[Help] Is the this rite safe?

[Furius]

Hey all!
I'm new here so hope not to get many negative responses, as I'm starting working with the art alone.
Recently I started reading a book that was recommended by many people on this forum, which is said to be good for the beginner's practice. It's "Mastering Witchcraft", written by Paul Huson. There is a section "First steps" where the author describes a certain ritual that you'd have to perform in order to properly start your way in magic. Now I'm going to cite what is written in the book about this rite.
"When you are quite sure you wish to take this step prior to going to bed on three successive nights, making quite sure you are not observed, light a candle and address yourself to it with the following words. This gibberish is, in fact, the Lord's Prayer written out backward. As you chant the words, use your imagination to visualize great icon shackles and disintegrating into molten shards to either side of you. Hear the whine and crackle of the searing flashes as they accomplish the work of liberation, and consciously try to feel the burden of all your inherited guilts, all those awful shalt's and shalt not's, all that vast edifice of twaddle and claptrap, sliding easefully from your back. When all is over, blow out the candle, uttering the witch words "So more it be!"."
So that's a short citation from the book that generally describes the ritual. The only question I came up with when reading it is, am I not being deceived in some way and is this not going to bring me any problems that I am not aware of? I understand that things like these should take their price, but I am willing to know what I should be prepared for.
So what thoughts do you have about this? I will appreciate any hints that you might share with me.

 

[Morell]

I respect that you want to go into magic, it can be complex path easy to get lost it, can be demanding, but it is also very rewarding.

I can see why are you having doubts about such a ritual. Looks to me as ritual of cutting ties to the law of the Bible, which I can understand why would someone recommend it to be first ritual, if you want to start practicing guilt-free after leaving Christianity behind. I never had a reason for any such cancelation.

So my personal opinion is that if you are not a Christian, there is no reason in this ritual. I don't know if it is good or not, as I didn't read the book and the mentioned incantation. However Since it is kind of release ritual, it shouldn't be dangerous, even less if you are not a Christian and therefore have no real ties with it. You have to start somewhere.

My advice - small steps and not to fear mistakes. You will inevitably make them, so make small ones and learn from them before you move towards more powerful rites.

 

[HoldAll]

It really depends. Traditionally saying the Lord's Prayer backwards means going over to the 'Dark Side' or contacting the Devil in folk magic; I've also seen it in a left-hand path book or two. Nowadays most people in Western countries who are not regular churchgoers would have to learn how to say the Lord's Prayer first before saying it backwards is supposed to have any effect, and even then it probably won't leave much of an impression on them. Saying the Lord's Prayer backwards used to be considered an act of sacrilege because it represents an inversion of the sacred order of things, same as inverted crosses or inverted pentagrams. The ritual is probably meant as a kind of shock treatment liberating you from the bondage of Christianity. I don't know which year the book came out but it smacks a bit of the radical black-white Cold War ideologies of the 1970ies and 1980ies, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.

I don't think the Devil is going to appear suddenly before you in a puff of smoke as a consequence but I don't believe the ritual is really necessary, and you might suffer from pangs of conscience and guilt afterwards if you were raised in a devout Christian household. Freeing yourself from religious indoctrination can be a long drawn-out process, with the question always being if you really wish to rid yourself of your religious faith. It may be a requirement for the author's system but ultimately it's your decision, nobody can force you to perform it if you don't want to.

 

[Sabbatius]

LaVeyan Satanism utilized the reversed Lord's Prayer at the beginning of any service, as documented by Anton LaVey, Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia in their own works. Huson's works is centered more towards Ceremonial Magic studies and I have read his works, but many, many years ago. I actually do not recall his work being suggestive of utilizing a "Black Mass-like" initiatory rite. If you do not like it, as I find it quite silly, just don't do it. Find other means more suited for you.

Often what people attempt to criticize or reject just ends up generating more power over them.

 

[Ziran]

The only question I came up with when reading it is, am I not being deceived in some way and is this not going to bring me any problems that I am not aware of?

Sounds fine to me.

the Lord's Prayer written out backward

well... that makes sense, right?

Backwards it would be:

May your will be done in the heavens as it's done on Earth. If the ritual is "My will be done on Earth" , then, The Lord's prayer in reverse would be establishing a correspondence, a link, between your ritual, "My will be done", and what is happening in the heavens.

