My name is not Jaden Isaac. I named myself after Jaden Yuki from the dubbed Yugioh GX. Isaac as a last name, I’m not sure where I got that from. But the name does sound badass. Anyway, what’s up?
I’m 23. I dropped out of college a semester before the lock down. My family and I moved down South, living on the old family farm. It’s pretty creepy at night, especially now during the winter, and I get the feeling it might be haunted.
I’m currently enrolled in the local community college/early college. I’m aiming for a fine arts degree, and maybe go into either psychology or law. I struggle to make friends because most of the student population are teens, and I can’t tell how old anyone actually is. Plus, I’m afraid to ask.
Magic wise, I have interests in many different types of things, but the following are my main go-tos.
Ceremonial Magick. In particular Planetary magick, talismanic magic, goetic magic, and the golden dawn system.
Luciferian/Lhp. I have an interest in Asmodeus, Lilith, Ashataroth, and Azazel.
The problem that I have is I’m not sure what to do. Regarding ceremonial magick, I feel like I need to initiate myself into a system like the golden dawn just to practice the work. Even so, I’m not sure where to begin or if I’ll be allowed to work with Heathen or LHP type stuff along side it. I’ve performed the LBRP, Middle Pillar, and rose cross rituals every day after I come home from school. Regarding Luciferian LHP type magick, I’m worried I’d be thrusting myself into a hostile unknown without knowing how to protect myself. I tend to be prone to indecisiveness and doubt, which causes me to procrastinate. I do a ritual every occasion, but I’m also guilty of under preparing.
As of now, I own five of the pentacles of Solomon. In particular order, one for studying, one for socializing, one for getting a job, one for protection from enemies, and one for protection from illness (covid in particular). I’m looking at a sixth that’s supposed to provide “Invisibility”. If anyone would like to recommend a method to consecrate/activate them, or book to use, that’ll be great.
Yes, I do the bare minimum on an almost daily basis (provided I leave the house for a few hours). But I only started getting into Golden Dawn work during Covid. I remember going on daily walks and performing the LBRP in the woods near my home.
Before then, I mostly kept to Raymond Buckland’s book on Candle Magick and using the circle casting in Jason Miller’s Protection and Reversal Magick.
That’s because I’m on and off. I’m not really sure how to answer. I get into one thing, but then I start to question X, Y, or Z.
Do I have the right materials?
Am I suppose to do something else first?
Did I read the entirety of the ritual?
Am I supposed to be initiated first?
What planetary hour do I do this on?
Wait, I don’t have the right incenses! Especially considering where I’m now living doesn’t have any incense stores. So, I gotta travel into the city, and that’s always a hassle.
But to actually give an answer, I’d say Senior Year is when I started doing ritual. Since then, it’s been inconsistent.
Thank you for elucidating more. Part of an introduction is providing a rough timeline of practice so we have an idea of a newcomer’s experience, which helps us to provide appropriate advice and direction.
And to answer your initial question, yes, you can practice Golden Dawn rituals and heathen or LHP at the same time. They actually carry over very well, as the GD rituals help to build the basic skills of magick, like energy manipulation, visualization, and invocation.
In order to answer that, what are you interested in learning? What are some goals you want to put magick towards?
If you’re interested in the evocation of spirits, for example, then I would recommend the book Summoning Spirits by Konstantinos, which teaches Golden Dawn style evocation.
Or EA Koetting’s Evoking Eternity, which is a neutral system that can be used for the evocation of any spirit.
If you are interested in some practical magick that you can apply to your life more immediately, then I would recommend the books by the Gallery of Magick, like Damon Brand’s Archangels of Magick, or Adam Blackthorne’s Sigils of Power and Transformation.
It all depends on the tradition you want to practice. Self initiation isn’t really required to practice magick, and few, if any, systems use lamens these days.
My advice would be to choose the system that most appeals to you, and learn the methods for that system. Every system and tradition does things slightly differently, but the consecration of tools basically boils down to clearing all energy from the tool, and then replacing it with fresh, clean, energy, and sealing it in.
