Master Pattern of Ritual Magick

This was a chapter that was pulled and omitted from the book “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick - Foundation,” which I had felt should be re-edited and used for a separate article. This section was called the “Master Pattern of Ritual Magick”, which are the seven integral parts of a basic magickal working. The Master Pattern consists of a progression that begins with the self and ends with the projection of magickal power and the acquisition of insight through divination. I have written a more simplistic version of this methodology and included it in the book, “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick,” but I thought that it would be a good idea to make this more concise version available for occultists to read and consider.


Analysis of the Master Pattern

I have always believed that what was needed in the teaching and mastering of ritual magick is a simple and concise method for determining what is really critical for the practice of a basic magickal working. I wanted to boil down the more elaborate and complex ritual systems that I typically use to something that nearly anyone could grasp, especially someone who is seeking to learn more complex ritual methods and integrate them into their repertoire. What I wanted was a kind of master pattern that could be used by anyone to produce an effective ritual working.

So one day while I was sitting alone in a theater, bored out of my skull, waiting for a movie to be shown, I decided to do some useful pondering. I gave myself an assignment, which was to come up with a simple list of steps used to perform a ritual working. I wanted to come up with a list containing only those steps that I felt were absolutely essential. I checked this list repeatedly in my mind and asked the same question of each item, “Do I need this step or could I chuck it?” So I omitted anything that I thought was extraneous or distracting. This is how I came up with these seven steps, which I am presenting here as my master pattern. It started out as an exercise to quell my boredom, but it really did produce something useful and important. They’re important because they can be used to build any practical ritual magickal working. These seven steps also introduce one to a modular methodology in performing rituals, since some of the steps can be re-arranged or condensed to form different kinds of ritual workings. The steps can also be repeated in a slightly different manner for a completely different working.

OK, I have now presented how and why I came to derive this so-called master pattern of ritual magick. Yet what could I have possibly put together that hasn’t been discussed to death by many other writers or teachers? Perhaps my intense ennuis made me think that I had an “eureka” sort of moment. Maybe the master pattern is just more occult hyperbole. However, since I have worked magick solidly for many years, maybe I might actually know what I am talking about. To come up with this pattern, I wiped my internal slate clean of any opinions or prejudices and asked the question to myself as if I were a new student asking an adept practitioner how to put together a ritual working. So let’s proceed to discuss this pattern and see if it actually works.

Let me begin by looking at this problem as I did in that theater many years ago. The master pattern of a ritual working begins with the very first step that I call“Self Preparation” and progresses outwardly in ever increasing waves of worldly significance. Self preparation represents all of the things that have to do with the magickal operator, from the internal mind, emotions, perceptions, to the body and its purification, as well as magickal apparel and adornment. Self preparation is the foundation for the working of any magick. If it is not properly established, then all that follows will be adversely affected. From this foundation, the magician progresses outwardly at precise intervals, thereby establishing sacred space, generating magickal power (empowerment), establishing spiritual alignment, charging the magickal link, exteriorizing the power and acquiring insights as determined by divination, both before and after the magick is performed. The last category allows the magician to become aware of the symbolic world where consciousness has its origins, and to understand the inner workings of the World of Spirit, realizing its effect on the mundane world. These seven steps can be quickly listed for a more detailed consideration later in this article.

1. Self Preparation
2. Sacred Space
3. Empowerment
4. Alignment
5. Symbolic Link
6. Exteriorization
7. Divination

As you can see by the way that this progression is arrayed, the magician begins the work inwardly passing through the microcosm of the Self, then outwardly to affect and impact the macrocosm, which is the greater spiritual and material world around one. While some may dispute the importance, precedence or the naming convention that I have determined for this pattern, most ritual magicians in the Western tradition use some variation of this method, thus proceeding from the inner mind and the body to the outer world in order to project magick into the material plane. This pattern is an expanding and evolving spiral, representing the basic qualities of any magick that would influence the material plane.

Of the seven steps, the most important one is the creation of the magickal link. The magickal link is where the magician represents the objective of the magick in some symbolic form, often using a personally derived sigil, which is drawn on a piece of parchment paper or even etched on a metal disk. A sigil is really a shorthand reduction of the objective for working magick formulated into a graphic design, where the various parts or segments are integrated into a holistic figure.

The magician can use other mechanisms for the link as well, such as a mantra repeatedly intoned, or what is called a material or gross link, which is a medicine bag, herb cache, or even a poppet (fithfath). The purpose of the symbolic link is to translate the magician’s desire into a symbolic analogue, allowing it to impact and resonate what I call the super-symbolic reality, which is the source for the impetus of all things that materialize into actions and objects. We will discuss more about this and in greater detail later on.

These seven steps represent a simplified discipline of ritual magick. They can be kept in a rudimentary form or can become quite elaborate. There is often more than one execution for each step, representing that these steps are ideally sequential categories of required ritual actions. In some cases, more than one execution will be used, such as in the category of empowerment, or others, such as the generating sacred space, which has only one ritual to use, depending on the type of space that needs to be sacralized. Applying this methodology to the practice of ritual magick allows for the deployment of a modular system of ritual magick, where independent rituals residing in these seven categories can be repeatedly reused to perform many different magickal workings. There are many possible variations within this pattern, yet the seven steps must be present in some form, in whatever order or sequence.

The master pattern is a guide to understanding what the requirements are for formulating a magickal working and how the rituals contained within it must be assembled. The linear progression of this pattern represents the type of ritual working that resonates magickal energy to a climax, thereby successfully projecting its field of magickal power into the material plane. This type of magick make exclusive use of the energy theory of magick in its most simplistic form. It is not a system of theurgy, psychodrama or initiatory transformation. It does not use or recognize spirits, other than one’s own godhead and spiritual hierarchy. It is a magickal system of acquisition that seeks to make things happen or be realized in the material plane - so it works with magickal energies or powers.

Certainly there are many other types of ritual patterns for other types of workings, all these other variations will be explained in subsequent articles and books. For now, we will focus on a simple exposition of the energy theory of magick using the master pattern.
   
Self Preparation

Because the success of a ritual is contingent upon the perceptions and sensitivity of the practitioner, the primary focus of all magickal training begins with mind control. Without the ability to concentrate, meditate or deliberately assume various altered states of consciousness, all efforts to perform ritual magick are doomed to failure. The discipline of magick begins with self-mastery, and this entails developing the abilities of self-control, self-awareness and self-direction. The petty ego is tempered with a realization of the spiritual nature of one's being and the daily attempts to bring this realization to bear upon the magician’s mind and body.

The following techniques are included under this category:

Bodily purification (self-love): magickal baths, yogic stretching exercises, massage, anointing with oil, self fascination trance (using a mirror), and self generated enthusiasm.

Assuming the Magickal persona: the image of one’s self as a magician, the magical persona, the magician's mask, the magical double or godhead eidolon. This minor assumption is usually accomplished through the donning magickal apparel and adorning the self with jewelry, makeup, wearing a mask, etc.

Meditation: assumption of altered states of consciousness, concentration, mental direction and internal awareness. Includes the methodologies of asana, prana-yama, mantra, mandala yoga, as well as concentration and contemplation. The magician uses the regiment of a daily meditation session to build and maintain a high degree of mental control, and performs a special meditation session prior to working magick. Specific exercises include centering, ascending and descending the chakras (planes), grounding, and opening and closing the self.

Trance: self hypnosis in preparation for deep meditation, skrying or astral projection (if required).

Sacred Space

The next sphere that the magician must act upon is the place in which the ritual is to be conducted. This place may be inside a room or outdoors; however, the magician performs certain ritual actions to ensure that this space is perceived as sacred. The magician defines the sphere of ritual operations so that all actions within it become symbolic and spiritually significant. The abstract plane of symbols is superimposed upon a prepared environment so that it is transformed by association into a spiritual domain, where the symbols and correspondences of magick become an experiential reality. Thus there is a need for tools, furnishings, structures and symbolic landmarks to assist the continual occurrence of esthetic stimulation and the effective communication of the process of ritual performance.

The following techniques are included under this category:

Temple Consecration Ritual: The magician uses the sacraments of lustral water, incense, and candlelight to purify the magickal space of the temple. The magician also deploys a defined magick circle and activated circle points (Watchtowers and Angles) to energize and empower the temple, which are joined together to form geometric prismatic energy structures.

Grove Consecration Ritual: The magician uses the sacraments of wine, oil, milk, rose water and incense to make offerings to the sacred space of the outdoor grove. The magician also acknowledges the ritual structures of the circle, the four Wards, the circle Pentagram, and the internal gateway, which is used to open the natural world to the empowered and sacred World of the Spirit.

Magickal Topology: The magician uses the myths and legends of sacred places, power zones and symbolic associative realities to either harness their powers or to enter into the field of their sacred and empowering environment.

