That's interesting.

Everything I've read thus far has Michael as the angel closest to God. After that the hierarchy isn't clear.

I just found a site that lists the following as the 8 Archangels.

Archangel Michael
Archangel Raphael
Archangel Gabriel
Archangel Uriel
Archangel Ariel
Archangel Zadkiel
Archangel Cassiel
Archangel Metatron

I think I'm going to use Ariel instead of Uriel for Earth. "She" makes more sense in that position.

I notice that this site also assigns gender to the Archangels whilst some other books and sites refer to them as being hemaphrodites.

Interesting.

I got the list above from this site:

http://www.angel-guide.com/names-angels.html

If I find a particular archetype that interests me, I search around until I find a description or story about them that I like. Then I just ignore the stories and tales I don't care for.

I see that the site I linked to above has the Virgin Mary as the "Queen of the Angels". That's interesting. Does that mean that mortal humans eventually evolve to become angels? Mary was a mortal human woman was she not?

I guess there a lot of confusion or dispute about whether angels have a particular gender or are whether they are hermaphrodites?

I prefer to think of the Archangels in my paradigm as being hermaphroites. But that's just a personal choice on my part.

What a great site! I'm going to spend some time there today.

Mary was human, yes. She did not become an angel....she was elevated above all other humans by God and given the title of of Queen of Angels and Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Christ? As in "Jesus Christ"?

Yes. The Christ's soul is the 2nd Archangel. Jesus Christ was the physical embodiment of that Archangel's energies. While every human on Earth has a soul focus of one of the last 7 Archangels, only the one known as Jesus Christ was the avatar of that force. An interesting tidbit; while the last 7 Archangels created many copies of themselves in their interactions with Seriel's Spiral, (The many choices and possibilities of life) when Samael (Lucifer) saw that he too was being copied like that, he went around the Spiral erasing all of the other versions of himself. He did this to retain his uniqueness and individuality. Because of this, every human on Earth has a soul focus (the Archangel most in tune with their soul's essence, and the root of that particular line of people) of one of the last 7 Archangels. As far as I can tell, I am one of the very very few that has the soul focus of the first Archangel.

In my searches for Archangel information I often find controversies over the idea that the Archangel Michael is actually Jesus. This seems to actually be a quite heated debate in some religious circles.

Many people argue that Jesus was "God" and therefore cannot be an Archangel. Other's argue that Jesus is actually a "manifestation" of God and therefore must necessarily take the form of an Archangel.

This is because many religious people see "God" as having no form. They also argue that via the Trinity it is possible for God to take form. In fact, many people view all of the Archangels (and actually all forms of angels or elemental spirits) as being manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Some people view Uriel as Jesus also. Because Uriel is the "Fire God" that rules over the Earth. Although, unlike the Fire element, Uriel is assocated with Malkuth and North. There are also many tales that it is Uriel's job to watch over Lucifer (or Satan). There are a lot of artist's renditions of Uriel tossing Satan around.



The problem I have with these kinds of ideas is that if Satan is that helpless that Uriel can just toss him around like a rag doll then how could Satan be a threat to anyone?

I think it was this folklore that led people to associate Uriel with Jesus (or vice versa). Because Jesus was supposed to have "beaten" the devil when he died on the cross. So that puts him in a position to be tossing Satan around like a rag doll.

I never really studied the ideas of Angels before. In my Free Methodist upbringing angels just won't seen as being very important. They were just seen as 'messegers' of God, and other than that, there is no real reason to be concerned with them.

I'm really a bit surprised at all the folklore there is about angels and how they are also associated with Earth, Air, Fire, and Water as well as the compass directions. It's just paganism all over again.

It's crystal clear to me that the whole Judeo-Christian thing evolved straight out of pagan ideas and the only reason that it became so powerful is because of the WRITTEN word.

