SCHOOL OF OUR DIVINE
INFINITE BEING
Polytheistic Monism - Divine Theurgy - Oracle to the Gods
A Practical Guide to the Practice
of Theurgic Ritual
School of Our Divine Infinite Being
Guide to Awakening to the Self and Knowledge of the Divine Infinite Being
Theurgists seek a direct knowing, experience and relationship with the immortal eternal principles of the Divine Infinite Being. One thing Iamblicus, the father of Theurgic platonic practices, was very clear on was this. Theurgy “goes beyond” regular prayer and meditation to a world of dynamic relationship. A world that is impossible to reach through regular means. A world that opens to those that have discipline and dedication to the dawning of these hereto hidden realms of nature.
The esoteric knowledge gained through a dedicated ritual praxis in Theurgy is an awakening to a world inaccessible to the seeker in any other way. You could read every book in the Alexandrian library and know every rule of quantum mechanics by heart, but without a consistent dedicated practice this realm of experience remains unknown. The reasons for this are more practical than anything else. In Theurgy you condition the visionary and auditory skills necessary to experience the body of light and the Astral plane of eternal archetypes and forms. This conditioning is set apart from every other type of personal experience where the mind is a wandering ever changing landscape. Here, imagination is stilled, empowered, and holding form, it transforms the visionary field and the physical experience of the Theurgist into a vessel for the invocation of the divine.
This objective experience is only understood by the Theurgist upon experiencing. You can imagine how it works in the mind, but experiencing it is something else altogether. This is an education of the Soul, and for many, the experiences in Theurgy are more real than those of everyday waking life. The only way to know this is to engage the practice faithfully with an open heart and mind.
“The psychic organ that received the divine light was the pneumatic or luminous body. In his treatise On Dreams, Synesius identified this body with the "imagination" and described it as the soul's "first vehicle". It was within this imaginal body that the soul experienced its most profound illuminations. The imaginal body, however, should not be confused with ordinary imagination. Iamblichus distinguished not only the "god-sent" dreams from the "human" but also the "divine appearances" given by the gods from the images concocted by man. The former possessed transformative power while the latter were merely reflections of embodied life”.
Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul, The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
I restate this from our central doctrine concerning Jiana yoga: Timothy Desmond says of Jiana yoga “It is like the hatha yoga you see in the gyms all over the country where they are bending themselves into shapes. Jiana yoga is the bending of one’s mind into shapes that when held for a significant amount of time, releases knowledge”. Like this description, when holding form within Theurgic ritual for extended periods of time it releases knowledge within the imaginal body of the Astral. Our visionary self fills with the divine light and our fleeting imagination is held fast to a set of symbolic imagery, opening us to the “luminous body” referenced in this quote from Shaw above. Because we do not normally hold things within our imagination for any extended period of time, this process tends to be quite new to the aspirant. When done correctly, especially the first few times, the experience can be overwhelming. Once the Theurgist gets used to performance, over time, this becomes a very practical way of engaging the eternal principles, the invocation of divine intelligences, the Gods, Goddesses, daimōns and planetary elements.
“All of theurgy has a two-fold character. One is that it is a rite conducted by men which preserves our natural order in the universe; the other is that it is empowered by divine symbols (sunthemata) raised up through them to be joined on high with the gods and is led harmoniously round to their order. This latter aspect can rightly be called ‘taking the shape of the gods.”
Iamblichus
"…the God or divine essence invoked invariantly incarnates in the Magician’s being, by means of the consecrated substance."
Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life a study in Magic
When performing both Theurgic ritual and Raja-Kundalini, you need to build up the imaginal aspects and hold them within your mind all together as the ritual develops. As the symbolic visualization of the ritual is invoked, they are to remain within your imaginal focus as you add the other “sunthemata”, divine symbols, moving through the ritual. This process is one of divine“incarnating” moving from the abstract symbolic to fully realized divine experience in union with the vast agency of archetype, Gods, Goddesses or daimōnic spirits. This is done through “taking the shape of the gods”, as Iamblichus explains, and that shape taken in Theurgic ritual praxis follows a specific formulation developed over repeated ceremony. The reason you perform a ritual every day, and say over 60 days for Theurgist, is so that you can continue this goal of holding every single predicate of the ritual in your astral body, your imaginal self,all together all at once. Those that have performed for a few weeks working on this exact process know well where I am going with this.As you continue combining the different aspects of ritual together there is an exaltation that occurs. This“peak” in ritual, as you will experience, is a continual education of the Soul that opens the Theurgist further and further to divine knowledge the more they are performed in succession. Theurgy is a life work, like other forms of Philosophical inquiry it is a pedia, an education, although done through a dynamic and empowering process of continual ritualized awakening. You want to get into regulation with Theurgic activities and if possible practice several times a week or even daily. We have suggestions for you on this below.
