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Lesser Hexagram Ritual - time for a revision?

  
  

Page: 12(3)4

 
 
Gypsy Lantern
10:49 / 19.05.06
I've actually got loads more questions about the practice and symbolism of the Hexagrams that have been bothering me. Will write it all up when I get a chance.
 
 
SteppersFan
12:02 / 19.05.06
This is turning into a wicked thread. I don't like ceremonial magic much, but Lord Switch's responses in particular and the thread as a whole is really interesting and helpful.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
12:10 / 19.05.06
I think ceremonial magic is what you make of it, and it's as interesting or as dull as you are prepared to let it be. I keep finding that a lot of this stuff appears fairly dead and stagnant on the surface, but that's only because you need to move within it and make it come alive yourself in order to get to the juice of it. There's so much contained within those forms but you have to put the time and effort in to let it unfold and come to mean something to you.
 
 
Scrambled Password Bogus Email
12:22 / 19.05.06
Yeah, this thread's on fire, baby. Good stuff.
 
 
Sam T.
12:53 / 19.05.06
Just gotten around reading this, and as always in the Temple, it is matching my current interests perfectly. Please, keep it up!

On a side note, which internet reading would you recommend for someone who is an absolute beginner in CM (having done the LBRP on and off, in various inconsistent guises since a year or two), and who is no good at riddles at all?

I've been reading Crowley quite a lot since some time, and am loving it, but he is clearly out of my league, and very obscure, or there are too much things I must read that are supposed to shed light on what I am reading that themselves need other texts to be understood...

This thread is reframing the whole thing very nicely, and I'm looking for something that is doing just it in the same way, but several 'levels' below.

TIA!
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
13:04 / 19.05.06
Good luck finding something like that on the internet!
 
 
illmatic
13:25 / 19.05.06
Possibly you should learn by doing, not by reading?

But if you must... Lon Milo Duquette is probably a good starting point, in a bit of a "give the game away" sort of way.
 
 
illmatic
13:37 / 19.05.06
But the magick in this book will only work if you buy it. If you download it as a PDF or even get a photocopy, it'll blow up in your face spectaculary. I know Duquette personally, and he told me of the deal he cut with the Enochian angels to make sure of this. So watch out.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
13:47 / 19.05.06
I don't really like Lon Milo Duquette's stuff myself. His books seems to miss the point and focus on what I'd call the "idolatory of ritual" without much reference to why you would do these things in the first place, what they might mean experientially, or what they are supposed to do. He's good for getting an easy-to-digest overview of the symbolism but I find his spin on things a bit problematic from an experiential perspective. I also always get a sense from his writing that he seems to be tip-toeing on egg shells around the Caliphate OTO and taking care to remain within their official version of what Crowley's work should mean.
 
 
LVX23
14:00 / 19.05.06
there are too much things I must read that are supposed to shed light on what I am reading that themselves need other texts to be understood...

Indeed. That's why they call them the mysteries. I started with Book of Lies and a Thoth deck then spent the next 5 years just trying to absorb and work the basics to penetrate the deeper layers of meaning in them. Been going about 13 years since I started but it's really a lifetime of study & practice. If you want to understand this stuff in some meaningful way and integrate it into your life, you will need to read a lot, make a lot of your own personal correspondences, and engage them in ritual, meditation, pathworkings etc. There are no useful shortuts that don't lead to yet more questions.

FWIW, I've mosty been focused on the LRP and elemental rites for the last 4 years or so. I'm trying to balance the spheres enough to stand in tipareth with some degree of stability and consistency. I have an intuitive relationship with the Hexagram (and practical knowledge of the Abyss) but have done very little plantary work and only scratched the surface of the Aurum Solis. My understanding is that in order to proceed up the tree toward K&C of the HGA one must do a lot of work in both LVX & NOX.

And I would debate the suggestion (possibly a mistranslation?) that NOX is somehow higher or greater than LVX. They are two sides of the same coin, IMHO. The Lesser Countenance is the revealed face of G_d and the Greater is the hidden, but they are both of the Absolute, just as the Kingdom is of equal worth to the Supernals.

