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The beginner becomes accomplished at magical ritual when the inner working proceeds automatically from the outer or physical working. With the adept this situation is reversed so that the outer proceeds from the inner. Magick and meditation, therefore, go hand in hand. The time spent in meditation and study is the ‘sacrifice’ that is required in the search for the immortal Stone of the Wise. It is a sacrifice of time and effort. The most effective forms of magick combine meditation, the inner work, with action—which is the use of the body as a hieroglyph so the body reflects what is being willed, desired and imagined. There are, broadly speaking, three kinds of magical ritual in the Hermetic tradition:

1. Dramatic Ritual is where a Mystery Play is enacted. A Dramatic Ritual is the exoteric or outer level of magical ritual, accessible to all through its powerful emotional impact. Unlike other forms of magick that require silent concentration, Dramatic Ritual may utilise music and dance. There is a technical side to theatre in the way of costumes, sets and lighting. The success of Dramatic Ritual frequently depends on the skill of the actors involved and the level of their knowledge. The difficulty is that it requires good actors who are also trained occultists.

2. Ceremonial Magick involves the use of furniture such as an altar, a painted circle and triangle, and magical weapons such as the wand, cup, sword and disk. The best-known type of Ceremonial Magick is evocation, where a spirit is called before the magician and a dialogue takes place—traditionally, at the point of the sword. Ceremonial Magick may also refer to group rituals where the practitioners assume the roles of various gods or deities at different stages of the ritual.

3. Ritual Magick is sometimes no different than Ceremonial Magick, but it must be worked from within, with or without robes, altars, lamps, wands and swords, whether real or imaginary. No kind of ritual magick is effective unless it is worked on the inner planes. There are some kinds of magical operation where it is particularly desirable to work the physical and astral planes simultaneously, so the one reflects the other.

From Magical Theurgy—Rituals of the Tarot [Ordo Astri].

Ritual Magick: The reasoning philosophical basis of our predecessors was “skew-wise”, to use the terms of the (Egyptian) Book of the Law, II: 32. Kether is the uniting principle. There is no unitary intelligence as such. While ‘one’ or ‘unity’ (which is better) may be used as an analogous term for the infinite and primordial, the Monad may easily be the false crown of the Abyss—the crown worn by man as the tyrannical usurper of truth, beauty and natural law. The confusion of the metaphysical ‘one’, as with so much else in modern times, has produced the nightmare of self-isolation.

Profane commentators imagine ‘initiation’ to merely imply induction into a particular group with its corresponding egregore—if we take that word in the conventional sense of a ‘group mind’. The original meaning of ‘egregore’ was of ‘Watchers’, which was applied to the progeny of the Beni Elohim and women of earth. They are the type of the avatar, ‘one who descends’ (so as to teach humanity). Initiation only comes about in the real and lasting sense from initiatic transmission, which has its origin wholly outside of and beyond the human sphere. It is experienced within the individual sphere as a continuous unfolding through interior work. It concerns spiritual realisation, which has nothing to do with group bonding of any kind.

On the other hand, there will inevitably be some who will imagine they can work through a book of rituals like this alone and achieve self-initiation. The term ‘self-initiation’ is an oxymoron, for the reason explained above. Furthermore, the Law of Thelema is a law of love and is therefore a law of relationship. There is no secret word or ‘formula’ that will convey initiation. Our methods include study, practice, prolonged effort and single-minded determination.

Ritual Magick: Initiation of the Star and Snake

Here is the ritual and ceremonial basis underlying the threefold structure of the Order comprising the Golden Dawn, Rosy Cross and Silver Star. Lucid explanatory texts plus hundreds of graphic illustrations and diagrams accompany the rituals and methods.

The grade system is worked from Malkuth to Kether, following the paths of the Serpent of Wisdom. The Order of the Golden Dawn comprises the first four degrees. The Golden Dawn thesis concerns the equilibration of the four elements of the natural soul. The Order of the Rosy Cross comprises the fifth, sixth and seventh degrees. The work of the Rose and Cross is to unite the equilibrated soul to her opposite, the antithesis or Holy Guardian Angel. The Order of the Silver Star comprises the 8th, 9th and 10th degrees, summed up as the spiritual fruit or synthesis of the soul’s union with her Holy Guardian Angel.

Subjects include the Circle of the Place, Mudras or ‘signs of the grades’, Ritual of the Gates of Babalon, the Golden Mean, formulation of the Magical Name, Opening and Closing the Temple, Star and Snake Tantra-yoga, the (revised) Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram, Rising on the Planes, Skrying and Clairvoyance, Consecration of Talismans, the Thelemic Mass of Hormaku, Ritual for Psychic Self-defence, the Holy Guardian Angel, Ritual of the Rosy Cross, Consecration of the Magical Sword, Goetic Evocation, the Ceremony of the Watchtowers and Enochian Magick.

Notes

Ritual Magick—Initiation of the Star and Snake (view and order here).
Format: Trade paperback; perfect binding (6” x 9”); 304 pages in total.

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Hermetic Qabalah Foundation: Holy Guardian Angel

The primary objective of the Great Work is the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The Angel can be regarded as a ‘divine lover’ in so far as such knowledge is the most complete consummation within the field of human experience. Qabalistically, the union takes place in Tiphereth, the heart of the Tree of Life. This then becomes the seat of the True Will or True Self. In the normal state of affairs, Tiphereth is merely the place of the human ego, which has usurped the position of its True Ruler, Prince and King. The mundane chakra attributed to Tiphereth—its physical vehicle in the cosmos—is the Sun. The symbol used for this star is a circle with a point in the centre.

The circle with a point in the centre is also the symbol of Kether concentrated from the infinite Ain Soph Aur. As Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether, the Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel is attributed to Malkuth on the Tree. On the path of initiation, as opposed to that of religious exotericism, the Holy Guardian Angel informs the person while they are in the corporeal state—the Great Work is not something that is postponed until an after-life.