"The Citadel is your stronghold. Its structure is complete and feels no lack. It is unassailable when structured in this manner." The Citadel consists in seven white rings radiating away from a white center at top center of the card. We see only a section of each major ring. On each of the white rings there is a small sphere, or circle. Each sphere is a different color, and each contains different figures. The sphere at the bottom is greenish, and contains a closed book. The second circle from the bottom contains the Tai Chi (yin I yang) symbol, within a circle white below, black above. The third circle from the bottom contains a lion with his tail in his mouth, circling a circle with no specified color. Above that is a red circle with Unity figures within, drawn by Cooke as a couple in the Yab/Yum position. Next a blue circle with a serpent standing on his tail, to which the Nameless One draws special attention: "Such a nice serpent! Important! Serpent stands gloriously!" And finally, the white center with blinding radiance from which the seven circles radiate. On our right is a white staff with roots and tiny wings. On our left is an upraised black sword, its point within a jeweled crown. The Citadel is the psychonic (or psychotronic) body. This book is about the powers of the mind. The powers of Superman are all powers of the mind. Flying faster than a speeding bullet, "x-ray" vision, leaping tall buildings in a single bound... such fantasies are all possible, yet are nothing compared to the reality of the 20 or 30 civilizations who regularly visit our planet. I have seen a UFO, yet I know that they are "impossible" by the laws of physics. Rather than conclude that physics is wrong, I conclude that UFOs travel by psychonics. Some of their behaviors resemble things known in psychical research. A few rare individuals like Uri Geller are born with superpowers, though still nothing compared to the ufonauts. The revelation of the Nameless One tells us how we may deliberately acquire super-powers. It is not easy. It requires special circumstances. It is not safe, in that random playing with the underpinnings of the mind can lead to disastrous results. You need a guide, and the Citadel is that guide. You will learn to interpret this card for yourself as your own knowledge of wizard powers develops. The deliberate acquisition of wizard powers proceeds by modifying the functioning of the mental body, also known as the psychonic body or energy body, here known as the Citadel. This is a structure which is invisible to physical instruments, and has no chemical interactions. But it can be seen by HSP, one of the first wizard powers the Nameless One suggests we develop. Higher Sense Perception (a term invented by Shafica Karagulla, one of the principal students of the phenomenon) refers to a kind of non-sensory perception. It is the kind of vision which operates automatically in out-of-body states and after death. A few people have the capacity spontaneously in-the-body, and can see auras, and other vortices and structures in the psychonic body, as well as the inner structures of physical structures. It is like the "x-ray" vision of Superman, but far better. The properties of the Citadel are well known in Taoism, Yoga and Sufism. Western science has only just begun to study it. All the talk in Yoga about Chakras and Nadi are references to the Citadel. Only a fool could imagine this elaborate body of knowledge could have any point of connection with western physiology. It is evident from the Taoist classic THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER that the Chinese also understood the Citadel. Of the seven main spheres of the Citadel, it is the brow sphere which is responsible for HSP "seeing". In the Citadel card, this is the second circle from the top. The blue color indicates renewal. Perhaps HSP seeing is a power all humans once had in-the-body, just as we all have it out-of-the-body. The serpent indicates initiation. Thus, HSP is the beginning, the renewal, the start of all higher powers. The serpent has symbolic roots both in nature and in sexuality. This is the kundalini power which must ascend to the "third eye". But how, precisely, is this to be done? There are now a lot of handbooks on the acquisition of higher powers. But if any of these really worked, I think we would begin to hear of the powers of wizards. The Citadel is not a handbook of explicit instructions of that sort. It shows us the general goal of our alchemy; it shows us some of the general conditions under which such development can take place, and it describes some guides for finding out how to proceed. But it does not contain specific instructions or exercises or anything of that sort. It merely shows us the start of the path, and not everything we must learn along the way. The Citadel card is symbolic, but the structure of chakras is real, and can be seen with a sufficient degree of HSP. The symbols tell us how the functioning of each chakra is to be changed. The first thing that strikes us in looking at the card is the blinding white. The structure of the Citadel is created by the white radiating rings from the top circle. It radiates the circles of the Citadel like a stone dropped in a still pool. The dazzling white light of Self creates and maintains the Citadel, and only those who know their Self can understand, use or change the Citadel. Self-realization is thus a starting point. It is possible to be an illuminati without being a wizard. But no one can be a wizard who is not first of all wholy and Self- realized. That is comforting. The powers of mind are not like those of technology, which any savage may use. The two images on left and right also provide clues to preconditions. On our left as we view it is a black sword, point upright within a jeweled crown. A sword is good for one thing only, and that is war. The powers of the wizard appear only when there is a great need for them, when important things are being endangered by violence and barbarism. The Yaqui brujos only began to develop after the Spanish invasion, for example. The sword is here constrained by the crown, implying that such powers must be used with responsibility. There are so many crowns in the new tarot that it is worth stopping to examine this symbolism. A true crown forms an unbroken circle, like a wedding ring. It is a symbol of the unbroken circle of responsibility and also of the whole of life. A king sends out some