The Book of Gates

then speaks to those at the Benben: “Live shall your Presences!” This is the preparation for rebirth.

Everything has its counterbalance: creation versus destruction, limitation versus expansion.

Distant One encourages workers and gods not to fall into the sleep of the Duat, but to stay awake and energized. Through their work, Re succeeds, and through Re succeeding, the workers and deities of this place can continue to function.

Everything has purpose, and the Underworld houses forces that bring destruction or breaking down to maintain balance.

you trigger action around you. You are magic; you do not need to do magic.

The greatest gift you can offer a deity is your work, your life, and your actions within that life, not a cookie or a glass of wine.

Initiate and Adept training, you are taught to self-reflect and ‘look in the mirror.’ To see yourself for who you really are, and your acts for what they truly are, is a vital part of the Mysteries.

The five rivers of Hades are:
Styx boundary
Cocytus lamentation
Acheron sorrow
Lethe forgetfulness
Phlegethon

The Western Eye of Re, the right eye, is the unchanging eye of the continuous cycle of creation and destruction. And the magician’s right eye is the one that casts into the inner worlds of creation and destruction. The magician’s left eye is the injured and restored eye: a process connected to Osiris, renewal, rebirth, and Justification. It is the eye of time and magic.

Peshat
The most superficial, literal interpretation, the first layer, the most mundane meaning.

Remez
The allegorical or symbolic meaning hiding just beneath the mundane layer.

Derash
The layer of the seeker, where comparative meaning can be drawn from a similar situation or presentation, i.e. “this is like…”

Sod
The hidden esoteric meaning that comes to light through inspiration or mystical revelation.