The original pagan folklore was always oral traditions. The Judeo-Christian traditions were really the first to see a major transformation via print. Things like the Torah and the KJV were nothing more than people who took the folklore that they wanted to preserve and push onto everyone else, and write it down in print and then declare it to be the only true "Holy Scriptures". That's the only thing it has going for it. It's simply considered "Taboo" to look outside of the "Holy Scriptures". This is especially true with the KJV. To consider anything outside of that context to have an validity is taboo. Only the "Holy Scriptures" should be taken seriously. Everything else is blaspheme.

It's just the epitome of arrogance is all that it amounts to.

In my searches for Archangel information I often find controversies over the idea that the Archangel Michael is actually Jesus. This seems to actually be a quite heated debate in some religious circles.

Many people argue that Jesus was "God" and therefore cannot be an Archangel. Other's argue that Jesus is actually a "manifestation" of God and therefore must necessarily take the form of an Archangel.

This is because many religious people see "God" as having no form. They also argue that via the Trinity it is possible for God to take form. In fact, many people view all of the Archangels (and actually all forms of angels or elemental spirits) as being manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Some people view Uriel as Jesus also. Because Uriel is the "Fire God" that rules over the Earth. Although, unlike the Fire element, Uriel is assocated with Malkuth and North. There are also many tales that it is Uriel's job to watch over Lucifer (or Satan). There are a lot of artist's renditions of Uriel tossing Satan around.



The problem I have with these kinds of ideas is that if Satan is that helpless that Uriel can just toss him around like a rag doll then how could Satan be a threat to anyone?

I think it was this folklore that led people to associate Uriel with Jesus (or vice versa). Because Jesus was supposed to have "beaten" the devil when he died on the cross. So that puts him in a position to be tossing Satan around like a rag doll.

I never really studied the ideas of Angels before. In my Free Methodist upbringing angels just won't seen as being very important. They were just seen as 'messegers' of God, and other than that, there is no real reason to be concerned with them.

I'm really a bit surprised at all the folklore there is about angels and how they are also associated with Earth, Air, Fire, and Water as well as the compass directions. It's just paganism all over again.

It's crystal clear to me that the whole Judeo-Christian thing evolved straight out of pagan ideas and the only reason that it became so powerful is because of the WRITTEN word.

The original pagan folklore was always oral traditions. The Judeo-Christian traditions were really the first to see a major transformation via print. Things like the Torah and the KJV were nothing more than people who took the folklore that they wanted to preserve and push onto everyone else, and write it down in print and then declare it to be the only true "Holy Scriptures". That's the only thing it has going for it. It's simply considered "Taboo" to look outside of the "Holy Scriptures". This is especially true with the KJV. To consider anything outside of that context to have an validity is taboo. Only the "Holy Scriptures" should be taken seriously. Everything else is blaspheme.

It's just the epitome of arrogance is all that it amounts to.

Hmmmm....this is very interesting to me. The idea that Jesus is Michael. Because, in my life, they are both very powerful allies that I call on regularly.

As you know, I don't believe in the Christian God as taught by mainstream Christianity. However, the Christian names for such beings as Jesus, Mary, Michael, Gabriel, Satan, etc....work for me very well. But, the idea that Jesus and Michael are one and the same rings very true for me. I am going to have to explore this more.

For me personally, it doesn't truly matter. Because I don't think of God in terms of "ego" (i.e. individuality)

In other words, all of these consciousnesses are facets of the same underlying cosmic consciousness. When we "create" archetypes all we are truly doing is creating an imaginary persona for the sake of providing a vehicle of communiqué with the divine consciousness (of which we ourselves are a facet)

The only reason that an archetypal system is even required is because of how our brains works. Or to be more precise, because of how the universe works. Everything is done with information. Therefore, for anything to have any affect at all, it must first take form. Even if only as a thought-form. In fact, a thought-form is every bit as much of a "form" as any other type of information.