Magickal Implements: The magician uses ritual tools, furnishings, landmarks, metaphysical instruments, symbolic constructs and Yantras (magickal illustrations and designs) to manipulate magickal powers and set the basic magickal field of force within one’s environment.

Empowerment

The most mentioned but least understood concept in magick is magickal power. I should briefly define this concept within a narrow framework so that misconceptions may be eliminated. The operational definition of magickal power is anything that profoundly alters one's mental state or perception within an occult or spiritual context. Power is a metaphor representing a magickal effect. A magickal experience is therefore said to be powerful when it has a high degree of significance and meaningfulness to the magician.

In addition, I would further define magickal power as a form of deliberate self-induced ecstasy. From a symbolic perspective, ecstasy within a magickal context is the experience that occurs when one undergoes the union of opposites, whether enacted within the self (symbolically) or without (physically). This kind of magical power produces a catharsis or spiritual transformation, but in lesser degrees, confers exalted states of consciousness. One could say that every successful magical working should transform the operator to some degree if it is to be considered efficacious. There is a basic relationship stated in this process, that the greater the over-all effect, the more intense the transformation and the greater the purported magickal power. Methods of generating power vary; however, they always involve the joining of symbolic opposites in whatever form they are presented.

Magickal power is the expression and intensification (resonance) of movement, and is qualified by the Four Elements (invoking pentagram), vectoring (deosil, widdershins) and gender (masculine, feminine, neutral).

The following techniques are included under this category:

Symbolic Expression and Movement: Movement is the most basic representation of magickal power. Ritual movement is expressed through circumambulation, whirling in place, simple dance choreography, the assumption of mudras or symbolic  gestures, and the drawing of symbolic geometric forms (Pentagrams, Crosses, Spirals, etc.), all of which represent the symbolic joining of the archetypal female and masculine components. Resonance or intensification is used to increase the experience of power.

Great Rite: The physical joining of the symbolic male and female is accomplished either through the actual sex act or symbolized through physical surrogates (wand and cup, salt and water, wine and bread, the four Elements as sacraments, etc.). One can also use forms of masturbation (rites of solitude).

Masculine Power:  These are ritual techniques such as the cone of power, the Pyramid of Power, the Stang, and the poteau-mitan or magickal pylon (all phallic images). The resonance of the  ejaculative or climactic ritual structure is representative of this pattern, and the product is a bolt of energy that is later released upon the target.

Feminine Power:  The ritual techniques of the vortex, which is a container or envelope of power, and the Threshold Gateway trigon, which is a passageway to another dimension, all represent yonic images, and therefore symbolize the feminine power. Simple and complex vortex structures use four and eight-position ritual patterns, producing the resonance of absorption or the causal-wave energy field when their circle positions are joined in fusion.

Alignment

Alignment is an important step or category in the system of magick that I personally work, yet others might consider this a digression. Typically, alignment represents the magician’s relationship to the Deity in some personalized form. The importance of spiritual alignment is that it introduces into the ritual a sacred presence - a guiding and empowering spiritual being directly connected to the magician. It’s my opinion that the spiritual component of a ritual is a necessity, for without it the ritual becomes merely a selfish exercise in self mastery and personal empowerment.

Magickal power is defined within the context of the domain of Spirit, and it can’t exist without some aspect of the Deity being engaged, whether or not one is actively conscious of this fact. The authority and power of some God/dess or defined spiritual being is usually incorporated into most magical workings, even simple ones that are merely seeking to make some material objective realized.

In the practice of ritual magick (as I define it), the magician must not only define the image and characteristics of the Deity, but must also actively summon and identify with it. It is best if the magician personifies the Deity, giving it a human countenance and a personality to assist in the process of identification and union. In my humble opinion, there is no greater arrogance or foolishness than to practice magick without some kind of representation of the Deity. My reasons for stating this is that without such a supernatural connection, the magician has no extra-dimensional supernatural guidance, assistance and is therefore, spiritually accountable to no one.

Deity gives ethical guidance to the magician and intercedes when adversity emerges or the magick goes terribly awry. A magickal initiate is protected by the Godhead and kept from being harmed through the power of an active spiritual alignment. The agnostic or atheistic magician has no such protection or governor for one’s actions, so he or she eventually realizes terrible ethical failures and is seductively drawn into the corrupting descent of self into mono-mania.

The following techniques are included under this category:

Assumption of the Deity: The magician assumes the identity and image of the Deity, transforming the self so that it becomes conscious of the divinity within. The ritual of the Drawing Down the Moon and Drawing Down the Sun are variations of this technique. (These variations are both used in the Assumption of the Grail Spirit ritual.) Highest forms are the Bornless One invocation rite.

Communion:  The symbolic union of Deity and humanity though the agency of symbolic surrogates (the archetypal male and female of the Great Rite) represents the creation of the actual physical substances of sacramentation. The communion rite of sacrifice is enacted either symbolically or physically, with the blood (wine) and the flesh (bread) being consumed by the practitioners. This rite, still used as a part of the Mass liturgy for some denominations of Christianity, is performed specifically for the magickal empowerment of the individual.

Invocation:  The Deity is summoned, enticed or even implored to appear for the sake of the magician. Invocation performed in this manner is defined as the calling or summoning of the Deity within one's self through guided meditations and visualizations, or through heartfelt attracting, drawing down and the opening of one's self (heart) for union. This type of invocation is not to be confused with the process of invoking or evoking a spirit into manifestation (theurgy or goetia), since it relies exclusively on devotion and the adoration of the Godhead. (Forms of demonalotry would be excluded, of course.)

Devotion: Prayers, public offerings (sacrifices), orisons, dances, spiritual service, celebrations, sacralization of place and time. Celebration of the Solar and Lunar Mysteries. These are done to intensify the connection between the magician and the personal Godhead.

Symbolic Link (Empowering the Intention)

As stated previously, the most important component in a magical operation is the fashioning of the magickal link. Aleister Crowley was the first writer to discuss this concept (see the book Magick, ch. XIV), yet a ritual cannot succeed without its presence. The magickal link functions as the symbolic representative of the intention for which the ritual is being performed. The symbolic intention is capable of easily accessing the abstract world of ideas when it is empowered. This magickal world is the macrocosmic dimension that must be penetrated by the magician in order for it to impact the narrow field of individual consciousness. If the ritual objective is not properly translated into a symbolic format, then the magickal process will end without generating any further meaning or significance beyond the narcissistic and temporary exaltation of the self. Without the active operation of a magickal link, a ritual ceases to be magickal and becomes instead a form of ceremonial celebration. An analysis of the constituents of this magickal link will help to define it.

The following techniques are included under this category:

Sigil Magick:  The various methods of establishing a symbolic link consisting of either words or pictures representing one's purpose or desire is the technique of  sigil magick. The sigil is a condensed symbol or picture of the original desire and imbued with all the emotional  intensity and significance that is associated with that desire. The sigil is charged and then projected through ritual exteriorization into the archetypal plane where it becomes part of the domain of ideas beyond conscious control.

Ritual Formulas:  The points of a ritual structure (watchtowers, angles, etc.), when imbued with numerological and word associations, is brought together through a unified expression that consists of a formula word or phrase produced by the joining of these word or number associations. This form of word-number association is the basis for the Qabbalistic systems of Notariqon (acronym manipulation), Gematria (numerology), and Temurah (reduction of names into sigils). One early example of this methodology is found in  the Analysis of the Key-word (LUX-INRI) in the rituals of the Golden Dawn. (See the Ritual of the Rose Cross, in Israel Regardies' book, The Golden Dawn, volume 4.)

Organic (Gross) Link:  The use of physical objects such as a fith-fath (a poppet or voodoo-doll), a picture, photograph, herb-cachet, organic substances such as herbal or mineral philters, clothes or possessions belonging to the target, fresh blood, semen, menstruum, saliva, urine, excrement, hair, nail parings, etc., are examples of the organic magickal link. The use of a physical object allows for a potent associative link that easily penetrates into the magician's unconscious mind.

Note: In the magickal workings that I perform, I make use of sigils and ritual formulas, but typically avoid using a gross link. This is just my preference.

Exteriorization

The technique that causes the power in a magical ritual to be outwardly expressed, making it a real phenomenon to the magician, is known as exteriorization. This technique is the easiest to understand and is never omitted from a ritual working. When the target or objective of a ritual lies beyond the boundaries of the self, then some form of exteriorization is required.

The following techniques are included under this category:

Trance of Willing:  The magician uses the processes of trance and visualization to impress upon the symbolic plane the desired outcome. The visualization must be reduced to a condensed format (the magickal link) and allowed to seep into one's unconsciousness through the deepening of the trance state.

Climactic Expression:  The magician uses movement to reach a crescendo of effect and then immediately ceases that movement. This is also called the whiplash effect. Some variations include the sword dance (as famously illustrated in Crowley's book Moon Child), a chanting-round and ecstatic dance culminating in ecstatic release.

