The Pentagram Ritual
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Do what you will shall be the whole of the Law.
Mr. Eshelman, I have a question about phrase:
Pearls of Wisdom:
... For about me flames the Pentagram,
And in the Column shines the six-rayed star.Crowley comments on this part as follows:
As you vibrate the Divine Name the angels, as given in the ritual, appear (note that they should appear and if the ritual is properly performed do appear.)
You are thus standing in a Column which is protected by your microcosmic invocation. The consequent result, being macrocosmic response, is that without any effort on your part the hexagram or sixfold star appears both above and below you. (Note the equilibration of 5 = 6). In this way you are completely shut off from the outer and Qliphotic parts of the universe.
And in the book you left it without any comments. Does all this mean that the beginner does not need to visualize anything (or to do something else) during this proclamation? Or, this step is actually a kind of measure of success in this practice?
BTW! Do you know why Crowley changed the instructions? I mean, why Hexagram shines in the column instead of behind as taught in the Golden Dawn?
Thank you in advance!
Love is the law, love under will.
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@Quaestor Lucis said
"And in the book you left it without any comments. Does all this mean that the beginner does not need to visualize anything (or to do something else) during this proclamation? Or, this step is actually a kind of measure of success in this practice?"
A little of both. First, the intent of that article was to keep things crisp, simple, avoiding anything unnecessary (especially theory!), especially if the student would likely figure it out on his or her own. Second, I don't think the visualization is critical - the effect is present regardless. Third, yes, you could call it "a kind of measure of success," I supposed, because there is something - something not even mentioned here - that tends to happen spontaneously after long-term practice, and I think it's best left for people to trip over it on their own.
"BTW! Do you know why Crowley changed the instructions? I mean, why Hexagram shines in the column instead of behind as taught in the Golden Dawn?"
It's the most commonly varied section of the ritual - almost every published version has it a little different. He certainly kept the original in principle in the symbolism of the Probationer robe, where the pentagram is on the chest and the hexagram on the back. I think he probably... discovered something. And also was especially taken with the number symbolism. (I'm guessing, but they're educated guesses.)
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Do what you will shall be the whole of the Law.
Thank you very much for your answer! It was very helpful
I would like to ask you two more question:1)The chanting technique, that you have described in this chapter is very simple, but I'm still not sure that I do it properly. Once I had the feeling that the very air vibrated and said the words with me for hundreds of meters around. But otherwise my chanting is simply a humming in the chest and throat - just like in conventional conversation with loud voice. So I want to ask you about the reasons for which chanting is used in magic practice (I think it's just a way to improve concentration, but perhaps there is something else...) And how important is the ability to chant for the success in this ritual?
2) Another question worries me now is about proper intention for LBRP / LIRP. It seems to me, that the success in any work depends on how the result matches the intent. In any of my usual occupations (such as sport or music), the result is evident. But when I practice magick, I do it blindly, for I have no idea about how the successful banishing or invocation is feels like , or how it feels when my aura is properly strengthened against distraction. (By the way, please clarify what you mean by «general toner») The Real intention with which I start this magical practice is “to master it; to learn general banishing/invocation” . Is such an intention suitable for a successful practice? (very much hope that my question is clear )Thanks in advance!
Love is the law, love under will.
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@Quaestor Lucis said
"1)The chanting technique, that you have described in this chapter is very simple, but I'm still not sure that I do it properly. Once I had the feeling that the very air vibrated and said the words with me for hundreds of meters around. But otherwise my chanting is simply a humming in the chest and throat - just like in conventional conversation with loud voice. So I want to ask you about the reasons for which chanting is used in magic practice (I think it's just a way to improve concentration, but perhaps there is something else...) And how important is the ability to chant for the success in this ritual?"
I don't think your technique (as I understand from your description) is particularly good. This doesn't (for example) sound like Gregorian chant (though that would be cool in its own right). I don't have anything I've written on the subject (it always makes most sense to me to teach this in person, one-on-one), but let's try something simple.
The idea is to get the deepest, most resonate utterance possible, with each syllable having its own weight. If I were to exaggerate hugely (hugely!), you want to turn into a cathedral style pipe organ, the kind of instrument that is physically felt and, more importantly, is emotionally felt for its resonance and depth.
Why do this? I suspect it is mostly psychological, and secondarily does set up a resonance in the physical body that has various advantageous effects.
To practice, stand upright and do a little shaking loose the physical stress and tension, and a little light rhythmic breathing. Then take a deep breath, and aim your voice substantially lower than you think makes any sense - as low as you can go (we're looking for a "floor" that is below what you eventually will use) - and slowly let out the most resonant "Ahhhhh" on a single note that you can. (You can use other syllables, but this is a good one for mouth shape and sound.)
Concentrate primarily on your physical body sensations. Watch the breath, how it moves out, how everything feels in your body. (At this point, it probably will feel all wrong.)
