William G. Gray and the Sangreal:
The Bloody Magician’s Modern Tradition
Justin C. Wisner
justin.c.wisner@gmail.com
History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, One-Year Masters Thesis
First reader, Wouter J Hanegraaff
Second reader, Justin Sausman
Student No.: 10234365
13 July,

As an occult writer and practitioner in the 20th century, Gray continually attempts
to legitimate his enchanted esoteric ideologies through the academic discourses of
biology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, and to this end seeks the material
vector of esoteric thought and culture in blood, genes and cultural identity. It was, in
fact, not the biological or racial doctrines which allowed for lasting connections in the
network of esotericism, but Gray’s uniquely woven tapestry of anthropology,
psychology, esoteric discourses and traditionalism which produced the strongest
connections to nodes in the esoteric cultural actor network. As a well-connected man in
20th century British esoteric circles—and a participant in 20th century culture so deeply
influenced by the means, goals and cultural products of science—Gray demonstrates the
overarching flexibility of ANT’s applications for the academy more generally, in that so
long as scientific ideologies and doctrines are networked to (either through discourse or
method, in agreement or opposition), the social sciences can pull a vast amount of
pertinent analytical data from Latour’s (admittedly less historical) theory.

In sum, ANT provides us with a more useful view of Gray in light of his
idiosyncratic discourse and personally crafted esoteric order, as his ideology borrows
freely from available disciplines within the Anglo-Saxon world and does not abide by
classic in-group/out-group distinctions between academic and esoteric disciplines.
Through the lens of ANT the interdisciplinary selection of ideological components in
Gray’s system becomes easier to understand in the context of the invented authoritative
traditions of the past. Before examining Gray’s ideology, the historical trends of claimed
authority and invented tradition in Western esotericism will be further investigated.
Building authoritative traditions
Gray focuses explicitly on ‘tradition’ throughout his works. In large part, his
Sangreal Sacrament is an attempt to universalize and modernize various Western esoteric
discourses into a single updated Mystery. His evolutionary view of history and placing
of authoritative traditions in not just the past but also the present shows his desire to adapt
Western traditions to the modern context, despite his large qualms with the modern
world. To show how his legitimating strategy was successful enough to overcome the
repugnance of the structural, racial component of his tradition, it is first necessary to
understand how authority has been claimed by traditions in the past, and how the authors
of those traditions attempted to garner legitimacy in their own times. Thereafter, I will
show how Gray modernized and legitimated his unique mix of esoteric discourses,
traditionalism and academic sources—trumping the impediments of his racialist
ideologies—to produce lasting connections in the cultural network of esotericism while
participated in a ‘tradition of making traditions’ in the West.

In a period of social flux and great changes to the Western way of life, Gray
aimed at adaptation for the future. Evolution, psychoanalysis and the atomic bomb were
changing the world, and Gray proposed to adapt what he perceived to be the ‘true’
Western tradition for the future, while trying to retain the most important components
from the past. Akin to René Guenon and Julius Evola, but with his characteristic twist of
embracing the modern, Gray’s disillusionment with the modernity he inhabited hardened
his resolve to explore so-called ‘Inner Traditions’ in order to ensure their viability and
functionality for a better future, enriched with sacred meaning beyond the purely material
for the chosen members of the human race that ‘belonged’ with the Western esoteric
tradition. More akin to Hitler than Guénon, Gray’s sacred culture is transmitted via
belonging ‘with the blood,’ which meant the genes, and at times even focusing on
nationalistic belonging to a geopolitical identity.

Why The Sangreal Sodality?

Well let’s look at some reason why The Sangreal Sodality?

The Sangreal Sodality is a Western Spiritual Order Created to Embrace the Western Principles of the Sacred Blood and the Vessel.

Membership is by Birth and thus by Calling. If the Symbols of the Order Call to YOU then you are possibly a candidate of the Order

The Order is a Contacted Order. In that it has access to Inner Contacts. With the Essential ‘Head” of the Order being Invisible.

