Beginners primer of the art for fun and profit

“The subconscious has a symbolic language that is truly a universal language, for it speaks with the vocabulary of the great vital constants, sexual instinct, feeling of death, physical notion of the enigma of space—these vital constants are universally echoed in every human. To understand an aesthetic picture, training in the appreciation is necessary, cultural and intellectual preparation. For Surrealism the only re requisite is a receptive and intuitive human being.” --Salvador Dali

Well hello aspiring conjurers, I would like to start this work with a discussion about the components of ritual and how any ritual that you come across can be broken down into four simple steps. We will also be talking about Salvador Dali’s “Paranoid Critical” method, because in prison or in any stressful situation or living condition this method seems to be the most efficient way to gain great progress in a conjurer’s practice of the Art Magick.
The four simple components that any ritual can be broken down into are:
1. the opening word
2. the circle or the sphere
3. the main body of work
4. the closing word
No that matter how simple or complex a ritual may be these components are universally followed in most if not all of contemporary Western occultism. This framework goes back to the earliest attempts of man to create ritual and to work with the gods and spirits of almost every culture since the dawn of time. Examples can be found in the early Sumerian and Babylonian writings, The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM), as well as the Egyptian book of the dead, Tibetan Buddhist Tantric practice, and ancient Taoist Shamanic workings. Adam Falkenstein in his 1931 "Haupttypen der sumerischen Beschwörungen" was the first to observe and record four principal categories of Sumerian incantation. Falkenstein studied the late Udug-hul incantations to make these distinctions, and right away we can see a correlation to Ritual Magick as it is practiced today.
Type1. Legitimationstyp (Legitimation type)
Cunningham:"priestly legitimation" -Incantations in which a exorcist legitimates himself as a representative of a deity.

Type 2. Prohylaktischer
Cunningham: "Prophylactic-type incantation"(Prophylactic = protecting from disease or infection) *Note-Most Disease or sickness in Sumerian Magic was thought to be a Demon or Evil Spirit

Type 3. Marduk-Ea typ
Cunningham: “divine dialogues" -Incantations which contain the transfer of ritual instruction from a senior to a juior god,this transfer in effect re-enforces the corresponding actual ritual of the Exorcist

Type 4. Weihungtyp/Kultmittelbeschworung (.Ritual sealing Practices of the Exorcist)
Cunningham: "Consecration of divine purifiers"-These Incantations consecrate or seal items or places for example the Tamarisk or the Reed, which were seen as pure and able to bestow that purity upon the Exorcist. Places like the Ziggurat or Ritual chamber were seen as conduits between the divine and temporal worlds. This type of incantation might correctly be seen as pre-empting or post-cleaning a ritual procedure.
It is my belief, from the research that I’ve done, that the complex ritual form of Western magic today directly stems from the Babylonian and Sumerian ritual ideas of yesteryear. These four Sumerian types of invocation and incantation were singular rituals but with the addition of Greco-Roman, Egyptian, and Renaissance influences, ritual magic today is a fusion of the four types I have outlined above. . To quote Jake Stratton-Kent from his well-researched work, The Geosophia” The over emphasis on the Judao-Christian elements in the grimoires has long obscured the immense contribution of the Graco-Roman or Hellenistic world to Western magic. Ancient Jewish and Christian traditions were but parts of this world. “ Now some of you may say “but Vincent, what about the spell work without a circle! There are metric tons of work that use no circle at all, especially on the left hand path!” And I say fiddlesticks to such balderdash, the circle is almost always there in every ritual ever performed by man, woman, God or beast …

To quote Jake Stratton-Kent once more” In short a circle is not an obsolete symbol of a superstitious fear of spirits, but an intentionally created ritual space for various Purposes. It is not always required for all kinds of ritual work, but neither is it of no value, quite the contrary. Making sacred space is among the most primal of rituals, such intentional actions are as worthy of the term Psychoactive as any substance.” For want of a better term you may call it the aura, the bioelectrical field, the second skin, the Hara or the tan tien … Whatever you choose to call it this force that you admit from the center of your being is the circle that all magicians cast at each ritual. Be it from your mind’s eye, your forefinger or the ritual sword and dagger, we use the life force to protect ourselves in most if not all ritual workings. In fact without it you would die, or be soon at the threshold of death’s door…… But I wandered too far, too soon....... An excerpt from the GRIMORIUM CARCERIS Copyright 2015 Vincent Piazza