Not too long ago someone sent me an email asking for me to provide them with the rituals that I used to perform the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal. I had previously stated in one of my articles that I would conditionally provide the rituals to anyone who was interested in seeing them.
Here is the relevant quote from my article.
“Contacting me through that website will help one to gain access to the ritual lore of the Order. However, I would recommend that curious individuals first examine the By-Laws, which can be downloaded from that site.”
What I meant by conditionally is that if someone were truly interested, they would seek to become members of the Order of the Gnostic Star, and through it’s progressive sets of ordeals, a magician would over time be awarded the advanced lore for their use. Of course seeking to become a member of the Order has a catch to it. The interested party needs to form a functional temple of at least five total individuals and practice for a year before petitioning the elders for the basic lore, consisting of the workings from first through fourth degree. Since the more advanced rites represent ritual workings that are a part of lore of the inner order, it would take a competent occultist and magician a few years to master the lore of the outer order before being capable of receiving the lore from the inner order. All of this is clearly stated in the by-laws for the Order, which you can find here.
Therefore, you might be able to say that the rituals aren’t really available for anyone who wants them because there is a protocol that must be followed. The progression of personal ordeals was established by several fairly advanced occultists, although most of the work was accomplished by me over a period of a couple of decades. The question is - am I being disingenuous in expecting others to follow these protocols in order to receive the benefits of years of work, research and trials, without having to pay anything for them? I think that the answer is that they belong to the Order and I am one of the few arbiters of that lore, so if I feel that one must at least engage in the Order in order to receive them, then that is how it must be done.
I can hear the groans from many individuals already. I am expecting applicants to actually perform several years of practice and study so that they can ultimately share in the lore that I and a few others have developed. Who am I to make such rules? Is it really worth it to be forced into an intense regimen in order to have access to the lore of my Order? To answer this question, I will have to at least share some information about the degree progression as it currently exists in the Order, thus listing the ordeals and their associated degrees. Looking over this information, one can get a pretty good idea of what’s involved in the degree system of the Order of the Gnostic Star.
Associated with each degree is a specific ordeal whose completion entitles the candidate to seek initiation into that degree. Therefore, the lore is introduced at the previous degree, and the completion of the associated ordeal entitles the candidate to be initiated into the next degree, where a new body of lore is tackled.
As you can see, the list of ordeals is quite extensive. All of the above lore for each degree is complete except for the degree of Magus - only some of these workings are done. We are talking about hundreds of rituals, all of them more or less modular and capable of being reused to access multiple levels of the spiritual domain.
These ordeals can be broken into eight different systems of magick, listed below.
If we group these systems into their basic categories of magickal systems, we can see eight distinct systems in the workings of the Order. A ninth category would consist of the higher workings associated with the master adept of the Dominus and Magus degrees, such as the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal. To give you an idea of how complex and involved these different systems are, I myself have only completed all of the levels through the seventh degree, a series of tasks that I have been working on since the early eighties. The rest of the lore I can apprehend and realize to the point of being able to write and design the ritual workings, but I have yet to undergo them.
So if all of this has taken me years to master and undergo, then think of how much time it would take someone who is completely new to this system. I think that my requirements are modest and sensible, since this over-all system of magick is neither simple nor easily accessed. The way to approach and master it requires one to progress through the ordeals, step by step, beginning with the first step. If the first step is easy, then it will be passed quickly. There is no time limit imposed on completing this system. The initiate of the Order takes as long as necessary to master each step, before starting with the next one.
I suppose that because of the magnitude of this system of magick and how extensive it is, many erstwhile candidates would be put off by the massive amount of work that mastering it would entail. However, there is no simple way to master the path of a ritual magician. It requires decades of consistent and engaging work. It represents the fact that such a regimen produces its effects over a lifetime of practice and experience - just like any other transcendental spiritual system.
Here is the relevant quote from my article.
“Contacting me through that website will help one to gain access to the ritual lore of the Order. However, I would recommend that curious individuals first examine the By-Laws, which can be downloaded from that site.”
What I meant by conditionally is that if someone were truly interested, they would seek to become members of the Order of the Gnostic Star, and through it’s progressive sets of ordeals, a magician would over time be awarded the advanced lore for their use. Of course seeking to become a member of the Order has a catch to it. The interested party needs to form a functional temple of at least five total individuals and practice for a year before petitioning the elders for the basic lore, consisting of the workings from first through fourth degree. Since the more advanced rites represent ritual workings that are a part of lore of the inner order, it would take a competent occultist and magician a few years to master the lore of the outer order before being capable of receiving the lore from the inner order. All of this is clearly stated in the by-laws for the Order, which you can find here.
Therefore, you might be able to say that the rituals aren’t really available for anyone who wants them because there is a protocol that must be followed. The progression of personal ordeals was established by several fairly advanced occultists, although most of the work was accomplished by me over a period of a couple of decades. The question is - am I being disingenuous in expecting others to follow these protocols in order to receive the benefits of years of work, research and trials, without having to pay anything for them? I think that the answer is that they belong to the Order and I am one of the few arbiters of that lore, so if I feel that one must at least engage in the Order in order to receive them, then that is how it must be done.
