Something showed up in my inbox today and it’s been a common topic in recent months.
“How will I summon Zagan. I don’t know what to say cus there must be
something you’ll say before they come to you what are those steps to
take pls tell me’
Apparently, enns aren’t enough in the way of invocation for some people. More and more I meet people who feel there should be something more. More long orations and lamentation during invocation. More walking around the ritual space performing actions. Holding lots of things on high. They think they need to read pages and pages of dark poetry, or spend half an hour monologuing at the Daemonic, and believe if they do it just right – the Daemonic Divine will show up.
Yes, magick and ritual can be theatrical. A lot of liturgical rites, including initiations, baptisms, etc… contain a great deal of reading and poetic verse. But when it comes down to the deep, nitty gritty magick — it’s really unnecessary. No really — let me explain.
First, don’t take this to mean that if you love reading dark poetry before your magickal work, or doing initial invocation with long orations that I’m picking on you. I’m not. Those things are perfectly acceptable as an OPENING or even as a closing to your magickal work.
But if, while doing the work, you have to pause every few minutes and read another long block of prose, you’re not in the right mental state (alpha or theta brain wave states are where you need to be for most energy work, meditation, and ascension practice) to be doing magick. If you are in the right space for energy work, stopping to read an oration is going to break this concentration and completely ruin your connection. There’s a reason Buddhists chant OM and not some long diatribe.
“But, but – what about delta brain wave state?” That’s the state of consciousness most of us fall into when we’re in a deep sleep, though monks who have been meditating for years can reach it during a waking state. Unless a person has been meditating for hours every day for 30+ years — it’s not likely your average weekend occultist (let alone dabblers or beginners) can jump in and out of delta in a ritual that see-saws between meditation/energy building/divine communication and oration. Basically – this means that a lot of these theatrical rituals full of lamentation and odes to the Black [insert awesome/scary thing here] are not as “deep” or profound as their creators would like you to believe.
Most people, especially those new to magick, start their magickal careers performing their magical work during waking states (gamma and beta). This is why there is such a huge push for practitioners to learn meditation. If you really want to do the deep, abyss crossing, shadow work that is all the rage these days — leave the orations for the beginning and end of ritual and use the middle for some REAL WORK, not a string of actions or theatrical recitation.
Don’t get me wrong – the theatrical rituals have their place. They’re perfect as liturgical (i.e. public worship) rites. Most seasonal or Daemonic celebration rituals are liturgical. There’s a great deal of pomp, props, sights, sounds, and lots and lots of oration. Usually there’s prayer involved, or requests and offerings, or elemental or abyssal communions.
That isn’t to say you can’t psyche yourself into a spiritual experience during such rituals, or have profound realizations. After all – we should never underestimate the power of atmosphere during ritual work. A lot of these beautiful rituals are perfect for Hollywood — not so much magick. Most intense, deep magickal work is about as exciting(visually) as watching cement dry.
So go ahead – make your magickal rituals pretty at the beginning and the end, but leave that shit out of the middle of it. Also never underestimate the effectiveness of rituals that aren’t as elaborate as a liturgical rite. Chances are they’re bland like that by design. 😉