If talismans, and lamens are what you’re interested in, then the Golden Dawn would probably be the best for you. Their work is very deep, well documented, and can provide years of exploration.
Use the creepiness! Go harness it for some magick fun! If you’re scared about going out, take a rock or a charm or talisman (etc.) that you’ve ascribed the meaning of protection to. If you feel up to it, sit down and chill with the spirits. Usually something is lingering around, just be careful what you’re messing with and not to invite it into your personal life
Congrats on the life goals! Magick is super good for those. Especially spirits who help you work on you and those who are gods with manipulating. School and covid is can be a nightmare, hopefully it gets better soon… I’m looking to start law school soon(ish) so I’m in that boat with you.
On to magick…
Honestly I’ve never been super into Ceremonial, but good luck! If you’re ever stressed about all the ‘stuff’ you need for Ceremonial or the intense “ceremony” of it, remember there are other ways. I know there are some people who get caught up in needing robes and having to do LBRP everyday at dawn or needing athames, chalices, etc. and while those things can really set you up for amazing magick, they aren’t necessary for results. So before you fall in love with Ceremonial and while you’re at a crossroads between it Luciferianism and other ways of practicing, I’d just like remind you that there are so many ways to do magick that work. The most important is finding what your enjoy doing because that is probably what’s going to bring you the most power(ful results).
Planetary magick seems super fun and awesome and I’m trying to jump on that bandwagon because I’ve seen people go on about how it improved their results and works super well with other existing systems. There’s just so much that can be learned there so I’m still taking small bites.
Lucifer is one of my favorite spirits to work with. He brings so much fucking calm and light to my life. And I think walking his path, or the ‘Luciferian’ path, is a great way to connect better with him, with you, and with life in general. Like with any path, if you lean too hard into strict or written teaching you end up RHP, but broadly Lucferianism and LHP work pretty well together; good luck exploring them and these other spirits more!
A few things that jumped out about you’re intro that I’d like to respond to…
Nope. Don’t feel like that. If you want to initiate yourself into a system, go ahead and do it. However you want. It could be calling a spirit that works within that system and that ritual could be the initiation. It could be jumping into a river (please be careful and responsible about things like that though lol) and pronouncing yourself initiated. It could even be paying a stupid $200 for a useless red card or joining a cult (again, be responsible about these things) to be initiated. Whatever calls to you. But there’s no “need” for it, the beauty of LHP is that You Choose Your Path.
I’m gonna repeat myself, You Choose. You can work with whatever the fuck you want. That doesn’t mean that all the spirits are besties, but it does mean that you have a lot of agency in what you do with yourself and your magick. I’ll be honest and say I once wore a Baphomet pentagram necklace to ritual with Buer and he told (made) me take it off.
So yes, researching what goes well together and what doesn’t (and listening to spirits however they may communicate with you) is important, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t mix and match your Ceremonial or GD with some LHP.
You’ve used the word Heathen alongside LHP and I wanna say a few words about that word. Nothing wrong with using it in my opinion but it does have a different connotation than LHP or pagan or anything else: Heathen is the word the Christians used when they justified the massacres the inflicted on anyone who wasn’t practicing up to par Christianity.
Research is important! But again, trust yourself. When you feel uneasy or uncomfortable pump the breaks and when you feel confident go for it. I suggest learning some protection methods before jumping into anything but also know ahead of time what do to make yourself feel safe and protected when things get scary…because at least once in your path they probably will.
Every ritual I go into, I think ‘I could have prepared better.’ But what matters more than that is sitting down and getting into the habit of doing ritual when you need/want to.
Nice to meet you @Jaden_Isaac and welcome to the forum! If you’re ever interested in talking I’m on most days.
Summoning spirits is on my list, but not for the foreseeable future. However, I did preorder Jason Miller’s book on spirit summoning. Would make a great early birthday gift for myself.
