The following is a compilation of my scattered reflections and thoughts concerning the chief magical legacy of the late Ebony Anpu: his personal system of Magick, which he called Hawk and Jackal. I should note at the get-go that I claim no special authority to speak for this system as a whole. Nevertheless, my intense experiences with the tradition and its founder lead me to desire to share my views and discoveries with others. Hawk and Jackal is a synthetic structure, consisting of a number of distinct yet interlocking components. It includes: 1) A complete theurgic structure of elemental, planetary, and astral Magick. 2) A moon coven system, drawing from the Egyptian, Thelemic and Witchcraft traditions. 3) A body of received texts known as the Dialogs. 4) Multidimensional Magick, e.g. the Tesseract working. These teachings were transmitted by Ebony both orally, as well as through his writings, which were gathered together into a quite substantive volume entitled The Books of the Hawk and Jackal. It is my hope that the future may see this book more widely available. The full text of this work is present at another location on this site.
Hawk and Jackal is a Tradition. That is to say it is not essentially an organization or formal initiating lineage, though lineages and groups are not excluded from existing to practice the tradition. Ebony always insisted that individuals were ultimately 'in' H&J if they saw themselves as being so, regardless of if he ever even knew about it. In particular, I do not consider H&J to be in conflict or competition with OTO. Indeed, as a system it has largely developed within OTO contexts. Provided individuals remain mature and intelligent about their actions, I do not consider there to be a problem with the promotion of Ebony's ideas and rituals within the OTO community.
The long road of Ebony's life began in Texas. Born Charles Lee Reese into a hereditary goddess worshipping family in 1950, Ebony was early on exposed to religious alternatives from the Judeo-Christian mainstream. He said that he had seen his mother call animals out of the forest and knock pictures off the walls.
At the age of 18, Ebony was forced to leave Texas due to legal difficulties. At this point one begins to run into the problem which faces any attempt at biography of Ebony Anpu: his extreme penchant for tall tales concerning his own life. His flight from Texas was one of his favorites, and I admit to being unable to disentangle the exaggerated variations. (He insisted that, in Texas at the time, bouncing buckshot off the street to hit the radiator and tires of pursuing police cruisers was considered only resisting arrest and not attempted murder, though it did not prevent the police from returning fire.) Nevertheless, I will try my best, with the understanding that my brief presentation of his life here can only be a preliminary to a more serious study. Ebony was fond of mythologising his own life, but I do not wish to give the impression that all he said about himself was untrue. He was an extraordinary man, and extraordinary things happened to him.
His car having given out either in New Mexico or Arizona, Ebony ditched it and somehow found his way out of the desert and to the San Francisco Bay Area. It was 1968, and Ebony discovered himself at the epicenter of the counterculture revolution. Unable to get regular work until the statute of limitations ran out (or so he bragged decades later), he spent several years working a variety of jobs, including at one early point a stint as a prostitute. Eventually, he succeeded in getting on a government assistance program and received disability money due to his lifelong struggle with extreme asthma. This freed him for a number of years to devote his full time and energies to religious pursuits. The end of the sixties and the early 70's are an obscure and dark period of Ebony's life. He was a Satanist during some of this time, believing that a small Elect of aware individuals were fit to rule the mundane world. He claimed that from his earliest childhood he had been able to remember his past lives, and in all of his incarnations he had been possessed of power.
I once got him to admit to me that he was the reincarnation of the Pharaoh Seti I, the creator of a particularly beautiful temple complex. I never dared ask him if he thought he had been Crowley, in part because I knew what the answer would have been. I believe from comments he made that Ebony held to a peculiar thesis that Crowley had fragmented his soul, and that all of his future followers are manifestations, in some sense, of the Great Beast.
At some point in the early 70's(?) he received the name he came to use as his own: Ebony. It was given him by a witch during a Wiccan initiation. Ebony had other magical names. He wrote, "Since the year of the Aeon 65 every Magical Name I have taken has had the numeration of 137." (Multidimensional Magick, pg. 8) According to Sepher Sephiroth 137 is the gematria for 'a wheel', 'the belly, gullet', 'an image, a statue', and 'the Qabalah'.
'Anpu', the other component of Ebony's name, is a rendering of the Egyptian designation of the deity called Anubis by the Greeks. He closely identified himself with this godform, as his fragile health led him to a primal understanding of death. There were esoteric levels of meaning as well. He said one evening that The Holy Guardian Angel had appeared to him in the form of Anubis to guide him upon the path of Lamed, in the weighing of his heart in the hall of the double Ma'at. He felt that this was the adjustment and equilibration of Karma necessary to his balancing as a new adept prior to his advancement to Geburah.
A crystallization of Ebony's life purpose occurred when he discovered the writings of Aleister Crowley, and became an intensely dedicated Thelemite. Circa '77-'78 he met the then head of the OTO, Grady McMurtry, and was inexorably drawn into the whirlwind of the Order's modern revival.
When Ebony first met Hymenaeus Alpha, Grady had relocated his base of operations from Dublin to Berkeley. Working out of his own house off the Haight/Ashbury district in SF, Ebony pitched in to help Grady reactivate the OTO.
Ebony was hard at work on his own magical ideas. His most important innovation, the Tesseract spell, was already developed by the late 70's. One of its earliest testings was a working to transport Ebony to an alternate universe where the OTO did not exist in such a depleted form, so that he could be more effectively initiated by it. The spell proved successful in the long run, though perhaps requiring more work on his part then he originally anticipated. When Ebony joined the OTO there were approximately 30 members total. Today, there are over 3000. (The Tesseract will be described more thoroughly in part 5)
One of Ebony's most important contributions to the work of the first Caliph was his publishing house, Stellar Visions. Ebony was an amazingly thorough collector of Crowliana, and possessed of a formidable understanding of the Thelemic corpus. With Stellar Visions, he put that knowledge to use, distributing well edited, affordable editions of Crowley's writings. Many of the works he published were made available again for the first time in decades, sometimes ever.
By 1980, and probably much earlier, Ebony felt he had achieved the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel. In one of his earliest writings that I have in my possession Ebony expresses himself as follows:
"Once Twice On
A dream.
The sky broke asunder
And an Ebony Angel
Stepped out on the Aether...
September 6th 1900 and 50
I was born, I have died since.
The veil parted for an instant
The Ebony Angel laughed;
Touch the world with love,
Touch the sky with lust
Spin the wheel as you will,
I was last and first.
Send I to darkness
Sail the Great Sea.