In some sense this is way "deeper" than is required to actually understand it. I'm basically attempting to "explain" it from the vantage point of Hodd (the consciousness of logos). But it doesn't need to be comprehended that way. That's just one of the many ways in which it can be conceived.

I'm really enjoying Bardon's book on Introduction to Hermetics. Even though I don't always agree (or don't always intuitively understand) his explanations, he does present things in a way that has truly giving me a great epiphany toward the spiritual elements.

He points out first off that these spiritual elements should not be thought of as 'physical elements like in physics or chemistry. They are principles or aspects of the true nature of reality.

The first principle (the Fifth element of Spirit) is what he calls the Akasha principle. And that is simply the very idea that everything does indeed spring from an infinite well of potentiality that has no known "physcial essence". (you might want to think of this in terms of the quantum field in today's modern science).

Akasha is the underlying priciple of creation, it is the "Mind of God", it is "God". And everything that exists arises from it. In this sense "All is God". It's a pantheistic view.

The first "spiritual element" is Fire. But this should not be confused with physical fire (although physical fire is indeed an aspect of the Fire Principle).

The Fire Principle is basically the idea of "Energy" particularly in the form of electromagnetic waves, but also in the form of any field of energy. In other words all quantum fields are an aspect of the Fire Principle.

The Water Principle is actually the only other "True" element. Again, it should not be confused with physical water, although physical water is certainly an aspect of the Water Principle.

The Water Principle is the simple fact that energy can indeed take physical form to become "Matter". Another way of looking at this is that the Water Principle simply states that Fire (energy) can coalesce of become standing waves that have the physical properties of massive objects. And Albert Einstein was the first scientist to have recognized this with his observation that Energy and Mass are indeed interchangeable. E=mc². Mass is nothing more than energy in formation.

And that brings us to the Air Principle, or spiritual element of Air. Air is not an ‘element’ in it’s own right. Air is the “information” that comes into being when energy is in formation.

So Air is a principle that arises from the Fire and Water Principles.

Finally Earth is really nothing more than ‘complex’ Air. Or Air taken to a higher density. In other words, the Earth principle is the principle of complex manifestation of forms. It’s just Air, taken to a far higher level. Earth is a huge congregate of information. So much information that it boggles the mind. Air, on the other hand, is reserved for the simpler aspect of information. Information that can indeed be comprehended rather easily. (i.e. thoughts).

So in the end we have:

Fire - Archetypal World – Pure Unadulterated Energy – (i.e. Creative Power)
Water - World of creation – Energy condenses in formation
Air - World of Formation – Information arises from this formation of energy
Earth - World of Action – Higher Manifestationa brought about by the complex interaction of information.

That’s the process of Creation.

However, since we are already in the creation, our rituals and processes of creation from within the creation goes as follows:

Earth – Assiah - World of Action
Air – Yetzirah - World of Formation
Fire - Atziluth - Archetypal World
Water - Briah - World of creation

Since we are already beings of complex information we must take action to create anything new. So we always begin with the North the world of Assiah (or world of Action). We then turn to the East and open a portal of communiqué with Yetzirah (the world of formation or information) or Air. The reason we seek communiqué with Yetzirah is to discover what information already exists, and how we can use it to create any new information we wish to manifest.

Once we have an understanding of what needs to be done we turn to the South, to the world of Fire or Atziluth, the Archetypal world of Pure Creative Energy. This is where we raise the energy required for the manifestation of form.

From there we turn to the West to Briah and the world of Creation. Form is created through emotional energy. We must have a genuine desire and longing to create the new forms that will become energy in formation.

Finally we turn back to the North to Assiah and the world of Action and perform the actions required to complete the manifestation of our desire.

All of this is accomplished via the cosmic consciousness – The Akahsa Principle (or God if you like). Everything springs from the cosmic consciousness, of which we are a facet. We are the magi that directs the formation of energy that becomes the information in the world of manifestation. God can truly be thought of as our “Higher Self” because we are the “Children of God”. Not in terms of being “individual and separate entities in our own right”, but in terms of being inseparable facets of the mind of God.

