “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”~ which is obviously a powerful kabbalist metaphor for annihilation of the ego to be synchronous with the absolute.
What is fear? That we are faced with the frailty of our constitution, the weakness in the foundation of the temple we inhabit. That we are powerless, beyond our free will? The believers are told they have free will, however this at the expense of eternal damnation, and torture, should they stray from the path, and so must accordingly live in blind obedience, free will thus being little more than a gesture without substance, a cruel promise.
Can the same be said of ‘deviant‘ thought, or of desire, are these thoughts and desires also, to condemn the strayward? Is the thought of lust equally to condemn than the person who actually acts his fantasies and lusts in the flesh?
רַ֖ע (Evil)is the word describing the thoughts of ‘man’ that IHVH was so angered by. Its shares the same gematria as נֵֽכֶר~ which denotes foreign, strange-but also in the context of respect and to be known as different. What is different and strange and desired therefore is seen by the singularity as evil, for it strays from the path rather than rests with the source. In much the same manner (sic. manna) as to condemn the worship and follow other gods, Deuteronomy 6:14–15 “any gods of the peoples about you.”
Likewise, in dreams and illusion, in creativity and artistry, are we also bound to be shackled to piety and reverence. This is the slavery of the mind. In my mind if I follow or seek the other Gods, of the other peoples – foreign- that are about me? am I condemned? To suppress those thoughts arising, spontaneous or otherwise.
To digress, to wander….
Kings 1: 10.13 Ol’ King Sol’ to appease Sheba, and show his undying love/lust gave her everything she asked for, and then, did she return to her kingdom.
The following line Kings 1: 10.14 contains the wisdom and understanding to reckon the number of the beast, that is, that which turns and asways the mind from the holy to the gross, from Heaven to Earth, namely wealth ~which wroughts power. (viz.The weight of the gold that Solomon received every year was 666 talents of gold.)
Solomon, as a precedent does not, despite his lusts, deviance, power and worship of other gods feel the wrath of IHVH. The kingdom was divided after Solomon died. Solomon no doubt being raised to heaven as opposed to some fiery pit of hell. Solomon, not only thought out his fantasies and desires but acted them, by any means necessary.
How can we make sense of this nonsense?

By lucid dream, by the wanderings and ritual enacted within that realm, some may call it astral work, or inner work. In practice many times it is akin to those pathworking’s as described by the kabbalists, yet also, altogether different.
The Red Dragon~ the grimoire to meet and converse with the Devil- Lucifuge Roficale. In lucid dream, it is difficult, nay impossible, to recite the text required, though much of the obsession and focus is to be free of the physical boundaries of the mind, and in dream, we are beyond that framework already.
I was not to summon Lucifuge Roificale as contained with The Red Dragon. I didn’t want the Prime Minister, but knocked three squarely upon the door of the King.

Praxis

As I fell to sleep I submitted my body, I could feel the physical muscles and nerves relenting and the first thought, as always was to snap back to reality, but I didn’t, I fell, as If I had fallen from a cliff edge.
I could feel at once myself submerged, it were not water but a density that enveloped my being, it was not restrictive and like water embraced me offering no resistance. A darkness but also movement. The movement appeared fleetingly as wisps and furrows of light that passed quickly, they were in my nature- time. That is, these movements were not only representative of time, they were, if they can be imagined as tangible, time itself. They were at a difference to me, imparting that I am separate, and all that can be separate from me in the darkness is time. So it is, that I can either turn inwards where time itself ceases and everything is non moving, or in this case outwards.
I stood now in absolute desolation. It were the first thought that came to mind. It were as if I were witness to the aftermath of the apocalypse, a desert of rubble and lifelessness. There was no focus of anything desirous, it were wasted and consumed. I could not tell if I were on the summit of a huge mountain, or an otherworldly scene, for the sky and the land felt close almost merging.
I knew why I had come, to summon, that which some call the Devil, or that which some call the adverse nature of the awakening. That which existed at the outset of creation and by its Genesis became divorced from the primordial unity.
The ‘Devil’ appeared. Without want to describe in drama or artistic licence its movement was slow and forced, huge thighs and bowed shins carried it gracefully as a horse in cantor. Two huge Carrion birds like Ravens or Eagles, each of their claws wrapped tightly about its chest such that the talons became its ribcage. They opened their wings and the image were that subjective design we have all been enamoured with. This magnificent and beautiful beast before me, and yet, it stood away and at an edge from my personal space, that figured protective circle. I knew, it were not the case this circle I had automatically crafted protected me, but the being before, perhaps, played my little game.
The being stood tense before relaxing, each of the Ravens retracted their wings, one looking leftwards and one right, bowing.
My mind remembered some conjured words, and mumbling I spoke in appreciation that ‘he’ had come in a comely and agreeable manner, and so too, I asked, in whom’s presence I stood.
The being eyed me, and it were point of fact that I, should, have announced myself first. That I should have declared who I was and why I had came.
MY greeting and Introduction, long stemmed from previous incarnations in the land of dream, rehearsed, reworked and rhetorical, and yet too, based in fact of the manner of my being
“I am the Beloved Winding Stream, Incarnated upon the Harvest Moon, I am of the Double Balance, and by these I am subject to Maat.”

