Michael W. Ford - Beholders of Night.pdf - Michael W. Ford - UmbraPagan

The Beholders of Night

An exploration of the Shadow Luciferian Path

By Michael W. Ford © October 2002

0) The Luciferian Essence

That the roots of Traditional Witchcraft as they have emerged passes beyond western culture as a

cornerstone of middle-eastern origins, while reemerging in Europe to America as time moved

forward. What should be understood as a universal approach to Witchcraft, shall the answer lie

between the shadow and light, the essence between. The path of the Wise is existent between

what is seen and not seen, the very connection a clue to what the potential of the individual can be.

Luciferian Witchcraft is the very result of sorcery which emerged in ancient cultures and times. The

Luciferic linage is traced back to the Fallen Angels of ancient lore, whom tasted from the shadow

garden and the pleasures of both the spirit and flesh. That the Watchers and fallen ones, led by

Azazel[1] – Lucifer, called later Iblis, understood the immortality of the psyche is between the path

of the not-seen, the shadow and darkness which cultivates the Black Flame itself.

The Witchcraft tradition was explored in essence by the practitioners of Yatuk Dinoih[2], or Persian

Witchcraft of which emerged from the sorcerous shadow-god Ahriman, the darkness which would

create flesh. Ahriman is a pitch-black representative of the hidden and the secret, from which the

profane should not see. Ahriman and its female counterpart, AZ[3], are the early fountainheads of

the Gnosis of the Sabbat or Al-Zabbat, the freedom from the trappings of flesh and the awakening of

the Nightside Consciousness. This is the Primal Gnosis of Sorcery itself, which is the dark well of

the elixir of the Adept, the one who drinks of the dual ecstasies of the Sun and the Moon[4].

The Arcanum of the Luciferian Path is a resounding voice of the King and Queen of Witchblood,

being Samael and Lilith[5]. The key to the gnosis of the fallen angels is within their very essence,

being of the Sun and the Moon. The sorcerer may seek the sexual union of both within his or her

self, allowing the pleasure of the waking and waning Moon to be brought forth through the Sun,

which is the gateway for demons and angels in copulation. If one seeks not the sexual genii, the

antinomianian path is brought forth by a solitary and capable mind, which is beheld by the Sethian

Psyche, or Kingdom of Shadows.

The Luciferian Essence is found within the eyes of Cain, the father of Witchblood, buried deep within

the dark well of the watchers, from which our mind is of the deep. Leviathan the serpent guards this

gateway of the arcana of sleep, from which the twilight brings the Nightside of the Immortal, those

who pass the veil of the Birth Caul of Lilith through the Essence of the Adversary. The Birth Caul

itself is a vampyric reference to folklore of Europe. Called specifically the amniotic membrane, which

is a birth caul which almost guarantees in European Folk Lore that one will return from the dead, is

the mark of the vampyric aspect of Lilith, the death-mask of awakening towards the Nightside.

The Caul itself as described by Adrien Cremene gave the following account, published in Vampires,

Burial and Death by Paul Barber- “Such an infant is born to a woman who has drunk of impure water

mixed with the saliva of a demon, or to a woman who, having gone out in the night, her head bare,

met a demon which gave her a red cap (coiffe) like his own, which cap causes the child to be born

with a caul”.

In an initiatory context which implies the connection of folklore with inspired magical practice, the

Caul introduced in Ritual practice (by a blood coloured cloth, stained with menstrual blood or

otherwise) is the Mark of Lilith and Cain, born unto the night within the mysteries of Vampyrism.

The heart of the arcana is in the brain itself, it is our connection and desire to unite the Hand and

the Eye in the Grimoire of the Fallen, which was long ago scribed in the blood of our spiritual

ancestors, those who walk the Ahrimanic Path long ago, when the deserts whispered the timeless

name of Azazel, called our father and Lilith, the very womb of our birth and initiation.

I) The Left Hand Path

That the Luciferian Tradition is awakening from European Traditional Craft is nothing new, the

emergence of the work in America leads to a Left Hand Path approach to the path of the wise.

Considering much of the Witchcraft tradition is a conglomeration of various magical traditions, the

term Witchcraft is as universal as its language.

In the past, Witchcraft and Wicca was originally intended to be a shadow unto light way of living,

from which the essence of the self is propagated in ones own Will, Desire and Belief. As time

moved forward, a watered down version of the craft from which was passed down from Hermetic

Occultism and other Pagan practices, brought much of the public essence of Witchcraft to be a

watered-down, sometimes spiritually impotent off shoot of Christianity, which seemed to plague

much of all Western culture.