This is why magick will never work for a person who views themselves as an ‘ego’ (a separate individual entity that is somehow separate and distinct from the rest of the universe). Before magick can even be performed a person must realize that they are the cosmic consciousness. Tat t’vam asi.

To understand the mind of God, is to know thy self.

Today I've chosen some artwork prototypes for my Elemental Fey Spirits. Of course, this is other people's artwork and I'm just using these for basic ideas. But this is a good place to start. I'll have to focus on my art studio now and start drawing up my own archetypal faeries.



This is for the artwork in my own book of shadows. I'm sure these prototypes will take on a life of their own as I begin to draw them in various poses and positions. But I think these will serve as a good basis for my own creations.

I agree and disagree. If it didn't matter you wouldn't change Uriel to Ariel.

I agree that it doesn't matter in that the specific "being" (for lack of a better word) isn't "real". The imaginary persona is just that...imaginary. But, they are as close to the real thing as we can get with our little human brains. And, since each brain is different, each brain will need something a little different. Which is why we ended up with all these personas. But, I think you have to admit that it matters to you which persona you use. Or you wouldn't have change them around to make them "fit".

Yes, I absolutely agree with what you're saying Ruth.

I guess I stated it poorly. It does matter to "me" which personas I use. But I don't think it matters to the personas.

If that makes any sense.

In other words, what I actually meant is that it doesn't matter to me whether a particular Archangel (or whatever) is associated with a specific persona (according to any particular mythology or legend), but yes, it does matter to me that I'm comfortable with the persona that I'm communicating with.

In other words I wouldn't hesitate to view the Spirit of Fire as the Archangel Michael, or as Jesus, or as Buddha, or as anyone else including various types of non-human spiritual entities. So in that sense I feel completely free to use whatever persona calls to me for that particular role.

But, yes, it does 'matter' to me that I feel totally comfortable and at-home with the persona I choose to commune with.

I should probably also add that what I'm "building" here is merely a foundational paradigm. In other words, this is my starting point for the purpose of consistency and for the purpose of building a rapport with these particular archetypes.

This in no-way implies that I can't commune with any spirit at any time. I most certainly can and that door will always be open. In fact, this "main paradigm" may very well change over the course of time for any number of reasons.

Like you say, I had no problem at all swapping out Uriel in favor of Ariel for my Earth Archangel. After having read more about both Archangels I just feel that Ariel is far better suited for my needs right now in that particular conciousness slot.

Ariel also works closely with Air and with Raphael, so this provides a nice seemless connection between Earth and Air for me.

I still have mixed feelings about both Michael and Gaybriel. I do see the "Jesus" qualities in Michael. There's no doubt about that. Also I shouldn't worry too much about having the Archangels bear so much of the weight. This is why I also have the Yin and Yang archetypes.

For example, so far I have the following:



If you look at these in terms of the horizontal rows I have three personas to commune with in each aspect of consciousness.

In terms of Malkuth I have the Archangel Ariel, the female Earth spirit Gaia, and the male Nature God Cernunnos. Through all three of those personas I have quite a wide berth of communique. And let's not forget the pixie of Assiah.

In terms of Hodd I have the Archangel Raphael, the female Goddess Cerridwen, and the male magician Merlin. And then there's the pixie of Yetzirah.

In terms of Yesod I have the Archangel Michael, the female Goddess Hecaté and the magical male Bard Taliesin. And then, of course, there's always the pixie of Atziluth as well.

In terms of Netzach I have the Archangel Gabriel, the female Goddess Atremis, the male God Eros, and the pixie of Briah.

So I really have four archetypal connections to each of these four basic consciousnesses. I personally need this kind of diversity because it better suits my communication desires. Each archetype has been carefully selected for specific reasons. I wouldn't imagine anyone else wanting to use this precise same model. It's clearly taylored by me, for me. And that's the way it should be.

