Pan:

 

 

Pan:

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

STRONG past'ral Pan, with suppliant voice I call,

Heav'n, sea, and earth, the mighty queen of all,

Immortal fire ; for all the world is thine,

And all are parts of thee, 0 pow'r divine.

Come, blessed Pan, whom rural haunts delight,

Come, leaping, agile, wand'ring, starry light.

Thron'd with the Seasons, Bacchanalian Pan,

Goat-footed, horn'& from whom the world began;

Whose various parts, by thee inspir'd, combine

In endless dance and melody divine.

In thee a refuge from our fears we find,

Those fears peculiar to the humankind.

Thee, shepherds, streams of water, goats rejoice,

Thou lov'st the chase and Echo's secret voice:

The sportive Nymphs thy ev'ry step attend,

And all thy works fulfill their destin'd end.

0 all-producing pow'r, much-fam'd, divine,

The world's great ruler, rich increase is thine.

All-fertile Pean, heavenly splendour pure,

In fruits rejoicing, and in caves obscure.

True serpent-horned Jove, whose dreadful rage,

When rous'd, 'tis hard for mortals to assuage.

Pan is the essence of being in its highest form, and Pan is also the ego that fights to establish its godliness. The nature of this is clear, as an expression of our divine nature, or genius, that must be fought for. I suppose in most cases, folly must then be the nickname of Pan, however he shares this with actualization and through his sensuality, he shows us, who we truly are and what we truly are, thus his office is with Babalon. He guides man into the arms of Babalon, via the above presented character. He is the mirror image of being in its highest form and we worship him by expression of each our own uniqueness. The light of Pan can be seen as truth and one’s recognizing Pan may in some instances translate to the Path of Return and his obvious connection with Adam Qadmon or Baphomet is thus established. The following quote illustrates this point: "Pan, as we are informed by Damascius, first subsists at the extremity of the intelligible order, being there no other than the celebrated Protogonus or Phanes; but, according to his mundane subsistence, he is the monad or summit of all the local Gods and daemons. In the statues of him his upper parts resemble those of a man, but his lower parts those of a brute [viz. of a goat] indicating by this, that in the universe rationality has dominion over irrationality. As, therefore, according to his first subsistence, he is the primary exemplar of the universe; the reason is obvious why in this hymn he is celebrated as all things." Thomas Taylor: The nature of our relationship with Pan may be the potentiality of being that keeps evolving and unfolding, and so, it is never fully realized but establishes ever greater insights into the All. This is not a thing that we need to be aware of or chase consciously, hence Pan is the All and truly a God. His obscurity may be likened to the uncertainty of stepping into a cave and that which is ever joyous is experiencing the familiar summits of those things we have mastered or playfully take part in, but there is always that which is steeped in obscurity, which still needs to be illuminated and conquered. 

Pan is not Nature; he is more akin to my and your True Natures, and that which we need to learn before we will find the freedom to experience the gifts of Pan. Thus, he is associated with the lowest, as he is in every way a perfect shadow and angel, that needs to be integrated for us to attain insights into any higher wisdom, although it is All-Pan, which makes our relationship with him a mortal test, and establishes his character as the All-Devourer. But the latter is upon the cusp of Tiphareth and not yet the highest, where he takes the same office. Pan joins the higher and the lower and represents the Macrocosm with the Microcosm, but in a very unique way, as he is veiled in obscurity. His obscurity is borne from the fact, that within him is included the whole evolution, hence he is All-Pan. There is something hidden and as he, is that thing and he is also our link to it, via our acknowledgement of it. Every ordeal, every initiation, every minute change in consciousness, has Pan as the initiator. He is the only true God, as he is the very essence of what it means to be human, and therefore, he is always present, as either devourer or begetter. By realizing ourselves at the basest level of our beingness, we embrace Pan and as this occurs the veil is lifted, although with our understanding, a new veil appears, the obscurity which it symbolizes, is equally All-Pan.

Pan could be likened to aspiration, as the intuitive sense of knowing, that he is the essence of what we are looking for, or at least that he has the means to the truth. Every man and woman along the path, is in search of Being, and Pan has been there to show us the way since the day we were born. So, it is entirely reasonable and without so much as a hint of superstition to worship this most venerable God as the All. “Pan, as we have already observed, first subsists at the extremity of the intelligible order, and is the same with Protogonus or Phanes. This being the case, in the intellectual order he is analogous to Jupiter the Demiurgus, by whom, according to Orpheus, Phanes was absorbed. Hence, as Jupiter is said to be the mingler of all things by Orpheus, as we learn from Io.” Thomas Taylor: The above quote sums up the nature of Pan, Jupiter is Chesed and the last of the intellectual world which is established by the decent of Phanes and Aether, which is how we are perceiving creation. Thus, Jupiter becomes the Demiurge, via his relationship to Phanes who is none-other than Hadit. The relationship between Phanes and Aether, is the same relationship the I has with Not-I or Hadit has with Nuit respectively. Pan is our link to our higher natures, although it is realized from an intuitive sense of being. Phanes is absorbed by Jupiter, thus Aether obscures the nature of being through this initial split between the higher and the lower order of things, symbolizing the birth of the intellect or ego. Pan is the god that is born into this world, who by his dispassionate nature, has the ability to guide the soul of man towards the Sun and beyond to Jupiter.

“Love is the law, love under will.”