Friday, December 19, 2008

Public Performance of GD Rituals

When I was at the Reiki Circle on Wednesday, before the meeting begun (before anyone other than the Jo, the organizer, and her daughter showed up) I started to do the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the Middle Pillar ritual.

Jo is well aware that I am a member of Golden Dawn. In fact, we first met at the July OFM (the one that I did that involved a long lecture about the food chain) and one of my fellow lodge members did the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram at the start of the ritual.

Anyway, while I was doing these rituals on Wednesday, a couple of people showed up. And I barely broke stride to wave them past and to tell them to pay no attention to me. I had my back turned when a third person showed up while I was in the midst of the Middle Pillar ritual.

And I didn't care.

As far as I am concerned the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the Middle Pillar ritual are common knowledge; if you are in any of the circles of the esoteric community, there is a good chance that you have encountered them.

In fact, one person later that night mentioned OTO and Golden Dawn (a failed joke that the two groups get along well with one another) and the another took the Middle Pillar to be a positive sign.

I have seen several groups using these two rituals often without knowledge of their original sources. These two rituals are also included in many public workshops and classes.

Because of this, I really don't consider it a violation of my oaths if outsiders see me, or another Golden Dawn member, perform them.

I do draw the line however in the fact that I will not perform the Supreme Rituals or the Portal version of the Middle Pillar ritual in public. They are not well-known enough that one can consider them part of the standard esoteric toolkit.

1 comment:

Lavanah said...

When I was studying with my reiki master for my mastership attuning, he used to take us through the Middle Pillar exercise and the circulation of the light, without ever telling us what it was he was doing. Some of us :) knew what it was, of course.