After all I'm the one who's "dialing the number". If any spirit wants to contact me he, she, or it is going to have to dial my number.

And sometimes they do. Raol dialed my number. I didn't make her up, she just jumped right into my dream out of the blue. Sometimes that happens. I still have no clue who she is, but clearly she is someone that I have been close to for many years (or lives).

But in the meantime, these authors that I've been reading have suggested that I should build my own paradigm and "they will come".

"If you build it, they will come."

I'm taking them up on this. And so I'm building it. And I'm building it in a way that I can "believe in it". In other words, I'm using archetypes and reality models that I can "bring to life" in my own imagination, and that's a key ingredient, so I am told.

In fact, if I were going to share this model with someone else I would offer it as a "fill-in-the-blanks" model like so:



They might even want to swap Air and Fire if they prefer Fire to be in the East and Air to be in the South. They should also swap the positions of Hodd and Yesod too, if they do that.

I personally find Air to be in the East and Fire to be in the South far better suited to my circle rituals. This is because I also often use Fire and Yesod to be at Zenith and Earth and Malkuth to be at my Feet. So this leaves Air to my right and Water to my left when facing north. Those rituals simply won't work with Fire in the East and Air in the south. Air and Water need to be opposite each other for many of my rituals. But that's just me I guess.

I finally completed my paradigm in a way that I'm truly pleased with all around. I spent most of the day today just seaching for photos and reading various legends and myths about these characters. The legends and myths are often quite conflicting and arbitrary. Just the same, the precise details are unimportant. It's the archetype that is important. I'm truly understanding the fundamentals of thought-forms now. The artwork is somewhat important for me because I'm a highly visual psychic. I needed these particular foundational sparks. Now my map is all set. I have built it, now they will come.

Gee, I think I hi-jacked Causality's thread.

Sorry about that. I got carried away.

But yes, getting back to the topic of Chapel Perilous, everything I have posted is indeed related to this concept. One of the greatest causes of Chapel Perilous is indeed a lack of organization before entering into shamanic journeying. It's really easy to get lost if you're just wandering around without any specific goals in mind. The caverns of consciousness are indeed infinite.



If you take close inspection of the archetypal model I've just constructed you will notice that I'm residing entirely in what is called the "Astral Triangle". The lower part of the Qabalah highlighted in color in the above graphic. This is an extremely vibrant exciting place filled with infinite potentiality. Think of it as the launching pad for a rocket destined for Nirvana which resides in the Divine Triangle above. I'm about to embark on a journey to the stars and beyond.

The journey itself is a "star trek' of sorts. Don't be focused on the destination. The destination resides in the future. Live in the now and the now becomes your journey.

Many people attempt to shoot straight for Nirvana and the Divine Sephirah of Kether by attempting to climb straight up the Qabalah via the central column, ignoring the pillar of logos and the pillar of pathos on either side. This is a possible route. However, I personally see no value in taking that route. Taking that route implies an impatience to get to Kether, as if getting to Kether is the only goal. But as I’ve said above, getting to Kether is not the goal. Enjoying the journey to Kether and making it the most pleasurable and productive experience possible is the real goal . So taking in all aspects of the tree seems to me to be the only truly valuable journey.



A Qabalah Arcana:

The Qabalah doesn’t stop at Kether, it continues on infinitely, and Kether becomes a new Malkuth for the new Qabalah, these are like fractals infinitely embedded to the ends of eternity. You might schematically think of them as something like the following graphic:



So in a very real sense, there is no such thing as a destination. All that exists is an infinite journey. So there’s no rush to get anywhere, and the true enlightenment of life is to learn to genuinely enjoy the journey and to basically become ‘awakened’ so that you can become a bodhisattva and help others enjoy the journey as well.

