776 1/2 sample rituals - experience reports
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to describe my experiences with some of these rituals performed so far this year. i hope they are of some small interest, and i would love to hear the thoughts and experiences of others. unless stated otherwise, the ceremonies were performed as close as possible to the printed outlines.
5 April 2012 (hexagram 34 "the power of the great"): moon phase - waxing 98% full, spirit tattwa, sun in pisces, moon in virgo
sample ritual # 1 - generation of magical forcethis was performed correctly and pretty much to the letter. only difference in the alter set up was my lack of a fire ward or magick lance (i am a solitary practitioner and i do not have all classical ceremonial paraphernalia), instead a dorje / vajra was used, which also may represent the lightning flash.
a very intense experience, with the lightning flash mantra section involving an almost overwhelming and at times dizzying influx of energy. out-of-body-esque experience in this section. a great exhilaration with some traces of fear.
a loss of the sense of self during the chokmah invocation, it was automatic, as if the ritual was being performed by an other.
a vision of horizontal gold lines on a black background - much like the i ching hexagram - during the assumption of the god-form of hadit.
didn't quite know where to stop with the rising on the planes, visible went above clouds, above some entities / beings, then into emptiness, first black then white, then a sensation of falling, stopped then.
banishing at the end felt very clean.
mood afterwards was upbeat, the energy settling down to a calm and alert mood.
1 May 2012 (Tuesday): moon phase - waxing 75% full, fire tattwa, MC of mars (in leo).
sample ritual #5 - magical protection.preparations of the space and alter were as in 776 1/2, with some exceptions: no magick sword, used dragon's blood incense sticks instead of charcoal incense. no jewellery used, and instead of the cakes of light, sliced red pepper was used for the eucharist (anointed with a small amount of blood).
made a mistake during the lesser banishing ritual of the hexagram at the start. swept hand and shouted "apo pantos..." (as in star ruby) and restarted it.
some vague fear at this point, which went during the ceremony proper.during the greater invoking ritual of the hexagram invoking mars (geburah), i could palpably feel the martial energy, it rose sharply and invigorated me with a distinct determined energy and a feeling of well-being.
in contrast, the banishing ritual of mars was characterised by a strong sense of peace and calm, i could see the energy receeding back into the fifth hexagram.the assumption of the god-form of ra-hoor-khuit was very intense (in a good way).
rest of the ritual went smoothly.
mood afterward was high (i was sober but it was like a stimulant high) and peaceful, felt healthy, all well.
2 May 2012 (Wednesday): moon phase - waxing 81% full, water tattwa, MC of mercury (in pisces)
sample ritual #2 - wisdom in the practice of magickthe alter was set up with a circle of eight flames representing hod, and two large grey candles representing chokmah. sandalwood incense.
LBRP, LBRH and the middle pillar - all good.
i then opted to perform the greater invoking ritual of mercury (beth - that is was hexagrams in violet light on a yellow background, with the vibrated hierarchy on the fifth hexagram as "elohim tzabaoth, mikael, raphael, kokab" then a.r.a.r.i.t.a.), as thoth seemed most associated with this path. i performed this correctly but felt no significant change of state or energy.
liber israfel: fine up until the second part (lines 6 -7), didn't really work, i couldn't dissolve into the thoth god-form point of view, sense of self was too strong (possibly result of mars working yesterday? maybe not, hmm). rest of israfel was ineffective.
in this ceremony, the only major magickal energy and state change was felt during the middle pillar ritual at the start (used here as a general invocation).
greater banishing ritual of mercury / beth, no major change. concluded with LBRP.
unsuccessful overall. next time i perform this i will either use the hexagram ritual of hod, or if i try invoking beth again, i will preceed it with the spirit + paoaoan invocation of sample ritual #1 - as perhaps because the path of beth is above the abyss such a calling is necessary...
this next ritual is an adaptation of mine, with the function (and some elements) of sample ritual #7, though not of an enochian nature. it is based on the general ceremonial structure for all rituals outlined in 776 1/2.