Pranayama Release:  The magician uses a breathing technique known as the Lotus 7-breath, inhaling a potent perfume (essence of lotus) at least seven times, then combining hyperventilation with a breath bandha (holding in the breath) and a final dramatic and explosive exhalation.

Insight

The magician uses the prior six categories to formulate a ritual working that projects the powers of the phenomena of magick.  This category assists one in understanding the effects and implications of that ritual working. The dual processes of magick ritual and divination assist the magician in following the proper and most efficient path to personal growth and ultimate enlightenment. The process of insight reveals the symbolic domain of the macrocosmic world that assists the magician to focus the purpose and objective of his/her magickal workings. While there are many methods of divination, the following list should assist the magician in understanding the area of specialty for each.

The following techniques are included under this category:

Astrology:  Knowledge of the timing of celestial events.

Tarot/I-Ching:  Knowledge of the symbolic plane as it applies to the choices influencing the individual. Cards are shuffled and drawn randomly, coins are tossed randomly.

Runes/Geomancy: Knowledge of the variable patterns of existence. Includes other techniques, such as palmistry, bone throwing, tea leaf analysis, bird  flying formations, etc.

Pendulum/Dowsing Rod: Knowledge of the magickal effects of  chaos or chance. Includes all moving-pointer type techniques, such as the Ouija board, dice throwing or coin tossing, the Magick 8-ball, etc.

Skrying/Astral Projection: Knowledge through visualized clairvoyance. These divination techniques incorporate the methods of the mediation of the symbolic and physical planes of being. Ancient forms of the above were fire gazing and water gazing.

Conclusion and Recap

So we have now covered all seven steps of the master pattern. I would expect that the astute student would want to know how to put it all together. While I have no problem sharing the structure of the pattern of this simple ritual working, the actual rituals and how they are used are covered in the second book of the Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick series, which is called the Grimoire. Here is the pattern of a simple magickal working.  There are seven phases because the empowerment step is split into two distinct rituals.

1. Self preparation - magickal bath, purification, meditation and contemplation - this would include crafting a sigil for the work
2. Temple consecration
3. Empowerment phase 1 - erect a Vortex (qualify power with widdershins vector and feminine gender)
4. Alignment - Godhead assumption
5. Empowerment phase 2 - erect a Pyramid of Power (qualify power with Element, deosil vector and masculine gender)
6. Charge sigil and use to imprint power field
7. Exteriorize power field - spiral circumambulation and induced ecstasy

In addition, one would perform divination both prior to the working, to define and objective in a greater refinement, and then afterward, to determine the overall outcome.

Frater Barrabbas

Magickal Teachers - Paying for Occult Instruction

There have been some recent blog articles on whether an occult teacher and magician should be “kept” by his or her community so that he or she may focus exclusively on the mastery of magick and its dissemination to the masses. One individual has mentioned that he would like to actually become wealthy or comfortably well off while practicing magick full time. Since I have a full time gig that I love and enjoy, which I might add, financially rewards me handsomely, I guess I am little startled by anyone wanting to somehow live off of students or consulting clients. For me, this is not really something that I am seeking, but I do know others who not only have started up a business that instructs and consults others in occult matters, but also allows them to do it as their only means of support. My Tantra teachers are a case in point, and I have nothing but honor and appreciation for the work that they are doing.

However, one thing that I have learned over the years is that spiritual seekers generally don’t have a lot of disposable income, so teaching and writing books becomes, for the most part, a money losing proposition. It quickly becomes paramount that in order to live off one’s vocation as an occultist and spiritual teacher, one needs to gather together a large group in order to sustain a viable and consistent income. What this also means is that the larger the group of adherents one gathers, the less each individual receives of any kind of extensive attention or personal coaching. So there is a balance to be considered between large groups or small groups, lots of personal attention or just rudimentary encounters.

Spiritual and occult empires tend to be money making machines that ultimately cheat individuals out of getting what they think they need from a teacher or guru. Large organizations are not able to tend to the intimate needs of spiritual seekers, so the question becomes what kind of impact is the teacher interested in providing one’s community at large? Obviously, if the teacher is seeking to become wealthy teaching the occult, then he or she will seek to build an empire, and will become yet another large organization that absorbs people’s money without seeming to give them what they really are looking for.

Perhaps the most important consideration that an erstwhile occult and magickal teacher can determine is to define what is meant by being materially wealthy or well off. Is it a requirement for working magick, and how much is enough? I have found that even new age adherents find this a very sticky issue to ponder - some have no qualms of seeking as much material wealth as they can, others are much more humble or ethical.

When working some very powerful invocations many years ago, one of my personal aspects of Godhead told me that my material circumstances were of no concern as long as I was able to do the spiritual and magickal work that was expected of me. This, of course, not only concerned my material situation, but also whether or not I had a relationship, friends to associate with or was enjoying my life. These considerations were my own and had no bearing on the work, as long as they didn’t interfere with it. What I deduced from this surprising statement was that for me, material solvency and personal happiness were my own responsibility. I had to find a balance between doing the work and seeking to materially advance myself. In finding that balance, I discovered that what I require to live on was much more rudimentary than I might have realized if I were not continually seduced by the power of materialism and the need to acquire goods and amass wealth. The secret to a successful occult career is to know the value of what one has and to know when enough is enough. Sometimes this lesson is cruelly and tragically dispensed by events, both foreseen and accidental.

I decided long ago that I was not interested in putting together a large occult organization because I find that I relish extensive individual contacts and also seek to guard my privacy. Since my background is witchcraft, there are strong taboos against charging fellow initiates for instruction and guidance, so I have walked a careful line between dealing with the public at large and teaching those who have received initiation from my hand. Once someone is an initiate in my tradition of witchcraft or magick, they are no longer amongst those that I can or would charge for instruction or guidance. We are supposed to offer our services free of charge to our brothers and sisters, and I would agree with this approach, since it instills a higher degree of ethics and eliminates the possibility of initiates exploiting each other. This is true amongst fellow initiates, but does not apply to those who are not initiated, the outsiders or cowains. It is also true that products such as occult supplies, books or other crafted items can and should be charged for by initiates to other initiates, since there is no such thing as a free lunch even amongst spiritual brothers and sisters.

One of the things that I dread the most would be a situation where I would become a parasite to a group of unwitting seekers. You could imagine it as a kind of giant tick, siphoning off the life force of other living beings and spreading corruption and disease in the process. Such a concept is quite revolting to me, so I would steadfastly avoid putting myself in that kind of situation. Since I am a human being with virtues and failings who is really no better or worse than anyone else and not some kind of omniscient ascended master, it would be profoundly dishonest for me to pass myself off as such, and expect others to take care of my needs or to cater to my ego centered gratifications.

There is a mythic quality to the great spiritual teacher and I have found that the best teacher for me has been the occasional guide, gifted lecturer or insightful friend. In all of the years that I have practiced ritual magick and investigated various occult organizations, I never once found someone that I would consider a master or one in which I would invest my entire spiritual search. For me, such an individual probably doesn’t exist. I have not yet been contacted by any secret chiefs, masters or secret immortal organizations, and I greatly doubt that any such individuals or groups exist in the real world. Such lessons as I have learned have been best apprehended by my own work and effort, even when given advice or guidance by others. Often these insights or advice have been freely given, or perhaps I attended some lecture or workshop and paid a small fee. I tend to avoid those who charge exorbitant fees for their knowledge unless I am absolutely certain that what they offer is critical, unique and important to me. Needless to say, I have very seldom applied for any expensive teachings and I don’t think that I have missed out on any opportunity for real personal growth. 

Spiritual egalitarianism and the establishment of Star Groups, where each member is a valued and equal representative of the group as a whole, is something that I have a vested interest in pursuing and promoting. It’s part of the by-laws of the Order of the Gnostic Star, so it’s obviously something that I must incorporate into my workings when engaging and involving other people. This means that the property of the group is to be shared equally amongst all of the members of the group. It also means that no one either charges or expects any kind of exchange for the gift of guidance or knowledge. Members are treated equally and with respect regardless of their previous experience or level of development, and teachers are nothing more than temporary facilitators who freely give their wisdom and insights for the good of the group. This would apply to both the supplying of temple space, equipment, supplies, books and other materials for the achievement of any group working. The group may extract dues from members, or it may rely on members freely offering goods or services, but the expenses met are considered donations whatever their source, and are the concern of the whole group and not just one or a few individuals. Egalitarianism is something that is difficult to learn and sometimes even harder to maintain, but it is essential if a group is to function as an integrated collective of equal individuals.

