Silence Is Golden – The space of Silence, and the effect of Words, in Ritual.
Silence is indeed Golden, but just how so?
I want to look at the effect of both silence and the use of words in our ritual.
Silence and well chosen words are powerful instruments within our ritual and in the world in general. Silence is very important within our order, having as we do a sign of silence, and it is important for a very good reason, one that I hope to expand upon in the next few minutes.
In modern society there is so much happening, quicker, faster, and louder that the art of silence is being diminished. We are bombarded with sensations coming at us constantly. TV commercials are so busy trying to sell us this device or that device, that we do not get a chance to ask the question of whether we need that device to begin with. The increase in sensations from without distracts us from the meaningful reflection that we ought to be focusing on within.
We are increasing afraid of the silence.
There is a reason we have two ears and only one mouth – they ought to be used in that ratio.
As students of the mystic path we have all meditated, and from that we all know how hard it is to turn off the internal chatter and simply to be in the moment. It is indeed an art and I believe an art that the originators of the order understood and developed.
Think back for a moment on when you were first initiated into Martinism, sitting in quiet contemplation before being led into the ritual communication of a couple of letters and some points. Recall the impact of every word that was uttered. They are memorable precisely because you were in a state of stillness. The external stimulations were diminished; hence your sense of hearing, and consciousness were heightened to compensate. This then enabled you to be receptive to what was being said and what you felt. Further enabling an altered level of consciousness.
Now think how different that initiation would be with loud noise and other disturbances – it would pale in comparison.
In mystical and occult circles the power of silence, and of words has long been recognized; the following quote is over 100 years old – “It is the fact that Silence is in itself a tremendous aid in the search for Occult (meaning hidden) powers. In darkness and stillness the Archetypal forms are conceived and the forces of nature germinated. If we study the effects of calm concentration we shall find that in silence, thoughts which are above human consciousness clothe themselves with symbolism and present things to our imagination, which cannot be told in words” (Farr)
Silence, Words And Ritual
Just why does the ritual of our order hold such power for the member?
The ritual draws us into the performance of the ritual, the delivery and the words. I also believe that the performance and delivery of the ritual is designed to shift the state of conscience of the listener, or, in fact the deliverer.
Many Mystic rituals have a time where we reflect on the omneity, pious memories, a thought on the memory of departed founders, or a time of taking bread and drinking wine. These occasions are more than social niceties or an empty ritual; they are a very real opportunity for the brethren to enter in to a state of union either with the other brethren or that something bigger. As such they ought to be done in earnest and in silence!
And for once I have found the work of Robert Lomas to be of great assistance here. He has investigated and found that ritual, as well as other aids such as mind altering drugs, the whirling dance of the Sufi’s, trance music, sense deprivation, etc can actually change the doors of our perception. The mind does this in two distinct ways – one chemical and one electrical…
Chemical – the movie ‘What the Bleep Do We Know’ showed the way our cells work in a chemical way – especially as regards peptides, the way information is transferred, and the way we can easily become addicted to all manner of emotions, such as self pity, anger, etc as well as substances. It is these same substances that also allow us to feel ‘at one with God’, a religious or spiritual experience or gnosis.
Electrical – the nervous system is one big electrical system and it is the electrical impulse that pass through the system that cause the body to function, e.g. pick up that cup; it is also this system that passes through electrical information and ideas and allows the impulses of stimulation and relaxation and through these avenues such as the stimulation of a Sufi’s dance or the relaxation of a monks meditation that one can enter into a oneness with ones God.
Opposite methods and roads but the same destination.
Is it this form of either chemical or electrical stimulation that is triggered by the ritual of our order? – The ultimate object being the destruction of the ego, and the illusion of individuality, and the reintegration to a oneness overcoming the fall of man?.
Without meaningful silence and powerful words these would be empty ceremony and fluff; done in earnest silence they are powerful tools indeed.
Spirituality
The rituals our order constitute a part of the journey from the West to the East or, since the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the mystical journey from the darkness to the light.
The light being gnosis of the Omneity, the light of knowledge or the light of enlightenment.
Martinism does not weigh itself down with dogma, merely presenting ideas for the contemplation of its members. It is not religious but is intently spiritual. There being a gulf of difference between the two; someone once said religion is for those that believe in hell, spirituality is for those that have been there.
