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ogygia · 5 years

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What the fuck is the hexagram ritual?: a guide

By reader request, welcome to the sequel to my guide on ‘What the fuck is the LBRP?’, taking you from a five to a six (Thelemites will appreciate the numerology there). I answer a less-asked but still equally common question: what the fuck is the hexagram ritual?

Recalling that the pentagram is a star with five points, the hexagram is one step up from that, a star with six points (d’oh). In the classic Western paradigm, while the five points of the pentagram represent the elements (including Spirit), the points of the hexagram are typically understood to represent the seven classical planets—

Wait, how the hell do seven planets fit into six points?

—I’m getting there. The six points represent (in clockwise order from top, based on the Golden Dawn/Thelemic schema) Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, Mercury, and Mars, while the Sun is represented by the centre of the hexagram.

Hence the hexagram and the pentagram generally work on two different levels: the elements making up the pentagram are right here, with us, in this material realm. The hexagram, representing the planets, are out there, floating in the great inky space that lies beyond.

In other words, the pentagram primarily represents our microcosm: the hexagram, the macrocosm.

Okay, who made that shit up?

Probably the Golden Dawn. Ish.

This assignation of the points isn’t arbitrary: the modern Hermetic Kabbalah assigns planets (including the modern ones, i.e. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – yes, Pluto) or the Sun or the Moon to each of the Sephiroth, or spheres on the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life?

It’s hard to explain Hermetic Kabbalah concisely and satisfactorily here, so I’d recommend a book such as Lon Milo DuQuette’s The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed ben Clifford. In essence, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is a diagram that visually represents the ten spheres (the Sephiroth) that embody the process of how creation emanates from the original Source, i.e. God with a really big G. Imagine a light shining through ten different filters, the last of which crystallises it into the thing we perceive as Creation.

It’s probably easier to show you:

Do you see the hexagram in the middle of the Tree, centred around Tiphareth/the Sun? That’s exactly where the hexagram correspondences come from.

I thought you said ten spheres – why are there eleven? Also, Uranus is at the top point, not Saturn.

... because Daath (‘Knowledge’), the sphere to which Uranus is assigned, isn’t a ‘real’ sphere, so to speak. The theory is rather more than this primer can cover, but in short, Daath is more of an ‘illusory’ state that sits right on the gap between the spiritual consciousness attainable by humanity (culminating at Chesed) and the ‘pure’ Divinity that lies beyond the veil separating us from the source of all things. This is the gap known as the Abyss, and is a trap for any spiritual seeker. The next 'real' Sephirah after Daath is Binah, which in Thelemic cosmology is also the seat of Babalon, the Great Mother, who assists us safely beyond the Abyss. This is why Saturn takes the top point where Daath should be – it’s the culmination of the journey over the Abyss.

The Earth isn’t included in the correspondences, because the Earth is a given: we have our foot planted firmly in Malkuth, the realm of physical manifestation, of this tangible world around us. This is where the four classical elements live, and where we are. It is from here that we have a base from which to manipulate the six spheres above us, and being rooted here ensures that the higher influences in our lives are balanced, pleasant and stable.

So how does the hexagram ritual fit into all of this?

Easy-peasy: just as the LBRP is our key ritual to balancing and harmonising the influences of the four elements in our life, the hexagram ritual is our key to accessing the power of the macrocosmic forces of the planets.

I’m not actually going to post the full ritual text here, as it would make clutter this post, but you can find it here, in Crowley’s Liber O. Note: Make full use of the illustrations included by Crowley.

Blimey, looks complicated.

... it’s a lot less complicated in practice.

To break it down, the ritual opens and closes with a series of steps known as the Analysis of the Keyword, which is essentially an enacted analysis of the symbolic meanings of the word INRI (which, if you know your Christianity, was the abbreviation the Romans placed on the cross of Jesus, identifying him as Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, ‘Jesus, the King of the Jews’). Thelemistas has a fantastic analysis which I won’t repeat here, but if you have any questions feel free to drop me a DM or an ask. But in short, the Analysis of the Keyword is a method of accessing and drawing down macrocosmic energy. It’s like making sure you’re the right shape of plug before you stick yourself into the power socket of the universe. Terrible analogy, but you get the point. It’s analogous to the Qabalistic Cross in the LBRP.

What’s with all the Egyptian stuff?

Blame the Golden Dawn again.

The Cliffs Notes version is that the Golden Dawn was deeply influenced by the major developments in the study of ancient Egypt – and fashion for Egyptian ~aesthetics~ – that exploded during the Victorian era. There was a strong association of Egyptian religion with the mysteries of life and death (for good reason, however), and so its pantheon and symbols became a language for expressing the mysteries that the Golden Dawn was obsessed with.

