High Magick Introduction

If anyone likes to learn High Magick (also known as ceremonial magick) then I would give you the basics. I noticed that there are not many of High Magicians around in these places so I am just gonna give everyone a glimpse of what a High Magician does. To those who may not accept these beliefs, just respect them. I will try to add as less dogma in this as possible because, I would rather focus on the practice and basics of High magick.

1. The Kabbalah

The Kabbalah lists many things that are essential in the study of High Magick, in fact it is the trunk in High Magick. It is the basis of mostly all the teachings such as Spiritual Alchemy, Solomonic Invocations from the keys of solomon, the sacred names are based upon the jewish (Kabbalistic) names of God in total are 72. The Kabbalah bases of the Jewish faith, it is also in relation to the Torah. The Kabbalah has many revelations. I believe learning it is very crucial especially in Spiritual Alchemy. The Kabbalah is mostly Dogma.

1a. Tree of Life

The tree of life is an important topic to cover up in Kabbalistic teachings, in fact it would be a shame not to. The tree of life has many representations. One representation is that the tree of life is believed to be the "Schematic" of God's body, It is also a "Path" that High magicians should work with (Kabbalistic Pathworking) which is basically working with the spheres or "Sephirot" of the tree. Kabbalistic Pathworking involves deep meditation. There are 10 sephirot on the tree of life (other versions of the tree have 11 including "Da'at")

We work from the bottom Sephirot (Malkuth) which represents the material or the physical world, working our way up to Keter which is the realm of spirit or our Higher selves. Whenever you enter a sephirot there will be many mysteries to learn, They vary from person to person so no 2 visions are perfectly the same.

1b. Kabbalistic Correspondences

Kabbalistic correspondences are basically an outline or a blueprint of things that connect to each other. To make this more understandable it would be like, relating love to the color red. The color red symbolizes love because of its passionate and lustful color. That is one example of correspondences, or a basketball player uses a basketball in playing rather than a volleyball. Kabbalistic Correspondences are used to add more effect and representation of the objects to the consciousness. The reason why using Kabbalistic Correspondences is more effective than just mixing random stuff together is because in the correspondences the objects connect to each other. I mean, A basketball player cannot play effective with a volleyball because the basketball player is trained or used to playing with a basketball.

In the Kabbalistic correspondences there lists there many things that can be used to help constructing your own ritual. It includes their the Archangel names, their incense, their planet, their metal, etc. I will list a link about the correspondences below.

1c. Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) and the Great Work

The most important and significant goal in High magick is attaining communication with your Holy Guardian Angel or HGA. The Holy Guardian angel may also be labeled as the "Higher self". When you attain knowledge of your Guardian Angel then you can unveil the darkest of mysteries. When you unveil your HGA then you unveil your True self, your true spirit. One book that tells you how to attain your HGA is the "Book of Abramelin" which gives you a process of attaining your HGA in 18 months. I believe also that it is written in a grimoire I found but I have forgotten it's name. That after you have contact with your HGA you can summon the chief demons which are Beelzebub, Lucifer, Leviathan, and Satan. So you can sign a pact with ONE of them so that you may not be affected by their malice. You must have contact with your HGA first before doing this as it is very dangerous.

To describe the Great work is very difficult pertaining all its magnificence and power I can only however, quote Eliphas Levi in his "Dogme et Rituale" when he says:

"Furthermore, there exists in nature a force which is immeasurably more powerful than steam, and by means of which a single man, who knows how to adapt and direct it, might upset and alter the face of the world. This force was known to the ancients; it consists in a universal agent having equilibrium for its supreme law, while its direction is concerned immediately with the great arcanum of transcendental magic…This agent…is precisely that which the adepts of the middle ages denominated the first matter of the Great Work. The Gnostics represented it as the fiery body of the Holy Spirit; it was the object of adoration in the secret rites of the Sabbath and the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the Androgyne of Mendes."

2. Ritual Magick

This is the practice part of this section. Ceremonial magick, unlike some traditions is more strict than others. It is ruled that you must say the exact words, have the exact tools, and the exact Correspondences. There is an order of people that performs high magick and was started by Mcgregor Mathers, that order is "The golden dawn" they specialize in high magick, and they're curriculum is based on the occult.