At the time of the gestation and development of what was to become Martinism there was a very different view on what was real and what wasn’t; although it seems foreign to our ears people did not differentiate between the world of the living and of the dead, it was believed that if called upon the dead could assume a living form. The increasing humanism from the 1800s onwards has resulted in us being a far more literal species in our beliefs. In the time of the formation it was believed that if they called upon an Angel, or consecrated a temple then that Angel literally lived in that temple. This is similar to the Shekinah living in the Ark of the Covenant in King Solomon’s Temple. As such the prayers offered up were real; the calling of God to be present therein was to some extent literal and was believed as such. The power of words offered up in prayer was understood in a very real and literal sense that we find hard to comprehend today. The ultimate aim of Martinism then, and I believe to a very real extent now, was to make the Martinist lodge or oratory a literal bridge between the everyday world and the Omneity, between the secular and the divine, the mundane and the sacred; a bridge to called upon with words of power and crossed in a state of silence.
To me, Martinism is a process, or way, of how to meet your God, not what God you should be meeting. In this manner it does not succumb to religious bigotry, and neatly avoids the religious conflicts, which are more about power bases than religion, that beset organized religions.
By leaving a Martinist free to follow his own concept of what constitutes God, the organization does not impede the student with doctrine, but, rather, encourages her in her pursuit. The ultimate destination of which is union with his God.
That union that is not often obtained, but has occurred time and time again throughout history by a number of religious mystics, often fleetingly, but of such intensity that they spend the rest of their lives irreversibly dedicated to either reliving that experience or proving themselves worthy of that honour.
This journey is aided by Silence, and the power of words.
Initiation
this leads me on to what is for me the main aim of Martinism, which is a true initiation. This doesn’t happen often these days in our secular world; it is a special occasion that is uniquely personal, and may be a genuine spiritual awakening. This is largely missing in the age of reason and consumerism, where words such as faith and spirituality, are greatly devalued.
The formal opening (and closing) of the lodge, or the oratory, is designed to set the cares of the everyday world aside and in a way to alter the students state of consciousness, to make him more receptive to what is about to occur. And that which is to follow is an initiation…
The level of initiation is personal to each member. The candidate is both an observer and a participant in the ritual which is to follow. The primary aim of the ritual is to alter the state of consciousness of the candidate, those delivering charges, and those observing. Depending on the student concerned that initiation, or transformation varies. It is all about connecting with that something larger than the self. And that ‘something larger’ can vary from the lodge itself, the fraternity of Martinism as a whole, such as we are doing today, his community, for us following the mystical stream or path the ultimate aim is an epiphany or meeting with ones maker (it is no coincidence that the word atonement, when broken down becomes ‘at one ment’).
Again, this initiation is far the more powerful if done in silence and with words of power.
Words
Words undoubtedly can have a powerful effect.
We will all remember such play time magical words such as Abracadabra, or Open Sesame – are these merely play time fun or a reference back to a time when words of power were acknowledged as such.
On a mundane level we are told that ‘stocks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’, whereas the truth is somewhat different. I am reminded of a plank of wood into which a dozen nails are nailed, they can then be removed but the wound still remains; you can take back words spoken in anger, but the wound will still remain.
Words are not to be given or taken lightly. Why? Because
- Words trigger emotions and ideas that cannot be taken back once initiated.
- Words reflect our psychic and our psychological state.
- Words, after sex, are our most powerful means of creation
This is further borne out by the search for the mystical ‘lost word’; You may recall that it was the custom in King Solomon’s Temple for the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies once a year and to speak the Lords name. The Lords name being the correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, or the four Hebrew letters Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh; Hebrew having no vowels the correct pronunciation is unknown to us and we refer to the name as Jehovah, Yahweh or other interpretations. This then may be the aim of the mystical path – to discover the correct pronunciation of the Lord’s name? Food for thought when we bear in mind that within our order the Tetragrammaton is added to by adding the letter shin in order to discover the mystical name Ieschouah.
