Magical and Mystical Introspection – What is the purpose of this Course?

There have been many questions regarding Andres course Magical and Mystical Introspection and his book Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun (Read about the book here). Is it just introspection? Is it a full path etc. So to clear up any questions Andre has answered some questions we were recently asked in detail for the benefit of anyone seeking a path that is supported by an experienced guide and authentic.

Thank you to those who sent in their questions.

Questions from the Community

Please summarize how Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun compliments students of Initiation into Hermetics.

Andre: The way to understand this book without reading it might be to summarize the method of its conception. You have to assume the greatest mission of Initiation Into Hermetics is the constant ennoblement of the soul. In this aspect, you have to turn all that you will learn in Initiation Into Hermetics towards that end, from the beginning to the end. Additionally, you must think of Initiation Into Hermetics as a dynamic living web, like a tree of life where all spheres feed one another. This means that you must create the paths between the spheres, that is, the exercises that connect all exercises together.

Then, towards the end, it gets weird. You start practicing inside the spheres, and materializing the spheres on the Earthzone, especially the central sphere, the sphere of the Sun.

Whether a student is a very beginner, immediate or advanced, please describe how the Magical and Mystical Introspection course at Perseus Arcane Academy is a value add to their practice. Andre: Initiation Into Hermetics except for the theory section is in the form of a book of precriptions so to speak. The exercises have all the right ingredients and the ways in which to make use of them are prescribed in a very succinct manner. I’ll be covering, from my stance, most or all that is in IIH, but each exercise will hold a universe of possibilities and variations that are to be worked progressively. Imagine, for instance, that each step of IIH has 10 steps just as IIH has ten steps as a whole.

Level one alone is around 40 video-lessons divided in three parts. One section for thought observation and how one can apply thought observation to all aspects of life and of the universe. The second section is about observing and working with feelings. The third part is about observing and working with vital power. The beginner will be in the right place to begin. I use that which exists in our regular life to explain my exercises. There won’t be things that the student will have to search in occult compendiums, all things will have been right in front of the student all along. It’s just that the student will probably be in a position where he hasn’t given it much thought yet, hasn’t noticed it in any deep level of detail. The same applies to the advanced student. Advanced students tend to specialize, and specialization breeds obscuration. They tend to become lost in technical terms and ways of execution that exist only by justifying themselves in isolation and alienation. I try to bring the advanced student back to the only true initiator, life, in all its vibrancy and immediacy.

It does not matter here whether we are talking of basic exercises such as thought observation or more complex exercises. The advanced student who has mastered thought observation ten years ago will likely still discover a whole universe inside it. It is the difference between looking at the view from a window or standing in it exploring.

The course is titled Magical and Mystical Introspection, yet the description seems to hint at in-depth, greater work. Can you give prospective students of this course a sense of what they can expect month to month and year over year, depending on how long they choose to be enrolled? Andre: There is no greater work than introspection. The thing is that people tend to see words as something very limited. Such as, introspection is the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes. Right, but in how many ways can it manifest and how can it shape the world inside and around you? Is there an end to it? I think anything can be expected, month to month, year over year. We are dancing with life directly in its dynamic structure of perception.

The course seems to hint at the immense value of working directly with an experienced practitioner. For initiates who haven’t worked with a teacher before or are currently uncertain about signing up, could you briefly share your extensive teaching experience and ability to work with people wherever they currently are on the path? Andre: Ah, yes, brag a little and all that. I understand how it may be necessary since people are giving me money for the time I spend delivering this product. There isn’t, necessarily, an immense value of working directly with an experienced practitioner, or not in detriment of the immense value of working solo. Truth be told, you cannot do the real work with anyone else, it is all up to you. All I can do is make you think and point things out. That is education, all else is taming. Education and taming have been too often mistaken for one another, thus so many people behave, and rightfully, as frustrated beasts.