Gypsy, I would very much lik eto read your questions of the Hexagram as they would inspire my own quest to reach a deeper understanding of it's mysteries.
 
 
SteppersFan
15:19 / 19.05.06
Re: the "deadness" / fustiness of ceremonial magic - James "Synesis" Butler, who knows his onions and has done a lot of it, said it was a lot like opera -- a terrible vapid exercise in boredom at its worst, but at its best a dazzling whirlwind of human and extrahuman spectacle.

{Tentatively} LVX, I got a whiff in Lord Switch's post that maybe some of these mysteries don't necessarily require /so/ many years of dedicated concentration... not that I would want to imply that this stuff is "easy", not at all, just thinking particularly of how he compared K&CoGA with other disciplines and experiences...
 
 
rising and revolving
17:50 / 19.05.06
Which books? Because while I'd agree this is true of his "Magick of Thelema / Crowley" or whatever the Gods, Demons, etc one is, it's the opposite of the manner in which I read "My Life With the Spirits" which is full of ... engagement and personal tales. To me, it's as good a representation of what it's like to live a magical lifestyle as exists in ceremonial magic. Not that there's a great deal of work to compare it to in that sense.

None the less, it's a pretty good crowbar into a better perception of what it's like to do ceremonial, rather than merely watching it.
 
 
Sam T.
18:31 / 19.05.06
Good luck finding something like that on the internet!

Already managed to more or less do so. The 'pleading politely to Thoth' route can do wonder to slip just the thing you need in your google search.

Do you care for any non-digitized recommendation maybe, please?

But the magick in this book will only work if you buy it. If you download it as a PDF or even get a photocopy, it'll blow up in your face spectaculary.

Bah, that's what they all say.

One day the terrible weight of my knowledge-thief's karma will just roll me over, and I'll need dozens of reincarnation as a copist monk to make up for it.

Meanwhile, I'm just running fast, and am managing to not be home when it knocks on my door. Sometimes I'm even going as far as giving money in exchange for books, now that the finances are better.

It has the added advantage of temporarily appeasing the nightmares sent by the hundreds of obviously carefully crafted payback-servitors hanging around my bed.

But Enochian Angels, man, that's hardcore. Shouldn't be allowed if you ask me.

Possibly you should learn by doing, not by reading?

That's something I do, too, mind you. But I need the symbolism to be spoon-feed to me. It just isn't obvious at all, never was, I'm sometimes wondering if I'm not symbol-blind or something. Or maybe I'm just not able to figure where the door is.

Just discovered a few weeks ago what exactly are the wand, sword, cup and disks. Because I saw it spelled out explicitly. Did put that to incredibly good use since, this is really an extraordinary assortment of psychological weapon. What a streak of sheer genius, to link a psychological quality to a represented object, which you are then able to modify and use with your imagination. First rate hack. But why, oh why isn't there more of simple, down to earth, 'Bandler style' explanation of this?

If it wasn't for this web page, I'll still be hunting around Crowley for ages, vaguely understanding nothing and being no better off. Now, this all starts to make sense. Somewhat.

In my currently limited understanding, what Thelema seems to be about is giving you an awesome assortment of psychological tools to help you transform yourself.

So, what is the reason to hide this in the present days? Should be free for all!

I didn't find those tools less effective because they were clearly explained to me, quite the contrary, it is just now that I'm able to at last use them.

Is it designed so, in effect that all the mad siddhis that go with the practice don't fall in the wrong hands? Because to me, that was the (relatively) easy part. As one John Constantine's incarnation rightfully put it, "Any cunt can do it".

And it is quite dangerous to have those siddhis without the psychological stability that Alchemy or Thelema or Hermeticism or whatever provides. Damn near blew me in the face. I'm not even willing to consider that this might be a voluntarily set up self-destruct trap, that would be way wicked. Really, what is the point?

