Modern Magick - New revised edition

ravenest

Jellybean said:
You can probably save yourself a long and involved search.

Yeah, I know. - Sorry J, I was joking with Aeon about his typo. Um .... oh, you'll catch on

Grigori

MercifulMight said:
I guess I'm not so good at taking the advice posted above suggesting I not over-think things. Even in my quietest, meditative moments, stuff up there is still motoring along at a pretty good clip.

In hindsight I'm finding I got more benefit from Orpheus's 'ABRAHADABRA', Greer's 'Learning Ritual Magick" and currently reading Leitch's book on the grimoires than Kraig, but maybe that is biased as I got the benefit of Kraig first at at the time I was 90% very happy with it. Kraig does get into the construction of tools and such quickly, which at the time I wanted to do, but since then have left them in a cupboard for the most part as am working on other things that I could have done first. I guess that's a common issue, we get distracted with the details.

I guess I just feel like I need some guidance or feedback on these matters and can think of no better place to seek these than here. I'll do my best to be clear and just keep it as general as I can while still trying to say something meaningful...

No need to be shy to post, we encourage and welcome comments and ideas. And a new perspective is always a good thing

My thoughts and feelings are not all neatly aligned with the divine every waking (or sleeping) moment or I'd likely be much further along the unseen paths than I am.

I read something similar in Leitch last night that was useful, about how these achievements (grades, samadhi's whatever..) are a temporary thing, no one is in touch with divinity constantly. It's better for your progress and success to not think of them as goals you never quite manage to 100% achieve, and better to think of them as transitory states, that have long reaching effect due to the changes they leave in you once they're gone. I quite like that.

But is this the case? Or, if perhaps my mental and emotional faculties are not firing on all cylinders some days, should I avoid ritual those days so as not to risk taking garbage in (so to speak) and reaping the same?

I don't really know, I find myself my practice grounds to a halt when I likely need it most. When I'm having a bad day/week/month I let a lot slide, when a cure for my bad day may have well been to just do it. I guess this is what the diary is for, so you can look back in the future and judge how things affected you.

I don't know if that is really helpful, but my 2 cents at least

ravenest

MercifulMight said:
The problem(s) I'm experiencing have to do with what I'm perceiving as a lack of preparatory information about the LBRP itself and I fear there's more to come along the same lines with the other rituals and content in future lessons. I've been following the lessons thus far to the letter, perhaps erring on the side of patience/caution (I did wait a bit longer than recommended before beginning the LBRP though as I wanted to research the Archangels a bit first and was really pouring myself into the Tarot contemplation piece), have now been doing the LBRP daily for about eleven days and have begun the Sun adorations (learned these years ago from another source and feel very confident and comfortable with them).

I havent found one source sufficiant to help me understand it, do as much cross- reference as you can, but continued practice will reap benefit.

MercifulMight said:
The thing is, about a week into these daily LBRPs, I realized that I was just sort of going through the motions, saying the words and doing the actions but not really connecting with any real clarity of intent.

In my case, doing the ritual for years, on and off (times of extended practice daily, sometimes not daily, sometimes not at all - but I always come back to it). During extended practice you WILL I assure you go through a WHOLE range of feelings about it, like any exercise or meditation regime. Dont worry, that will pass. before long you will see the benefit of what you are doing.

MercifulMight said:
I think that's it for now. I'll just add that my life's been turned upside down since beginning the LBRP and I seem to have become an emotional basket case like someone in early substance abuse recovery as a result.

I dont find that too unusual, it means you are shifting something instead of just doing an empty robotritual, Just think how good it will be later when your emotions come into balance.

MercifulMight said:
That and I'm getting a little creeped out at stuff in my temple room seeming to move around and make noises all on their own when I'm doing the rituals but are still and silent the rest of the time o,O

That will balance out too. Not a problem, Um ... I take it you have read the preliminary chapters to this ritual in Liber Abba. I think they are essential to keep in mind and review.

MercifulMight said:
Sorry for the long ramble. I hope it all makes sense.

