New Coursework for the Noble Order of Tara: An Introduction

Introduction to A New Course for the Noble Order of Tara

By Sheila Broun, NOT

http://goddessstudycentre.co.uk

© 2013

In November 2012 Olivia Robertson invited me to go to Avebury with her for the day. Later, we travelled on to Lacock, and over tea Olivia was suddenly inspired to ask me to write a Coursebook for the Noble Order of Tara, and wrote the following message, asking me to email it to Caroline Wise.

My Dear Caroline

I am so delighted that Sheila Broun is producing a book (Coursebook for Level 1 & 2) for N.O.Tara. I recommend that each chapter be recorded on your website with British illustrations.  I feel this is the work of  Elen, what we both are looking for – including Yeats, AE & Co in Spirit.

Love,

Olivia

I am an artist, poet, and priestess of the British Goddess Sulis with the Fellowship of Isis. For many years previous to joining the Fellowship I had been immersed in Taoism and the Chinese Arts, Women’s Mysteries, and experiential work in Nature, creating my own meditations and rituals, and working with the Elements – experiencing different qualities of rain, wind, earth and light – around the seasons and wheel of the year, and communing with the trees of the forest.

In 2011 I was drawn to the Noble Order of Tara by the key text chosen by Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, from Yeats, about The Journey of Red Hanrahan on Samhain Night. This text drew me like a magnet. In every other description I have read of the Hallows, they are in the hands of male figures who use them for war, and I have discovered that war, and normalising the model of war, is central to our alienation, and our current environmental issues.

I sent Olivia my first draft for Level 1, and at Spring Equinox 2013 she wrote to me:

My Dear Sheila,

CONGRATULATIONS ! It is a terrific Course with the 4 Elements. And I love the masks. i suggest you send a copy of your mask photos plus an introduction to the Course for Isian News  - Rt  Rev Linda Iles, DCD, www.fellowshipofisis.central.....We’ll meet in August. My fingers are FROZEN – so cold. Lots of warm love and appreciation – tell Linda you are my friend – we did a Rite at Avebury!

Lots of Love & Blessings of Brigid,

Olivia.

Sadly we never met in August, and Olivia passed over the day I sent her the final manuscript on 14^th November 2013. Now, a year later, Linda has suggested that I post exerpts in Isian News.

TARA

By Sheila Broun, NOT

http://goddessstudycentre.co.uk

© 2013

Tara is a very ancient Goddess, and appears in cultures all over the world, not only in India, and Tibet, but in Russia, Mongolia, Ireland, Scandinavia, the Middle East, and South America. ‘The oldest reference to Tara, perhaps, is found in an ancient saga of Finland, thought to be five thousand years old. It mentions a group known as Tar, The Women of Wisdom. The frame drum is also known as Tar, and as The Old Woman Who Never Dies.
Tara also shares many attributes with Xi Wang Mu in China, who resides in the Tien Shan mountains, and ‘controls the cosmic forces: time and space, and the pivotal Great Dipper (Ursa  Major) constellation. She ordains life and death, disease and healing, and determines the life spans of all living beings’.  The oldest reference to Xi Wang Mu is an oracle bone inscription from the Shang dynasty, thirty-three centuries ago.’ She is one of several Mu divinities or ‘Mothers’.

The word Tara literally means ‘star’ and Patricia Monaghan describes Her as ‘the Star Goddess who is a manifestation of Time (Kali, Kailleach); and is also the Goddess of self mastery and mysticism; in Her Maiden form a Goddess of Compassion and a Celestial Boat Woman, ferrying Her people across from the world of delusion to that of knowledge’. The Pole Star, the brightest of seven stars in Ursa Minor, was known as Druva-Tara – the immovable star, and is still used for navigation.

The connection of Xi Wang Mu to Ursa Major (Big Dipper) and its seven stars was central to Chinese culture. She is also a cosmic weaver who creates and maintains the universe. ‘People exchanged sheng tokens as gifts on stellar holidays, especially the Double Seven festival in which women’s weaving figured prominently. It was celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month, at the seventh hour, when Xi Wangmu descended among humans….and cosmic energies were in perfect balance’.

Another meaning of ‘Tara’ is ‘the pupil of the eye’ , suggesting that She watches over those who navigate life. ‘The Book of The Centre says that Xi Wangmu is present in the right eye’. Tara’s name in Tibetan is Dölma, which means "She Who Saves.  "In Hinduism Tara is known as the ‘rescuer’, and She is the second of the Ten Mahavidyas, or ‘Great Wisdom Goddesses’.