The resonate nature of the Divine Names
“Thus the language is that of incantations and Mantras as they are called in India, sound being the most potent and effectual magic agent, and the first of the keys which opens the door of communication between mortals and Immortals.”
Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life a study in Magic
The Divine Names in many of the mystery schools and religious systems take a number of ways in which they are employed. In many places they are very melodic, even sounding like a song being performed in succession over and over. In others they can be more trance oriented where they are repeated over and over, usually in a lower circular voice format. Then there is the resonance theory of octaves, which is what we use for all of our ritual Tantra and Theurgy.
There is a vertical experience drawn from performing ritual tied to both the visionary luminous body and the auditory sonorous Divine Names. When you are resonating the names you want to listen for the octave. An octave is the same tone as your voice only up 7 notes to the next octave. They are the same note, just separated by scale. When you condition your voice to work with a sonorous effect, you will hear this octave. You will hear your own voice and this octave that is above it hearing two sounds as you resonate the name. This does take practice, in person I am able to show how to do this quite easily. Once you hear it, then you turn your attention to“the octave that does not exist above”. Once you have locked into the double octave you listen for a 3rd that is just above them is succession. This octave you can not hear, will stimulate the “imaginal that you can not see”. As you listen for what you can not hear, you want to use this to “shape” that which you “cannot see”.This process in your resonance performance of the Divine Names will stimulate the visionary experience of the luminous body.
“If the whole body of the Magician feels aflame with force and energy, and thundering in his ears from every surrounding portion of space he hears the resounding echo of the name just magically vibrated, he may rest assured that the pronouncement has been correctly accomplished. The effect of the vibration of the God-names is to set up a strain in the upper astral light, in response to which the intelligence evoked hastens… the most outstanding quality of these conjurations is that the language used is always very vibrant and sonorous.”
Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life a study in Magic
"Invocation says Imblichus, “is the divine key which opens to men the penetralia of the gods; and accustoms us to the splendid rivers of supernal light; and in a short time disposes them for the ineffable embrace and contact of the Gods; and does not desist till it raises us to the summit of all.”
Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life a study in Magic
"In both theurgy and Tantra the initiate enters into the "body" of the god through the performance of rituals. Through the chanting of mantras in Tantra and divine names in theurgy the initiate unites with the gods through their sounds, and through entering the god's audible body the theurgist and tantric initiate become that god in embodied form. Their orientation fundamentally shifts; they enter divine totalities; they assume divine power. And in both traditions to enter this pulse of divine activity: the spanda of Tantra or the proodos-epistrophe of theurgy, the initiate must first ascend to the divine cause and then descend, having become identified with the activity of the god."
Gregory Shaw, Platonic Tantra - Theurgists of late Antiquity
When you are pronouncing the invocations and banishings you want to take slow deep breaths right at first and then between each divine name resonated. Hold the sign of silence between each with one finger to the lips and draw them in. You want to imagine that your breath is drawing in light, distributing it throughout your body, and when breathing out focus on the ritual’s symbolic imaginal predicates as youbuild them in.
Now this is very important.
The performance of ritual praxis over an extended period of time is a critical paradigm for the Theurgist. It can seem like a lot of dedicated time, but the fact of the matter is, what you are setting aside is anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour a day or at least a few times a week. In other systems they tend to brag about operations that extend throughout hours in a day and weeks at a time in their operation. This is not only a major disruption to the restof your daily life in our modern age, but one of the reasons that very few embark in continuous ritual development. I have in the pastoperated more extensive elaborate ritual work and have found that setting aside smaller amounts of time with a more consistent time dedication over days and weeks is far more effective. We suggest that you do ritual work every single day, as other schools do, but the total amount of time spent even on grand invocations and meditative work should never extend over an hour in operation. Shorter periods of time, when practiced daily, consistently, is way more effective. You need your work to be practical, and if you can manage 30 minutes to an hour out of your schedule you will find there is a far more natural development of your ritual praxis over time.
In other systems there tends to be a series of rituals. For example, banishing ritual | hexagram ritual | banishing ritual. Or banishing ritual | middle pillar ritual | banishing ritual. Our school's central ritual is the Pentagram Ritual, and everything that is performed is framed within its format. Separating rituals, performing them one after the other, and adding too many psychodynamic elements will render your purpose in ritual praxis less effective. By framing all of the ritual work that you do within one grand operation you maintain a consistent body of light and centralization to the experience of the operator. In tandem to the Theurgicritual practiced the practice of Raja-Kundalini is suggested, but all of the Theurgic rites that are practiced in a given period should be of a holistic unified nature.
