Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
The skills of ceremony both group and solo should be touched upon. After all, Initiation means you are no longer in the minor league and most certainly some of the operations of high magick for Thelemites, previously impossible without your practices, have now become a reality. As much as I was skeptical about some of the eastern esoteric methods of meditation the concentration developed is paramount to make yourself a magician where volition has met the handshake of experience. Being ready for anything that occurs in your magical gestures or operations needs some commentary. Now if a sister of the Order comes over to visit me and suddenly strips insisting that teach her sex magick I shall not be react in a fashion unbecoming to my enthusiasm or training. My reaction is without surprise being trained right from the early days in my path to meet the unexpected properly. I state such an interesting scenario after being addressed about what it takes in preparation for such events on other planes.
I was asked very recently what the main benefits of Yoga were on my Path with my magical workings. I surprised the new Probationer by my answer. It was the appearance of working an Evocation where giant spirits that were not to be a shock to break concentration that first came to mind. Example? Of course. Let’s say I have gone to the trouble of carefully creating a ceremony from Liber 777 to invoke a powerful Jupiter parallel Spirit from another system of Gods. Knowing that the purpose of the ceremony was to command that Spirit to cluster to exalt Ra-Hoor-Khuit to align its ancient thought form or accumulated Egregore as an aggregate of manifested energy for the New Aeon. I knew it would show its ancient strength where it would appear intimidating to my concentration. The development of concentration or dharana that Yoga would assist me to not break concentration upon the sight of the ancient God where I would confidently proceed as a “magician and exorcist” who has made spelling function by strong commands. For such an advanced high magick you need this level of concentration to assist yourself to retain in evocation to be in perfect command in the center of your circle. To continue, you must realize that if you are invoking an ancient God or Goddess that has been worshiped for thousands of years and was a reality in its Aeon the New Aeon has made it suffer deterioration of the planes with what it once was. Your Holy Task with bringing the Deity with evocation is to restore with existence where the 93 Current vivifies its existence where it is aligned to the New Aeon. You need concentration and Ad Lib to be ready for the Deities Speech and often rebellious, dramatic reaction. Be ready for anything not short of threats. You need to know how to respond; and staying centered as you deliver your responses will be very important. You cannot be shocked, surprised, swayed, intimidated, or forgetful. That initiation where your self confidence is based on what you have experienced means a successful magical operation and gesture has been accomplished which arrives where you accomplished what you have striven for. No slurred or confused exchanges will exist. You’re in the big league now with developed skills where your Yoga has improved your efficiency with your high magick. The above is an example of only one operation of high magick for Thelemites.
Well, ad lib is another matter entirely and later on you’ll have to put up with those below you who yet have issues with recovering themselves in ceremony. You never, never, never, do the ceremony over or allow idle speech to erupt when working with others in the Circle. It is too late to do a initiation over with with a Candidate and using Ad Lib to control the flow and make a success out of the Initiation is essential. The key is to practice over and over again prior to the Candidate’s day of initiation. Mistakes when practicing for a Candidate’s initiation is fine. But mistakes during an official initiation Ad Lib gets you through to a successful initiation. The Candidate will not know that his Initiation Ceremony was altered by Ad Lib when you have developed its skill. I, personally, prefer to work with no one below the Grade of Adept Major but my preferences cannot always be set in stone. Circumstances can be very complex for example when working with a Priestess sometimes they do not know they a Priestess or exist on levels high in some planes and have to be an Instrument toward the objective where an Authority on some plane has let them pass. This occurred with the Master Therion with His Scarlet Women where a study of these events might be of assistance.
Ad lib is one of the keys to the smooth workings of the ceremony. I absolutely recommend a book called “Towards a Poor Theater” by Jerzy Grotowski where you can learn his methods to develop as a group and this book should be in everyone’s library either with Abbey work or Lodge work. I did use the book when I was Lodge Master of the Menthu Lodge to develop Ad Lib and even years later I recommend it today. Of course, the entire book need not be used but those useful exercises which assist group work.
I tried to emphasize more than once that if you are to use “the method of science” where an audit can keep you in touch with reality you need an Instructor. This makes anyone who tells you they do the experiments on themselves is simply talking out their ass.
At least if you are a solo Thelemite I highly recommend developing your concentration for your magick. Know what the Hexagrams and the Pentagrams are for what spirits to find whether they are lying spirits or have some existence of the spiritual. This isn’t the same as speech exchange done Ad Lib to an Ancient God or Goddess but at least you have a byway towards a completion of the magical operation without recoil.
Love is the law, love under will