If you want to understand this stuff in some meaningful way and integrate it into your life, you will need to read a lot, make a lot of your own personal correspondences, and engage them in ritual, meditation, pathworkings etc. There are no useful shortuts that don't lead to yet more questions.

Looks like I'm still missing the whole point of it after all. I'm taking your word for it. And I love my Thoth deck, but still, it's opaque. I am slowly building a meaning into each card. But it's quite personal, and all the symbols on the card didn't help much. Crowley's explanations were, for once, helpful. It may be so because I had the hand with the Yi already. First few chapters of Magick in theory and Practice were really helpful also, but after that...

What I've read, and I'm sure that's kind of the root of the problem, is that much of what are the essentials basics were given orally. Working them out from some text that are elaboration upon them is a lot of work and no fun.

Sure, when you finally get it, everything must suddenly fall into place. But if it wasn't for Benjamin Rowe, the LBRP would still be some kind of dead lumber weight to me.

Thanks to all for your answers!
 
 
Lord Switch
20:12 / 19.05.06
It may be a misstranslation. NOX is not bigger or more powerful, it is just "higher" up.
Basically, Nox is what happens when you have become that which sheds the light, instead of staring at the sun.

I don´t quite agree with using NOX to attain to the knowledge and conversation of your hga. I would say that attainging the Knowledge and conversation is LVX magick. But that is just being in communicatio.
NOX is the actual ´coagula´ when the wedding has taken place, and the Angel yet again abandons you to call you. this time on from beyond another veil.
***************

Gypsy is completely right. Ceremonial magick is alive and full of life. It is a system, just as any system. You need to live it and experience it for it to work.

One little side note is that initiation is not required to work the GD style of stuff. it helps loads, but mostly becasue the initiation involves undergoping the ceremony, that contains the mysteries. I don´t believe there to be a difference between MR X who reads the 1=10 ritual and fully udnerstands it and then does earth/virgo/taurus/malkuth/capricorn rituals, or Mr Y who undergoes te ritual.
The imortance is :
The sign of earth is meaningless if you just read about it and see a picture and try to do an invocation to earth.
But when remembering that the sign of earth is sandalphons stance when she lifts the swords of metatron and Samael whe they are trying to bar your way and kill you with their weapons...
It makes more sense and gives the ritual a more "grounded" feel.

Another thing is: it is easier to do something that you have seen/felt.
Its more difficult to make a martial arts stance from a book then it is to learn it from an instructor.

Its more difficult to get a result from a ceremonial magickal invocation of element/whatever, but when you have worked in a temple with people who are good at it, and when you have had 10+ people actively sitting invoking the element on you during your initiation, then you´ll ´remember´the feeling you were trying to go for.
(Jan fries Visual Magick is highly recomended )
*************

When it comes to ritual do it, dont just read it. But try to find out what the ritual is meant to do. Then find points in your life that you can connect it to.

Sure, the lesser hexagram is meant to banish the planetary elemental influences. So what? what does that mean and how does that affect me?
Not at all. Unless you KNOW that certain planet(s) do influence you. The easiest is the Moon. So many people get moody on the full/new moons. Compare how you feel then to how you feel right now, all relaxed with a cuppa tea, a full tummy reading this.
Feel the moon pull on you?
Feel the moon influencing your reptile brain t release ostrogen/testosteron to synch woth the natural human female menstruation?
No?
me neither. Good. this is what the hexagram banishes.

Becasue as soon as you start devoting 2 hours a day to meditate on the moon. follow itc course and try to harnedd the lunar magical forces (crystals, dreams astral stuff etc) then you will need to be able to banish it.

GD et all style magick is all about learning to get rid of the crap /perdo)
Learning to perceive it (intellego)
to controll it (rego)
to create it (creo)
to transmute if for other causes (mutto)
--hows very Ars Magica RPG huh?

