Newly translated essay on The Golden Flower of the Great One

shazlor · February 18, 2019

I heard a tip to read some magic books backwards and the next book I perused I did just that and lo and behold, I gazed upon an auspicious essay tacked on second to last in the new "Introduction to Magic, Volume II: The Path of Initiatic Wisdom by Julius Evola and the UR Group"

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire 16 page piece, from the deft dealing of the 'sexual essence' question to the masterful expounding upon 'circulation of the light' which previews below;

Spoiler

After this, we can proceed to the pratical instructions in the text. The
magical key to the whole procedure is contained in the formula of
384 PART XI
circulation—circulation of the “light” and of the “seed”—which cannot
fail to evoke the “circulations” spoken of in the Hermetic and alchemi-
cal opus transformationis (work of transformation).

Technically, this preliminary phase of the work takes place in the
“higher seat” and is called the diversion, circulation and crystalliza-
tion of the “light.” One might speak here of the “fixation of thought,”
but that seems a colorless and abstract formula compared to the lively
suggestions given in the text. The yang principle is light. This light is
primarily that of clear and wakeful consciousness. It is the light of see-
ing—which is why the yang is said to reside in the eyes—but also an
aural light, i.e., the light of hearing, taken as synonym of understanding.
The straight line which the anima yin imposes on the light is the extra-
verted orientation to the sense-world, into which the inner light flows
when one sees. To make the light “circulate” means reversing the direc-
tion, bringing the light back to itself and to the origin, just as in a circle;
so that the light, meaning the union of seeing and understanding (light

of the eye + light of the ear), gathers itself and now illuminates the
interior, rotating around itself.

6. “Therefore, understanding (ear) and clarity (eye) are one and the same

effective light.”

The way is found by means of “extreme intelligence and clarity, and

the most complete absorption and tranquility” (p. 23).

“There should be no movement in the mind” (p. 44). 7

The “magical key” is indicated by these expressive words:

“One should only let the light fall quite gently on the hearing.”

“To sense brightness with-
out listening to what is outside is to listen inwardly” (p. 43). The con-
cept of “reflection” (fan chao) is also used, and “fixed contemplation”
(chih kuan), though the latter shows the influence of Buddhist schools.
“The center in the midst of conditions” or “immobile pole among the
flux of appearances” is achieved by “crystallization of the light,” after
which the light gathers between the eyes and begins to “circulate,” to
rotate around itself. It is not a freezing of thought, but an attitiude in
which one hears and sees where every thought comes from and where
it ends, always bringing the “intellectual light” or “seed” back to one-
self. “[C]irculation of the light. The circulation is fixation. The light
is contemplation” (p. 36). And again: “The eyes do not look forward,
they lower their lids and light up what is within”; “wash the thoughts,
stop pleasures, and conserve the seed.” “The light of the eyes must shine
quietly, and, for a long time, neither sleepiness nor distraction must set
in” (p. 38). A helpful expression for indicating the direction to be taken
is the “quieting of the spirit in the space of the ancestors,” and “taking
possession of the former heaven” (p. 58). The Taoists actually call the
center in the head, from which one must begin the work of possess-
ing and transmuting life and “distillation of the abyssal element in pure
yang,” the “Land of the ancestors,” and Confucius calls it “space of the
Ancient Heaven” and also “Yellow Middle.” It does not happen through
contemplation alone; it already involves a change of state that is fanned
like a fire by the “rotation” and crystallization of the intellectual light

in the center between the eyes. In the midst of the light, a point of the
yang pole arises; “Then suddenly there develops the seed pearl. It is as if
man and woman embraced and a conception took place” (p. 31).

The text contains advice for avoiding a wrong direction in practice,
such as reducing it to “exercises” and forcing oneself mentally and inten-
tionally while maintaining the everyday sense of one’s I. It says that
through the work “one must press on from the obvious to the profound,
from the coarse to the fine” (p. 33), and that it is important to have no
“intentions” of any kind. The beginning and the end of the work should
be a single thing in the spirit, even though there will naturally be states
of greater coldness and greater heat. “Master Lü-tsu said, The decision
must be carried out with a collected heart, and not seeking success; suc-
cess will then come of itself” (p. 40). The often used formula is “the
way that leads from conscious action to unconscious non-action” (p.
24), where “conscious” refers to the common I, unconscious non-action
(which is conscious in a different way) to the state of higher spontane-
ity that replaces it: “If one can attain purposelessness through purpose,
then the thing has been grasped” (p. 46). The Hermetists expressed this
in different terms, saying that while assisted by art, it is nature that
must act in the work. “But the goal must be to reach the vastness of
heaven and the depths of the sea [in the anima], so that all methods
seem quite easy and taken for granted. Only then have we mastered it”
(p. 33). “Fixed contemplation” (fan chao) is not “contemplating one’s
own ego,” but orientation “toward that point where the formative spirit
has not yet manifested” (p. 34). 8 It also speaks of passing “out of the
ordinary world into the holy world,” precisely in relation to passing into
the realm of unconscious action and liberating oneself from the embry-
onic shell (p. 24). Enough has been said here to warn anyone who lets
himself be deluded by the instructions and recipes of a vulgarized yoga,
having no sense of the organic character and the profound obligation
of a truly initiatic work, nor of the essential importance of the moment

of “breaking through the level” and opening oneself (the yang point that
manifests).

The text adds that the fixation of the intellectual light between
the eyes serves to stabilize the total direction. One thereby determines
the direction in which the whole work subsequently unfolds, leading
to progressively deeper strata of being (p. 39). The “pure light” is gath-
ered, and therein manifests, reborn, the pure yang with its character of
primal energy and embryo of the “non-dual state”: this is the goal of the
first phase and the basis of the following ones.