There are many similarities between Tara and Kali in India, and many mantras include them both as one. However, Tara is differentiated by her blue, rather than black, skin. She also wears a tiger skin skirt, which links Her again to Xi Wang Mu who is depicted as a Tigress. ‘As early as 2400BC, Indus Valley seals depict tiger-women and women dancing with tigers….Yu bronzes of the early Shang dynasty show a tigress clasping children in her paws – possibly a clan ancestress, or a shamanic initiator’.

‘Tara can be distinguished visually from Kali primarily via her implements. Four armed, she carries a sword, a severed head or skull cup, a lotus and scissors. Kali never holds a lotus or a pair of scissors’. This links her to the third Fate, one of the Cosmic Weavers, who cuts the thread of life at death.

In Tibetan Buddhism ‘Tara holds a blue lotus in her right hand ... in the teaching mudra. The blue lotus is a night-blooming flower, and so Tara protects at the time of greatest fear, during both literal darkness and while we are in the darkness of ignorance.

  

It is said that Tara Ma's footprints are preserved in the smashan.  Ish-tar also has footprints, four times human size,  in the rock outside Her temple, as does the Kailleach in Scotland. In Scandanavia,  Givinarhol, the troll woman/giantess' cave, belonged to an old woman who left her footprints in the rock near the lake. 

Tara appears in the British Isles and Ireland as the Crone or Kailleach, like Xi Wang Mu.  ‘To the north of the ring forts on the Hill of Tara in Ireland is a small Neolithic passage tomb known as Dumha na nGiall  (The Mound of The Hostages) which was constructed around 3,400 BCE . It has a short passage which is aligned with sunrise at  Samhain and  Imbolc, when a 13’ long sunbeam enters the Mound.

In the Scottish Highlands the Kailleach‘ is an elemental power of winter, the cold, wind, and tempests. She comes into power as the days shorten and the sun courses low in the skies. She carries a slachdan (wand of power) with which she shapes the land and controls the weather. In the Skye folk-tale “Finlay the Changeling” she strikes the ground with it, making the earth harden with frost. Wherever the Cailleach throws her slachdan nothing grows.....In early spring the Cailleach hurls her slachdan into the root of the holly and gorse, plants symbolic of winter and sacred to her…she metamorphoses into a gray boulder that exudes moisture’.

‘Her face was blue-black of the lustre of coal
And her bone-tufted tooth was like red rust.
In her head was one pool-like eye,
Swifter than a star in a winter sky.’

Max Dashu notes that the Kailleach is ‘a deity who is both transcendent and immanent. She is connected with rivers, lakes, wells, marshes, the sea and storms; with rocks, mountains, boulders, megalithic temples and standing stones; and with cattle, swine, goats, sheep, wolves, bird, fish, trees, and plants’. The figure of Crone known as Black Annis in Leicestershire is described as having a blue face by the poet Milton. She is also seen in the form of a Black Panther.

Mountain springs were sanctuaries of the Scottish Cailleach. She was said to visit them to renew her strength, or to perform rites bringing on passage of the seasons.  Her incredible longevity came from the water of life....The Scots often spoke of beur cailleachan in the plural, as powerful beings living in lochs and among rushes.  A certain tall lakeside reed was called “the distaff of the Bera wives’ again linking the Kailleach to the Cosmic Weavers or Fates.

The Kailleach shapes the landscape, hurling rocks from Her Apron to create mountains – which are still named for Her. As a builder She is similar to the Egyptian Seshat, in later times known as Mistress of The House of Architects. Seshat also wears a leopard skin, and is connected with Ursa Major, wearing a seven pointed star on Her headdress.  Seshat is a very ancient Goddess and was often referred to as “The Original One”, who measures time and space. She is also referred to as ‘Lady of Writings in the House of Life’. ‘Seshat comes to us from the very beginning of Egyptian culture as one of a group of sky deities who were ousted by the solar religion of Ra’.