Remember all ways to be Me
The wheel spinning round me
Much too fast to see,
How can I, how can this be,
Surely 'tis nought but a dream.
Mayhaps may be laughed
He
Touch and see
But you are you and I am me said "I".
There are no opposites!
Only Balances
Opposition is a miscreation of "Man",
And man is balance; the Universe
Touch and see!
Mayhaps may be laughed
I"
In 1982, Ebony collapsed during a severe asthmatic attack and was rushed to the hospital. He barely survived the experience. His hospitalization was announced in that month's installment of the OTO newsletter, the Magical Link. Immediately there was an outpouring of support.
A letter was sent to Grand Lodge from Conquering Child Publishing Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio. These were the producers of the popular Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick, which had published Nema's early writings. Printed in Vol. II #9 of the Link, the letter read in part:
"... Ebony is a good friend and known - if not by face then by story - to the majority of the magicians in the Cincinnati area. We all send our most sincere hope for a quick recovery and hope that he will soon be able to continue his valuable work. Ebony was the person to bring the entire Book of the Law to Cincinnati in the early 70's. Please tell him that our thoughts and love are with him."
I do not know when Ebony first began to see himself as having attained Mastery of the Temple. He seldom mentioned it, save in dramatic moments, but I have been able to infer that it involved a gradual process of precipitation through the Abyss. His hospitalization in '82 was perhaps one peak, the breakup of a 13 year relationship shortly thereafter another. By 1988, I feel reasonably certain, he felt the process to be complete. As a master, he set his task to create his own system of attainment, which would be an expression of his understanding of Magick. Hawk and Jackal was that system.
8=3 is a formidable claim, and raises issues of validation. While ultimately motivated by a deep compassion, Ebony struggled often with emotional difficulties from his harsh and troubled past. In particular, he suffered from a kind of angry paranoia, which at times consumed him. There were times when Ebony was far from the Magistry of the Silver Star, and yet I will be the first to vouch for the sheer illumination he could radiate at times of personal balance.
Can my readers forgive this ultimately idle speculation on the attainment of my old teacher by a mere Man of Earth? He has gone to be with his gods now, and we are left with the Great Work to complete for ourselves. Hawk and Jackal could be a valuable tool to accomplish this, if we have the discipline to adapt it to our needs. It may simply not be important whether or not its creator always made perfect use of it himself. In 1985, Ebony printed The Book of the Jackal. Distributed as a beautiful calligraphic manuscript, this was the first complete, public, written presentation of the Tesseract spell that I have been able to locate among Ebony's papers. Tesseract Magick was to become an important technique of the still underdeveloped H&J system. While this book was clumsily written in many ways, Ebony extensively worked over and amplified the text during the succeeding decade. It is identifiable as the base text out of which Ebony eventually built his magnum opus: The Books of the Hawk and Jackal. Grady McMurtry died in 1986, and, following the election of Hymenaeus Beta as his successor, Thelema Lodge in Berkeley was deactivated as headquarters of OTO, Grand Lodge being moved to New York City. No longer at the center of action for the Order, Ebony found himself with more time to devote to his own work.
He began to develop a moon coven system, constructing an Esbat rite by adapting various spells from The Book of Coming Forth by Day, and drawing upon his knowledge of Thelemic ritual style. The coven system would provide him with a frame within which to further develop the implications of his Tesseract Magick.
One day, shortly after beginning circle work with his new rituals, he sat down at his desk and picked up his writing pad. As the Biblical writers would say, the Spirit came upon him, and he beheld a vision of the Goddess Babalon. She communicated to him. He wrote. This process continued at intervals over the years. The result was what he came to call The Dialogs, the teachings of which form an important part of his system.
In 1988, Ebony wrote a lengthy outline for what appears to be a series of classes. He now had a name for the system he was creating: Hawk and Jackal. The classes may or may not have been given, but the outline was used to fuel a series of short essays, which came to fill in the gaps of his slowly evolving book.
Ebony kept busy through a variety of venues during the 90's. The Dialogs continued to be received. Ebony also often taught classes at the Ancient Ways store in Oakland. Weekly Tesseract ritual circles were frequently held at his house. He also put a great deal of renewed effort into his collected writings, which were acquiring their mature shape.
I finally came into the picture in 1997. I began working closely with Ebony shortly after taking my I* initiation in OTO. I was young, na�ve, and inexperienced. Nevertheless, Ebony took me under his wing and I found myself, by various turns of events, living at his house over the fall of '97 as his magical student.
Since he was so enthusiastic about his Hawk and Jackal system, I decided to give it a shot. I helped put together a moon coven with my friends to work his rituals. That group and I worked under Ebony's leadership as Home Coven of Hawk and Jackal for several months.
Our coven started out with some amazing work and then basically went completely to pieces, in the way that moon circles sometimes do. I don't really see a point in being glamorous or evasive about it. Ebony and I had a fight, I moved out, and didn't really speak to him much for over a year. I ran into him again at the Electoral College reception in Mill Valley on May 1st, 1999. He was extremely ill, but still enthusiastic about his ideas. We exchanged pleasantries and parted. A week later I was informed of his death.
Ebony was the most intense and magical person I have ever met. I have also seldom encountered someone who suffered more from life. Ebony's true genius was perhaps his ability to make his pain an expression of his enlightenment, of his devotion to Babalon. I learned more about real Magick from a single successful ritual of his then from a year of book study. He helped me to breakthrough my limitations at a crucial stage of my career, and for that I will be eternally grateful to him. He was my teacher and my friend, whom I loved dearly. These articles are my tribute to his Understanding.
This concludes my account of Ebony's life, and a reconstructed sequence of the evolution of his thought. In the next few sections, I will attempt to present my limited understanding of the various aspects of his magical system.
I will now attempt to describe the various elements of Ebony's magical system, as I currently understand them. My discussion will, to the best of my ability, try to accurately represent and interpret what he thought and was doing from '97 to his death in '99. From those few of his notes and journals that I have been able to review for this article series, I know that his conception of this system in, say, 1988 is quite different from what I will be presenting here. People who worked with him in earlier periods will have their own understandings of what Hawk and Jackal is. I think this is great - this article represents a personal interpretation.
As my first topic, I would like to address the overall conception of the stages of the Great Work as understood by the Hawk and Jackal system. To what end are the various magical technologies we will be exploring directed? Enthusiasts of Ebony's work over the years have often been quick to seize on the flashier techniques, such as Tesseract Magick, and use them independently outside of a self-transformational context. I have personally found the Tesseract to ultimately be less then useless unless directed towards the Great Work by some kind of additional framework. The Thelemic 3-grade system provides one such possible framework.