Another consideration is mentorship. In order to truly teach someone how to work magick, it requires taking them into a magick temple or grove and sharing the experience of working magick. This process of sharing must be done a number of times for each of the many different magickal workings. This is done in order for the complex system of magick used by the Order to be properly inculcated so that students are able to perform it without any help or guidance. We are talking about quite an investment of time and effort on the part of the teacher as well as the student. In the system of magick that I work, once an individual is initiated, they can no longer be expected to pay for their instruction, and mentoring becomes a very personal and intimate exchange. If experiences are shared, then certainly some of the expense of the workings can also be shared. But I would find it quite unethical to charge such an associate for my time or effort.

Correspondingly, a mentor can only do so much, it’s really up the student to master the work and become proficient in magick. So it’s expected that students will not only engage in shared workings, but will also perform their own and keep a consistent effort going during the training period. Mentorship should also be a temporary situation, having an allotted set of tasks, a finite period and duration. This keeps the relationship from becoming an open ended state of dominance by the mentor over the student. It should be expected that the student, whether less knowledgeable or capable, will either fulfill their objectives or not, and either way, they are respected and valued by the teacher. This also means that the period of personal teaching must end at some agreed upon point, where the teacher and student become independent of each other. This allows the student to either move on or to retain their association with the teacher, but now as an equal and respected contributor.

As you can see, spiritual egalitarianism and mentorship can only be sustained by small groups, allowing for the greatest amount of personal and intimate exchange between members. For this reason, the by-laws of the Order state that temple groups should have no more than a dozen members, since a larger group would not only have logistical issues for meeting and performing rituals, but that individual exchanges would become too limited and brief. It requires a mentor to properly train and teach another individual how to work very complex ritual workings, so a small group can facilitate mentors and simultaneously practice group rituals for the advancement of all members.

So when these considerations are examined and adopted, as I have, one might ask, what area is left for the teacher to teach and be paid or supported for his or her efforts? The answer is the general public - those who have not yet decided to pursue a specific path of magick and become an initiate. In fact the teacher and writer becomes a kind of gateway threshold that separates the serious and dedicated student from the superficial seeker. Often it takes time to make such a decision, where a student needs to have a fair amount of exposure to books, lectures, workshops, personal experimentation and meeting individuals representing groups before deciding to become an initiate. The teacher who facilitates these materials and gatherings for the general public has every right to charge for them whatever amount they think is appropriate and acceptable. The public will decide over time if such expenses are reasonable or egregious, voting with their feet if they find a teacher to be charging too much for what he or she is offering.

A final note: this is a very complex issue that has many deep layers to consider and think about. As a member of an existing organization that has rules, and also because I was initiated and trained as a witch with certain guidelines and expectations, I am not as free as others to charge for my services. But I believe that I am giving as much as anyone else to those who are interested in the occult practices of ritual magick. When someone decides to become an initiate and seeks me to be their mentor and initiator, then the rules must change to support spiritual egalitarianism and personal freedom.

Frater Barrabbas

Jesus Christ - Myth, Legend or Historical Person

First of all, I want to affirm that I am not a Christian, but I do respect Christianity as a world religion that has overall made a good and positive impact on the world. I can also say that organizations, institutions and individuals espousing this religion have also done terrible deeds and committed egregious crimes over the centuries. I feel more sympathetic to those who practice a form of esoteric Christianity than those who promote a form of literalism, fundamentalism and aggressive proselytizing. There are elements of Christianity that have greatly benefited the world and other elements that we could have done without. I am not the kind of pagan who believes that the world would have been better off without the advent and rise of Christianity, but I do believe that much was lost when the old pagan world began its slow and torturous march to total conversion. So, these are my sentiments about Christianity. I was raised in a nominal Christian family, although my father was an avowed agnostic and my mother’s involvement in attending church was more about singing in the choir than being a pious adherent. I was pretty much left to my own designs in regards to religious matters, since no one enforced any kind of religious doctrine or dogma on me. I was able to discover witchcraft and paganism almost in a kind of natural manner, without much in the way of books or people to talk to about it.

That being said, I broke off any kind of formal relationship with Christianity when I was teenager, but I have had to study many details of history, theology and philosophy that have caused me to re-examine Christianity and to know both the Bible and other tenets more intimately than I might have imagined years ago. I learned my Latin, Greek and Hebrew in college because I wanted to read the old grimoires and master the Qabbalah in its original tongue, but I also was exposed to a lot of interesting material on the history of those times, as well as theological considerations and actual textual critiques of the sacred writings. So I have unwittingly become more of an expert in Christianity than I would have deemed either necessary or even desirable years ago when I began my pagan path. What this means is that I am still looking at and examining various theories and perspectives from a historical as well as a theological and philosophical point of view. I have done this not only try to determine what paganism was like in late antiquity, but also how Christianity evolved into a world religion from an obscure Judean cult.

One of the most interesting and compelling theories that has been in and out of popular consensus (but seldom with religious scholars and historians) is the notion that somehow the erstwhile and unwitting founder of Christianity, namely Jesus of Nazareth, never really existed, that he was (and is) a completely mythical character who acquired a historical and legendary fame over time. Several authors have written about this theory, some claiming it to be valid, others debunking it. Religious scholars and historians have not accepted this theory as a compelling argument because most of the theories have been proposed by individuals who are not part of that academic clique. These theories have also been proposed with weak arguments and poor scholarship that has easily been deflected by the vested leaders of religious and historical studies. You can examine a rather biased report on these theories here.

Perhaps the weakest aspect of these arguments is this major stumbling block - if Jesus of Nazareth was a mythic character invented by Jewish messianic adherents, then where did the various sources of the stories that produced the narrative of his life come from? The theorists have pointed to the pagan world, with its various heros, mystery cults and demigods as the source. But of course, for messianic Jews living in the first century, such sources would have been both inimical and foreign to them. Perhaps only Paul was exposed enough to the pagan world and its mysteries (Tarsus was home to several mystery cults) to be able to use ideas from some of them to round out his teachings and make them more presentable to pagan gentiles. A recent book by Hiyam Maccoby, entitled “The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity” deals with this topic quite thoroughly. You can find it here.

However, the cult of Christianity was already fully formed by the time Paul became a member. That Paul appeared to create the Christian religion from both pagan and Jewish sources is still a contested theory, but one that seems to be gaining in strength and plausibility. This is because before Paul aggressively proselytized Christianity amongst pagan gentiles, the cult of Christianity was wholly a marginal Jewish offshoot. Jewish Christians from Judea were completely Jewish, and practiced all of the rituals, attended the synagogue, piously obeyed the laws and studied the Torah just like other Jews of that time. Such a group of conservative and religious individuals would have objected to any foreign influences or pagan incursions into their faith, and justifiably so. There were reports of tensions between Paul and the other apostles living in Judea based on whether Christianity should embrace or exclude many Jewish laws and practices. Obviously, Paul chose to part with many Jewish practices that would have been inconvenient and offensively foreign to pagans living in the Roman world. In doing so, he created a new religion, but not without a great deal of friction with the original apostles.

The Jewish revolt that occurred in the late 60's soon orchestrated a Roman response that caused the complete destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the diaspora of Jews throughout the Roman world. This, of course, ended the dispute between the Judean faction of Christianity and the faction led by Paul. It was also the birth of a new religion that was only remotely related to Judaism. They shared the same sacred texts, but interpreted them in very different ways.

Yet the question still remains, how did the Jewish messianic cult of Christianity begin and where did it get the story of its founder, Jesus of Nazareth? Because this question was not adequately answered by those who espoused that Jesus was not a real historical person, the theory seemed to be doomed to being picked apart by scholars and historians. While I may have found the argument compelling, I had dismissed it as not being very probable. Then, I very recently discovered three articles on the web written by an obscure individual whose name is R. G. Price. This individual is not a biblical scholar or a historian, he is, in fact the writer of articles about politics and economics. For some reason, he took it upon himself (back in 2007) to write three associated articles that have, at least for me, solved much of the puzzle.

Mr. Price has written, and I believe has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the first gospel, which was supposedly written by someone named Mark in the early 70's CE, was a fictional allegory filled with literary allusions taken from biblical sources in the old Testament, and filled in with sources from the epistles of Paul. He has shown that most of these literary allusions are taken almost word for word from their biblical sources. According to Price, the source for the Jesus narrative has its roots in the old testament, and that prior to the writing of this gospel, Christianity held a concept of the messiah that was immaterial, cosmic and godlike, unlike the typical Jewish idea of the messiah being a king, war leader and successful deliverer. When one carefully examines the historically validated epistles of Paul, this immaterial “Christ Jesus” seems to be the central tenet of Paul’s theology. He never mentions that Jesus was a historical person or that there will be a second coming, so the crucifixion becomes an allegory and a mystic symbol instead of a historical occurrence.

Price has concluded that the cult of Jesus Christ in Jewish circles evolved in the following manner.

