8 SO/AN FRIES: NIGHTSHADES

“daemon”. Magicians habitually view this second sequence as a “daemonic”

version of the Golden Dawn Tree of Life.

The Uber 231, apparently started life as a text within the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn, as an exercise to develop astral and trance abilities or perhaps in
other more elaborate rites. The nightside aspect requires some care and alertness
in case of accident. The correct attitude is said to be one of self or ego-less
witness. Or maybe it’s just one needs the use of an all-embracing rather than a
limited kind of identity and self-identification?

The plan of our little magical study group was to investigate these symbols at
one stage removed. With this in mind we used the following protocol:

Before each session everyone drew their own version of the sigil in the correct
or appropriate colours. Previous explorers of this material usually end up with
a full set of drawings of the actual entities that are said to lurk in the “tunnels”
rather than “paths” of the nightside tree. For all the above reasons these are
sometimes called the tunnels of Seth. Tunnels are one of those words that
evoke all sorts of subterranean feelings, usually seen in contra-distinction to the
pathways of the dayside tree. Perhaps this distinction is a trick of language, the
origins of the Tree of Life schema with its spheres and paths, is, in my opinion
to be found in Ancient Egyptian books of the afterlife, all of which are full of
caves and tunnels.

The images byJan Fries published in this book also inspired us. We made copies
and in the week before the meeting, coloured them in. OK not the artistic
equivalent of rocket science, but for those of us who lack Jan’s visionary skill it
was a great help. A similar “technique” was used in Paul Foster Case’s Builders
of the Adytum for which one can still purchase a monochrome version of the
Tarot.

Colouring a sketch really makes you focus hard on the image, makes you see
details you’d perhaps skipped over. Working with colour also raises some
surprising problems and issues. The image really does enter your sub-conscious
and can manifest in one’s dreams. For this reason we took some care to note
 JAN fries: NIGHTSHADES Oi

Diagrams from original edition ofLiber 231 reproduced here

Courtesy Ordo Templi Orientis