The Emerald Tablet may be the oldest surviving text of Western alchemy. It is claimed as one of the central teachings in esotericism and magic. The exact origins of the Emerald Tablet are unknown, and no original text survives. A popular legend relates how the Tablet was found with the body of the mysterious Hermes Trismegistus, who figures largely in the development of Western magical and esoteric philosophy.
Tacrostica as it has been conceived and passed along is similar to the Emerald Tablet in that it is the symbolic representation of a body of thought. On a practical level, Tacrostica is a set of suggestions for the actions, behavior, ethics, and practice of the energy vampire. This is no rote list of absolutes, of what is accepted and what is forbidden.
Tacrostica is yours to use as you see fit for yourself. You may utilize all, some, or nothing. Its purpose is to provide a point of reference, an origin in this vast universe of energy and potential.
And now, here is Tacrostica as it is. Hopefully it will be useful to you.
Preface
Don't look around you.
Don't ask for directions.
Don't whip out the road map.
Don't move.
Not an inch.
You don't have to.
You're already there.
Welcome Gentle Seeker, curious and courageous vampire exploring your universe for your place and your potential. You may call yourself pranic. You may call yourself psychic. You may even feed upon the living energy found in life blood. In the end, we are all tapping into an energy both within ourselves and greater than ourselves. We are the vampires. Let us have no fear.
Know that there exists a force, an impetus, a universality. For purposes of clarity in expression, let us call it the ylem. It is responsible for all and everything, and that you and everything and everyone around you are its manifestation and its essence. Know that you are loved and you will be guided and rewarded.
You need only have faith that you do indeed have a relationship and an existence in the ylem that is one-on-one. You need no mediator, for the ylem already knows everything about you and accepts and understands you unconditionally. The ylem is you.
Confide in, and seek the counsel of, the ylem. Work acknowledgment of its existence into your life, and you shall find inner joy.
It is most important to keep your conscience at peace in your relationship with the ylem. What needs to be and not be done to obtain and sustain this peace varies as much as each of us is unique. Know that the ylem acknowledges and respects your individuality in your mortal incarnation, and will help you to establish your own moral paradigm. The ylem will let you know when you have gone astray, and will gently guide you back to the path of peace.
In your society there will be many who will not accept this path. That is fine. Remain strong in your knowledge and faith, and allow no one to sway or frighten you. The ylem protects and loves those who attempt to know it. But never enter into debate for the sake of conversion or condemnation of the opposing opinions. You must respect the rights of others to follow their own paths.
Tolerance and acceptance begin from within. To be tolerated, we must learn to be tolerant. As in any group,the vampires cannot fall under generalizations. But it is particularly fruitless to make generalizations in this instance, based on the vampire community's very structure and organization--or lack thereof. This fellowship is composed of individuals, all autonomous. Granted, there are common threads that link us all together.
A mistake is the emphasis on the intolerance that exists outside the group, while in- group conflicts and discrepancies appear to be overlooked. It is foolish to present groups as an unfractured wholes, with everyone practicing in harmony with one another.
Before we can expect to be wholly accepted into our society, we must learn to accept each other, and each other's differences. We are not simply victims of everyone else's ignorance. It is up to us to fight that ignorance, where we can. But it cannot be fought with rage or vitriol. If we truly understand the meaning--that all things are one, that all paths to the divine are valid--we must open our arms, our hearts, and our minds. We must educate ourselves to understand other paths, so that we may gain perception and attempt to understand.
The Seven Rules
- All paths to the universal energy are valid to the people who walk them. Therefore, be forever mindful of others' rights to believe what is proper for them.
- Recognize your duty to care for all of your brothers and sisters.
- Discriminate against no one, not ever, and be tolerant to all.
- Know that the universe is not bipolar. Your choices must be made from options far more complex than good and bad. Choose well.
- Shun pride, ego, conceit, haughtiness, arrogance and immodesty. Do not criticize to soothe your own heart. Always qualify what you say and do.
- Do not act with the intent to do harm.
- Free yourself from want, from money and material needs. Never give these things precedence in your life.
Most systems of thought refer back to some kind of authoritative work or writing. In Tacrostica, that tract is called The Pandect. Here, the essentials of working within Tacrostica and applying its principles are summarized and recorded for the benefit of the curious.
The Pandect is in four parts: the Disclaimer, the Affirmation, the Schema, and Guidelines.
May all your paths bring you great joy and your life great depth.
