by Marcus Katz
Later grades within the order, for those that choose to go beyond the Crucible or apprenticeship program, have corresponding frames which remind us of the work, challenge and nature of the particular grade.
The frames are also a form of breathing in and out at the start of a piece of communication, and for an advanced concept, may be considered as the Sign of the Enterer (projection) and the Sign of Silence (withdrawal) at the start and end of a magical ritual, which should apply to all true communication.
Here is a sample communication showing this form:
Care Frater F.P.
By our work we are changed.
It is with interest that I read ... [text of message]
The Worker is hidden in the workshop.
Soror S.L.I.
The tool of the magical name is also a long term exploration. It is something that we return to later and find new insight and perspective. In terms of coming to understand our history – our enquiry – it is a useful exercise to review the reasons for choosing our name at regular intervals. This is a cumulative process if one proceeds through the grades of the initiation system and takes a new name for each grade.
For example, my Zelator name was Propositum Perfectio Est, which is Latin for ‘I propose perfection’. The best way of wording my initial motto which was ‘All things tend to perfection’. I was very much influenced by such books as The Unfinished Universe which gave a scientific view on the incompleteness of universe and for me embodied the evolutionary spirit of magick.[142]
Looking back 30 years later, of course, I see that it was me who felt incomplete, unfinished and imperfect, and wished to see myself as ideally tending towards a perfect state.
My Adeptus Minor name was F.P. for ‘Firmitatem Petere’ which comes from the full motto, ‘Cognitatione sui secumque colloquio firmitatem petere’. This means (in essence) ‘he comes to himself through knowledge and conversation’, and it was the name I took after the Abramelin ritual. It stayed with me for seven years.
We will now list a selection of magical names and translations for your own inspiration.
Selected List of Magical Names and Mottos
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Julian Baker – Causa Scientiae (Latin: ‘For the sake of knowledge’)
Edward Berridge – Resurgam (Latin: ‘I will rise again’)
Aleister Crowley – Perdurabo (Latin: ‘I Will endure to the end’)[143]
Florence Farr – Sapientia Sapienti Dona Data (Latin: ‘Wisdom is a gift given to the wise’)
F.L. Gardner – De Profundis Ad Lucem (Latin: ‘From the depths to the light’)
Maud Gonne – Per Ignem ad Lucem (Latin: ‘Through fire to the light’)
Annie Horniman – Fortiter et Recte (Latin: ‘Strongly and rightly’)
Moina Bergson Mathers – Vestigia nulla retrorsum (Latin: ‘I never retrace my steps’)
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (founder) – ‘S Rioghail Mo Dhream (Gaelic: ‘Royal is my race’)
Mrs. Simpson – Perseverantia et Cura Quies (Latin: ‘Perseverance and care for rest’)
Miss Elaine Simpson –Fidelis (Latin: ‘Faithful’)
Colonel Webber – Non Sine Numine (Latin: ‘Not without divine favour’)
William Wynn Westcott (founder) – Sapere Aude (Latin: ‘Dare to Know’)
A.F.A. Woodford – Sit Lux et Lux Fuit (Latin: ‘Let there be light, and there was light’)
William Robert Woodman (founder) – Magna est Veritas (Latin: ‘Great is the Truth’)
William Butler Yeats – Demon est Deus inversus (Latin: ‘The demon is the reverse of God’)
Alpha et Omega
Allen Bennett – Iehi Aour (Hebrew: ‘Let there be light’)
J.W. Brodie-Innes – Sub Spe (Latin: ‘Under hope’)
Dion Fortune – Deo, non fortuna (Latin: ‘By God, not by chance’)
Mrs. Tranchell-Hayes – Ex Fide Fortis (Latin: ‘Strong through faith’)
Stella Matutina
Harriet Felkin – Soror Quaestor Lucis (Latin: ‘Seeker of light’)
Robert Felkin – Frater Finem Respice (Latin: ‘Look to the end’)
Mr. Meakin – Frater Ex Orient Lux (Latin: ‘Light from the East’)
Israel Regardie – Ad Majoram Adonai Gloriam (Latin: ‘For the greater glory of the Lord’)
Argenteum Astrum
J.F.C. Fuller – Per Ardua ad Astra (Latin: ‘By struggle to the stars’)
Charles Stansfeld Jones – Unus In Omnibus (Latin: ‘One in All’) and also Parsival
George Cecil Jones – Volo Noscere (Latin: ‘I Wish to Know’)
Victor Neuburg – Omnia Vincam (Latin: ‘I will conquer all’)
Austin Osman Spare – Yihoveaum
Jane Wolfe – Estai (Greek: ‘It will be’)
Ordo Templi Orientis
William Breeze – Hymenaeus Beta
George Macnie Cowie – Fiat Pax (Latin: ‘Let there be peace’)
Karl Germer – Saturnus
Grady McMurtry – Hymenaeus Alpha
The Rituals and Practices
“There is no greater miracle than being present. Everything begins and never ends from this.”