I can hear the groans from many individuals already. I am expecting applicants to actually perform several years of practice and study so that they can ultimately share in the lore that I and a few others have developed. Who am I to make such rules? Is it really worth it to be forced into an intense regimen in order to have access to the lore of my Order? To answer this question, I will have to at least share some information about the degree progression as it currently exists in the Order, thus listing the ordeals and their associated degrees. Looking over this information, one can get a pretty good idea of what’s involved in the degree system of the Order of the Gnostic Star.
Associated with each degree is a specific ordeal whose completion entitles the candidate to seek initiation into that degree. Therefore, the lore is introduced at the previous degree, and the completion of the associated ordeal entitles the candidate to be initiated into the next degree, where a new body of lore is tackled.
- Neophyte degree - ordeal: Vision Quest and knowledge of the Order (by-laws).
- Acolyte degree - ordeal: Lunar Mystery Elemental Ordeal (at least 4 Elemental workings)
- Theurgicus degree - ordeal: Talismanic Lunar Mansions Ordeal (at least 4 Talismanic workings)
- Deaconis degree - ordeal: Ordeal of Evocation and the Lesser Enochian Ordeal (at least 3 Invocations, including archangel of the Order)
- Pontifex degree - ordeal: Advanced Enochian Ordeal and Ordeal of Lesser Archaeomancy (at least 2 Evocations - including Ruling Angel of Deacon and associated quinarian angels/demons)
- Sanctus Rex/Regina degree - ordeal: Ordeal XV (Tetra-sacramentary) & Advanced Archaeomancy Ordeal (Qabbalistic Dimensions - at least 2) - including Simple Bornless One Invocation.
- Hierophant degree - ordeal: Tessarenoi (Four Temples) - generation of all four trans-dimensional reliquaries.
- Dominus degree - ordeal: Ordeal of the Stellar Gnostic Seven Rays - including the advanced Bornless One Invocation Rite and the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.
- Magus degree - ordeal: Ordeal of the Qliphoth (Abysmal workings and Gate Crossing), Invocation and mastery of Azrael, Supreme Archaeomancy Ordeal (Trapezoid Qabbalistic Dimensions), Bornless One Assumption ordeal.
As you can see, the list of ordeals is quite extensive. All of the above lore for each degree is complete except for the degree of Magus - only some of these workings are done. We are talking about hundreds of rituals, all of them more or less modular and capable of being reused to access multiple levels of the spiritual domain.
These ordeals can be broken into eight different systems of magick, listed below.
- Elemental Lunar Magick - Elemental - Divine Tetrad - 16 Elemental Kingdoms
- Talismanic Magick - Planetary - Talismans - 28 Lunar Mansions
- Lesser Theurgy - Binary Planetary Talismans - 49 Bonarum - Heptarchia Mystica
- Greater Theurgy - Zodiacal - Elemental - 36 Decans - 72 Quniarians - enclosed within 12 Holy Houses
- Solar Underworld Ordeal - Tarot - Greater Arcana - 22 Gateways of the Cycle of Initiation
- Enochian Visionary Ordeals - Tarot - Lesser Arcana - 56 Dominions of the Aethyrs
- Archeomancy of the 40 Worlds - Qabbalah - Lesser Arcana - 40 Qabbalistic Worlds - 40 Qualified Powers - Great Nested Hierarchy
- Spiritual Archeomancy - Qabbalah - Greater Arcana - 18 Qabbalistic Dimensions
If we group these systems into their basic categories of magickal systems, we can see eight distinct systems in the workings of the Order. A ninth category would consist of the higher workings associated with the master adept of the Dominus and Magus degrees, such as the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal. To give you an idea of how complex and involved these different systems are, I myself have only completed all of the levels through the seventh degree, a series of tasks that I have been working on since the early eighties. The rest of the lore I can apprehend and realize to the point of being able to write and design the ritual workings, but I have yet to undergo them.
So if all of this has taken me years to master and undergo, then think of how much time it would take someone who is completely new to this system. I think that my requirements are modest and sensible, since this over-all system of magick is neither simple nor easily accessed. The way to approach and master it requires one to progress through the ordeals, step by step, beginning with the first step. If the first step is easy, then it will be passed quickly. There is no time limit imposed on completing this system. The initiate of the Order takes as long as necessary to master each step, before starting with the next one.
I suppose that because of the magnitude of this system of magick and how extensive it is, many erstwhile candidates would be put off by the massive amount of work that mastering it would entail. However, there is no simple way to master the path of a ritual magician. It requires decades of consistent and engaging work. It represents the fact that such a regimen produces its effects over a lifetime of practice and experience - just like any other transcendental spiritual system.
Frater Barrabbas
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