Anna Rhodes
The School of Visionary Hermeticism
Semester 1- The Way of Cosmic Alignment
Lecture 8: The Council of Eight
9/10/25
Council of Eight
First Session:
I followed the instructions and anchored the 8 sigils around me. I felt myself sinking below the earth and then saw an earthen spiral staircase going down. I counted the 17 steps and came into a hallway. The 3 windows were on the left and I peered through each. The earth, the sun, and the moon. When I kept following the hallway I saw an altar with the single chalice placed upon it and a light behind the altar. The chalice was golden in color but felt like a different metal-perhaps bronze but gold plating. I picked up the chalice and drank the liquid inside. All of it. I did feel an expansion and perhaps more strength or purpose. I moved around the altar on the left side and moved forward. I saw the vesica ahead imbedded or part of an equal sided cross. I looked around and did not see any thrones. I knew I was to walk into the vesica and I did. Through it I came into a large room and the eight thrones were high above me in a semicircle. The room was almost like a stadium with steps leading up to each throne. They seemed empty but then I heard laughter on my right. It was throne #7 and there was Nicolas. He told me to “come here girl”. I walked up the steps and kneeled and stated that I wished for equilibrium. I believe he projected his energy into me- I could feel my energetic body active-energy was flowing and I felt happy and jolly. I saw his sigil (smiley face) over his face which made me laugh. He told me my task was to laugh every day-even if I had to make myself laugh (laughter yoga). I saw that I don’t ever laugh enough. I am too serious and need laughter to bring joy and lightness to my life. He kept laughing in his jolly way-big belly laughs. When I went to leave I asked him for a hug and he picked me up in a big bear hug and twirled me around.
I went back down the stairs and was going to come back another day when I heard a woman’s voice say “Come over here child” in a commanding voice. She was on throne #3 and was Matilda the spider. I walked up the steps, kneeled in greeting, and asked for equilibrium. She shot a cobweb over me. On one hand it felt like it had cocooned me, yet it felt like the center was in my center and the web was extending in all directions into the void. Then I felt something happening in my brain—a movement. The web seemed anchored there and within my brain each spider string was connecting through synapses to knowledge, memories, and lifetimes. She told me my task was to do a regression everyday or to follow one of the strings and find out what is at the end. Matilda was strict and wanted me to commit in the discipline of this practice. I said I WILL. She told me I would check back in with her on my progress at a later time and alluded that in the future I would trace these strings into the future. I thanked her and came back down the steps. I realize that I feel some shame in my lack of discipline in doing a similar exercise for one of my earlier teachers. I thought of Yoda’s quote when I reframed myself from saying I will try. Part of me doesn’t believe I will follow through in doing this daily. Because I haven’t proven it to myself in the past.
I exited the way I came in after feeling that two council members felt like what I could handle in that moment.
Second Session:
I went back into the throne room the same as yesterday. I heard “Ho” not as a derogatory term but as a way of getting my attention. The voice came from throne #8. I walked over and up the steps. It was Nema and she was all blackness. She strikes me as part shaman, part Kali. She wears a loincloth or skirt covering of some sort but I really only see her general form and naked well-formed black breasts. She is the void. I asked her for equilibrium. I felt almost a pain over my right eye/temple area but it went away after not too long. I felt like I should merge with her and entered her facing eye to eye. Only her eyes are white. I felt the void entering me and after a bit she pushed me out of her and I was again stood before her. She didn’t speak much. The task came to me either intuitively or telepathically. I am to study and practice negative energy (opposite pole of positive energy; NOT bad vs good) and the difference between engraving or taking away vs application or adding to. Nema isn’t a body in a space. She is the absence of space yet has form. I never fully grasped this lesson previously. She is fierce. I have one month to do so.
I walked back down and scanned the other thrones. Throne #2 had Fred—the half fish, half man—on it. I walked up. He called me “Bright One”. I asked him for equilibrium. I felt an energy shift although hard to describe. I asked him what is my task? He told me that I fluctuated between my 2 worlds too drastically—like a pendulum—and needed to learn to live or engage with both simultaneously. I thought of one of Bardon’s exercises. I thought the material world and my spiritual one. Either/or is how I live most of the time. But I also saw that I live in the mental world a lot and not in my physical body. I need to also live in my physical body. I thought of yoga—one of the activities when I most feel connected to and in my body. He told me that I knew what I needed to do– get up 15 minutes earlier as I saw an image of myself doing sun salutations. So my task is this—yoga but also to practice and experiment living my day in both worlds simultaneously. I returned to my body as I came in.
