From: Fra.: Apfelmann Area: Night Side To: * 3 Aug 93 17:10:36 Subject: PC 13/? UpdReq Within a ritual, participants can learn to move with a quality of deliberate to all their movements. Another analogy between rituals and theatre can be drawn - actors make their movements with the deliberate intent of communication something to the audience. In a ritual space, the audience can be considered to be any participant who is not engaged in activity. On a 'greater' level, the audience may be the entities which the ritual is designed to stir forth. 4. COORDINATION OF TECHNIQUE Rituals often require the participants to simultaneously employ different techniques. For example, etching a pentagram in the air may require the coordination of gesture, visualization, breathing, and colour projection, as well as the implicit beliefe that doing so will bring about some change within the ritual space. The successful coordination of different techniques to carry out an action within the ritual space contributes towards changes in consciousness. Coordinated movement, together with breathing and visualization, directed by the intention of bringing about a specific result, creates a shift into an emotional state which a magician learns, through practice, to identify as being appropriate for that action. Emotion acts as a support to belief, and when the magician feels himself move into the appropriate state of awareness he undergoes a subtle belief shift towards the tacit 'reality' of the ritual process. STAGES IN RITUAL PROGRESSION This is a basic model for ritual design which identifies five different stages in the ritual process. These stages follow the general shift in ritual awareness towards the actualization of the intent that the ritual is based around, and then back out towards post-ritual consciouness. 1. Preparation. 2. Warm-up. 3. Core. 4. Wind-down. 5. Debriefing. 1. PREPARATION It is not always easy to say what point a ritual begins or ends, since the preparation to perform a ritual can itself be very elaborate - cleaning the area to be used, bathing, relaxing and meditating can be as much part of the ritual as the main event. Fasting and self-deprivation (give up habits and addictions) are also time-honoured methods of focusing awareness towards a particular task or goal. Especially effective are those preparations which produce changes in somatic awareness, such as dieting, sleep deprivation or reducing one's normal intake of stimulants. If one is working within the parameters of a specific magical system, then Preparation is likly to involve assimilating the attributes, symbols, and concepts of that system. When working with a particular entity, it may be deemed useful to have had some of the ritual participants (if not all) acquire a knowledge of the behaviour, attributes, and qualities associated with the entity. Preparations also involves the pre-ritual briefing of participants to ensure that everyone has some idea of what is being attempted, and why. 2. WARM-UP The warming-up elements of ritual consist of techniques that serve to raise energy and enthusiasm, and focus awareness towards the task in hand. These include drumming, dancing, meditation exercises background music and coordinated breathing or chanting. Not only do these techniques sever to focus awareness, they also have powerful physiological effects as well. The kind of warm-up techniques used in a ritual will help create the appropriate mood for participants. Obviously fast drumming and energetic dancing will create a very different ritual atmosphere than slow-moving steps, sonorous chanting and solemn music. A Banishing or Centering ritual is a standard warm-up precursor to moast rituals, of which, more later. 3. THE CORE The Core stage of ritual involves the techniques which implement the main intention of the rituals so far, which is powered by all the energy and enthusiasm generated during the rite. The content of the core stage depends on the general aim of the ritual, such as invocation - calling a specific entity into one or more of the participants; evocation - calling forth (or creating) a physical manifestation of an entity; the projection of a specific intention from the ritual space into the multiverse; the enactment of a specific mythic event; the enactment of a psychodrama designed to bring about a specific shift in awareness; or the celebration of some historical, mythic, or social event. 