In the Book of the Law it says: "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." (AL I:40)
Within the Thelemic tradition AL I:40 has been interpreted by Crowley and others to refer to 3 'true grades'. (My own term.) That is to say, these designations refer to the three general stages of attainment of the Great Work. Following this interpretation, the three grades are designated as corresponding to the three main subdivisions, or colleges, of the A.'.A.'.
Man of Earth = Ordo G.'.D.'. = Neophyte - Dominus Liminus A.'.A.'.(The OTO also uses these three designations within its three triad system, but in a different manner then in A.'.A.'.. The present discussion is not concerned with this separate structure.)
Lover = Ordo R.'.C.'. = Adeptus Minor - Exempt Adept A.'.A.'.
Hermit = Ordo S.'.S.'. = Magister Templi - Ipsissimus A.'.A.'.
References to these divisions in the following discussion designate the highest sense of the term A.'.A.'.: the true, universal inner order accessible to all human beings by right. The particular outer organization created by Aleister Crowley in 1909 and called A.'.A.'., is an attempt to instantiate this spiritual hierarchy in a transmittable manner. Hawk and Jackal is a distinct and separate attempt to perform the same task, at least in theory.
Having adopted the 3-grade system from the greater Thelemic tradition, Ebony discusses their nature largely within the second part of The Books of the Hawk and Jackal. Let's examine what he has to say. Each of the three true grades possesses its' own archetypal set of symbols. This set illustrates the plane upon which the grade operates. The task of the grade is to obtain an understanding of the set and to place its' components into an appropriate and balanced disposition. 'Equilibrium is the basis of the Work.' (Liber Librae) This equilibration is accomplished by the passage of an ordeal. This passage then actualizes an attainment.
The Man of Earth works upon the terrestrial level, the plane of the 4 elements. These classic 4 categories symbolize many things, but they especially connotate the basic components of the psyche. Fire is will, water intuition and emotion, air reason and intellect, earth the physical body and its sensations. Often opposed and at odds with each other in the psyche, they are complementary when in equilibrium. The task of the Man of Earth, therefore, is symbolized by situating oneself at the center of the cross of the elements, at the point of balance. From this still point at the midst of the whirling elements, communion is possible with that which has set them in motion. The ordeal is the inertia of the elements, their resistance to realignment. In a certain sense their balance is impossible without the intercession of a transcendent factor: the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
Knowledge and Conversation provides the radical breakthrough, a direct communication with the divine, which defines an adept within the Thelemic tradition. This is the grade of the Lover. Having discovered one's True Will, the work is now to do that True Will, and nothing else. The lover works upon the Macrocosmic, or planetary plane. The Man of Earth equilibrated the components of the 'little world' or microcosm. Now the Lover's task is to extend that equilibrated microcosm into alignment with the macrocosm. The limited self is emptied into the universal Self, culminating in the so-called ordeal of the Abyss. Passage through the Abyss constitutes attainment of Binah and mastery of the temple of the universe. Concerning the work of the Lovers Ebony declares: "Only when we have accomplished these tasks of the Adept, and can maintain our equilibrium on the Planetary plane, do we dare the Ordeal of the Master. Until the integration of the personality of the Adept occurs upon the Planetary planes, the realization of who one truly is has not occurred. Only when this Great Work of realization, of the unity between the Microcosm within, and the Macrocosm without, has taken place; can we put aside all that we, before, would have called "self", and cross the Abyss." (Books of the H&J, Part 2, pg.36)
The Hermit, or Master, works upon the plane of the Astral. In this context this refers to the plane of the fixed stars. Ebony's conception of Thelemic mastery was essentially identical to the Master Therion's as expressed in One Star in Sight and his other writings. This is the basic structure of the 3 true grades, which Ebony holds in common conception with the greater Thelemic tradition. He also had a number of personal Kabalistic interpretations of them, which we will now explore.
The Book of the Law says, "The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; and he understandeth it not. Let him come through the first ordeal, and it will be to him as silver. Through the second, gold. Through the third, stones of precious water. Through the forth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire." (AL III: 63-67) Ebony maps the stages given in these verses onto the true grades according to the following scheme.
Silver corresponds to the Man of Earth. Silver symbolizes the moon and the initial full/new moon coven work undertaken by the initiate of Hawk and Jackal. The moon refers to the sub-lunary sphere of the Ptolemaic cosmology - the terrestrial realm of the four elements below the planetary spheres - Malkuth and Yesod as Earth and the near astral beneath the higher planetary Sephiroth. This Earth moon pair constitute the elementary plane of the Man of Earth for the Hawk and Jackal system.
Gold is assigned to the Lovers. Gold symbolizes the Sun, which is the central point of the planetary plane. Gold symbolizes the attainment of solar consciousness of the adept.
Stones of Precious Water bridges into the Hermits, but for this four fold model refers specifically to the Masters of the Temple. 'Precious Water' is here read as a reference to the Great Sea in Binah. The Master of the Temple partakes of the stellar consciousness of the plane of the fixed stars.
There is one more stage: that of the Magus, who achieves the ultimate sparks of the intimate fire. At this level, the Magus transcends the zodiac of the solar system and partakes of the mysteries of galactic consciousness. Ebony never achieved the grade of Magus, and so this level remains posited as an ideal for the Hawk and Jackal system. In most regards it is identical to the normative A.'.A.'. conception.
Concerning the Ipsissimus, the Hawk and Jackal system is silent.
With regard to the mysteries of solar, stellar, and galactic consciousness previously alluded to, I should explain that Ebony intended this in a relatively literal sense. He was an adherent of Rupert Sheldrake's morphogenic field theory. This theory holds that consciousness exists as a non-localized electromagnetic field effect. Sheldrake, in a few places - most notably in The Physics of Angels co-written with Mathew Fox - advances the possibility that stars may possess consciousness. This is due to the complex electromagnetic activity in their coronas. It could produce effects like the complex electromagnetic activity of the brain, i.e. consciousness. Or, as Ebony put it to me succinctly, "For me, the Sun is physically God." Under this conception the designation of the third order as the Silver Star is literal. Ebony did not think that the Sun was 'talking to him'. His conception was of a type of consciousness on a vastly higher octave of being that could nevertheless be brushed against by a human as a type of transcendent communion.
