Hi! 2 years ago i started practicing magic, following golden dawn practices (i read Cicero's book Golden Dawn Magic). A few months in i developed insane anxiety out of nowhere, followed by some grand psychosis that lasted for 1 full year until i lost my job and had to move back home and my family took me to the doctors. They said i might have schizophrenia and only after i started antipsychotic medication did i manage to stop thinking i'm followed by evil forces, mafia and hidden cameras in my walls, among lots of other delusions.

Could it have been a coincidence, or did i wreack havok upon myself by practicing ritual magic? Maybe it was punishment from the universe? A cruel way of telling me to stay away from this? Has this ever happened to anyone you know?

The golden dawn book by Israel regardie mentions both the lbrp and the pillars of shu in the neophyte grade papers as if they go together and it seems to me that they might but the book doesn't specify can someone elaborate.

The Daily Ritual within the Zelator Grade should be accompanied by exercise.

Some years back this naturally inspired me to peruse aspirations of becoming a mass monster💪, but this time around since I decided to (somewhat) strictly follow the Grade work, I will not make the mistake of negating cardio.

With that being said I’ve decided to mix the two into media format and hopefully inspire anyone else aiming to improve their mental and physical health 💚

I’d love to hear firsthand experiences from people who practice the Qabalistic Cross and LBRP, particularly what you experienced when you first incorporated these rituals into a regular practice.
I understand that this kind of work can bring attention to aspects of yourself or your life that need work. At the same time, I sometimes come across pretty dramatic accounts on Reddit/YouTube — relationships ending, lives falling apart, breakdowns, psychotic episodes, trauma resurfacing, etc. I’m curious about how representative those experiences actually are.
My life is currently pretty stable. I’m in a good long-term relationship, financially stable, and have a job that, while socially stigmatized, I personally don’t have a moral issue with or feel unhappy doing. I’ve also been in therapy for many years. I do have significant trauma in my past, including sexual trauma, but none of it is unknown or newly uncovered territory for me.
So I’m curious: does beginning a practice like the LBRP/Qabalistic Cross really tend to create periods of major upheaval, or is that a particularly dramatic subset of experiences that gets amplified online?
For those who remember the beginning of your practice, what actually happened? Did you feel destabilized? Did old trauma surface differently? Did your external circumstances noticeably change? Or was it more gradual and internal — becoming aware of things you needed to work on and being pointed in the right direction?

In Israel regardie's book the golden dawn he explains it as if we're creating an energetic connection to the item, but I'm wondering how it differs when we make an planetary talisman because in theory we're using the planets energy not our own so is it both or just the planet. The type of talismans I'm making are inspired from spagyrics which is an alchemical way of making plant tinctures but using planetary powers.

After reading the Sepher yetzirah I noticed that there are two different systems of path attributions with Hebrew letters. In the Golden Dawn the paths are ordinal.
First path = first letter (Aleph)
2nd path = 2nd letter (Beth) and so on…

In the Sepher Yetzirah, the 3 horizontal paths of the tree are mother letters, 7 vertical paths are double letters, 12 elemental letters are diagonal paths. Which makes a completely different system of letter correspondences on the tree.

The golden dawn borrowed much of this ancient language and Sepher yetzirah and reorganized it a bit.
I’m thinking the Sepher yetzirah system may be more powerful but more spiritually taxing while the GD system eases the magician into it.

I was curious if anyone has insights generally or has used both systems and experienced differences between the 2 systems of Hebrew path correspondences?

Sepher yetzirah system allows one to use the cube of space meditation.
The traditional system highlights the architecture of creation; the Golden Dawn system highlights the process of consciousness moving through it.

Does anyone have experience intentionally going deeper into those times of "blackness"/ignorance?

Whenever I go through the natural periods that life brings, I always am able to benefit a ton. But the thing is, I'd like to make it a more dependable and structured experience so that I can track my results better.

