Snuffin's ideas: GD LBRP has blinds?!

[Ross G Caldwell]

Here's a "generic" ritual instruction - fill it with whatever gestures and words from a system or tradition you like

Touch base, touch space,
Spin the world around.
Hold it in the middle,
Lay it on the ground.

Gather up the winds,
Mark them all with words;
Send them on their way,
A scattered flock of birds.

 

[Always Wondering]

Touch base, touch space,
Spin the world around.
Hold it in the middle,
Lay it on the ground.

Gather up the winds,
Mark them all with words;
Send them on their way,
A scattered flock of birds.

I love the simplicity of this. I have had my struggles with ritual and using this the last two days has settled things in my mind as to what exactly ritual means to me at this time. I wanted to thank you for posting it. I did a web search to try to find it's origins to no avail. I am curious as to where you found it.

AW

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

I love the simplicity of this. I have had my struggles with ritual and using this the last two days has settled things in my mind as to what exactly ritual means to me at this time. I wanted to thank you for posting it. I did a web search to try to find it's origins to no avail. I am curious as to where you found it.

AW

Hi AW, I wrote it, earlier this year.

I'm really glad you like it. Can you describe how it has helped you? (before I get all long-winded and try to explain it in dragging prose).

 

[Always Wondering]

I suspected you wrote it once I couldn't find it on the web.

Most of my life I have had a generalized anxiety disorder which I had learned more or less to control. Even though I was cautious when I took up ritual, basically sticking to the LBRP and the Middle Pillar, I started to experience neck pain. I did not recognize this as an anxiety symptom so did not connect it to ritual. It wasn't until the pain became near disabling that a very smart person, , helped me pinpoint that my ritual practices were stirring up a new symptom of anxiety. Within three month of stopping ritual I was 99% pain free.

Upon reflection I began to see that,
1, my ego was pretty attached to being a ritualist, because where I live it is different, intelligent and mysterious.
2, I could not properly follow up my ritual with knowledge lectures because it was taking me so long to wrap my head around YHVH.
3, My personality is the type that has to try and grasp the big whole, all at once and I often overwhelm myself. So I saw that I was setting myself up with a push/pull, or stop/go between my ritual work and my mind.

This experience has made it clear that classic ritual is just not for me, and meditation is better suited to try to calm my noisy mind. But I still have a lot of energy that needs the physical expression that I got from classic ritual. So I have been searching for an alternative, which has mostly been dance.

When I read your prose I realized that ritual does not have to be a big huge mystery. All I need is a simple expression of, here I am, this hollow tube between my base, Hadit, and space, Nuit, trying to work out some middle ground here on earth. Gathering up the winds gives me a feeling of working with the elements and marking them with words speaks to me about the expression of true will. Send them on their way, A scattered flock of birds, gives me a do your work and so be it, feeling that I often get from the Thoth Art card. I just really connected to the imagery of your words.

All this in a simple, ego busting, ritual that could be applied to the tune of The Hokey Poky. I have a habit of taking myself much too seriously.

I love it.

AW

 

[graspee]

Hey there, Always Wondering. Sorry to hear that your rituals were exacerbating your anxiety disorder; I suffer from something similar myself, but if anything my use of ritual (including LBRP) calms some of my anxiety. Everyone is different, of course, and I'm glad you have now found a ritual that you can work with happily.

My own worry sometimes with ritual is not with anxiety per se, but with OCD. I have tendencies towards that anyway and I worry if one day I might get so that I can't leave the house unless I first perform the Mass of the Phoenix or something!

edit: a really good post on OCD amongst occultists: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.magick.tyagi/msg/db3528cb5f637139?&q=author:nagasiva

 

[Always Wondering]

Hey there, Always Wondering. Sorry to hear that your rituals were exacerbating your anxiety disorder; I suffer from something similar myself, but if anything my use of ritual (including LBRP) calms some of my anxiety. Everyone is different, of course, and I'm glad you have now found a ritual that you can work with happily.

Yes, I find the actual ritual itself calming as well. I suppose that is one of the reasons I miss it. You're right, everyone is different, I guess that is a good enough reason for a magical diary. It was pointed out to me it isn't any good if I didn't read it on occasion. And I did read it after the fact and saw some clues in there.