4. WIND-DOWN This stage of ritual marks the beginning of return to post-ritual awareness, the return being facilitated by, for example, another performance of a Banishing ritual. This serves to prevent the energy and emotions generated by the ritual from spilling over into everyday life. Occasionally, light-hearted games may be used to relax participants and to discharge tension. The magical role is shed, and the mythic world bidden depart, as the participants prepare to return to everyday awareness. It is generally the case that the more intense the ritual, the more thorough the Wind-Down should be. It should be noted that not all individuals return from intense trance states simultaneously, and that careful observation of participants' return from intense ritual consiousness is often necessary. It should also be noted that when rituals are designed to bring about an intense shift in consciouness the effects are likely to linger on afterwards. One of the strengths of magick is that it provides the individual with a framework within which to explore and assimilate shifts in awareness. It is not un- konwn for rituals to bring about long-term changes in an individual's awareness and life. Indeed, to do so is one of the aims of ritual. 718499927771849992777184999277718499927771849992777184999277718 From: Fra.: Apfelmann Area: Night Side To: * 3 Aug 93 17:11:00 Subject: PC 14/? UpdReq 5. DEBRIEFING This stage concerns the recording of impressions and insights, to be enterd in the Magical Diary. The importance of this cannot be over- stressed. It is surprising how quickly impressions of what transpired during a ritual can become distorted or forgotten. The magical diary is essential for the self-assessment of progress, and recording experiences for future reference. This stage also includes self or group assessment of performance on a technical level - identifying which parts of the ritual process had the most effect, and which, in retrospect, did not deem to work as well. Magicians do not, in general, enjoy having their performances criticized, but this is as much a part of the continual process of learning and refining ritual technique as any other. E X A M P L E S O F R I T U A L S BANISHING RITUAL A Banishing Ritual is one of the first practical exercises that a magician learns. It is also sometimes known as Centering, which in many respects, is a more accurate term for the exercise. A Banishing has three aims. The first is that it acts as a warm-up - a preparation for doing further ritual, meditation, enabling the magician to put aside everyday thoughts - "what's on TV later ?", ect. It allows the magician to shift into his 'magician-self' role, and to place himself in the metaphysical universe - the axis mundi. Secondly, Banishing sets up the space being used for working as 'sacred', so that the loft, bedroom, basement or whatever becomes, temporarily, a Free Area. Thirdly, a Banishing clears the atmosphere of the area being used from any emotional undercurrents that one usually (unconsciously) associates it with. A Banishing can be a magical equivalent to tidying up (which should be done before working). Since most people are not fortunate enough to have a room which can be used soley for magical work, areas which are used for day-to-day living often have to be used as ritual spaces. This creates an atmosphere which can be sensed through unconscious cues, which it is well to Banish before starting focused magical work - or they might well disturb the ritual. Similarly, after a working, one needs to dispel particular atmosphere that has been created, or one might well find that is clashes with the everyday atmosphere that is normally associated with the room. On this point, it can be useful to Banish a room if there's been a particularly bad argument in it (the tension lingers), or if some- one has spent a period of illness or depression there. Most Banishing rituals have three basic components: 1. A section to focus awareness on the BodyMind. 2. A section which demarcates the main zones, gates, quarters or dimensions of the chosen magical universe - of which the magician is at the center. 3. An identification with a chosen source of inspiration - merging the macrocosm (total psychocosm) with the microcosm (self). 718499927771849992777184999277718499927771849992777184999277718 From: Fra.: Apfelmann Area: Night Side To: Jonathan Corwin 3 Aug 93 17:18:08 Subject: PC 6/? Rec'd UpdReq Hi Jonathan, > It is a pleasure to read them. :-))) > Rock and roll may save my soul but God can only hurt me >;D. With fractalic greetings and laughter * Fra.: Apfelmann * 718499927771849992777184999277718499927771849992777184999277718 From: Fra.: Apfelmann Area: Night Side To: Charles Nemo 3 Aug 93 17:19:56 Subject: M. Chao Rec'd UpdReq Hi Charles, > Well, she's got plenty of time this summer to correspond, so > I'm sure she'd welcome a letter.... would you mind to send a netmail with the correct address ? With fractalic greetings and laughter * Fra.: Apfelmann * 718499927771849992777184999277718499927771849992777184999277718 From: Fra.: Apfelmann Area: Night Side To: RILLUIN 3 Aug 93 17:21:40 Subject: MM I UpdReq Hi Rilluin, > he shouted, "Haende hoch oder ich scheisse!" ROFTL With fractalic greetings and laughter * Fra.: Apfelmann * 718499927771849992777184999277718499927771849992777184999277718 From: Paul Hume Area: Night Side To: Kayla Block 5 Aug 93 12:12:36 Subject: PC 7/? UpdReq Kayla - 93. Frater A:.'s access board would be kinda rough on your long distance bill, as he is in Germany. Paul 718499927771849992777184999277718499927771849992777184999277718