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An age old question, but what are folks experiences with performing rituals (such as evocation or divination) per the Golden Dawn book, as someone not yet an adept or higher?
Is it spiritually a disaster, or a failed spiritual alchemy by doing so?
I tried doing for a week the Spiritual Transformation Ritual, and things went .. awkward.
From what I hear some of the GD timeframes are unnecessarily long
For example for the starting elemental work they would spend 9 months per individual element before moving on, which is much much longer than what is now considered needed.
I know for a fact that the seven sided vault is necessary for the ZAM initiation.
The time lengths are supposedly necessary to soak up all you can from the element or planet. That and to pay Temple dues.
I can see why people went in separate directions and made high magick accessible to all.
Still, I can do the Chessboard initiations and take the rites serious as can be. I am now in a more discreet location in which to do so.
The Z documents are not what I'm talking about, which are the outlines for the actual rites. I am talking about doing the actual rites.
There is however traps for those who try to rush through, possible for their own safety.
Example: I don't think the evocation made easy methods are a great idea. Especially with imposter spirits out there.
There is also sephiroth pathworkings and initiations which an substitute the high inner order grades.
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There is also the point that Enochian and Magic is absolutely crucial to some of the Adept level of rituals. Example: opening by Watchtower or the ceremony of opening by watchtower, is a hybrid mixture of ordinary ritual in your native tongue plus a Enochian as well.
So, without a solid grasp of enochian and at least the first 10 calls, then you are bordering on dangerous territory both spiritually and physically.
This has always been something that I can't really understand. If you call for instance Bael, with his seal and Enn, and you intend to (or have made it clear that) you will offer something to him: why would Bael then allow an imposter or "trickster" to snatch up that offering?
Is it because
A: Bael doesn't care about your offering
B: Bael never heard your call
C: Bael is incapable of preventing another spirit to come and pretend to be him
D: Bael sent one of the many in his legions
E: ?
I don't know but I'm pretty certain that most of the times when a "big" spirit like this is called (properly) they send one of their legions. And perhaps not all of these are as equiped to perform the given task.
The idea that an unknown lower spirit can trick both you and (deceive or steal from) the bigger spirit that was called seems odd to me.
Unless, this trickstar is more powerful than the one called.
If my magick fails I think it's either point A or D.
Well, out there in the spirit world are terrestrial spirits such as Lwa, celestial spirits, infernal spirits, the general dead, ancestors, those who took their lives or died violent deaths, etc. Elementals as well.
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There is also the infamous trickster spirit role across mythology.
An age old question, but what are folks experiences with performing rituals (such as evocation or divination) per the Golden Dawn book, as someone not yet an adept or higher?
Is it spiritually a disaster, or a failed spiritual alchemy by doing so?
I tried doing for a week the Spiritual Transformation Ritual, and things went .. awkward.
I'm assuming you are talking about the Z formulas which outlines how to use Golden Dawn components to accomplish various aims. If so the answer is that it really depends on what exactly you are trying to do.
With divination there isn't much risk outside of, not being spiritually nature enough, reading into the result and clinging to the potential temporal outcome instead of being rooted in and navigating through guidance by the eternal spirit. Lack of discernment being the issue here.
As for your experiences with the Spiritual Transformation Ritual, not knowing what you mean by awkward it's hard to speculate but let's go over why the elemental grades are important.
Being even getting into the elemental grades you go through the Neophyte Grade Ritual. Here you are in darkness, instructed in the medicine of silence, and the soul of your soul stirred as a seed, an ember, and with it also the Egregore of the Order put upon your psyche. You are in the Hall of Ma'at and as this ember grows, as gold in the darkness of that Rosicrucian mountain of which you will eventually learn, your psyche will be dus-integrated and re-integrared at each of the four elemental grades. The Neophyte Grade is a magical working to manifest the candidate eventually arriving at 5=6. However, the initiate must first go through the trials of this unfolding.
The four elemental grades each correspond to obe of the four canopic jars which are the invisible stations of the Neophyte Grade. Thus in each grade is one of the four elemental constituents of Man broken down and purified so that they might be made, as an eucharist, the perfect vessel for the ember if awareness to ignite as into the awareness of the divine flame within. Portal prepares you to cross the veil of Paroketh and bring it all together in the YHVH of Tiphereth. Understand then the the entire outer order is an alchemical operation.
If you have done the Ritual for Spiritual Transformation and experiencing sporadic results that tend to be all over the place it is because the psyche is not properly aligned, discipline and in service to the spirit. You are wanting fruits but have not the proper basket to place them. What happens is the light entereth into the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not. You see phantoms like the shadows in the allegory of Plato's cave because the phantoms have not yet vanished. Your visions are being last in the white noise of mental chatter I stead of coming through clear at the crossroads within the silence.
From what I hear some of the GD timeframes are unnecessarily long
For example for the starting elemental work they would spend 9 months per individual element before moving on, which is much much longer than what is now considered needed.