Sorry for my delayed response, super busy, everything happening at once and I have needed to REALLY balance my emotions. If I didnt have the tools I have (a few things including a healthy magical system ; Thelema) I shudder to think how I would have dealt or responded to this situation.

ravenest

Grigori said:
I read something similar in Leitch last night that was useful, about how these achievements (grades, samadhi's whatever..) are a temporary thing, no one is in touch with divinity constantly. It's better for your progress and success to not think of them as goals you never quite manage to 100% achieve, and better to think of them as transitory states, that have long reaching effect due to the changes they leave in you once they're gone. I quite like that.

Yeah cool. IN my experience, even if you do get into a certain state of ability and balance with a level of attainment, you can bet 'the Gods' will say. "Okay, they are doing quiet well rowing their little boat now, calm, confident, got over their fear of water AND learned to swim in case something happens. Okay, lets whip a storm and see how they handle that." Its an evolutionary progression. There is nothing wrong with that, 'the Gods' arent vindictive. They are just 'being you', 'out there' so you can learn something. If you wanted to learn to juggle, it could be quiet hard. When you achieve that, you might want to do it on one leg, then with a cat a bowling ball and a chainsaw :laugh:

(And I hope THAT made sense.)

Grigori said:
I don't really know, I find myself my practice grounds to a halt when I likely need it most. When I'm having a bad day/week/month I let a lot slide, when a cure for my bad day may have well been to just do it. I guess this is what the diary is for, so you can look back in the future and judge how things affected you.

The diary, yes, essential in nutting out all this as time goes on.

MercifulMight

ravenest said:
...Um ... I take it you have read the preliminary chapters to this ritual in Liber Abba.

I've yet to read so much as a single stitch of Crowley and was under the impression that his stuff wasn't what one would consider 'mandatory' reading. Am I mistaken?

Aeon418

MercifulMight said:
But is this the case? Or, if perhaps my mental and emotional faculties are not firing on all cylinders some days, should I avoid ritual those days so as not to risk taking garbage in (so to speak) and reaping the same?

I don't entirely agree with Kraig on the garbage thing. Some of my best experiences with the LBRP were on days where I felt a bit out of whack. Or times when I felt like I couldn't be bothered, and went into the ritual with the "intention" of doing it in a half-assed way just to get it over and done with and off my back.

But no matter how I feel at the start, by the time I get to the Archangels I'm already starting to feel different. (This has increased over time.) This is most noticable between the Q.C.s that book-end the rite. The initial Q.C. can sometimes feel a bit un-inspired and lacklustre for various reasons, but the final Q.C. is the complete opposite. Buzzing!

There's another aspect to this question that has more to do with viewing your rituals as companions on a journey. Stick with them for long enough and you'll end up going on a ride with them. Are you familiar with the IAO formula? (I'll assume you are for the sake of this post.)
In the beginning the practices seem easy and enjoyable. This is the Isis stage. But after a while a time comes when the usual energy seems to vanish into thin air. The rituals feel as dry as dust, and you go through the motions like a machine. It feels horrible. This is the destructive Apophis stage. But don't be fooled by the name. This stage, no matter how bad it can feel sometimes, is actually a sign of success. It's an indicator that you've grown on some level. In the Isis stage the small amount of energy raised by your practice was enough for you to feel it. But then the Apophis stage arrives and the old voltage is not enough to fill you anymore. But it takes time to build it up to your new threshold level. But when it arrives the ritauls suddenly spring back into life even better than before. This is the Osiris stage. Your journey with the ritual has led you full circle, but you are now on a higher level than before. This process continues again and again in a upward spiral. You do have to stay in the process to get the full benefit, but the temptation to give up during the Apophis stage can be immense sometimes.

MercifulMight

Reading stuff like this quoted bit here makes me feel like a blind man prone to seizures and vertigo who's taken a job as a high-wire, nitroglycerin handler.

Quoted from a local, occult discussion board. Post was entitled "High Standards of Occult Attainment". The member did not cite source other than to include the following link: http://www.thelema.org/aa/documents/one_star_in_sight/one_star_in_sight_6.html

Now this is the kind of standards I like, if we can abide by them in practice and in application. No wishy-washy mush will ever do. There is no substitute for high standards in ANY field, least of all in the Occult:
"....And in no case is it safe for a man to neglect to master any single detail, however dreary and distasteful it may seem. It often does so, indeed; that only insists on the necessity of dealing with it. The dislike and contempt for it bear witness to a weakness and incompleteness in the nature which disowns it; that particular gap in one's defences may admit the enemy at the very turning-point of some battle. Worse, one were shamed forever if one's inferior should happen to ask for advice and aid on that subject and one were to fail in service to him! His failure - one's own failure also! No step, however well won for oneself, till he is ready for his own advance!