Shrine to Water

Create a shrine somewhere in the west side of your room/house, where you can meditate on the different qualities of water; the activities you are engaged in to bring you into a more  connected relationship with this element; and a growing awareness of the vastness it encompasses. As you continue to work with the element of water your shrine will develop in a way that is personal to you.

tides	torrential	tranquility	ice	blood
flowing	gentle	eroding	hail	running
healing	refreshing	freezing	flow	splashing
life source		N snow		soaking
				neap tide high waves
high tide
wells	W sea	C dew	E spring	swimming
skrying				moon
drinking				oceans
always changing				Grave of sailors
diving		S river		drowning
fluid				flooding
rain				culverts
purifying				whirlpools
ponds	reflecting	emotions	fog	marshes
rain clouds	mist	waterfalls	deep water	puddles
	flux	tears	hydration	drizzle

RIVERS

Get to know your local river. Find out it’s source and visit it. Maybe create a journey and walk parts or all of it. How does the energy of the river change along its length?  Note how the river changes throughout the seasons. What plants and creatures live in it, on it, or on its banks?  What trees grow beside it? Where are the bridges over it?  Is it polluted or is it clear?  Find out the whereabouts of your local waterways group and research the history of the river. Maybe you can volunteer to help look after it.

CAULDRON – PLEASURE

What is the Cauldron, what does it hold? How many cauldrons are there and what is their purpose? In the British and Irish traditions ‘there is a cauldron of the harvest & garnered fruits of the earth; there is a cauldron of death & rebirth; there is a cauldron containing the stored seeds to be planted for the next and future year’s crops; there is a cauldron containing carefully gathered and boiled essence of trees, plants and herbs, such that it produces remarkable  mystical knowledge and inspiration’ ₁

Water

The Cauldron is a vessel, and is commonly  linked to the element of water. Study water in all its forms. Water has been found to have memory. Work with mists, seas, springs, rain, dew, ice, snow, rivers, waterfalls. Know water as an indestructible element, but one which constantly changes form, which is in your blood, your urine, your spittle, which evaporates on the air and is ancient, yet ever new.

Kerridwen– life, wisdom, inspiration – these attributes she boiled in Her cauldron for a year and a day. Finally She was able to distill three precious drops of the Grace of Inspiration (the Awen) for Her Son. His inspired poetry spoke of the Cauldron, from which proceeded the Word.
Morgen – mor/sea  gen/born. Sea Goddess and Queen of Avalon, the Isle of the Dead.
Mannannan– God of the Sea, particularly linked to the Isle of Man.
Silina – Moon aspect of Sulis, who rules the tides and cold springs.
Nimue – the Lady of The Lake. She lives surrounded by beautiful immortal maidens in an island realm where there is neither winter nor pain nor death.
The Maidens of the Wells – offered sustenance to the weary traveller.

From you experiences, how do you understand ‘pleasure’ to be the designated property of the Cauldron?

1, KaledonNaddair. Keltic Folk & Faerie Tales.

WEST

THE CAULDRON OF PLEASURE

THE DARK WOMAN OF KNOWLEDGE

A gift

That can only be freely given

From a generous source.

I am the gift of the Cauldron

Which emerges

From the depth of the Lake

And the mists of time

In the keeping

Of the Dark Woman of Knowledge

Who is the Voice of The Land.

I bring Pleasure and Healing

And teach you to love yourself

So you can love all life.

Sheila Broun © 2013

Please note: The coursework will be available on Sheila's website in about two weeks.

http://goddessstudycentre.co.uk

© Sheila Broun, 2013

Samhain 2014 - Articles

"Lightning Flash of Isis" by Olivia Robertson

The Marvelous Effects of Music, the Cosmos, and Man

 By Linda Cole

July 20, 2014

Music has always had a part to play in the theocracy of ancient Egypt. Therefore, a nation, which respects music and makes the law of harmony the foundation of all its laws, measures, and philosophy, will be in accord with things as they are in the cosmos. The observance of this principle endowed the ancient Egypt civilization with thousands of years of stability.

The instruments they most likely used were drums, Indian flute, sticks, bells, and lyre harps. Their music is guessed to have sounded somewhat like Indian music, Japanese music, and classical worship music. Also, the ancient civilization may have pulled their hunting bows across the strings on their harps

The stringed instrument they used, symbolized a celestial measuring rod that determined the distances between the spheres, therefore serving as a means for translating mathematical and scientific distances directly into pitch relationships, a symbol of the harmonious relationships between humans and the Gods (cosmos).