Thats all there is to it. You don´t need to banish a force you are not aware of. as soon as you become aware of it you want to be able to have a clean slate.
The reason the hexagram ritual concerns 7 planets is becasue you can see all of them with the naked eye (ok, some need a pair of good binocullars, still)
Thats why they have been known.
Its easier to focus on a planet you can _see_ than on something you need 5000dollars equipment for to notice.
 
 
EvskiG
20:59 / 19.05.06
This is all very interesting.

It also touches on what I've been thinking lately.

My esoteric background has been in psychedelics and metaprogramming, then Golden Dawn and Thelemic magic, then yoga, then Chaos magic, and I'm now trying to figure out just how to reignite my practice after a fallow period.

Golden Dawn-style/A.'.A.'. magic has always held a lot of appeal to me, but I'm reluctant to go back to the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, Middle Pillar, Circulation of the Body of Light, memorizing correspondences, etc., etc. when I don't see GD forms or practice -- or any other form or practice -- as any more valid or less arbitrary than any other system. And when I strongly doubt that, say, Mercury or Saturn exert any real "influence," the gods have any objective existence, Hebrew is an especially magical language, or Christian or Jewish ritual has anything meaningful to do with my life.

It's almost a form of existential magical paralysis.

I've been thinking of creating my own personal system that synthesizes what I know and focuses on different goals in discrete steps (control of the physical body, control of the emotions, control of the "astral plane," etc.), much like raja yoga or the levels of the A.'.A.'. But that would involve a hell of a lot of work. (When I took the first step, reviewed and researched Liber Resh, considered whether it was a worthwhile ritual, and wrote my own substitute, it took two weeks.)

Perhaps I'll just go back to yoga, which I always thought was the best and most internally consistent system.

Or perhaps I just don't need magic in my life anymore.

Any thoughts?
 
 
Lord Switch
21:22 / 19.05.06
It sounds to me like you are just afraid of putting any effort into anything that will end up being a waste of your time.

It is fun spendning time talking about systems and how they are or are not more worthwile than any other system.


it doesnt matter which path you take, just start walking one. If you think that you don=t need a path, ie magic, then you should cinsider why you startwed in tghe first place?

If you have the answer to that I'm sure you can justify some form of work to yourself.
The bigest problem with the cgaos generation is that people keep reinventiing the wheel.

think of the different paths as martial arts.
You could come up with your own after having spent 6 months learning aikido judo karate boxing and muay tai.... or you could actually learn one untill you are profficient enough to state that all martial arts are the same?

Just my thoughts.
 
 
rising and revolving
00:37 / 20.05.06
I don´t believe there to be a difference between MR X who reads the 1=10 ritual and fully udnerstands it and then does earth/virgo/taurus/malkuth/capricorn rituals, or Mr Y who undergoes te ritual.

Seconded. Mainly because of

Another thing is: it is easier to do something that you have seen/felt.

That's the biggest advantage of GD style initiation. You get to actually taste this stuff, rather than reading an ingredient list. It makes a big difference to have people who can seriously invoke earth show you how it's done. Saves you some blind alleyways.

But is it the only way to get a handle on elemental earth? Of course not. That places an absurd power in the hands of initated adepts that they simply don't have. You can find this stuff out yourself. It just kind of helps if you have a guide to light the way.

At least, it helped me. Some people find the frission of discovering the hidden is what pushes them on. There's a bit of that in me, too.

BTW, Lons book on the Thoth deck I also thought was excellent. I recommend that as a good stepping stone in order to begin to wrap your head around some of the symbols, in an explicit fashion.

Finally, thanks to Switch for hir contribitions. They obviously know a bunch more about this stuff than I - I'm actually starting to work some of the Thelemic rituals right now in order to add some ... something to my practice that feels missing. I'll throw questions up as I come across them.
 
 
EvskiG
11:51 / 20.05.06
Switch, thanks for the comments.

