Ritual is pattern, and the triangle describes how patterns are made. There is only one drawing board—the Mind of God. Our minds are little roped-off partitions of it. And just as a piece of a hologram contains the complete pattern of the whole, so do our minds contain the entire structure of the Mind of God.

One of the biggest conundrums to ever come down the pike is this question: if a priest, by virtue of the knowledge he or she has of Divine Law, can cause the power of God to manifest according to the pattern set by a ritual, then is the priest more powerful than God? This question could only have been dreamt up by an egotist who had absolutely no understanding of either God or the Priesthood. Asking this question is the same as wondering whether cooking food with fire is an act of magic.

Science is science. It wasn’t until the early 1800’s that we knew of the existence of electromagnetism. When someone saw that a compass needle would deflect from magnetic north if it was brought close to a live electrical wire, two natural forces that had previously been thought to be unrelated were suddenly and irrevocably joined – two sides of the same coin – and the world changed forever. Modern technology became possible at that moment. And though it was a heady time for the scientific community, they knew that they hadn’t invented electromagnetism but had merely discovered it. It had been there all along.

There are two reasons I bring this up. One is to illustrate the power of understanding how nature works, the laws by which it operates and the impersonal nature of those laws—God sends the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. And two, to use this as a segue to the problem we have today, namely the belief that electromagnetism is the only useable kind of energy that we have to work with. (I know there is nuclear energy also, but so far all we use it for is warfare and the generation of electricity.) But there is another kind of energy—the energy of mind. And I don’t mean the power of persuasion; we’re not talking about communication between one person and the mob. We are talking about communicating with……..

And here’s the problem – if I say “the Mind of God” or I say  “the mind of nature,” neither would be entirely correct, because they are commonly regarded as separate things. If I say “the Mind of God,” then we’re back to a power struggle, as though we were trying to usurp God’s power. If I say “the mind of nature,” then we’re talking about spells and incantations—magick. Only a deeply split personality could come up with a scenario like that—God against man, man against God. The only thing that kind of thinking has produced is a corrupt Priesthood making their living by taking protection money from superstitious believers. No, because in the final analysis there is only science. If there is a cause, there will be an effect. And what the priesthood has known for millennia is that mind is cause.

So, why ritual? Why have an altar, why have candles, why have priests? If it’s all happening in the mind, why do we “need” all these external trappings? The truth is…we don’t. But if we didn’t have a physical action, could there be a physical result? Think about it—first we pray, and then we act according to our prayer. The prayer is answered through our action. So whether we dress it up in ecclesiastical garb and do it in a church, or we visualize a desired outcome sitting in a parking lot, either way we are putting forces into action, and those forces will produce a manifestation.

Here’s an analogy: a sentence has two principal elements – a noun (subject) and a verb (action). Once written, the story is complete. It’s a closed circuit, like the circle with a dot in the center. But, add a modifier and the energy inherent in the story can be steered. You’re not changing the elements, but you are directing them. The modifier is the third element. It is what makes it possible to adapt the energy of the narrative ……………………………………………………………….to the outcome we want.

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It is true without untruth, certain and most true, that which is below is like that which is on high, and that which is on high is like that which is below; by these things are made the miracles of one thing. And as all things are, and come from One, by the mediation of One, so all things are born from this unique thing by adaptation. – Hermes

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Whenever we contact the Mind of God, which is to say, whenever we connect with the All, power flows immediately. At that moment, we are the priest at the altar. By setting up a physical  altar and sanctuary in such a way that it symbolizes the spiritual universe, and by physically and by convention separate it from the world as a sacred space, we set the stage for a narrative—we say how it’s going to go. The power we are working with is every bit as real as electromagnetism, but the wires we are connecting are mental, not physical. The energy we are directing is spiritual, not electrical.

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If you doubt the reality of this, consider how you use these principles every day in your life. Every time you transmute one emotion into another—e.g., anger into resolve—you are saying how it will go. By adaptation, you are re-creating the narrative. You are taking the one energy and telling it what to do, or rather how it’s going to manifest in your body. You are a priest unto yourself. The priest at the altar is taking the One energy and adapting it to a specific need. He or she is standing in for the Whole Body of God. If the priest has the consciousness, she can say, “This is My Body,” and in that moment speak as God. And because the patterns conform to universal patterns, the One energy will gladly cooperate.

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All of this does not say that God is only energy. To read it that way is a mistake. But neither does it deny that there is energy in the Mind and Body of God. That which is above is as that which is below. We have a mind; we have a body. Our thoughts direct the energies of our body. We offer our mind and our body as a stand-in whenever we approach the altar, whether that altar is in a sanctuary or at the center of our being. Once we state our intention, we swallow it, just as we would swallow a morsel of food. And as that morsel descends into our core to become us, so does our intention become the energy that radiates outward into our world to transform it.

As long as you think of the triangle as lines on a piece of paper, you will not grasp the principle it stands for. At the same time, you cannot ignore the geometry of it. A circle is just a circle, but stand in the middle of one, and you can feel a shift in the energy. Your true north is suddenly redirected inwardly. The same applies to the triangle. Standing with one other person is different from standing with two other people. The energy is different—distinctly so. You have this, and you have that. And there you are, mediating between and adapting the two.