In our primal selves, the forgotten areas deep within the mind, from which Christianity could not

pervert, Leviathan guarded the gateway, and soon Lilith and Samael again emerged from the Light of

Azazel, called Lucifer, the Bringer of Light. That the challenge of the initiate to the Adept is the very

self, that the Dark Wells of the Watchers were guarded by our own demons and angels, and that we

must unite the worlds to create the ecstasy of the self.

The Left Hand Path itself is the path of disunion from the natural order or Objective Universe.

Witches, are considered wise unto their very name, which indicates and objective view of their own

surroundings and life. Life is a great gift, even more so is the gift of freedom. Freedom is the chance

to progress and develop ones own life in accordance to desire. A responsible and free individual

stands at the gateway of possibility, from which limits are only placed by ones mind. To align ones

own self with the natural order is to dissolve the essence, from which the consciousness would be

devoured by the mind numbing devourer called Christianity, or the Right Hand Path. This is the very

silk masked murdered of the self, which would caress us into the arms of the scorpion, which would

destroy all of which we are to sacrifice the mind to the Void of Non-being.

The Left Hand Path is the strengthening of the mind, and the possibility of one becoming as a

separate being, not in order with the natural universe, that he or she is uniquely different. This is the

path of Lucifer and Lilith, those who stand within the dark wells and have illuminated the Black

Flame of self-acknowledgement and the joys of the waking and dreaming worlds.

The Left Hand Path tests the individual, uniting the Demonic with the Angelic, and the balance

between the two. It also frees one of the need for a spiritual father or mother, and to confirm

responsibility and self-reliance by the individual themselves. That this is sometimes a lonely path is

not a misstatement, but rather an angle of beauty of which we may seek comprehension of therein.

What is often misunderstood is the intent of the Left Hand Path. Many view the LHP as one in line

with Christian Satanism or Diabolism, which is an inaccurate view of the path itself. The LHP is the

freedom from such restrictive thoughts as Good or Evil, or the moral right of the day. The individual

must seek to transcend both, and that the image of Evil or Darkness, is the Opposition essence of

our selves, our secret essence or Holy Guardian Angel/Evil Genius of being.

The Black Flame[6] itself is the concept of the Gift of Seth, of Lucifer. The Black Flame is the

awakened consciousness or Psyche of the individual, whom has torn down the Right Hand Path

concept of Trust and Dissolution in a Tyrant Father who demands faith. The Black Flame is the

immortal essence of the self, the True Will as which emerged from the fountains of the wells of

darkness. The Black Flame is the Light which Brings the Watchers close to us, that we may drink

of their cups of ecstasies, the skulls and the secrets they contain therein.

The Black Flame itself is illuminated through the work of the Left Hand Path, through the

development of ones own self-divinity, through our Famulus and Servitors, the Guardians and Angels

of our Temple, the Arcana of Self as revealed in essence. Each individual is a model of Lucifer,

whom is the imagination, or self. That we must shadow forth the Adversary to rebel against the

natural order, to awaken the Black Flame of Self-Knowledge. We are thus Iblis, the Children of the

Fire Djinn whom shall taste from the skulls of the sleeping.

II) The Adversary

“Oh moon nourished haunters of dreams, who have tasted the souls’ blood of life,

From the graves of Corpse-sleep from which ye emerge, from the pools of blood beneath the

fountains of red sea, that emerge from the dreaming sleep of Azrail,

Move now through the manes of the dead, they seek the commune of those in the warm flesh of the

living.

My shadow, as I build, calls forth the famulus whose spirit is the Djinn of the Noon tide sun, the fire

of spirit later withdrawn in midnight honor.

Moon hungering shade of the tomb, I summon thee!

From beneath the city of Chorazin have your rested, yet though I go forth to the city of shadows, I

embrace the darkness within and beyond!” – From NOX UMBRA by Michael Ford

The Essence of Perpetual Revolution, or rebellion from the natural order, is the very concept of the

Opposer. To oppose one must seek to free the self from the limits set within society’s context and

rules. This is not an advocating of crime, but rather to work within still societies rules, mastering it

all along. The True Will is the essence of the Adversary, which seeks to break free from the

accepted order, an often unfertile result of the Dayside World of the Humanistic fellowship, which in

time, leads to a stasis of being. It is in the solitude of the Shadow can then the essence be

revealed, to present the endless possibility of becoming.

