Ave,
Having done some venturing and practical work outside of our tradition, I've become very aware of how intensely hybridized it is. This isn't necessarily a bad thing...but as my sensitivity to the differing currents and energies involved in modern Golden Dawn magic increases, I notice more and more the spots that seem "grafted" together, for lack of a better term. I can see the welds clearly.
The Qabalistic system is basically the accumulated Correspondences (including the Tree of Life) in combination with the Rituals of the Hexagram, Pentagram, and the Neophyte Initiation Ritual as developed in the Z2-the height of the Qabalistic system-and the assumption of Egyptian godforms. Qabalistic magic works practically through Telesmata, and almost exclusively through elementary entities (be they Elemental, Planetary, or Zodiacal.) We invoke the hierarchy, but mostly to place our selves within that hierarchy above the elementaries, so that we can command them. When we are doing Theurgical Qabalistic magic, and conducting an invocation to balance a certain energy within our body, we are using the Hierarchy to place our Will above that of our internal elementary parts, and attempting to purify those same energies within ourselves that are represented by the entities Invoked, but in purer, higher vibration. We are tuning our own energies to a higher frequency through association and contact with those entities living in purer energetic states. Even in this alignment, we are commanding elementary entities and forces-which are arguably the same thing-in order to work our Magic. We are just commanding our local internal entities instead of external ones. For practical magic, we create telesmata to attract these simple entities into a sort of trap (the talisman, which is a little elementary world with very specific rules-those rules limit the movement and actions of the entity, and are referred to as the "Statement of Intent"), to which they are bound until the task is completed or the force used to enliven the telesmata is exhausted.
Short digression- This is something, I think, that should be highlighted. The effectiveness of the talisman is, in my experience, directly proportionate to the energy infused within it when it is charged. This is why many magicians get better results with sexual-based thaumaturgy than with that involving simple willed energetic charging (like the willed projection of energy into the talisman with the Sign of the Enterer, for example.) Modern magicians often fail to understand the old principles our forebears used to build magical Power-active Self Discipline, which focuses and strengthens the Will and the magicians power to command, Abstaining (from sexual congress-not permanent, but for a period before an important work), which is done to maximize the natural energetic reserves, Purification, which is done to remove mental blocks and create the sense of Sacredness around the ritual being performed-this includes "enflaming the self with prayer", and proper Astrological timing, without which the Macrocosmic representatives of a given force are much harder to reach and connect with. Astrological timing is especially important; without considering it you are swimming upstream. When these principles are practiced with knowledge and intent, energy comparable to that used in sexual magic is readily available. In practical sexual magic, the act of sex made appropriately Sacred takes the place of the "enflaming the self with prayer". This is the most important part of practical magic, to be honest, and having it done almost automatically for you in sexual magic is a big part of why so many see such incredible result from that particular practice. Regular and dedicated prayer is much more difficult than sex-at least, it should be! O.K, back to our discussion!
Enochian magic-unlike Qabalistic magic-works almost purely through relationships with other intelligent entities, as in the classical western tradition of the grimoires and Goetia. The old Thaumaturgy worked through influencing spirits to do as one commanded. Practical Enochian Magic-from what I have seen-consists of working with particular entities in the Enochian Hierarchy to get results. Results which seem very dependent upon the relationship that one has built with that particular entity. Every square in every Tablet within Enochian magic is seen as a living entity, with a will and existence of it's own. These entities are Angels, and are by no means simple. The entities involved with Enochian are balanced by nature, and so are evolutionary for us, as association with those entities works to bring the corresponding force within ourselves into balance. In Angelic lore, it is said that Angels possess no free will, but instead are purely instruments of God-this is not entirely true from what I understand. The Angelic Will is perfectly in line with the Will of God; for the Angel, there is no difference between the two. This "perfect alignment" is the very same balance we seek when practicing Theurgy to align our own internal forces-in the end of the process, we strive to be a perfected being...a being that exists in perfect alignment with the Will of God, who is therefore one with God.
