Liber V vel Reguli discussion

[Fio Praeter Humanus]

In my studies of will and true will, I of course lead into rituals that were deemed to aid in discovering that will. Liber V vel Reguli is a ritual that seems expressed to that, "incantation proper to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus". While I have experence with the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, I am finding myself behind the curve with the study of this ritual as I have no experience with it and the author of it, Crowley rarely spoke of his intentions or effects of it. I was hoping to generate some serious discussion of this ritual and personal experiences here if I may.

I have read DuQuett's thoughts on the ritual being from a solar perspective which seems to make sense. Especially considering the title, Book Five of the Prince. I assume that would make the LBRP the book of the daughter. lol

One mundane question I do have right off the bat is the correct performance of the opening, the Elevenfold Seal. At two points you are asked to touch the mulandhara chakra and the svadhisthana chakra. There seems to be some misunderstandings at least on my part about the exact location of these. I was of the understanding that the mulandhara was located at the base of the spine and so you would touch the area between the anus and genitals. While the svadhisthana was located either at the base of the penis on a man or just above the genitals.

Reading Lon's account of how to perform it, you touch the genitals for the mulandhara and the navel for the svadhisthana. Is this just different versions or am I missing something?

[Luciftias]

Hey Nero,

A few years ago I went through a period of about two weeks (if memory serves me) where I performed this ritual every day. After studying this ritual a bit, I essentially came up with my own interpretation of it, inspired by the Tree of Life as presented by Isaac Luria, which I have included a simple image of here (which I found online.) I personally resonate much more with this basic arrangement of the paths (although not the attributions to those paths that Luria used). You'll notice that the paths form an inverted pentagram traversing the abyss (which is labeled as "knowledge" in the attached image, and has no sphere number). The upper two points are in spheres 2 and 3, the next two points are in 4 and 5 and the inverted apex is in 6.

I interpret this inverted pentagram as a symbol of the divine, reaching down from above the abyss to make contact in Tiphereth (6th sphere - Beauty) which is experienced at that point as the "Holy Guardian Angel" (HGA). This is in accordance with tradition that locates Tiphereth as the point which "knowledge and conversation of the HGA" is achieved.

The daily practice I performed for that two weeks or so included the following sequence:

Star Ruby, Star Sapphire, Reguli, Star Sapphire, Star Ruby

At the time, I considered the Star Ruby to be occurring within the 10th sphere (Malkuth/Kingdom) because it is dealing with the realm of the elements. I considered the Star Sapphire as encompassing the next seven spheres. The standard "Star of David" style hexagram traditionally maps to these seven spheres by way of the planetary attributions: Saturn as the top point, Jupiter as the upper right, Mars as the upper left, Sun in the centre, Mercury as the lower left, Venus as the lower right and the Moon as the bottom point. I've already explained my personal attributions to the inverted pentagram used in Reguli.

So essentially, I designed the above described sequence of rituals in order to form a solid base in Malkuth with the Star Ruby, rise above that to centre myself in Tiphereth with the Star Sapphire and then connect and identify with my HGA and thereby attain a reflected form of contact with spirit above the abyss through V vel Reguli. And then lower myself back down to Tiphereth and then Malkuth with a closing repetition of the Star Sapphire and then the Star Ruby, thereby grounding the higher energies I've just touched into my physical body.

When performing Reguli, I would touch the point between my genitals and anus for mulandhara and between my genitals and navel for svadhisthana. I think the important thing for this is to understand the meaning of the specific chakras used and just pick what you personally feel is the most accurate positioning on your own body.

I hope that helps somewhat!

In Darkness Visible,
Jeremy Crow



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/sonofcain/treeoflife2.gif

[Fio Praeter Humanus]

Thank you for that. That is a different perspective and something more to chew on.

[Luciftias]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I considered performing Reguli to be centering myself within the abyss (da'ath/knowledge). So it was like climbing and descending the middle pillar of the tree - malkuth to tiphereth (surrounded by the spheres yesod to binah) to da'ath to tiphereth to malkuth. Kinda like the ladder in Jacob's dream.

[Marcel]

Another theory to wich i hold some credibility is that the averse Pentagram superimposed on the normal Pentagram of the Star Ruby (at the Elemental points) produces a Hexagram.

Thus 5+6=11 (Daath, the Magician= Magick. Microcosm+Macrocosm united= The Rose Cross= ABRAHADABRA).

This is shown (in my view) by the making of the mark of the beast and the Unicursal Hexagram later in the Ritual.

Being a Thelemite Reguli is my main Ritual of Elemental Invokation (at this time).

I do agree with evereything above too.
The NOX signs of both the Star Ruby and Reguli places it firmly up there (signs reprecenting "Puer- Geburah, Vir-Chesed, Puella and Mulier-Daath, Isis Rejoicing-Binah").

Also the guardians outside the circle (taken from the Chaldean Oracles) seem to indicate that.

I should add though that i´m not actually visualizing the Pentagrams superimosed.