For now, my concern is learning basic spell work without the need of any spirits.
Over October, I went through a period where I felt that Poppy from Poppy’s play time was stalking me.
Again, I’m looking into a possibly hostile unknown with little to no knowledge on how to protect myself and discern a lie from truth. I own a couple of books on how to spot, and deal with, liars and seducers among other people.
You’ve used this phrase a couple times. And I’m not sure if you’re referring to something specific that I haven’t picked up on or if you’re talking in general. The first time was in regard to Luciferianism and LHP in general though so I’ll comment on that.
I’ve read through a handful of Luciferian doctrines and practices and never found anything remotely “hostile.” I’ve also never felt any type of hostile energy directed at myself from Lucifer who I’ve worked with quite closely. In general, sure some spirits can be hostile and you should know what kind of energy you’re getting mixed up with beforehand ideally. But unless you’re knowingly seeking out hostile paths, I think a lot of it just isn’t that hostile. And if I’m speaking for myself I’d say the potential of hostile and dangerous is such a draw to magick for me. I’ve been afraid in ritual and those have all been amazing experiences.
Personally, I would go so far as to say the more you think something is hostile the more likely it will be. Again, personally, I think it’s important to enter into magick and ritual and all that other stuff with as few preconceptions and judgements as possible, all they are is limiters.
If you’re concerned about protection, buy a bloodstone or a talisman. You can charm something too. You can look into protection meditations to do before you’re magick practices or daily. You can make a servitor (which is something I have 0 experience with but others speak pretty well of them). You can even call out to Lucifer (or someone else) and ask for their protection.
I even suggest that you buy a scary thing (a skull or a spider or even a toy puppy) or find a big rock and give it a name. Tell it to eat the things that scare you and leave it perched on something or carry it around, doesn’t matter.
I’d say this is of importance. I’ll be super honest and say last week I did a ritual and a fucking imposter had the nerve to show up. It led with, ‘let me give you an alternative sigil’ so I closed my eyes thinking ‘this is weird af’ and drew what looked to be almost the normal sigil. So I went back to focusing on the spirit that I was actually calling and straightened things out pretty quick. A couple things here, I’ve worked with this spirit before and could tell the energy was off and also the the ‘new sigil’ thing is a pretty big Red Flag for me. It’s I think the second time in 5 years I’ve had an issue like this.
I don’t know what you mean by “seducer” so I can’t comment there. And if you’re interested in knowing when others are deceiving you I recommend Lucifer, Azazel, Dantalion, and Loki though of course there are many others.
Let’s say you’ve lived in the suburbs all your life, but today you’re going into the city. One part of the city is more cosmopolitan: with fancy restaurants, art galleries, and stores. The other part is shadier, with night clubs, hookah lounges, and strip joints. The city is not a place you’re familiar with. You have no prior experience. You don’t know anyone from there. All you have is reviews you’ve read about, and they’re written by different people saying different things. So, technically, you don’t know anything. You’ve just read differing opinions. But you still intend to go. During the day, you’ll shop around. And at night you’ll go to some of the clubs. In either area, you really don’t know what types of people are there, or what experiences you’ll have. You’re thinking the shady area might have the most trouble for you, but you can’t assume that the cosmopolitan area will actually be safer. You want to be prepared, but because of one thing or another, you’re always postponing the trip.
That’s what I mean by hostile unknown. Different people will say different things about different entities. But all you can trust is your own. So, if you have no prior experience, you’re at a disadvantage. My goal with ceremonial magick is to learn methods to protect myself. I plan on taking that trip. I’m just trying to prepare.
Call it depression taking on a new form. It happens every so often.
And that’s what I’m afraid of.
I have 5 pentacles from the greater key of solomon. I’m looking for a way to activate them
Hi. Welcome to the forum. How you feel Satanism? The first and foremost in magic is protection. Once you get the basics down from other sources most of the time you are better off developing your personal practice.
