Consecration
Now that we have cleared out a place to work, we can begin bringing things into it that will be useful to whatever our operation is (in accordance with True Will). Now this may not be quite as simple as just hauling any old thing into your magick circle. First, we may choose to consecrate, or actively dedicate the place or object to the single purpose of the ritual. In traditional magick, objects and tools, as well as the circle itself, are specially prepared for magickal use only - and they are used for nothing else. Magickal tools such as the wand, cup, sword and disk, as well as the altar, holy oil, incense, etc., would be laboriously created from only the finest materials, from scratch. Attention would be given to the time of day or night at which the tool was fashioned, and what kind of wood, metal, wax, etc., it was made from. While this may remain the most powerful method of working, modem magickians are often more flexible, since we may not have the resources to make and store everything necessary. In the absence
of a specially consecrated temple in which to work, a nice clear patch of living room carpet can be made to serve. In the absence of a golden chalice engraved with mystical symbols, a drinking glass can be used for a cup. If we do not have a specially prepared magickal robe, a bathrobe or poncho will do nicely. And so forth. ( We will discuss the choice and use of magickal tools in later chapters. See also Aleister Crowley's Book Four. )
But it is the act of consecration that makes these places and objects useful to us. Once again, it is our intent, our Will that can fill in the gaps. It is your strength of Will, purity of intent and active imagination alone that can turn a drinking glass or bathrobe into a thing of magick. Each tool that we use can be consecrated to the work by very simple and powerful techniques.
EXERCISE #6
1. Banish your place of working by the techniques described in exercises 4 or 5. If you so choose, you can burn an incense such as sage or frankincense and myrrh.
2. Draw down the divine into you (or whatever your conception of "divine" is - your perfected self, your Holy Guardian Angel, infinity, etc.). There are several methods for doing this. Choose one or more of the following:
a. While using yogic breathing, recite a specific mantra in your head, timed to the breathing. Examples of useful mantras are: "I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body," or, "God, I invite you to indwell the pure temple that I have prepared for you." Or another mantra of your own design.
b. Imagine a force that embodies the qualities of the collective unconscious flowing through you. Give this force a characteristic sound, color and/or feeling.
c. Imagine a brilliant ball of white light over your head. Allow (or imagine) a cone of light to descend from that ball, bathing you and washing through you.
d. Aspire as Hadit to Nuit, or as Pan to Artemis, or as another mythological dyad that you might know of.
3. When you think that you have made some sort of contact with "divinity" or "infinity", imagine your body and mind to be infused or vibrating with this force.
4. Walk around within your ritual area and "project" this force into the area. For this purpose you can use the Sign of the Enterer (or Sign of Horus): Take a deep breath. Right foot steps forward, both hands, placed palms together, are thrown forward. Exhaling fully, imagine the "divine energy" (or whatever you have decided to call it) projected ahead of you into your ritual area. Continue this from a variety of positions and angles until you can imagine that you have filled the area with this energy. You may add a statement of intent to this part of the consecration, for instance, "I consecrate this circle of art to the Great Work, that with force of True Will I may aspire to the infinite and thereby to perfect completion and renewal of myself."
5. Continue on to your intended ritual or daily meditation practice. (You have been practicing, haven't you?)
6. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down!
This kind of work can be used to consecrate objects as well. You can project the "divine energy" into the object, filling it. A statement of intent can be designed for the object, such as, "I consecrate this -, that it may become a resource and tool for accomplishment of my True Will."
Once an object is consecrated, it can be kept in a special place, if possible, and used only for ritual purposes. This will save some effort in re-consecration, and will increase the potency of the object through repeated use. This happens by a simple process very similar to classical conditioning. If the object (or place) is used only under specific circumstances, it can become strongly associated with those circumstances. People who believe that they experience auras report that this kind of consecration and repeated use produces very strong auras of very specific qualities. You can, of course, experiment for yourself.
If it is impossible to put your tools aside in a special place and maintain them for ritual use only, if you are forced to scrounge for new tools every time you work, the best course, I think, is to give them a full consecration each time. Shorter, streamlined methods can be developed. For instance, you can consecrate everything at once. Invoke the divine energy by whatever method you have chosen, and then go around and zap everything with the Sign of the
Enterer. Expand the scope of your statement of intent to include, "this circle- of art and all the tools within it....."
And, after you have become adept at consecration, if your intent is strong enough, you need only decide to use an object to have it consecrated.
So here's the ritual so far: you formulated your intent, to read this book that you might learn something about ritual (hopefully in accordance with your True Will), or simply to satisfy your curiosity about what Philip H. Farber is all about. You banished an area to work in, perhaps you chased the cat out of the chair and chased enough stray thoughts out of your mind to enable you to concentrate enough to read this far. Then, if you've practiced any of the exercises, you've consecrated yourself, declared (on some level) that your senses and your mind and some of your possessions, perhaps, are tools to begin the work of determining what your True Will is, or at least learning a little about how ritual works. Now you can just go find an isolated place somewhere and do what you've learned ...
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