Ritual: Eight Steps of Realization

Magic is not merely a way of life. Magic is a mode of being within Myth.

This means the Magus recognizes mythological plots coming into realization both on the level of the Macrocosm and on his own private level.

We already know that every plot — an elementary cycle — has eight stages. Repeated across three worlds, this cycle is expressed in a twenty-four-part system of realization.

At the same time, the Magus’s realization of an elementary mythological plot in order to obtain a definite result is traditionally called a ritual.

Thus, we shall call a ritual any action that embodies a certain myth and is aimed at attaining a specific goal. With the broad understanding of myth of which we once spoke, it becomes clear that ritual is, in fact, a universal means of attaining results. Human culture in its entirety is founded on ritual.

Since ritual is the symbolic embodiment of myth, it must be performed according to certain rules — and these rules are not arbitrary; they are dictated by the very nature of the myth being enacted. In ritual, as in myth, the main thing is structure; the motives behind particular deeds are secondary to the actions themselves. Any action or text in a ritual takes on symbolic meaning. Even plain text used in a ritual carries a meaning unlike what that same text would bear outside the ritual.

Let us consider the stages that form the skeleton of any ritual, in relation to the stages of the becoming of any myth.

1) The Zeroth stage — the creation of the idea. The performance of a ritual must be preceded by an abstract grasp of the ritual as a whole — what it is aimed at, how it achieves this, what Powers it employs. Only by clearly envisioning this synthetic wholeness of the forthcoming action — that is, by engendering the potency for its realization — can one proceed to the next steps.

2) Setting apart the unit. The first stage of the ritual’s execution is the preparation of the Operator. In other words, the one in whose name the ritual is performed must be created. To carry out a mythological action, one must first step out of one myth — and only then enter another. This preparation, traditionally called the Operator’s “purification,” may include various actions — fasting, ablution, prayers, and other practices aimed at transforming a person into the Creator of Myth, into the Maker of his universe.

3) The division of unity. The next stage is the creation of the primary binary of the operation. The active pole of this binary is the prepared Operator; the passive pole is the Space of the Ritual. This stage includes forming the space in which the ritual will take place — the creation of a universe in which the Operator will be god. Such a space may be a Magic Circle, a Temple, or similar symbolic structures. One way or another, tracing the circle, “opening and consecrating” the Temple, is meant to place the space of the ritual fully under the Operator’s power for the duration of the action.

4) The birth of the Logos of the Operation. At the next stage, the binary is transformed into a ternary. The laws that operate within the ritual universe are formed. This stage is traditionally called the “Oath.” The Operator clearly and distinctly formulates aloud the goal of the ritual, the time and direction of its realization. Creative speech is the decisive stage of Creation (“And God said: Let there be…”). The utterance of the goal becomes the Principle of the Ritual’s form, its Logos.

5) Creating the vortex of the Operation.  At the next stage, the ternary becomes a quaternary — a necessary condition for realization. We know this transition is accomplished by creating the so-called “second passivity” — the field on which the activity of the ternary unfolds. Mythologically, this stage is symbolized by sacrifice: from the body of the Protojotun Ymir the Æsir created the world, the field of their activity; Cain, who sacrificed Abel, laid the foundation of humanity; Dionysus, Osiris, and Dazhdbog are also examples of such Supreme Sacrifices. Different rituals solve this task in different ways — sometimes wine is sacrificed, sometimes the smoke of incense; sometimes animals, and even people, are offered. But one way or another, giving is a necessary condition of receiving.

6) Creating the Volitional impulse. Any myth implies active agents who provide the Power for its realization. The quaternary born of the previous stage is still dead without a push of will, without an exit beyond the limits of quaternity to the level of pentagrammaticity. Since the Operator of the ritual is, in fact, its inner part, he cannot provide such a push. An external Power is required. Therefore, at the next stage the Operator draws in such a Power in the form of gods, spirits, angels, the Names of the Most High, and so forth. This stage is called “appealing,” and it is aimed precisely at imparting life to the Ritual.

7) Creating the Body of Realization. The most complex stage of a ritual is the union of two ternaries: the ascending ternary created by the Operator himself, and the descending one drawn in at the previous stage. Yet it is precisely this union that creates the “middle part” — the body in which the force of the ritual’s realization will live and act. Often, by virtue of its complexity and vividness, this part is mistaken for the whole Ritual. This union includes a set of symbolic words and actions aimed at harmonizing the Macrocosmic and Microcosmic components of Myth. At this stage there must occur the reckoning and harmonization of all the Powers involved in the realization.

8 ) Release and closure. After the Powers have been brought into mutual correspondence, one must separate the realized effect from the forces that acted; in other words, one must return the activated forces to the world economy. In doing so, the vortex of realization is released (depending on the goal of the ritual, it may be directed either toward the world internal or external in relation to the Operator’s mind), and the “forces disturbed” by the ritual return to their sources. This return of forces may occur in different ways and may or may not include “thanksgiving,” yet the essence remains: the universe of the ritual returns to the world of potencies, and only the result it bore is imprinted in the actual world.

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