I've been doing this for about 20 years, including 3-4 years of pretty intensive daily Golden Dawn-style work. I've memorized the correspondences from 777, brushed up on my Hebrew, done countless LBRPs and BRHs, used the Rose Cross to make talismans, and even learned that wretched geomancy. Never really worked with a group, never (successfully) done any Goetic magic, never invoked the HGA or done the Abramelin ritual, and don't really understand Enochian, but I think I've got a passable grounding in ceremonial magic and the Western Esoteric Tradition.

But as I've gotten older, as I've needed to accomplish practical things I once might have used magic for (finding a job, helping a friend, dealing with a crisis at work), I've eventually come to the point where (with rare execeptions) I drop the magic, roll up my sleeves, and simply do it. If I need to lose weight, I eat less and exercise. If I need to improve my prospects of promotion at work, I figure out how, work longer hours, bring in new business, and start building a reputation among my peers.

When my mother was very ill, for example, I could have done some sort of healing ritual, but instead I got on a plane, went to her house, got her to the hospital, spoke to her doctors, stayed with her until she was better, and followed up with her and her doctors until she was well. Could I have added magic to that mix (that is, apart from the magic implicit in purposeful action)? Sure. Did I feel any need to? No.

Of course, magic isn't purely practical -- causing change in accordance with will. There's also exploring and trying to understand the self and the universe. As Gypsy Lantern put it so poetically,

"The skill of magic is about being able to enter weird territories of consciousness in order to comprehend things that you would otherwise be blinkered to, and to come back with that increased understanding, remaining intact and healthy. It's about being able to navigate difficult or challenging areas of your being. Walking between worlds, with grace and finesse."

That's what I feel I'm missing. And I'm wondering how to go about it.

Somehow I don't think it involves drawing pentacles and intoning god names. I suspect it might start by simply paying close attention to the world around me and figuring out how to act accordingly.

I'm 37 now, and sometimes I feel like I've moved from the stage of brahmacarya, the student, to the phase of gârhastya, the householder. I've got a job I like, a wife I adore, my health, and as of next week, possibly a mortgage. Perhaps I have to genuinely devote my attention to this phase of life before I can be a forest dweller or sage.

Anyway, forgive the rambling, and apologies for hijacking the thread. I guess I'm trying to figure a few things out for myself these days, and I appreciate the input.
 
 
Quantum
13:21 / 20.05.06
Evskig, I'm going to start a thread about that right now- come join me.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
12:33 / 22.05.06
Some questions on the Hexagrams:

Why do you trace the Hexagram of Earth in the South, when in the LBRP the South is the station of Fire, and so on? The closest answer I've been able to get for this is "astrological reasons" without much explanation as to what those astrological reasons might be. Why don't you use the same quarter attributions as the LBRP?

Likewise, why are the Hexagrams drawn as different permutations of two intersecting triangles, what does each different formation of the Hexagrams actually mean and why is each one placed specifically in the quarter that it is?

If you were to accept Crowley's assertion that the formula of the dying and resurrected God is specific to the Aeon of Osiris and now no longer applicable to the Aeon of Horus - does that not make the classical form of the Hexagram rites and analysis of the key word a redundant formula?

Given the solar and macrocosmic nature of the rite, in what specific circumstances would one utilise the banishing and invoking forms of this ritual?

What is it meant to do? And do your own personal experiences of it corroborate that? Why should a person perform it regularly?

Despite it's centrality to ceremonial magic, I find it slightly alarming at how few 'authorities' on the subject seem capable of answering some of these questions. Anybody here got any personal insight they would like to share?
 
 
EvskiG
14:04 / 22.05.06
I might not be the best person to explain, but here's my understanding.

You start in the East, the place of the rising sun, as per the LBRP. The signs are done in "astrological order": Fire, Earth, Air, and Water -- that is, the order the elements appear in the Zodiac: e.g., Aries (fire), Taurus (earth), Gemini (air), Cancer (water).

Each combination of triangles is considered the hexagram for the element at issue: the Fire Hexagram for fire, the (traditional) Earth Hexagram for earth, etc. How were they chosen? I believe it's because they roughly incorporate the relevant elemental symbols (upward triangle for fire, downward triangle with line through it for earth, etc.). Personally, I like the unicursal hexagram better.