Enochian magic's effectiveness is based seemingly on the direct and personal interaction with the Angelic entities. It is, frankly (and purely my opinion....please feel free to argue otherwise) a more effective system for Theurgy than purely Qabalistic Magic, because it involves active and personal interaction and congress with entities who, in Qabalistic Magic, we often invoke impersonally, but rarely commune with. Our current Outer Order system (I cannot speak for the RR et AC) is a very effective attempt to combine the best of both worlds. This is only necessary because the Enochian system has been judged as incomplete. This judgement is plainly innacurrate. Modern analysis and research (David Griffin's excellent Concourse of the Planetary Forces, Lon Milo Duquette's Enochian Vision Magick, Tyson's Enochian Magick for Beginners, which gives one excellent tools for working out a system of Heptarchichal/Planetary Enochian Magic) have put us in a place where a purely Enochian magical system of development is both accessible and possible. The Book of the Concourse of Planetary Forces is especially useful in that it gives us what we need to create a set of Enochian correspondences that is complete-for which the previous Qabalistic system serves as a sort of Rosetta Stone, enabling us to form a model of existence based on purely Enochian lines. Aleister Crowley's exegesis of the Aethyrs in comparison to the Tree of Life give us another Key, with the Sephirah providing a set of general correspondences as well. Part of the issue is that of a certain fundamentalism when it comes to ritual-oftentimes a magician will not find a ritual he creates himself valid; it needs to be ancient, and crafted by uber-adepti....etc. This is a difference between an Adept and an aspiring Adept. The strict ritual framework of the Outer Order is there to teach you how to do magic; once you learn, you are expected to innovate and refine your personal system yourself. (see the Z2 paper, for example. This is an outline, not a ritual per se). There is no authority necessary beyond yourself...there never actually was. (This is conjecture, of course, as I am still a member of the Outer Order...le sigh...)
Dee and Kelly have communicated all the structure we need to develop a system of Enochian magic that is complete and personally useful. I think that is exactly what we should do. The problem isn't the available information-it's all there now. We just need to sit down and hammer out an easy to understand structure. This is one of the reasons Enochian is only practical for use by experienced magicians-it isn't useful for training one how to do magic at this point. Even the basics in Enochian require skill at Scrying, Vibratory Incantation of Formula, understanding of Energy work, and energetic currents...etc. It seems instead of pooling this information, every one of us who begins to work Enochian Magic starts basically from scratch-I think there's a whole lot of reinventing the wheel going on. This leads to radically different approaches-in some instances radically different systems (see Benjamin Rowe's Enochian Temple Magic...seriously! Look into it.) We as a community could use a developed system, including ritual guidelines and correspondences-in one place, where an aspiring Enochian Magician may have ready access to guidance for invoking and balancing the classical forces (Elemental, Planetary, and Zodiacal) and journeying through the different spheres of existence (the Aethyrs). Right now, it's spread between a good six or seven books and a couple of manuscripts. Our modern connected age is the first where sufficient information is available from experienced magicians, in addition to Dee's difficult to understand manuscripts, to truly build a practical purely Enochian system. The information is there-we just need to democratize it and make it accessible.
I'll post my own rituals and techniques as they develop over time, and definitely encourage my peers to do the same!
In LVX,
AIT
Having done some venturing and practical work outside of our tradition, I've become very aware of how intensely hybridized it is. This isn't necessarily a bad thing...but as my sensitivity to the differing currents and energies involved in modern Golden Dawn magic increases, I notice more and more the spots that seem "grafted" together, for lack of a better term. I can see the welds clearly.
The Qabalistic system is basically the accumulated Correspondences (including the Tree of Life) in combination with the Rituals of the Hexagram, Pentagram, and the Neophyte Initiation Ritual as developed in the Z2-the height of the Qabalistic system-and the assumption of Egyptian godforms. Qabalistic magic works practically through Telesmata, and almost exclusively through elementary entities (be they Elemental, Planetary, or Zodiacal.) We invoke the hierarchy, but mostly to place our selves within that hierarchy above the elementaries, so that we can command them. When we are doing Theurgical Qabalistic magic, and conducting an invocation to balance a certain energy within our body, we are using the Hierarchy to place our Will above that of our internal elementary parts, and attempting to purify those same energies within ourselves that are represented by the entities Invoked, but in purer, higher vibration. We are tuning our own energies to a higher frequency through association and contact with those entities living in purer energetic states. Even in this alignment, we are commanding elementary entities and forces-which are arguably the same thing-in order to work our Magic. We are just commanding our local internal entities instead of external ones. For practical magic, we create telesmata to attract these simple entities into a sort of trap (the talisman, which is a little elementary world with very specific rules-those rules limit the movement and actions of the entity, and are referred to as the "Statement of Intent"), to which they are bound until the task is completed or the force used to enliven the telesmata is exhausted.
Short digression- This is something, I think, that should be highlighted. The effectiveness of the talisman is, in my experience, directly proportionate to the energy infused within it when it is charged. This is why many magicians get better results with sexual-based thaumaturgy than with that involving simple willed energetic charging (like the willed projection of energy into the talisman with the Sign of the Enterer, for example.) Modern magicians often fail to understand the old principles our forebears used to build magical Power-active Self Discipline, which focuses and strengthens the Will and the magicians power to command, Abstaining (from sexual congress-not permanent, but for a period before an important work), which is done to maximize the natural energetic reserves, Purification, which is done to remove mental blocks and create the sense of Sacredness around the ritual being performed-this includes "enflaming the self with prayer", and proper Astrological timing, without which the Macrocosmic representatives of a given force are much harder to reach and connect with. Astrological timing is especially important; without considering it you are swimming upstream. When these principles are practiced with knowledge and intent, energy comparable to that used in sexual magic is readily available. In practical sexual magic, the act of sex made appropriately Sacred takes the place of the "enflaming the self with prayer". This is the most important part of practical magic, to be honest, and having it done almost automatically for you in sexual magic is a big part of why so many see such incredible result from that particular practice. Regular and dedicated prayer is much more difficult than sex-at least, it should be! O.K, back to our discussion!