The idea of the morphogenic field is not an essential component of Ebony's system. Nevertheless, it was a personal belief of Ebony's that the universe itself was some kind of morphogenic field, that the universe was conscious. He was in many ways a classical Pantheist. Divinity was totally immanent for him, and he experienced it about himself constantly.
In another original kabalistic interpretation, Ebony aligns the three true grades with the three 'beams of the temple'. These are the three horizontal paths on the Tree of Life diagram - the paths of Peh, Teth, and Dalet. If the values of these letters are added together they numerate to 93. In The Vision and the Voice, Vision of the 8th Aether, Aiwass declares:
"Therefore did I kindle him that had not understanding, and in the Book of the Law did I write of the secrets of truth that are like a Star and a Snake and a Sword."
Path of Peh (between Netzach and Hod) = Blasted Tower / Mars =
Men of Earth = Sword
Path of Teth (between Chesed and Geburah) = Lust / Leo =
Lovers = Serpent
Path of Dalet (between Chokmah and Binah) = Empress / Venus =
Hermits = Star
As Ebony writes in The Books of the Hawk and Jackal Part 2 pg. 59, "The Men of Earth are the Army of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, even the woman is girt with a sword. The Lovers wear the Lion Serpent of Lust, Babalon and the Beast conjoined. The Hermit wears the Star of Nuit. (cf. CCXX I:60)"
And again in Part 2 pg. 60, "The Mystic - the Hermit gives of his life to the world and has true affinity to Dallet in a certain secret way. The Magicians - the Lovers follow the example of the Beast and Babalon. The Men of Earth worship at the Blasted House of God. They give devotion to Ra-Hoor-Khuit."
The symbolism of Peh and Teth is relatively straightforward regarding their grade correspondences. Dalet is less so. Why does Ebony see this path as symbolizing Thelemic mastership? A further passage from the Vision of the Eighth Aether makes this assignment clear.
Aiwass declares: "... I am the influence of the Concealed One, and the wheel that hath eight and seventy parts, yet in all is equivalent to the Gate that is the name of my Lord when it is spelt fully. And that gate is the Path that joineth the Wisdom with the Understanding. Thus hast thou erred indeed, perceiving me in the path that leadeth from the Crown unto the Beauty. For that path bridgeth the abyss, and I am of the supernals."
Here a distinction is made concerning the relationship of the HGA to the paths of Gimel and Dalet. Dalet is here the path of the HGA par exelance. Gimel, which crosses Dalet on its decent from Kether, communicates the HGA to the consciousness of the adept in Tiphareth. However, the home, so to speak, of the Angel, hidden master and higher self is above the Abyss along the path of Dalet. Therefore, for Ebony, this path directly corresponds to the grade of master or Hermit.
Additionally, each of the three true grades is said by Ebony to possess a 'key'. Mastery of this key unlocks the gnosis that transcends the archetype set of its particular plane, actualizing one's full attainment of that grade and opening the next.
Ebony describes these as follows:
"The Key to the Elements is said to be Spirit, and may be given in hieroglyphics as an Ankh, or a wheel of eight spokes. The plane of the Elements, reception. With the exception of Spirit.
The Key to the Planets is said to be the Star among them, and may be represented as a dot within a circle, or a Circle with eight rays. The plane of the Planets, reflection. With the exception of the Sun.
The Key to the Stars is said to be the Dark Star they circle, and may be represented by a spiral of two arms, or an eight on its side. The plane of the Stars, projection. With the exception of the Black Hole." (Books of the H&J, Part 2, pg. 41)
The black hole refers to Sagittarius A West, the black hole at the center of the galaxy. This symbolizes the consummation of the lifecycle of a star, the epiphany and reabsorbption of stellar consciousness, and the absolute horizon and Limit of possible human attainment in total identification with the ultimate ground of being.
This is the scheme of levels of initiation which the Hawk and Jackal system seeks to actualize. Of the several approaches Ebony developed, the latest version will be the subject of examination in the next section.
Nuit: "The Whore of Babalon, the secret priestess of the seven rayed star, is my priestess. In her honor ye do the Rite of the Seven. She shall introduce the candidate upon mastery. Introduce to her sister, the Queen of heaven, the adept to become master."
-- from the fourth Dialog
We're now going to cover the work involved in progressing an individual through the three true grades described in the previous section. The engine driving these attainments is a particularly exciting kind of planetary Magick which Ebony developed, known as the Grand Rite.
For the Hawk and Jackal system, planetary Magick is used in the form of a spiritual progression or pathworking. Each of the planetary energies is summoned in a specific sequence, which projects the initiate from the Earth (Man of Earth), to the Sun, then through the Solar System (Lovers) out to the fixed stars and galactic space (Hermits). This sequence is sometimes called the 'Grand Rite' of Hawk and Jackal. Pathworkings of this kind are very old in style, recalling the ancient Gnostic cults. These groups attempted to ascend their souls, either during or after their physical lives, upwards through the planetary spheres of the Ptolemaic cosmology to effect a return to the seat of the godhead or pleroma beyond the sphere of the fixed stars. Ebony's system is similar, but its cosmology has been updated to a Copernican model. Covens should not be afraid to modify the system. There is a good passage in the 7th Dialog where Ebony converses with Nuit:
Nuit: "OK. Listen. All you have to do is get a system together, don't worry if it is not of universal use to those about you."
Ebony: "That's what I'm trying to do! I do know that I want it to be as good as I can make it, so I'm trying to get you to help lay down a skeleton for it."
Nuit: "OK, but that is (beyond a certain point) the human side of the equation, so it is subject to change."
As previously discussed the Man of Earth works upon the terrestrial plane. As the Goddess is manifest in both the Earth and the Moon, H & J sees Man of Earth work as involving aspects of the Moon, specifically the Full Moon. The new initiate is therefore expected to complete a year of Full Moon coven work.
Following this comes the New Moon work. The New Moon is conjunct the Sun, and so this is considered a bridge of sorts towards it. Also since "he is ever a sun, and she a moon" (AL I:16), their conjunction is a symbol of the Lovers. Therefore a Lovers initiation is given to individuals about to begin new moon ritual work.
There is a crucial distinction to make here. This initiation to the Lovers is outer, not inner. The ritual initiation is taken by those who desire to formalize their work towards Knowledge and Conversation, but individuals who hold the formal (as opposed to actual) grade of Lovers in Hawk and Jackal are not yet necessarily adepts in an A.'.A.'. sense. Hence the Lovers ritual initiation is an initiation, or beginning, not a recognition of actual attainment. While there are plenty of means for achieving the actual grade of Lover in H & J, there is no current mechanism for a formal recognition of such within the system. Remember, H & J is essentially an anarchist system, worked by individuals or small autonomous groups. There is no fixed organizational hierarchy to confer legitimacy on people by telling them that they are now adepts (even if they are). This is the tradeoff for having a free system: people work on their own.
