It's been a while since I posted instructions for the Heathen Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and Middle Pillar exercise. With any luck those of you who learned it have practiced it regularly, and are now up for something else.
The A.L.U. Ritual is the Heathen equivalent of the Rose+Cross Ritual of the Hermetic GD and the OIW Ritual of the Druidical GD. It's on about the same level of complexity as the Pentagram rituals, but involves a more intense use of energy, so it's wise to take it up only when you've been practicing the more basic rituals for a while.
The only implement you need for this is a stick of incense. My co-worker on this project, Sven Eriksen, tells me that cedarwood incense works particularly well with the rite.
So, without further preliminaries:
THE A.L.U. RITUAL
FIRST, stand in the center of the ritual space, facing east. In silence make the following signs:
The Sign of The Highest One. Raise your left arm to cover your left eye. Your lower arm should be at an approximately 45 degree angle with your body. Raise your right arm in salute.
The Sign of The Slain Son. Extend both hands forward and slightly out to sides, palms facing upward, as in the traditional pagan prayer posture. Tilt your face slightly upwards.
The Sign of The Horns of Might. Raise your hands to the top of your head, and form a pair of horns, palms facing one another.
SECOND, light a stick of incense. Go to the southeastern corner of the space, face southeast, and trace the Sign of The Hammer: A small circle, then a line straight down, followed by a horizontal line left to right. Visualize the sign drawn in pure light. Point the stick to the middle of the sign, and vibrate the divine name BALDR.
THIRD, trace a line with the incense stick a quarter of the way around the space to the southwest corner, draw the Sign of The Hammer in the same way, point to the center and vibrate the same name. Repeat this process twice more, drawing the sign and vibrating the name in the northwest and northeast corners of the space. Complete the circle by drawing the line back around to the southeast.
FOURTH, pause briefly at the southeast, again visualizing the sign that you have drawn there, and then draw a line of light with the incense up as far as you can reach, and then cross the ceiling to a point above the center of the space. There draw the sign again and vibrate the name. Draw a line across the ceiling to the northwest corner, and then down, pausing briefly at the symbol you have drawn in the northwest, and then continue the line down to the floor and across to the middle of the floor. Draw the sign there, and vibrate the name. Then complete the circle by tracing a line across the floor to its southeast corner and then back up to the starting point in the southeast.
FIFTH, pause, trace again the line of light from southeast to southwest, pause there, and then draw a line of light up and across the ceiling to the symbol above the middle of the space. Pause, and then continue across the ceiling to the northeast corner and down to the symbol in the northeast. Pause, and then continue down and then across to the symbol at the center of the floor, then pause. Continue across to the southwest corner of the floor and back up to the symbol in the southwest, completing the circle.
SIXTH, trace again the line of light further from the southwest around to the northwest, northeast and southeast, returning to your starting point. There again, face the southeast, and trace the Sign of The Hammer again, this time somewhat larger. While drawing the circle, vibrate BALDR. Then, when you have finished drawing the sign, point to the center and vibrate ODIN.
SEVENTH, set aside the incense and perform the Contemplation of the Primal Rune. Say:
Know that I hung
on crooked tree
Days and nights nine
gorged by a spear
Gave Odin to me
myself unto myself
Given on the tree
of unknowable roots
Break me no bread
and pour me no mead
Bring forth the runes
grasp them and fall
“Ansuz. Wisdom. The Sign of The Highest One.” Make this sign, as explained in the first part of the ritual.
“Luguz. Beauty. The Sign of The Slain Son.” Make the second sign.
“Uruz. Power. The Sign of The Horns of Might.” Make the third sign.
“Ansuz.” Make the Sign of The Highest One Again. “Luguz.” Make the Sign of The Slain Son again. “Uruz.” Make the Sign of The Horns of Might again. “A.L.U.” (pronounce this in a deep, commanding voice, drawing out the syllables) “Drink deep, and let the nine songs fill the void between worlds.” Visualize a shaft of brilliant light descending from infinite space to fill the space around you. Maintain the image as long and intensely as you can. When you are ready to release the visualization, say: “Wisdom. Beauty. Power. All three are one before the Allfather's eye.” This concludes the ritual.
The following Hermetic GD essay is applicable to the A.L.U. Ritual as well as the R+C Ritual, and should give you some idea of how and why it can be used.
THE USE OF THE ROSE CROSS RITUAL
1. It encloses the aura with a protection against outside influences. It is like a veil. The Pentagrams protect, but they also light up the astral and make entities aware of you. They are more positive for magical working. When much distracted, use the Pentagrams to banish and the Rose-cross to maintain peace.
2. It is a call to another mode of your consciousness and withdraws you from the physical. It is a good preparation for meditation and, combined with the Key-Word, a form of invocation of the Higher Wisdom which is helpful when solving problems or preparing for a difficult interview, or in order to be calm and strong to help another.
3. When you are quite familiar with the Ritual, but most certainly not before, it can be done in imagination while resting or lying down. Part of yourself goes out, and you get all the sensation of walking around your own quiescent body. Used thus, with rhythmic breathing, it will withdraw your mind from pain (if it be not too severe) and release you for sleep. You can do the analysis of the Key-Word standing behind your physical head, and you can call down the Divine White Brilliance, watching it flow over your body and smooth out the tangles in the etheric double, bringing peace and rest.
4. You can do the Ritual with intention to help others in pain or difficulty. For this purpose, you build up an astral image of the person, in the centre of the room, and call down the Light upon him, after surrounding him with the six crosses. When the ceremony is done, command the astral shape you have made to return to the person, bearing with it the peace of Yeheshuah.
5. It is a protection against psychic invasion from the thoughts of others or from disturbed psychic conditions, such as there might be in a place charged with fear, where terrible things had happened.
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A slightly late Yule treat for my Heathen readers... 
As promised, here's a version of the Middle Pillar exercise reworked for Heathen practice. Our working title for this is the Central Axis exercise, as it works with the central axis or Pillar of Mist in the Heathen Tree of Life, midway between the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Frost. Here's how it goes: 
I think most of my readers know at this point that longtime reader Sven Eriksen and I are hard at work on a system of Golden Dawn magic designed for Heathens, building on the Heathen Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram presented in 
Several of my Heathen readers have inquired recently about a project that's been under way for a while -- the development of a system of Golden Dawn magic, parallel to the one I published in my book The Celtic Golden Dawn, but invoking Norse Heathen gods and goddesses and deriving all its symbolism and structure from the Norse tradition. My co-conspirator Sven Eriksen and I have been working away at it for a while now, and here's the first publicly available result: a version of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram suitable for Heathens. 
