MAGICAL RITUAL METHODS William G. Gray SAMUEL WEISER, INC. York Beach, Maine CONTENTS page Chapter One Rite and Reason 7 Chapter Two Making a Magical Mystery 18 Chapter Three Speaking With Symbols 35 Chapter Four Constructing the Cosmos 56 Chapter Five Conditioning Consciousness 93 Chapter Six Sensory Ritualism 132 Chapter Seven Ritual Sonics and Invocations 175 Chapter Eight Rites and their Components 229 Chapter Nine Construct or Destruct 275 RITE AND REASON There is probably more rubbish believed and written about Magical Rituals than any other subject. From the wildest guesswork and the most fertile imaginations, magical rituals and their practitioners are invested with every conceivable impossibility or absurdity. Nonsense runs riot. As usual, the sensationalist writer catering for the willingly credulous reader is largely to blame. Most people want to believe in whatever stirs their sense beyond the average rate, thus providing them with lifts, kicks, thrills, or variations from their living-line. It is of course quite necessary to human progress and evolution that we should rise above our own levels all the time, but there are right and wrong ways of doing this. Magical workings can supply both. We come from the Eternal and return to this same Source through an unimaginable circle of Cosmic Creative Evolution. In our attempts to relate ourselves consciously with our hidden origins and background of pure BEING, we have made a great number of mento-emotional structures which serve our purpose to their limited degree, according to our ability to use them. Religions, philosophies, and sciences have grown up with us, together with the arts and whatever else extends our awareness toward the Unknown—which is our Great Necessity. Yet the basis of all our beliefs is neither more nor less that what may fairly be termed "Magic"! Definition of Magic is largely a matter of individual opinion, since it means so many things to so many people, and there are so many claims made in its name. Fundamentally it remains what it always was: Man's most determined effort to establish an actual working relationship through himself between his Inner and Outer states of being. By magic, Man shows that he is not content to be simply a pawn in the Great Game, but wants to play on his own account. Man the meddler insists on becoming Man the Magician, 7 and so learns the rules the hard way, for magic is concerned with Doing, while mysticism is concerned with Being. Magic seeks to translate energies from one state of existence to another in accordance with an intention of the operative intelligence. So does science. The difference between magician and scientist lies in method and materials, which sometimes are not so dissimilar as might appear. A circle-dance and a cyclotron have much in common. The symbolic tools of magi and mathematician both operate through Inner dimensions to cause Outer effects. Modern science has evolved far more ritual procedures in its techniques than ancient magicians ever dreamed of, and they all come from the same source—Man's curiosity concerning the Cosmos and what he has to do with it; human attempts at growing into Godhood. Ritual is a major tool of magic and science alike for patterning the consciousness of its operatives so that calculable results may be obtained. Unhappily it is a sadly neglected tool, ill cared for and misunderstood. The scientist is showing more respect for it than the magician, so he is getting better results with it today. This is a pity, because ritual has incalculable value for those able to handle it effectively, and as a way of life it has everything to offer those who can follow the pattern of its paths. To some extent we are all ritualists of one kind or another, but we shall concern ourselves in this work entirely with ritual classifiable under the broad heading of "Magical". We will attempt to understand its basic fundamentals and set it in order as a practical art in its own right, having at least as great a value to human users as literature, drama, music, or science. None of our civilisation would be possible without those amenities, and none of them would have developed without magic, so we are assured of a worth-while study. If we, commence our task by considering actual human practi­ tioners of magical rituals both past and present, it will prove most discouraging, even though it provides much material and great hope for the future. The single indisputable fact is that magical rites and their workers have continued throughout the ages into the present time, and are unlikely to cease abruptly unless humanity ceases at the same instant. The actual happenings of magical rites vary enormously according to century and culture, but basics are the same, and those must be our main concern. To obtain a reasonable picture of ritual magic in the world of today is a virtual impossibility. The image presents as nasty a mess as much modern artistic excretion. What with self-acclaimed "Witches" inventing ritualistic covers for sex-naughtiness, and pompous amateur Ipsissimi proclaiming themselves minor or major Deities, magical ritualism is touching an all-time "low" at this period of its tide. Its public image is decidedly poor to say the least 8 of it. As against this, there do exist genuine and dedicated souls who keep ancient traditions going the best way they can, whether individually or in minority groupings. Magical rites have never been for the multitude any more than other highly specialised activities. The peculiar secrecy surrounding magical practices is not altogether a matter of deliberate policy, but stems from inadequacy of verbal or other symbology to express their meaning. Bare descriptions of the purely physical aspects of ritualism cannot possibly convey the significance of their inner contents. Knowing this either consciously or instinctively, practitioners of magical rites have maintained silence or given out such garbled versions of their activities, that very little practical use can be made of these. We may know what was done on material levels, and even all the words that were said. This still does not tell us the hows and whys or wherefores to be properly placed and activated Inwardly before any rite will work to the slightest degree. General ritual practice throughout individual and collective Occultism in the Western world of modern times is little to admire or consider praiseworthy. It lacks synthesis, cohesion, and even practicability. Few individuals have any qualifications as exponents of the art, and not many have the qualities necessary to acquire it. There are no authentic text-books to help basic approaches, and sham secrecy is too often used as a cover for sheer ignorance. Despite all this, many souls are drawn toward ritual practice because of their need of it on deep spiritual levels which nothing else will fulfil. Unless they are provided with reliable data and basic information concerning ritualism, they will not only lose oppor­ tunities for gaining the art, but worse still, the art itself will lose highly valuable practitioners, which it can ill afford to do at present. In the hope of offering practical and necessary means for the study and operation of ritual practice, especially as applied to Western methods, this present work is attempted. It is realised there will necessarily be many shortcomings, inadequacies, insufficiencies, and probably inaccuracies. Such is inevitable when human intelli­ gence tries to enter the unexplored and bring back evidence of its journey. Nevertheless if sufficient interest is aroused in other minds and souls to make their own explorations and to synthesise their findings into better and fuller shapes, for the benefit of themselves and their posterity, the mission behind this effort will have been fully accomplished. The main purpose is to deal with basics and not launch into involved discussions or commentaries. It must therefore be assumed that readers are capable of supplying their own comments or philosophising. Whether there is agreement or disagreement with what follows is immaterial. If genuine thought 9 and action is evoked, the rite behind these writings will have proved effective. Since a start must be made somewhere, let us begin by examining the nature of ritual itself. This is neither more nor less than dedicated human behaviour extended through varying dimensions of existence. Life and ritual are inseparable. Our morning tea is a ritual, so is evening T.V. Ritual is habitual, intentional, conventional, marking the numbers by which we live and die. There are religious rituals, military rituals, social rituals, and rituals associated with every possible type of human expression. We are concerning ourselves in this enquiry with magical ritual however, so we must decide what sets this apart from other species of ritualistic activity. The distinguishing feature of magical ritualism is what modern slang would term its "Way-outness", or degree of extension from what might be termed average human ritualistic behaviour. It is not so much the methods of magical rites which make them unique, but the direction and intent of the operative consciousness behind them. They are only magical because they depart so far from the circles of consciousness controlling other human rites that have become commonplace activities. It is Man the Magician who leads humanity toward the Unknown. The magician of yesterday becomes the scientist of today. Where are today's magicians? Those who will push so far ahead into fresh fields of consciousness that it will take the rest of humanity many incarnations to make use of what is brought through. Where a single human soul has been, others may follow—eventually. There is strong similarity between a magician and an astronaut, save the latter is exploring Outer Space, and the former deals with dimen­ sions reached Inwardly.