Ritual Timing & Authority Structures Across Manuscripts — Practitioner Insights Needed

Hi everyone,

I’m currently reviewing some discrepancies I’ve encountered while working with classical ceremonial frameworks — specifically between:

• the planetary structure in Heptameron,

• the angelic chains in Dr. Rudd’s Goetia,

• and several ritual-timing notes that differ between the Sloane and Harley manuscripts.

What caught my attention is that these differences don’t seem merely cosmetic —

they appear to subtly shift the operative mechanics during evocation, particularly in constraint and authority protocols.

My question is:

In your experience, which manuscript tradition has given you the most consistent operative stability?

To clarify:

I’m not asking about interpretations or modern reconstructions.

I’m looking for insights from practitioners who have compared the older material or noticed practical differences when working with manuscript-level variations.

Any perspectives would be appreciated.

I’m approaching this purely from a structural/operative standpoint, not psychological models.

I think you’re overthinking it. I do my work whenever and wherever, I don’t chase specific hours and days. I might plan something special for a full moon or certain magickcal dates, but that’s about it. Unless I’m running a ritual for 20+ people, precise timing usually isn’t necessary.

Keldan said:

I think you’re overthinking it. I do my work whenever and wherever, I don’t chase specific hours and days. I might plan something special for a full moon or certain magickcal dates, but that’s about it. Unless I’m running a ritual for 20+ people, precise timing usually isn’t necessary.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Keldan — and I get what you mean.

Just to clarify what I was asking: I’m not really debating whether rituals have to follow strict hours or whether timing is essential in a general sense. I’m more interested in something specific — whether people who have worked with different manuscript lines (Sloane, Harley, Rudd, Heptameron, etc.) have actually noticed any practical differences because of the variations in their structures.

So it’s less “should I follow perfect timing?”and more “did working from one manuscript vs another change anything in practice?”

If anyone has compared them directly in their own work, I’d love to hear their take.