Testing the Limits!
My
latest book, CHRIST QABALAH, that appears appropriately approaching Advent,
stretches the limits of both magic and mysticism. It comes as a consequence of
a forty year run in with a most remarkable man and priest the Reverend Canon
Anthony Duncan – from our meeting at Tewkesbury Abbey back in 1964 to his
passing on in 2003. Something of this story is recorded in a chapter of my autobiography
I CALLED IT MAGIC as well as one or two letters quoted in YOURS VERY TRULY,
GARETH KNIGHT. However, this is “the
full Monty”, the record of a friendly knock down drag out contest between an
occultist and a churchman, in which both learned a great deal about each other
and themselves and also what they stood for. Much testing of the limits,
whether as mystic or magician.
A first
consequences of this appeared in a couple of books we produced early on in the
contest. On my part EXPERIENCE OF THE INNER WORLDS upon which I trained all
subsequent students in what is now the Avalon Group, and on his part by THE
CHRIST, PSYCHOTHERAPY AND MAGIC, his first reaction to being introduced to the
Qabalah, which was greeted in the national press with the comment “Now at least one clergyman has got the
point and in this book urges his fellow Christians not to dismiss occultism
either as a cranky fad or as a black art....a wholly fascinating book which
should be required reading for all church people.”
And after a revelatory
weekend on the holy island of Ionathat
opened up Tony Duncans psychic and mystical faculties, it was closely followed
by THE LORD OF THE DANCE – an “ in your face”
revelation of contemporary mysticism that rocked me on my heels – and then THE SWORD IN THE SUN – a highly
personal conversation with a Holy Guardian Angel, chatting about reincarnation,
fairy contacts and other sundry matters that were too hot to publish until Coleston
Brown, a lively transatlantic member of my group, produced an edition twenty
years later with his Sun Chalice press in California – alas now
defunct.
Nothing
loth, however, ever a man of integrity, Anthony Duncan also pushed his ideas in
theological journals and elsewhere, as for example in “New Fire” – “There appears to be, in the rising
generation, a considerable increase in what we may describe as psychical
awareness. In addition, there is a very real and growing desire for God. There
is, however, a massive impatience with institutionalism, and a real questioning
as to the relevance of the institutional Church to things of the spirit at all.
Our public preoccupation with relevance has not helped us, but far worse has
been the long tradition of ignorance in matters of an interior nature, our
mistrust of mysticism and our rejection without very much attempt at
comprehension of the psychic...The great Christian heritage of mysticism and
contemplation is going by default through sheer ignorance of it.”
Following
through from all this, as we discovered, was the need to differentiate between
the mystical and the magical. Much of magical practice is in terms of the
psychic and intuitive, which may not necessarily be an approach to God, but
rather to our own interior states, the collective unconscious, or to denizens
of the inner planes. We often tend to think of the Tree of Life in two
dimensional terms and heaving ourselves
up the grades until, eventually, as Ipsissimi (should we live so long!), we can
be on nodding terms with God. Actually it is a lot easier than that if we
remember the doctrine of the Four Worlds of the Qabalists. That is to say in a three dimensional diagram, where the whole Tree is available to us
as Material World, Formative World, Creative World, and
Spiritual World.
We all know
all about the Material World, we are well mired within it, and we can as
occultists operate within the Formative and Creative worlds by elemental or
angelic contacts. The Spiritual world is the one where God Imminent is to be
found and quite accessible too. As the early Qabalist Isaac Luriah taught, we
and the whole creation are, literally, IN
God. And not for nothing is the present
book sub-titled THE MIND IN THE HEART, which is a much superior organ of perception than is generally realised.
And as
Tony Duncan, who put much of his perceptions into verse, expressed itin “Balaams Dog”:
The Lord, who made an ass
articulate in Holy Writ has, in these latter days inspired my dog who, noticing
my state observed: “You seek our Lord in many ways; you meditate for hours,
breathe Yoga breath, contort yourself in postures and awake your inner depths
to nightmare and near-death, perform the Dhikr, and contemplate, and make an
inner Tantric sound, and go to bed exhausted and tormented in the dark. You
make of Love such heavy work!” she said. “With all these arrows, do you hit the
mark? Our Lord is here,” she said. “Can you not see? Our Lord is Love, and
loving, Just like me!”
Not that
his message is all simple evangelism. It extends to the friendship of faery for
example. And note the tone of respect.
Shall I return to fairyland who
saw them dancing there? Shall I return and part the veil that hangs across thin
air? Shall I intrude upon their peace who once did welcome me? Or might our
blessed friendship cease should I, intruding, see? True magic is a given thing,
its mysteries are not sought; its unexpected light and love not stolen are, nor
bought. An open heart, a true respect for brethren yet unseen, shall yield what
no man can expect, who comes where Love has been.
Whilst his
insights into high mystical states can be quite mind blowing.
How many heavens does this Earth
contain? What subtleties of wavelength and what bounds are set? What
frequencies are tuned, what lives are lived upon another plane? For I have felt
them passing by, intent upon their business, and have seen, have glimpsed their
presence, known them near, befriended in the corner of an eye. All life is one.
We rise or fall, each persons of one creature: Man. Our mystery proceeds to
plan, one Inner Space contains us all.
That
Inner Space being the Mind of God, which includes awareness of the wider universe which that Divine Mind
created.
Inhabitants of other spheres than
this draw near the threshold of my conscious mind. As they are sent, perhaps?
Or I am bidden? Some come to see the priest. Others collide, and we regard in
mutual puzzlement and gently move our worlds once more apart. I must be
vigilant. Four-square I must abide; discernment and compassion in my heart.
I found evidence
of this when going through some of his old papers. They included a manuscript
called TO THINK WITHOUT FEAR that takes “outer space” into account. In this
extraordinary work, shortly to be published by Skylight Press, he includes his
own experiences, and frankly examines the experience of psychic communication
with "extra-terrestrial" contacts and the theological and other implications.
From
this, some might consider him to be as nutty as a fruitcake. Let me assure them
that he certainly was not. Anthony Duncan was the most down to earth,
commonsensical and practical of men, as some of his descriptions of working as
a parish priest, movingly (and sometimes amusingly) reveal – which include
taking the blessed sacrament through the streets to the dying, comforting the
sick, injured or demented in hospital wards, organising a vicarage garden party,
and devising a Bible Quiz for the Womens Fellowship Beetle-Drive! While as
part of his lesser known vocation as a Diocesan Exorcist, producing on his
retirement a guide book dealing with the Psychic Disturbance of Places “a booklet I wrote for my successors as
spooks ministry men. It has the distinction of having passed muster with the
Chairman of the Church of England Doctrine Commission. Can one fly higher?” Not that he would ever talk much about
this kind of work, although aspects of it
feature in some of his poems, and in his novel FAVERSHAMS DREAM and also in
UNFINISHED BUSINESS, which has yet to come.
However,
for the moment there is more than enough to stimulate, educate and ponder in
our mutual effort CHRIST QABALAH – Skylight Press. And a jolly good
Christmas present too!
