I wanted to share this document with my readers and let them know that there is now an official Affiliate Member role in the Order of the Gnostic Star. Individuals may apply for membership directly with me through this blog site. Please look over this document and let me know if you have any questions or thoughts. I apologize in advance for the overly formal writing style, but that is how we write official documents in the Order.
Special Rules, Considerations and Regulations
This is an official communication from the elders of the Order to anyone who is interested in joining but lacks the means or ability to form a working magickal group.
We, the elders of the E.S.S.G. in the outer Order, and the L.E.T. in the inner, recognize the difficulties and trials of being required to first form a group and then charter a temple before being admitted into the Order as fully functioning members. Membership does entitle the group to have access to the lore of the Order, most of which is not available to the general public. While this may change at some point in the next few years, at this date, the lore for the first two degrees is not generally available. For this reason, we have decided to allow individuals not associated with any group to petition the elders of said Order for the purpose of being granted an affiliate membership to the Order. There are certain and very specific guidelines associated with the granting of this honor, and because such a membership occurs outside of the usual expected development of a group, responsibility for ensuring continuity and steadfast adherence to the required workings and ordeals is between the affiliate member and his or her elder mentor.
An elder mentor of an affiliate member will be an initiate of the Order of a level not less than the 5th degree, being therefore, a member of the inner order of L.E.T. An affiliate member is recognized as such by this elder, who ensures that the affiliate member follows the strict guidelines and expectations for advancement. Temple autonomy is abrogated for the affiliate member, who must seek all of his or her lore and advancement through a mentor and not through the peer group of a chartered temple. Affiliate membership will include all of the lore, privileges and responsibilities of individuals who are engaging in the work of a first and second degree member within a temple association. The third degree can be awarded by special consideration from the elder mentor to the affiliate, but any further degree or lore considerations must be accomplished through a chartered temple, which the affiliate is expected at this point to have successfully established.
To obtain an affiliate membership, a seeker is required to contact an elder of the E.S.S.G., and then present a suitable biography of all of his or her spiritual and magickal accomplishments, including membership, initiations, degrees, awards and accolades from other spiritual and magickal organizations. Enough information should be presented so that the elders of the Order may confer and determine the entry point for the candidate. For anyone seeking to be an affiliate who doesn’t already have a steadfast and continuous spiritual and magickal discipline spanning no less than three years must begin at the very first entry point. Steadfast and continuous is defined as being involved or engaged with one specific group, discipline or organization for the duration of the period in question. Proof and affidavits of such a membership are helpful but not required – sincerity is often something that can be gauged by the candidate’s words, attitudes and opinions.
There are three entry points in the complete series of obligations associated with the affiliate membership. These entry points coincide with the lore of the Mastering of the Art of Ritual Magick series (Qualified Powers), and the lore associated with the first degree (Enochian Elemental magick) and the second degree (Enochian Talismanic Elemental magick) of the Order of the Gnostic Star. Let us now describe in detail these three entry points and the lore and trials associated with them.
One final but important consideration is that an affiliate member can at any time break his or her obligation to the elder mentor and the Order. All work and involvement in that obligation is performed in a completely voluntary manner, and there is never to be anything either forced or coerced in the attitude or expectations of the mentor towards an affiliate member. Also, an affiliate member may end the affiliation if he or she either forms a suitable working group and gains a charter, or joins an already existing chartered temple. Requirements for joining an existing chartered temple would require that the affiliate member live in some proximity to that temple, and that he or she has been unanimously accepted as a member by that group.
Affiliate Level 1 -
The first level of the affiliate membership of the Order is characterized by the necessity of that member to forge their own personal system of magick and a spiritual and magickal discipline. A candidate who is chosen to apply him or herself to this task is assumed to be lacking in either accomplishment. This situation shouldn’t be considered either derogatory or judgmental. A candidate should accept the wisdom that the tasks of acquiring a fully functional magickal system and then practicing it in a consistent and periodic manner is no mean feat. Many individuals who claim to have magickal knowledge and experience are unable, for various reasons, to acquire these two most important components in the practice of ritual magick. Possessing a personal system of magick and a spiritual and magickal discipline must be considered foundational to the competent practice of ritual magick. It is, therefore, the required first step.
