New AEON Ritual VS the old
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@Frater Fantastic said
"I have been told by several folks that the LBRP is pretty useless"LOL. That is surely the silliest magical opinion I've heard in years.
The LBRP is anything but useless. It's the mainstay of most magician's magical lives. In fact, it was the ceremonial mainstay of Crowley's magical life until the end.
I suspect that these "several folks" have ideological objections rather than practical, experiential ones.
"and that I should use the new aeon ritual such as the Star ruby. I understand that star ruby is based on the frame work in the book of law but didnt Crowley still push the importance of the LBRP even to his last years?"
"This thread is similar to the Star Ruby one, but I'll adk my same question here.
You wrote that there is little evidence that Crowley used the SR. So, does that weaken the argument for using it over the LBRP?
What about other "old aeon" rituals? Did Crowley use them too? What is your opinion on this? Thanks. -
FWIW, I've always thought of it like this: it's as if the Star Ruby (and the others in the same vein) is like a Ferrari. If you'd never driven a car before, you'd be in a whole heap of trouble if you immediately got into a Ferrari and tried to drive it. You've got to start learning in a normal, everyday sort of car. The LBRP is an ancient, ancient ritual, and it has power from many good-intentioned people performing it (and its earlier analogues) throughout the centuries. It's a well-worn groove. Perhaps in the future, the Star Ruby will become a well-worn groove too, and people will still be performing the Star Ruby even when the *next *level of ritual is revealed, just as they now perform the LBRP even though the relative next level to it has been revealed (i.e. Star Ruby etc.)!
Another way of looking at it (again, this is just my opinion, FWIW): until one gets to Tiphareth, one is effectively still an Old Aeon sort of entity. Until one has gotten the Christian point (as it were), given oneself up, been crucified, buried and resurrected, etc., one isn't ready for the higher point of view in which the Sun is always there above the clouds. One has to go through the level at which death is understood as a catastrophic event for a solitary individual, before one can rise above that point of view, and understand that life and death are just phases in what you truly, truly are. Judeo-Christian rituals are suitable for that level of being, in which you honestly and sincerely feel you are separate from God, from the world, etc., etc., and will help you rise above it.
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I think the LBRP would suit ANY magician to the day he died. It is simply a perfect ritual, simple, effective & powerful. I would dare say the LBRP should be experienced everyday, twice a day for a year, with great focus on what is going on & how it affects you before you consider the Star Ruby. I was kinda pushed into the Ruby without understanding a good deal of the ground work on the ritual. My old LOdge Master told me to learn the Star Ruby because the LBRP was "black & old Aeon & inappropriate for a Thelemic temple". I know he had the best intentions though I now disagree with his assumptions when you seriously meditate on the ritual & its purpose. I think a good understanding of the LBRP, Hexagram ritual & the Greater Pentagram are essential to the Star Ruby & Liber V.
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Something else to consider is that you can also turn the LBRP into the LIRP, an ability the Star Ruby appears to be missing. Of course, that just may be due to a lack of my own knowledge. o.O
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LBRP is, IMHO, practice for the real thing. It invokes archangels that represent emanations of a deity that has been dethroned by Horus, and is a black ritual because there is no light in it. It builds ther Briatic body by pure psychological reinforcement.
Someone doing the LBRP every day should replace it with something Thelemic, either SR or your own version, that contains the ritual structure but with New Aeon emanations. In D.'.N.'.A.'. we use something shorter than the Start Ruby, and entirely in English, that arranges the elements according to their solar positions. -
@sethur said
"LBRP is, IMHO, practice for the real thing. It invokes archangels that represent emanations of a deity that has been dethroned by Horus, and is a black ritual because there is no light in it. It builds ther Briatic body by pure psychological reinforcement."
I understand that this is your opinion, and respect it as such.
Against this I posit AC's statement in the last years of his life that in all Aeons, the one thing that remains is Y.H.V.H. That isn't IMHO an endorsement of Judaism as such, but of the fundamental value of Qabalah.
Also, I don't take "black" in that context as meaning "no light in it." Quite the opposite. That which is "black" absorbs all light. It has more light in it than anything else. The chief criticism of black things (in this sense) is that they don't reflect anything back that can be latched onto as a guide.
Finally, I would argue that these archangels are among the most important non-material beings with whom we have any communication at all. I was intrigued by your statement that they "represent emanations of a deity" - not out of disagreement because I had, for so many decades, known them so thoroughly in their own light, and as themselves, that (other than as a hierarchical formulary) had long ceased necessarily relating them in that particular way. An interesting thought for the afternoon.
"Someone doing the LBRP every day should replace it with something Thelemic, either SR or your own version, that contains the ritual structure but with New Aeon emanations."
I would represent that the LBRP (especially as slightly modified by Crowley) is a distinctly Thelemic ritual, and (at one level) chief among them.
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What's the slight modification Crowley made to the LBRP that you are referencing Jim? Is the addition of Aiwass to the mix?
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@Scarecrow said
"What's the slight modification Crowley made to the LBRP that you are referencing Jim? Is the addition of Aiwass to the mix?"
That, and the interiorization of the six-rayed star.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Wow, I really enjoyed the multiple opinions on this post and I feel more confident now employing my old friend the LBRP when doing ritual. I think I will do a further analysis on the LBRP then check out the Star Ruby.
"What's the slight modification Crowley made to the LBRP that you are referencing Jim? Is the addition of Aiwass to the mix?"
Isnt aiwass addition more personal to crowley? I know aiwass = 93 but it is strange using another persons holy guardian angel during ritual.
Love is the law, love under will.
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@Frater Fantastic said
"Isnt aiwass addition more personal to crowley? I know aiwass = 93 but it is strange using another persons holy guardian angel during ritual."
Been over this many times, but, sure, one more time...
No, Aiwass is universal to Thelema - the gateway through Whom Liber Legis was delivered, a being whose name is the formula of both the Aeon and its Word, etc. Incidentally, He was also Crowley's HGA; but that's not his primary role so far as Thelema itself is concerned. (BTW, Aiwass = 93 in Hebrew, and also Aiwass = 418 in Greek.)
In group work, even if there weren't an issue of wishing to keep the name of one's HGA private, I would continue to instruct that "Aiwass" be used in that part of the ritual simply to serve as the magical formula that draws the essence of Thelema itself into the room and provides a common linkage point for all participants.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Well that answered my questions. I was thinking based off this link www.cornelius93.com/EpistlePentegramRitual.html . Though you put it more in perspective. Thanks Jim!
Love is the law, love under will.
Frater Fantastic
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@gurugeorge said
"Another way of looking at it (again, this is just my opinion, FWIW): until one gets to Tiphareth, one is effectively still an Old Aeon sort of entity. Until one has gotten the Christian point (as it were), given oneself up, been crucified, buried and resurrected, etc., one isn't ready for the higher point of view in which the Sun is always there above the clouds. One has to go through the level at which death is understood as a catastrophic event for a solitary individual, before one can rise above that point of view, and understand that life and death are just phases in what you truly, truly are. Judeo-Christian rituals are suitable for that level of being, in which you honestly and sincerely feel you are separate from God, from the world, etc., etc., and will help you rise above it."
i agree. as i have wrote elsewhere, like the foetus, one recapitulates all previous growth; one does not skip it.