Israel Regardie popularised the Middle Pillar Exercise in his Golden Dawn books. Put simply, the Middle Pillar exercise is a method of imprinting the Tree of Life into your aura. For many years, this has been deemed a ‘good thing’, but my own researches suggest that while there are short-term advantages, ultimately the exercise is futile.
Now that there are better and more practical models of the Mystical Universe to work with, as developed here,, the Tree of Life has been abandoned. So, what is the alternative?
Circulating energy within the body is a good thing, but if we do not use the Tree of Life, we can go back to first principles, which on reflection perfectly match the Kabbalistic recitation that accompanies the MPE. Despite the best efforts of occultists, trying to relate the Tree to Kundalini has always fallen short, and is very restrictive. What better than to have the kundalini flow free, as it should do?
The Kabbalistic text has five parts to it:
- EH-EI-EH (“I AM”)
- YHVH ELOAH VE-DAATH. (I Am the Lord of Knowledge.)
- SHADDAI EL-CHAI (Lord of Life.)
- YHVH ELOHIM (I Am the Mighty One of God.)
- ADNI HA-ARETZ (Lord of the Earth.)
The five aspects are redolent of the four elements plus Spirit, and now that we are freed of medieval kabbalistic associations, we can go back to a system that is mathematically pure, and still has resonance today in physics. I am of course talking about the Platonic Solids. My experience of using the MPE is that the entire exercise is dynamic – the Solids move of their own accord around various centres.
There are only five Platonic Solids, and they were related to the four elements, plus Spirit.
- Earth: The cube, stable, the Altar
- Air: The octahedron, which rotates freely when held by its two opposite corners.
- Fire: Pyramid
- Water: the icosahedron
- Universe/Akasha: the dodecahedron of twelve sides representing the signs of the Zodiac
By abandoning the Tree of Life we go from a static to a dynamic model, that is mathematically and geometrically pure. Mathematics is the basis of Mystical experience.
Rather than starting the top at ‘Kether’, you visualise energy flowing up through your feet from the earth as a living altar, through your body, and you will find that the Platonic solids gradually appear.
Thoth Tarot and Platonic Solids
With all the geometric shapes in the Thoth Tarot, it is not surprising that the Platonic solids make an appearance.
At the feet of The Priestess we see the octahedron on the left, above the icosahedron. On the right hand side the pyramid above the dodecahedron. The symbol of the Earth is not so easy to see, but it could be the structure she is sitting on.
Almost at the centre of the Prince of Swords card we see the Octahedron, Platonic symbol of Air clearly displayed.
What the Platonic Solids do
When the Platonic Solids appear in your visualisation, you are doing very well. What they do is to restructure, rebuild, restore, or strengthen the layers of your aura. Where does the energy for building your aura come from? Universe B – the place where 90% of the Universe is hidden from view!
Building your auric shield in this way gives you the power to start travelling in Universe B, the place of Dark Matter and Energy.