I've never accepted Crowley's assertions about the Aeon of Horus, so no problem there for me.

I never personally got beyond regular practice of the LBRH, so I can't meaningfully discuss the invoking version. I found the LBRH pretty useful for an additional banishing after the LBRP, for the analysis of the keyword (a short mediation on death and rebirth), and for bringing down "divine" or solar light before working with it in the Middle Pillar and the Circulation of the Body of Light.

Of the rituals I used to do, I'd look at the LBRP and the Middle Pillar/CBL as the most worthwhile. LBRP gives lots of practice with movement, visualization, vibration, concentration, etc. The Middle Pillar gives practice with very basic energy working and a kind of inner cleansing and revitalization.

If you believe in that sort of thing, of course.
 
 
Lord Switch
16:30 / 22.05.06
The hexagrams are where they are based on the astrological placement of the kerubic signs of the elements
I´ll find te specific quote for you later if you want.

The reason that the Hexagram and the Pentagram rituals use different quarters is very simple:
The pentagram operates on the macrokosmic energies.
The placement of the archangels and the elements in a pentagram ritual is based on where on earth you are.
For instance if you set up a greater pentagram ritual on a beach, upi will put water in the direction of the ocean, earth opposite and air from where the wind blows, fire opposite. for example.
The only time the directions are set in stone for the pentagram is indoors, in a temple or when the working will go up, higher.

The various hexagrams have origins based on the Seal of solomon and other masonic stuff. Certain orthodox christian sects utilize them in churches as seen in serbia, russia greece etc.
Aside from those reasons, one of the triangles is red, the other blue.
Red-man
blue-woman
Upwards pointing -man
downwards pointing: woman

The hexagrams show the permutation of the Name in its various forms. Hope this helps.

Crowley never ever completely dissed the eon of isis or osiris. It is just superceded.
You have to pass through the eon of isis to be able to truly work woth the formula of the eon of osiris formula that you need to pass through to be able to work with the formula of horus.
Each eon can be represented by a sphere on the tree,
isis refers to yesod -dreams charms shamanism
Osiris to tiphareth - ritual magick, organised syle religion
and horus to the supernals-abyssal jump

what might have taken 1500th century man his entire life to accomplish (tiphareth) we can reach with surgery, drugs, self hypnosis, psychotherapy and/or magick in what, 10 years?

This might help: If you see the various Eons as states of being for the whole human race, and the highest attainable state we can reach in each eon, it becomes obvous that certain older eonic stuff is fundamental to what we are now.

If we presuppose that the "secrets" of the eon of Isis were things like:
Dreaming, communication, imagination, hunting and gathering
we´ll see that every 2-5 year old child passes through the eon if isis phase. Cro magnom humans might not have been there untill they were 15 and soon to be dead

-------------

The lesser hexagram is only ever used for banishing.
As I wrote in an earlier post: its for the clean slate of planetary energies.
You would invoke the forces when working with the energy represented in the planet.

say, you want to smuggle some dreamy herbs through customs as a beginner, you would after all the nice hour long preparatory rituals perform the greater invoking ritual of the hexagram/Luna.
Having spent Xyears/months/days/ meditating on the moon, its elemental attributes, made sure you know the moonphase by heart without looking at a chart, and generally become in tune with the energies by calling the through the ritual, you would open the gates (hexagram) and through the help of the illusiory and mind-deceiving powers and attributes of the lunar energies make sure you would get through customs without fuss (cough cough)
----------------

The GD stye invoking rituals are the Kata of the various forms of energy that the ritual magician works with.
they can be done for communion, for strengthening connection, for meditation and for practival purposes.

Of course you should perform it regularly, IF you intend to get in tune with the planetary energies. If not, then there is no use for it.
Again see my earlier post on the subject
My personal experiences helped me write the previous comment.