Every Member of the A.·.A.·. must be armed at all points, and expert with every weapon. The examinations in every Grade are strict and severe; no loose or vague answers are accepted. In intellectual questions, the candidate must display no less mastery of his subject than if he were entered in the "final" for Doctor of Science or Law at a first class University.

In examination of physical practices, there is a standardised test. In Asana, for instance, the candidate must remain motionless for a given time, his success being gauged by poising on his head a cup filled with water to the brim; if he spill one drop, he is rejected.

He is tested in "the Spirit Vision" or "Astral Journeying" by giving him a symbol unknown and unintelligible to him, and he must interpret its nature by means of a vision as exactly as if he had read its name and description in the book when it was chosen.

The power to make and "charge" talismans is tested as if they were scientific instruments of precision, as they are.

In the Qabalah, the candidate must discover for himself, and prove to the examiner beyond all doubt, the properties of a number never previously examined by any student.

In invocation the divine force must be made as manifest and unmistakable as the effects of chloroform; in evocation, the spirit called forth must be at least as visible and tangible as the heaviest vapours; in divination, the answer must be as precise as a scientific thesis, and as accurate as an audit; in meditation, the results must read like a specialist's report of a classical case.

By such methods, the A.·.A.·. intends to make occult science as systematic and scientific as chemistry; to rescue it from the ill repute which, thanks both to the ignorant and dishonest quacks that have prostituted its name, and to the fanatical and narrow-minded enthusiasts that have turned it into a fetish, has made it an object of aversion to those very minds whose enthusiasm and integrity make them most in need of its benefits, and most fit to obtain them.

It is the one really important science, for it transcends the conditions of material existence and so is not liable to perish with the planet, and it must be studied as a science, sceptically, with the utmost energy and patience.

The A.·.A.·. possesses the secrets of success; it makes no secret of its knowledge, and if its secrets are not everywhere known and practised, it is because the abuses connected with the name of occult science disincline official investigators to examine the evidence at their disposal.

This paper has been written not only with the object of attracting individual seekers into the way of Truth, but of affirming the propriety of the methods of the A.·.A.·. as the basis for the next great step in the advance of human knowledge.

Love is the law, love under will.
No charlatans or quacks need apply! And no-one said it was going to be easy.

Would it be foolish to simply stick with daily LBRPs until I feel completely confident to move on? The 'timeline' in Kraig's book seems to have me about ready to move on to more soon but I think I should 'master' the LBRP first. Either way, I'm taking a vacation at months end so I'm just going to stick with where I'm at until after I get back at least.

MercifulMight

Aeon418 said:
I don't entirely agree with Kraig on the garbage thing. Some of my best experiences with the LBRP were on days where I felt a bit out of whack. Or times when I felt like I couldn't be bothered, and went into the ritual with the "intention" of doing it in a half-assed way just to get it over and done with and off my back.

But no matter how I feel at the start, by the time I get to the Archangels I'm already starting to feel different. (This has increased over time.) This is most noticable between the Q.C.s that book-end the rite. The initial Q.C. can sometimes feel a bit un-inspired and lacklustre for various reasons, but the final Q.C. is the complete opposite. Buzzing!

Very reassuring as I've had the same thing on a number of occasions already.

The IAO piece makes a lot of sense as well despite my not having heard of it before. Not sure I've even lurched into the first I yet but I've experienced the same thing in other areas.

Aeon418

MercifulMight said:
The IAO piece makes a lot of sense as well despite my not having heard of it before. Not sure I've even lurched into the first I yet but I've experienced the same thing in other areas.

I don't know whether you listen to podcasts, but Dr. David Shoemaker has a regular segment on the Speech in the Silence called, Living Thelema. In SS#9 he gave a talk called, Patterns, Cycles and Obstacles in Your Magical Path. It's all about IAO and it's relationship to magical practice. You may find it helpful.

(It begins 42 minutes into the podcast)
http://www.speechinthesilence.com/episode-9-sol-in-virgo-year-106he