While there exists an overall copyright on texts of the Order such as Ritual texts, and Legal Copyright Held By Jacobus Swart in South Africa; The Order was always created to make individual Cells or Temples. Each would be Independent and financially must stand by itself. In this spirit the Sangreal TTLA has been created. In no Official Offilliation with WG Gray or Jacobus Swart.

Sangreal TTLA was Taught in part by Jacobus Swart online for approx a decade. In addition further teaching was given online and in person by Other Pupils of the Sangreal Tradition such as RJ Stewart. Other important teachers include possible oral teachings passed on by ARH.

Sangreal TTLA is a 21st Century Order and Such works with Modern Magic rooted in the past. As anyone knows, Time is not linear, thus we have to have both feet firmly in the distant PAST while they are also in the FUTURE.

Sangreal TTLA is not an expensive order. There are not special dress up to buy for hundreds of moneys…or to make.

Initiation is through EXPERIENCE not BADGES. To Pass the RANKS in SANGREAL TTLA you will be given a Magical Instruction to EXPERIENCE. That will be how you will pass to the next order or rank. Not through reciting words in a fancy costume.

Sangreal Magic is cheap, quick, powerful and transformative.

Much of Sangreal TTLA is Free. But there will be a cheap monthly or annual Option, to EXPERIENCE/INITIATE to further depths of the SANGREAL Mysteries.

Are you interested?

https://sangrealttla.webador.com/

There are many ways to begin a daily Praxis

Crossing form: Daily Praxis

TELESMS:

First we Begin with the Inner Convocation

We May also work with Library or the Chapel.

In turn we may also work with the Four Cities, though this may be a night time praxis.

……………

I would recommend daily work with the Middle Pillar through:

Tarot, The Offices of the Tree of Life, Gods, Color etc. Depending on what stage you are within the Sangreal Tradition,

These are examples oif cycles of typical basic and advanced praxis found within the Sangreal TTLA

SANGREAL TTLA (C) 2022 IS A CHAPTER OF THE SANGREAL SODALITY TRADITION AND IS NOT OFFICIALLY A PART OF ANY ORGANIZED MONETARY GROUP. IN NO WAY IS SANGREAL TTLA ASSOCIATED WITH JACOBUS SWART OR ANY OTHER OFFICAL COPY RIGHT HOLDERS OF THE SANGREAL SODLALITY LEGACY

SANGREAL TTLA HAS WORKED WITH STUDENTS WITHIN THE SANGREAL SODALITY TRADITION AND AS A RESULT HAS WORKED WITH MANY HIDDEN TELESMS OF THE TRADITION.

https://sangrealttla.webador.com/

The SANGREAL SODALITY is a magical fraternal order created by British occultist and author William G. Gray in 1980. Its
chapters, branches, and membership have spread to Latin America, North America, Eastern Europe, Europe, South
Africa and the United States.
“Sangreal” is taken to refer to the “best aspects of human nature”. The term sodality refers to a fraternity, especially a
lay movement in the Roman Catholic Church.


Purpose of the Sodality
Its purpose is to foster union of the divine with the human through service to both. This service aims at developing what
is best in humanity–the “Sangreal.” As Marcia L. Pickands, Warden of the Sangreal Sodality, explains: “Whether we
define “Sangreal” as “Royal Blood (Sang-real)” or “Holy Grail (San-greal)” it refers to the very best aspects of human
nature. What would those aspects be? Simply our desire to do what is right, honorable and good in our relationships with
ourselves, our fellow humans, Nature and Divinity.”


Sodality members share a single central ritual–“The Rite of Light” (also called the Sangreal Sacrament), which was
constructed to help form participants into the sort of people who would sacrifice the worst in themselves to serve the best
in themselves and humanity in accordance with the myth of sacred kingship and the mythology of the quest for the Holy
Grail.


This is understood to be a task that requires contact and assistance from other beings who are interested and willing to
help humans achieve this quest; and the shared rite is understood by Sodality members to be a central vehicle for
achieving that goal.


