Grimoires & PGM - looking for others

[Magus314]

I hinted at this in my intro, but I’ll be more explicit here.

I’m looking to connect with magicians who work with spirits through the grimoires in a way that stays reasonably close to the textual sources. Most of my background has been in GD and Crowley influenced CM-style work, which was great but I didn’t encounter anything I’d call genuine spirit contact and manifestation until about five years ago (via a non-lodge based magical tradition), which pretty much reshaped how I approach my practice.

Anyone here working the Grimoires or the PGM in a way that might count as “true to the textual tradition”? I use that phrase loosely as I'm aware - at least to my knowledge - that these are not living traditions with intact lineages, so we’re all reconstructing to some degree.

For my own work in recent years, I’ve leaned heavily on Julio Caesar Ody’s Magister Officiorum for Goetia and have been following the Heptameron as closely to the text as possible. I've made some progress, but feel as if there is a still so much I am missing. I've been away from online forums and social media for years so I don't really know where else to start or if there are dedicated forums for this type of work.

If anyone else here works the grimoires or the PGM in a text-faithful way ( especially if you’ve navigated early communication issues) I’d be interested in comparing notes and methods.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

Theres a lot that goes into getting to a place with conjuration where the spirits respond, clearly, and every time. I came from a similar background as you and was dull in the sense of the clair-skills. I am by no means a natural psychic and so seeing and hearing spirits took a lot of time to develop.

Thankfully what I appreciated about the magical system path at the beginning of my journey is that I do believe that that the emphasis on basic divinatory skills was essential in the development of this skill (a focus on tattva and tarot) but I spent years and years refining a mastery of lucid dreaming and its surrounding skills on top of that. Being convinced to a man that hypnagogia was going to be the skill that unlocked conjuration for me. Along the way I picked up hypnosis, crystal scrying, and became dedicated to the mastery of the Picatrix which oddly enough my training in 19th century ceremonial helped me with immensely. Learning from them the anatomy of a ritual and adapting it to a more classical/mideval style.

I will say that your success with spirit conjuration does not lie with what grimoire or system you are working, though I do believe OTO and GD are restrictive, but there is no secret key in the PGM or Heptemaron that are going to make it click. What you are dealing with is a matter of consistency, intuitive training, experience, and developing a rounded magical practice.

I 100% recommend sticking to one of these tomes and mastering it with repeated practice and experimentation. This is a matter of initiation and the spirits will respond with a level of commitment. Your technique with the grimoire will become more refined, they will give you keys along the way, and you will begin noticing the underlying PERENNIAL conjuration technique that is underneath all these grimoires. I highly encourage you to keep working with them, afford yourself patience, and you will cross a threshold.

Something I struggled with for the better part of a decade is now second nature to me. You'll discover your method my friend. As for classical methods ill share some of the essentials ive learned across grimoires, traditions, and experimentation. I spent a while when I left the golden dawn stripping away the fluff of ceremonial magic to find the bare essentials of operative conjuring.

1. Magic circles are crucial, I naively tried to strip them away for a classical practice and learned that this is not an invention but a necessity in conjuration.

2. Always call the winds, quarters, directions, kings, whatever. The PGM has winds in it you can find in there. The number of these differs according to tradition but they are essential get spirits to respond everytime so find your spirits of the directions.

3. Pay attention to detail with synthemata, this is important for physical manifestations.

4. Conjuration is best done in a receptive state.