Rose Cross ritual
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I'm curious about the Rose Cross ritual as Israel Regardie gives in his One Year Manual.
It seems very Osirian (obviously, it's full of crosses!). Would a ritual like this be sub-par compared to, say, the LBRP, given that we are in the Aeon of Horus?
Also, is this ritual primarily for banishing or invoking purposes? Or is it kind of both? If I replaced it with the Lesser Pentagram Ritual, would I use the banishing or the invoking form?
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The RC and LBRP are very different rituals. One doesn't substitute for the other.
If you're uncomfortable with the Christian elements in the RC, you could rewrite it. (Use Abrahadabra instead of Yeheshua, etc., for example.) But I wouldn't substitute the Pentagram ritual for it.
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I banished the "Christian elements" from the RC ritual simply by realizing there aren't any. Crosses, like all simple geometric forms, have been used as religious symbols since the dawn of time and Christianity doesn't have any special claim to them. And the work IHShVH -- while it's often touted as the "Cabalistic name of Jesus" or some such -- is not a Hebrew name or word at all; it's an artificial symbol constructed by placing Sh in the midst of the Tetragrammaton, with obvious significance. (The name Jesus in Hebrew is spelled Yod Shin Vav. Joshua is Yod Heh Vav Shin Vav Ayin.)
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Another question, Jim - is it necessary (or a good idea) to banish before or after the Rose Cross? My only experience is with forms of the Lesser Pentagram Ritual and so I don't have a good sense of what to do and when when other rituals are involved.
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@Ash said
"Another question, Jim - is it necessary (or a good idea) to banish before or after the Rose Cross? My only experience is with forms of the Lesser Pentagram Ritual and so I don't have a good sense of what to do and when when other rituals are involved."
If you're going to follow the program, I suggest you follow it as close to the way it's given as possible.
One could argue this either way - but one reason for the RC ritual existing in the first place is to avoid having to include a pentagram ritual at all. The RC seals you off - creates a vault of sorts - so you don't need other protection.
Years ago (OK, decades ago), a couple of us did some extensive experimentation on the comparison between the two. We were particularly taken with the frequently observed phenomenon that, despite its broadly protective nature, the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram often produces all sorts of wierd phenomena when you first start practicing it. We observed that the nature of the LRP is to "light you up" on the astral - although (if rightly done) it gives protection, it nonetheless causes all sorts of astral entities to swarm around you like moths to a porch light. Performing the Qabalistic Cross lights you up on the inner planes like flipping the switch on a Las Vegas sign. - In contrast, the RC ritual doesn't do this. It's so introverte that you stay incognito to the astral surroundings.
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Thank you, Jim. That's really interesting, too - I never thought that the LBRP would do that, but, being a Martial ritual, I think it makes sense that it would have those effects.
I've had weird effects from it but nothing I could really pin down and explain succinctly.
I think my main issue with the RC ritual is that I have no idea where I'm gonna perform it - my room (ritual space for now, as I live with my parents) is far too small to make a cross-shape with my movements.
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@sphinx666 said
"Can the RC be visualized from an asana or is physical action required to have the same results? I suppose I could just find out for myself, eh?"
Just from someone who has had some experience "performing" rituals in a way similar to how you describe it: Physically performing it has a stronger, "wider" effect overall. The mental effect is amplified a lot by not performing it physically, but the other effects are scaled down.
In other words, it "feels" stronger to only perform a ritual mentally, but I don't think it actually is - I think it's just an illusion given the sensitive mental state one is in.
I don't know how performing rituals astrally squares up against performing them physically.