While current members have and continue to make contributions in areas of divination, psychic development, magic, and
Tarot, their focus is not on magic for merely the achievement of practical ends. Rather, as Dr. Michael Dummett explains
in the History of the Occult Tarot referring to William Gray’s Sangreal Tarot:


“William Gray displays the usual disdain of the occultist for mere fortune-telling. The primary purpose of the Tarot, he
tells us, is not for fortune-telling, but for deepening, sensitizing, refining ordinary consciousness so we can reach a range
beyond average awareness.”
Thus as Dummet explains, “In 1988 Gray published the Sangreal Tarot, a contribution to the doctrine of the Sodality and
not, as might be guessed from the title, a description of some newly designed Tarot pack.”


Indeed, the focus of all workings done by members may be summarized as:


1. Practice of the Rite of Light/Sangreal Sacrament on a regular basis.
2. Mediation between deity and humankind for the purpose of serving evolution lightward.
3. Willing sacrifice of ones lower nature for the expression of ones higher nature in order to live fully in service to both
God and our fellow humans.


History of the Sodality
In 1976 William G. Gray published the Rite of Light along with a call for the those who were moved to do so to begin
temples of the Western Esoteric Tradition.
In November of 1980, William G. Gray, on a visit to Jacobus Swart in Johannesburg, South Africa, had a vision that
resulted in the clarification of what William Gray has referred to as the “Sangreal Concept”. During that visit Jacobus, his
wife Gloria and the secretary of their group became the first initiated members of the Sangreal Sodalty and their temple
that William Gray had personally helped them set up became it’s first temple.


In June of 1982 Antonio Delfino in Brazil founded the first Sangreal Temple in South America. This temple was known as
Colegio Capitular Pitagoras.
Both Antonio Delfino and Jacobus Swart were attracted to Gray’s vision of the Sangreal Sodality through reading the Rite
of Light. Jacobus Swart was especially helpful to Gray in the formulation of the Sangreal concept at the Sodality’s
inception and he was later named Gray’s heir, one of two spiritual successors.


Organization


In 1990 when retiring from active service within the Sangreal Sodality, William G. Gray reportedly asked one of his two
spiritual successors, Marcia L. Pickands, to take responsibility for the development of the Sodality and its curriculum for
the 21st Century. This interpretation is hotly contested by Jacobus Swart, who was William Gray’s heir as well as
successor.


All Sodality chapters, branches, and Temples are to be autonomous and self-administrated. There are many solitary
practitioners. There is no shared dogma or single unchangeable curriculum. Individual chapters, branches, and Temples
can and do establish their own structures and curriculum; or they may opt for the assistance, guidance, curriculum, and
direction of Ms. Pickands and the Sangreal Sodality International, Inc., a not for profit religious organization incorporated
in New York State.


The Sangreal Sodality strives to be a movement as much as or more than an organization. While sharing one common
rite, and its surrounding symbolism, different Temples, chapters, and branches have vastly different spiritual practices
and organizational structures. Some branches could be described as Christian, others Kabbalistic; others draw on
particular ancient traditions, paganism, etc. What they hold in common is the Sangreal Sacrament or Rite of Light and the
legacy of William G. Gray’s writings and teaching.
Marcia L. Pickands claims that in 1990 when retiring from active service within the Sangreal Sodality, William G. Gray
asked her as one of his two spiritual successors,to take responsibility for the development of the Sodality and its
curriculum for the 21st Century. Jacobus Swart, his heir and other successor, strongly contests this claim, maintaining
that there is no one warden that was set to guide the Sangreal as a whole.


All Sodality chapters, branches, and Temples are autonomous. There are many solitary practitioners. There is no shared
dogma or single unchangeable curriculum. Individual chapters, branches, and Temples can and do establish their own
structures and curriculum; or they may opt for the assistance, guidance, curriculum, and direction of Ms. Pickands and
the Sangreal Sodality International, Inc., a not for profit religious organization incorporated in New York State.
The Sangreal Sodality strives to be a movement as much as or more than an organization. While sharing one common
rite, and its surrounding symbolism, different Temples, chapters, and branches have vastly different religious practices
and organizational structures. Some branches could be described as Christian, others Kabbalistic; others draw on
particular ancient traditions, paganism, etc. What they hold in common is the Sangreal Sacrament or Rite of Light and the
legacy of William G. Gray’s writings and teaching

https://sangrealttla.webador.com/

https://sangrealttla.webador.com/

LOOKING FOR A NEW MAGICAL ORDER?

