Invocations at Table
T Polyphilus
This instrumental sacrament is the one by which the Thelemite sanctifies food for his or her consumption. Its most traditional form is the dialogue for will over meat, which Crowley provides in Magick (p. 212). Here are two versions of that procedure (dialogue and monologue) tailored to E.G.C. premises.
Speaker: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Response: What is thy will?
Speaker: It is my will to eat and drink.
Response: To what end?
Speaker: That I may fortify my body thereby.
Response: To what end?
Speaker: That I may accomplish the Great Work.
Response: What is the Great Work?
Speaker: The Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
Response: Love is the law, love under will.
Speaker: Fall to.
Dining Thelemite: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. It is my will to eat and drink, that I may fortify my body thereby, that I may accomplish the Great Work, which is the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. Love is the law, love under will.
The following ceremony consists of a pair of prayers to be used for opening and closing a meal among confessed Thelemites. It, like will over meat, substitutes Will for Grace. This variant, however, uses a more traditional invocational format. It is in fact modeled upon material in chapters 9 and 10 of the early Christian Didache.
Opening Invocation
Speaker: Holy Child, unite my Will to Thine, as I join this meat and drink to my own body and blood. Unto Our Lady Babalon and Thy Prophet the Beast be blessing and worship throughout the Aeon in the name of IAO. AUMGN.
Response: So mote it be.
Closing Invocation
Speaker: Praise be to Thee, Holy Child, for Thy Holy Name which Thou hast made to dwell in our hearts, and for the Light, Life, Love, Force, Fantasy and Fire which Thou hast made known to us though Thy minister. Thou didst produce the Seed and the Fruit, the Moist and the Dry, and that which nourisheth all created Life. And when Life itself is gone, Thou dost command the four winds to bear into the Night of Pan that which remains. Unite me to Thy Might and Majesty, that mine as Thine be the Crown of the Kingdom, even now. AUMGN.
Response: So mote it be.