With that in mind, let’s return to my current paradigm. My current paradigm begins in the “Astral Triangle” of the Qabalah (as do all journeys). Is this my very first ‘voyage’? Of course not. However, it may very well be my first enlightened voyage. Enlightened to what? Well in this case, enlightened to the ways of the Qabalah and the techniques of making shamanic journeys into the realm of the mind of God, or the Cosmic Consciousness.

All journeys should begin by organizing around the “Astral Triangle”. I’ve given an example of how to do this can be done by choosing various archetypes of communiqué with the various consciousnesses associated with the a various Sephirah (or emanations) of the Qabalah model. Of course my paradigm is made entirely of thought-forms this is because this is my current situation in life. For someone else many of the actual figures of their ‘archetype’ may very well be real people. In fact, that’s probably the best way to do it. For me, that’s just not possible at this time so I’ve decided to go with thought-forms.

I met them last night, by the way. It was my very first journey into this new world of the Qabalah (or the cosmic consciousness). I performed a ceremonial shamanic ritual in which I opened the portals to each of the elmental consciousnesses of the Astral Triangle and invited the archetypes that I have created in thought-forms to enter and be my spirit guides in this journey. Every one of them showed up. That shouldn’t be surprising because there is quite a bit of truth to the saying, “If you build it, they will come”.

I met all 16 of them, in-person and up-close. I spoke with all of them. The journey lasted for quite some time although I didn’t really keep track of time to know precisely how long the journey lasted. Ariel and Raphael were concerned with my health and they were both working together as spiritual healers. Yetzirah took hold of my right hand, Briah took hold of my left. Assiah was massaging my feet, and Atziluth was brushing my hair. It was quite an experience. Cerridwin, Hecaté, Artemis, and Gaia were all talking with each other about plans they have for me in the future and kind of just roaming around my place checking things out. Merlin and Cernunnos also seemed to be involved in discussions with each other. Taleisen had me literally singing a song whilst Ariel and Raphael continued to hover over me working on my health problems. I met Archangel Michael and found out that he and Jesus are indeed twin personas, they are intimately connected. Cosmic consciousness twins you might say. Gabriel patiently stood by my side as did Eros and Psyche. Eros and Psyche are still madly in love and won’t hesitate to become intimately involved in the presence of others. Gabriel spoke to me telepathically, not in words, but in a different kind of language. She assured me that when I’m ready, she will be there to assist me in my voyage into the realm of Netzach.

It was quite an experience. I really enjoyed it. I finally thanked them all for the visit and closed the portals behind them as they exited the psychic vision. The beautiful thing about this model is that I can get to know them here. They all came to me, in the comfort of my own space. Of course, there will be times when I will journey into other lands with them. But this is just the initial ‘test run’. The launch pad is ready, and now the countdown begins. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,…..

Congratulations!

I have you to thank for my journey thus far.

It's been a great journey. And it's getting better all the time.

OK, what about someone who was a Bodhisattva in their previous lifetime, and just needed to get to Kether (which is really back in Malkuth) in order to reintegrate their own personal anger/rage into their being, having imprisoned it out of fear for their whole current incarnation?

Ok, I'm by far no expert, especially in this particular area. I've been reading a very limited number of books and only focusing on what truly calls to me in my own particular situation. However, I do have some knowledge of what you speak and I'd be more than happy to share this with you.

To begin with, what you are describing sounds to me like you need to do some Shadow Work. This is actually the main topic of Penczak's third book of his Temple of Witchcraft Series, "The Shamanic Temple of Witchcraft". Although, I read the book in it's entirity I confess that I have not performed all of the rituals, exercises, and shamanic journeys associated with Shadow Work. Whilst this is something all of us can benefit from to one degree or another, I just didn't feel that it was high on the list of my own personal priorities and thus did not become deeply involved with it.

However, the main thrust of Shadow Work is indeed to dig up all these old buried skeletons of anger/rage, etc. and deal with them face-to-face. It is my understanding that the ultimate goal is to confront them, accept them as a very real part of you, but then also transform them via the process of spiritual alchemy into pure white light which you radiate away from you in the form of love.