The structure of our school’s ritual praxis
Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. (performed to the invocation of the Guardians)
If you are only doing a Banishing then perform the closing Pronouncement and resonate divine name. (see Pentagram ritual for these details)
If you are performing an invocation, then you perform the banishing and then the invoking Pentagrams right after the Guardians without the closing Pronouncement and resonate divine name. (see Pentagram ritual for these details)
Right after you invoke the Pentagrams, you move straight into the Ochêma star vehicle ritual. This part of the invocation is critical as it enlightens the vehicle of divinatory work performed in the Grand Invocations. (see Ochêma ritual for these details)
If you are invoking the Ochêma as a completed ritual then you would move to the closing pronouncement and the resonate divine name. It is suggested that you do this as a complete ritual one time a week if you are not doing a Grand Invocation. (see Ochêma ritual for these details)
If you are doing a Grand Invocation, it happens right after you complete the Ochêma ritual in succession with no closing. (see Ochêma ritual for these details)
The Ochêma is the central spherical vehicle to where the Archetypes, Forms, Gods, Goddesses and Daimōnic forces are invoked. They are experienced in visionary silence within the Ochêma while holding the sign of silence.
When you are done with a Grand Invocation then you simply move to the final pronouncement and resonate divine name.
So as you can see it can go from a Banishing/Closing to a Banishing/Invoking/Closing to a Banishing/Invoking/Ochêma/Closing to a Banishing/Invoking/Ochêma/Grand Invocation/Closing. Just the performance of a Banishing/Closing daily is an incredible education of the soul over time. The Ochêma ritual Grand Invocations are given to the students as they progress throughout our 5 year inner mystery school.
Our suggested ritual praxis for daily/weekly work
There are far more involved and elaborate opportunities that you could be following in your ritual praxis, but the following are a very solid foundation -
1. Practice Raja-Kundalini once a day for the first several weeks and then either continue or switch to at least one time a week. If there are times that you are not practicing Theurgy on a consistent basis, Kundalini is a good secondary. For preparation we suggest practicing Raja-Kundalini for a period of 4 to 6 weeks consistently every day before you begin adding in Theurgic rites to your practice.
2. Draw a Tarot card each day. Stick to one card, and possibly a clarifying card. We suggest drawing a card after you have done meditation or ritual. Spend 5 minutes skrying the symbolic meaning of the card. This you can start immediately from the first day of your practice and will help align your experience each day to the reality of divinatory influence.
3. Do your choice of a more complete Tarot reading at least one time a month. The first day of a sign is a perfect time to do this. It is also good to read for someone else at least once a month, but that is not a necessity.
4. Plan to review your Astrological transits either by a podcast you may watch, or by reviewing yourself. This is one of our favorites, organized by Chris Brennan www.tiny.cc/astropod. He has a very high level of scholarship and his book, Hellenistic Astrology, is one of the source texts we use in our Astrology certification courses.
The structure of our school’s ritual praxis
5. Perform the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram 3 to 7 times a week (daily is best). This is the key central ritual and I personally perform every morning before I start my day, if not a more elaborate form. Other schools suggest performing this twice daily, and although there would be some benefit to this I find it is much more difficult to stay consistent at this level of dedication. Once a day or at least 3 times a week is proficient. The banishing purifies the body of light and aligns the Theurgist with Cosmic forces, something you will fully attest to once you begin your practice.
6.Perform the Banishing/Invoking/Ochêma Ritual once a week or at the very least once a month The Ochêma is the base level invocation performed within the Pentagram ritual itself. If you have the time, performing this dailyis useful, even dedicating weeks at a time to perform this along with the Pentagram ritual is very effective. In either case you should try to perform this at least 1 to 2 times aweek. Before you begin the Grand Invocations it is suggested that you dedicate at least 2 weeks of performing this daily in preparation for the Grand Invocations themselves.
7. Perform a Grand Invocation every 10 days, following as best as possible the Decans of the Astrological Wheel, and at the very least on the Equinoxes and the Solstices. Within the 5 year program that we offer in the innermystery school we will give you what Grand Invocations to perform in succession based on the archetypal symbolic language of our Divine Arcana Tarot. Whether you are following the exact formula that we prescribe or something custom you have developed yourself, keeping tothe first day of the Decan will give you a sense of consistency in your work.
We will continue to refine all of our essays and articles for you moving forward. We would love to see you join the inner mystery school and participate in our certification programs for Astrology and Tarot. Please check back for updates and consider becoming a member of our school and an alumni of our certificationprograms.
