What's the real reason I perform the LBRP?
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@Iugum said
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@Jim Eshelman said
" I suspect part of what you don't know about the pentagram is the way in which the geometry of the pentagram figure communicates (in every minute detail) an aspiration to and alignment with the Holy Guardian Angel. (It's a long, detailed, beautiful explanation - in Temple of Thelema we have several dozen pages detailing this; and we aren't the only Order to have access to that particular instruction.)"Is there any way you could elaborate on this, or possibly break down those long and detailed explanations?"
Not really, certainly not within the limits a forum context.
Let me think a minute about what core ideas might set you in the right direction... OK, here's a starter that, if you pursue, may lead you down the right road. It's just a math lesson, k? As you follow up the leads, they may tend to overwhelm with raw data. That's a consequence of the fact that this information touches nearly everything in the natural world, and main pathways into the inner world.
The pentagram is a perfect geometrical expression of the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio is an ancient proportion - a relationship of numbers - in which the ratio of the lesser number to the greater number is the same as the ratio of the greater number to their sum: a/b = b/(a+b).
The Golden Ratio is commonly found in the way a single line is divided. A line of a certain length may be divided into two parts so that the ratio of the shorter length to the longer length is the same as the ratio of the longer length to the length of the whole line. Wikipedia gives a good starter elaboration on this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio
The lines of a pentagram are all exact Golden Ratio lines. Not approximations. Not "close enough to look right." But exact. For example, if you take the horizontal line, it is divided into three segments: one on the Air arm, in the middle, and one on the Water arm. Any two of these (adjacent) form an exact Golden Ratio relationship. Aside from the number 5 itself, the Golden Mean is the most important and farthest-reaching key to understanding the pentagram as a symbol.
The mathematical properties of the Golden Mean may be expressed as: The Lesser is to the Greater as the Greater is to the Whole. Wow, simply understanding that this is inferred 15 times in the tracing of a single pentagram will send your mind sailing!
The Golden Mean is expressed in an important series of numbers called the Fibonnaci numbers. Wikipedia will give you a starter on these: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number - Basically start with 1, add 1 to it to get 2 and, in each case, add the last two numbers obtained to get a new number: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc.
The ratio of any two adjacent numbers is a successive approximation to the Golden Ratio. That is, any two successive numbers approximates the Golden Ratio, and the approximation gets better the father down the Fibonacci series you go. It doesn't really take off until you get to 3, after which the ratios are: 3/5=.6, 5/8=.625, 8/13=0.615..., 13/21=0.619..., 21/34=0.618..., etc.
Read up on this number series. The main fact is that it appears naturally throughout nearly the whole course of nature. Since 5 (the pentagram) is Heh, and there are two Hehs in YHVH, this shows its equation to the second H, Heh-final, corresponding to Malkuth. (I can tell you this fact, but until you research and read up and let your mind get blown by just how pervasively and intricately this occurs in, and substantially defines the forms Nature assumes, it won't sink in.)
Some other characteristics of this number series and the Golden Ratio which it is that they mark the proportions which the human eye most naturally regards as beautiful. This is why great cathedrals and great artwork (for example) have traditionally been created with these numbers. They appear casually in our everyday lives: photographs are usually in these proportions: They are most commonly 5" x 8" or 8" x 13", for example. Even postcards or note cards are usually 3" x 5" or 5" x 8".
Since the number series really starts to "get traction" at 3, the numbers 3, 5, and 8 have been the handiest for many uses, both exoteric and esoteric. Esoterically, these have been key numbers for displaying some of the most important geometric patterns. Take the first one to club you over the head: The number 358 itself is the value of Messiah, "the Anointed One," a symbol for the Holy Guardian Angel. 3, 5, and 8 appear in many other cool, beautiful, harmonious things you can find if you look. For example, in Western music those notes which form a major cord and are deemed the most harmonious are a 3rd, a 5th, and an 8th. You'll find them in esoteric topics where proportions are important: For example, the walls of the Vault of the Adepts of the Golden Dawn, based on the Rosicrucian legend of the Vault of C.R.C., are all 5' wide by 8' high.
With this as a background, we can go back and say some things about the pentagram and its ritual... which I'll do in the next post.
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Given all of the information above, and all the information you've learned from further digging into the topics I mentioned... how does this apply to the Pentagram Ritual?
First, the more obvious stuff: The pentagram is a five-pointed figure and, as used in this ritual, has a single point up. 5 awakens us to such Qabalistic ideas as Geburah and Heh=Aquarius. The single point up sets off the various lines of though concerning the four elements and the one-above-the-four relationship of the elemental world to Quintessence or Spirit.
And by all means solve the easy-to-crack (but you gotta do it yourself) Golden Ratio koan, "The lesser is to the greater as the greater is to the whole."
In looking at the pentagram, with each line being an exact Golden Ratio line, we can conveniently assign whole-unit lengths consistent with the Fibonacci series. The most convenient way to do this (take a piece of paper and draw this) is to let each line of the interior pentagon be 5 units, and each of the longer lines of each arm be 8 units. By the way, if you connect the 5 points to make a surrounding pentagon, each line of that is then 13 units.
