What do you see during the LBRP?
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i have been doing the LBRP regularly for just about 4 months now and I am in the same boat you are in. At times the pentagrams leave a "residue" of blue flame behind but i cant say I "see" them with my physical vision. As for the archangels i visualize them with my eyes closed but I am slowly beginning to sense them, especially with the added visualiztions of their elemental correspondences (heat coming from Michael, a gust of wind from Raphael etc.)
I have had more success with the feelings that come from the ritual, I can feel my body parts vibrate with the Kabalistic Cross and their is a definite sense of peace and cleanliness after the ritual is finished. Kraig says in modern magick it's enough to just KNOW these things are there, and that if you had better astral senses, you would see them. Don't get caught up on the cool visuals, practice and practice some more and know that those pentagrams are there. Also it helps me to revisualize the entire circle and pentagrams as I can sometimes lose focus of a certain one when I face another direction and come back to it.
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When I perform the Qabalistic Cross and the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, I see a brilliant flame of celestial Light descending upon the crown of my head. This Light then swiftly descends down through the center of my body, collecting into a sphere at the ground between my feet. I balance this Light in my sphere by balancing the force of Geburah with that of Chesed, which is seen as a sphere in each of my shoulders, and as the horizontal of the cross. All of this is concentrated in my heart center, my Tiphareth, from which is seen a glowing and pulsing brilliance that floods my sphere of sensation and vivifies the whole vision. I then trace the Pentagrams, which are seen in flaming red, and I give a stark vibration of the Name as I see it rush forth to the ends of the quarter. And as I turn to each direction, an arc of flaming light follows the point of my dagger. I trace the next Pentagram and vibrate the name, doing so in each quarter and closing the flaming circle again in the East. I extend my arms, again bringing to mind the vision of the Cross of Light, and as I evoke each Archangel, I see each as a vast (and I mean vast) towering figure (like totally huge man) in each quarter, and as they stretch forth their hand, an influx of the force of each element is felt from each quarter in turn. Maintaining this in my vision, I then reinforce the vision of the flaming pentagrams all around me, and I visualize an upright triangle imposed upon my body, it's base in my hips and it's apex in my throat, intertwined with this is a descending triangle, it's uper angels in my shoulder's, it's lower point in the region of my genitals. I repeat the Qabalistic Cross, just as in the beginning, and I take a moment to see all this about me and within me before I go forth and allow the vision to fade.
None of this is seen with my physical eyes. Yet nonetheless I see and feel all of these things as they happen. At this point in my practice I couldn't NOT visualize all these things while performing the ritual if I tried. -
In my opinion they are the same thing. Intent = imagination = part of the astral = magick.
The mind influences the astral and therefore since our thoughts have power our minds eye is astral vision.
Some are more accurate than others due to purposefully cleaning their ajna chakra.
In my opinion merely doing ritual and meditation enough if you are applying yourself stringently will open your third eye enough so your astral vision is accurate.When I do the LBRP i see bright white or orange light that appears like flames, small bright ones. And I see the angels floating there but not in detail. I think this is because my sight is not honed. I am only a novice at magick
But a pretty spiritually practised novice -
Oh and when i vibrate the names I see the circle and pentagram of each quarter sort of vibrate or pulse.
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I don't actually see anything or have vivid visuals during ritual or meditation, but then I'm a mere beginner. I've always thought, though, that a real Adept traveling in the astral would have concrete, lifelike experiences. It would be nice to have that belief confirmed or denied, if there happened to be any real Adepts around who could speak to that
As for the LBRP, while as I said I don't have vivid images, I do get a sort of tenuous visual idea built up, and it is rather different than I expected it would be. I am in a vast, dark space; a cross of white light shining from my body; surrounded by a transparent cube, and the cube by a circle of blue light; at my feet, a blue path leads from west to east, and a red one stretches between north and south; at the edge of the circle in the four cardinal points are the pentagrams in blue light, and above and below are hexagrams; the archangels are like pillars of light in the Briatic colors (Raphael yellow, Gabriel violet, Michael orange, Uriel green).
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As another beginner, I definitely can't say my images are physically solid (visible with my physical eyes) yet, but my visualizations are improving. I'm surrounded by darkness with intermittent blips of light (like outer space, I guess). The angels aren't quite physical forms yet, but their colors extend in their respective directions out to the ends of the universe. The globes of light come through pretty clearly.
My astral eyes are still developing, you could say -
While I do not see directly the manifestation of the pentagrams, there is a blurring effect, akin to the Predator camouflage if you have seen the movie.
With the angels, I first picture them, as I would picture a person in my mind and then feel their presence. I do not recall any instance where I bothered to actually look....
The cross opens and seals the gates.
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I feel compelled to share this.
IMVHO...
I think what should be aspired to here is to actually view these things in some physical sense.
Well thats what I aspire too. On the surface it may sound foolish but I'm not so sure. Here's why:I also read Modern Magick, albeit 15 years ago. I was new to the subject and went on as you are now.
Time passed (maybe 8-10 yrs)and I stopped performing the LBRP regularly. I was studying other systems, religions, etc. but would always come come back and would do the ritual in spurts for a few weeks. I to would use the brain to visualize the pentagrams in a bluish color and when charged would explde in flame similar to the cover of that book. Anyways during one of my returns to the ritual several years back I was doing it in a dark bathroom. I started off as usual. I wasnt activley even studying Magick at the time so I wasnt adding any new attributions,no assumption of god-forms, no robes. Just me, in the bathroom doing the ritual. When I drew the pentagram in the east something was different. The color was vivid and it seemed as if I was viewing it and not projecting it but through the force of motion I immediatley began charging it and it certainly charged. it exploded in what I call an electric blue flame. But not flame more like electric sparks mostly white with a blue hint. I could hear it crackling. The bathroom seemed to be lit. Literally. I could now see in the dark. I kept going but as I moved on I couklnt really take my eyes of the first pentagram and it quickly faded.However even that couldnt keep me active then. Only recently have I finally undergone the nescesary changes in myself to know I will do it for the rest of my life. Nothing even ever come close to that experience. But it was so clear and crisp. my very first thought when I saw it was " YES!! thats how it suppossed to look" I try to re-create it to no avail.
In my mind this experience was confirmed recently in something I was reading. I'm prety sure its in Liber O when the rituals are first described.
Or Im just crazy.
