[Help] Why Ceremonial Magick?

[Gurublue]

Why do people or even yourself if applicable, practice ceremonial magick? What is the general intention and expected results? I am aware it general consists of spirit work such as invoking angels and evoking goetic or ancient spirits. But why do many lean to this form of magick vs others? Thanks for the responses.

 

[Morell]

I do not really follow path of ceremonial magic myself, but I believe that it's structure is very attractive to the mind of western person. Things are sorted like in encyclopedia in these systems, you get specific tutorials for rituals for specific purposes. It gives you rather clear guides. Complexity itself is also probably alluring as it is understandable by people as more real thing, because iot takes effort to master these systems.

Disadvantage in my opinion os that it makes it little difficult to improvise, at least for some people. It can be quite limiting, if you don't know what to use for what you need achieved.

 

[Johny111]

I think it is pointless to perform ceremonial magic rituals if you are not part of the egregore of occult orders for whose members such practice is prescribed. Those rituals are designed to better integrate the aspirant into the egregore. If you are not part of the structure, then any pulling on someone else's energetic 'uniform' is pointless.

 

[A.Nox]

Results are what matter

Ceremonial magick provides the structure I require: clear boundaries, precise timing, controlled conditions. It keeps long-term work with autonomous spirits from drifting into chaos. It is not inherently superior. Without proper understanding, no system will deliver.
I use it because it allows precision and helps me aim at specific results.

If another approach proves more effective, I switch without hesitation.

 

[Aldebaran]

Ceremonial magick provides structure when dealing with ambiguity. The routine and actions reinforce your psychological beliefs, theoretically strengthening your magick. Humans love ritual as it helps integrate the psychological as well. For those who are not in touch with their Will, the ceremony helps build it.

Perhaps not the best analogy - Ceremonial magick is like stationary machines at a gym. They're complicated, specific, and need to be done in a very certain way, but they ensure results and are very effective. Do you need to use a cross cable lat isolating machine? Of course not. You could lift free weights instead, but that isn't that easy either. If you've never walked into a gym, you can read the instructions on a machine and then try it yourself. You won't be perfect, but you'll be close enough - even on your first try. Now, if you've never walked into a gym before, and there's a giant intimidating row of free weights with no instructions and no clear idea what to do with them, what do you do? I would start with the machines, lol.

 

[embitca]

I think it is pointless to perform ceremonial magic rituals if you are not part of the egregore of occult orders for whose members such practice is prescribed. Those rituals are designed to better integrate the aspirant into the egregore. If you are not part of the structure, then any pulling on someone else's energetic 'uniform' is pointless.

Yes, I feel the same. I participate in ceremonial magic mostly because it is an opportunity to perform ritual magic with other people. I still have my own practices outside of the lodge as well and I wouldn't be doing ceremonial magic if I wasn't in a lodge, but I definitely enjoy it and as I have learned more and memorized more of the rituals and practices performed at lodge and at home it has really started to click. I am not sure what I get out of it in terms of "results" as I primarily participate in it as a form of theurgy or spiritual practice rather than an expectation of practical results, but maybe I will see practical results too in the future. Right now, I'm still a neophyte and still learning. I enjoy learning, and that is another reason I participate, for the structured learning.

 

[deus ex machina]

I do not really follow path of ceremonial magic myself, but I believe that it's structure is very attractive to the mind of western person. Things are sorted like in encyclopedia in these systems, you get specific tutorials for rituals for specific purposes. It gives you rather clear guides. Complexity itself is also probably alluring as it is understandable by people as more real thing, because iot takes effort to master these systems.

Disadvantage in my opinion os that it makes it little difficult to improvise, at least for some people. It can be quite limiting, if you don't know what to use for what you need achieved.

I think that is true to an extent and there definitely is a benefit to having a ritual "coat hanger" to hang your correspondences and all that on. I think the overly analytic approach can also be a misstep though. We should avoid the tendency to make the art just about looking up theories and correspondences and then repeating that set of ideas on rote, like punching numbers into a machine. For me the relevance of ceremonial magic grew when I looked at it more like an art - creative, expressive, meaningful, a living thing. I don't say that to mean that you can just be arbitrary or to say that anything goes. I mean, anything doesn't go on the stage for opera or ballet either. But that said, personal expression and a sense of beauty isn't just a possibility, it is required.

 

[MorganBlack]

We should avoid the tendency to make the art just about looking up theories and correspondences and then repeating that set of ideas on rote, like punching numbers into a machine.

Well said, Alucard, aka deus ex machina!

Formal Color Theory is a great metaphor for theurgy, and how ceremony can better be seen an a progressive journey of exploration.

As a professional artist and art director (video games and film), early in my training I studied Color Theory on my own and in college, learning the names of pigments in Winsor & Newton oil paints, and paying close attention. Color Theory gave me conceptual framework to hang and organize my own explorations on, while it also expanded my ability to see colors and use them.

So later, over the years and now, when I take the Pantone Color Vision Test, I get a perfect 100 color vision score because I can detect minute gradations of, say, greens or blues. Learning and Ceremony are interrelated and are both psychoactive. They change what we expect to see, and so we do. So pick something that has stood the test of time, and not a framework that range-limits your own explorations.

Our brain needs a framework to notice data and then remember it. Data without a framework (the so-called and often derided 'scaffolding' here) gets forgotten, so it's as if you never even learned it in the first place. In psychology these frameworks are called Schemas. A schema is a cognitive structure that helps us organize and interpret information. Having theurgic maps from others who have travel that road before us helps tremendously, if we take them as a guide.