With regard to the ritual initiations just mentioned, there were two scripts written by Ebony for this purpose. One for Man of Earth, to introduce Full Moon coven work, and one for the formal advancement to Lovers, prior to New Moon work. These rituals are completely open to use. One does not have to have previously received them to confer them. The third Hermits initiation ritual is incomplete and prefaced with a warning that reads:
"3rd initiation - Incomplete!
Included as a goal.
DO NOT ATTEMPT"
The newly initiated lover now completes a year of New Moon coven work. Then comes the celebration of the interaction of the Earth and the Sun - the Sabbats. These are the Equinoxes, Solstices and cross-quarters. I think that the Sabbats might also be celebrated for a year before moving on. I'm not sure. In any case, the next phase after the Sabbats is the Grand Rite of planetary Magick.
Ebony never succeeded in working any of his own covens past new moon work, and group planetary Magick has not yet, to my knowledge, been directly attempted in Hawk and Jackal. Much of the work is therefore still in an outline stage, though the basic sequence of the working and the principles driving the progression are all in place. A group trying to perform this Magick may therefore encounter any number of situations and issues which have not been addressed by the system's original conception. It will be necessary for individual covens, fortified and disciplined by their two years of full and new moon coven work to encounter and resolve in practice any problem areas that arise.
Needless to say, planetary Magick is entirely adaptable to individual activity as well. Ebony intended it to be done together as a group. However, many moon covens do not have the kind of stability or regularity of membership to make this easy. As a purely personal opinion, I think that a great idea might be continuing group work up to the Sabbats as a foundation, with individuals, couples, or smaller groups ready for planetary Magick working it themselves, but coming together with the larger group for Moon and Sabbat rituals. The precise sequence of planetary Magick to accomplish this operation is given in a paper entitled 'Outline of the Processes Used in the Home Coven of Hawk and Jackal.' The progression reads:
Stones of Precious Water
Sun conjunct each planet in turn
Mercury conjunct each in turn
Venus conjunct each in turn
Earth/Moon conjunct each
Mars conjunct each
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Pluto
Neptune
One interpretation of this list gives the following 40 workings.
1. Sun conjunct moon (new moon)
2. Sun conjunct Venus
3. Sun conjunct Mercury
4. Sun conjunct Mars
5. Sun conjunct Jupiter
6. Sun conjunct Saturn
7. Sun conjunct Uranus
8. Sun conjunct Pluto
9. Sun conjunct Neptune
10. Mercury conjunct Venus
11. Mercury conjunct Moon
12. Mercury conjunct Mars
13. Mercury conjunct Jupiter
14. Mercury conjunct Saturn
15. Mercury conjunct Uranus
16. Mercury conjunct Pluto
17. Mercury conjunct Neptune
18. Venus conjunct Moon
19. Venus conjunct Mars
20. Venus conjunct Jupiter
21. Venus conjunct Saturn
22. Venus conjunct Uranus
23. Venus conjunct Pluto
24. Venus conjunct Neptune
25. Moon conjunct Mars
26. Moon conjunct Jupiter
27. Moon conjunct Saturn
28. Moon conjunct Uranus
29. Moon conjunct Pluto
30. Moon conjunct Neptune
31. Mars conjunct Jupiter
32. Mars conjunct Saturn
33. Mars conjunct Uranus
34. Mars conjunct Pluto
35. Mars conjunct Neptune
36. Jupiter ritual
37. Saturn ritual
38. Uranus ritual
39. Pluto ritual
40. Neptune ritual
Workings 1-3 provide a pathworking towards the Sun, corresponding to Tiphareth on the Tree of Life. The order of the planets addressed is a bit different then in the A.'.A.'. or G.D. initiation sequence. Commenting on this during a lecture he gave in the fall of 1997, Ebony explained:
"Well, you notice on the Tree of Life you're crawling up to Tiphareth to begin with. There is a trick in Hawk and Jackal that we do differently having to do with whether you go to Netzach or Hod first. If you were doing pathworkings in Hawk and Jackal, you'll realize that Venus is 'twixt you and Mercury. So you go Malkuth, then you go Yesod, then you go Netzach, then you go Hod, then you go Tiphareth. So the paths doing Golden Dawn style pathworkings, where you work the paths that lead into the Sephiroth, you'll note that you wouldn't use the path Peh for Netzach because you're coming up on the East side. So the first one that has 3 paths leading into it would then be Hod, not Netzach - and then to Tiphareth. So other then that in pathworkings, cause one of the things in the Dialogs, the channeled material some of you are familiar with, that it does say is celebrate the planets in true order. So as you approach you go in the order they actually are, not in order of their apparent speed astrologically, which is the order that the Tree of Life is in.
But you don't rearrange anything. You certainly don't invert the paths to the Sephiroth. You don't come up with extra Sephiroth that you stick above the top Sephirah, so you can get even higher than high. ..."
Having reached the Sun following the third working, workings 4-9 involve the equilibration of that solar consciousness. Presumably at some point during this portion of the Grand Rite the magician will perform a ritual to obtain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Perhaps the Abramelin Working or Liber 8. Exactly how the individual initiate succeeds in integrating K&C with this part of the Rite is largely up to them.
Workings #10-39 are the 'ladder of lights' to the stars, designed to allow the new Adept to equilibrate themselves fully with the macrocosm, prior to the ordeal of the Abyss beyond Pluto. Pluto is done prior to Neptune in the order of the workings, only when its orbit swings it closer to the Sun than Neptune.
Instructions, or rather suggestions, for the actual performance of one of these workings is given in a passage of the Dialogs:
"Planet A is Occult B in the sign of C ... The room is set up in the style of the sign C. Ask what would each planet feel while in this symbolic placement of that zodiacal sign. Is it in its ruling sign? Its detriment? Next then consider the nature of the relationship between the planets, do they blend well, compete?
From these components construct a ritual that celebrates in the microcosm what is above in the macrocosm. Discern what power or knowledge is carried by the Rite. Construct a sigil to symbolize and contain the power of the Rite. As part of the rite this sigil will be activated by contact with life. Some such rite as the Star Sapphire, or even the Mass of the Phoenix could be used...