This is an extremely difficult thing for many people to do. Shadow Work is by far the most difficult of all the spiritual tranformations. In fact, sometimes the anger/rage is so profound that the very idea of transforming it into white light and radiating it away from you in the the form of love is basically unthinkable.

In that case an alternative method of alchemy is offered where you can simply 'dissipate' these emotional vibrations into Mother Earth and allow her to transform them into harmless vibrations as she transforms the Autumn Leaves into new soil.

A new book I just bought called "Introduction to Hermetics", by Franz Bardon also covers this type of spiritual Alchemy. In fact, he demands that the student go through this process before even proceeding with the rest of his lessons. His approach to "Shadow Work" uses soul mirrors. He doesn't even use the term "Shadow Work" at all. He just calls it "Soul Introspection" and also refers to it informally as "Mirror Work".

Bardon's process is quite different from Penczak's. I won't say that it's "better" or "worse", it's just a different approach to achieve the same alchemy transformations.

Bardon's approach, is a bit more straight-forward. He takes more of the attitude of "Just do it, get it over with, and let's move on with the rest of the lessons". Not meant to imply that it will be easy or quick. He even suggests that this process can take some people several months to a year to complete. Just the same, it needs to be gotten "out of the way" as a preliminary step (in Bardon's approach)

Penczak's approach is far more subtle and on-going. Penczak's course on this is designed to take a year-and-a-day. One thing that Penczak does that Bardon doesn't is that Penczak encourges a more leisurely pace. Penczak has you doing a lot of "past life" journeying to discover the roots of your anger/rage. And during that process you'll also notice "Good Things" that are a part of that. At the time you actually lived your past lives you were unable to see the good side of things during your periods of anquish. So these past life journeys are supposed to help you see the cause of your anger and rage in a whole new light.

Part of the result of this is that you may feel anger or rage over unjust witch burnings, for example. In this hypothetical example, you may have been the tortured witch, or you may have been the Christian torturer.

If you were the witch, your anger is aimed at the actions of another. In you past life jouney you are able to see the 'other' far more clearly now. You see them as a person now instead of a tormentor. You see their confusion and sickness and your rage begins to turn to empathy, you begin to feel sorry for them rather than harboring hate toward them.

If you were the torturer, you begin to realize that your rage is not aimed at yourself (as you had first thought), but rather the source of your rage is that you got yourself caught up in a situation that you truly didn't want to be in and your true emotions are sorrow and guilt for what you have allowed yourself to get caught up in. In fact, the reason that you were never able to let go of the "rage" is because it was never rage at all, it was "sorrow and guilt". Once you make this transistional vantage point then it's easy to transform those correct emotions into the light of love and radiate them away. What you thought was anger and rage was actually something entirely different.

Franz Baron approaches the problem somewhat differently in his school of thought with "Mirror Work". There's no need for making 'past life' journey's in Bardon's approach. Instead he has you making a list of all your thoughts. Of course, this includes some fairly rigorous mediation skills. Franz Bardon has you basically empty your mind of all thoughts via Transcendental Meditation similar to what the Eastern Monks do. He has you focusing solely on your daily tasks and NEVER allowing your mind to wander off into daydreams or random thoughts.

Of course, you’re going to find this impossible to do in the early going, and this is where the Mirror Work comes into play. What you do is just try to the very best of your ability to think ONLY of the tasks you are performing and NOTHING else. Let’s say that you’re washing dishes at the kitchen sink. You should feel the dishes in your hands, focus on the task of washing them, and think of NOTHING else. However, thoughts WILL pop into your mind and you will begin to think about them. As SOON as you realize that you are doing this you STOP! You write down the thought that you are having, and categorize it as Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. Bardon explains how to know which type of thought it is.