Draw this. (If you don't draw it, and look at it, you won't get the visual punch line.) Then start adding different patterns. Find the total length of each line (same as the perimeter of the five triangles that radiate from the center of the pentagram), and the total length of all five lines. Find the distance around the surrounding pentagon. Etc. Work this up.
Then note the numerical values of the four names used in the ritual: YHVH = 26. ADNI = 65. AHYH = 21. AThH GBVR LOVLM ADNI = 858.
See where this all takes you. Meditate on it deeply so it gets into your cells, so you don't need to think about it to have it all rise to understanding. Spend a few weeks or months closely looking at things in nature to see how these patterns play out, so that they work their way deeply into your soul.
Then... when you perform the ritual... as you trace each line of each pentagram, let rise out of your soul all this understanding of the geometry of that figure, and of how that geometry manifests in the natural world, and of how it is in intrinsic, instinctual expression of beauty, and of how it sounds harmonies, and... everything else that comes. And as you vibrate each Name, understand how it expresses the same geometry, especially as focused through this figure.
If you get that far on your own, you won't need any more help
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wow, didnt know that, thnx jim awsome info, :::turns and runs with it:::: 
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I've always considered the LBPR to be one of the most beautiful rituals within the hermetic system because of its complex, but subtle, elegance. Given Jim's excellent explanation of the mathematically resonant nature of the ritual, I'll jump in with another of those many reasons why practicing the LBPR is a good thing for both the neophyte and the adept, however from a psychological perspective.
It is the first tool by which the practitioner is immersed in the act of attaining that subtle resonance with their universe that is essential to all ritual operations.
It formulates resonance with the archangels, resonance with the cardinal directions (the four worlds, if you prefer), resonance with expressions of ein sof, and resonance of your mind and will. This ritual, at its conclusion, does little else but then focus all of these forces together at the fixed point of the practitioner, and it is within these resonances that your work is then performed.
Quickly one comes to see the value in taking such spiritual harmony into their daily lives: it provides for one to become a greater and greater expression of love and creation in the perception of all those with whom you come in contact. It is, at the same time, one of the most simple and yet one of the most powerful expressions of Thelema.
... and all from one little ritual.
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Just a note
Cigarette packages are also made to Golden ratio. It feels good to hold them and I miss them when I brush my hand over the pocket where I kept them before I quit.
93 93/93
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I have read that the planet Venus traces a pentagram across the sky over a certain period. The conjunction cycle. That fascinates me.
Here's a couple of charts of it:
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To take things further along this geometric train of thought...
I have often seen the Quabalistic cross as the establishment of an axis ( of the x-y variety).
One then revovles or rotates about this axis to create the infinite boundry of the universe ( a circle).
Before 'finally' establishing four corners of a square demarking terrestrial boundries of a sort.
There is also the idea of formulating a cube, but that one is still suffering from light pollution.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"The pentagram is a perfect geometrical expression of the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratiois an ancient proportion - a relationship of numbers - in which the ratio of the lesser number to the greater number is the came as the ratio of the greater number to their sum: a/b = b/(a+b)."
First of all, thank you for such a wealth of information. I've never seen the pentagram portrayed in this light.
Secondly, does the Golden Ratio have any bearing on celestial matters, i.e. the positions of the planets, or their rate of orbit?
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@JPF said
"Secondly, does the Golden Ratio have any bearing on celestial matters, i.e. the positions of the planets, or their rate of orbit?"
I can't offhand think of an example where it does. For example, ellipses come in all varieties of eccentricity, and approximate patterns like Bode's "law" don't fall in that ratio.
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@JPF said
"Secondly, does the Golden Ratio have any bearing on celestial matters, i.e. the positions of the planets, or their rate of orbit?"I can't offhand think of an example where it does. For example, ellipses come in all varieties of eccentricity, and approximate patterns like Bode's "law" don't fall in that ratio."
keepin' the mystery alive...
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There seems to be some (possibly coincidental) match between the ratios of the orbital distances, and revolution periods of the planets. And a few other things.
Certainly it's present in nature. See Adolf Zeising as an example:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Zeising
He talked about the golden ratio as being based on the chemical structure of the underlying elements. (Which would in turn be based up the orbital fields of electrons of the underlying atoms)... talk about as above, so below...
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That's very cool. (Especially Saturn's rings, which I should have known from looking at them all of these years.)
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Thank you very much for that explanation Jim, much food for thought!
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wow, the links you provided are awsome
i guess the origins of the pentagram go back farther then we think
i love bumping into scientific findings that give our beliefs stable ground to stand on
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@AvshalomBinyamin said
"There seems to be some (possibly coincidental) match between the ratios of the orbital distances, and revolution periods of the planets. And a few other things.
Certainly it's present in nature. See Adolf Zeising as an example:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Zeising
He talked about the golden ratio as being based on the chemical structure of the underlying elements. (Which would in turn be based up the orbital fields of electrons of the underlying atoms)... talk about as above, so below..."
Excellent! That's exactly what I was looking for. Amazing that the planetary distances correspond almost exactly to Phi.