I think that an apocalyptic Christ cult or movement developed among some Jewish subgroup and that at some point someone named James became the head of this group in Jerusalem. This group was primarily a Jewish group at this point. James, John, and Peter were all prominent Jewish members of this group. The primary belief held by this group, and what set it apart, was the belief in a heavenly messiah, in contradiction to the more traditional belief in an earthly messiah, or king.

The more traditional belief, though still not universal among Jews, was that a person known as the messiah would come along and unite and strengthen the Jews and be their god's representative on earth, and that this king would usher in a time of universal peace and justice and perfection, either by leading the Jews to military victory over everyone else in the world or by simply being accepted as the ruler of everyone else in the world, or some variation of this. The important part is that this would be a human being and that perfection would be reached on earth.

In contrast to this the apocalyptic and messianic movement that is associated with Jesus believed that the earth and the entire material world was hopelessly corrupt and that the material world must be destroyed in order to make way for a new paradise. They believed in a heavenly messiah, who would come to destroy the world in order to re-create a new perfect spiritual world.

Somewhere along the line this cult began spreading out and being adopted by non-Jews as well. The extent to which this happened before Paul is impossible to know. At any rate, Paul came along at some point and began vigorously evangelizing to non-Jews and developing his own theology, much of which denounced or did away with traditional Jewish practices (this was also part of a larger movement among Jews who were integrating into non-Jewish cultures).

This created conflict within the movement between a Jewish oriented group led by James, and a "Gentile" oriented group led by Paul.

The core of the early followers, however, were followers of the Jewish oriented group led by James. Peter seems not to have been a leader of any group, but rather more of a public relations figure. Peter seems to have been a high level person who interacted with others, such as Paul, more than James because James was the head of the group. The result being that Paul had more contact and interaction with Peter, even though Peter was not as high-level of a figure as James.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, however, this group was decimated and the Pauline group had grown larger outside the boundaries of the narrowly defined and geographically constricted Jewish oriented group.

Someone who was a follower of the Pauline sect, probably a Jew living in Rome, but its impossible to say, then wrote what we now call "The Gospel of Mark" during or after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The story was itself a parable and an allegory about the folly of the Jamesean/Peterine branch of the group and about the Judean Jews who contributed to the conflict with Rome. The writer of the Gospel of Mark, whether a Jew or not (probably a Jew), held a universalistic view that integrated the "Gentiles", just as Paul did. The writer of this story cast Peter as the main apostle because Peter figures more prominently in Paul's letters.

Of course, what happened next is that the Gospel of Mark, rather than being appreciated in its context as a fictional allegory, was taken literally, and quickly became the narrative of a historical leader instead of an allegorical and mythical personage. By the beginning of the second century CE, any knowledge of the mythical quality of Jesus was completely lost and other gospels had already been written to attempt to alter and amend the narrative that had begun with the Gospel of Mark. By that time, the church fathers held the belief that the first (and one of the best) gospels of that time was the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Mark was relegated to a lesser degree of precedence and importance than the other three. It was not until centuries later that biblical scholars came to agree that Mark was indeed the first and original gospel, the others used it as their source and expanded on it. Obviously, if the Gospel of Mark was a fictional allegory, then the fact that the three other gospels were based on it would be quite a source of irony.

After reading all three documents, I was amazed at how many of the questions and inconsistencies found in the Jesus narrative were answered and made plain to me. I feel that Price’s theory is quite compelling and perhaps even correct. The few historical mentions that do exist about Jesus have also been adequately explained and shown to be later inclusions, particularly the two mentions made by Flavius Josephus in his contemporaneous writings. Once these few historical references have been dealt with and shown to be spurious, then there is no historical or corroborative evidence for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth whatsoever.

You can find these web based documents here, so read them and make your own judgment.

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/jesus_myth_history.htm
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/jesus_myth_followup.htm
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/gospel_mark.htm

One last point that I would like to make. If indeed Price is correct and there was no historical Jesus who was the founder of the Christian religion, what impact does that have on the faithful followers today. I believe that unless one is a literalist and fundamentalist, it has no impact whatsoever. All religions evolve and their original creed is usually quite different from what eventually becomes adopted as a mass religion. This was especially true of Christianity because it was so protean and had little basis in the material world. The fact that there was no historical Jesus allowed for a wide range of beliefs, legends, practices and organizations to develop. The ultimate Roman Catholic hegemony eliminated all competitive ideologies until the reformation, so all of these diverse variations of belief and practice were expunged from the Roman, and later, European world. There is a wealth and a diversity of belief and practice today in the Christian world, and the fact that the crucified founder (who was supposedly a pious Jewish reformer) was actually invented out of whole cloth should be neither discrediting nor troubling to the millions of faithful believers.

If Jesus had existed, was a mortal man and an historical individual, then it’s doubtful that he would have sanctioned what ultimately became the Christian religion. From my perspective, Christianity is just as mythic and allegorical as my own beliefs and practices - there is no difference between Jesus, Dionysus, or Krishna. These are, of course, my opinions and nothing more. I am certain that many will dispute and dismiss them as heretical, unsound and consisting of poor scholarship, but I do expect that someday Price’s theories will get a proper hearing, and then, who knows what will happen.

Frater Barrabbas   

Further Remarks on the Question of a Core Discipline

As a writer, it is my responsibility to ensure that I am correctly apprehended and understood, even though verbal and written communication is an inexact science at best. What this means is that no matter what I say either in words or in print, my point may be interpreted in a manner that I didn’t intend. This can happen particularly if I am making a point in a passionate and emotional manner, where sometimes the passion and the emotion can actually skew what I am trying to communicate. If I make a bunch of points, and then at the end my speech or article, I emphatically say or write something in an emotionally powerful manner that could be interpreted in a completely different manner by my listeners or readers, then the entire message of the speech or article could be dramatically altered. Instead of thinking about and weighing all of the points made, one could easily dwell on that one statement instead.

We have all experienced being misinterpreted or misunderstood when we talk, even with those who know us well, so as a writer it’s not too surprising if something we write is misunderstood by those who know us only by reputation or occasional articles. Apparently this is what happened when I wrote my previous article on the nature of core disciplines. I was powerfully effected by a sentence that I had read in Jason Miller’s article “No Replacement for Meditation”, almost nearly at the end of his article. He had made a series of points that I found I agreed with and then he wrote the sentence, "I am quite serious when I state in my books that I would give up every scrap of arcana, every spell, every ritual, every energetic manipulation and astral venture for the practice of meditation." Well, this statement of his stuck in my mind and I felt that I had to disagree with it quite strongly, even though it was neither the message of his article or even the intent. It was just an emotional statement, but it made me think very deeply for hours about what the nature my core discipline was and how I would write a similar but different statement.

Jason is an accomplished magician and one that I both respect and admire. He is neither saying in his article that meditation is his core discipline nor that he would prefer to do meditation rather than anything else. He was making a point about how important meditation was to the practice of magick. However, his impassioned statement had quite an effect on my thinking, so I wrote a response that outlined what I think is my core discipline in the practice of magick. I unfortunately used Jason as a kind of “straw man” in my discussion, which may have given individuals the idea that Jason espouses meditation as his core discipline. That was not really my intent. Mr. Miller has written me and told me quite clearly that this was not the case, so I am writing this clarification. The article that I wrote is useful and highlights an important point, but it is a hypothetical point, since no one would ever reduce their magickal practice down to just one thing.

Having made this statement, however, it must also be said that magicians who perform meditation as their core discipline are neither incorrect or in error. It is, in fact, just another valid approach to working magick - one of many. I have met some individuals whose core discipline in their magickal practice is meditation, and they are just as accomplished and adept as I supposedly am. But a core discipline represents a magician’s direction and emphasis, nothing more. Since the source of my knowledge and practice of ritual magick comes from a deep involvement in witchcraft, then those practices have powerfully effected the way that I work magick. The core discipline in witchcraft (of the variety that I have practiced) is the assumption of the godhead, performed at esbats or sabbats. Other magicians who began their studies in the Golden Dawn, the O,T,O,, the A.A., Theosophy, Neopaganism or even Christianity, would no doubt have a different core discipline than mine. The main point is that they all work, and one is not greater than another. Yet they all lead to the same thing - union with the godhead, and then the subsequent actions of the manifest destiny of the will of that godhead.

One comment that was made about my previous article is that the quest for the union with the Deity is a goal and not a discipline. I would have to reply that it is both, since even obtaining union with the Godhead would not cause the practices of alignment, devotion and assumption to cease, they would still be practiced, and therefore, would represent a core discipline. A similar thing could be said if someone’s core discipline were meditation. Would one cease meditating if samadhi were obtained? Of course not - yogis who have obtained high levels of consciousness as part of their normal waking state continue all of their spiritual exercises and practices, as if samadhi had not yet occurred. This would also be true of one whose core discipline was Godhead assumption. Also, obtaining godhead union is not an end to the process of spiritual and magickal achievement. As I have stated previously, it is just the beginning of a whole new spiritual cycle.