You keep this log of thoughts and this log of thoughts becomes your Soul Mirror. After a while you will begin to see a pattern emerge in your log. You will be able to see where most of your thoughts are coming from, Earth, Air, Fire, or Water. (Or if you want to put that in terms of Qabalah Consciousnesses on the Astral Plane they would be, respectively, Malkuth, Hodd, Yesod, or Netzach.)

Once you see where your main distractions are coming from you can better deal with that element of consciousness to deal with those thoughts. Bardon also has you working with Astral Mirrors. Physical mirrors that have glossy black reflective surface (not your standard silver mirrors). These are mirrors of the soul, not mirrors of the body. In fact, you peer into them at an angle so as not to inadvertently see a reflection of your physical form. Crystal balls and other media used for psychic projection techniques will also work. But Bardon recommends the black mirrors for soul work.

In any case, that’s just a very brief superficial description of two methods. Obviously in Penczak’s year-and-a-day course book he covers far more than I can convey here. Bardon’s “Introduction to Hermetics” does not dwell on this topic through the entire book. In fact, this is merely “STEP 1” of Bardon’s entire course. But like I say, he says it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to over a year to complete, depending on where the person is at in their Shadow or Mirror work. Some people have a tendency to naturally ‘let go’ or ‘dissipate’ these types of things whilst other people have a tendency to ‘cling to’ or ‘suppress’ these things. So it’s different for everyone.

I’m sure there are many other books out there on these topics. You might want to do a search for “Shadow Work” or “Mirror Work” and see what books that brings up. Then read the reviews of those books. These are just two books that I have read. I personally don’t feel a dire need to do any Shadow Work or Mirror Work right now. So I’m just merrily wandering off to Fairy Land.

You had mentioned “Chapel Perilous”. This term may mean different things to different people. For me, “Chapel Perilous” basically means to lose your way or become confused by ‘evil spirits’ or entities that you have no real intention to interact with. That’s my take on “Chapel Perilous”, (which may be different from how you meant to use the term). So this is why I spoke to the issue of creating a paradigm that you can trust. I also use the LBRP to open the portals of cosmic consciousness. The LBRP will only allow ‘invited’ spirits to enter the circle. So there’s no way that an uninvited spirit can harm or misguide me. Moreover, now that I have Archangel Michael at my tea party, anyone who even attempts a psychic attack on me is going to be in for a big shock. Michael specializes in dealing with those who would attempt a psychic attack on our party. He is like my psychic knight in shinning armor. So “Chapel Perilous” is a place far removed from anything I’m doing at the moment.

Here's a scientific archetypal model for doing Shadow work created by Carl G. Jung a psychiatrist.

http://www.shadowwork.com/model.html

I personally don't care for his model. But I'm sure it can work for many people, the ideas are basically the same. Jung saw the scientific value in the archetypes of the human consciousness and imagination. So he didn't hestiate to use them. His model goes something like this:

Warrior - Earth
Magician - Air
Sovereign - Fire
Lover - Water

Notice that all of these labels represent a form of consciousness (or state of mind), not unlike the Qabalah model of Malkuth, Hodd, Yesod, and Netzach.

He explains in his model what his archetypes mean.

Maybe people (such as the people on the website I linked to above) suggest that Shadow work should always be done within a group or with a mentor, guru, or coach. I personally think they are just trying to get paying clients

Although, I agree that mentors are good. Fortunately for me, I can work with authors of books such as Penczak, Bardon, Kraig, and others. It's totally unimportant to me that they aren't here in person. It's their thoughts that matter and I have their thoughts right in here their books.

But each individual should go with whatever calls to them.

I'd have to agree with that.

You can do shadow work in a number of different ways. Just like any type of magick or journeying or spiritual work. There is no one right way. There will probably be, however, a "best" way for the individual.

I have done mine through simple meditation and visualization. Nothing complicated. And, just a little at a time so I didn't get overwhelmed. It was very freeing and my magick is much more effective since I did it.