Temporary much work in progress.

This will act as a free ‘entrance’ website

After procrastinating for 5-10 years, it’s time to build something.

1. WESTERN INNER WORKINGS

Topics discussed and Introduced include but aren’t limited to:

What are the Western Mysteries?

The Grail,

Sacred Kingship

Silence

Telesms

Melchizadek

Br. Lawrence

Mediation and Sangreal Magic

Ongoing Introduction to the 15 Directions

The Sangreal Cosmological Models

Abra-Melim and the HGA

Angels

THIS WILL BE NEOPHYTE COURSE

MOSTLY READING

WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL NOT FOUND IN THE TEXT

free course for accepted applicants

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORIGINAL INTENT THAT EVERY SANGR4EAL ORDER IS UNTO ITSELF AND GOVERNED BY NONE AND THUS SELF SUFFICIENT

These are the forgeries of jealousy:
and never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.

A recent Salon of The Western Mysteries reminded me that, most of the Western path is, drivel.

By drivel I mean exactly that. Stuck in Victorian largely attitudes or age of reason attitudes. Man controlling his own destiny. Man controlling nature. Man as superior to Woman. Money as. …A recent Farcebook Discussion reminded me I have little to nothing in common with most Western Practitioners.

Moving beyond a need for self improvement (that removes many ‘occult orders’), moving beyond gain (many see the Western path as a way to get stuff, be it Talismans, money magic etc)…

We find The Western path is about now, and what is now? It is crisis. It is about coming into harmony with the planet. This means putting down your special wands, put down the money spells.

For Christ commanded us to be Gardeners. This is why he was reborn in the garden.

One expression of this Garden is Faery and the very planet itself.

Magic then in the 21st century is not about self improvement, not about lodges, not about initiations, not about special tools, not about an order … …But it is bout Humanity, the planet and working within well established magical pathways to build bridges to the future.

I understand now, why most Occult groups for want of a better word are ‘lifeless.’ They are stuck in wish fulfillment, self improvement and thus largely Humanocentric thinking.

It is the 21st Century, the time is Now, our environment is crying…. It time to move away from stuffy lodges and dusty academia, throw away your talisman to avoid fungal warts…

It is a time for participation. It is a time to enable. It is a time to give. It is a time of compassion.

This is magic in the 21st Century.

Upon reflection I also see this as a call to arms for myself. To knuckle down with praxis.

This morning I entered the Inner Convocation, it was very liberating

The Hermetic Tree of Life is often seen as Summarized in 4 parts or the world’s.

Another is where the entire tree can be seen in ‘3 parts’

The Cup,
The The Stem or Base and
The Contents.

Or The King, The Kingdom

and The Crown

This is the entire tree of life.

Tea is a well known thing especially if you grow up in England.

The first Stage of Tea is to start the fire. Gather the ingredients,prepare the produce. Ferment, burn, all that d is found in our first stage.

Thus first stage we find is where most people are. Their lives and date begin in this stage.

The Second stage us to measure out the tea, put in the pot or carrier. We weigh and measure and ⚖️ balance

This Second intermediary Stage is the Kingly stage the Divine Mediator King.

Reaching up finally We have our tea made. We raise the glass to ourselves.

We Smell the tea, reminded if the brewing process.

We have moved from FORTUNE to JUSTICE with our cycle surrounding in JUDGEMENT.

As we  continue through Covid and the future, consider Tea and spiritual life. The FORTUNE that is the creation and preparation of the team to JUSTICE where we balance and gather and brew our tea. Leading us to JUDGEMENT where we consume the tea and allow it to flow through the body and be enjoyed.

If we approach active Spirituality as Tea, we will go very far.

“Theurgy, on the other hand was a theion ergon, a ‘work of the gods’ capable of transforming man to divine status. Although the term theourgia, originated with second century Platonists to describe the deifying power of the Chaldean rituals–some if which were believed to be transmitted by the soul of Plato himself–it was Iamblichus who provided a scientific rationale for the performance of these rites and ensured that Theurgy would become an internal part of the Platonic vocabulary.”