Enochian magic-unlike Qabalistic magic-works almost purely through relationships with other intelligent entities, as in the classical western tradition of the grimoires and Goetia. The old Thaumaturgy worked through influencing spirits to do as one commanded. Practical Enochian Magic-from what I have seen-consists of working with particular entities in the Enochian Hierarchy to get results. Results which seem very dependent upon the relationship that one has built with that particular entity. Every square in every Tablet within Enochian magic is seen as a living entity, with a will and existence of it's own. These entities are Angels, and are by no means simple. The entities involved with Enochian are balanced by nature, and so are evolutionary for us, as association with those entities works to bring the corresponding force within ourselves into balance. In Angelic lore, it is said that Angels possess no free will, but instead are purely instruments of God-this is not entirely true from what I understand. The Angelic Will is perfectly in line with the Will of God; for the Angel, there is no difference between the two. This "perfect alignment" is the very same balance we seek when practicing Theurgy to align our own internal forces-in the end of the process, we strive to be a perfected being...a being that exists in perfect alignment with the Will of God, who is therefore one with God.
Enochian magic's effectiveness is based seemingly on the direct and personal interaction with the Angelic entities. It is, frankly (and purely my opinion....please feel free to argue otherwise) a more effective system for Theurgy than purely Qabalistic Magic, because it involves active and personal interaction and congress with entities who, in Qabalistic Magic, we often invoke impersonally, but rarely commune with. Our current Outer Order system (I cannot speak for the RR et AC) is a very effective attempt to combine the best of both worlds. This is only necessary because the Enochian system has been judged as incomplete. This judgement is plainly innacurrate. Modern analysis and research (David Griffin's excellent Concourse of the Planetary Forces, Lon Milo Duquette's Enochian Vision Magick, Tyson's Enochian Magick for Beginners, which gives one excellent tools for working out a system of Heptarchichal/Planetary Enochian Magic) have put us in a place where a purely Enochian magical system of development is both accessible and possible. The Book of the Concourse of Planetary Forces is especially useful in that it gives us what we need to create a set of Enochian correspondences that is complete-for which the previous Qabalistic system serves as a sort of Rosetta Stone, enabling us to form a model of existence based on purely Enochian lines. Aleister Crowley's exegesis of the Aethyrs in comparison to the Tree of Life give us another Key, with the Sephirah providing a set of general correspondences as well. Part of the issue is that of a certain fundamentalism when it comes to ritual-oftentimes a magician will not find a ritual he creates himself valid; it needs to be ancient, and crafted by uber-adepti....etc. This is a difference between an Adept and an aspiring Adept. The strict ritual framework of the Outer Order is there to teach you how to do magic; once you learn, you are expected to innovate and refine your personal system yourself. (see the Z2 paper, for example. This is an outline, not a ritual per se). There is no authority necessary beyond yourself...there never actually was. (This is conjecture, of course, as I am still a member of the Outer Order...le sigh...)
Dee and Kelly have communicated all the structure we need to develop a system of Enochian magic that is complete and personally useful. I think that is exactly what we should do. The problem isn't the available information-it's all there now. We just need to sit down and hammer out an easy to understand structure. This is one of the reasons Enochian is only practical for use by experienced magicians-it isn't useful for training one how to do magic at this point. Even the basics in Enochian require skill at Scrying, Vibratory Incantation of Formula, understanding of Energy work, and energetic currents...etc. It seems instead of pooling this information, every one of us who begins to work Enochian Magic starts basically from scratch-I think there's a whole lot of reinventing the wheel going on. This leads to radically different approaches-in some instances radically different systems (see Benjamin Rowe's Enochian Temple Magic...seriously! Look into it.) We as a community could use a developed system, including ritual guidelines and correspondences-in one place, where an aspiring Enochian Magician may have ready access to guidance for invoking and balancing the classical forces (Elemental, Planetary, and Zodiacal) and journeying through the different spheres of existence (the Aethyrs). Right now, it's spread between a good six or seven books and a couple of manuscripts. Our modern connected age is the first where sufficient information is available from experienced magicians, in addition to Dee's difficult to understand manuscripts, to truly build a practical purely Enochian system. The information is there-we just need to democratize it and make it accessible.
I'll post my own rituals and techniques as they develop over time, and definitely encourage my peers to do the same!
In LVX,
AIT
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