The three volumes of the series entitled “Mastering of the Art of Ritual Magick” were written to assist students in designing and developing their own personal magickal system, and then adopting it as a powerful spiritual and magickal discipline. The primary task, then, for the first level affiliate member is to use the ritual structures outlined in the second volume of this series (the Grimoire) to forge a personal system of ritual magick. Thus the first assignment for the level one affiliate member of the Order is to craft a personal system of magick using the basic nine rituals discussed and examined in that series. It is expected that the level one affiliate will purchase all three of these books, study and master them, and then build a ritual magickal system.
We would also recommend the book “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick” because it contains some important more in-depth explanations and rudimentary information that might be important to students who are seeking to build their own magickal system. There is also the blog “Talking About Ritual Magick,” which is located at the website www.fraterbarrabbas.blogspot.com. This blog has a lot of important articles that define the various topics of ritual magick in a specific and granular manner, which might answer questions and propose more basic ideas not found in any of the books. The student is referred to the index located on the left hand side of that blog web page, where the various subjects listed in the blog articles are to be found.
Once students have built their own personal magickal system, they must thoroughly test it to ensure that it works as it should. They may, over time, customize their system until they have thoroughly modified these rituals into something that completely represents their own personal spiritual and magickal perspective.
Testing a personal magickal system is quite simple, the magician must simply use it for a period of time. We recommend that level one affiliate members should practice their system for no less than six months to one year. All workings should be accurately written down in a journal that would include dates, times, duration, and anything that happened during that rite. This may even include dreams, premonitions or even Tarot card readings. All of these experiences are written into a journal to function as a practitioner’s personal log, an important discipline which should be continued even after the period of affiliation is completed. The magick journal functions as a definitive proof that such workings were actually performed. The following minimum trials should be accomplished during the six month (or more) period.
Perform six Lunar Mysteries with an associated Pyramid of Powers working. (These tasks will engage the student in fully experiencing the Forty Qualified Powers. Although simplistic in structure and use, these powers are deployed in more complicated rites later on, so they are very important to learn and master. )
Perform four Solar Mystery Sabbat rites.
Perform the Prefect Initiation ritual for Earth - using at least two or more witnesses who can attest that the ritual was performed successfully at the time reported.
The level one affiliate may perform more than the above minimum. He or she may perform more Lunar Mysteries, Sabbats and perhaps even the Prefect Initiation ritual for Air or Water.
Once this period of work is completed, the level one affiliate member will gather together a copy of the rituals and the journal entries and send them via the post to his or her elder mentor. After a careful examination and analysis of the results, the affiliate will receive either recognition for a successful passage to the next level, or some required remedial work and additional ritual workings. (This is true of any of the three levels - the only failure is not performing the work.)
Affiliate Level 2 -
Once the affiliate has successfully made the passage to level 2, he or she will receive in electronic format, all of the Order materials associated with the first degree. Since the first two initiations for the Order have been waived, it is important for all of the required work to be completed and properly documented in one’s magickal journal in order for that work to be considered valid.
The lore for the affiliate level 2 membership consists of the thorough mastery of Enochian Elemental Magick. Elemental magick is defined as rituals that invoke and project one of the sixteen elementals. The practitioner will read, study and master the documentation and the rituals associated with this methodology, and then he or she will perform a series of workings.
First, using the short form of the invocation working, the level two affiliate will invoke and manifest all sixteen Elementals. These will be performed sequentially, although the student can determine how many and how often this working will be done. Once all sixteen elementals have been invoked, the student will know from first hand experience the specific qualities of each. This will prepare him or her for the next phase of this trial.
Second, the level two affiliate will perform four complete Elemental workings, including the base Qualified Power, the Elemental invocation rite, Lunar Mystery and Elemental Gate. Each full working will take a full month to complete.
All twenty workings will be fully documented in the magick journal and submitted at their completion for examination by the elder mentor. In addition, the level two affiliate member will be responsible for performing all eight of the Gnostic Sabbat rites, which will be included in the lore presented to the affiliate. We also advise the affiliate member to download all of the ritual lore, the history and the bylaws for the ESSG from the Order’s website. All of these rites and documents should be examined, studied and used to develop individual rites. The more that the affiliate member does to master the basic lore of the Order, the more thoroughly and quickly he or she will advance to the next stage.
Affiliate Level 3 -
Again, once the affiliate member has successfully passed to the next level, based on the recommendations of the elder mentor, he or she will be given the documentation and rituals for the second degree in the Order. All of the required work must be completed and documented in the magick journal in order to substantiate that one has achieved full and complete mastery of this level.