4 May 2012 (Friday): moon phase - waxing 95 % of full, fire tattwa, venus rising (roughly midway between horizon and MC), venus in taurus.
devotion to the divine.alter: green cloth, seven candles surrounding a chalice containing a peach (slitted) to serve as the eucharist. also, water, incense (sandalwood), bell.
LBRP, LBRH, purify by water, consecrate by fire.
Middle Pillar - this was very strong.oath: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I will to devote myself, in love, to The Goddess. Love is the law, love under will." + bell *
greater invoking hexagram ritual of venus / netzach - all well, strong and vivid.
ladder method to rise the colour scales of netzach (olive flecked gold, bright yellow-green, green, bright yellow-orange), with the chanted declaration of "In the Name Babalon, I invoke, and attune myself to, the Hidden Consciousness - SEKHEL NIS' TAR- in its highest expression of Divinity."
vibrate y.h.v.h. tzabaoth, visualise the magical image of netzach (a beautiful naked giantess), to send:
haniel (vibrated), visualised field shifts from bright yellow-orange to green, and the telesmatic image of haniel descends (winged angel, silver starlight radience about head, blonde hair, face with no discernible gender, upper body sensual and clad in dark blue green, slender lower body clad in grey white), to send:
elohim (vibrated), field changes to bright yellow-green, and the bright gods visualised,
all to witness:
gratitude, opening of the heart chakra, and the oath declared once again.the light is then drawn down to solid form to charge the eucharist.
at this point, i felt a wave of intense pleasure, totally euphoric and ecstatic, somehow both peaceful and stimulating all at once. closest thing i can compare it to is a combination of the rush of mdma and a full body orgasm.
eucharist was consumed, and the word nogah vibrated. feelings were all very beautiful and intense.
meditation.
conclusion: LBRH, LBRP, bell 3-5-3 + vibration of abrahadabra.
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You're going through these awfully fast. Maybe you should give yourself some time to assimilate the experience of a working before dashing off to the next. (2 cents.) Sort of reminds me of Lon DuQuette's 48 hour ritual to consecrate his tarot deck.
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Thanks for posting these here! I'm very happy to see you both working through the samples and moving past them creatively.
FWIW, Liber Israfel does take a bit of "knack." I don't think it's a technical (ceremonial technique) error you're encountering, but one of psychological shift and maybe an expectations issue. On the former, it isn't ordinary to most people's experience to find another autonomous being occupying the space inside where they are used to finding only themselves, so there's a "shift" that happens. On the matter of expectations, I'll add that the first section of the ritual is primarily technical/constructive, and I personally don't usually have much subjective sense of something really 'happening' until pretty late in the process - the early sections are primarily "setting up the equipment, plugging everything in just right, doing a sound check."
The active, sustained visualizations are the real key to getting this to work IMHO.
Thanks again.
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@gmugmble said
"You're going through these awfully fast. Maybe you should give yourself some time to assimilate the experience of a working before dashing off to the next. (2 cents.) Sort of reminds me of Lon DuQuette's 48 hour ritual to consecrate his tarot deck."
don't worry, i'm not offended by the criticism, and i can see how it may seem like an intense workload. i don't personally believe that i am rushing it (not that you said that exactly!), it's more to do with a matter of timing.
during the autumn and winter seasons i don't perform any of these kinds of ceremonies, instead i just daily perform banishings, middle pillar, and asana + meditation (of a duration at the very least the same as the rituals). spring time, i begin my magickal year with ritual #1 - generating magical force - and then begin the daily tarot meditations following that. the ceremonies of magical protection, devotion to the divine, and for wisdom in the practice of magick follow this in the spring, as these create resources which are fundamental to more specific magickal work (the ceremonies for generation of magical force, magical protection and devotion to divine are once a year ones for me - others like the yesod ritual for purification of the character and i would say israfel resonate with me has more suitable for repeated, particularised uses). the summer season will be the time for ceremonies of evocation. no major ceremonies in the autumn and winter then.i can certainly see how those three ceremonies in one week in may might look like overkill, but as i say it was a matter of timing, spring aside, mars in leo for the magical protection, and venus in taurus for the netzach one, with the increasing lunar energy of the supermoon was impossible to resist! if i was feeling magically fatigued or unbalanced i wouldn't have done so, but i was in good spirits and had the time free so decided to give the mercury israfel one a go as well.
it's also not my first time doing these ceremonies, last year i did most of these, and also sample ritual #4, sample ritual #9 a couple of times and an evocation of hagiel. i'm only choosing to report on this year's experiences as they are fresher in mind.