...At the end of the Rite open the Book to the prepared page and place the Rose, or third order hexagram, or whatever Key you choose, under the page and trace the name. The Book of Shadows grows in power as the number of Keys increase. It may be opened to a particular page when it is needed and the power may be called. [By Keys I believe she means the diagrams associated with the working that recalls the Power. -- footnote by Ebony]" (Dialogs, pg. 49-50)
The Books of the Hawk and Jackal contain some additional information on these planetary workings. All workings can be done during a conjunction of 10* or less, rather then just during occultation. The Book of Shadows referred to has a page for each of the 40 workings upon which the sigil of the planetary pair is traced and activated. Like the Abramelin squares, these may be used by the Adept at propitious times. The book should be kept at the covenstead wrapped in a silk cloth, black on one side and white on the other. The temple for the ritual should be set up to the tropical zodiacal with regard to the elemental directions. The sigil should be exposed to the light of the planetary pair in the heavens at the conclusion of the ceremony. Finally, the planets should be represented in the rite by Egyptian deities. Sun = Ra, Mercury = Tahuti, Venus = Hathor, Earth/Moon = Sesheta (Babalon), Mars = Horus, Jupiter = Amoun, Saturn = Set. The Outer planets are represented by the three mother letters: Uranus = Aleph, Neptune = Mem, Pluto = Shin.
If Elemental and moon Magick relates to the Man of Earth, and Planetary Magick corresponds to the Lovers, then Stellar Magick is the Magick of the Hermits. Ebony's technique towards this class of workings involves using the planetary realm as a kind of interface between terrestrial consciousness and the zodiacal pleroma. His mature thought on the subject is expressed in statements he made during a 1997 lecture at Ancient Ways in Oakland. His comments also contain a good resume of his ideas on Planetary Magick as well.
Ebony: "Well, you want to draw down fire from Heaven? Here's how you draw down fire from Heaven. You know you have Chakras, right? They're in the physical body, and they have [a] corresponding element that's in your aura, right? OK. Your aura is affected by the astrological influences about it. Correct? And so this is the connection between the macrocosm, or in other words 'above', and below. So to draw down a planet, you wait till the planet is conjunct the Sun. You get all the energy of the Sun centering that thing. ... Remember, all the planets shine by the light of the Sun. OK. And you draw that down into your aura, and you can manifest it. You can store it in a bottle of colored water if you want, or fluid, or cup, or a sacrament. You can store it in bread or carve it or etch it or mould it in the physical plane. But you note in order to save this power to use it for later you have to use the so called magnetic or feminine components. In other words Earth, physical something, or Water, a liquid something. It's really hard to store things in an air. You can, they don't stay around a long time, but you can store 'em in the air. Fire? Again, ditto. Even less time. But you can try to store it in the fire. But generally the masculine, or dynamic (I should say dynamic rather then masculine) elements, you know, are projective of force. And magnetic elements pull that force into them, and they capacitate that force or store it. So to draw down fire from Heaven you wait 'till the astrological phenomenon are most intense, and in the case of fixed stars you're gonna have to work for the stars of the crown that are mentioned in one of the Aethers of the Vision and the Voice. Those stars are extremely important. Corona Borealis, Aldebaran, the stars in Scorpio, the rest of these, they're mentioned by name in that Aether. You can wait 'till a planet, or the Sun, or the Moon, (the Sun or Moon being bigger, you have more odds) occult one or another of those stars. Meaning cover it up. And then draw that down into the planetary realm from the Astral realm. And then draw that down from the planetary realm into the aura. And then either apply it to some object to store it, or utilize it directly by drawing it down into the Chakras, and then transmuting the force. So it's a matter of timing."
The Stars of the Crown referred to are discussed in the 15th Aether of The Vision and the Voice: "And the tablet blazeth ever brighter till it filleth the whole Aire. And behold! There is one God therein, and the letters of the stars in his crown, Orion, and the Pleiades, and Aldebaran, and Alpha Centauri, and Cor Leonis, and Cor Scorpionis, and Spica, and the pole-star, and Hercules, and Regulus, and Aquila, and the Ram's Eye."
It should be noted that not all of these stars lie in the ecliptic, so some innovation of method from that described above may at times be called for, but no-one who has actually reached this level of work should have any difficulty in this. This completes the general outline of the Hawk and Jackal system. In the next section we'll return to Earth with a discussion of the Moon coven ritual itself.
"The title of the Tarot Atu that relates to the Moon is 'The Priestess of the Silver Star'. And as 'Argentum Astrum' is the Latin for Silver Star, I feel that there is a clear relation between the observance of the lunar rites and that Order."
-- Ebony Anpu (from the Books of the Hawk and Jackal, pg. 6)
This section's topic is the Silver Esbats, or moon coven rituals, of Ebony's system. The Full moon ritual is said to take place in the House of Life, and is under the presidency of the deity Horus. For the Egyptians, Horus represented the 'black earth', or fertile portion of the Nile river valley. He was a god of life. The living king was Horus, as the dead king was Osiris. The New moon ritual, conversely, takes place in the House of Death, and the presiding deity is Anubis, as psychopomp of this realm. The source of the overall system's name, Hawk and Jackal, derives from the alignment of these two deities with the Esbat rites. The two godforms are an expression of the dual manifestations of the Universe, whose synthesis is the subject of the system's work.
During the Full moon rite the energies of the moon's subsequent waning are summoned to reduce the obstacles to one's True Will. Likewise, during the New moon ritual the forces of the waxing moon correspond to the increase in one's ability to do one's True Will.
Hawk and Jackal is intended to operate as both a left and right hand Tantric system, depending on the ritual. The Full moon rite is worked as a right hand Tantric ritual, the New moon as left hand. Therefore, during the Full moon rite intercourse between the Priest and Priestess does not generally occur. Rather the energy raised between them is sublimated and projected to the purposes of the ritual. During the New moon ritual, on the other hand, the participants are intended to have intercourse, while in communion with the godforms that are 'riding' them. The energy is not sublimated, but rather grounded through the human vehicle fully out into the world. The fluids of this union are used to anoint cakes of light - which cakes are then burned as incense during the following Full moon. This ritual gesture works to link the Full and New moon activities together as a cyclical dynamic, rather than as isolated workings.