The being before me replied in words I could not understand, poetic and each word short and based on two syllables. But, at once he said, ” And I, for want of your understanding am Lux Sophia”
Was this some veiled allegory for Lucifer.
“Indeed, The morning and the evening. I am the Equinox and the balance. I am not the first and the last, yet astride me are they known. “
Where is fear? My first instinct that I felt in this brief encounter, despite the ominous and majestic being before me, the huge carrion birds that were of form, his angelic wings. It was the nature of fear, the confrontation with nemesis, the destruction of my ego, the pilgrims passage. But no fear. At times in lucid dream I am immersed in the vision to the extent I forget I am dreaming, here, constant I knew the view was temporal.
This would not be discourse as those I have with Rumi, or Thoth, or others. I felt submissive, the world, dream, does not revolve around me. It was at that moment the first inkling of doubt crept in. The almost contrived figure of the being before me, albeit who would’ve drawn in the past two huge carrion birds about him, and their claws forming the cage of his chest. And too, the morning and evening star. But Lux Sophia? I had heard of Lux Mundi – light of the world. Lux Sophia~ Lucifer. Lux is Latin, Sophia is Greek. should it not be Phos-Sophia, or Lux-Sapientiae.
Lies, all Daemons and such are liars, confusion, the bastions of ruin.
“What is your nature?” By the rules of all the rites and rituals and dogma and theatre beforehand, ‘Lux Sophia’ must answer me in truth.
“All that I am, All that I offer is laughter and ever evolving mystery, for that is my nature”
There was no description or expansion necessary it was clear. All desire is born from the pursuit, the hunt, the quest for knowledge, to appease doubt. The light of wisdom. What point the manifest unless there was desire, and desire is born from difference and the will to appease that difference by means of harmony or destruction that it is assimilated or negated. All things are foreign to the witness, to the watchers, and we desire that we can know. The veil of truth is upon all things, that we do not rest, and are not content, that always there are things to discover, it is the eternal hunt. And so too the trickster laughs at the confusion he conjures.
Alpha and Omega, sit fixed, first and last, unmoving, unyielding. Between them, eternity. endless possibilities.
Lux Sophia smiled, a genuine and mischievous and at once, I was unsure if he were male or female at all. Not so much Hermaphrodite, Androgynous or Ambiguous, altogether more the Mother, and the laughing child within.
The scene collapsed.
I was on the bed staring at the ceiling and a rush of nerve endings created the feeling of denseness, of form, light particles engineered the room that I was again the observer, and so too I was of a distinct time that lived within a second and immediately that instant passed. Eternity but a distant dream
Let ‘them’ , those of renown and gone, shadows of their glory, be confined to history, as we reside in Mystery. Let them frown, let us laugh.

—

Postfatio

“An pyth oll a roav vy, hag an pyth oll a vydh genes dhyworth ow honan, yw hwarth, hag kevrin ow kelwel dalergh, rag hemma yw ow natyr.”
“All That I will offer, and all that you will receive from me, is laughter, and ever evolving mystery, for that is my nature”¹

Header Illustration:”Tartini’s Dream” by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845)

^1/ One such encounter I have already included on this website viz;-Facing the Nemesis.