The Way of the Magi with Sam Webster

The Magi have taught spiritual development in the Western tradition since before 500 BCE, usually in the form of initiations and practices. The Way of the Magi offers a series of practices for spiritual advancement by uniting with the Cosmos, the world around us, and connecting with all the forces and beings of the World—first as friends, then as allies, and finally as family. Along the way, we find the path leading back to the Source of Being and learn our parts in the cosmic drama.

Using movement, sound, and sacred symbols, we develop the skills to reach a progressively deeper awareness of the world. Neoplatonic Theurgy provides the cosmology and underlying theory, the Golden Dawn tradition provides the ritual tools, and the Buddhadharma offers a ritualized ethical framework. We move through a cycle of invocations that transform our relationships with the world and each other, awakening, in time, the experience of the unity of all Being.

In each of the four sessions, we will learn one of the foundational methods Magi use to advance in the work: the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, the Middle Pillar, the Elemental Pentagrams, and the Planetary Hexagrams. Along with these, methods from the Buddhadharma are paired to sharpen and enhance the magical practice: Refuge and the Dedication of Merit, Bodhichitta, Dissolving into Shunyata, and the Four Immeasurables. Taken together, these are the core practices of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, used in that order to great effect over many years.

After the four sessions in February, regular Office Hours with a Mage are currently scheduled for the 2nd Tuesdays of the month to continue practice and provide opportunities for learning.

Come join us in February for a high-speed, excellent, and practical journey through the core of the Western Magical Tradition, taught by an authentic adept.
Sam Webster, PhD, M.Div., Mage, hails from the Bay Area and has taught magick publicly since 1984. He graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in 1993. He earned his doctorate at the University of Bristol, UK, in 2015, studying Pagan history under Prof. Ronald Hutton. He is an Adept of the Golden Dawn, a cofounder of the Chthonic-Ouranian Templar order, and an initiate of Wiccan, Druidic, Buddhist, Hindu and Masonic traditions. His work has been published in journals such as Green Egg, Gnosis, and Pangaia, and is the author of the book “Tantric Thelema”. In 2001 he founded the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, and in 2013 founded the Pantheon Foundation. Sam serves the Pagan community as a priest of Hermes.

Host or Publisher The Berkeley Alembic Foundation