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1
2 - Self Initiation
There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm
with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy
Guardian Angel; or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.
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Aleister Crowley
The repetition of a series of exercises at regular intervals, be they the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius
Loyola, the fourteen Buddhist meditations or the magical practices of the Golden Dawn, can
precipitate a spiritual crisis. This crisis which is often referred to as a 'Dark Night of the Soul' can
result in the transmutation of the individual, that is, in his initiation, if the original practices which
caused it are persevered in with unswerving devotion.
This process of transformation is a definite step, not simply an expansion of one's knowledge which is
acquired by ordinary persistent study, but a completely new awareness, a penetration into the deeper
levels of the psyche, which provides new insight. At the same time, just as the internal conditions of
the individual are altered by this initiation, so frequently external circumstances and opportunities
simultaneously widen and give the initiate the opportunity to expand the scope of his activity:
sometimes a veritable cornucopia is opened to him. This then is magic both as we have come to
understand it in this book, and as it is sometimes conceived of.
Since the publication of The Sacred Magic of Abramelin, the Mage by S.L. Macgregor Mathers, (1)
and the introduction of its terminology into the practice of the Golden Dawn, it has been conventional
to look upon 'the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel' as one
of the main ends of a self-initiatory programme.
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1] First published by George Redway, London in 1889.
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Certainly the wording is quaint and old-fashioned, but the reality of this union is such that dry,
overworked phrases like 'illumination' hardly express this overwhelming experience, which is easier
to conceive of in anthropomorphic terms. In fact the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel is the result of a 'death' of the Personality and a resurrection. The very essence of all
initiations (and this applies no matter what system or 'grade') is a death to one type of existence, and a
re-birth to another.
From the Elusinian Mysteries, with their celebrations of the descent of Persephone into the
underworld and her return to life in the Spring, through the Masonic mysteries of Hiram, to the
Adeptus Minor ceremony of the Golden Dawn, modelled on the death, burial, and later
discovery/resurrection of Christian Rosencreutz, (2) allied with the symbolism of the
crucifixion/slaying of the Solar God, the same theme recurs. The symbolism in all these rituals is one
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