Personal Curriculum again
Mar. 6th, 2021 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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pathsandcirclesLargely posting this here for my own reference/benefit, but also in case it comes in handy for anyone else, a couple of recent questions and responses from Magic Monday about incorporating the Greater Middle Pillar Exercise into a regular practice:
Q: I'm slowly working my way through Circles of Power, and just finished the chapter on the Middle Pillar exercise- I'm curious how you'd recommend working with the Greater Middle Pillar exercise as part of a regular routine of practice? I gave it a go upon finishing the chapter, and while it felt a bit clumsy as the first few times of a ritual always do, I was pretty bowled over by the amount of energy it seemed to generate (I've read commenters here referring to performing ritual as feeling like a workout, but it's the first time I've ever had the experience). In CoP you mention that it shouldn't be practiced regularly until one has been practicing the Lesser Middle Pillar exercise daily for at least two years, but that it can be helpful to do occasionally. For background, I've been doing the regular Middle Pillar exercise daily for between one and two years now- not exactly sure how long, though I suppose I could check my journal. I'm planning on working with the curriculum you suggested here awhile back of starting with the R+C ritual done weekly, then moving on to learning to open and close a temple, and working through the greater rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram weekly, moving through the elements and planets and meditating on the results. So far I've spent about a month with the Rose Cross, but haven't yet started opening a temple. Do you have any thoughts for integrating the expanded Middle Pillar into this structure?
R: I'd recommend the Greater MP exercise once a week. Once you're used to the energy, you can step things up by doing it as a composite ritual:
1. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
2. Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram
3. Greater Middle Pillar exercise
4. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
This will boost the effect, and it will also help you get ready for major rituals.
Follow-up Q: 1. I'm assuming that the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram would ordinarily be in its full form, invoking each element in its proper direction, when used as part of a composite ritual like this rather than as an attempt to work with any specific element?
2. I tried the order of ritual you suggested above for the first time this weekend, perhaps jumping the gun a bit since I hadn't yet fully memorized the Greater Middle Pillar exercise, and it felt like juggling quite a number of balls at once. Would you see any issues with practicing a shorter version of this: 1. LBRP- 2. GIRP- 3. Lesser, rather than Greater, Middle Pillar Exercise- 4. LBRP- daily for a week or so to get some muscle memory of the Pentagram shapes for the Greater Pentagram ritual? Or conversely, do you think it would be better to practice the Greater Middle Pillar in place of the ordinary Lesser Middle Pillar once a week until I'm more fluent with it before integrating the Greater Pentagram Ritual?
3. Just to make sure I'm dotting "is" and crossing "ts" correctly- the Qabalistic Cross would be added as follows: QC- LBRP- QC- GIRP- QC- GMP- QC- LBRP- QC?
Follow-up R: 1) Yes. You always use the all-element version when doing workings for spiritual development.
2) Of course. Use as many intermediate stages as you need to, in order to work up to the complete form.
3) No, it's worse than that. Every pentagram ritual begins and ends with its own Cabalistic Cross, so it's QC- LBRP- QC- QC- GIRP- QC- GMP- QC- LBRP- QC. (You don't need to do one after the Middle Pillar if you're following it with a Pentagram ritual.)
I'm about one week in of practicing the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram daily in the form given by JMG above, followed by the regular (lesser) Middle Pillar Exercise- it's my first step dipping my toes into the waters of longer and more complex composite rituals than the basic practices from LRM, and thus far I've found that the additional Pentagram ritual adds a *lot* of extra force to even the lesser Middle Pillar- visualizations seem clearer and more "present" and there's more of a sense of swirling, buzzing energy with each stage of the ritual until the last LBRP.
Q: I'm slowly working my way through Circles of Power, and just finished the chapter on the Middle Pillar exercise- I'm curious how you'd recommend working with the Greater Middle Pillar exercise as part of a regular routine of practice? I gave it a go upon finishing the chapter, and while it felt a bit clumsy as the first few times of a ritual always do, I was pretty bowled over by the amount of energy it seemed to generate (I've read commenters here referring to performing ritual as feeling like a workout, but it's the first time I've ever had the experience). In CoP you mention that it shouldn't be practiced regularly until one has been practicing the Lesser Middle Pillar exercise daily for at least two years, but that it can be helpful to do occasionally. For background, I've been doing the regular Middle Pillar exercise daily for between one and two years now- not exactly sure how long, though I suppose I could check my journal. I'm planning on working with the curriculum you suggested here awhile back of starting with the R+C ritual done weekly, then moving on to learning to open and close a temple, and working through the greater rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram weekly, moving through the elements and planets and meditating on the results. So far I've spent about a month with the Rose Cross, but haven't yet started opening a temple. Do you have any thoughts for integrating the expanded Middle Pillar into this structure?
R: I'd recommend the Greater MP exercise once a week. Once you're used to the energy, you can step things up by doing it as a composite ritual:
1. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
2. Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram
3. Greater Middle Pillar exercise
4. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram
This will boost the effect, and it will also help you get ready for major rituals.
Follow-up Q: 1. I'm assuming that the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram would ordinarily be in its full form, invoking each element in its proper direction, when used as part of a composite ritual like this rather than as an attempt to work with any specific element?
2. I tried the order of ritual you suggested above for the first time this weekend, perhaps jumping the gun a bit since I hadn't yet fully memorized the Greater Middle Pillar exercise, and it felt like juggling quite a number of balls at once. Would you see any issues with practicing a shorter version of this: 1. LBRP- 2. GIRP- 3. Lesser, rather than Greater, Middle Pillar Exercise- 4. LBRP- daily for a week or so to get some muscle memory of the Pentagram shapes for the Greater Pentagram ritual? Or conversely, do you think it would be better to practice the Greater Middle Pillar in place of the ordinary Lesser Middle Pillar once a week until I'm more fluent with it before integrating the Greater Pentagram Ritual?
3. Just to make sure I'm dotting "is" and crossing "ts" correctly- the Qabalistic Cross would be added as follows: QC- LBRP- QC- GIRP- QC- GMP- QC- LBRP- QC?
Follow-up R: 1) Yes. You always use the all-element version when doing workings for spiritual development.
2) Of course. Use as many intermediate stages as you need to, in order to work up to the complete form.
3) No, it's worse than that. Every pentagram ritual begins and ends with its own Cabalistic Cross, so it's QC- LBRP- QC- QC- GIRP- QC- GMP- QC- LBRP- QC. (You don't need to do one after the Middle Pillar if you're following it with a Pentagram ritual.)
I'm about one week in of practicing the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram daily in the form given by JMG above, followed by the regular (lesser) Middle Pillar Exercise- it's my first step dipping my toes into the waters of longer and more complex composite rituals than the basic practices from LRM, and thus far I've found that the additional Pentagram ritual adds a *lot* of extra force to even the lesser Middle Pillar- visualizations seem clearer and more "present" and there's more of a sense of swirling, buzzing energy with each stage of the ritual until the last LBRP.
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Date: 2021-03-06 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-06 07:06 pm (UTC)