Tag: crowley

I recently attended a class on the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram put on by my local OTO encampment. Like a lot of people I’ve read Liber O a number of times and I’ve always read it from a chaos magician’s point of view. That being, the first question you ask is, “What’s the point? What results are you looking for?” Crowley, being the obtuse SOB that he was doesn’t give many clues.  

So I listened politely as the class went on and the instructor, who was a good instructor, pointed out the varied, subtle, Kabbalistic correspondences you could employ in the hexagram ritual. He did mention a goal, which is invoking the energies of certain elements, planets, astrological signs, and sepiroth.

At the end I was still pretty much at a loss as to why you would want to do such a thing. I did, however, learn that the pentagram and hexagram rituals in themselves are really just plug-and-play forms that fit well with the system of correspondences used by the OTO. Want to have strength in your life? Look it up in 777 (a fucking arduous task as it’s in no way an easy reference), pick out some correspondences add them to the basic framework of your pentagram or hexagram ritual, and voila, you have something to help you build or understand strength. For example, use the greater hexagram ritual invoking fire, mars, and Aries. Use a red cloth, and five red candles, and etc, etc.

Here’s where they lose me. What if I don’t give a shit about the Kabbala as a system of correspondences? What if I find it annoying and arbitrary? Especially the arbitrary part because if the correspondences have no meaning to me, why would they work?

I understand that they are supposed to be a baseline. The fixed code. The collective unconscious. That if I go deep enough that the Kabbalistic correspondences will have meaning to me. And that their seemingly arbitrary nature is what makes it such a useful system for removing lust of result.

But I can’t help but call bullshit. That those who are immersed in the system find meaning because they immersed themselves in the system. They are not discovering some predetermined key to the universe.

And coming full circle, does it make me a bad magician because I have such a hard time making myself believe in it, especially since it has proven to be useful?