“The ancient tradition of using the musical cosmos-the belief that the cosmos is a sublimely harmonious system guided by a Supreme Intelligence was authored from (Tuthmosis III) the historical David, (who established the first empire that extended from the Nile to the Euphrates), who is the author of a great number of the biblical Psalms, (Akhenaten Hymn to Aten, etc) works of a profound poetic talent, many of which seem to call out to be sung rather than just read, is proof that his God encouraged him and his people to worship through music.” Prophecy in Music, Prophetic Parallels in Musical History, by Albert Roustit, page 95.

“Praise the Lord with harp.

Sing unto him with the psaltery and

an instrument of ten strings.

Sing unto him a new song:

Play skilfully with a loud noise.”

(Psalm 33:2-3).

“Isaac Newton stated that Pythagoras discovered the inverse square relationship of harmoniously vibrating strings, and extrapolated that series of relations to the weights of the planets and their distances from the Sun.”

“By what proportion gravity decreases by receding from the Planets the ancients have not sufficiently explained. Yet they appear to have adumbrated it by the harmony of the celestial spheres, designating the Sun and the remaining six planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, by means of Apollo with the Lyre of seven strings, and measuring the intervals of the spheres by the intervals of the tones. …they indicated that the Sun by his own force acts upon the planets in that harmonic ratio of distances by which the force of tension acts upon strings of different lengths, …he applied to the heavens and consequently by comparing those weights with the weights of the Planets and the lengths of the strings with the distances of the Planets, he understood by means of the harmony of the heavens that the weights of the Planets towards the Sun…” The Music of the Spheres, Music, Science and The Natural Order of the Universe, chapter: Newton and The Magic Flute, p.163-165, by Jamie James.

“A different pitch in the voices can be imitating the different pitches between the planets:  Saturn low G glissando to low B than back to low G, Jupiter low B glissando to low D than back to low B, Mars middle F# glissando to high C than back to F#, Earth high G glissando to Ab than to G, Venus very high E glissando to E# than back to E, Mercury high A glissando to very high C than back to A.  These are the Kepler’s Planetary Songs.  They all have their different harmonic number. Kepler was an astrologer as well as an astronomer.” Harmonies of Heaven and Earth Mysticism in Music,

Isaac Newton had associated the 7 solfege syllables with the 7 colors of the rainbow and surmised that each color vibrated accordingly. Thus, red has the least amount of vibration while violet vibrates the most.

o    Pitch       Solfege   Color

o    C              do           Red

o    D             re            Orange

o    E              mi            Yellow

o    F              fa             Green

o    G             so            Blue

o    A             la             Blue Violet/Indigo

o    B              ti              Red Violet/Purple

In studying Olivia Robertson’s pictures, hung on the wall, at Crones Hollow, Salt Lake City, Utah, I recognized the colors she’d used, corresponding with the solfege notes-which give musical and astronomical meaning to her pictures.

“Ptolemy’s zodiacal signs actually correlate with tone. The third book of the Harmonics, the last thing Ptolemy wrote, is an astonishing work of synthesis between music, the psyche, and the cosmos. Just as the zodiac is the matrix for all possible astrological equal parts, so is the octave-space for all musical proportions.”

Peacock         D

Bull                 E

goat                F

crane              G

songbird        A

horse,fish      B

elephant        C

Fire             F

Air               G

earth          A

water          B

Cardinal

Aires (fire) C

Cancer (water) Db

Libra (air) D

Capricorn (earth) Eb

Fixed Signs

Taurus (earth) E

Leo (fire) F

Scorpio (water) F#

Aquarius (air) G

Mutable Signs

Gemini (air) Ab

Virgo (earth) A

Sagitarius (fire) Bb

Pisces (water) B

“By giving each zodiacal sign its traditional planetary rulership, a spiral ton chart is constructed giving solar and earthly zodiacs- called ‘FORM OF COSMIC EVOLUTION’ where lunar and solar zodiacs superimposed.”

“Following is a correlation to the zodiacs with their tones in either the solar, earthly, or lunar type of musical scales, which follows the angelic orders and muses of the great chain of being:”

A-moon

B-mercery

C-venus

D-sun

E-mars

F-jupiter

G-saturn

a-fixed stars

b-virtues

c-powers

d-principalities

e-dominations

f-thrones

g-cherubim

h-seraphim

“Music is to make the correspondence with the lowest of spheres to the angels.  The Pythagorean table, researcher into ancient harmonic theory, was extended to a mathematical infinity containing every rational fraction and integer possible.”