My own worry sometimes with ritual is not with anxiety per se, but with OCD. I have tendencies towards that anyway and I worry if one day I might get so that I can't leave the house unless I first perform the Mass of the Phoenix or something!

My daughter has OCD tendencies as well, so I understand this concern. I found Dr. David Shoemaker's talk on Psychotherapy and the Magical Path in the Speech in the Silence: Episode 6 very helpful.

http://speechinthesilence.com/episode-6-sol-in-gemini-year-106

This is a side of ritual that I hadn't heard or read much about and it was a relief for me hear him talk about it.

And I am afraid that I have flown another thread off course. I didn't mean to. Sorry.
Hi Grigori.

AW

 

[Debra]

I just saw this. It's beautiful. Lends itself to a dance. Thanks.

Here's a "generic" ritual instruction - fill it with whatever gestures and words from a system or tradition you like

Touch base, touch space,
Spin the world around.
Hold it in the middle,
Lay it on the ground.

Gather up the winds,
Mark them all with words;
Send them on their way,
A scattered flock of birds.

 

[brightcrazystar]

I don't know who "snuffin" is but he doesn't understand the LBRP at all.

IT IS AN INFERIOR AND UMIMPORTANT OPERATION per Mathers own notes. It was given to people for the sake of learning the Qabalistic Cross and was invented as a ritual to be done in instances that Temples were used for other things. The supreme ritual is the one that matters. The Q cross was the most vital part as it is the key analysis of the Neophyte Ritual.

Crowley made the LBRP his own and uses it to different effect, until he gets ahold of the Adept papers of the Golden Dawn, some time before he prepares a walk into the vault. Most of snuffin's suggestions are foolish unless he is trying to just make a new ritual, and an unbalanced one at that. I have adept papers, and unpublished works, and can honestly say:

The names are solid, no blinds exist in this ritual, but there are specific things left out. For one, it should be done on the four-fold breath.

The names in the quarters,
East - YHVH
South - ADNI
West - AHIH
North - A.G.L.A. (Ateh Gibor Le-Olam Adonai)

YHVH and EHIH form AHYHVH, with the three he's being both the three Officers of the Neophyte Temple, with duplicity in the Hegemon. These are also veils for the Three Mother letters. These form AH, TH, VH with ATU being the word "Key." This is a veil for the analysis of the key word, INRI by the formula of LVX being the mystery of the Hidden Father Letter.

Also, it says, on the PAth of the influence of Mem, Ahih YHVH, literally, "I eternally am, was, and shall be."

ADNI is the sun, as seen from Malkuth, no brainer. Adonai Ha-Aretz is Tiphareth of Malkuth, the physical sun, suprised? In the north, where the sun sits in adoration but veiled by the distance3 of space, there is only an acknowledgement of Adonai, no specific name. Rather the formula used Atah (The top of the verticle axis of the qabalistic cross) Gibor (the severe apex of the horizontal axis of the Qabalistic Cross) Le-Olam (the union of those two bars of the cross), and Adonai, which is the External Magnified Presence of the Light of the Sun.

As for the making of pentagrams elemental for the LBRP, this is a horrid idea but whatever floats his boat. It is a ritual that is an affirmation and little else. It have no great current, inherently in it. it is a ritual designed to align one to the Portal experience between the First and Second orders... between Philosophus and Paroketh. Crowely changed the position of the Six rayed star (The lights of the pillars) to the Banner of the East. Genius as he affirms Adepthood in each rhetoric.

This ritual in general is based out of Eliphas Levis works for the conjuration of the four, which with it's cross said "Tibi sunt Malchut et Geburah et Chesed per oeonas AMEN!" this is what he used - the Golden Dwn adopt this, almong wiht his prayers in their entirety for the supreme ritual of the pentagram, which is means to be studied by Adepts of the second order.
They can't blind something that didn't originate with them.

Sidenote:
Most of the arguments and "realizations" about prepositions are mental workouts, but useless in the work itself. People who astrally fingerpaint with their own perogatives that seem right, are often just looking for the easy distinction without piercing material enough to grow the existing content which already works. Better if you don't understand a ritual, you compose your own.

 

[Aeon418]

I broadly agree with your opinion, Brightcrazystar. Snuffin's ritual is a good example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. But I do have one or two minor quibbles.

As for the making of pentagrams elemental for the LBRP, this is a horrid idea but whatever floats his boat. It is a ritual that is an affirmation and little else.

