College of Thelema: Thelemic Education

@SoF said

"Am I right in thinking that all magicians should be including some form of devotional, or meditative, practice to sort of initially 'touch base' (to use a modern phrase) with the HGA? That this sort of thing should be done daily to form a conscious link with the HGA that is then formally utiliised though the ritual of Liber Samekh or similar for the 5=6 grade?

Some Thelemites suggest doing this but, unless I've missed it, it doesn't seem to be part of the Probationer syllabus. If so, what sort of practices are considered the best? David Shoemaker suggests devotional practice, enflaming oneself in prayer whilst Alan Chapman gives a more meditative method in his book 'Three Steps to Heaven' (Page 53):

hebaptistshead.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/threestepsebook.pdf

I also believe that Israel Regardie suggests reciting the first part of the Bornless Ritual.

If this is correct, I'd appreciate any advice or suggested techniques that people have used so that I can get my devotional practice up and running. 😄"

I would say that the work of the elemental grades should make you high anyway so the samekh prayers are merely icing on the cake.

In the generic (lesser) hexagram, the hexagrams are all inaugurated from the Saturn point, i.e., the apex of the up-pointing triangle. That's the tiny puzzle people are struggling with here regarding the Water hexagram.

@SoF said

"
It's interesting what Jim was saying about aesthetics. as my wife tried substituting the LBRP for the Nu Sphere straight off and when she did it, it didn't go well at all. She said it threw her completely 'off balance' and she felt like she was back at square one again, magically."

Yep, that'll happen. 😀 The fact that she actually felt off balance is a good sign that she's doing something right.

There's a great article or two in In The Continuum and/or Black Pearl that go into some detail about the pentagram rituals. I'm not in front of my computer at the moment but, next time I am, I'll track it/them down for you. They really helped start my gears turning in the right direction towards unlocking the ritual and kicking it up a notch.