@Jim Eshelman said
"Thanks for posting these here! I'm very happy to see you both working through the samples and moving past them creatively.
FWIW, Liber Israfel does take a bit of "knack." I don't think it's a technical (ceremonial technique) error you're encountering, but one of psychological shift and maybe an expectations issue. On the former, it isn't ordinary to most people's experience to find another autonomous being occupying the space inside where they are used to finding only themselves, so there's a "shift" that happens. On the matter of expectations, I'll add that the first section of the ritual is primarily technical/constructive, and I personally don't usually have much subjective sense of something really 'happening' until pretty late in the process - the early sections are primarily "setting up the equipment, plugging everything in just right, doing a sound check."
The active, sustained visualizations are the real key to getting this to work IMHO.
Thanks again."
you are most welcome, and thank you in turn for the response. i look forward to working with israfel again, next time i shall probably use a hexagram ritual of hod as a prelude. i'm not too dissuaded, and i am most intrigued by the ritual, especially so since hearing it was a favourite of regardie's. will report back when i do. i very much appreciated the soundcheck metaphor!
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
This is one of my favorite member postings on this site in the past several months. As a novice, I find this kind of careful recording of specific rituals to be very interesting, informative and exciting.
Reading this suggests something to me that I would like to offer for consideration by Jim and the other site administrators.
I'm sure that other such "experience reports" have been posted here over the years, but they aren't easy to find and are mixed among a lot of other stuff under the generic topic of, "Magick." Maybe they deserve their own heading.
I think it would be really useful to start clustering these kinds kind of high-caliber experience reports and diary entries into one place. You could create a new topic heading called, "Laboratory Notes," or something like that, and limit it to reasonably detailed records of actual ritual experiences and comments on those entries by members. You might even require a certain level of formality and detail for these entries, such as naming the ritual in the heading, demarcation of time and place, etc., for ease of locating and cross-referencing in the future. Over time, I see this becoming a core reference catalog of the operations performed by early Thelemites across the globe.
It's just a thought, but this would, I think, provide a very practical resource for practitioners for many years to come.
Love is the law, love under will.
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@David S said
"This is one of my favorite member postings on this site in the past several months. As a novice, I find this kind of careful recording of specific rituals to be very interesting, informative and exciting."
many thanks, it's good to hear that. it would be even better if it led to others reporting their own experiences.
i have come to realise that the keeping of a magical diary / journal, and recording all magical work is absolutely essential. your reference to "laboratory notes" is very apt, as when it comes to the definition of magick that we all know, the most important words to me are "science" and "art". i don't subscribe to the subjectivity of chaos magick, i think it's a good thing to have the belief that in magick there is a right way to do things, and wrong ways also. also treating it as the science and the art allows one to remember that it is a living system, rather than a museum piece. there's scope for creativity and self-expression, but it is only really effective once we know how it works.@gmugmble said
"Wow. I didn't realize it sounded like a criticism. I'm sorry if you even considered being offended. It was just my reaction"
"criticism", i probably should have used a different word due to the negative connotations in which it is used in everyday life, i mean it more in the way it is used in an artistic sense, in terms of being a comment or suggestion made on interpretation of another's work. in my mind and in this sense, criticisms can (and should) be of positive value. no need to apologise, it's really quite fine.
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I have recently toyed around with the idea of public blogs of forums of people's ritual accounts.
It would not be a persons main journal - that in my opinion should be a hand written account.
By first writing it, a stream of consciousness style can be approached.
With some cleaning before posting.
It might be helpful to provide context.. say" I washed my feet "
[In the last few years, I never reached down and washed my feet, I felt a change when I did. Accepting of something I had not been paying enough attention to. ]
