Ritual of the Hexagram

Professor X

I am working on using and learning this ritual right now. This will be one of my first forays into active magick. The type of magick I have been using since 1999 has been of a defensive kind. I have concentrated so much so the defensive aspect that I have become a expert all arts of defensive magick. I see now that I need to develop the other part of magickal skill and learn more active manuever.

The hexagram works better with what I am trying to do that ritual of the pentagram.

I plan on working with the hexagram of Mars,because of my birth chart I am already endowed with a connection with Mars and its energies.

I figured I would start off with something relatively simple to get myself going with active Magick. Then once I master it I can move to bigger and more complex things. I plan on writing out some sort of ritual for myself and then practice the ritual tommorrow morning first thing. Hopely I can become as adept with active magick as I am with defensive.

Is it really neccesary like it says in the GD book to stand facing the direction of the planet whos energies you are trying to invoke?

Aeon418

Professor X said:
I plan on working with the hexagram of Mars,because of my birth chart I am already endowed with a connection with Mars and its energies.

Building on top of natural inclination is easy, but tends towards imbalance. Nearly all males are to some degree naturally in tune with martial energy. It is the Venusian side that usually requires more development, and vice versa for females.

Here's Crowley's comments on this subject in chapter 1 of Magick in Theory and Practice.

All other magical Rituals are particular cases of this general principle, and the only excuse for doing them is that it sometimes occurs that one particular portion of the microcosm is so weak that its imperfection of impurity would vitiate the Macrocosm of which it is the image, Eidolon, or Reflexion. For example, God is above sex; and therefore neither man nor woman as such can be said fully to understand, much less to represent, God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is deficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his virility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify himself with her; if he fail to do this, his apprehension of the Universe when he attains Samadhi will lack the conception of maternity. The result will be a metaphysical and --- by corollary --- ethical limitation in the Religion which he founds. Judaism and Islam are striking example of this failure.

I figured I would start off with something relatively simple to get myself going with active Magick.

Oh, I don't know. A good ceremonial invocation of Mars is hardly simple. Here's a typical run down. I hope you're fit.

Step:
1. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
2. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.
3. General invocation.
4. Invocation to Mars.
5. Assumption of suitable martial godform. Light martial incense. Purify and consecrate.
6. Greater Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram of Mars. Do whatever you want to do after you have invoked the force.
7. Give the license to depart.
8. Greater Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram of Mars.
9. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.
10. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
11. Collapse in a heap on the floor. :laugh:

Professor X said:
Is it really neccesary like it says in the GD book to stand facing the direction of the planet whos energies you are trying to invoke?

It's not 100% necessary. But if it starts bugging you during the ritual you will have answered your own question.

Professor X

Aeon418 said:
Oh, I don't know. A good ceremonial invocation of Mars is hardly simple. Here's a typical run down. I hope you're fit.

Step:
1. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
2. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.
3. General invocation.
4. Invocation to Mars.
5. Assumption of suitable martial godform. Light martial incense. Purify and consecrate.
6. Greater Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram of Mars. Do whatever you want to do after you have invoked the force.
7. Give the license to depart.
8. Greater Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram of Mars.
9. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.
10. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
11. Collapse in a heap on the floor.

Well for now I will work with some simple banishings and then work on putting something together for a Mars(or other planet) invocation. This is indeed new territory for me so I working on how to approach all of this.

Aeon418

Professor X said:
This is indeed new territory for me so I working on how to approach all of this.

If you aren't involved with an order and following a structured initiatory program you can approach the rituals anyway you like. The down side to this is that it's usually a case of sink or swim. Because there's so much to learn and absorb it's easy to get swamped or pick up stuff in a shallow, half-assed way.

The "traditional" approach is to master the pentagram ritual, and all it's variations, before moving onto the hexagram. But even on the pentagram ritual alone there are different opinions about how this should be done.

ravenest

Aeon418 said:
Building on top of natural inclination is easy, but tends towards imbalance. Nearly all males are to some degree naturally in tune with martial energy. It is the Venusian side that usually requires more development, and vice versa for females.

Yep, that's what happened to me. I am a very lunar type and worked that energy for a long time. It just never occured to me to do solar work ... then it was reccomended to start practicing Liber Resh daily. I doubt it would have occured to me to do this naturally as I was to focused on my inherent ability, as time went on, I realised how much I had needed this balance.

ravenest

Professor X said:
is it really neccesary like it says in the GD book to stand facing the direction of the planet whos energies you are trying to invoke?

Well ... none of it is REALLY neccesary, but if its reccomended why not go with it? Why? Because this then begs the question HOW are you going to find out where the planet actually is in the sky (unless you do it at night and the planet is above the horizon and the sky is clear).

(And how is one to 'face' the direction of a planet at I.C. ? - All food for thought ... and practice.)

Professor X

ravenest said:
Well ... none of it is REALLY neccesary, but if its reccomended why not go with it? Why? Because this then begs the question HOW are you going to find out where the planet actually is in the sky (unless you do it at night and the planet is above the horizon and the sky is clear).

(And how is one to 'face' the direction of a planet at I.C. ? - All food for thought ... and practice.)

Exactly. You and Aeon both make points about the planet thing. As if the energy of the planet isnt going to be there because you arent turned in the proper direction. As if the planets energy doesnt already effect you even if you dont know where it is in the sky.

Aeon418

ravenest said:
I realised how much I had needed this balance.

Sol, the multi-vitamin of planetary workings. :laugh:

Mercury + Venus + Luna + Mars + Jupiter + Saturn = Sol

AL III:22 The other images group around me to support me: let all be worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me.

Aeon418

Professor X said:
As if the energy of the planet isnt going to be there because you arent turned in the proper direction. As if the planets energy doesnt already effect you even if you dont know where it is in the sky.

The instruction to face towards the planet in question acts in the same way the correspondences do. It's just another ritual device designed to focus your mind on the particular force you want to tune into. If you don't think it's important, don't use it.

Professor X

This morning I got up took a bath and then did the banishing rituals for the pentragram and hexagram. Afterwards I felt totally and completely cleansed like Crowley mentions you should feel afterwards in Book 4. In fact I still have that same 'clean' feeling even now as I am typing this.

This is most encouraging to me. I will be continuing to work with these banishing rituals in the coming weeks until I have mastered them. Then I will turn my attention to working with some envoking rituals.

This ritual was pretty effective for me. I imagine that the effect will only get even better and I get more fluid with the motions and words to vibrate when you make the pentagrams and hexagrams.