by Agent 139

The practitioner known as Agent 139 contributed this essay to the Irreality Essays collection in 2004, an online forum for chaos magic practitioners. It was reposted to alt.pagan.magick by Chris Titan in October 2004. Irreality.org.uk no longer exists; both the original site and this Usenet thread are the only surviving records of the essay.

The essay engages the fundamental question: what is ritual, in the most general sense possible — a sense that applies equally to brushing one's teeth, to high ceremonial magic, to the work of a skilled athlete? The author's answer is that ritual is any act that yokes together intention, will, and action, bringing the vying aspects of consciousness into accord. This definition, grounded in Crowley's axiom ("the art and science of causing change in conformity with Will"), is expanded outward into questions of cultural myth, initiation, and the phenomenology of creative practice.

The essay draws on an unusually wide range of sources: the Latin etymology of religio (to yoke or bind), the Zohar's fourfold elemental symbolism (wand/cup/sword/pentacle), Joseph Campbell's analysis of the Dionysian experience of awe-dread in initiation, and the practical techniques of Chi Gung, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, and Neuro-linguistic Programming. The result is one of the more theoretically ambitious practitioner essays to circulate on the early 2000s chaos magic Usenet groups.

Contentions

Anyone who thinks they have a working understanding of what a ritual is and aren't looking for a new perspective needn't read this. For the rest I would like to deal with the theory behind ritual and magick. I will attempt to answer the question "what is ritual?" in the most general sense possible, which allows for application of any kind, from artwork to so-called "high magick" to bricklaying.

The somewhat misleading distinction between theory and practice is mirrored by our false division of mind and body. Contemplating theory is in fact an important part of practice. It is an action, as anyone who has spent long nights working these things out can tell you. All seemingly effortless, perfected action depends on a unity of theory and practice, mind and body, which dissolves these distinctions, even if they are usually fed to us as modular and separate. You see this with a trained athlete or musician. The distinct muscular actions and thought processes have been streamlined into a simple start and stop action process. In many ways experts are less aware of the discrete actions they are taking to perform a task than a beginner. This holism may in fact be a neurological pre-requisite. Experts aren't necessarily smarter than you are, they simply have to think less to perform actions that seem intricate and complex to you. However this ease is generally earned through untold tribulation in private.

The process of application is ultimately more important than the mental processes of study and contemplation. However we should begin theoretically with this in mind, take in the theory, and then explore those theories in action once we have gained a sufficient base of knowledge to evaluate our results.

When dealing with a topic like ritual in an essay format, we run the risk of mummifying the vitality of the process with our words. A successful ritual is experiential, experimental, rich with symbols and metaphors, scents and movements, all of which have meaning to the participants. When a ritual is pantomimed, it has become dead and must be discarded. Ultimately any action done for a specific intent can be considered ritual, if we borrow Aleister Crowley's definition of Magick as the "art and science of causing change in conformity with Will." However there is a cultural context to ritual which mustn't be overlooked, which we will unfortunately have to deal with only in passing so that we can move on to the practical heart of ritual: creativity.

Cultural Context

The cultural context that arises as a result or cause of ritual practice is multi-faceted and involves study of past mythic traditions as well as human social behavior in general, however its root can be found in the roots of the words themselves.

A ritual is the same as a rite: a ceremonial act or series of acts, generally associated with religion. The word roots of religion, the Latin religio, means to yoke or bind together. In philosophical terms the phenomenology must be tied to ontology. Perception and being are to be brought together, and the rituals are the method for bringing about this alchemical marriage. This is also the meaning of the word yoga, as Aleister Crowley repeats countless times in his Eight Lectures on Yoga: yoga means union.

Thus the fundamental purpose of myth as the embodiment of ritual and religion is to tie individuals to a cultural source, or to tie individuals to their own source. Thus there are three primary principles of ritual, which are embodied in myth. These are in essence the same but the "yoke" applies to the individual, to society, and to the natural order. In whichever case the function is one of binding or bringing together these things. You perform ritual to bring the vying aspects of your consciousness into accord with your will. Thus an action that yokes our action and our will together may be considered ritual. Or, a myth teaches individuals within a society how to relate to one another, and how to relate to the cycles of life. If a myth truly has sway over a people and they are all unified through it then crime — that is activity outside the confines of social acceptance — is by definition impossible. Crime can be seen as an example of how great the gap is between a society's myth and the behavior of its citizens. The more of a double standard there is between the lip service paid to a myth and the actions people actually take, the more hypocrisy evident within the system, the greater the divide between the myth and the people.