Isis, Apophis and Osiris don’t just represent three deities – they are also symbolic of a process of deification and rebirth. Isis is the Mother that generates, Apophis the Serpent that destroys, and Osiris the King that is reborn. And of course, the initials spell I-A-O, a Gnostic god-name that appears everywhere in the Golden Dawn and in Thelema.

After the opening Analysis of the Keyword, you go to each of the four quarters and, as with the LBRP, draw hexagrams and vibrate ARARITA.

AR— what?

ARARITA, the notariqon, i.e. acronym for Achad Rosh Achdotho Rosh Ichudo Temurato Achad, a Hebrew phrase sometimes translated ‘One is his beginning. One is his individuality. His permutation is one.’ The meaning and analysis of this phrase is beyond the scope of this post, but perhaps it would suffice to point out that the word has seven letters. Now, where did we just see that number?

Oh, I know! [answer redacted]

Yup. It all comes back to the [answer redacted].

Okay, great. But what’s with all the triangles? Some of these aren’t actually hexagrams ...

Technically they are; they’ve just been sort of ‘deconstructed’. I don’t myself know exactly why or how they’ve been taken apart the way they are (answers on a postcard, please), but as you can see the interlocking triangles of the hexagram have been rearranged to form four ‘variants’ that are each assigned to a different element. My theory is that, for example, the hexagram for Fire has two upward-pointing ones, which symbolises the upward-moving nature of the element.

I thought we were done with the classical elements.

... I know, I lied.

Well, I kind of didn’t. We are done with the classical elements, or rather, we’re done with the four elements as they exist in our regular mundane world. We’re looking at these elements as symbolic of more idealistic, transcendental realms – this is why they’re assigned to different cardinal directions from the LBRP. In the LRH, Fire is in the East, Earth to the South; Air is in the West, and Water is in the North (as opposed to the LBRP schematic, with Air=East, Fire=South, Water=West, Earth=North). This assignation is based on where the four fixed signs of the Zodiac are found: Leo (Fire), Taurus (Earth), Aquarius (Air) and Scorpio (Water).

It shouldn’t be a surprise now that we’re talking about the zodiac signs: we’re operating on a macrocosmic plane now, where the stars and the planets are.

One thing we should also point out: another possible reason why the two triangles are taken apart is because they technically are two separate symbols: an upward-pointing triangle and a downward-pointing one. In the traditional Golden Dawn association the former should be visualised in red, symbolising Fire, and the latter should be visualised in blue, symbolising Water.

Crowley, being the sort of person who wasn’t going to be tied down by such silly things as traditional correspondences, suggests in Chapter 69 (yes, I know: Crowley being Crowley, this isn’t actually an accident) of The Book of Lies that the magician swap these associations around, so that the upward-pointing triangle is blue and the other one red.

... the descending red triangle is that of Horus, a sign specially revealed by him personally, at the Equinox of the Gods. (It is the flame descending upon the altar, and licking up the burnt offering.) The blue triangle represents the aspiration, since blue is the colour of devotion, and the triangle ... is the symbol of directed force.

The fuck.

Do what thou wilt, mate.

Anyway, unlike the LBRP, there is then no invocation of archangels or anything after the quarters are called: we simply return to the Analysis of the Keyword, neatly closing up the ritual by going full circle (ha-ha). My theory is that because the LRH functions on a macrocosmic, and thus more conceptual level, there is no need to invoke figured beings to ‘ground’ or personify the work.

Thanks, I’m cool with the symbolism now, sort of. But how do you use all this ... stuff?

My own understanding of how one employs the LRH draws on the work of Scott Michael Stenwick on the ‘operant field’. According to this technique the LBRP and invoking form of the LRH (or LIRH) are employed in tandem as a standard opening to ceremonial work. The LBRP clears and creates the vacuum within which magical work occurs, while the LIRH opens up a channel to ‘higher’ energy, rather like plugging yourself into a spiritual power-point. Put another way, the LBRP proclaims your decision to perform magic to the ‘lower’ realm, and demands that your work remains unsullied by it, while the LIRH then announces your intention to the ‘higher’ spheres of power and invites them to charge your work with pure energy.

The operant field technique is in my experience a powerful and effective method of initiating any ceremonial work, and is just good practice in general.

What about the banishing form of the hexagram ritual?

Most of the time I’ve used the banishing form of the LRH is when I’m pretty sure I’ve fucked up some planetary magic and/or an imbalance of planetary energies are causing trouble in my life, or in my magical work. I wouldn’t advise using it too much, if only because the level on which this ritual operates means that trivially employing the banishing form is rather like using a gun to kill a fly.

At the end of the day, it’s all about using the most appropriate tools for the most appropriate purpose. Hopefully this guide has given you some idea of what the hexagram ritual is appropriate for.

Just don’t use it to kill a fly. A swatter will do.

#ritual magic #ceremonial magic #thelema #golden dawn #the lesser ritual of the hexagram #hexagram #astrology #planetary magick #operant field

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