G. Michael Vasey, author of The Last Observer and many other books reviews “The Initiate”. He blogs at Asteroth’s Domain and The Magical World of G. Michael Vasey.
Firstly, this is a deeply unique book and very few analogies for it spring to mind. I like analogies, because, deep down inside, I like to classify and label things up neatly. Those analogies that I can think of would be books like `The Zelator’ and perhaps even `The Da Vinci Code’, but it is a stretch. `The Initiate’ defies being boxed, labeled or classified and probably rightly so, as it is a work of brilliance.
The book follows two partners in crime – Wen and Don – as they visit some ancient sites in a rural part of England. Engaged in the formation of a new school of consciousness at the time, their minds and souls are open to the spiritual and the miraculous. As they conjecture about the function and usage of various ancient stone circles, white horses or dragons, and mounds, they begin to notice birds of prey – namely Kites. The behavior of these birds leads them to a small church and then another and another. In each of these chapels, they discover symbols, artifacts, and windows with shared themes, which they spend some time attempting to unravel. However, it is the discovery of the `light’ in these chapels along with the Kites that frequent the locations of these ancient sites that begs for answers on both a spiritual and energetic level. Don and Wen attempt to answer.
Intertwined with their journey of discovery is a variety of almost `path workings’. These are deeply poetic narratives that are interspersed with the main text to shed more light on the antics of Don and Wen and their discoveries that work very effectively. One begins to gain hints of concepts and ways of thought that have been largely lost to humanity via these narratives. Indeed, in a sense, they pull it all together and present to the consciousness a picture of times when the land’s energies were sanctified, defended and protected as precious channels of power to other worlds and to other states of consciousness.
As Don and Wen work their way through these sites of wonder, their insights and discussions are shared with the reader and there is a level of inner knowledge of the Mysteries that does remind me of The Zelator. The quest itself from place to place, always guided by the Kites, with the discovery of various symbols and potential meanings along the way is a little reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code. However, this is a work of Art and it is very definitely unique. I will need to read this book several more times, as I suspect that there is much more to unlock and ponder about between the words and bound in the poetry and riddles placed throughout it too. The book is illustrated beautifully with color photographs in which one can really see the tints of colored light that speaks to the presence of a precious energy that still lights the heart of Albion like a network of energy motorways.
Author Mark Stavish is Director of the Institue for Hermetic Studies..
In a slim volume of under 100 pages, Dr. Vasey and his co-author Sue Vincent have managed to pack a great deal of information on the importance of what must be the most common of esoteric symbols – the interlaced triangles or hexagram. However, while some references are cited, the book, or monograph really, is a summary of Dr. Vasey’s considerable reflections and meditation on this important symbol. A symbols Dr. Franz Hartmann in his work, Magic White and Black, saw in the hexagram, “This is one of the most important magical signs, and practically applied invests man with magic power…Knowing that sign practically means to realize the nature of God…to be God and to know…”.
What makes The Mystical Hexagram of value to the reader is not simply Dr. Vasey’s commentary, but in addition a set of simple and progressive exercises that one can perform to deeper their personal connection and understanding of this symbol that has for many become a representation of the Great Work itself. It is also a template for guide for students as well, in that it is a working example of how to undertake this kind of reflective work for oneself – work essential to progressing on the Path of Return. In this way, The Mystical Hexagram is not only to be read, but studied and even imitated so that its deeper lessens can become one’s own.
For myself I was particularly pleased to read many comments similar to my own, from an article written nearly twenty years ago on the same subject entitled, “Notes on the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram”. The book’s endorsement by no less a luminary than Dr. Vasey’s teacher Dolores Ashcroft-Nowwicki, Directs of Studies for the Servants of the Light school of esotericism, and author of numerous works on Western esoteric practices is also reason alone to read it. (I had the good fortune to interview Ashcroft-Nowicki many years ago, and that interview along with my article on the the hexagram can be read at: http://www.hermeticinstitute.org.) In publishing their private reflections in The Mystical Hexagram the authors have provided a wonderful and much needed tool for students of esoteric symbolism and ritual magic. Take advantage of this wonderful guide and let it help you as you walk the Path of Return.
