The effect of moving from Liber LXV to Liber VII?
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93 All,
Hopefully this is understandable.
It seems to me that memorizing a chapter of Liber LXV would lay a specific pattern of symbols over your subconscious. It would also seem that this would have some type of influence on your experience of the world around you.
What happens when one starts to lay a new pattern on top of what was laid with LXV by memorizing a chapter from Liber VII? Is it possible that this could really shake things up in a person’s life? If so does it usually have a similar effect with every person?
What got me thinking about this was the current thread on Regardie’s level of attainment where Jim mentions that Regardie worked the A.’.A.’. curriculum step by step on his own and had memorized a chapter from both LXV and VII. This would seem to indicate that there is benefit to memorizing a chapter from each book even for someone who does not take initiation into Neophyte.
About a week ago I started memorizing a chapter of VII. Since then there seems to have been a subtle but noticeable polarity shift in my world and I’m not sure I like it or am ready for it right now. There seems to be an increased friction.
Could this shift be a result of the switch to VII from LXV? If so is this just a short term adjustment while moving from one pattern to another or is this type of change intentional to assist the Neophyte’s progress?
93 93/93
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I think the value is in the memorization of the text not that the text itself will "polarize" your reality. Read the text for what it is and don't project your own ideas or fears into it. Just read and don't look for anything to change suddenly. The texts are subtle and sublime allow them to work on you in the same way.
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@TheSilent1 said
"I think the value is in the memorization of the text not that the text itself will "polarize" your reality. Read the text for what it is and don't project your own ideas or fears into it. Just read and don't look for anything to change suddenly. The texts are subtle and sublime allow them to work on you in the same way."
Thank you for the reply. I didn't expect anything to change taking up VII. I'm only considering it as a possible cause today as I reflected back over the last week. As a network engineer I'm constantly asking if anything changed when troubleshooting a problem and **wanted to rule this out **as it was the only change I made around a week ago.
I thought it a valid consideration considering Regardie spending the time on it. I had also read Bill Heidrick's 'The Road to the Sun' recently and he had wrote some about recitation of VII and affording a rhythm for thinking:
"This poetic work holds strong images, ranging from very mundane to very startling. The whole recitation,
silent or aloud, prepares the mind for deeper meditation......Recitation of poetry helps to quiet the mind and affords a rhythm for thinking."
It could be something else entirely, maybe the Universe is trying to get my attention.
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It often seems as if the act of looking for change produces change. It sometimes seems as though our memories of our perceptions have a retroactive effect on our reality. In our desire to find a cause for our current emotional/mental/spiritual/physical status our minds tend to create causes, and then we proceed to attach a sort of meaning to that cause.
Example:
Today at work I broke a drill (no not really but let us suppose) and I also smashed my finger. My utter frustration causes me to wonder, "why me, why today?" So I look back at the past week and and I begin to look for other unfortunate experiences. Yesterday I ripped my pants, the day before my cat puked on the carpet, before that my credit card got declined etc.. I now begin to look for a cause and I start to think: "well the other day I didn't perform all of my banishing rituals and I didn't do my Resh." At this point I really start to fall into error. I have now convinced myself of the calamity of either doing or no doing certain acts and having an undesirable outcome. This, in my opinion, can start me down a path of bad magical thinking which can lead to obsession. With this new conviction I superstitiously avoid leaving my house without LBRPing or saying prayers of protection etc.. In short, I have found the fast track to OCD, whereby, my magick no longer works for me, but against me.Actually, I recently identified some certain obsessions that such thinking caused and have spent my free time trying to correct them with mindful in-the-now attitude. A great deal, if not all, that we do magically has purpose and effect in so much in that it causes us to embrace the present moment.
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I really began to appreciate the value of certain Masonic rituals/lectures both within the Blue Lodge and the AASR after I had long since memorized them "down pat," for performances, and then all but forgotten about them for a while. I began to notice that situations in life would evoke meaningful memories and emotions from the rites/lectures themselves.
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Looking back with more perspective on things has reminded me once again the importance of a journal.
I don't believe that switching to VII brought on the perceived changes but was instead a decision influenced by the changes I was perceiving. If I had been keeping a journal of events this would have been much easier to determine.
With the above being said my experience with VII so far is a lot different than that of LXV. LXV has always felt very harmonious to my perspective that separation is an illusion. I've always been a 'love' person and weak on the 'will' side. 'In La Kesh' has been my mindset for a long time. Nuit has always been easier for me to identify with compared to Hadit.
VII on the other hand seems to set my mind on the opposite (complimentary) pov of will and that's been a good thing for me so far in terms of balance. I'm starting to come to terms more with the idea that will is just as important as love.
93 93/93
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My own experiences bear out the hypotheses of the OP in this thread. I believe Liber LXV lays out the symbolism in which the HGA speaks with you.