While on the subject of ‘the Lords Name’ it is of interest to note that in the Old Testament the Omneity is referred to as God, however there are at least dozen different names for God, from El Shaddi to Elohim, Adonai to Yahweh; it is only in the translation into English that we lose these different aspects of the Omneity – aspects that we strike in the various spheres, or sepirah on the tree of life.
Also in the Old Testament Adam named the animals, perhaps by naming them he called them into being? Further on Moses called forth water from the rocks, again; perhaps this was a literal calling forth by the use of the voice? It is held that Moses also parted the Red Sea by pronouncing the 72 names of God (the 72 names being derived by using variations of the first 16 letters in Exodus).
In the New Testament, at John 1.1 we get ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’. This is a powerful example of the reverence in which the ‘Word’ was held. Elsewhere in the New Testament we have many miracles and healing performed by Jesus ‘In the name of the Holy Spirit’ – was it Jesus’ pronunciation of the ‘Word of the Name of the Holy Spirit’ that enabled the miracles recorded?
Science and Reason
All this may sound airy fairy and new age rubbish, and if you think and say it is so, then so it will be!
However it is not all as unscientific as it sounds – If we take the scientific avenue we may be very surprised at the power of the word. For example, if you pluck a violin string nearby a plate of glass upon which you have layered sand you will find an intricate geometric pattern results.
Another example is the note ‘G’ exists at 384 vibrations per second. With each increase in octaves it doubles in the number of vibrations. To humans after 6 or 7 increases in vibration, or octaves, it is no longer audible to the human ear. As you increase the vibrations the note ‘G’ can disrupt radio and television waves, and going higher it will produce heat. At 42 times it will produce a red light. The note ‘C’ at a high enough vibration will produce hydrogen, and the note ‘A’ will produce oxygen; working in harmony they will produce water.
It has been recorded that a military band were playing within a ruined castle, which in itself was nothing unusual however the dominant note they were playing happened to be the dominant note of the ruin and what was left of the ruin collapsed. Bearing this in mind the Old Testament story of the fall of the walls of Jericho takes on a far different light.
The words within our ritual are a positive influence upon our members and our community. This is true both at a mundane, everyday level and also at a deep spiritual level. They are a big part of what makes us better people and more able to follow our path.
All too often in everyday life the power of silence is replaced by the hum of the murmur and white noise of doing – we become human doings, instead of human beings…
It has been found that a half tone below what we know as concert pitch is a pitch known as primitive pitch and it is this pitch at which Buddhist monks chant; if they chanted at concert pitch, in their normal singing voice the chant would be ineffectual; the same holds for Gregorian chants. It is a combination of the rhythm and pitch, with a change in key, that holds the attention of the conscious being, whereas the subconscious is attracted to reiteration and pitch. This is why mediation music is often pitched lower than more mainstream music.
To become effectual in your delivery of words of power it is useful to lower the pitch, and to hold in your mind what that word represents to you. Witness this in the delivery of words in our ritual those that hold power are those that resonate within us, for these very reasons.
Remember back to when you were initiated and recall the power of that time, whether it be when you were contemplating the mirrored reflection, the smell of the incense, the feel of the floor underfoot, when you were asked for your words of thought, when you became a part of the chain; recall how accentuated the feelings that were stirred within you. That same feeling ought to permeate throughout all our ceremonies. Then we will be performing true initiations and real workings, workings in the transformative sense or in the alchemical sense, each of us becoming a philosopher’s stone.
At the next Martinist working you are a part of or witness reflect on both the words of power and on the spaces within and between the words, see if you can feel the power of the words and of the silence, or whether your mind is drawn into a side thought about something that happened earlier in the day. ..
Conclusion
in Summary, as speech is the spoken expression of our inner convictions and attitudes towards life, pause and ask your self – are your words beautiful and in harmony, or judgmental and divisive? The answer will reveal a great deal about yourself and your journey…
I now ask you to reflect on what I have said, reflect on your own journey, and to do so in silence for a short while…
…thank you
I now ask what are your views on the silence and use of words.
Bibliography
Flying Roll No. XIII, Secrecy and Hermetic Law, Florence Farr, 1890s
Freemasonry – Rituals, Symbols and History of the Secret Society, Mark Stavish, Llewellyn, 2007
Magic & the Magician, WE Butler, The Aquarian Press, 1991