The Adversary is called and known by many names and titles. Among them are such as Shaitan,

Iblis, Satan, Lucifer and Set. Such God Forms are masks of the Prince of Darkness who within

ourselves offers freedom and divinity for those willing to strive for it. The Adversary itself is the

gateway from which we discover our own Will, or direction of endless possibility of desire. This is

the very conscious gift of the Artist Austin Osman Spare, whom of Witch Blood, gave us the gift of

self liberation in the form of the grimoire “The Book of Pleasure”. That we may translate the system

of the Hand and the Eye, within our personal universe form this Luciferian Doctrine to our own desire

of becoming, shall be the greatest distinction from the order of the Right Hand Path.

The Adversary exists within the 8 pointed Sabbat Star of Chaos, called often ALGOL. The very

essence of Chaos is disruption and the opening of possibility, that we may destroy that which

hinders ourselves and thus creating a new form of Order. Order exists until the self grows into

stasis, thus Chaos then grows into a positive self-liberation process. The Opposer/Adversary thus

holds the Black Flame of Being within Chaos, that we are both the Red and Black Dragon, the Sun

and the Moon respectively.

Evolution itself is possible when the mind reaches back to the Primal Well of Darkness, which holds

the secrets of our origins and Luciferic Divinity, from then Liberation is an available process of the

Divine Gift.

III) Saturn, The Watchers and Luciferian Spirits

The Saturnian Mysteries[7] is only one avenue of magical exploration which may be explored within

a Sabbatic context, not to, by any means, destroy an ongoing tradition but rather develop it.

Through such excellent magical focuses, from the Fraturnitias Saturni to the work of Stephen Edred

Flowers, which at face point is unrelated, the Sabbatic Gnosis itself is closely related by means of

effective initiatory material. The Luciferian Path itself is reflective of this gnosis, known by the

essence of exploration and self-discovery through the Saturnian Sphere.

The work of Saturn itself is one connected with the Left Hand Path. As the Saturn Sphere is

connected with Demiurge Saturnus, or Satanas, the self is the avenue of which this planetary

influence is found. Saturn, as being held in two Octaves or “rays”, is itself a means of psychic

isolation from which the psyche is refined to a deified level.

The Watchers, or Fallen Angels of Ancient Lore are the guardians of the path of the wise. Such

Angels dwell within the shadow gardens of twilight, of dreams and the nightside of being. We must

listen closely, for their wisdom is that of the gifts of Lucifer and Lilith, that through the Adversary can

such beautiful musick be heard!

The Watchers, as brought forth by Shemyaza/Azazel, is the divine gift brought down from the sky

unto man, whom was a primal sleeper which carried the bestial desires of the planet. The Fallen

Angels thus brought divinity with the Abyssic daemon of self, that we were divine in our Dual

Essence.

It is through the self-alchemical work of Saturn, that one emerges awakened in unity. Saturn is the

Guardian of Death, or Daath or the Guardian of the Threshold[8]. In Saturn there is a Lower and

Higher Octave, which is a passage way of self-exploration and self-perception. In the lower octave is

Satan or Satanus/Saturnus, the Guardian of the depths and the Daemonum of the Earth.

Saturnus is the breaker of cosmic order, the essence of ALGOL or the Adversary, as well as death

and regeneration. The Demiurge Saturnus is related to the number 666, being that of Sorath, or the

Sun. Satanas is this aspect is one form of the Adversary, being rebellion, death and Chaos from

Stasis. The very fire force of the Sun is in the Eye of Satanas/Saturnus, Misrule and self-liberation

through Antinomianian awakening of Saturn.

The Higher octave of Saturn is Lucifer, being Light, Wisdom and illumination. Lucifer/Iblis is the

Imagination thus Azazel, the fallen Djinn of fire. Lucifer represents also rebirth, inner strength,

reason and solitude.

In the unity of Saturn are both the Star of Algol[9] hidden (without the Averse Pentagram) and the

mark of Demiurge Saturnus. It is through Satan/Iblis (fire) that one emerges in Light, thus Lucifer is

the Black Flame in the darkness, the light in the darkness. It was in medieval times that Saturn

itself was the outermost planet, holding the secrets of self – transformation, death and the darkness

of the soul.