Theurgy and the soul, the neoplatonism of Iamblichus by Gregory Shaw

The emanation

Step by step, but not without straying sometimes into the ‘thick
jungle’ of symbolism, we have drawn near to our objective. We have,
in fact, recognized that the Unity was the source of the manifold, that
both the Soul and Matter were immediately derived from it, and that
power was inseparable from the act in this first principle. It is already
possible to guess what kind of cosmogony can be constructed on such
foundations.

Seeing that matter has sprung from God, we must in the first place
rule out the hypothesis of a creation that would be only the organization
of a pre-existing chaos, of a genesis that would be the upthrow of
a cosmos starting from an cmeiptDv, of a victory over the uncreated.
This ancient concept (but it still survived with one Leo, the Hebrew)
was contrary to that of the orthodox theologians and Christian philosophers (down to Nicholas of Cusa and Marsilio Ficino), who
established God at the centre of creation and ascribed it to Him entirely.
To the extent that he denies the existence of uncreated matter on
which the creative act was performed, Bruno does not depart from
the Christian point of view. On the other hand, he dissociates himself
from it completely when he rejects the possibility of a creation a
nihilo. The creative act, for him, is no more a victory over the uncreated,
than a victory over naught. Having assumed in principle that
the power and act are merged into one another in the prime Unity, he
is led to conclude that the distinction between cause and principle,
which is valid when dealing with natural objects, loses all logical value
on the plane of the divine.

 

When asked what differences there is between
cause and principle, Theophilus replies: ‘When we say that
God is the first principle and the first cause, we understand the same
thing in different senses; when we speak of principles and causes in
nature, we speak of different things in different senses.’

 

On the plane of nature, the principle is in the object, the cause produces the object
‘but remains distinct from it’. On the other hand, God ‘producing
things as the first cause, remains in them as the first principle’.

 

 

If He were solely the cause, His creation would be cast out of Him and
affected with a certain contingency, He could have created another
universe. Now, this ‘ability-not-to-be’ rightly ascribed to the finite
objects that come under our senses would not be able to influence the
total universe. Consequently, Bruno shows his aversion from Duns
Scotus—who thought the universe could have been different from
what it is—whereas he is satisfied with the formulas of Amaury of
Bene (everything is God, omnia esse Deum) and of David of Dinant
(God is the principle of everything, Deum esse principium materiale
omnium).
‘The essence of neo-Platonism is to represent the real as a hierarchy
of all the forms of existence that are disposed between the
absolute Unity and the indetermination of matter. There is a superabundant
richness in the Unity by which it is compelled to spread itself
by a kind of emanation.’

These few lines summarize what Bruno
rejects from neo-Platonism and what he retains. In so far as the
Plotinian movement is a necessary emanation, Bruno is akin to
Plotinus. On the other hand, he discards all idea of hierarchy. Matter
is no longer the final term of a degradation. Matter proceeds from
God, without an intermediary, for the same reason as form. The emanation is purer and more direct.

The universe is one aspect of God, or preferably a ‘reflection’, or even a ‘shadow’. The universe is therefore co-eternal with God who nevertheless remains its source
so that identification of the universe with God remains incomplete
and it is possible to speak of creation, provided we do not understand
thereby a creation ab aeterno, the antecedence of the creator becoming
purely logical. All these views are set forth on a remarkable page
of the third dialogue, Concerning the Cause:

 

 
“The universe, which is the great simulacrum, the great image and only
begotten nature (unigenita natura), is itself [like the first principle], all
that it can be, in these same species and principle parts [which were dealt
with above], and continuity of all matter, to which nothing is added and
from which nothing is lacking from its complete and unique form; but
it is not all that it can be through the same differences, modes, attributes
and characteristics. Furthermore, it is none other than the shadow of
the first act and the first power; yet the power and the act in it are not
absolutely the same thing, because not one of its parts is all that it can
be . . . the universe is all that it can be according to a mode of explication,
dispersion and distinction. Its principle is in union and in indifference;
because everything is whole and the same in simplicity,
without difference and distinction.” (Bruno, Causa III)

 

–The Cosmology of Giordano Bruno by P-H. Michel