The lore associated with the level three affiliate consists of talismanic magick. It is expected that the student will master the art of invoking and using Planetary Intelligences, and also invoking and deploying Talismanic Elementals (Enochian Seniors) and mastering the use of the 28 Lunar Mansions.
First, using the invocation rite for the Planetary Intelligences, the level three affiliate will perform the invocation of all seven of the Olympian Spirits, using the planetary hours and other useful lore to fully manifest the powers, intelligence and qualities of these spirits. The level three affiliate will perform these invocations sequentially and individually. We advise the affiliate member to perform no more than one of these spirits a week so as to fully absorb the working and understand the nature of the spirit. As always, the working will be fully documented in the magick journal.
Second, using the talismanic elemental working rituals, the student will perform three full invocation workings and generate three distinct talismans, using a combination of the Talismanic Elemental and the Lunar Mansion. These will be individually accomplished during a separate lunar cycle, so there will be no combining or stacking of these spiritual powers in a shorter period of time. Total time for these three workings should in the area of three to six months. Out of these three workings, one of the talismans will be duplicated, and that duplicate will be sent along with the copy of the magickal journal to verify that the work has been successfully completed. (The extra talisman will be returned when the examination is completed.)
Final Considerations for the Autonomous Third Degree Initiate -
Once an affiliate member has successfully completed all three levels of his or her training, then, with the affirmation of the elder mentor, the candidate may be considered for an individual and non-temple elevation to the third degree, receiving all of the lore and privileges associated with full membership in the Order. The candidate must travel to the home of the elder mentor and there receive a combination of official training and initiation into the Order as a fully vested ritual magician. The complete lore associated with the third degree will also be granted to the candidate, and he or she will receive personal training in the arts of invocation and evocation, as well as dispensation to perform a simple Mass rite to aid in that work. Once this training is completed, then the candidate may receive recognition as a fully autonomous third degree initiate.
A fully vested third degree initiate may keep his or her relationship with the elder mentor until achieving the fifth degree, or it may be dropped. However, the autonomous third degree can receive no further advancement in the Order until or unless a temple group is first assembled and duly chartered, with the third degree initiate acting as its first magister. When that newly chartered temple has had its first anniversary, then the autonomous third degree may petition his or her elder mentor or a suitable surrogate for advancement into the fourth, and if warranted, the fifth degree of the Inner Order.
Therefore, having written this addition to the normal proceedings of the bylaws, and having received unanimous consent from the other elders, the Affiliate Member Program is herein established.
Special Rules, Considerations and Regulations
This is an official communication from the elders of the Order to anyone who is interested in joining but lacks the means or ability to form a working magickal group.
We, the elders of the E.S.S.G. in the outer Order, and the L.E.T. in the inner, recognize the difficulties and trials of being required to first form a group and then charter a temple before being admitted into the Order as fully functioning members. Membership does entitle the group to have access to the lore of the Order, most of which is not available to the general public. While this may change at some point in the next few years, at this date, the lore for the first two degrees is not generally available. For this reason, we have decided to allow individuals not associated with any group to petition the elders of said Order for the purpose of being granted an affiliate membership to the Order. There are certain and very specific guidelines associated with the granting of this honor, and because such a membership occurs outside of the usual expected development of a group, responsibility for ensuring continuity and steadfast adherence to the required workings and ordeals is between the affiliate member and his or her elder mentor.
An elder mentor of an affiliate member will be an initiate of the Order of a level not less than the 5th degree, being therefore, a member of the inner order of L.E.T. An affiliate member is recognized as such by this elder, who ensures that the affiliate member follows the strict guidelines and expectations for advancement. Temple autonomy is abrogated for the affiliate member, who must seek all of his or her lore and advancement through a mentor and not through the peer group of a chartered temple. Affiliate membership will include all of the lore, privileges and responsibilities of individuals who are engaging in the work of a first and second degree member within a temple association. The third degree can be awarded by special consideration from the elder mentor to the affiliate, but any further degree or lore considerations must be accomplished through a chartered temple, which the affiliate is expected at this point to have successfully established.
To obtain an affiliate membership, a seeker is required to contact an elder of the E.S.S.G., and then present a suitable biography of all of his or her spiritual and magickal accomplishments, including membership, initiations, degrees, awards and accolades from other spiritual and magickal organizations. Enough information should be presented so that the elders of the Order may confer and determine the entry point for the candidate. For anyone seeking to be an affiliate who doesn’t already have a steadfast and continuous spiritual and magickal discipline spanning no less than three years must begin at the very first entry point. Steadfast and continuous is defined as being involved or engaged with one specific group, discipline or organization for the duration of the period in question. Proof and affidavits of such a membership are helpful but not required – sincerity is often something that can be gauged by the candidate’s words, attitudes and opinions.