Disclaimer
- We cannot be named. We are what we are.
- We co-exist with all paths, and exist contrary to none.
- We seek no converts.
- We do not propose that this way is right for everyone. If it is right for you, the way is open for you.
Affirmation
- I am that which I am and no other.
- I recognize my responsibilities to my planet and all of the life and non-life upon its surface.
- No longer shall I tread in the shadows of doubt and fear and oppression, for I know my right to be what I am, and my love and my spirit fill me up and spill over so that I can keep myself a secret no longer.
- I believe I am solid in my relationship with the universe, and I shall let this energy propel me into service and charity for my entire community.
- I will seek to correct misunderstandings with peace and tolerance.
- As I will seek to teach, so will I seek to learn, that I may better understand.
- I will bear in mind:--I will depend on my intuition.--I will be fiercely independent.--I will never be a joiner, because my spirit is far too fiercely independent.--Titles and labels mean nothing.--I understand that the universe is not bipolar and cannot be divided into black and white, good and bad.--I will celebrate when and where I want to.
And that is the Affirmation.
Schema
We are all, every day, surrounded by a universe of mystery.
Naturally, there are some small mysteries that we manage to solve, some subjective truths that we uncover. We create a smaller world for ourselves, full of things we think we understand, and try to block out what we cannot understand. Most of us wake up in the morning, though living by day and sleeping by night might not accommodate our inner selves. As it is difficult to conceive of the world's bounty as possible breakfast options, we reach for the socially approved "breakfast foods". We work for money so that we may buy the things we need to exist, only occasionally wondering why money exists in the first place.
Forcing order out of chaos, however, can only succeed so long and so far before it inevitably fails. As we live, we also know we will eventually die. This inevitability compels us to seek some explanation of what happens after death; hypotheses on the unknown. Our homes get flooded, our towns rocked by earthquakes, our islands pummeled by hurricanes, and we cannot help but acknowledge a power truly beyond our reckoning. We look at the earth and each other, and wonder just how we all got here in the first place, what we're doing here, and how much longer will it all last.
All philosophies are essentially means of "understanding" the great unknown. As it is an unknown, we can never be certain of one philosophy's validity over another. In a way, we are all reaching out to that which is beyond us, in a way that suits us. Tacrostica is no different from other paths in this respect. It is a path by which practitioners attempt to determine their place in the universe.
And so it comes down to this:
There was the one, there is the one, there shall always be the one. Yet the one falls into many forms and divisions.
Know that in the beginning, there was one being, and the one being was everything in the universe. And now, though we think there are many beings in the universe, all of us and everything unique, but still, we are all part of the one.
As humans, it is difficult for us to fully comprehend the one universality. It is, in fact, beyond human comprehension until that time the human spirit is freed from the physical body.
Acknowledge this, and do not claim to be able to conceive the inconceivable. Know that it exists in every one of us, and rejoice and celebrate in knowing of our oneness with it. There is but one universal force, one ylem. Its existence is known, and felt, and revered, and loved. It is called by many names and believed to exist in many forms, and is sometimes objectified or categorized. But it is all one.
Guidelines
It is virtually impossible to lay down any kind of guidelines for a path which divides into as many paths as there are individuals. Ultimately, the best path has but one follower.
You must first know yourself. None can define this, nor can anyone tell you how this must be done.
You must know within yourself.
Also part with the notion that you will be celebrating your path with lots of other like- minded folk. We are individuals. To be among us, you must simply walk among us. Don't join or cleave.
We believe in perspective as everything. There is no ultimate truth, and no concrete good and bad. You must choose wisely.
Magic is instinctive. It must come from within you. You must be able to sense what needs be done at any time, and how to do it. No book ever written can unleash the power of instinct.
Your will has the power to destroy you. Dedicate yourself to the training of your will.
Let all your doing be for the doing's sake. Seeking reward only reaps disappointment.
Revival is useless. Know the past, but live in the present.
Seek to attune yourself with the rhythms of nature, and with the life force of the universe which is everything and us all.
Seek to live in harmony with the natural world and with your fellow beings. Believe that the best followed path is that of the least resistance.
The universal life force can be though of as the divinity. Though it is those entities that we, as human beings, do not perceive to be alive, still it is the life force. There is nothing that is not this life force.
There is but one being in the universe.
Power lies within you, and does not come from symbols or tools. You may need such external cues to evoke that power within yourself. Thus is the journey from outer confidence to inner confidence to be undertaken.