UT – 396 Hz – Liberating Guilt and Fear
RE – 417 Hz – Undoing Situations and Facilitating Change
MI – 528 Hz – Transformation and Miracles (DNA Repair)
FA – 639 Hz – Connecting/Relationships
SOL – 741 Hz – Awakening Intuition
LA – 852 Hz – Returning to Spiritual Order

Harmonies of Heaven and Earth Mysticism in Music

“The Magic Flute,” music by Mozart, includes connections with ancient Egyptian concepts about the musical universe, and contains the song where Sarastro summoned his priests. He told them that the Queen of the Night was planning to destroy their Temple, but if Tamino joined their brotherhood, the Queen would be powerless. Sarastro prayed to the gods, Isis and Osiris, for the safety of Tamino and Pamina. Song’s words:

“Oh Isis and Osiris, give them the strength and wisdom to succeed.

Oh may your blessing travel with them.

Be with them in their hour of need.

Be with them in their hour of need.

Make sure they know what goals to cherish.

But if their fate must be to perish.

Never let sorrow shadow their face.

Welcome them to your dwelling place.

Welcome them to your dwelling place.”

“Other great music which was a reflection of the heavens, written after the eternal harmony came through to Bach, Mendelssohn, and Handel.”  “Handel was the Jupiter of music.” The Music of the Spheres, Music, Science and The Natural Order of the Universe, p.193.

However, the search for the transcendence of the eternal harmony was getting darker.  “Music was no less metaphysical after Beethoven.” The Music of the Spheres, Music, Science and The Natural Order of the Universe, p.196.  The concert goer was continually demanding a thrilling, emotional impact or music buzz, so the composer continued to turn inwardly.  The divinity of the cosmos could not be comprehended by increasingly obtrusive spirit of man. This earthward shift resulted in music being transferred to the human scale, the human agent-the artist-came to be regarded as superhuman. The Music of the Spheres, Music, Science and The Natural Order of the Universe, p.201.

“But else in deep of night, when drowsiness

Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I

To the celestial sirens’ harmony,

That sit upon the nine infolded spheres

And sing to those that hold the vital shears

And turn the adamantine spindle round,

On which the fate of gods and men is wound.

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,

To lull the daughters of Necessity,

And keep unsteady Nature to her law,

And the low world in measured motion draw

After the heavenly tune, which none can hear

Of human mold with gross unpurged ear.

The Music of the Sphere, Music, Science and The Natural Order of The Universe, page 112.

“The analogy between the characteristics of modern music and those of primitive music raises a question of prime importance if we wish to seek out the cause for what is wrong.  The malady resides in the human imbalance. Its cause is therefore the total transgression by man of the great divine law which established order in all things. The so-called “Primitive” races have degenerated because they did not follow the precepts of God. The so-called “evolved” race has degenerated in its turn for having progressively separated itself from those precepts. But both races, as I have said, have come to a meeting point.

In contemporary music, Stravinsky, although he was greatly responsible, so far as he was concerned, for its rapid decadence, does not hesitate to denounce this transgression, and clearly sets forth his point of view.

“We are living at a time when the human condition is undergoing profound shocks. Modern man is in the process of losing cognizance values and the sense of relationships. This failure to recognize essential realities is extremely serious. It brings us infallibly to the transgression of the fundamental laws of human balance. In music, the consequences are as follows:

On the one hand, we are tending to turn the mind away from what I will call higher musical mathematics to reduce music to servile applications and to vulgarize it by bending it to the requirements of an elementary utilitarianism. On the other hand, since the mind itself is sick, the music of our time, and very particularly that which is said to be and which is believed to be pure, bears within itself the marks of a pathological taint and is propagating the germs of a new sin of knowledge.  Prophecy in Music, Prophetic Parallels in Musical History, by Albert Roustit, page 249-250.

Even today, we continue to listen to the reports of those who have heard music not of this world. 