It is also patently untrue that there is some underlying "human morality," wherein for instance murder has never been sanctioned by the predominant mythology. As a matter of fact murder is sanctioned by our own cultural mythology — so long as it is done under the banner of War. Every culture therefore also has a taboo, and many individuals inside that culture, when they first come to awareness outside the confines of their culture, do so through intentional transgressions which are done with this exterior, so-called "Left handed," quest in mind.

Ritual is a process used to connect the individual, the society, and the world of nature. Although I said it could be applied to any habitual action, this is only so when all of one's habitual actions have been mythologized, or given mythic resonance. To be successful, certain pre-requisites must be fulfilled. For instance, as all ritual serves to pitch us out of our daily lives in some way, there must be a strong quality of the "other-worldly" in the process. Ritual is "deified" or "spiritualized" activity. Something is called "spiritual" merely as it holds a quality that allows us to distinguish it from regular activity.

In its traditional context, ritual may involve calling upon a particular energy to aid you in a task, yet the same principles apply to brushing your teeth every night. Both are tasks carried out with a specific end in mind. Every single habit and action has a cumulative effect on your being. When all actions are in harmony with our internal goals, whatever they may be, we are living our myth or "doing our Will." When every activity is a ritual, you're well on your way to manifesting your dream in reality or at the very least, living life as if it were a dream.

There is one key difference in most people's lives between brushing their teeth and practicing ritual magick. The necessity of a distinction between every day life and mythic life is part of the reason for the use of arcane or archaic language in conjurations, however this device may be too cheesy for some. If those devices make you want to lose your lunch, then another technique is probably called for. This distinction is often brought about by actually personifying a character or godly force. This is traditionally done by shaman figures but it is equally as effective when done by an artist, even a rock star.

Initiation

Initiation is also a key element of ritual. It too serves both an individual and a social function. In either case it is the process of "reformatting" the aspirant, and making them receptive to the totality of the mythology on a deep, personal level. The shock of this experience, whether pleasurable or painful, must be sufficient to have a lasting — that is biological — effect.

In initiations in particular there must be a period of unease, confusion, or nausea before we cease to cling to our self, as we conceive it, and are hurled headlong into the new experience the ritual is creating. I have experienced very few initiations in which I did not at some point resort to the 1st circuit response "mommy take me home!" This is all a natural part of the re-imprinting process. (At the same time this should not give people the ability to have an excuse to take advantage of you. Such people do exist within organizations of all colors.)

This emotion of dread and awe is intrinsically connected to the religious experience. "The transition then is from an aesthetic (Apollonian) to a properly religious dimension of experience (Dionysian divine rapture); and the sense of awe, dread or terror that is then experienced is something different altogether from any 'kinetic' natural loathing or terror before an odious or dangerous object." — Joseph Campbell, Masks of God IV, p. 353.

This is what happens when you proceed far enough to feel the ground drop out beneath your feet. The theory is turning to practice and the ideas you have had became beliefs and now they are being applied to how you experience reality. The practitioner at this point becomes aware of the world of dream, though he may experience it in many ways. Myths are transmissions from this realm.

A successful ritual is an enacted myth. For instance, with invocation, one steps outside of one's normal role, and makes the body and mind a fit receptacle for a particular type of energy, which is codified in symbols. These symbols are impressed upon the mind as words, but during the ritual scents, colors, and so on — all congruent with the nature of the invocation — must be present, which further exalt the mind to allow this "deity" to indwell within it.

The nature of this personification, if the method of practice is invocation, can vary; I theorize that the ritual garb of a Siberian shaman and the makeup of a performer like Marilyn Manson can really serve the same function, if the performer approaches the act with this kind of knowledge.

There is some value in being aware of those who have come before. Otherwise, you may wind up re-inventing the wheel. It is a tried and true axiom of art that you cannot break rules that you are not aware of.

You may feel a little lost when you begin comparing the myths and religions of different cultures. The clothing differs from sect to sect, and from culture to culture. However, there is one aspect that is synchronous throughout all ritual: the participants are brought to a mythological ground vaster than their normal experience through the machinations of the ritual. Ritual alters state of mind and has the power to create entire cultures. Although it is true that the energies you deal with are just metaphors or projections of your own consciousness, it is also true that they have a mind, will, and identity all their own as much as you do. Both are true. It is incredibly important that the would-be practitioner grasp this before dealing with evocation, possession, or conjuration of any kind.