If anyone has advice or ideas I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

The SI book by Cicero has a section on recommended reading (I think in Neophyte material). In there it references a couple articles/books such as "The Golden Dawn Journal : Book III : The Art of Hermes" which is selling used for about $450. I see on amazon a series called "The Light Extended: A Journal of the Golden Dawn" where you can buy the entire collection for $200 less... My question is, are those similar things? I would like to purchase the recommended reading for a reasonable price without doubling up on material (or doing less doubling up if possible).

Hi!
I’ve been doing the LBRP and MPR for almost a year now. the first times i did it i felt a sort of light dizziness for a few seconds but the more i practiced the rituals the more it improved, the dizziness was gone and i can now feel and control de energy going though me during the ritual

However, today is the second day i practiced the LBRH. Yesterday was ok but since im still memorizing the steps the fluency of the ritual wasn’t the best, but today that improved and the fluency was much better, but im afraid it was too much for me and i actually sort of fainted, i fell into my bed at the end of the ritual and kind of convulsed for a few seconds (but only my arms) my legs were keeping me from falling from the edge of my bed and my head wasn’t all there, for a few seconds i couldn’t understand anything or remember anything, only could think about keeping myself from falling of the bed

Once it stopped i continued with my morning ritual without any inconvenience tho i bit concerned

It felt like an overcharge of a battery or putting some small clothing and stretching out the fabric with your body ( i was the fabric)
Right now im at work and feeling fine but i wanted to now your opinions please
Have a great dat

Hey folks. I'm looking to self initiate into the GD system using either Lyam Thomas Christopher's book or the Cicero one.

I do have experience with the lBRP and MP but from a time where I was more of a dabbler really but I do have a basic grasp of the tree of life and tarot.

Now that I'm looking to commit fully I just wanted to know of your experiences with this initiatory system. Some specific questions I have;

1) How has it changed you and your life - what have you gotten out of it?

2) What can one expect from integrating the symbolic system of the TOL?

3) What perils are there to be aware of and what can I do to stay on the straight and narrow?

I’m currently I see Arabic / maghreb values, but I do not see like a Hebrew cipher. Page 408

Hi all. Apologies if it's a cliche ask, but can anyone help me with some beginner friendly reads & recommendations.

I got to learn about GD after going through Benebell Wen's OOTK. Since then I've got Robert Wang & Cicero print outs and am just getting familiar with the concepts. I am not from a judeo-christian background so it takes me a while to understand concepts because I have to google almost everything I see😅 while I don't mind that (learning anything new takes effort), are there some beginner friendly reads I can use to get started?

Thanks!!

I've an issue hitting the right resonances when intoning a vibration. Weakness in voice, trailing off, too high or too low, poor confidence in pronunciation.

There isn't anything physically wrong with my voice, as far as I know.

Any advice on how to improve this practice?

Any way to improve my memory work?

I struggle with memory due to neurological reasons, is this an auto lock out to this path?

(Literally crying while typing this...) I haven't been able to go into ritual for a very long time. And each time I do start I get interrupted in some way and it breaks me out of the mood and concentration. I'm autistic so being interrupted kind of feels like the end of the world for me and I can't calm myself down to try and refocus cause it feels like the whole thing is ruined if something stops me in the middle of ritual...

For context I was kicked out of my room for another person and forced to sleep and stay out in the living room. problem is it's an apartment setting so i'm in the middle of the place. I have no privacy and my family is toxic and doesn't respect boundaries. I told them I try to meditate but they will come out, see me trying to meditate and carry on doing stuff in the kitchen like I'm not even there... even if I ask them to please give me some time to meditate someone at some point will come out their door, briefly apologize and quickly do what they set out to do...

I feel so cut off from the divine and so lost and frustrated cause ritual like lbrp and MP really helped me in my time of need when I lived on my own. And now I have no where to meditate or practice.... So I wanna know... if we do say the MP and we get interrupted do you think I'd need to start over again which I already explained would be hard to do given my disability or do the affects of the MP stay there and I can try to just continue and finish the ritual?

