[Opinion] Transition from Earth grade to Air grade

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

Has anyone followed an elemental grade system? if so, when do you feel it is appropriate to advance from Earth grade to Air grade?
Must all I'd be dotted and all T's be crossed, all to do tasks checked completed before advancing in terms of all physical plane or earthy matters such as finances, physical body, debts resolved, housing, food money etc?
Do you have a good grasp of your belief systems and thought patterns, fears and idiosyncrasies?
Are these the matters that must be resolved before advancing?

 

[Caliban]

You never outgrow the issues that come with being human. That work is life-long.

As for grades, you move on when the next demands your attention. Earth stuff will be a routine, which you will maintain largely by habit, but events in your life will require you to consider Air matters. Grades are largely a matter not of formality but of where one is actively challenged & growing at that time. There is no specific timeline. Planetary grades can last for years or decades.

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

You never outgrow the issues that come with being human. That work is life-long.

As for grades, you move on when the next demands your attention. Earth stuff will be a routine, which you will maintain largely by habit, but events in your life will require you to consider Air matters. Grades are largely a matter not of formality but of where one is actively challenged & growing at that time. There is no specific timeline. Planetary grades can last for years or decades.

Thanks, appreciate the reply. A lot of what you said strikes a chord with me.

 

[Caliban]

I can only speak from experience - and practice is personal. Where I don't resonate, trust your gut.

Also, to be clear, I only have been formally inducted into two esoteric orders, neither of which used this grade scale. One use the three degrees ultimately of Masonic origin, the other was based on participation level, with only two gradations.

So I am not talking about working through the outer order of the GD - that was managed by the Praemonstrator and administered exams.

Rather, I am talking about "natural" grade - the kind of focus one's development and practice takes over time. That's a lot more personal, and for some, a progression from Earth to Water, then to Air, then to Fire, (most dense to most subtle) might be a more natural progression.

The forms are generalizations. Don't let how you expect it to be to get in the way with observing how it is for you.

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

Right on. I'm working solo through "Modern Magick', and "Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation ", so only through completing the work do I move to the next grade.

Post automatically merged: Mar 21, 2024

Speaking of the books Im working through, in Modern Magick near the end of each grade Lesson, there is an element mastery test.
In Earth, the test is to make a pis ball the size of a bowling ball and place either in an open sinkhole, or a container of some kind, which is sealed after dropping the Earth ball in the sinkhole or container.
Likewise in Air, you breathe the element into a container such as an uncorked bottle and seal with the cork.
The point of these is to manipulate the element at will, to become grounded or ungrounded, to become more or less airheaded.
The old witchcraft trick of "Light as a feather, stiff as a board" in th movie "The Craft" likewise illustrates such a test as mastery of the element.

Post automatically merged: Mar 21, 2024

Psi ball, not pis ball.

 

[Wildchildx11]

When I worked with the Golden Dawn system of Magick, I just went to the next grade when it felt right, usually, it was when I read through all the lecture material and quized myself using some test from"Self-initiation to the Golden Dawn"

Now that I'm getting back into it, I'm starting again at Earth, because I haven't really mastered it.