Other notes to add: filled journals, don’t want to forget by not using,
I finished LRM this week aside from the initiation ritual and the last few pages of the last of the five supplementary books that went along with the course. One of the most profound impacts this course had for me came out of the Will exercises woven through this course, the sensation of deciding to do something and seeing it just happen with minimal waffling or procrastinating or battling with myself is almost surreal to experience. And the foundations of magical practice this course laid have made it so much simpler to navigate the seemingly opaque quagmires of esoteric practice, putting an end to over a decade of what’s felt like aimless fumbling trying to find my footing spiritually. I wanted to thank you and the other authors of this book for helping me to finally open this door.
Moving forward I’m hoping you could offer some advice regarding next steps: I’ve come out of this course with two very clear realizations, the first is that the form of Hermetic magic that LRM lays the foundations for is something I definitely want to pursue further, and you’ve laid out the course of study and practice that would involve elsewhere (Paths of Wisdom/Circles of Power, Israel Regardie’s Ceremonial Magic, then the Golden Dawn).
The other though, is that I need to finish OBOD first. Some backstory: I first started OBOD about 10 years ago, worked through the Bardic grade in 5 years, and then started floundering with the Ovate grade, including having some extremely negative spiritual experiences. At the time I asked for some advice on the Well of Galabes back when that was a thing, and you’d recommended picking up the sphere of protection, I started work on it and began working through the Druid Magic Handbook, I meditated my way through the Ogham fews and got really good at ogham divination, but for some reason the SOP just never resonated for me, I felt like I kept banging my head on it and getting nowhere, and then sometime around 2016 (partly due to some extremely difficult life experiences that cropped up around that time, partly because I never really found a groove), my entire practice fizzled and died. I picked up LRM in earnest in October of 2018, half expecting to experience the exact same frustrations... instead something about the Hermetic LBRP clicked naturally into place, feeling instantly comfortable and familiar, and the Cabalistic Symbolism was intuitive and easy to pick up. I took 2 years instead of the projected 9 months because I took the extra time to meditate on every symbol introduced in the text and close read through all of the recommended books... and during that time have not broken away from the foundations of daily meditation, divination, and ritual once (prior to this I was lucky if I could muster a week of consecutive daily practice). So... something happened during this course that had not happened before.
But OBOD was my first passion and it remains an unfinished thread... And I know now that I have tools for tackling an esoteric course and actually squeezing the juice out of it that I didn’t when I began. It’s also a potential 3 year journey compared to the minimum 10-15 years and potential lifetime heading down the Golden Dawn path would entail. So my question is this: I know you advise against practicing multiple traditions, however I don’t want to lose my grasp on the Cabala, Tarot, Hebrew Alphabet, and other symbols and various fundamentals of theory and practice in this tradition that I’ve picked up over the last two years since I know that I plan to return to that for the long haul in a few years. I also really don’t want to have to give up the LBRP since it just works for me in a way other banishing rituals I’ve tried haven’t. Is there any way to continue to move forward on that path (using either Paths of Wisdom or Circles of Power), or if not at least some way of avoiding losing ground that would be possible while finishing OBOD? And would continuing the Hermetic LBRP be compatible?
Next steps
Other notes to add: filled journals, don’t want to forget by not using,
I finished LRM this week aside from the initiation ritual and the last few pages of the last of the five supplementary books that went along with the course. One of the most profound impacts this course had for me came out of the Will exercises woven through this course, the sensation of deciding to do something and seeing it just happen with minimal waffling or procrastinating or battling with myself is almost surreal to experience. And the foundations of magical practice this course laid have made it so much simpler to navigate the seemingly opaque quagmires of esoteric practice, putting an end to over a decade of what’s felt like aimless fumbling trying to find my footing spiritually. I wanted to thank you and the other authors of this book for helping me to finally open this door.
Moving forward I’m hoping you could offer some advice regarding next steps: I’ve come out of this course with two very clear realizations, the first is that the form of Hermetic magic that LRM lays the foundations for is something I definitely want to pursue further, and you’ve laid out the course of study and practice that would involve elsewhere (Paths of Wisdom/Circles of Power, Israel Regardie’s Ceremonial Magic, then the Golden Dawn).
The other though, is that I need to finish OBOD first. Some backstory: I first started OBOD about 10 years ago, worked through the Bardic grade in 5 years, and then started floundering with the Ovate grade, including having some extremely negative spiritual experiences. At the time I asked for some advice on the Well of Galabes back when that was a thing, and you’d recommended picking up the sphere of protection, I started work on it and began working through the Druid Magic Handbook, I meditated my way through the Ogham fews and got really good at ogham divination, but for some reason the SOP just never resonated for me, I felt like I kept banging my head on it and getting nowhere, and then sometime around 2016 (partly due to some extremely difficult life experiences that cropped up around that time, partly because I never really found a groove), my entire practice fizzled and died. I picked up LRM in earnest in October of 2018, half expecting to experience the exact same frustrations... instead something about the Hermetic LBRP clicked naturally into place, feeling instantly comfortable and familiar, and the Cabalistic Symbolism was intuitive and easy to pick up. I took 2 years instead of the projected 9 months because I took the extra time to meditate on every symbol introduced in the text and close read through all of the recommended books... and during that time have not broken away from the foundations of daily meditation, divination, and ritual once (prior to this I was lucky if I could muster a week of consecutive daily practice). So... something happened during this course that had not happened before.
But OBOD was my first passion and it remains an unfinished thread... And I know now that I have tools for tackling an esoteric course and actually squeezing the juice out of it that I didn’t when I began. It’s also a potential 3 year journey compared to the minimum 10-15 years and potential lifetime heading down the Golden Dawn path would entail. So my question is this: I know you advise against practicing multiple traditions, however I don’t want to lose my grasp on the Cabala, Tarot, Hebrew Alphabet, and other symbols and various fundamentals of theory and practice in this tradition that I’ve picked up over the last two years since I know that I plan to return to that for the long haul in a few years. I also really don’t want to have to give up the LBRP since it just works for me in a way other banishing rituals I’ve tried haven’t. Is there any way to continue to move forward on that path (using either Paths of Wisdom or Circles of Power), or if not at least some way of avoiding losing ground that would be possible while finishing OBOD? And would continuing the Hermetic LBRP be compatible?