There are three entry points in the complete series of obligations associated with the affiliate membership. These entry points coincide with the lore of the Mastering of the Art of Ritual Magick series (Qualified Powers), and the lore associated with the first degree (Enochian Elemental magick) and the second degree (Enochian Talismanic Elemental magick) of the Order of the Gnostic Star. Let us now describe in detail these three entry points and the lore and trials associated with them.
One final but important consideration is that an affiliate member can at any time break his or her obligation to the elder mentor and the Order. All work and involvement in that obligation is performed in a completely voluntary manner, and there is never to be anything either forced or coerced in the attitude or expectations of the mentor towards an affiliate member. Also, an affiliate member may end the affiliation if he or she either forms a suitable working group and gains a charter, or joins an already existing chartered temple. Requirements for joining an existing chartered temple would require that the affiliate member live in some proximity to that temple, and that he or she has been unanimously accepted as a member by that group.
Affiliate Level 1 -
The first level of the affiliate membership of the Order is characterized by the necessity of that member to forge their own personal system of magick and a spiritual and magickal discipline. A candidate who is chosen to apply him or herself to this task is assumed to be lacking in either accomplishment. This situation shouldn’t be considered either derogatory or judgmental. A candidate should accept the wisdom that the tasks of acquiring a fully functional magickal system and then practicing it in a consistent and periodic manner is no mean feat. Many individuals who claim to have magickal knowledge and experience are unable, for various reasons, to acquire these two most important components in the practice of ritual magick. Possessing a personal system of magick and a spiritual and magickal discipline must be considered foundational to the competent practice of ritual magick. It is, therefore, the required first step.
The three volumes of the series entitled “Mastering of the Art of Ritual Magick” were written to assist students in designing and developing their own personal magickal system, and then adopting it as a powerful spiritual and magickal discipline. The primary task, then, for the first level affiliate member is to use the ritual structures outlined in the second volume of this series (the Grimoire) to forge a personal system of ritual magick. Thus the first assignment for the level one affiliate member of the Order is to craft a personal system of magick using the basic nine rituals discussed and examined in that series. It is expected that the level one affiliate will purchase all three of these books, study and master them, and then build a ritual magickal system.
We would also recommend the book “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick” because it contains some important more in-depth explanations and rudimentary information that might be important to students who are seeking to build their own magickal system. There is also the blog “Talking About Ritual Magick,” which is located at the website www.fraterbarrabbas.blogspot.com. This blog has a lot of important articles that define the various topics of ritual magick in a specific and granular manner, which might answer questions and propose more basic ideas not found in any of the books. The student is referred to the index located on the left hand side of that blog web page, where the various subjects listed in the blog articles are to be found.
Once students have built their own personal magickal system, they must thoroughly test it to ensure that it works as it should. They may, over time, customize their system until they have thoroughly modified these rituals into something that completely represents their own personal spiritual and magickal perspective.
Testing a personal magickal system is quite simple, the magician must simply use it for a period of time. We recommend that level one affiliate members should practice their system for no less than six months to one year. All workings should be accurately written down in a journal that would include dates, times, duration, and anything that happened during that rite. This may even include dreams, premonitions or even Tarot card readings. All of these experiences are written into a journal to function as a practitioner’s personal log, an important discipline which should be continued even after the period of affiliation is completed. The magick journal functions as a definitive proof that such workings were actually performed. The following minimum trials should be accomplished during the six month (or more) period.
Perform six Lunar Mysteries with an associated Pyramid of Powers working. (These tasks will engage the student in fully experiencing the Forty Qualified Powers. Although simplistic in structure and use, these powers are deployed in more complicated rites later on, so they are very important to learn and master. )
Perform four Solar Mystery Sabbat rites.
Perform the Prefect Initiation ritual for Earth - using at least two or more witnesses who can attest that the ritual was performed successfully at the time reported.
The level one affiliate may perform more than the above minimum. He or she may perform more Lunar Mysteries, Sabbats and perhaps even the Prefect Initiation ritual for Air or Water.
Once this period of work is completed, the level one affiliate member will gather together a copy of the rituals and the journal entries and send them via the post to his or her elder mentor. After a careful examination and analysis of the results, the affiliate will receive either recognition for a successful passage to the next level, or some required remedial work and additional ritual workings. (This is true of any of the three levels - the only failure is not performing the work.)