Both Full and New moon Esbats share a common opening structure preparatory to the rite proper. This opening involves a symbolic rising action which recapitulates the larger initiatory elevation discussed previously on the ladder of initiation of the three Thelemic true grades. That is to say that the opening begins in elementary space, rises to planetary space, and then to Astral or stellar space. First comes a ritual bath for all participants of the working to come. Typically Natron or Hyssop are added to the bath water. The participants now assemble skyclad in the ritual space. An elementary banishing, typically the Star Ruby, is now performed. Then comes an elementary invocation, in this case the Middle Pillar. The middle pillar uses only five of the seven main chakra points, and is therefore considered an elementary, as opposed to a planetary, ritual. The coven's circle is now equilibrated in elemental space.
The ritual space and its participants should now be equilibrated in planetary space. The Star Sapphire can therefore be performed, as invoking a balanced alignment of the planets by the seven-fold name ARARITA. Then comes one of the most important parts of the working, the chakra activation of the priest and priestess. This is also the point where the priest and priestess assume the godforms of the ritual. Generally these are Therion for the priest, and Babalon for the priestess - representing the microcosmic correlates of the macrocosmic Hadit and Nuit, respectively. There is also a more specific manifestation, depending on the Full or New moon. During the Full moon, the godforms are understood as also manifesting Thoth and Sesheta. Khonsu and Quersut are summoned during the New moon. More on these deities in a moment. The Priest activates the chakras of the Priestess first. She lies down and a general massage is given to relax her. Some subtlety is possible at this point. Real, not just symbolic activation of the chakras is possible, and should be striven for as far as is possible. Sometimes there is a tendency to glide through the deity assumption phase as merely symbolic. When one summons deity into oneself, it can be done seriously and with expectation of actual result. It can be surprising what is actually possible. Depending on the skill of the operator the aura should be scanned for blocks in the chakras. Also touch can be used to sense irregularities.
To actually activate the chakras, one should say a short spell while laying on hands. Ebony assigned the following planets, colors and deities to the centers: Sahasara - Stars - Nuit - ultraviolet, Ajna - Saturn - Set - indigo, Vishuddhi - Jupiter - Amon - blue, Anahatta - Venus - Hathor - green, Manipura - Sun - Ra - yellow, Svadisthana - Mercury - Thoth - orange, Muladhara - Mars - Horus - red. The spell involves a sort of story based on the correspondences. Here are some examples from a 1997 recording of a recitation by Ebony:
Muladhara: "Thy Muladhara is under the protection of Horus, the crowned and conquering child - god of this aeon. The bright red flame. The tower. The army of the Men of Earth. The ability to take those things away from oneself that one wishes to banish. The art of war. Thy Muladhara is under the protection of Horus."
Svadisthana: "Thy Svadisthana is under the protection of Tahuti. Tahuti, the moon in its fullness. Tahuti, the magician and the exorcist. Tahuti, utterer of the words of creation from Ra."
Manipura: "Thy Manipura is under the protection of Ra. The center of balance in the body. The center of balance in the solar system. Thy center is the center of the solar system. As above, so below. As it is with the Sun and Ra, so it is with this person. Thou art centered. Thy Manipura is under the protection of Ra."
Anahatta: "Thy Anahatta chakra is under the protection of Hathor, the goddess of love. The goddess of love protects the heart of this individual. Hathor, the cow of heaven, whose pillars are the four directions. Whose legs are the four children of Horus. Hapi, Kebekhsenuf, Imset, and Duamutef. Thy heart is under the protection of Hathor, the house and home of Horus."
Vishuddhi: "Thy Vishuddhi chakra is under the protection of Amon. Amon, the hidden god. Amon, master of Thebes. Amon, to whom the largest religious edifice ever created was dedicated."
Ajna: "Thy Ajna is under the protection of Set, the god who sees in the darkness, the god of the starry realm. May this person see in the darkness as Set sees in the darkness. Token erect of thorny thigh. Thy Ajna is under the protection of Set."
Sahasara: "Thy Sahasara is under the protection of Nuit. The goddess of infinite space and the infinite stars thereof. Mother of all of the deities under heaven."
At the end of the chakra activation the priestess sits up, crosses her arms in the sign of Osiris risen, and says 'there is no part of me that is not of the gods.' She now administers the same activation to the priest. The planetary equilibration of the ritual space is now complete.
The coven's circle is then raised to alignment with stellar or Astral space. In his notes for this portion of the opening sequence, Ebony corresponds time to the Astral pleroma. This is not a casual association between the spiritual absolute and time. There is a persistent association within the western esoteric tradition between spirit in its primal manifestation, and temporality. Time acts as the container, so to speak, of all other phenomenon.
Invocation of the Astral absolute begins with a recitation of the adorations. Ebony's version of the adorations is a local tradition, which differs from other versions. The speaker begins by facing North for Nuit. AL I:14 is recited. The adorant now turns South for Hadit and declares AL II:17. The invoker briefly turns to the West to state AL III:36, then rotates to the East and declares AL III:37-38. The quarter callings of the adorations act to lay the Astral onto the cleared elemental space already opened by the earlier banishings. Or as Ebony once explained, one is dropping the gods of the aeon into one's circle, or raising one's circle into their house.
Finally, the Tesseract is worked to set the temple at the highest level and lay out the mandala of the new universe of actualized True Will that the moon ritual seeks to manifest. The Tesseract completes the opening sequence, and the coven is now ready to begin the moon ritual proper.
As previously noted, the primary godforms assumed by Priest and Priestess during the moon rites of the Hawk and Jackal system are Therion and Babalon, respectively. Parallel to the assumption of these two deities, the Priest and Priestess also simultaneously take on the roles of another secondary set of gods. One way of looking at this dual attribution might be to understand Therion and Babalon as the God and Goddess in their basic Thelemic form, while the secondary set of godforms are emanations, as it were, of those central forms. In this reading, the secondary deities are the outer guise of the underlying manifestation of Therion and Babalon. These secondary deities are Quersut and Khonsu for the New Moon, and Sesheta and Tahuti for the Full Moon. Khonsu is himself a moon God, the son of Amoun and Mut. Together with his parents he forms the main triad venerated at Thebes in the New Kingdom. In Ebony's usage, Khonsu's consort Quersut is a form of Nuit. The Hellenic Greeks equated Thoth or Tahuti with their Hermes or Mercury. Prior to this, however, Tahuti was a lunar deity in his original Egyptian milieu. One of his consorts was named Sesheta, which means 'secret'. The central moon rite itself admits of variation. At the risk of being pedantic, let me again say that there is no one, single necessary ritual format. Intelligent personal innovation is considered normative in this system. There are two very good sample rituals given in Ebony's Books of the Hawk and Jackal, and available online elsewhere at this site. While some of his best work, Ebony's approach in these two texts is much less tightly structured along Qabbalistic lines as some of his other writings. Rather, his approach is largely Egyptian/Thelemic, involving use of quotations from the Book of the Law and other material.
