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In terms of the Western ceremonial rituals I've experienced, I found elements in it not dissimilar to more freeform stuff - in say, charging a mercury tailisman there's still a build up of power - which might take the form of an incantation to/invocation of Mercury from a traditonal source, perhaps a pathworking, set number of chants or tolls of a bell, the making of specific offerings etc - and there's still the element of visualising "energy"/"essence" empowering the tailisman. It may take a while though than and doesn't rely on the "gnostic sneeze" for some pseudo-scientic explantion of how magick works. I wonder if the power in these rituals comes in part from making the bloody effort to assemble all the necessary corresponding bits and pieces, buld an altar etc. as well as a sense of familarity from regualrly working with these ingredients.
You might find it useful to look at Lon Milo Duquette's book "The Magick of Thelema" - this really gave me an appreciation of the depth and design behind Crowleys rituals - I think you can see these rituals as complex mnemoic structures which represent a complete cosmology. It feels as if one inhabits such a structure (moves into a house) and brings it to life. One unfolds an intellectual understanding/map of the cosmos into a living expression of that cosmology through a combination of sound, speech, visualistion, breath, movement and gesture. The little I've done of this sort of work made me appreciate the depth and complexity - the complexity equals involvement. It's as if all the set elements unfold around you, and as you think through the symbolism etc start to live with it, it becomes part of your mental furniture.
I've more experience in tantrik ritual work, which has similar elements with different points of emphasis. Additonal elements to be found here include nyasa, mantra and mudra -I'm not going to details of all three here, but say for instance with mudra, this is the use of the hands to make specific shapes which represent certain elements in the ritual, forms of the Goddess or whatever - thus for instnce you might make eight offerings by making the shapes of a drum, fish, etc with your hands alongside an accompanying visualision. This might be carried out alongside chanting a mantra which again has it's own set of meanings/ideas/symbolism attached as well as the bodily impact of the chant. Combine this with incense, altars, prayers, devotion - and then I think you're "cooking with gas".
This is what irks me about the naive arrogance I soemtimes find in some Chaos magick writing when they dismiss all this stuff without ever having tried it or developed a sophisicated understanding or it. True, big formal rituals can get boring at times ("high church"), but so can the Choas magick run around screaming - fire sigils appraoch. The former is a richer approach to me, but I wouldn't want to be tied to having to do it all the time. (Actually, I often do abbreviations of stuff before mediatation etc). yeah, it can get a bit tired and formulaic - but I've also found it to be a great vehicle for building drama, expressing devotion and emotional engagement. |
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