— Robert Earl Burton, Self-Remembering[144]
In this section we will present the basic ritual exercises of the Neophyte in the O.E.D. which are similar in procedure to many other groups. However, our contextualisation of these rituals is informed by four decades of exploration and practice, so they are given in a new light – a light that shines from their ultimate destination.
We say “by our work we are changed” and there is indeed no other simple truth at this grade than ‘you get what you put in’. These rituals are preparatory in different ways for the ritual of Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. It is far more likely to accomplish that demanding work if you have several years or more practice of these components.
We cannot stress highly enough that nothing will happen without work. Boring, repetitive, often non-resultant work. If you are not willing to rather sweep the temple floor for the rest of your life than live as you are, and demonstrate such even if the gates remain closed, you will never be invited one summer into the monastery.
The rituals and practices of the Neophyte are embodied in four tarot cards:
Temperance - Middle Pillar exercise
The Magician - Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
The Hierophant - Rose Cross
The Sun - Liber Resh
The corresponding letters for these cards are Samekh + Beth + Vau + Resh which spell SBVR or “thinking”. It here refers to us acting ourselves into a new way of thinking, rather than thinking our way into a new way of acting.
In the technical practice for the first month of membership of the OED, the student is asked to perform an ‘observation’. This is a regular ritual that has no direct intention other than to mark the passage of time. However, as you will come to learn and experience, it can have powerful effects upon your life. It works with one of the foundations of our encounter with the universe: time. We ourselves are built from the trinity of time, values (beliefs and actions) and self-image.
In tarot these fundamental building blocks of our relationship to reality are seen as:
Wheel of Fortune - Time (fate and destiny)
The Hanged Man - Values (beliefs and actions)
The Star - Self-image (vision)
If we were to create a square of this triangle, we would add:
The Blasted Tower - Communication
It is these cornerstones that our initial magical work attacks, to release their hold upon the dreaming mind. The constant repetition of spells, rituals, magical exercises, and divinations (or any other habitual act of life – for from one perspective, all acts are spells, rituals, exercises, and a form of divination) is often an ego-created trap; for the simple but overarching purpose of these acts as experiments and demonstrations of our reality structure is often forgotte
n. When allied to the WEIS, they become powerful components leading to initiatory state-change, and whilst attractive, must not become simply more wallpaper on the inside of our cell. We aim to escape, not decorate.
The transcendence of time is a commonly realised experience in mystical states, and Philip K. Dick goes further to suggest that “the purpose of the mysteries was to free the initiate from ‘astral determinism’, which roughly equals fate.” He further saw this task as belonging to the WEIS:
It all had to do with time. “Time can be overcome,” Mircea Eliade wrote. That’s what it’s all about. The great mystery of Eleusis, of the Orphics, of the early Christians, of Serapis, of the Greco-Roman mystery religions, of Hermes Trismegistos, of the Renaissance Hermetic alchemists, of the Rose-Cross Brotherhood, of Apollonius of Tyana, of Simon Magus, of Asklepios, of Paracelsus, of Bruno, consists of the abolition of time. The techniques are there.[145]
Although the Liber Resh observation is a commonly known practice, and can be found with many variations, it is often given by default, without a clear indication of its place in the overall initiatory scheme. We will first look at some of the many reasons this observation is important, and additionally comment upon and discuss its actual practice in the real world.
The ritual itself uses Ancient Egyptian god-forms. There are a number of reasons for this, including that the author, Aleister Crowley, was versed in the myths of Ancient Egypt, and that the Egyptians had a system in which the Sun was seen in different forms dependent upon the time of day and night. Hence, a different god-form was associated with the Sun on the Eastern horizon and the Western horizon, or for the midnight Sun. It reminds us in practice of our model from the Emerald Tablet that we saw at the opening of this volume of The Magister: “so all things were born from this one thing by adaptation.” In the performance of Liber Resh we remind ourselves constantly and implicitly that the one thing is being observed as many apparently different things. This is the true secret of the ritual.
Although Egyptology has moved on dramatically since Crowley’s day, in some cases revising the names of the gods entirely, or clarifying obscure concepts, we here utilise the original names for the sake of learning the basic form as originally composed and taught. In later work, one can revise the names and stations to accord with a more contemporary understanding of ancient Egyptian myth and religious thought.
