This ritual was written in response to the needs of teaching people who are wholly unfamiliar with the Hermetic Ritual tradition. Its design criterion were to minimize the new words and concepts to be presented to its students. This was done by using english words where ever possible, or words that are also used in english. The result is a quickly learnable ritual that can function as an active guided meditation.
The Rubric
1. Face East and perform the Quantum Cross:
a. Bend down and touch the ground crying “Kaos,” (Chaos) visualizing the ground cracking open into vast luminous darkness with sparkles.
b. Grab a double fist full of the darkness and swing your arms out and overhead while standing until your hands clap together.
c. Cry “Kosmos,” (Cosmos, order, the Universe) imagining a 'big bang' explosion with the hands clapping overhead and the radiance of that super star shining through your body, creating/vivifying it.
d. Extend the left arm perpendicular to the body with the palm up. Visualize a purple sphere about the size of a basket ball in your hand and feel it resonate as you say “Eros” (Love).
e. Extend the right arm perpendicular to the body with the palm up. Visualize a red sphere about the size of a basket ball in your hand and feel it resonate as you say “Nuos” (Intelligence, consciousness, mind).
f. Bring the hands together in front of the body merging the two spheres into one green sphere and resonate “Synergos” (Working Together).
g. Bring the hands to the chest letting the green sphere enter into your heart and resonate there “Allage” (pronounced: ahl-lah-yee) (Change).
2. Still facing East draw banishing earth pentagram, that is, draw the pentagram with the hand or fingertip in one continuous line starting at the lower left-hand point moving towards the top single point and around.
3. Make the Sign of the Enterer also called the Projecting Sign by stepping forward with the (left) foot and thrusting forward with both hands at eye level, palms down, fingers straight and pointing forward.
4. While is this position speak in a resonance tone the word “Air”. The feeling should be that of thrusting forward with all of one's energy which is flowing out with the word spoken until near exhaustion.
5. Step back into the completely vertical position and place your (left) forefinger to your lips in the gesture of silence. The feeling is that of receiving the energy projected previously having returned with accumulated power.
6. Turn clockwise to the South and repeat (2), (3), (4) and (5) but replace the word spoken with “Fire”.
7. Turn clockwise to the West and repeat (2), (3), (4) and (5) but replace the word spoken with “Water”.
8. Turn clockwise to the North and repeat (2), (3), (4) and (5) but replace the word spoken with “Earth”.
9. Turn clockwise to the East and gesturing towards the East say “Before me Wind”.
10. Next, gesturing towards the West say “Behind me Wave”.
11. Gesturing towards the South say “On my right hand Flame”.
12. Gesturing towards the North say “On my left hand Rock”.
13. Pointing in turn to the East, South, West and North with each of the first four words beginning with “L” say:
By Life, Light, Love & Liberty,
Do I call to me,
All my essence and my being,
The Child Crowned and Conquering.14. Repeat Quantum Cross.
The Visualizations
For the Quantum Cross the above visualizations will serve although more material as to their meaning and imagery is to be found in The Rite Process and Milk of the Stars v. 7. The essence of the Quantum Cross is the recapitulation of creation: Out of Chaos arises Order. Order in self-Love divides itself giving rise to Consciousness. Love and Intelligence Work Together to engender Change.
In each of the actions in (4), (6), (7), and (8), the goal is to stay with the vibration of the word and the gestures until the quality of the element being invoked is felt by the body. Then you know that that element is present and can move on to the next one. For example with Air, you might feel a breeze blowing past you, with fire, warmth penetrating your body, or with water, a stream pouring about your feet, and with earth, cool solidity.
The Archae used as the watchers at the quarters are simple embodiments of the elements. Thus with Wind, see a whirlwind standing before you. Feel it blowing upon you. Then notice, what color is the whirlwind? Is it white, gray, black, clear? What is the condition of the sky behind the whirlwind? Clear, stormy, foggy or clouded? Know that this is a reflection of the airy part of your being, which most folk attribute to mind and reason.
With Wave, notice the color of the water. Are you at sea or on the shore? Is there anything in the water, floatsam or jetsam? Water can be seen as the emotions, intuition and the unconscious. With Flame, what is its color, what is its fuel, its size and shape? Fire is often attributed to will and spirituality and passion.
Among the folk I have worked this rite with different individuals prefer to use “Stone” instead of saying “Rock.” I like rock because of the rarity of the use of such hard sounds as a final “k”. I find its harshness relates well to the solidity of earth. When visualizing the rock, notice if the stone is carved or natural, cracked, chipped, coarse or smooth. Is it in a field, a meadow, a forest, or a desert. Earth is often attributed to the body, endurance and health. Remember that what you see is a reflection of your own nature at the time of the ritual expressed in symbol.
The final verse is to wrap up all the energies into a unity which dissolves into the final symbol, the Star Child. This is the embodiment of your essential being, your absolute awakened self-nature. As you are pointing to each of the cardinal directions, connect again briefly with its energy but don't let go. Air refers to Life as breath, Fire to Light, Water to Love as emotion, and Earth to Liberty as the realm of action and actual embodiment. Draw these all together in your feelings and then unite them into the last symbol:
Gather all the evoked energies into your heart, visualize therein a star shining with utmost intensity (a unicursal hexagram is very potent here). In the center of that star see yourself as a small child seated upon/within the star in the form of a lotus or rose. Dwell in your love of that child for a time, before going on to the final Quantum Cross.
E-mail the author at webster@concrescent.net.