I see much in the original Golden Dawn material where the founders "built better than they knew." What I mean by this is that while the originators may have intended specific and well defined uses for some rituals, those same rituals are still capable of expansion and evolution beyond that original intention.

The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram is one instance. I completely agree with you that Snuffin's particular idea for using elemental pentagrams in the LBRP is dumb. But I do know of a way that elemental pentagrams can be used in the Lesser ritual in order to invoke or banish one particular element at a time. In this way the aspirant can gain experience of each element, until they bring it all together with the integrative Portal formula of the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram. (I believe it is taught this way in Jim Eshelman's, Temple of Thelema.)
Maybe this isn't what the Golden Dawn founders intended, but it can be seen as being latent within the original ritual design. Granted, it's the kind of stuff that makes some purists froth at the mouth. But the LBRP didn't start off with techi-colour archangels either.

The names are solid, no blinds exist in this ritual, but there are specific things left out. For one, it should be done on the four-fold breath.

Personally I'm a little wary of the word "should" when it comes to matters of ritual technique. I strongly believe that anyone who is receiving instruction within the confines of a particular initiatory Order "should" do things according their Orders instructions. But other Orders teach similar material in different ways. I don't believe this difference invalidates them. They are just doing things according to their own tradition.

The matter is complicated even further when you consider solo practitioners using this material on their own. They end up getting masses of "should's" thrown at them. All of them pronouncing the "correct" way according to one particular Golden Dawn style spin off group. But a solo practioner who is not obligated to any one particular structured training programme is under no compunction to do anything in any particular way. To them "should" is more like advice from one point of view. Take it, or leave it.

 

[brightcrazystar]

Aeon418,

Thank you for your reply. Both points were good, especially the point about "should". I just was indicating that the four-fold breath was an original component of the protocol composed by Mathers. I also wanted to specify that it is not in Levi's insprational "Conjuration of the Four":

When I said using the LBRP with elemental pentagrams is horrid, I meant simply putting them in this ONE ritual, and yes, it is horrid. The Lesser Ritual can easily be done with a focus on any of the elements, but it should not mix elements, and you should orient yourself for the temple of the Element you are working with. I thank you for the opportunity to clarify. Mixing elements is a function of the Greater Ritual. Of course, elemental pentagram formulas can be of use, and perhaps some Orders do use them as such.

But "snuffin" is speaking of "Blinds" - that is a word of some import, for it indicates that the author deliberately misleads the casual reader, with a misinformation or lack of information that actually makes the ritual inert or less potent. There is no such blind in the Golden Dawn L.B.R.P. - which WAS, in my opinion, amplified by Crowley, but still not blinded. Crowley really makes it a different ritual; he took the ritual from the Veil of Paroketh as typically assumed being *before* the Hierophant's throne on the Dias, and put it as the second veil Paroketh, which is the actual Eastern Wall of the Temple and behind the Chiefs and the Past Hierophant, as well as the BEHIND the Hierophant's throne. It makes the model of the L.B.R.P. encompass the entire Hall of the Neophyte, instead of just the construct of the outer order. Instead of the center cross of Malkuth, he makes it the intersection of Samekh and Peh. This is why he orients it to the Hexagram of the Cancellarius differently in his Equillibration of Forces sufficing as the conjuration of the four (Before me, Behind Me, etc.).

Therefore, presumeably the small changes he made make the big difference that the ritual is not longer the Lesser, and while inferior to the Supreme Ritual, it easily supplements the Lesser Ritual as a precursor to the Greater Ritual to far more effect.

Here is another thing, the Lesser Ritual, Greater Ritual, and Supreme Ritual are done "in the Formula of" the Pentagram and Hexagram, but it is actually the same three rites; this is just the generally assumed Microcosmic and Macrocosmic awarenesses of them. The Rites are Birth, Life, and Death. Each begets the others and each contains the others, and each is a component of the KeyWord.

Furthermore, there are other formulas to employ for these three Rituals. The Lesser Ritual, Greater Ritual, and Supreme Rituals as THE three rituals revealed in the analysis of the Key Word; the Pentagram and the Hexagram are two of the principle tools of analysis; lenses by which to focus it if you will. The Cross is another obvious one.

I mention this because this is the Merkhabh nature of the Great Work, and is explicitly different than thinking these are all different rituals, which is a common misunderstanding.