positive or negative action, from his left hand or his right. Taking responsibility for it means receiving back the consequences, good or bad, making adjustments and sending the energy flow out again. Accepting the crown is accepting responsibility for your power, unlike the bureaucracies of modern governments, where no one is responsible, and no one takes the blame, or has the power to correct mistakes. Thus, the black sword of violence is constrained by the unbroken circle of responsibility for the whole. The right hand image as we view it is a white staff, of the kind the blind have always carried. And we too are blind, and know not how to proceed in our higher development. The white cane shall guide us, for it is rooted in nature and has wings to fly. This is a most important image. For it tells us, not what to do to become wizards, but how to find out what to do. We shall find out from nature, in one sense or another. We may find out from the psychic "allies" of nature as did Castaneda's teacher Don Juan. That would require making contact with nature, the real nature which is unknown to the Thinker, the nature which is alive and conscious. We would do this anyway on our road to illumination. To make an ally requires something more. We can do something for the spirits of nature (as at Findhorn) and they can do something for us. That is the reciprocal nature of allies. We can be the gardeners for the garden of Eden, and in turn our allies will help us to develop our higher powers. "The Citadel is your stronghold. Its structure is complete and feels no lack. It is unassailable when structured in this manner. When the chakras are functioning as symbolized in the Citadel book, the wizard is safe. He is unassailable and not in danger. The precise meaning of each symbol and its associated colors will make more sense to the wizard as he develops. Not being a wizard, I cannot claim as much certainty on the meanings of each element here as I do in other books. For instance, does the closed book in the base chakra imply celibacy? Or does it mean that in some unspecified way the sexual energies are used to open the third eye? Or does the closed book mean that we are closed off from the kind of psychonic energy source in nature which was apparently exploited by the Atlanteans to rejuvenate their bodies over and over (if Atlantis really existed!)? I do not know. I"m only sure that the process of becoming a true wizard is initiated by opening the third eye, so you can see what you are doing. Let me tell you what I know of the other chakras and of the symbols in them. The throat chakra is traditionally associated with thought and speech. Do not imagine that you think with your brain. A brain has about as much to do with thought as a TV station's control booth has to do with what you see on TV. The control booth is simply a set of switches and knobs for controlling a particular piece of apparatus, and so is the brain. The content of the programming is not created by the control apparatus, nor is consciousness created by the brain. Programming does not disappear if the control booth is knocked off the air by a bolt of lightning. The programs and movies can be shown on other media, and realized in many ways. The TV station is only one way. And likewise with the brain. The Unity figures should be our guide to thought and speech. Instead of thinking ourselves into a corner with "that's impossible!", we should learn to expect a hidden unity in all things, and expect one even when we cannot see it. Below the Unity-in-thought chakra, there is the "heart" chakra, our emotional center. This has nothing to do with the physical pump, also called the heart, which pumps blood. The true heart of mankind is this chest chakra. Emotions and feelings provide the energy for action. They are the prime mover. Here we make the torch our emotional center, our prime mover for action, which means the life and role of the Speaker shall be our principle love and passion as a wizard. The torch not only lights the way, it can be passed along from one runner to another, down the generations, and it can ignite other torches, thus spreading the light. Make this your heart and soul, the spreading of the light, and do not keep your wizard powers hoarded up to yourself. At the navel chakra, the traditional "place-of-power" for wizards and brujos, we find the lion with a tail in his mouth. We are told that he circles the circle. He must therefore be a revolving lion. The lion is leadership. Make the leader of your Citadel the navel chakra. Brujos work from here, Castaneda was told. Let the navel chakra lead the way, rather than the brow or throat chakra. A whirling lion suggests a dynamo, and at the same time also suggests a sleeping lion. This paradoxical image is meaningful, since the prana pump normally works only in sleep, when the breathing is slow and regular. The wizard seeks to learn to activate this prana pump while awake, and learns to use this energy and direct it to various purposes, including the building up of the Citadel. In the lower middle of the abdomen is the chakra which regulates the flow of yin and yang energies through the nadi (the wires) of the psychonic body, which in turn directs the activity and balance of the body. A wizard has the capability of correcting any imbalance instantly, even ones which would prove fatal to anyone else. Finally, we come to the circle of green. Green for green growing things. One meaning of this may be the traditional celibacy of the wizard. The energy normally put to the task of creating new life is used by the Wizard for other purposes, such as HSP seeing. Perhaps this is appropriate, since HSP operates naturally when you are "dead", i.e. out-of-body. Reproduction and some of the other normal desires of "life" may be a closed book for the wizard. |
"Tis the night before revolving centers foregather. Stayed for a season is the influence of silvered Mercury. Revolving centers open avenue of watery flow." This book was delivered about halfway through the sessions, when the grand conjunction of planets was almost at its peak. The words of the Nameless One imply a special quality to such times, times when the waters of the deeps run close to the surface. Perhaps grand revelations from the Nameless One are rare because grand conjunctions in the sign of the coming great age are rare (about once every two thousand years). What was revealed on this night was the Book of the Citadel.