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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.occult.kabbalah,alt.pagan.magick
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Subject: DPSchneider: LBRP/LBRH
Date: 13 Sep 1997 13:35:24 -0700

[from thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org: "D.P. Schneider" ]

[slight omission]

On Wed, 7 Aug 1996, one star in sight wrote:
> Greetings and 93 all,
> 
> I've been of the feeling for some time that students of ceremonial Magick
> should take it upon themselves to master the forms of the Hermetic
> tradition.  To this end the system of the Golden Dawn seems the most
> developed expresion of ceremonial Magick and certainly was a major
> influence on Crowley's development and by extension Thelemic ceremonial
> Magick.  Writers such as DuQuette seem to agree by presenting the Hexagram
> and Pentagram rituals along side the Thelemic versions of those rituals. 
> 
> I'd like to begin a dialog of a technical nature exploring the Ceremonial 
> rituals of the Golden Dawn in two streams, the first to clarify the 
> rituals in thier original sense, and the second to see what kind of 
> 'scrubbing' might be done to spruce these rituals up into fresher forms.
> 
> For now though I'm just trying to understand two very basic rituals, the 
> Lesser Banishing Rituals of the Hexagram and Pentagram.
> 
> Virtually every version of the LBRH that I can find has some minor
> differences.  The golden dawn showing in the case of North/Water the Luna
> Triangle being drawn first even though the Saturn triangle is drawn first
> on the other thre directions.  Lon Duquette in his book corrects this but
> switches the associations of the Air and Water hexagrams.  Crowley's 
> Liber ABA has what I would call the 'correct' versions. 
> 
> From what I can determine the 'correct' figures are below.  I refer to the
> triangle of Saturn/Mars/Jupiter as the 'saturn triangle' which is always
> upright and always drawn first beginning with the Saturn point.  The other
> triangle which has Luna/Mercury/Venus points is the flip-flopping 'luna
> triangle' and always drawn second beginning with the Luna point. 
> 
> These ascii versions are poorly formed but give the general idea. 
> 
> East/Fire
>  /\
> /1_\
>  /\
> /2_\
> 
> South/Earth
>   /\  (a star of david)
> \/1 \/
> /\ 2/\
>   \/
> 
> West/Air
>  /\
> /1_\
> \ 2/
>  \/
> 
> North/Water
> ____
> \ 2/
>  \/
>  /\
> /1_\
> 
> The elemental associations make sense when compared to the Cardnal signs 
> placement on a circle of the zodiac with Aries in the East.
> 
> My questions for the luminaries out there are :
> 
> 1.  What is being banished with this ritual?  The Hexagram in general is
> used both for planetary and zodiacal rituals.  Does this form address one
> or the other or both?  My sense is that the answer is both but I can't
> explain why. 

It addresses both in the G:.D:. system. To differentiate you just put a
different symbol in the middle of the hexagram or draw it differently for
the different planets. The reason why this can be attributed to the
planets is obvious, but I think the zodiacal attributions are less so. I
think it has something to do with hexagram=macrocosm=universal
influences=zodical signs. Hence also the elements being put in the
quarters associated with the cardinal zodiacal signs. Kind of round
about... but so is much of the G:.D:. :>

 
> 2.  What is the rationale behind the irregularly shapped Hexagrams?  I 
> can't find a single reference the what kind of meaning is implied by them.

Look at their shapes. To Mathers they looked like the elemental weapons,
so thats how they were attributed. The wand is a bit of a stretch, but I
can kind of see the others.


> The good old LBRP includes the visualisations of four Archangels, Raphael 
> in the East for Air, Gabriel in the West for Water, Michael in the South 
> for Fire and Auriel (or Uriel) in the North for Earth.
> 
> Crowley's commentaries on the LBRP include helpful ideas concerning
> standing at the intersection of Samekh and Pe on the Tree of Life.  Thus
> the Sphere Tipharet is before you, Yesod behind, Hod left and Netzach to
> the right. This concept makes sense on a certain level but introduces some
> weirdness by introducing the Sephirot.  
> 
> The Sephirotic Archangels for those Spheres just so happen to match up
> with the Archangels in the ritual with the exception that Haniel is the
> Archangel of Hod.  My first impression was that perhaps Haniel should be
> substitued for Auriel (or Uriel) in the North.  The fact that there is
> some discrepancy (Auriel vs Uriel) already in some versions of the ritual
> suggest that this is a possible area to consider for correction. 

Uriel or Auriel means "light of God". the Hebrew word for light is
Aleph-vav-resh, thus it is pronounced like "or" or "ur," but
transliterated "aur".

Also there are so many differnent angelic attributions, I its hard to say
what they were thinking. Perhaps Mathers just liked the idea of light
being with Mercury since he had to place it somewhere. (ie. I think these
four come as a group a lot)

 
> However further research has found some rather enigmatic statements that
> the Sephirotic Archangels are actually different 'entities' than the
> Elemental Archangels in the LBRP.  This makes sense one one level given
> that the Sephirot in question normally do not have those elemental
> associations given in the LBRP. However given the sense that in Hebrew the
> name itself contains an essense of the nature of the entity in question I
> have a hard time with the notion that there are two Raphaels out there
> with the same name and therefore appearance but with different aspects. 

There have been so many writers with so many different attributions of
angels and archangels to different things that this is, in  a way, a
compromise. In another way though, it is not because the quality of
Raphiel that makes him important in one circumstance may not be a quality
that makes him important in another. History might have produced two
different major qualities in what is essentially the same entity. Thus, it
is as though there are two.

 
> The other enigma in the LBRP are the four letter names that are vibrated 
> in each quarter.  The traditionally given names are IHVH in the East, 
> ADNI South, IHIH West and AGLA (or Ateh Gibor LeOlam ADNI) in the North.  
> Nowhere can I find any rationale for the assignment of these names other 
> than refering to them collectively as 'names of god' etc.  

I believe these come from a Hebrew bed-time prayer. I don't remember
though if the original prayer had direction symbolism to go with the
names.
 
> Thanks for any light shed!
> 
> Robin

Hope some of this helped. Sorry it was so late. I tend to get lazy about
returned email. :>

-NOX

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