Session 3:
Before I went in I realized that Matilda isn’t one of the virtues, but she clearly came through last time. Interesting. I entered as before. The vesica was so bright and white this time. I entered the throne room and my sight seemed hazy. I more or less felt the thrones in the room. Last 2 times I felt as if the thrones formed a semi-circle or oval centered on the main isle. So there was no throne directly in front. This time it seemed as if there was, which made me wonder if I had 9 thrones now. I heard a voice say “Come here.” It seemed to be throne #6 and it was Tenzen. I asked for equilibrium. He asked me to place both my hands out, palms up, and he placed his over mine. There was some sort of energy transference. I exhaled heavily a few times. Almost like a sigh and tension and stress left my body-my physical one. Tenzen told me to breathe daily. As in pranayama. I laughed internally at that because Tenzen is the embodiment of an AirBender. Haha. My task is to breathe from a master of the air element. I thanked him and stepped down. I then heard “over here girl” from what seemed like throne #3. It was Gollum-except my experience of him shifted a bit t a very old and wrinkled man that is cranky. And yet…still a hint of non-human. I saw the ring-because this virtue is the embodiment of Gollum from Lord of the Rings. This confuses me as he is the least understood of my virtues. The ring multiplied and they formed a circle around my head. At one point they seemed to move in a sweep around my head. This was what happened when I asked for equilibrium. I asked what my task was. I was told to take time to plan and strategize my work and life goals and path. I knew that I am currently so busy and stressed at work that I am either reactive or only able to plan 1-2 weeks out. The rings remained in a circle around my head and I felt held in place. I started to feel inpatient and he told me to be patient. Whatever was occurring wasn’t complete yet. I had a sense that they had something to do with time. Perhaps even timelines and my task was to allow me to keep them open. Finally I felt released and I thanked him and stepped down. I was then drawn to the now middle throne which is throne #5-but it wasn’t next to Gollum. So I believe #3 from a previous encounter (Matilda) was actually #4. I wondered why I had 9 beings appear?? Anyway, this was Kissinger, the tree man. I only see his face and feel his presence here. I asked for equilibrium and I felt myself merging with him. The energy was so strong and vibrating in my physical body. I felt a separation from him after a bit, but the energy I felt remained. I asked him my task. He said to just BE. I could connect with nature, an animal, an energy, or whatever, but to just BE. Not to think, not to plan, not to do anything…just to be. Like what I felt in his energy. To exist. To rest. In that energy there was stillness. There was no urge to do anything or be anywhere else but in that space, that moment, or in that energy. Kissinger was by far the strongest energetic council member yet, and he appeared in this new center throne. Coincidence? Who knows.
Fourth Session:
I entered the same way once again. When I walked through the vesica I was held back inside it—in the bright blinding white light of it. I waited for a bit and finally used my will to walk forward into the throne room. I immediately had my attention turned to the right side, throne #9, Talmea. She appears as a Native American woman, most likely from South America—young, perhaps 18–20 years of age, with 2 braids. Yet her being holds so much wisdom. I ask for equilibrium as she grasps my forearms with both of hers. I feel us connect forehead to forehead as if some transmission is occurring, but unknown to me. She finally releases my arms and I ask what task does she have for me. She doesn’t answer, but now we are on the top of a mountain together—a gentle breeze in the air. I have a sense of the end of a quest. She still has not spoken. I ask again and I sense all that is below me. Then she speaks and tells me that I get to choose my task. I look around. I tell her my task is to recognize how far I’ve come and know that I’ve already reached my victory. That I will express gratitude for my accomplishments. She smiles at me. I don’t go down the steps to the floor, instead I fly over to throne #1.
It is Angelica, an angel that appears as light. The energy of her is so pure. I recognize a sense within me of unworthiness. I ask for equilibrium and her energy enters me. It is pure, strong, and almost uncomfortable. I ask her to purify me. I feel a shift and realize I had been looking down. I straighten and rise up. I raise my eyes to look directly at her. I feel movement in my brain like wings flapping up and down, then in my whole body. I ask what my task is and she replies, “Do not be ashamed of who and what you are. For you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Rejoice!” I realize that there is still part of me that I reject or have yet to integrate. I ask her if she can remove that from me and she replies, “only you can do that.” I mentally hear her first comment again and I fly out and back to my body.
Commentary: The tasks given to me are much needed to bring balance to my life and to provide self-care, when my current life’s work is to take care of everyone else in a very stressful environment. I am working on these tasks. Many were given to me to do daily, a few a one-time project, but much of them to perform at regular intervals for my benefit and well-being. I have made a card with a list of tasks to review daily and perform embedded into current habits and know I must create new ones. Matilda coming in was a surprise. She is the animal from my mental intuition vice, but her magic came to me with a task. I do this one (following a thread) every night before I go to sleep now.