“Although hearing the planetary music is usually reserved for those in supernatural states, there is a widespread and recurrent tradition that the Sun, at least, makes sounds which are audible on Earth. The Indians of the Peruvian Andes, who have a cosmological system as rich and complex as any in the Old World, say that the Sun makes a sound on rising. The Greek historian Strabos writes of the sound which it makes on setting in the sea between Spain and Africa, beyond the Pillars of Hercules. A curious Jewish tradition, reported by the Italian Rabbi Moscato (sixteenth century) is that Joshua heard the pleasant melody of the Sun in the middle of battle with the Amorites and was seriously distracted, which is why he and “Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon” (Joshua 10:12), meaning “Stop singing!” A passage in the Talmud regards the Sun’s noise as something to be taken for granted, unnoticed by its very familiarity like the din of the Nile cataracts, the Catadupa, to which classical writers often compared the music of the spheres. “why is the voice of man not heard by day as it is heard by night? Because of the wheel of the Sun which saws in the sky like a carpenter sawing cedars.” The medieval Grail poem “Titurel” gives a more flattering description of its sound, saying that “the sounds of the rising Sun surpassed the sound of strings and the song of birds, as gold surpasses copper in value”. And Goethe, in the Prologue to “Faust”, has Raphael say at dawn: “The Sun sounds forth, in age-old fashion.”…”Look at the Sun! It is the triad from which the chords of the stars shower down at our feet to wrap us in their threads of crystallized fire!...Hoffmann puts in a couple of lines the whole doctrine of musical ascent, invoking the antique image of the Soul as butterfly. Here on Earth we are like mere caterpillars until we let ourselves be entranced and enwrapped by the music which has its origin in the starry spheres-the silken harp-strings of the stars. Then we await the moment, whether in trance or at death, when our cocoons will fall away and we will awaken as winged should-beings who can fly back to our true home of light.” Harmonies of Heaven and Earth Mysticism in Music, by Joscelyn Godwin, page 52.

“There is one place today where music therapy at every level is accorded its full value and flourishes in an atmosphere of complete acceptance. That is the Anthroposophic Movement, founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Steiner’s educational philosophy was based on the assumption that every child is a soul whose destiny is some day to enter the spiritual world in full consciousness.  Music provides one of the closest images of that world; hence its value for reawakening the soul’s prenatal knowledge of spiritual realities.” Harmonies of Heaven and Earth Mysticism in Music,  page 31.

Also, it is the custom of some physicians to cure their patients by playing music. How can music work in the body of a person?  Namely in such a way that the soul of the person, including animals, understands the harmony, is happy about it, is refreshed and becomes accordingly stronger in its body. Similarly the earth is affected by harmony and quiet music. Therefore there is in the earth not only intelligent humidity, but also an intelligent soul, which begins to dance when the aspects pipe for it.  See also: “Forgotten In Time: The Ancient Solfeggio Frequencies,”  http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2006/01jan/solfeggio.html

 "Starry Coils of Tiamat" by Linda Iles

The Cosmic Octave

By Linda Iles

The ancient Chinese Alchemists placed great importance on the use of sound and music as a tool to harmonize the forces of nature as well as the elements of the inner self. Confucius wrote about musical rites that could be performed regularly to prevent beasts from growing wild and to prevent natural disasters. The Daoist or Taoist tradition places great emphasis on the Trigram of Eight Tone Harmony which is the basis of the Universe. These eight notes correspond to our western concept of a diatonic octave. A ritual manual of the Dao contains this passage:

Pure sound was as yet unheard, the stars were not in their place, when suddenly the energies from the Three Regions gushed forth, producing the eight Notes of Harmony…expressing the essence of the Three Energies, and the subtle manifestation of the Five Elements. - (Schipper, p. 193)

The end result of the sounding of the Eight Primal Notes of Creation is represented as the I Ching. According to the Dao teachings, the underlying Five Phase scale contained a fixed relationship with the Primal Eight Tones, thus bringing every single note into a harmony of vibration with all the rest.

In the system Olivia Robertson was guided to create, we have eight notes or a diatonic octave of colored rays of the Star of Ishtar, with the 8^th note containing the frequencies or color of the preceding seven notes.

Rainbow/All Colors = 8^th note (in the FOI Star of Ishtar diagram)
B (white) = crown chakra
A (violet) = third eye
G (blue) = throat
F (green) = heart
E (yellow) = solar plexus
D (orange) = reproductive
C (red) = root chakra

In the use of five levels and the eight rays of the Star of Ishtar diagram and corresponding liturgy rites, Olivia has set up a system very like that of the combined Dragon and Turtle diagrams of the Daoist Inner Alchemy of ancient China. The colors she has chosen for the Star of Ishtar diagram echo the correspondences of Color and Chakras developed in ancient India. Isis as Goddess of Ten Thousand Names inspired Olivia with the universal truths that shine forth in the various systems of many ancient traditions.