If anything is unclear or you want me to elaborate, let me know
 
 
Quantum
17:58 / 22.05.06
Simple question- if my poor understanding of it is right, the tip of the hex is on Da'ath, but represents Binah (as the only planetary supernal). The King & Skinner book I checked this morning was too concise to explain it properly, isn't that a bit of a fudge? What would the ritual be like if Da'th was the tip? Fucked up I reckon, but what intrigues me is the explanation (if there is one) as to why Saturn is the tip? Isn't that three spheres from the Severity pillar?
Is it a jiggle-the-model-to-fit-the-tree thing so you can draw a hexagram in the ritual, or is the hexagram derived *from* the tree but in such an esoteric way I can't grasp it?
 
 
EvskiG
19:18 / 22.05.06
I'd be curious to see the specific quote about the "astrological placement of the kerubic signs of the elements." Please post it if you can.

I'd also be curious to see elemental hexagrams used in the Seal of Solomon, Masonic symbols, Orthodox Christian sects, or anything other than Golden Dawn-inspired materials. If you have any examples, links would be great.

If I'm not mistaken, Crowley reversed the colors of the triangles (upright triangle blue, inverted triangle red), as in the Star Sapphire. Not sure how much this really matters, but might as well point it out if you're fussing about how many archangels can dance on the head of a pin.
 
 
Lord Switch
21:25 / 22.05.06
Quantum:
Just ignore the hexagram on the tree.
The reason for that is gd-stupidity, with GD esotericism.
Dath doesnt "exist" as such.
The whole saturn=the abyss is taen from the Fraternitas Saturni who view saturn as a form of the demiurge that one needs to pass. Sort of the great guardian of the threshold.

Saturn is at the top

Evskig:
Will look for the quote for you.
Its also easy to think of it thisway: it follows the wheel of the zodiac. Because everything starts at east leo ends up there, and then just stack out Taurus aquarius and Scorpio at the appropriate quearters jus following around

As for solomonic magics: if you spend some time studying the images in some of the mediavel grimoires you´ll notice that they depict the circle as surrounded by the DG style elemental hexagrams.
As for the masonic stuff, Christian stuff and churches: the internet is your friends if you can´t get the initiations or travel to the churches/temples themselves.
A good place to start looking is in the Memphis-mizraim rites. The elu Cohen stuff, if you can get hold of any, and to visit some old Churches in the former eastern block and greece in europe.

And no, crowley didn´t reverse the colors. Tantra does. In tantric tradition the symbol of the descending triangle is red, and crowley adopted that symbolism for the sexual rituals. Don´t see how that has anything to do wit the traditional LBRH and RH?
 
 
Quantum
22:08 / 22.05.06
Just ignore the hexagram on the tree.
The reason for that is gd-stupidity, with GD esotericism.

So jiggle-to fit then. Anyone else?

The whole saturn=the abyss is taken from the Fraternitas Saturni who view saturn as a form of the demiurge that one needs to pass. Sort of the great guardian of the threshold.

Cool, thanks for that. *googles*
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
10:01 / 23.05.06
Cheers guys. Really useful.

More than happy with that explanation for why the Hexagrams are placed where they are. But if you could dig out that relevant quote you referenced, that would be cool to. Where is the quote from?

The hexagrams show the permutation of the Name in its various forms. Hope this helps.

Which Name? YHVH? ARARITA?

If we presuppose that the "secrets" of the eon of Isis were things like:
Dreaming, communication, imagination, hunting and gathering
we´ll see that every 2-5 year old child passes through the eon if isis phase. Cro magnom humans might not have been there untill they were 15 and soon to be dead

I like that. The Aeons considered as ancestral processes that we have moved through and which still remain relevant as they trace a trajectory of where we have been and what we are made of. Makes a lot more sense out of the whole Horus/Maat business as well.

The lesser hexagram is only ever used for banishing. As I wrote in an earlier post: its for the clean slate of planetary energies. You would invoke the forces when working with the energy represented in the planet.