Recently I started reading a book that was recommended by many people on this forum, which is said to be good for the beginner's practice. It's "Mastering Witchcraft"

I don't know the book, but, I think you can rest assured. The choice of those words in reverse is consistent with the subject matter you're pursuing.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

Hey all!
I'm new here so hope not to get many negative responses, as I'm starting working with the art alone.
Recently I started reading a book that was recommended by many people on this forum, which is said to be good for the beginner's practice. It's "Mastering Witchcraft", written by Paul Huson. There is a section "First steps" where the author describes a certain ritual that you'd have to perform in order to properly start your way in magic. Now I'm going to cite what is written in the book about this rite.
"When you are quite sure you wish to take this step prior to going to bed on three successive nights, making quite sure you are not observed, light a candle and address yourself to it with the following words. This gibberish is, in fact, the Lord's Prayer written out backward. As you chant the words, use your imagination to visualize great icon shackles and disintegrating into molten shards to either side of you. Hear the whine and crackle of the searing flashes as they accomplish the work of liberation, and consciously try to feel the burden of all your inherited guilts, all those awful shalt's and shalt not's, all that vast edifice of twaddle and claptrap, sliding easefully from your back. When all is over, blow out the candle, uttering the witch words "So more it be!"."
So that's a short citation from the book that generally describes the ritual. The only question I came up with when reading it is, am I not being deceived in some way and is this not going to bring me any problems that I am not aware of? I understand that things like these should take their price, but I am willing to know what I should be prepared for.
So what thoughts do you have about this? I will appreciate any hints that you might share with me.

So what this is supposed to be doing is freeing you from Judeo-Christian guilt/influence and while its not dangerous in the sense of getting infested with entities that will harm you what it is doing is trading one egregore for another. You're going to notice with a lot of occult authors (especially 60s/70s/80s occultists that write for beginners) they practice a type of magic that is counter-cultural, which basically means that their spiritual practice is a reaction against their mainstream environment. The danger in engaging in anti-religion/anti-practice lies in its power solely coming from egregoric properties. That is, it is entirely ideological and operative in the noosphere, this is not just self-limiting but it puts you under the influence of a different egregore than the one you are escaping. And the way egregores work is they lash out when you dont fall in goosestep with its body (agreed upon doctrine and beliefs). You'll see very commonly amongst this crowd that it solely operates off this kind of insular false power vacuum where occultists are fighting for power amongst each other and attacking each other. This is the egregoric nature of an anti-practice as you're not really tapping into spirits or dieties but a noetic/psychic organism that is built from an ideology that is defined by being against another ideology (ironically this is exactly how Christianity started and gained its power as well and why they do the same infighting)

I would say to be extremely weary of any author or teacher that is directing you to engage in anti-practice right off the bat. A good teacher/magician/wizard is sensitive to cultural and religious currents that may be ingrained in their students and doesnt teach them to reject them but to reformat and integrate them into a magical practice.

However, getting rid of the guilt and Judeo-Christian trauma associated with practicing magic while coming from that background is an incredibly important step to take as it will riddle your practice with fear which can provide ample opportunity for things to get to you. However this guilt and trauma is normally rid through initiation, which is something you should be doing early on in your path and you can get it from asking diety.

There is nothing inherently dangerous about saying the lords prayer backwards. But what is dangerous is forming a practice based around rejecting and inverting a different religion. It never ends well for those folks.

 

[Ziran]

The danger in engaging in anti-religion/anti-practice lies in its power solely coming from egregoric properties.

With the highest respect, may I beg to differ? Not solely.

It cultivates a primal source of power. The Pulse. It's the same source of power which is cultivated through the Psalms of King David, but, for many this approach is closer to their natural inclinations which are in opposition to the hooks and barbs of conventional Western religious indoctrination.

 

[Frater Barritus]

Quoting Gordon White on this ritual in The Chaos Protocols:

“Even those raised decidedly godless will still balk at such an inversion of cultural norms. It is a depatterning exercise par excellence. Beyond depatterning, the violation of taboo or the transgression of cultural norms is an ancient and essential component of practical magic.

In Laura Makarius’s seminal article “The Magic of Transgression” (1974), she points out that tribal taboos reflect cosmic limitations imposed by the spirit world. For instance, it may be forbidden to eat the flesh of a certain animal because it is involved with a creation story. To temporarily break a taboo is to unleash tremendous power because the sorcerer steps outside the rules or conditions governing the proper function of reality. Returning to Philip K. Dick’s metaphor of the black iron prison, transgressive magic temporarily bends these bars so that the witch may come and go as she pleases. Makarius explains further:

‘In magic based on the violation of taboo, the individual sees himself placed in a new relationship with regard to nature: instead of suggesting to natural forces what he expects of them, by relying on imitative acts, he wrests from them the power to coerce them into yielding to his wishes.’”

I tend to agree with Gordon White’s analysis of western ritual magic and its relationship to prehistoric shamanism. One of the key roles of the magician/shaman is the crossing of boundaries - between states of consciousness, the living and dead etc etc

Traditionally, a magical initiatory ritual in many cultures is designed to world-shatteringly transformative. Violations of taboos are a key part of this: ritual sex, transgressive acts, gender swapping acts. Therefore, it’s not the substance of the transgression that is important, but the affect it has on your psyche. Reading the Lords Prayer backwards is a comparatively safe way of achieving this temporary uncomfortable transgressive feeling.