So, I believe that I have set the matter straight about my previous article. The basic premise and the various discussion points are all valid and, I believe, important. It may even help others to determine what their core discipline is, helping them to focus their efforts and refine their discipline. If I have helped even a few to gain this new perspective, then my previous article has successfully accomplished its objective.

Frater Barrabbas

What Is A Core Discipline?

Jason Miller, in his recent blog article (No Replacement for Meditation) in the blog Strategic Sorcery has stated that meditation is the core discipline in the practice of magick. He has emphasized this to the point of saying that he would give up all of his magickal practices if he were forced to just practice one thing, and that one thing would be meditation. What Jason is saying is that meditation is the core discipline to the practice of magick. I couldn’t disagree more with what he has said, even though I would agree that meditation is important and at times, even critical to the achievement of the higher ordeals of ritual magick. However, meditation is just a tool, not an end to itself. I would not classify meditation as the core discipline of what I practice as ritual magick. So, I guess the question that I must answer is, what is the core discipline for a ritual magician?

The only way that we can answer this question is first answer the question of what is the ultimate objective for the practice of ritual magick. Answering that question should allow us to quickly identify what is the core discipline. The answer, as I understand it, and have stated for some time in this blog and in my books, is to become one with the Deity. All other actions are either ancillary to this goal (in other words, they incrementally assist) or are distractions to it. How does a ritual magician facilitate union with the Deity? Through the practices of alignment, assumption of godhead, devotions, communion, and ultimately, the Bornless One invocation rite. The magician creates a personal religious cult where he or she is the sole celebrant, congregation and personal avatar of the chosen deity. Such a relationship may seem idolatrous, presumptuous and even heretical to adherents of an orthodox creed, and indeed it is! However, the assumption of the Godhead is a practice that eventually fuses the personality of the magician with that of the Deity, causing a powerful ascension of consciousness, and a corresponding materialization and actualization of the living aspect of the magician’s personal imago of God. The ritual magician is first and foremost a priest or priestess, acting as the arbiter of the Deity in the material world. This is not a new idea or belief, but is based on a long tradition of magickal practices - but perhaps lionized first by Aleister Crowley, who changed how magick was practiced in the early twentieth century.

If I were to use Jason’s analogy then and be forced to reduce all of my practices to one thing, it would be variations on Godhead assumption. All of the other practices are tools that assist the magician in mastering the mind, the domain of spirit, body and one’s material circumstances - they are, in a word, nothing more than tools. So from this we can deduce that the core discipline in the practice of ritual magick is the assumption of Godhead and all of its related liturgical expressions and practices. It doesn’t matter if one is practicing magick from either the left hand or the right hand path - this core discipline can be reinterpreted to function in many different ways, but all of them lead the magician to the ultimate achievement - at-one-ment with the Deity, however that entity is defined.

Don’t misinterpret what I have said, though. Meditation is important, but then, so is the craft of divination, the arts of earth-based magick, theurgy, goetia, operant philosophy, occult research and study - the list is endless. But all of these practices, however important, are just tools - they are a means to an end, and that end is union with the Godhead.

One thing that any practicing magician needs to be aware of is that many systems of meditation and contemplation are highly integrated into a specific religious system. Whether one is practicing Vendanta Yoga, Zen Buddhism, Christian monasticism or any of the many different disciplines, almost all of these systems take a dim view of the practice of ritual magick. They are, in a word, incommensurate systems that will cause a powerful dissonance in one who would attempt to practice both systems in a deep and ardent manner. This is why I chose Kriya and Tantra/Kundalini Yoga as my foundational practices, since they not only allow me to practice ritual magick, but seem to highly encourage it, since the objectives of these disciplines are indeed commensurate with a worldly spiritual outlook such as ritual magick. To cherry pick a system of meditation and take it out of its context in order to practice it as some kind of core discipline will certainly short circuit the effectiveness of that system, in my humble opinion.

Also, ritual magicians begin their path in an incremental manner. In the beginning of their practice, they perform short ritual workings to effect a certain change or reap an opportunity. Meditation assists them in acquiring the right mind state in order to perceive and manipulate the forces and spirits associated with their work. Meditation is a tool for them, not an end in itself.

Meditation is therefore defined as the practices of asana, simple forms of prana-yama, mantra and mandala (yantra) and contemplation/concentration, stripped of their spiritual context. Anyone who has performed the simple fourfold-breath while maintaining an internal state of “being the witness” will tell you that doing that for just ten to twenty minutes will produce altered states of consciousness. What are those altered states of consciousness? Greater and more subtle awareness of oneself and one’s environment, sensitivity to spiritual and paranormal phenomena and a greater alignment with the Deity as the union of all being. From this vantage point, the magician can begin the ritual work that he or she sought to do in the first place. The more often these practices are performed, preferably at least once a day, every day, then the magician will be more sensitive and in tune with the magickal processes that he or she is attempting to engage. A regular meditation session is the repertoire of the competent magician - thus, it is tool and nothing more.

Jason has cleverly put a picture of the Buddha meditating at the top of his blog article, but the fact is that the Buddha would have found any and all magickal practices as superfluous. Christian mystics would be horrified at the thought of the magician assuming the Godhead in an obvious aggressive manner, and even Indian mystics would find the worldliness of ritual magick to be highly problematic. None of the adherents of these disciplines would either agree with or look kindly upon the practices of the typical ritual magician, but then they are operating in completely different spiritual context and could not be expected to either agree or condone such an obviously different spiritual discipline. Therefore, practitioners of ritual magick must carefully choose the components of their spiritual regimen so that everything that they do is harmonious to the practice of magick. My Tantra teachers not only know full well that I am a practicing ritual magician, but they also highly condone what I am doing and how I am doing it. I know from personal experience that this is more of an exception than the rule. As a ritual magician, I am often open to criticism, disapproval and sometimes, even hostility from those who are adherents to a spiritual tradition that is quite unlike mine. I consider it one of the perks of my avocation.

Frater Barrabbas

MPUC Ostara Conference 2010

On March 28, I attended the Milwaukee Pagan Unity Council’s Ostara gathering at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport & Convention Center located in the Grand Ballroom. It was actually a fairly well attended event and one that is urgently needed in Milwaukee, since there has been little of any kind of organized pagan gatherings going on there for some time. Hopefully, this event will trigger a larger organization of pagan and wiccan groups in that area.

In addition to the large vending area of crafts and goods, and an opening and closing ritual, there were presentations, workshops and discussion groups given by individuals with a certain amount of expertise. It was sort of like a mini version of Pantheacon. I had requested and was selected to give a presentation on Elemental Magick - one of my stock presentations that I have been working on and perfecting since before Pantheacon. I also had enough time to attend one of the morning presentations on Ancient Celtic Religions, given by Rev. Kirk Thomas, which focused particularly on the religious beliefs of the Gauls. I found his presentation to be very informative and packed with lots of insights and interpretations that were new to me. Kirk is working on his master’s degree in Celtic studies from the University of Wales. So Kirk’s workshop was based on historically known and verifiable facts, but he had a lot of interesting suggestions for those who might follow a modern adaptation of the old Celtic religions.

Kirk Thomas is a Druid Priest and current Vice-Archdruid of Ár nDríaocht Féin, currently in line to be the next Arch Druid. He is also the outgoing President of the Board of Directors of Cherry Hill Seminary, a Pagan institution which exists to train folks in the skills of Pagan Ministry. He currently lives near the base of Mt. Adams at Trout Lake Abbey in Trout Lake, Washington, with his spirit partner Kozen (a Soto Zen Buddhist Priest). They intend to have two monasteries sharing the site, one Druidic and one Buddhist. You can read more about Kirk at his web site located here.

My presentation was well attended, much to my surprise. The room was filled to capacity and I ran out of handouts. I had made 25 of them, so I am estimating that there were probably around 35 attendees. The number of attendees made me realize later that there are a lot of folks out there who are hungry for knowledge about ritual magick. There was also quite a mix of age groups in attendance as well, from young adults to middle aged practitioners. I was slightly overwhelmed at the number of attendees, and I also found some additional things to add to and improve this workshop for future attendees. One thing that I did, as I have done previously, is to go over the workshop notes and structure them in a more efficient manner, making the message more clear and easier to understand. I would like to share what I came up with you in this article.

First of all, the energy model or theory of magick works exclusively with the concept of magickal power and energy. While few if any actual magickal systems would use this model in such an exclusive manner, isolating the concepts helps to make them more clear and easier to understand, even if the system described is a bit unrealistic.

I have had a little bit of difficulty in defining what magickal power actually is because as an analogy, it is treated as a kind of force closely identified with electric power. Of course, magickal power is not at all like electric power, since it doesn’t appear to be qualified by any of the known forces associated with the electromagnetic spectrum. This may be either because science has not caught up with identifying and classifying subtle energies relating to the experience of human consciousness, or it might be that there is no actually quantifiable energy to measure.

