Averse pentagrams
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@Alias55A said
"This subject brings another question to mind. How did Crowley intend the averse pentagrams to be in the Ritual of the Beast?"
I'm not sure what you mean by "how." Can you rephrase?
Let me throw in what is almost a side issue, but I'm sure will come up if this thread continues much longer. Aside from any intrinsic virtue of the details of Liber Reguli, I think at least half of the value of the ritual is in pushing someone to "break all the rules." Why does it have widdershins motions and averse pentagrams and all the rest? Well, aside from any other arguments, the main virtue and the strongest effect would be in taking someone heavily committed to traditional aversion to these very things and have them do them.
A side-effect of this is that someone who wasn't already experienced and committed to these points of view would find the ritual much less of a "breakthrough."
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@Alias55A said
"This subject brings another question to mind. How did Crowley intend the averse pentagrams to be in the Ritual of the Beast?"I'm not sure what you mean by "how." Can you rephrase?
Let me throw in what is almost a side issue, but I'm sure will come up if this thread continues much longer. Aside from any intrinsic virtue of the details of Liber Reguli, I think at least half of the value of the ritual is in pushing someone to "break all the rules." Why does it have widdershins motions and averse pentagrams and all the rest? Well, aside from any other arguments, the main virtue and the strongest effect would be in taking someone heavily committed to traditional aversion to these very things and have them do them.
A side-effect of this is that someone who wasn't already experienced and committed to these points of view would find the ritual much less of a "breakthrough.""
Well, Should we throw this in its own thread? I have a tendency to milk a subject, to get a good grasp. I'm glad Ash brought this up, if not I was going to. But since Im going to be wearing an averse pentagram around my neck, I like to know as much about it, ways to use it, and what not.
Now you say "breaking all the rules". In a previous thread you've said widdershins breaks down a current, or to be used for a darker current, per se. I haent performed the ritual, but I have read through it a number of times. (Really the only reason I'm bringing it up is that it is the only ritual I'm familar with that Crowley uses the averse pentagrams, since the bulk of my study's are on Thelema, I think it would be goood to grasp the use and definition of averse pentagrams in a thelemic context). Back to it... Ok, my guess is AC used them in the third point you made, as manifesting the divine(Hadit drooping his head), with the support of a Widdershins current to "break the rules", or if im right, to "tear down subconscious barriers" so the energies of the New Aeon can be manifested fully, without a bumpy road?Sorry for the book, but I'm trying to wrap it up
, so mabye this could help explain the use of them if I ever wanted to use averse pentagrams in ritual. -
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Being as I'd rather "ressurect a dead thread" than start a new one, I figured I would ask this question here:
In regards to "averse" (I rather prefer "inverse," which I will be using in the rest of this post) pentagrams, I am reminded of the assertion in the opening statements of Reguli that it is "an incantation proper to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus." While it would seem that all of the Elements are exhalted above Spirit in the use of inverse Pentagrams, I couldn't help but notice that Earth and Fire, or Daughter and Father, are exhalted to the highest by exchanging place with Spirit. Does this detail in particular have much to do with what is involved in attuning ourselves to the currents of the present Aeon? Does anyone have any ideas about what (if anything at all) is being communicated here?
I would look at inverse pentagrams as representative of "droop down mine head," so to speak; I see the venom in that passage as condusive to the same properties as the secretions spoken of in Energized Enthusiasm, in a sort of solve-et-coagula-eqsue sense. I don't see anything implied that this venom's only purpose is to bring us to death (depending on the meaning!), and if Reguli does what it says it does, I would see these "Energies" invoked in the same light as the venom under discussion. Understood as producing such, I would see Reguli being most appropriately placed as a fantastic preliminary to many operations.
I was happy to read Jim's comments here in seeing the whole thing rendered as sexual metaphor. Still, I'm left wanting in regards to the meaning of the particular arrangement the Elements happen to have when the pentagram is "flipped."
Love is the law, love under will.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"Averse" is defined as "turned away or backward". In other words it is a mirror image of the upright pentagram. As DuQuette pointed out in his book "The Magick of Aleister Crowley", this ritual possibly is meant to symbolically put the Magician upon the Sun, thus the reason for the flip version of the viewed pentagram. That is how we would see the pentagram if our feet were upon the Sun.
I would like to add that perhaps this also has something to do with Atu XII The Hanged Man, and his inverse position of enlightenment. The use of the averse pentagram is used within the ritual of Vel Reguli, a ritual to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus; and Crowley says in the Book of Thoth - upon Atu XII "The Atu represents the sacrifice of 'a male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence'". This position then suspends the Magician of the new Aeon upside down, thrusting his Will upon the Earth, bringing the Sun down, which symbolically appears "evil" to those of the old Aeon, and to whom he is symbolically hung suspended by the Serpent, "against the people" (averse to them). It shouldn't be ignored also this Trump is symbolic of Mem and Water with that downward pointing triangle, perhaps all red with the Blood of the Rose.
Love is the law, love under will.
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@kasper81 said
"i was wondering the only folk who have averse effects after this rite are the ones who cling to Old Aeon unknowingky or not therefore soemone who has more of a rebellious streak is left invigorated"
I doubt that. That would only be true if the only difference in the pentagram was the scare factor; and, most of the time, the effect they get would be to have old ideas challenged.
The pentagram does appear to have an intrinsic effect in the astral, and one quite distinctive from the well-esetablished effect of the upright.
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Everything is useful to someone, and your "in some way" guarantees I'll say yes
Personally, I'm not crazy about it. I'm pretty sure that it's the landmine AC left for the indiscriminating.
I consider it has validity in two particular situations. One is for those people who are both heavily entrenched in, and stuck in, old GD formulae. If you aren't almost mortally petrified by the ritual, it really won't do you much good to "break all the rules."
The other group where it has value imvho is for an adept (in the A.'. A.'. sense). Once you have a unequivocal link to the higher, you can safely dive nose first toward the depths.
These are opinions, of course, as you requested.
One thing within my purview to say is that Reguli doesn't appear in any degree curriculum of Temple of Thelma in the outer or inner. Draw your own conclusions.
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Now the Averse Pentagram...
Funny, I just performed a ritual banishing using the Star Ruby. The common Star Ruby, I have developed an equilibrated version of the ritual banishing widdershins and invoking NOX deocil / sun wise. So that the ritual is in perfect equilibrium using the kerubic directions. I won't go any further, because the effects are beyond expected. When used with the correct Aright/Averse Unicursal Star Sapphire... It causes much obscurity.
Again, after banishing using the Star Ruby using Averse Pentagrams. Then using the ritual as a bare bones method with Liber Reguli and the GIRP as a guide with the signs of NOX. Using it to make a Eucharist of a glass of whiskey.
The averse pentagram, it is in Reguli a way to allow one to realize that rules are not beyond the magician... TO A POINT. Depending on grade and understanding.
The effects of using the averse pentagram of invoking fire, causes a sort of raw Dionysian earthy primal fire. Used as a Eucharist, depending on the oath and magickal statement, it brings out the primal lust of action in one. Perhaps a little Qlippothic, yet if the magician be pure... he can handle such things. Do not let one become obsessed... Obsession is the enemy.
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Frater Micalzo Lvcifictias Vovina
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I had some "fun" doing the inverted pentagrams with the star ruby one time early in my practice. The effects were interesting, not, I would say, so much useful, however it helped me to have a better understanding of this rite.