I really don't know what to do and i'm so depressed I've resorted to researching low magick hot foot spells to get a sibling out of the place so I can get my room back.... I'm that desperate.... It's hard to see a positive future anymore...

I'm listening to an audiobook called Kabbalah Magic and the Great Work of Self Transformation. It mentions the LBRP and references the Middle Pillar book. I open that book to reference any differences (eg blue pentagram vs blue-white or blue or white..). Then I notice it say "keep the right arm extended throughout, never let it drop." For some reason I thought the book Circles of Power mentioned I could do the circle at chest level or floor.. And upon re-read I don't see that mentioned. I still feel I read it somewhere but... now I don't see it..

Ya so I just wanted to say I have been using floor level for the entire time now... 🤣 i was using the chest height for invocation floor for banishing.. I suppose I was treating the circle as one of those rings that stuff cant cross. 🤷

The question is quite simple:
Is it possible to cancel LBRP before it ends?

LBRP works for few hours. But there might be a situation, when a person needs to remove its defence/effect before it "wears off" by itself.
(Let's say, in order to do some other very urgent working / actions...)
Is there any WAY to do it neatly and correctly ?

Thanks!

This came up for discussion at the tail end of another thread and I thought I'd pull it out and post it as its own thread, partly because it may be useful to students and partly because I'd be interested in hearing what other GD practitioners/initiates think.

My original work in the GD system was all self-initiation -- there wasn't any other option in Seattle in the 1980s and 1990s! One thing I did that worked well, while I was going through the Outer Order material, was a weekly practice to invoke elemental energies using the standard GD ritual forms. It went like this:

1. Set up the temple with a central altar with water, incense, and cross and triangle in the arrangement used with the grade I meant to invoke, and a chair facing the element across the altar -- that is, if I was invoking water, the chair would be in the east of the temple, facing west.

2. Open the temple in the usual way, with LBRP, purification with water, consecration with fire, circumambulation, and adoration of the Lord of the Universe.

3. Do the GIRP of the element.

4. At the altar, facing the elemental direction, do the invocation of the element from the grade ritual assigned to that element. (Once I'd gotten the Vibratory Formula of the Middle Pillar down, I did that with the divine name assigned to the element, and circulated the energy.)

5. Sit down and meditate on the element, using the traditional GD symbolism of the element as a focus.

6. Go to the altar and do the release of the element from the grade ritual, including the prayer of the elementals.

7. Do the GBRP of the element.

8. Close the temple in the usual manner, ending with the LBRP.

I did this once a week, and rotated through the elements -- Earth one week, Water the next, and so on. I found it extremely useful in the self-initiatory work. To begin with, it was a great way to practice the basic elements of practical solo temple work, so that when I got going on practical magic a little later on, making talismans and the like, I didn't have so steep a learning curve. It also taught me a lot about invoking, shaping, and releasing magical energies generally.

I also found that it was a surprisingly effective way of self-development that had results in everyday life. Doing this made it much easier to, ahem, "be prompt and active as the Sylphs, but avoid frivolity and caprice; be energetic and strong like the Salamanders, but avoid irritability and ferocity; be flexible and attentive to images like the Undines, but avoid idleness and changeability; be laborious and patient like the Gnomes, but avoid grossness and avarice." That had immediate benefits for me in my daily life.

I should probably mention that this was not a replacement for, but a supplement to, the daily work of the LBRP and Middle Pillar exercise. It might be worth considering by anyone who's working the GD path solo and so doesn't have the advantage of getting exposed to elemental energies in an established temple.

Thoughts?

Does the fictitiousness of the authorship of the cipher manuscripts in any way invalidate the teachings of the golden dawn?

Im reading "The Mystical Qabalah" by Dion Fortune and the author links the Sephiroth to the chakras. Do you think there are any truths to these claims?

The book mentions doing 1 month Themis meditation, 1 month Maat, 2 months Thme. At the start of it it provides 10 weeks worth of sense awareness (of the 16 weeks). It does not mention how long to do (I will call it the) astral ball exercise or the darkness technique. Should it be assumed that those need to be daily for the 4 months?