When individuals discuss magickal power, they seem to be talking about the intensity and meaningfulness of the magickal experience, even though they may use terms that sound a lot like electric power. For this reason I feel that the term “magick power” is probably a metaphor for something else entirely. Magickal energy also has qualities of sentience, independent action, and it often eludes any kind of strict cause and effect analysis. When examining magickal phenomena, it might be that strict causality is often and consistently overwhelmed, so attempting to test the effects of magickal power may be quite tricky. I guess it’s because of all of these inconsistencies and the general illusiveness of magickal power that I seek to refrain from attempting to build a theory to completely capture it as a natural phenomena. Instead, I seek to focus on the method used to generate, harness and utilize magickal power in a manner that is easy to understand and objective enough for others to use them with consistent results.

First of all, magickal energy is movement of some kind within sacred space. Movement generates magickal energy when the conscious mind is attuned to subtle and spiritual phenomena. Magickal energy is best perceived and manipulated when one is in the proper mental state, the kind that meditation and simple breath control can produce. So the first step is learning to become competent with alternate states of consciousness, mastered through the basic processes of asana (assuming a comfortable posture), prana-yama (fourfold breath counting technique), and perhaps even some mantra work, such as the ubiquitous mantra AUM. Performing these techniques, one should focus the mind strictly on what is occurring - in other words, to be a witness to what is occurring within the body and the mind, but to avoid and side step distracting thoughts and emotions. Performing these techniques as a meditation session will produce a refined state of consciousness that will allow one to perceive subtle and paranormal phenomena.


Learning to attune to the subtle will assist one in being able to sense phenomena that normal conscious states would typically omit, and it will allow one to perceive magickal constructs and sense magickal energies.

From this foundational state of consciousness, as produced by the meditation session, one can then perform actions that will produce magickal energy. So what are these actions that one can perform? The key is that they all are a form of movement - and I have listed them here:

• Circumambulation (around the sacred space or consecrate magick circle)
• Slowly turning in place (dervish dance)
• Sacred dance (alone or with a small group)
• Ritual actions (drawing lines of power, etc.)
• Breathing techniques (advanced forms of prana-yama)
• Visualization - building mental images (moving the mind)
• Sacred sexuality.

The symbolic analogue representing magickal power is the union of the archetypal masculine and the archetypal feminine. So this could symbolize the joining of Light and Darkness, Life and Death, the Yang and the Yin, the Lingam and the Yoni, or the joining of a god and goddess. From this state of union, all power and energy proceeds. This is how visualization alone can generate magickal power, since one would visualize this sacred union of opposites.

Techniques of using magickal power have a fourfold progression, which begins with the generation of magickal power through one or more of the above methods, qualifying, focusing and imprinting the energy, intensifying it to a climax and finally, releasing the energy.  This fourfold pattern, taken from the beginning point to the place of release is called “resonance”, because it represents a process of both iteration and intensification. However, when you think about it, this process sounds a lot like the human sexual cycle, too. And indeed, it is quite significantly analogous. Perhaps this is why sacred sexuality has always been an important part of the practice of ritual magick.

So, looking at the above concepts, it would seem that magickal power, as defined in the energy model of magick, is a very important tool in the repertoire of the practicing ritual magician. Like any tool, the more it’s qualified and defined, the more effective it will be in performing the tasks that the magician wants it to do. Generalized power is less effective because it’s not defined enough to be able to accomplish a specific goal. The more specific the goal, the more defined and refined should the accompanying magickal energy be to achieve it.

How do we qualify magickal power? There are a number of ways of doing this, and the following list of four qualifiers represents the most simplistic ones that could be used. Obviously, there would be as many as there are opinions about magick in general - it’s up to the mastery, creativity and genius of the practicing magician. For now we can consider the following four qualifiers.

Four Elements (Fire, Air, Water and Earth) - these are expressed through the artifice of drawing in the air the invoking pentagram.

Shaping - magickal energy is shaped using ritual structures - based on the points in the magick circle (or other mechanisms). In my system of magick there are eleven points - the four cardinal directions, the four cross-cardinal directions, the nadir, midpoint and zenith in the center of the circle. From these eleven points I am able to produce a myriad of prismatic energy structures, such as the pyramid of power, the vortex, the tetrahedral gate, the inner circle, the step pyramid, and numerous others, used singly or in combination. While the system of magick that I use makes extensive use of shaping the energy in many different forms, systems of Tantric yoga also have an elaborate system of classifying energy and moving it through the body.

Vectoring - energy direction - typically either widdershins or deosil, but also ascending and descending.

Gender - mostly masculine or feminine, but sometimes, neutral.

So these are some of the additional points that I brought up in my workshop on Elemental Magick. To get the full insight and the techniques of deploying the magickal structure of the Octagon, you would have to attend this class and receive my opinions and thoughts on the matter. However, I think that I have given enough here, combined with what I have said previously in this blog, that you would probably be able to put together your own ritual to raise, imprint and release an Elemental power.

Frater Barrabbas

Kriya & Tantra Yoga are the Foundations of Ritual Magick

I have just completed level one and two of the intense series of programs learning to master the art of Kriya and Tantra Yoga, as taught by Richard and Antoinette Asimus of the Tantra Heart organization. They follow the teachings of the Satyananda and Bihar schools of Kriya and Kundalini Tantric Yoga. The ultimate founder of this line of yogic practice is Mahavatar Babaji, who brought it out of obscurity and assembled this system in the mid 19th century, to be passed on to others. Babaji’s life and revolutionary practices were brought to public notice by Paramahansa Yogananda’s book “Biography of a Yogi,” which has given worldwide recognition to this spiritual path. You can find a link to the Tantra Heart organization here. 

During these sessions I was taught a very rigorous system of daily and periodic practices that focus on formulations of asana, pranayama, mandala, mantra and internal visualizations and actual physical exercises with the seven classical chakras. The basic premise of this regimen is that the lower four chakras, covering the area of the root, genitals, solar plexus and the heart, need to be greatly empowered and mastered before one is ready for enlightenment. The root chakra (Mooladhara) is the key to the whole process, for that is where the Kundalini serpent slumbers and where the focus of the discipline begins and ends. I can’t reveal too much more without violating my confidential obligations to my teachers, but what I have discovered in this process is not only something that I feel is very important to share, it must also be greatly emphasized and integrated into the whole of the discipline of ritual magick. I believe that without it, the obtainment of enlightenment in the practice of ritual magick may not only be much more difficult, but perhaps even impossible.

In my previous writings I have emphasized the requirement for a basic practice of meditation, which is asana, breath control (simple forms of pranayama), contemplation and the use of simple mantras and mandalas so as to aid the practitioner in learning to master the mind and deliberately cause to occur altered states of consciousness or even ecstasy. However, Kriya and Tantra yoga take this simple practice and add to it a greater degree of complexity and internal control, articulating a spiritual system that is based on an elaborate variation of the energy model. What this does is assist the operator not only to master higher forms of altered states of consciousness, but also to build up a complex relationship between the mind, body and the spirit that ultimately leads to the highest states of consciousness that one can achieve and maintain. If this advanced practice is integrated into a full practice of ritual magick, then the operator will not only master the inner self, but also the various domains of spirit as well as the material plane. Thus I believe that a fruitful combination of these techniques can forge a magickal practice leading to complete enlightenment and union with the Deity.

How is this integration accomplished? How does a practice of Kriya and Tantra yoga fit into the practice of ritual magick? Are they truly complimentary or do they somehow contradict each other? These are important questions, and ones that I must seek to answer in order to prove the premise of this article - that Kriya and Tantra yoga are the key to ascendancy in regards to the practice of magick. These are, of course, just my opinions, but they are neither original nor am I  stating them for the first time. Aleister Crowley was a great advocate of adopting an entire regimen of eastern yogic practices for the sake of building a foundation for magickal practices. Many others have also made this point, but some have focused specifically on the practices and philosophies of Tantric yoga, incorporating certain physical practices into an ancillary system of sex magick. The author, Donald Michael Craig, with his book “Modern Sex Magick” has done a truly remarkable job of integrating Western practices of magick with Eastern practices of Tantra and Kriya Yoga, and I would highly recommend everyone purchase and read this book. Such writings and their associated practices represent, in my opinion, the backbone or foundation for any truly serious practice of the high art of magick.

I will now attempt to answer the above questions and seek to explain how these forms of yoga can readily fit into a full and complete system of ritual magick. It has always been my intention to incorporate these practices and disciplines into my practice of ritual magick, since I believed that they were an integral part of ritual magick, even though I had put off truly engaging with this study until now.