Ritual can put you in touch with any number of different cultural consciousnesses or hiveminds. The ritual ground is archetypical ground, so that for instance in tantric practice one person embodies the god Shiva and the other the goddess Shakti. By taking on this embodiment man is doing the work of Gods. This may seem grandiose, however consider that everything living shares equally in that Divine essence — and furthermore embodying oneself within a role sanctioned by the mythology can give it a greater significance and value.

The Four Tools and the Creative Act

Ritual is the practice or embodiment of myth, art is the alchemical method of manifestation, and art is informed by dream. It is through a balanced application of the four traditional magickal tools that we bring these to life.

These "tools" are the wand, the cup, the sword, and the pentacle. Success and balance is encoded within the interplay of these four symbols, when properly understood. On the universal level they represent the creative will, fire, which is given form and tempered by water, the receptive quality. This substrate is honed, analyzed, and pared down by the intellectual quality of air, and is finally brought into manifestation in sensations, the element of earth. In the Zohar, a 13th-century Kabbalistic text considered primary in that tradition next to the Sefer Yetzirah, these four elements are represented as the father (fire), the mother (water), the son (air), and the daughter (earth.) It may be of interest to those with some familiarity of these symbols that the mystic reverses the process that the universe uses in manifestation, marrying the daughter and the son, to raise them to the throne of the father.

We are led to our will through the constant exploration and exercise of our creative vision. When I say "will" I actually mean it in two senses. On the one hand I refer to the simple willpower it takes to fuel this creation to life, a verb, the action of creating it. On the other, I refer to the entire process as a whole as a single, completed unit. We find ourselves, writ large, within our creations, and may only come to know ourselves in this complete way after many years of creative experimentation. This is what it is that you have been working on your entire life, without realizing it. Every single action or piece contains the whole within it. This whole is something that you can perceive directly in any moment.

Many times, when giving advice to people who feel stuck in their creative processes, I have told them that you must use the cup and the wand, and then the sword. The earth — physical manifestation — will be your result. In other words you must be receptive to your intention to create. You may not know exactly what it is that you are going to make but you must nevertheless be open to it and aware of it in some non-verbal fashion. If you give an idea fertile ground to grow in it will grow, even if the seed remains underground for some time. Give it fallow earth and water. When the time is ripe — you will most likely experience this as a psychic pressure which simply must be released — you must empty yourself and become a medium for the seed to sprout from.

Finally, once this synthesis has taken place, you can re-order, re-structure, and piece it together into the form that you first envisioned in your imaginative process. Many people attempt to start with the final step and wonder why they are so "naturally uncreative." Creativity is a process many of us need to re-learn, though it is second nature to any two year old.

In Chi Gung I was taught that the li (mind) leads the chi. That is to say, it is your intention to create movement that creates movement, before the movement has occurred. The breath follows this, so that eventually there is an integration of the entire system, from intent to action, which flows effortlessly, as a whole. This is the intention or "seed" which lies beneath the fault-line of our consciousness, the essence of a movement or action immediately before it is born to action. If there is no block of this will on any level, then the action is in fact divine. We merely embody it as it manifests.

Ultimately theory and abstraction is only useful when it can be applied to even the simplest or most concrete task. This idea itself is tacit within the four element system. All of the four elemental traits should be developed within an initiate, and it is an application of all four that results in a successful venture. Without pointing fingers, let me say that it has been my experience that many Western traditions, magickal and otherwise, emphasize knowledge over intuition, and don't successfully teach techniques for developing creativity, adaptability, and receptivity. It is much more difficult to teach creativity than rote devices. However I have learned techniques that can help you develop your creativity and receptivity, both on my own working as an artist and creative producer, and in personal classes with trained facilitators in 5-element Chi Gung, Bagua, Ericksonian hypnotherapy and Neuro-linguistic Programming.

My own practice started to veer further and further from the traditional Western esoteric approach as I worked on my own and with various instructors and partners in crime, as I explored the energies within me.

All of this comes into our practice, whatever it is. Every act that we take has reverberations which we must work to be aware of, always pushing ourselves to the next level — never looking down upon the endless expanse beneath our feet.

I say all of this as a fellow student of myself. There are no teachers in this school. I don't believe any of this bullshit; that doesn't keep it from working.

Colophon

Written by Agent 139 and published on Irreality Essays (irreality.org.uk) on 7 October 2004 as "Methods II: What is Ritual?" — part of a longer practitioner guide on chaos magic methodology. The essay was reposted to alt.pagan.magick by Chris Titan on 14 October 2004 with the note: "I offer the essay of Agent 139 who has a very potent piece of info here." Original Message-ID: [email protected]. Irreality.org.uk has since gone offline.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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