I educate in theatre. I educate in shamanism. I educate in hermetics. I educate in creative writing. Whenever I’m educating, I’m always teaching the same thing. You have to become sensible to the parts of you that connect to each other, to the outside and to that which is neither or both. It is sensibility that informs intelligence. At this point, intelligence needs practice and the discipline that will bring about the willpower necessary to practice. Practice makes one swift.

In my Horus Maat Lodge Nexus I like to listen to people. Listening to them more than to their words will tell me what is in need of nurturing. Teaching is still different from educating. Teaching is nurturing. If I have a model for any of the courses mentioned above, it does not really teach anything. They are tools that you can handle to learn by yourself. Luckily enough Magical and Mystical Introspection gives the ingressors (I’d rather call them that than students) the possibility to speak to me and exchange ideas as equals. That is nurturing, that is brotherhood, that is teaching.

Does the course involve referencing & working through parts of Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun over the course of instruction? Andre: For sure. The whole course follows the template of Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun. But if it is as well done as I wish it to be, you won’t notice it unless you seek to notice it. It is something else, another heart beats there, another breath. It isn’t better or worse. Let us say they are two different angels but of the same order.

Can you give a brief description of the materials and/or feedback an initiate will have or work with once they sign up for the course, including what their initial onboarding into the course will be like? Allow me to give you the full structure of level 1.

Lesson 1 – Introduction to this Course

Lesson 2 – Relaxing the Mind

Lesson 3 – Allowing Yourself to Think

Lesson 4 – Integrating Distractions

Lesson 5 – Non Manipulation of Thoughts

Lesson 6 – Asanas during Thought Observation

Lesson 7 – Observing Activities

Lesson 8 – Self Assessment

Lesson 9 – Feeling as Thought

Lesson 10 – The Self as a Thought

Lesson 11 – Time as Thought

Lesson 12 – Observing Thoughts

Lesson 13 – Thought Patterns

Lesson 14 – The Soul Mirror of Thoughts

Lesson 15 – Thoughts and Thoughts Contained

Lesson 16 – Thought Control and Speech Control

Lesson 17 – Speech Via Intention

Lesson 18 – Speech Via Intention 2

Lesson 19 – Allowing Yourself to Feel

Lesson 20 – Non Manipulation of Feeling

Lesson 21 – Color, Sound and feeling

Lesson 22 – Feeling, Origins and Destination 1

Lesson 23 – Feelings, Origins and Destination 2

Lesson 24 – Body, Self and Feelings

Lesson 25 – Asanas, Observation of Feelings

Lesson 26 – Observing Feelings in Activities

Lesson 27 – The Other as an Emotional Construct

Lesson 28 – Places and Objects as Feelings

Lesson 29 – Thought as Generated by Feelings 1

Lesson 30 – Thought as Generated by Feelings 2

Lesson 31 – Time According to Feelings

Lesson 32 – Identifying Distracting Feelings

Lesson 33 – Routine to Process Feelings

Lesson 34 – Identifying the Chi

Lesson 35 – Body Awareness

Lesson 36 – Moving the Chi

Lesson 37 – Feeling the Chi

Lesson 38 – Thinking with Chi

Lesson 39 – Chi Kung Steps 1

Lesson 40 – Chi Kung Steps 2

Regarding feedback, ingressors will have all feedback required.

How many levels are there in the course and what exactly are the levels going to be doing?

Andre: They will likely be 11 levels with several lessons each, but as ingressors pose questions I might add additional material. This will be a combination of Initiation Into Hermetics and Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun but taught on the most intimate manner possible, from the videos to our private or group conversations.

Regarding the videos, I go through the book Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun, contemplate the sections of the chapters and write down several words that relate to these topics. I order these words in levels of apprenticeship and number them into lessons. All I have is a word, then I enter a state of meditation and start recording the videos where I speak of this topic in theory and in practice, keeping myself in a meditative state similar to the akashic trance. I find this makes it quite intimate.

Where can initiates sign up? You can see more information and sign up to the course here.

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