Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Temple >

LIBER O vel manus et sagittae - The Whys and Wherefores

03:22 / 05.04.05

"5. There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid, will fail to get some result; but there is great danger that he will be led astray, obsessed and overwhelmed by his results, even though it be by those which it is necessary that he should attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first resting-place for the goal, and taketh off his armour as if he were a victor ere the fight is well begun.

It is desirable that the student should never attach to any
result the importance which it at first seems to possess."

I started a thread a while back on the Equinox and my goal of reading thru it. Whelp, not far in and the questions begin. Liber O has me intrigued. Now, I've been doing the Lesser Banishing Ritual o/t Pentagram once a day for about a year now and am looking to raise my game. I tried the Lesser Banishing of the Hexagram the other day and had some very powerful but unexpected effects (I felt very at ease and "clean", everything around me seemed to intensify, and I was more introverted than usual). I don't think I'll be doing it again very soon, preferring to get back to a regular Middle Pillar instead and maybe a Lesser Invoking in the AM and a Lesser Banishing in the PM. I'm wondering, though, about the purpose of these rituals. Liber O seems pretty clear on the "hows" and short on the "whys". The way I see it is this:

LRP - To purify the self
LRH - To purify a place
GRP - To invoke/banish the elemental forces
GRH - To invoke/banish the planetary forces

Is that about right, or way off base? What are we using these for and why?

%%Or do I just really really REALLY need to memorize all those columns in 777 and then "all will become clear".%%

As an aside, do any here use the Lesser Invoking and Banishing Rituals before and after workings? I've used it for solo work to great effect, but I don't feel I'm getting good effects using it to open and close group rituals. Both times I've used it in group work, it seemed to me that there was too much energy zhoozhing around, and both times my clumsiness got the better of me (once breaking an expensive dish and the other burning a rug with a lit incense cone). Another thread perhaps?

16:08 / 05.04.05

I use the LBRP and the Middle Pillar as daily exercises. Sometimes I will use them specifically for a ritual or working, sometimes I use the Star Ruby instead. And sometimes I don't banish at all. I guess it depends on their appropriateness to what I'm doing.

As for your list of the purposes of the pentagram/hexagram rituals, it sounds good to me. I don't think you're off the mark. Anyway, good luck with the Equinox, and please post more questions/observations as they arise!

09:17 / 07.04.05

I'm interested in the 'how' here. I notice for instance that the LBRP recommended by Rowe (Essential Skills of Magic) totally differs from that recommended by the GD - the pentagrams are drawn totally differently.

I know its chaos'n'all but I'd be interested to hear any comments upon how much such ritual forms matter. Is it just the whatever-works-for-you complex again?

10:01 / 07.04.05

totally differs from that recommended by the GD - the pentagrams are drawn totally differently... Is it just the whatever-works-for-you complex again?

It depends what you're actually trying to do. If you just want a standard "banishing" type thing for the toolbox, that you can pull out whenever you need to clear the decks, then there are many variations on the standard G.'.D.'. Pentagram sketch to choose from. Same form, substitute pentagrams and Godnames for whatever clicks with you personally. With the internalisation that comes from practice, it works pretty good. You could swap pentagrams for the WWE logo and imagine wrestlers at the four quarters and it would clear space well enough.

However, the actual form of the LBRP, as adaptable as it might be, originates in the Golden Dawn. It was written by Mathers and is best thought of as 'step one' of the GD system of ceremonial. If you want to learn that, then you want to get it right and draw the pentagrams in the right way, because you will be building on the form and taking it off to new places. It doesn't just stop with the basic form but is refined and extra nuances are brought into your skill with it, so the direction in which the pentacles are drawn will start to produce different results. Is that making sense?

Like in some martial arts, you will learn a simplified form of something that works quite effectively, then as you progress in your training you will refine that and learn more complex versions of the form that give you more control and leverage on whatever it is you're doing.

It's not so much that drawing pentagrams one way will instantly banish and drawing it them other way will instantly invoke, with all the attendant paranoia that might accompany that. But more that you can drill yourself into producing different results by working with adaptations of the basic structure. Learning magic, like learning anything, is all about practice and internalisation.

10:25 / 07.04.05

Yeah GL, that makes some kind of sense, thanks... Sounds as if the GD form is important in that it is part of an 'extensible system', if you will...

Rather than deck-clearing, I was more interested in stuff that I've read relating to the use of LBRP for 'centering' as Phil Hine calls it, a daily spiritual exercise, that sort of thing.

It occurs to me that I might get just as good results in this sense from doing Salute to the Sun daily but that it might not strengthen my sense of involvement with 'magick' as such. OTOH, I might have better muscle tone...

19:45 / 07.04.05

You could try Crowley's exercise from Liber Resh.

This includes a salutation and specific posture/visualization and recitations such as: "Hail unto thee who art Ra at thy rising, even unto thee who are Ra in thy strength. Who travelest over the heavens in thy barque at the uprising of the sun. Tahuti sits in splendor at the prow and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto thee from the abodes of the morning!"

This is done in the morning, at noon, dusk, and at midnight (or whenever you go to bed).

I tried it, but it didn't work for me, personally. I do think it's a good exercise in getting you to pay attention to what the sun is doing, instead of sleepwalking through the day.

You can also try breathing deeply and being consciously IN your body, aware and awake, at whatever time of day seems good to you.

16:23 / 10.04.05

I like the digging-the-sun's-routine idea but all that theeing and thouing makes me titter sometimes... Cheers though..

00:04 / 11.04.05

Crowley said that Liber Resh fulfills three different purposes: (i) to attune the magician to the divine (or the classic Solar principle) by identifying with the Sun as it progresses through the heavens, (ii) to remind the magician that he or she IS a magician by requiring regular practice on a daily basis, and (iii) to allow the magician to draw energy or spiritual sustenance from the sun.

Personally, I think (ii) is the most important reason to do the exercise. It seems to be what you're looking for -- "something to strengthen [your] sense of involvement with 'magick' as such." It's shorter and requires less time and privacy than the LBRP, too.

As for the high-flown language, as someone who has never been a Christian, and never was raised with the King James Bible, I find the "thee" and "thou" language in a lot of ritual magic faintly absurd. In Liber Resh, Crowley's phrasing comes (at least in part) from the prayers he's ripping off from E.A. Wallis Budge's translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (such as "A Hymn of Praise to be Sung to Ra When He Riseth on the Horizon, and When He Setteth In the Land of Life"). (Crowley's attributions of the gods for the different times of day are wrong, though.)

It's easy enough to substitute some simpler language. Here's a quick example:

Hail, Ra in your triumph and strength!
Coursing through the heavens at noon!
Horus at the helm and Thoth at the prow.
Hail to you from the realm of morning!

Of course, if you don't find Egyptian mythology interesting or meaningful, this still sounds a bit absurd.

07:57 / 11.04.05

Nothing stopping you from just celebrating the sun with a simple:

“Hail to the Sun in the morning”

or maybe elaborating on that in your own way, like:

“Hail to the sun in the morning, that rises over the city and brings new light and purpose to the day. Praise to the sun in the morning”

“Hail to the sun at noon, that sits high over the world and warms the cold earth with its flame. Praise to the sun at noon.”

Etc...