Use what external cues you like, so long as you keep in mind that you do not need them.
Acknowledge the interaction between what appears to us to be this universe and other planes, for all does not exist in a linear fashion.
The universe is constantly changing.
Acts of evocation effect change.
Here ends The Pandect.
Tacrostica promotes the practice of magic and "feeding". However, the type of magic used is not of the high ceremonial nature, nor is it tool-oriented play acting. This magical system is no ornate set of rules and fancy practices. Bear in mind that where we are discussing magic we are also discussing the methods by which energy vampires can tap into the universal living energy. The two overlap and complement each other well.
Magic is the art of affecting change through concentration. It is necessarily a spiritual act which requires evocation, or the tapping of an inner divinity.
Consider the following paradigm:
EVOCATION----------=Reaching Within-------------------=Magic
INVOCATION---------=Reaching Without-----------------=Prayer
That is, for these purposes consider prayer to be the reaching out to a power beyond the self to affect change. In magic, one turns within to contact that power.
There is no secret to the practice of magic. You must simply feel strongly enough about what changes you want to affect or make (from becoming more alluring to your choice of gender to simply giving thanks for an incredible bit of luck) than when you evoke, when you touch the ylem within you, the power of your passion will work for you.
And now, more on evocation.
Evocation is the central concept of this magic. In all reality, there's not much point to magic without it. It is both an easy and difficult concept to get.
For starters, please imagine:
A rain drop falling into a puddle
A stick of wood being consumed by a fire
Several candles melting together into a pool of wax
In each of these instances, an individual object becomes part of a greater whole. Now imagine a film of each of these events. You run the film backwards, so that the individual object emerges from the whole.
This is the basic concept of evocation. You are attempting to reunite your metaphysical self --that part of you beyond the physical self-- with the greater divine being all around you.
As opposed to invocation, which is an appeal to a higher power, evocation summons the divine self from within to join with the greater universal being. Yes, you are divine all of the time. You do not become divine for a few minutes, and then have it disappear until your next evocation. However, we are not always aware of this inherent connection to the extent that evocation can bring us. This awareness-- the euphoria of actualizing our universality, if even for a few moments- -is what evocation is all about.
Evocation is both simple and difficult at the same time. If you are in the proper mindset and you have achieved comfort with the notion, you can perform evocation at any time. All you need is to feel yourself fall away. However, it cannot be done while the mind is laden with mental baggage. If you are preoccupied with being John Smith or Jane Doe, your evocation will not be as successful as if you are able to let go of the shell.
You may require some physical cue to help you in your evocation. Candles, incense, flowers, tea, a favorite tree, a spot by a running stream--your cue can be anything which triggers evocation within you. There are no right or wrong cues.
The final aspect of Tacrostica is meditation. The following are brief phrases and sayings to assist you in your meditation. Some of these are teachings of the Buddha, others are the works of Buddhist monks, and still others are original.
To use these. simply choose one to your liking. Focus on it. Concentrate. As you repeat the words in your mind, develop an image, feel a sensation that you associate. Let your mind become the meditation.
There is no right or wrong way to use these. I cannot tell you what they are supposed to mean.
Discover for yourself.
Earth, air, water, sunWe are all, and all is one
As the leaves of the tree and petals of the flower
I too am one with the divine power
Clothe me in the fabrics that do not exist
I see with my own eyes
But I do not see with them
Be like the ocean that births no waves
Be awake
Let your mind be so full of love that it may pervade the world
Perfume compares not to the fragrance of virtue
If you cannot find a friend, travel alone
Even a good thing isn't as good as nothing
White clouds hold lonely rocks in their embrace
Scoop up water, and the moon is in your hands
The ten directions are without walls
The four quarters are without gates
The flute without holes is the most difficult to blow
Sun and moon cannot illuminate it completely
Heaven and earth cannot cover it entirely
Though we're born of the same lineage we don't die of the same lineage
Last year's poverty was not real poverty
But this years poverty is poverty indeed
The instant you speak about a thought you have missed the point
A Note from Lupia Sappho Wolf
Tacrostica exists independently of any other organization or denominational group.
Members may be active in other groups which are not affiliated with Tacrostica.
Please respect our right to existence, as we respect and defend yours.
Anyone regardless of creed is welcome among the ambiguous membership of Tacrostica.
Wisdom be with you.
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