As my background isn't in ceremonial magic, it's been a challenge so far, but that's one of the reasons why I opted to join the guild and work on the guild training courses. This exposure to ceremonial magic in the History of Magic section of the training is really giving me ideas for hybrid rites, or at least rites that take the effective ritual mechanics and techniques of ceremonial magic but that are inherently Pagan and conform to the Core Order of Ritual.
Blasphemy, right?
I have to confess, I do rather like this kind of experimentation. I've always been something of a pragmatist when it has come to the magical arts in the past - if it works I do it, and if I can hone what I already know works, then I'll take out that honing tool and put it to work.
The first ritual that niggled me for playing with is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. I learned how to do it years ago as another sort of weapon in my arsenal for exorcism (I used to get called in to exorcise places every now and again). However, I wondered if it would be truly possible to create a 'paganized' version that still maintained the same ritual mechanics as the original.
And thus began a crazy process trying to make that work. I have something that does work for me, but I'm still working on it. The main changes I've made though have been:
*Changing the initial visualisation to visualising myself growing so as to dwarf the earth and that I stand upon the earth - as a part of the solar system still - and draw energy from the sun. This helps to tie this non-qabalistic cross with the work of the Two Powers meditation.
*At what would be 'Malkuth', there is an added section in which earth energy is also drawn up in the visualisation - once more tying into the Two Powers.
*The language used is a prayer I wrote in Old English that I vibrate.
* After reading that the use of four elements in the Western Esoteric Tradition derives from the Tetragrammaton, I changed it to three - land/earth, sea/waters, and sky/fire.
* The pentagram is replaced by a swastika. The use of the swastika does present the problem of it being four-legged and more tied in with four elements (at least in Golden Dawn magic). However, the history of the swastika is far older than the Golden Dawn - or the Nazis -and I take it to be a holy and auspicious symbol. I also personally have good associations with the symbol after living in Asia (where it is commonly displayed) and protecting my home using that symbolism.
*The circle creation section of the ritual is also tied in with a recreation of the cosmos.
Like I said though, I'm not 100% happy with what I've come up with.
However, I *am* happy with my newest idea, very happy in fact, and I'd love to try it out.
It's a recreation of the cosmos type idea that's based on the Planetary Morning Star (a symbol that is now being used by modern practitioners of the Fairy faith). At the center is an axis mundi or tree, and the star is marked out using ribbon and stakes around the tree/post. The working area is in the center of the star, around the tree, and the representations of land, sea, and sky are placed in accordance with the diagram. It's intended to recreate the cosmos in a slightly more concrete sense, placing it fully within our solar system. Again, there are holes here, namely that we know there are more than 7 planets and that the earth isn't at the center of the solar system. However, it is not a scientific truth that we seek to express here, but a truth based in myth and ritual; that, as Mircea Eliade once wrote, '"Our world" is always situated at the center.'
If nothing else, I think it would make for a very beautiful and grand ritual setting and recreation of the cosmos (the ribbons then being used to decorate and honor the tree that served as the axis mundi after the rite is ended).
* The center dot denotes tree/axis mundi.
* The triple division of the circle is not for replication, it's merely to show the positioning of the representations of the land, sea, and sky. So, for example, a representation of earth would go in the North, the fire (as representation of the sky and realm of Shining Ones) would go in the South East. The well would go in the South West.
* Start at Sunday and follow the line to Monday, then Tuesday, then...you get the idea. Neat, huh?