In the second practice (the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram) you will start to re-orientate yourself to magickal space. As a result, after several months you will start to experience yourself in relation to the universe in a whole new light; your awareness existing in a new matrix of time and space which will progressively strengthen and bring insight the more it is practiced.
Liber Resh (Solar Adoration)
This observational ritual is taken directly from the work of Aleister Crowley who we will meet later in a whole volume of The Magister. It is a practice for the student to conduct at regular intervals during the day and night. At first, you should carry out this practice as you find it convenient – there is no initial requirement to perform it exactly at the stated times of sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight. However, you should aim to practice as close to these times as possible. The aim is to make the practice a regular and consistent observation, with as little variation as possible.
As we have noted, the unstated intention of this work – from many years of practice and review – is to establish a re-orientation of yourself to time. This is absolutely fundamental to preparing yourself for later magical and mystical experience. There are future experiences that you will look back upon and find yourself realising that you are looking at time differently. This solar observation establishes a framework in which these experiences can manifest and be maintained without throwing your whole life out of balance.
Another of the many effects of this practice is to widen your perspective. The word ‘perspective’ comes from the Latin ‘to see through’, and when we work on perspective our aim is to ‘see through’ the apparent world and our experience into another realm – a magical world. In the practice of Liber Resh we align our sense of time to the orbit of the Earth about the Sun, and so become attendant on that more cosmic cycle.
You may find yourself experiencing the ‘breath’ or ‘tides’ of energy that your body goes through during the day and night with more sensitivity as a result of this practice.
Another aspect of this simple but powerful ritual is that we make a physical statement of our ‘grade’ of understanding at each point of the cycle. That is to say, we not only say “Hey, here I am, a being in time,” but we also reaffirm, “And here is what I currently know about my relationship to the universe,” in making the sign of our ‘grade’. This aligns our oath to enquire about this relationship at every point of the cycle, and reaffirms it constantly as a powerful statement of our Will. We will first give the ritual exactly as it was given by Aleister Crowley and then we will make a few comments to assist your performance of the ritual.[146]
Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC
These are the adorations to be performed by aspirants to the A∴A∴ Let him greet the Sun at dawn, facing East, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even unto Thee who art Ra in Thy strength, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Night!
Also at Noon, let him greet the Sun, facing South, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy triumphing, even unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest over the heavens in thy bark at the Mid-course of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Morning!
Also, at Sunset, let him greet the Sun, facing West, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day!
Lastly, at Midnight, let him greet the Sun, facing North, giving the sign of his grade, and let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest over the heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening!
And after each of these invocations thou shalt give the sign of silence, and afterward thou shalt perform the adoration that is taught thee by thy Superior. And then do thou compose Thyself to holy meditation.
Also it is better if in these adorations thou assume the God-form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in the adoration of That which is beyond Him.
Thus shalt thou ever be mindful of the Great Work which thou hast undertaken to perform, and thus shalt thou be strengthened to pursue it unto the attainment of the Stone of the Wise, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
Commentary & Practice
In using these names, we recognise the eternal light as passing through different forms in time. In a sense, this mirrors our awareness of reality – light passing through different configurations in time. It prepares our awareness for later lessons, which you will come to learn as we progress. This regular adoration practice also teaches you a relationship to a ‘higher’ force that is one of recognition and respect, but not slavery or worship. It also sets up a regular rhythm of practice outside and within your everyday life. It also places your awareness in the centre of time as you perceive it, again a useful foundation for later work.
The language is not too important. It is the words used by Crowley, based upon poor trans
lations of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, whose actual pronunciation is unknown.
The ‘sign of the grade’ is important but not essential. For a beginner student within the OED, it is the Neophyte sign. It is a sign of projection, raising both arms ahead and parallel to your eyes, with palms down – almost as it about to perform a dive into water. You look down your arms into the far distance, and visualise light streaming into infinity. You then drop your right arm and hand, and raise your left hand to your mouth to make the ‘Sign of Silence’ which is a finger to the lips. This ‘seals’ back the energy that you have projected. These signs are also explained as follows:
The Sign of the Enterer: Stand erect. Your palms facing down, draw your hands up the sides of your body until they point, fingers forward, at either side of your head. Step forward with your left foot and thrust your arms forward. Called the Sign of Horus, this sign assists you in sending your energy forward towards an object of adoration. It is usually accompanied by an outgoing of breath.
The Sign of Silence: This sign has the effect of withdrawing the energy projected in the Sign of the Enterer, and ending your identification with the object of adoration. It is also called the Sign of Harpocrates, and its significance as such is without end. Stand upright. Bring your left index finger to your lips as though telling someone to be quiet. Simultaneously stamp your left foot, gently and firmly, or take an in-breath.