Our colored rays of the Star of Ishtar begin with Ray 0 which is colored White and end with Ray 8 which is colored as a Rainbow ray. The 0 of the White Ray can be likened to the egg, a vehicle of the origin of life, a level of consciousness not yet fully awakened. The 8 of the Rainbow Ray can be seen as fully enlightened consciousness, the sphere of spirit and physical consciousness connecting and functioning with each other. White light, when broken down by a prism is seen to contain all colors of the rainbow. Ray 0 can be seen as the egg which bears within it the seed or essence of all colors. In contrast, Ray 8 as the Ray of the Rainbow, contains all colors activated and in perfect harmony.

Olivia writes in the introduction to “Dea, Rites and Mysteries of the Goddess”:

The purpose of ritual is to strike a note on one level - even with bell, gong or sistrum, and so to awaken the same note on other octaves of being. When a shrine is awakened through its true keynote and colour, it begins as it were to hum like a well-tuned harp.

The eight rays of the Star of Ishtar are the octaves which correspond to the planets, sun, moon and stars. Sounding the keynotes of a ritual in the FOI liturgy is accomplished through the use of correspondences. These include alignment of a rite with planets, signs of the zodiac, seasons of the year, colored rays of the Star of Ishtar and the colored levels of the Coils of Tiamat. The colors and manner of dress of the participants in each ritual also have symbolic and therefore psychic notes of resonance with the Octave of Inner Alchemy. Olivia recognized the importance of impressing the vibrational energies of these notes into the psyche of an individual with the use of creative imagination and visualization. When the ritual implements are gathered together, the participants appropriately garbed, the altar set up, and the Gods and Goddesses of the rite invoked, deep changes can be wrought through inner alchemy within the psyche. This was the purpose of the elaborate use of robes, color and ritual implements, and the use of an archaic sounding language, to take us to another place and time in a magical journey that transforms our inner being.

She writes in chapter 11 of the “The Call of Isis”:

The interlinking area between the spheres of Divinity and the earth sphere, was that of the Temple of Ritual. For the law of Octaves of sound prevailed throughout the universe in the law of correspondences. Strike a note on one level, and you produce a corresponding response in the sphere you wish to contact. Make a symbolic gesture on this plane with deliberate intention, and you affect the area on which you are concentrating.

In the third paragraph of the introduction to “Melusina, Life Centres of the Goddess” Olivia writes:

In each galaxy, in each atom, these two powers work, sometimes in passivity, sometimes in action. And both operate through the Great Goddess and the great Goddess Modes. Yin-Yang may be likened to the Major and Minor keys in music, or to the two sets of colours of the spectrum: Yang; red, blue and yellow: Yin; violet, green and orange. The difference between the Goddess and God modes and the Yang and Yin powers is this: Goddess and God are direct emanations from Deity, with the qualities of Love, Beauty and Truth, and the will to express these qualities through creating the Universe. Yang-Yin, Positive and Negative forces, are the Powers through which Deity works. Power is the tool with which Divinity brings to birth suns and worlds.

A line from the above quote is of particular interest in the context of color and octave “…Yang; red, blue and yellow: Yin; violet, green and orange”. On the Star of Ishtar, where the Coils of Tiamat are bisected through use of color on the line from Spring Equinox to Fall Equinox (East-West line), the inner coils of upper half are colored in Yin colors rimmed with the outer color Indigo, which is a higher expression of the color blue. Indigo is a color that contains both Yang (blue) and Yin (black) energies. The inner coils of the lower half are colored in Yang colors, rimmed with the outer Yin color of Violet.

The colors of the Rays of the Star of Ishtar starting with Ray 0/8 and continuing clockwise are White (Yang) Rainbow (Yin and Yang), Red (Yang), Orange (Yin), Yellow (Yang), Green (Yin), Blue (Yang), Indigo (Yin/Yang), Violet (Yin).

The colors of the Levels of the Coils of Tiamat starting at Ray 4, Ritual no. 1 and spiraling inward towards the Divine Matrix in the center are Violet (Yin), Indigo (Yang/Yin), Blue (Yang), Green (Yin), Yellow (Yang), Orange (Yin), Red (Yang), Violet again (Yin) ending at the Divine Matrix which is both White and Rainbow (Yin and Yang).

Through the use of color Olivia was guided to create a constant interplay between the cosmic forces of Yin and Yang on the Star of Ishtar, just as in the black and white Xianting Diagrams of Inner Alchemy of the Daoists.