Occult magick works in ceremony, and yet the ceremony is not the importance of the work. What makes a ceremony work is not the arcane mythos, or ancient teachings that support it. Instead, what powers a ceremony is one’s Belief, Intent and Willpower. When these components are in alignment, result and manifestation will occur.
What Ceremony Does
Ceremony establishes a standard. It creates a space of known expectation. Belief is utilized to establish what will happen and what will not happen. Limits are imposed in the belief so that certain things can not occur, while others will occur.
Unlike Hollywood movies, the ceremony and its use of Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, does not matter. These are the tapestries to invoke a mental space. It matters as much as intoning the names of Sci-Fi characters backwards. What empowers the work is the Belief, Intent and Willpower of the one’s performing the ritual or ceremony.
Why is this important?
People are prone to latch onto the “best” form of something. “I had a powerful experience as a ___________, therefore this is the best spiritual practice for everyone.”
Yet each of us walks our own path. We are finding the gateway to our own inner greatness in a unique and distinct method.
When we understand that the “something” that worked for us, worked because of our own Belief, Intent and Willpower, it takes away the necessity of our specific blend of mysticism or magickal operation. It also frees us from the control of a leader who demands that one follow their teachings as the only methodology to success.
The Proof
You might wonder how I know this to be true. How do I know that Belief, Intent and Willpower are the three components to success in anything occult (or otherwise)?
My life experience has taught me that supernatural, paranormal, and religious experience occurs with or without ritual. When I was a pre-teen child, I had paranormal experiences that scared me. I was so terrified I kept most of it to myself. Only the most disturbing did I finally express to my parents. My father, a minister, didn’t know what to make of it. He asked around and a church member told me to tell the beings that manifested in my room that “I love them with the love of God, and will pray for them.” That worked.
In college I had a physical manifestation witnessed by two others. While one was an agnostic, myself and the other were believers. The use of a Ouija board caused something terrifying to occur. The belief of one or two was able to manifest a change in the environment, in accordance with our subconscious expectations.
As an adult, I became a Buddhist. Some flavors of Buddhism (such as Tibetan) have mystical components, but still remain, for the most part, atheistic. I had experiences that were within those limitations. I had the mystical experience, but not the kinds I had prior. It was now limited by my Belief.
Later on, I became an occultist in the school of the Golden Dawn occult group. After that, I became Scientologist, then a Hindu. I followed gurus and I followed the ceremonial magick of Aliester Crowley in two different Thelemic organizations. Beyond that, I also followed the teachings of a psychic mystic. What I learned was that the success or failure of these systems was not based on the arcane or mysterious source, but instead on the Belief and Intent of the aspirants, which is powered by their Will.
If it was the ritual, then how do different rituals work? There are some groups that use Lovecraftian mythos in their work, and they have effect. How is that possible if they are using a completely fabricated mythos? It’s pure fiction, but it’s believed to be ancient occultism by the adherents. Their Belief empowers the work.
Similarly, I took a year of my life and sat in meditation where I used the reverence of different Star Wars characters as the esoteric images used. I had inner dialogue equal to that of prior experiences. I knew they were fictional, but believed that the Source was manifesting through these masks.
Everything is a Mask and Tapestry
When a person calls out to Uriel, or to Heckate, they are making a call to a mask. You may believe these entities to have a life of their own, and in part that might be true from the idea of an Egregore. The Belief of many, over time, has likely created the entities out of primordial essence and energy. I can’t say for certain they are simply masks. Maybe there is a real entity beyond the image, beyond the mask. My stance is that it is very likely they are masks.
The Source energy behind a mask, is minimized into a specific task or operation: Uriel is the energy of earth, or Michael the energy of fire. For finances a believer invokes Uriel, for operations of offense or burning down barriers, Michael is invoked. Masks like these are easier to work with as the All is segregated into a small component of capability. It’s impossible for the human personality to conceptualize the All. But we can conceptualize an angel of fire, or an angel of earth.
That’s why a Catholic has resonance with a saint, but when they leave Catholicism to become a Hindu, they resonate with Hindu Deities instead. As long as there is no resentment to the prior path, they likely feel a similar feeling from the appropriate counter energy. The Source is within them, they carry it wherever they go, into what belief systems and tapestries that are rendered. They feel the Source as an angel now, and a Hindu Deity later on.
Tapestries of belief are powerful in establishing expectation and belief. The tapestry of belief may be a science fiction type of background found in a modern religion. Or it could be a tapestry formed from ancient beliefs of Greeks. The nuances, colors, images, smells and other factors all collude to establish authenticity.
One Source, interacted with a thousand masks.
What is Source?
Source, I believe, to have two components. There is the Source of all manifestation (Cosmic, God, etc.) There is another source, that is the purest form of this eternal force, and it may be known as “The Higher Self,” or “Holy Guardian Angel.” The language points to an entity that is so close to us, that it really is us, but at a larger scope of Being.
When I went from religion to religion, I felt “God” in each. Even in Buddhism, which has no idea of God, I felt this presence in the Buddhist temple I took my vows.
At first I thought that “God” was being accessed by all these different faiths. Like different operating systems on a computer all working with the same CPU.
Later on, however, I adopted a different view: I was carrying with me the essence of Source. My Higher Self, or Holy Guardian Angel, was manifesting truth to me through the tapestries of belief. Hence, I felt the Source (which I identified early on as “God”) in each religion and spiritual practice.
How did this Come Up?
The topic came up when I was reading through material from a spiritual group. I often enjoy reading the writings of other authors and the more open it is, the more enjoyable it is for me. In this case, I was reading material on the Magick practices of Quareia. In the section on ritual magick, the author made a point of insistence in not deviating from the prescribed ceremonial magick. Even a flourish added in a gesture, is for her, the grinding away of the magickal power.
This concerned me as the notion is very controlling. While I know her organization is very open and not run by an authoritarian leader, I have seen this behavior in cults. Quareia is open. It is not controlled. There is no leader to bend your will to, the whole operation is done in privacy. It is solitary work.
However, when a leader demands the adherents not deviate one iota from the taught methodology, it is often a control mechanism. It sets a boundary of what is “true” and what is “false.” The false is all those other spiritual groups and options, outside the core of the group.
Certainly this type of thinking keeps everyone in line, doing the same thing, but this becomes dogma. This becomes adherence to an external “Master,” and as such I find contempt to the idea of strict obedience to an outsider.
Is Magick Real?
If this is all based on Belief, Intent and Willpower, is magick real or is it psychological? A lot of modernists think that it is psychological and that makes it “real” for the individual. However, I disagree. I think Magick is real. I think manifestation does occur. Our Source within us is our power of the work. If we believe strong enough, we can manifest something into being.
We do not need to follow a mask, or a tapestry. We can use a system of direct experience with the Source. However, having masks is a easier way to get a result. It’s far easier to imagine a being described and given motive and power, than to imagine a force unseen.
Masks are useful and shouldn’t be condemned, but I do believe that in the end, direct communion with Source bypasses all masks for a pure result beyond our ego mind that constant craves the mask.
As for ritual and ceremony, it establishes a consistent expectation. Some believe that an individual should never deviate, lest they lose the power of the operation. Others are more open to individual input and change. I’m less about ritual and ceremony, as it bogs down into the drudgery of human ownership.