Courses and Trips Through Tacky Training
LJ seems low-key to me lately, and I haven't yet decided on the fate of my own LJ yet, so here is an entry relevant to my interests! ;)
As many know, I've been studying Qabalah and Ceremonial Magic for quite a while now. For some of you, I've been practicing it since before I knew you. It started in 2006 when I finally got tired of trying to follow Wicca and Feri Witchcraft while knowing that bulk amounts of their material come from Western High Magic. Gardner's covens originally practiced a form of ritualistic Witchcraft that borrowed heavily from Ceremonialist traditions like the Golden Dawn. In fact, it is now known that Gerald Gardner was in communication with Aleister Crowley. So, in my dissatisfaction -and since I'd been occasionally reading up on Qabalah and Ceremonial Magic for 4-5 years before that anyway- I got a good beginner's book on High Magic and went from there. My mission: To practice High Magic and gain adept-level knowledge of it and come back to Wicca with what I found in order to improve it.
That mission is not going to be fulfilled because I'm probably not going to become a follower of the religion of Wicca again. But that's not what I'm getting at.
The more I studied and practiced, the more I realized that, for the level of skill in magical techniques that are often required, I'm not up to par with my magical training. So, I borrowed material from the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn to make my own course of study on ritual magic to get myself up to snuff. See, I feel like I have the general knowledge that someone in the Golden Dawn's Adeptus Minor grade would have (which is quite a bit, considering that it's the 5th grade of the Golden Dawn and only 7-8 of those grades can be attained while in mortal incarnation). I wanted the equivalent skill level of an Adeptus Minor, in short being where I feel I should be after (at that time) 10 years of close study.
Well, that course I created was found wanting, so I upgraded it and started over as a Neophyte again. After quite a while I struggling with the new and improved version of my training, I decided that was insufficient as well. There were reasons for this.
The Golden Dawn material, and the focus of the training in the OSOGD's curriculum, I felt were lacking in depth of training. They covered ritualistic, spiritual, and many mental aspects of the kind of training I wanted to get. But to me, they didn't go deep enough, to cover ALL aspects. I want training in a complete spectrum of magical training. This training would fulfill the following criteria:
1. Train and hone the body in relaxation, asanas, and the actions and gestures of ritual.
2. Train and work the emotions and deeper psyche to foster inner communication, resolution of psychological issues, and the ability to call upon one's inner resources.
3. Training of the mind in meditation, concentration, projection of consciousness, and a certain degree of clairvoyance
4. Contacting one's inner wisdom, as well as Gods and other spirits as needed.
5. Training in general techniques of western ritual magic.
6. Training in the deft and skillful use of subtle and elemental energies.
7. Training in working with, and progressing along, the Qabalistic Tree of Life.
8. Training in various magical techniques which include, but are not limited to: sigil magic, manifesting synchronicities, charging spaces and objects, various forms of evocation, amulets and talismans.
I think that about covers it. By the time I'd get to a certain degree of skill with all the above, I'd have the equivalent skillset of an Adeptus Minor...and hopefully the personal growth as well.
So, not being satisfied with what I'd been doing, I scrapped my entire curriculum and started looking into something other than a solely Ceremonial-oriented approach. That's when I checked out the Hermetic training of folks like Franz Bardon and Jason Augustus Newcomb. Bardon wrote an influential book containing a very long and challenging course, and it was titled "Initiation Into Hermetics". Newcomb wrote a book in the same vein, but based on the teachings and grade system of the magical order known as the A:.A:.(Argenteum Astrum).
Here was a complete set of training in magical skills I could take with me into any other system! But there were things I liked about Bardon and Newcomb, and things I did NOT like. I found this out about Newcomb's stuff by practicing it. He simplifies things too much, and since a lot of it is based on the A:.A:.'s system of training, there were things left out that were present in Bardon's system. But there are certain unnecessarily long things in Bardon's system, as well as archaic and hokey notions.
So, I've been working on combining the best of both while including useful things from other sources to create the best system of magical training in the Western Hermetic tradition for me. One thing I found useful with Newcomb's stuff is that he created workbooks for each level and put them on his website as free downloads.
Now, going by Newcomb's book, "The New Hermetics", the training can potentially cover everything. However, the workbooks don't, at all. I like the idea of workbooks to act as guides in the practical training parts of my course, but I don't want something oversimplified in a hokey New-Age way.
So little by little, for the past few months, I've been working out the creation of workbooks for my course that are complete and accurate guides to the training exercises required. I recently got the workbook for the first level, the Neophyte, done. At this point I'm working on the Zealot-level workbook. Overall, here is how the levels are going to go, based on the old Rosicrucian grades:
- Level 1 - The Neophyte
- Level 2 - The Zealot
- Level 3 - The Practitioner
- Level 4 - The Philosopher
- Level 5 - The Adept
I don't have anything planned after getting to Adept, because I don't have the knowledge to get past that, and that's where I feel I should be anyway. Once I get there, THEN I will figure it out.
It's frustrating in a way, though. I feel like I've been stuck being a Neophyte for a couple years now, at least. I want to move on to bigger and better things! Now that I've clearly outlined the Neophyte training for myself, I'm not going back and re-doing anything. I'm sticking to this course and that is that!