I get it. The Lesser Hexagram wipes down the decks of planetary action, and is also a good primer for using the invoking form, which is where it really gets juicy.

you would open the gates (hexagram) and through the help of the illusiory and mind-deceiving powers and attributes of the lunar energies make sure you would get through customs without fuss (cough cough)

Not many people really seem to talk about this end of ceremonial magic. Actually tapping it in order to do stuff within the world. Bringing specific planetary energies through for a reason. Really wielding the magic in the world and putting it to use. This brings ceremonial magic further out of the world of theory for me and really sparks my imagination for how I could actively use this stuff. There's nothing really in these rituals that isn't already a part of my practice. I would use different methods to accomplish fairly similar results, but the advantages of cross training to a degree where I can pull things out of the bag using these methods if I needed to are really self-evident. I feel like I'm really starting to get a handle on the magic behind the forms.

The GD stye invoking rituals are the Kata of the various forms of energy that the ritual magician works with. they can be done for communion, for strengthening connection, for meditation and for practival purposes.

I'm totally with you here, and I can see how useful this stuff would be as an element of my practice. My understanding of this ritual and how I could make use of it has developed greatly from this thread. What martial art do you train in, by the way? I really appreciate the martial arts analogies for talking about this stuff.

One other question: What would you say the difference is between using the 4 different Hexagram forms as opposed to the Unicursal Hexagram? Which version do people favour and why?

(I hope that "I'm a moron" geezer from the 'why magic' thread is taking notes here on how to *successfully* get people to reveal their occult secrets to you... )
 
 
illmatic
10:29 / 23.05.06
The Aeons considered as ancestral processes that we have moved through and which still remain relevant as they trace a trajectory of where we have been and what we are made of. Makes a lot more sense out of the whole Horus/Maat business as well.

This is pretty much straight out of Kenny G (the sax player, not the occultist). Will dig out the quote if you're interested.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
10:58 / 23.05.06
Kenny G (the sax player, not the occultist)

Merely flip sides of the same dark coin, as all initiated adepts should know.
 
 
Unconditional Love
10:59 / 23.05.06
In the very little i know of traditional jewish kabbalah daat is divine knowledge, in fact there is an upper and lower daat, lower daat can be considered spoken, intellectual knowledge and upper direct knowledge of creation, saturn is the old wise man, crossing the abyss from mental contained knowledge, to be filled with the knowledge of creation. Upper daat could be considered gnosis.The will of the absolute enters through daat.

To know the name of a thing is not to comprehend it. The absolute enters and the mental phenomena that gives time to mind (thought) is quietened, so that mind becomes being.
 
 
Quantum
17:46 / 23.05.06
Talking of names, ARARITA? "One is his beginning. One is his individuality. His permutation is one."
 
 
Unconditional Love
14:07 / 24.05.06
Everything is god.
 
 
Quantum
17:18 / 24.05.06
Why is his permutation one?
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
08:27 / 25.05.06
I think it's a reference to Kether, in that all of the Sephiroth (and therefore all of the planets) emanate from the One Point of Kether. His permutation is One. All of the planets that are represented by the Hexagram emanate from Kether, so the Hexagram as a symbol of the Sun/Tiphareth is ultimately an expression of God/Kether. Hence ARARITA.

This is all just my own intuitive grasp of it, mind. The ceremonial guys can probably elaborate on that in more detail.

I still haven't worked out who Rita is and why she's roaring "Arrarraaa!" like that. Probably something to do with the Strength/Lust card I suspect.
 
 
Rev. Wright
10:33 / 25.05.06
I'll admit to skimming through the responses and rot on this thread. A lot of references to formal magickal practice, as the thread desires, but I'd like to ask past this factor.

I'm a big hexagram head, its been a symabol that has had major reoccuring influences in my life/practice, ever since I initiated mediumship work some 9 years ago.

I'd like to read about members relationship to the hexagram, its meaning, symbolism and effect. How have you used it, what has happened and how does the hexagram speak to you?

I'll apologises upfront if this seems demanding, but a thread about my fave symbol gets me a little fired up.
 
  

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