They aren't unnecessarily long but they are greatly misunderstood. I would not go less than seven months between grades and for some students a year or more is indicated. It is not wrong to work with elemental magic before going through the elemental grades nor to work with other elements during however abstinence from the other elements as possible is often prescribed as to focus on the work at hand. Working with sub-elements is helpful here.
See, you aren't merely trying to get a fix on the element or solely learning about it: As mention in my response to the OP you are undergoing an alchemical reconstitution.
This misconception stems from a few reasons. Namely the elemental grade rituals are not as involved as the Neophyte and Adeptus Minor rituals in their complexity and thus are often overlooked as having any real magical transformative properties, being seen or denigrated as fancy dramatic lectures. This is perhaps a failing of an otherwise brilliant set of rituals. The agency is there though subtle and often overlooked, and in all fairness perhaps these transforms could be a little more forward but then they are correspondent to the invisible stations. Even Crowley in his haste dismissed them, thinking only the 0=0 and 5=6 formulae had any real initiatory merit.
Following this most of the knowledge lectures are very barebones as they were meant to be paired with oral instruction. As written they are but bullet points needed pontification. This leads many without a teacher and only the documents to be sorely disappointed and yes, if this is all you are learning nine months will bore you to death
I know for a fact that the seven sided vault is necessary for the ZAM initiation.
The time lengths are supposedly necessary to soak up all you can from the element or planet. That and to pay Temple dues.
I can see why people went in separate directions and made high magick accessible to all.
Still, I can do the Chessboard initiations and take the rites serious as can be. I am now in a more discreet location in which to do so.
The Z documents are not what I'm talking about, which are the outlines for the actual rites. I am talking about doing the actual rites.
There is however traps for those who try to rush through, possible for their own safety.
Example: I don't think the evocation made easy methods are a great idea. Especially with imposter spirits out there.
There is also sephiroth pathworkings and initiations which an substitute the high inner order grades.
Post automatically merged:
There is also the point that Enochian and Magic is absolutely crucial to some of the Adept level of rituals. Example: opening by Watchtower or the ceremony of opening by watchtower, is a hybrid mixture of ordinary ritual in your native tongue plus a Enochian as well.
So, without a solid grasp of enochian and at least the first 10 calls, then you are bordering on dangerous territory both spiritually and physically.
That is true, the seven sided vault is needed for Adeptus Minor.
While it is true that the time frame allows you to get down the book learning and to get a fix on each Correspondences, there are deeper reasons as I've explained above. Dues have nothing to do with it however, as that doesn't make any sense. GD revivals tend to either do due like Masonry does it like the OTO dies. In Masonry you generally don't pay dues until you are a member with full voting rights. In the OTO your dues go up as your degree in the body goes up. Either way there is no benefit to the organization as far as dues, in keeping someone at a lower grade or degree. That having been said, there may be degree fees though as these are usually paid prior to taking the degree/grade your assertion still does not make sense.
To be frank, and while this is the truth it is not the truth people want to here: high magic is not meant for all. It has never been meant to be accessible to everyone. The truth is, it takes a lot of work, practice, training and can be very detrimental if misapplied or practiced by those who don't have a firm grip on reality or are able to set firm boundaries. There is a psychological danger and thus is why in the GD system you go through the elemental grades before doing anything operative other than the LRP with QC, and maybe the MP.
Chessboard initiations? That is not a thing. Like Masonry the GD required a charter/warrant to work as well as a full set of officers. Also due to the intimate nature of the initiations they must be done in person. Yes you could argue the ability to do so on the astral but that situation is far more problematic than any order worth their salt wants to get into. For general workers sure but not for initiations. Lineage can already be a headache and making sure the candidate meets the current shouldn't be chanced.
There are no traps, that's claimed by those who don't understand why the system is set up the way it is but don't want to admit it. There are however, plenty of typos in the Black Brick and things the compilers just didn't know given the sources they had available at the time. There are no traps implying malice or intentional misdirection though.
They aren't "evocation made easy" methods, they are a template using the components of the system. This means it's actually harder because you have to know how to write ritual and systematically apply the right correspondences and methods. -grimoire practitioners do this all the time btw. You start by the book and then the spirits lead you to make connections as their connection with you is going to be different than their connection with the guy who wrote the book. To that end practitioners, once learned, will take the conjuration from one Grimoire, mix it with the circle from another and mix it with a scrying method from another. They are not trying to chery pick but rather refine their arte.
So, understanding this the GD templates can be invaluable because even if you disagree with them they get you to start thinking about the structure of ritual like a ritualist. Knowing the mechanisms you can write a ritual with a proper flow, chain of command and get the various comments working together to yield a more profound experience.
No pathworking or guided meditation will ever be a substitute for formal initiation put on by trained ritualists, capable of putting on and I to you some mystery or Egregore you do not yet posses. That may be an unpopular position here but I stand by it.
Enochian is to be found in the outer order grades however, the officers and not the candidates are in charge of this, under the direction of the Hierophant. The Enochian happens during the opening of the Temple/Lodge which said candidate does not see until they witness someone else going through the grade.
