Do I have to memorize?

I am about to start working on rufus opus ‘seven spheres’

The rituals and rites/prayers are a little long, do i have to memorise everything before i begin or can i read from the book as i go along?

You can read from the book.

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Thank you.

I will take my time.

I will read one sentence, and look up, and speak out loud like i mean it.

Then read another sentence, rinse. Repeat.

Thank you

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I suppose you could read from the book, but it takes a much greater degree of intensity and will to commit it to memory, which is kind of what we are going for in certain aspects of a magickal working.

Not trying to be mean, but how strong could your will be in a magickal working if you don’t have the tenacity and drive to memorize the rite beforehand?

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That book is great, btw.

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I have found just doing the rituals regularly works good for memorization but my brain works well with routines. Tryin go straight to memorize the action of a ritual from just reading it doesn’t work for me. So I’ll do it with the book and bit by bit it will be commitied to both brain and muscle memory which then triggers the reference memory to the book. :alien: with some of the stuff in bmoa it is a bit lengthy to memorize so i use the book for that. 6 to 15+ pages of reversed pahlavi is ALOT on the brain :joy:

For reference on this here is a small piece of one of the litianies in its original form from the KHORDA AVESTA (Book of Common Prayer).

“(pa nãm i ýazdã, stâem zbâem dâdâr hôrmezd i rayômañd i hvarahemañd i harvisp âgâh i kardagâr i hvadâwañdã hvadâwañd i pâdishâh bar hamâ pâdishâhã i nagâhdâr i xâlik i maxlûk arizk rôzhî dahiñda i kâdir u kavî u kadîm i baxshâiñda i baxshâishgar i mihirbãn, tvãnâ u dânâ3 u pâk parwardagâr, âdil pâdishâhî ithô bêzavâl bâshat,
hôrmezd i hvadâe i awazûnî gurz hvarahe awazâyât,
hvarshêt i amarg i rayômañd i aurvañd asp [bê rasât4],
ezh hamâ gunâh patit pashêmãnôm, ezh haravistîn dushmat duzhûxt duzhvaresht men pa gêthî minît vaem guft vaem kard vaem jast vaem bun bût estet ezh ã gunâhihâ manishnî gaweshnî kunishnî tanî rvãnî gêthî mainyuãnî ôxe awaxsh pashêmã pa se gaweshnî pa patit hôm!)”

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If an actor can memorize the entire script of a movie, you can memorize a few pages.

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Bingo. Look at a fuckwit like Tom Cruise. Don’t sell yourselves short, folks.

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Good analogy, except that movie actors don’t have to memorize the entire script. They work scene by scene mostly so they only have to memorize the scenes they are working on for any particular day. In some cases, the actors don’t even get the entire script.

A stage actor, however, has to learn the whole script :slight_smile:

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@Alfira2018 Don’t get me wrong, walking through the steps of a ritual with book in hand is fine when learning it. But when it is showtime, so to speak, you are probably going to have a hell of a time keeping proper focus, visualizing, and maintaining state while you are turning pages and reading from them.

The brain requires more overall energy to commit something to memory, but once it is there, it is there. The amount of conscious brain activity being used to actively read something is not conducive to magick, IMO, because it is harder to access the subconscious when your conscious mind is firing in an active state. Recalled memory does not produce such an inhibiting effect and allows for the kind of active trance you are going for while working out of that book.

It’s one of the reasons many Hermetic groups are so unyielding regarding perfection of a rite to the point where you don’t even have to think to do it (in terms of procedure) before they will advance your grade.

Yes, exactly. What is a ritual, in some ways, in the first place right?

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Yous are all right. All of you are right. Thanks for confronting my laziness. Ill recite until i can remember everything.
Even if it takes me weeks

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