Take another deep breath and, this time, start at the same place and then, every few seconds, raise the tone a note or two. Pause at each place to witness how your physical body feels. At some point - still down in the deep registers - something will happen that is quite different, that resembles a tuning fork suddenly having the right note sounded near it. Your body will take on a new "buzz," will enter into the vibration more. If you move up, past it, this effect will stop. After you've found it once, you can move up and down past it, and find that when you are exactly on that spot, you will have this additional, distinctive "buzz" in your body, but you won't have it above or below that.
This is the note you should use.
Except, it will change. It will change (just a little) more or less every time you work. It varies with you, the room, the temperature, your physical and psychological condition, etc. So you need to practice finding it, after which it will be pretty automatic to go to (or near) the right spot every time (and easy to tweak it, with the highly recognizable feel, if you don't hit it outright).
Unless you are using specialty techniques that assign distinctive notes to each Hebrew letter, you should keep your tone steady throughout an entire vibration. Make every syllable of even length and weight with the others. YOD HEH VAV HEH is four even syllables of equal weight, but so is AH DO NA EE, etc.
"2) Another question worries me now is about proper intention for LBRP / LIRP."
Let me butt in here a minute. I intentionally wrote this article for Black Pearl to be brief and get people into doing it without thinking about it too much. There are lots of cool things to realize about the ritual, but I rarely find that it does anybody much good to hear those things in advance. Mostly one needs to just do it, day in and out.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
"It seems to me, that the success in any work depends on how the result matches the intent."
The intent is to do it. Look back in 6 months or a year or five years and see what happened.
I am especially speaking of the ritual in its most common use, which is a training exercise to alter you over time. I consider it a secondary or tertiary use to actually banish something or other - it's most common and most important purpose is that it trains you like no other ritual will train you, and it alters you gradually, over time. The equivalent "purpose" if I were talking to a roast would be, "Your purpose and practice are the same: Stay in the oven and get roasted. Don't worry about how the oven works."
"In any of my usual occupations (such as sport or music), the result is evident. But when I practice magick, I do it blindly, for I have no idea about how the successful banishing or invocation is feels like , or how it feels when my aura is properly strengthened against distraction."
this is a good example of why, after the bare beginnings, a student of magick should always work as a disciple IMHO. I entirely embrace Crowley's instruction on Will in Book 4, Part II that your job is to find a master (i.e., a teacher) and submit yourself unreservedly to him or her until you have reached your goal; that is, to pass through a proper apprenticeship in the style of the old trades. I don't really know any way that most of this stuff can be taught except by long interaction. - YMMV of course, but that's my honest seasoned view
"(By the way, please clarify what you mean by «general toner»)"
The magical equivalent of doing 10 minutes of quick calisthenics in the morning. It tones you in a general, rather than a specific, way.
"The Real intention with which I start this magical practice is “to master it; to learn general banishing/invocation” . Is such an intention suitable for a successful practice?"
I believe it is.
One reason is that reason gets too much in the way otherwise. Another related reason is that pretty much nobody is able to actually understand the goal when they start, but only when they get near it, so to talk about that just jumbles words and wrong mental images and wrong concepts. Students need to come into the work with their own clear reasons, because that focuses their presence and attention, but what those reasons are don't really matter and are usually just some mental or romantic façade built on top of ignorance - the ignorance we all have. (I'm not picking on beginners. I'm just acknowledging that none of us comes into this with language for stuff that doesn't fit into language, or images of things that have no intrinsic image.)
So: Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. No, I don't explain.
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Do what you will shall be the whole of the Law.
First of all, thank you for your previous reply! I start every LRP with that vocal exercise. And although I have not found that particular note, my voice in general has become deeper and more resonant, so that led to better concentration and greater emotional involvement.
Mr. Eshelman, I ask you to answer a few practical questions about the archangels part of the ritual.
So far I just imagine the appropriate color in front of me, behind ... and so on. But the next month, I want to go further and work through these images in more detail. I'm going to try the "training wheels" you suggested in another topic:"I recommend a practice hinted at above. Do the ritual up to the archangel point and then sit or stand facing east and take all the time you need (easily 5-10 minutes) to build up Raphael in minute detail and feel him gradually move into and occupy the "housing" you are creating. (Don't expect perfection the first time. It will improve with repetition.) Then walk around your space to the south and sit or stand facing south as you do the same for Mikhael. Etc. with all four. When done, go back to the center, face east, and continue the ritual with "Before me," etc. Do it this way for a minimum of two weeks then, depending on how it feels to you, take the training wheels off."
So here are my questions:
- At what distance should I visualize the archangels? And how tall? (I have been working without a physical circle; width of my room is about 7 feet).
- Should the visualization be entirely spontaneous? Or, should I first develop images on paper: color of robe, posture, weapon, face?
Love is the law, love under will.
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@Quaestor Lucis said
"1) At what distance should I visualize the archangels? And how tall? (I have been working without a physical circle; width of my room is about 7 feet)."
How big is your designated space - your circle, so to speak? Put them at the perimeter of that.
"2) Should the visualization be entirely spontaneous? Or, should I first develop images on paper: color of robe, posture, weapon, face?"
It's flexible - you should be, too.