What's the real reason I perform the LBRP?
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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.