The workings of Saturn are focused within darkness, and the possibility therein. The self-alchemical

process of moving through the sphere of Saturn is relative to darkness in that the initiate moves

through the chthonic realms of the Earth (Satanas or Mephistopheles), or the Demonium of the

Earth, from which one then rises through the higher octaves of Saturn (Lucifer). Within a Sabbatic

sense, the Arcanum of Lucifer is presented in the dual essence of self-liberation, isolation and

transformation. Just as Lucifer/Azazel fell from the sphere of light to the darkness of the earth, shall

a new knowledge be gained in the exploration of the chthonic realms of the psyche. From tasting

and knowing the darkness shall the light be controlled and mastered unto the self.

One of the specific focuses of the Sabbatic Path is one rising to acknowledge that the only God is

the self, from which all other God and Goddess find their existence in, it is from the well spring of

the abyss (the subconscious) that we nourish our Great Famulus and Demonium of the Depths. The

individual will then soon realize that there is no God and there is no Devil, yet we as the image of

the Adversary, are both God and the Master of the Devil, the gifts of the fallen angels themselves.

IV) The Dragon and Vampyrism

“I come before you, night born as the Queen of the Dead. Behold unto my death mask, the Temple

of Azothoz as a current of the living flame. I shall bless each one of you with the devil’s sight, the

serpents tongue shall speak of the secret alphabet which ye all shall scribe on the walls of the

Sunless Palace, scribe your name in the black book of the dead, with the witchblood of your veins,

you are all my children, of Lilith-Hecate, your father is Ahriman, Lord of Phantoms and Darkness.

“ – Lilith in NOX UMBRA by Michael Ford

The Dragon itself holds a significant role within the darker and self-liberating aspects of the Sabbatic

Path, being specifically a evocation of latent forms from which we become. Considering the Dragon

itself is a model or form of the Adversary, the symbolism of the Red and Black Dragon are present.

The Red Dragon itself is Shaitan or Samael, the dual aspects of self-liberation and transformation.

As the Red Dragon is a mirror or exteriorized (viewed as a form outside the self) form of the primal

self, the Dragon is also a form of ourselves developed and initiated into the Luciferian Mysteries. The

Dragon itself as the Adversary is viewed in the initiatory context as both Shaitan and Lilith, the

Beholders of Night. The Dragon itself is considered the center point of the Sabbatic Arcanum, the

initiatory path of the serpent, which coils and encircles the spirit or psyche of the individual.

‘Arimanius frowned, the author foul of Evil, how with Shades from his dire mansion, he deformed the

works of Oromazes, turned to noxious heat the solar beam, that foodful earth might parch’ (Yasht

xix.11,12)

The Black Dragon is symbolized as Ahriman, the averse force of darkness and shadow. Ahriman in

Zoroastrian terms is the great force of Evil and Darkness, whom was created divine but chose the

shadow path. In the Ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, Ahriman (called also Arimanius or

Angra Mainya) is one of the earliest forms of the devil itself, the father of those of the shadow, the

demonium of the earth.

In the ancient witchcraft religion (Yatuk), Persian Sorcerers used blood of wolves[10] (who are

sacred to Ahriman) to call upon darkness. Ahriman was probably in this sense, one of the first

Vampyre forms of ancient history. While similar to other fallen angels such as Azazel/Iblis or

Lucifer, there is a strong separation of Ahriman from such fire djinn. The reason for this is that

Ahriman is of death and shade, a black flame of essence hidden by the cloak of darkness.

Iblis/Azazel/Lucifer is an Angel of Light, self-liberation and illumination of knowledge (Gnosis). In

this however, do not dismiss the forces of darkness, they are essential to ones own individual

initiation and growth. It is in the darkness that the roots give the nourishment for the tree to reach for

the Sun.

Ahriman is thus a form of the Vampyre, the shadow which grows in the darkness and solitude of

psychic seclusion, isolation and loneliness. Many forms may be taken by Ahriman, from Toad to

Dragon, Shadow and Wolf. Ahriman is the model for our Nightside Primal Conscious, the kingdom

of the demonium or infernal realm. This is not a moralistic Evil designed to perform harmful deeds

against others, but rather a model of self-initiation from which the essence is awakened or

discovered through the opposite. The offuscation of the self or Lunar Eclipse is the night – calling of

both Ahriman and Az, from which through the Vampyric transformation of self can one reach the

consort of Ahriman, known as AZ.

AZ, the Primal Lilith,

“The reason that they felt ill at ease was that by eating and drinking they laid themselves open to

Az-concupiscence: their bodies were no longer self-sufficient but depended on nourishment from

Michael W. Ford - Beholders of Night.pdf

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