So, as I mentioned High Magick is strict, which is one of the reasons why it is so pricy. High Magick was practiced only by High landers or the people who lived on mountains, who had enough resources to purchase or recreate the tools needed, but you can use any tools that are available too. The reason why High Magick is so strict in its ritual, is because they do not want it to be "tainted" with the thoughts of impurity, even the most powerful Golden Dawn grade (Ipsissimus) does not have the power or authority to change the ritual. They want the traditional style, as they believe it has more effect doing it old-fashioned. In High Magick, it is encouraged that you go "By the book" at the same time recreate the rituals in your practice.

2a. LBRP

The LBRP or The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram is the most basic and an important ritual to learn although not the MOST important ritual. Some people are so proud of learning it that they say that it is the MOST important. Obviously this is false, people even drop the "L" so it becomes "The Banishing ritual of the pentagram"

The purpose of this ritual is to cleanse the area, it is a protection ritual and a cleansing ritual at the same time. It is essential in High Magick, to perform the LBRP before and after "anything" from spell casting, to summoning, to meditation. The LBRP also increases your spiritual awareness and draws you closer to your HGA.

Those are the basics that I could contain in this forum. I will write a more advanced session later. This just came up to me mentally so I may have skipped a few basics or so but not of that significance I believe.


Sources:

http://www.archangels-and-angels.com/aa_pages/correspondences/archangels_corresp_index.html

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I will make a post about the LBRH, MPR, etc. Sooner or later.

Good post, i like how you included correspondences as a highlight. People often overlook correspondences.

Yes, I do notice that. Instead, they just create rituals out of random. I mean you can work rituals in random, but using the correspondences gives it more representation as they "Fit In" together in a group.

This is a well informed article on High Magick introduction for anyone I would recomend reading The Tree of Life an illlustrated study in magic by Israel Regardie it focuses on many of these subjects in great detail including the pentacles of solomon much information on Egyptology Alchemy and much more

A good summary of ceremonial magic. I would include elemental knowledge, astrology, tarot, geomancy and, most importantly spiritual development.

As far as rituals, I would add to the list the Greater and Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram, Ritual of the Hexagram and the Bornless Ritual.

LVX,

Shawn.

Whats the Boneless ritual? I know the hexagrams or Im working to learn them,inverted ones that Crowley did.

I did say it was an introduction towards the newbloods in town, I do not think it would logical to place the "Supreme invoking ritual of the pentagram" if one has not yet mastered the LBRP or LBRH for that matter, One must perform the LBRP and BRH so fluently and knowledgeably that one may not think while performing the ritual but the ritual is still filled with intent, observation, and willpower, like "riding a bike" but noting all the elements that are present (I.E. The wind, the bumps on the road, the texture of the handlebars.) As for the Bornless ritual, I wouldn't really call it that, since it is more of an invocation than a ritual, but sure by mass information standards or media, you could call it that. I still believe one should perform those preliminaries before proceeding towards that rite, Besides, the correct "Vibration Formulae" still needs to be discussed before performing the Bornless rite, Usually the people just "Gregorian" chant away without intention, one must still discuss a myriad of articles about the Bornless rite, it's history, it's meanings of the different words to "Vibrate", it's relation to the Goetia, etc. As for the rituals given, I believe it's ok and the person can "easily" research because of it's popularity in occult culture.

As for the lacking, you could probably do another one ToG, That was only the ones I had in mind that time, If I were to include all those, it would take ages for people to scroll through and they would probably get bored and not want to read it at all. You can make the article if you want to, I would love to read it :D

Oops. Spell check didn't catch that. It is the Bornless Ritual. It's the invocation of the higher soul, that is "not born", hence the name Bornless One. Personally, I would have gone with the Unborn Ritual, or the Supernal Ritual, but what is in a name anyway. There are several versions of it. I personally perfer Regardie's version that is in the G.D. book.

LVX,

Shawn