The Full and New Moon rituals are identical in terms of their general structure. There is an organization into nine steps, which in the ritual are called:
1) The Call
2) Ceremony of the Door
3) Purification
4) Sanctification
5) Exorcisms
6) Invocation
7) Priest calls the Sons of Horus
8) Priestess calls the Four Goddesses
9) Call for Blessing
'The Call' is a general invocation of Therion and Babalon, as well as a description of their functions via a recitation of AL I: 15-16. Priest and Priestess alternate speaking each sentence, so that each has an equal part in the ritual.
Next, the Ceremony of the door acts to seal the coven's circle. A door is described by a sort of call and response between the Priest and Priestess. Various parts of the door are equated with different gods. The door is declared open, acting as an entryway to the realm of the gods.
During the Purification, the Priestess mixes together salt and water and sprinkles the coven members while pacing the circle widdershins. The Priest then performs the Sanctification, by walking around the circle deosil, censing the chamber with incense. This completed, the Priest further performs the Exorcisms, which involves again circumambulating the room, now deosil, with the dagger. While doing this the priest recites, "The Knife divides the World of Men from the World of Gods. Be banished in the name of Thelema, all that would oppose our Will." For balance, the Priestess now takes the Cup, circles the room for the forth and final time deosil, and declares, "We invoke Thee, Lady of the Cup. Bring the spirit in our wine. Be invoked in the name of Agape, all those who would compose our Love." This comprises step six above, the Invocation.
Following this is the calling of the Sons of Horus. These are the ape headed Hapi, protector of the heart and lungs, the Hawk headed Kebekhsenuf, guardian of the liver and gall bladder, Human headed Imset, set over the stomach and intestines, and finally Duamutef of the Jackal head, presiding also over the lungs and heart. The Priest calls the four sons to the four quarters.
The Priestess now calls the four Daughters of Nuit. Each of the four is a protector of one of the four sons. Nebt-het guards Hapi. Selket watches over Duamutef. Aset is the protector of Imset. Finally, Neith is the guardian of Duamutef. The four goddesses are set at the quarters with their corresponding son of Horus.
Ebony's inspiration for this interesting and original quarter calling was the tomb of Tutenkamen. In one of the chambers, the Sons of Horus and the Daughters of Nuit are placed on the walls in an analogous fashion to the moon ritual.
The moon rite proper concludes with the Call for Blessing. The various godforms and deities summoned in the ritual are asked to bless and assist the coven. Bread is broken and wine poured, then both passed around the circle. This communion circulates the energy raised by the Priest and Priestess. More food is then brought out, and the coven relaxes and parties till dawn. Typically, Ebony preferred not to do a banishing at the end of the night, instead allowing the gods to depart as they might will, and the astral egregore of the ritual space to dissolve gradually with the morning light.
Ebony called his most important ritual innovation the Tesseract, and was fond of comparing its' working to the Merkabah, or 'Chariot' mysticism of the Judaism of late antiquity. By this I think he meant to equate the visualizations of his Tesseract to the Imaginal construction of the chariot of a god. In the Tesseract's case the chariot is the universe inclusive of Macrocosm and Microcosm, and the charioteer is the Holy Guardian Angel. The chariot in the Tarot corresponds to the letter Cheth, which spelt in full adds to 418- the number of the great work completed. The meditations involved in the Tesseract are therefore the visualization of the creation of the universe. By acting during the ritual as the creating god, the magician attempts to realize her own deific nature. There are 22 steps to the working, each linked to one of the Tarot trumps. The conception is that the trumps in Tarot represent spirit to the four elements of the small cards. By using spirit, spirit sets the rest of the elements in the four worlds in place automatically, as it were. An orator calls out each of the Hebrew letters in turn, while presenting their correspondences as a free form story. These correspondences, forming a full balanced set of 22 are the components of the new universe being built. Simultaneous with the litany of correspondences the participants visualize the geometrical construction of a Tesseract, a four dimensional cube. The Tesseract is built up gradually from a point to a line, to a cube, to the Tesseract itself.
These are the visualizations as the letters are called out by the orator:
1. Aleph - macrocosm, which collapses to ...
2. Beth - a single point
3. Gimel - a second point next to the first
4. Daleth - the line composed of these two points
5. Heh - a second line
6. Vav - a third line
7. Zain - a fourth line
8. Cheth - the square composed of the 4 lines
9. Teth - a second square
10. Yod - a third square
11. Kaph - a fourth square
12. Lamed - a fifth square
13. Mem - a sixth square
14. Nun - the cube composed of the six squares
15. Samekh - a second cube
16. Ayin - a third cube
17. Peh - a fourth cube
18. Tzaddi - a fifth cube
19. Qoph - a sixth cube
20. Resh - a seventh cube
21. Shin - an eighth cube
22. Tav - the Tesseract composed of the eight cubes
Ebony wrote, "As the Tesseract is being performed by the Orator, all present concentrate their mind on the symbols being recited, and the dimensional progression building. When at the last letter Tau is stated at the end, the letter that represents this Tesseract folded, the persons present shift their point of view from the Universe that they were in, to another parallel universe that they have now arrived in. This 'jump' is spoken of repeatedly in the Dialogs." (Multidimensional Magick, pg. 3)
Ebony liked to describe the phenomenon of the 'jump' as a movement into a parallel timestream, but it can also be seen as a re-alignment of the same universe, with all the paradoxes that either description entails. The experience is the same in either case. The limits of the universe seem to collapse into the space of the working. Over several minutes or hours, depending on the strength of the working, one's sense of outside reality begins to re-solidify. Often details of the new universe are discovered to be different from that of the old.
The intention of this magical re-creation of the universe is to so re-align the matrix of one's point of view such that one's true will can be more effectively actualized. Indeed, without this intention the Tesseract can degenerate into the worst kind of vulger magic. Ebony repeatedly warned that one should not consciously attempt to shape or direct the re-alignment of the universe that occurs during the jump, instead allowing the universe to be re-created by one's HGA (automatically as it were) in accordance with one's True Will. Failure to take this seriously can result in the greatest danger to the Tesseract magician. One's karma cannot be circumvented, and will invariably remanifest in the new universe.