Affiliate Level 2 -
Once the affiliate has successfully made the passage to level 2, he or she will receive in electronic format, all of the Order materials associated with the first degree. Since the first two initiations for the Order have been waived, it is important for all of the required work to be completed and properly documented in one’s magickal journal in order for that work to be considered valid.
The lore for the affiliate level 2 membership consists of the thorough mastery of Enochian Elemental Magick. Elemental magick is defined as rituals that invoke and project one of the sixteen elementals. The practitioner will read, study and master the documentation and the rituals associated with this methodology, and then he or she will perform a series of workings.
First, using the short form of the invocation working, the level two affiliate will invoke and manifest all sixteen Elementals. These will be performed sequentially, although the student can determine how many and how often this working will be done. Once all sixteen elementals have been invoked, the student will know from first hand experience the specific qualities of each. This will prepare him or her for the next phase of this trial.
Second, the level two affiliate will perform four complete Elemental workings, including the base Qualified Power, the Elemental invocation rite, Lunar Mystery and Elemental Gate. Each full working will take a full month to complete.
All twenty workings will be fully documented in the magick journal and submitted at their completion for examination by the elder mentor. In addition, the level two affiliate member will be responsible for performing all eight of the Gnostic Sabbat rites, which will be included in the lore presented to the affiliate. We also advise the affiliate member to download all of the ritual lore, the history and the bylaws for the ESSG from the Order’s website. All of these rites and documents should be examined, studied and used to develop individual rites. The more that the affiliate member does to master the basic lore of the Order, the more thoroughly and quickly he or she will advance to the next stage.
Affiliate Level 3 -
Again, once the affiliate member has successfully passed to the next level, based on the recommendations of the elder mentor, he or she will be given the documentation and rituals for the second degree in the Order. All of the required work must be completed and documented in the magick journal in order to substantiate that one has achieved full and complete mastery of this level.
The lore associated with the level three affiliate consists of talismanic magick. It is expected that the student will master the art of invoking and using Planetary Intelligences, and also invoking and deploying Talismanic Elementals (Enochian Seniors) and mastering the use of the 28 Lunar Mansions.
First, using the invocation rite for the Planetary Intelligences, the level three affiliate will perform the invocation of all seven of the Olympian Spirits, using the planetary hours and other useful lore to fully manifest the powers, intelligence and qualities of these spirits. The level three affiliate will perform these invocations sequentially and individually. We advise the affiliate member to perform no more than one of these spirits a week so as to fully absorb the working and understand the nature of the spirit. As always, the working will be fully documented in the magick journal.
Second, using the talismanic elemental working rituals, the student will perform three full invocation workings and generate three distinct talismans, using a combination of the Talismanic Elemental and the Lunar Mansion. These will be individually accomplished during a separate lunar cycle, so there will be no combining or stacking of these spiritual powers in a shorter period of time. Total time for these three workings should in the area of three to six months. Out of these three workings, one of the talismans will be duplicated, and that duplicate will be sent along with the copy of the magickal journal to verify that the work has been successfully completed. (The extra talisman will be returned when the examination is completed.)
Final Considerations for the Autonomous Third Degree Initiate -
Once an affiliate member has successfully completed all three levels of his or her training, then, with the affirmation of the elder mentor, the candidate may be considered for an individual and non-temple elevation to the third degree, receiving all of the lore and privileges associated with full membership in the Order. The candidate must travel to the home of the elder mentor and there receive a combination of official training and initiation into the Order as a fully vested ritual magician. The complete lore associated with the third degree will also be granted to the candidate, and he or she will receive personal training in the arts of invocation and evocation, as well as dispensation to perform a simple Mass rite to aid in that work. Once this training is completed, then the candidate may receive recognition as a fully autonomous third degree initiate.
A fully vested third degree initiate may keep his or her relationship with the elder mentor until achieving the fifth degree, or it may be dropped. However, the autonomous third degree can receive no further advancement in the Order until or unless a temple group is first assembled and duly chartered, with the third degree initiate acting as its first magister. When that newly chartered temple has had its first anniversary, then the autonomous third degree may petition his or her elder mentor or a suitable surrogate for advancement into the fourth, and if warranted, the fifth degree of the Inner Order.
Therefore, having written this addition to the normal proceedings of the bylaws, and having received unanimous consent from the other elders, the Affiliate Member Program is herein established.
Frater Barrabbas
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