For my part, I have always had problems with individuals who have seemed to espouse sex magick as a kind of trendy practice, yet who not only lacked a fundamental knowledge of sacred sexuality, but who also lacked a strong working knowledge of ritual magick as well. If one is going to practice sex magick, then one needs to fully understand sacred sexuality and all of its disciplines and practices as well as having a deep and committed practice with ritual magick as well. One should be something of an accomplished adept at both before engaging in such practices.

However, to master the art and practice of sacred sexuality, one can and must study and practice the disciplines of Kriya and Tantra Yoga. These studies and practices can be started while alone and not engaged with any partner, but ultimately, they will bring the magician to a point where working with a partner and a lover can produce the greatest and ultimate achievement. So let us get to the basic definitions and compare Tantra yoga with the practice of ritual magick.

Kriya yoga is aptly defined in the following manner. Notice that some of its tenets appear to overlap the practices and beliefs of Kundalini Tantric yoga.

“Kriya Yoga: Kriya  means action  and Yoga  means integration. Kriya Yoga [emphasizes] integration of separative consciousness (generated by unceasing movement of thought) with an [awakening] (that is, a non-elective holistic attention free from mental [fragmentation]) through actions of perception and not through the activities of [conceptualization].

Kriya deconditions and sets the seeker free from the past karma. It transforms fundamentally the gross ego-centre of the seeker into a subtle individual uniqueness which also includes universality. It brings harmony with the wholeness of life by piercing through the ignorance of the ways of self. It is a unique combination of Hatha-Raja-Laya Yoga. It settles the seeker in his natural state in which his body receives instructions only [from] glands and Chakras.”

Tantra or Kundalina Tantric Yoga is defined somewhat differently than Kriya yoga, but there is an overlap between them, particularly in the area of the focus and use of the six chakras. However, Tantra seems to be more like an eastern version of magick, since is breaks with traditions that adhere to either the Vedic texts or the world-renouncing restrictions of traditional yoga. Tantra means literally “weaving”, which denotes that practices and techniques are woven and melded together to form a complete practice. I have taken the following quote to succinctly define Tantra yoga.

“Tantra is an accumulation of practices and ideas which is characterized by the use of ritual, by the use of the mundane to access the supra-mundane, and by the identification of the microcosm  with the macrocosm. The Tantric practitioner seeks to use the prana (divine power) that flows through the universe  (including one's own body) to attain purposeful goals. These goals may be spiritual, material or both. Most practitioners of tantra consider mystical  experience imperative. Some versions of Tantra require the guidance of a guru.

In the process of working with energy, the Tantrika, or tantric practitioner, has various tools at hand. These include yoga, to actuate processes that will "yoke" the practitioner to the divine. Also important are visualizations of deity, and [verbalization] or evocation through mantras, which may be construed as seeing, listening internally, and singing power into a stronger state within the individual, resulting in an ever-increasing awareness of cosmic vibration through daily practice. Identification with and [internalization] of the divine is enacted, through a total identification with deity, such that the aspirant ‘becomes’ the Ishta-deva or meditational deity.

Tantrism is a quest for spiritual perfection and magical power. Its purpose is to achieve complete control of oneself, and of all the forces of nature, in order to attain union with the cosmos and with the divine. Long training is generally required to master Tantric methods, into which pupils are typically initiated by a guru. Yoga, including breathing techniques and postures (asana), is employed to subject the body to the control of the will. Mudras, or gestures; mantras or syllables, words and phrases; mandalas and yantras, which are symbolic diagrams of the forces at work in the universe, are all used as aids for meditation and for the achievement of spiritual and magical power.

During meditation, the initiate identifies herself or himself with any of the numerous Hindu gods and goddesses representing cosmic forces. The initiate visualizes them and takes them into her or his mind so that she or he unites with them, a process likened to sexual courtship and consummation. In fact, some Tantric monks use females partners to represent goddesses. Also, in left-handed Tantra (Vamachara), ritual sexual intercourse is employed—not for pleasure—but as a way of entering into the underlying processes and structure of the universe.”

First of all Kriya and Kundalini Tantric yoga are more centered in the physical reality of the body and the material world and typically don’t require a complete renunciation of the material world, similarly, neither does the practice of ritual magick. These systems of yoga have as their foundation the same identical point - the focus of all the practices use the root chakra as their place of origin and source. Thus, the more baser qualities of material existence are neither avoided nor renounced. They are instead integrated into the greater spiritual practice. This is also true of the practice of western ritual magick, since the magician is not only required to function in this world through self-mastery, but also to master the spiritual domains that lie beyond it.

The main difference between Tantric yoga and ritual magick is the explicit use of complex ritual and ceremony to cause changes in the material world - to draw the domain of spirit into tighter union with the material world so that there is no difference. Otherwise, they are, for the most part, identical variations of the same ultimate practice. Ritual magick is a western oriented spiritual discipline, and Tantra is an eastern oriented one. However, there are techniques in Tantra and Kriya Yoga that can and should be incorporated into the practices of ritual magick, since they represent processes that appear to have been lost over the ages. These techniques are godhead assumption, intense practices of asana, pranayama, mantra and mandala techniques that utilize the seven chakras to build (or become aware of) a powerful spiritual facsimile of the human body. The objective of ritual magick is to become one with the Godhead, but through the artifice of sacred sexuality, this achievement can be completely realized and experienced through a material artifice - the union of lovers and the fusion of their spiritual bodies. No where else is this discipline taught in such a succinct manner, so one must assume that it is important for the ritual magician to expropriate these practices into one’s personal magickal regimen.

If we consider the basic tenets of Kriya and Tantra Yoga merged into the basic practices of the ritual magician, the overall methodology would produce a powerful foundation to the practice of the spiritual discipline of ritual magick. That foundation would consist of the following practices and techniques.

• Body based methodologies (asana) and yogic isometrics
• Expanded concentration exercises
• Full body breathing
• Variations on Cobra Breath (Ujjayi breathing)
• Fire Breath orgasm
• Yoga Nidra
• Mantra and Yantra practices
• Use of various strategic Bandhas (Moola, Uddiyana, Jaladhara)
• Visualized chakric exploration and integration
• Meditation and deep contemplation

In addition, the above practices would be performed as part of a daily regimen that I call the comprehensive meditation session, which can last as long as an hour a day or more.

Along with these foundational practices, there would also be liturgical practices (saying Mass, assuming the Godhead, performance of rites of sacred sexuality and engaging the cyclic mysteries of the Moon and Sun) as well as periods of devotion and spiritual service. The practitioner would also spend time to research, study, perform self analysis and receive some kind of periodic peer review. All of these practices would represent the foundation of a ritual magician’s regular work.

From this foundation there would be the progression caused by periodic transformative initiations, which would fully engage the practitioner of ritual magick through the performance of specific ordeals. These ordeals would represent specific challenges at incremental levels of difficulty that the magician would undertake to precipitate and encourage rapid spiritual growth.  

If the foundation represents the roots of a symbolic tree, then the process of performing ordeals and experiencing transformative initiations would be the trunk of this tree. From the trunk there would be three branches, each representing a level of comprehension and accomplishment more greater than the previous, but each branch would be fully incorporated by the practicing magician. This means that mastery of one branch does not rule out its continual use as one seeks to master the next branch. These three branches are the three practices of ritual magick - earth based magick, theurgy and evocation, and the higher ordeals beyond them.

Earth based Magick - these practices include Elemental Magick, Planetary and Zodiacal Magick. A knowledge of several forms of divination would also be included, particularly Astrology, Tarot, I-Ching, Geomancy and Runes. Earth based magick is a methodology that is required to help the magician fulfill the basic material requirements for self-actualization. Once that material base is established, then the magician will have need to resolve issues and take advantage of material opportunities from time to time. This basic methodology of magick is never really outgrown, since there is always something that one must resolve or develop in regards to the material world.

Theurgy and Evocation - invoking strategic and various spirits from within the over-all spiritual hierarchy. This would include an immersion into the domain of the spirit and receiving intimate communications and direct transformative experiences. Ascending through the hierarchy of the inner planes would represent specific initiatory processes that the magician could deliberately establish. There could also be a slight overlap between certain spirits and Earth based magick.

Higher Ordeals - the workings of Lesser and Greater Archaeomancy, the progressive levels of the invocation of the Bornless One, Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, Tetra-sacramentary Temple workings, ordeals of Stellar Gnosis and the Abysmal Transition. These higher ordeals are covered as part of the rites and ceremonies of the inner order of the Order of the Gnostic Star.

All of these various levels work together to formulate a comprehensive and profound system of practice - one that is assured of obtaining total mastery of the self, one’s world and samadhi, enlightenment or illumination. So now, we begin the work of integrating all of these practices into a single spiritual and magickal discipline. I will continue to report my progress as I gain greater mastery of the techniques of Kundalini Yoga and integrate them into my magickal practice. I have only recently begun this path, so there is much more for me to learn and develop in the days and years ahead.

Frater Barrabbas