How To Start Practicing Magick

Disclaimer and Introduction

This article teaches how to begin practicing magick as a solo practitioner. Although lodge/order members might find it helpful (as well), they should follow their teachers’ instructions. I do not pretend to be an expert on any of the subjects of discussion

The tips provided are based on my subjective views as an explorer and solo practitioner. Open to corrections, they are somewhat intended as a letter to my younger self, who started practicing about 3 years ago.

Build Your Schedule

Rearrange your schedule to include daily spiritual hygiene, incorporating magick in your life. See your practices how a devoted gym rat sees their training.

Commit to this schedule no matter what making your practices non-negotiable. Whatever the schedule, it should be maximally comfortable, thus effortlessly sustained. No progress can be made without this step.

Master LRP

The first exercise to master is the Lesser Pentagram Ritual. That being in both of its versions: invoking and banishing. Ideally, you want the first in the morning. And the second in the evening.

Purifying the aura, LRP has a powerful balancing effect. It also makes you more perceptive of forces that have always been around you. Having a similar structure, virtually all other rites are based on it.

Performed daily, LRP develops the faculties of visualization and concentration. It also makes you accustomed to moving in a circle and invoking angels.
To find how to perform LRP, you can search on google or merely watch my tutorial on it. The last includes detailed explications on how to do the rite (according to most books.) Also, some animations to foster your visions.

The Middle Pillar

Going hand to hand with the Lesser Pentagram, the second rite to learn is the Middle Pillar. Popularized by Dr. Israel Regardie, who considered it an instrumental tool for personal development, the Middle Pillar is extremelly versatile. Done correctly and consistently, it provides a series of benefits. Some include centering and calming the mind, increasing vitality, and (IMHO) combating severe anxiety.

According to Regardie, this rite’s chief aim is raising awareness of your holy guardian angel’s presence and guidance. While some people might object, I suggest performing the MP twice daily after your morning and evening pentagram rituals.

How to perform the Middle Pillar and its proper finishing exercise you can find on the web or in most books on Western magick. Yet, I strongly suggest checking my tutorial on it. Like that on LRP, the video includes explications and animations facilitating your visualization.

Obtain Books On Psychic Self Defense

Оne of the first things to learn on this path аre some techniques for psychic self-defense. While the LRP removes internal conflict, there are other scenarios to be prepared for. For this, I recommend 2 books. Written by Denning and Phillips, the first is Practical Guide to Psychic Self-Defense and Well Being. The second is the all-time classic Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune. 

Meditate

It really can’t overemphasize how integral daily meditation is to the magickal path. To kickstart yours, merely tinker with some poses, finding the most comfortable. The same must be sustained easily for extended periods. 

During those, you won’t move, doing your best to stay perfectly still. Along with this, you’ll also perform the fourfold breath focusing on your breathing and emptying your mind. 

Initially, that might feel odd and uncomfortable. Because of that, I suggest 5 minutes as a starting point to gradually increase. Also helpful are the sleep tracking apps Sleep Cycles and Pillow. Unlike your phone alarm, those take you out of the meditative state much more pleasantly. So use them. They are free. 

To ensure you’ll actually do it, add your meditation after one of your practices by preference. (Both options have an advantage.) In the evening, meditation helps wind off for the day. In the morning, it reduces morning anxiety.

Stop Reading! Practice and Memorize!

A lesson we should never forget is one found in Dr. Regardie’s The One Year Manual:

Now, let us assume you devote a daily hour purely to magick. In that case, I suggest investing this time into actual practice and (perhaps) memorizing correspondences. No, the latter won’t hurt; It will only enrich you as a person and facilitate your practices.

With the first, you get better the more you do it. For the second, I offer the unbeatable method of active recall. This doesn’t mean passively re-reading books, as many have been told in school; It rather implies actively bringing the information to your mind’s surface, embedding it in your memory with the help of apps like Quizlet or Anki.

Whether it’s the Hebrew Alphabet, the basics of the tree of life, the planetary and zodiacal signs, or anything for that manner, you create a deck for it and start to actively recall it. Once made, a deck can be available on all your platforms. It can include both correspondences and breakdowns of rituals, each step being a card/question.

Instead of tying you to a book and place, this allows for effective multitasking and better time efficiency.  For instance, I learned the basic Hebrew letters’ correspondences while “doing pull-ups” in the local park.

On the contrary, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t read occult literature. It is to clarify that reading should never replace your practice. And if (it happens that) you can do only one, the latter should be a no-brainer. Plus, we live in a unique era allowing us to start getting ahead by merely reading blogs and searching online. So, take advantage of that.

Explore Various Occult Systems

Mentioning reading reminds me of something (more optional) I adopted for myself. That’s remaining open to different perspectives and explications of things. Perhaps you study the Golden Dawn and/or Thelema. In that case, reading some Gurdjieff and Ouspensky or even LHP books (once in a while) might be a good idea. No, this doesn’t mean spreading yourself too thin; It advocates practicing the system of your choice while not becoming dogmatic.

Journal

This boils down to creating a couple of dairies. Тhe first includes all your practices, meditations, and any experiences, thoughts, feelings you may get during or after. Also, how (if at all) your life changes. The second should contain all your dreams in a maximally detailed manner. Моre on these journals can be found in books like Modern Magick, The Golden Dawn, Kabbalah Transformation, Hermetic Qabala, the Magick of Aleister Crowley, etc.  

Question Everything and Trust Your Results

Something I learned the hard way is that occult books do not always provide the most accurate information. And that is despite their authors and copies sold. Just because this or that ritual has been outlined in a specific way in one or many books doesn’t (necessarily) guarantee that this is the correct or the only way of performing it.

One of Magick’s ultimate purposes is to enhance your life, making you an increasingly better version of yourself. The key isn’t to become more messed up but more balanced, well-rounded, and happier.

If something doesn’t work in this manner, it should be erased from your practices. If, on the contrary, another does, then it should be included. This is despite whether your favorite authors approve it. The same applies to the actual ways of performing rites. Don’t assume something works (or works better than others). Explore and approach things as an experiments-conducting scientist.

This also has another aspect. Namely, not forgetting that your results are just that: your own subjective results to be most likely valid to you and you only. Meaning you should not share them with others. One because they won’t apply; two, because people shouldn’t get into their workings with someone else’s mind frame or preconceived notions; and three, because you don’t want to screw up others’ ecstasy of figuring out stuff via first-hand experience. If a person finds out about your practice and wants to know what “so and so” does, politely tell them to do “so and so that for a month and find out for themselves.

Build Your Own Correspondences

By studying materials, you learn that this or that force tends to have so and so effects. Rather than accepting that blindly, I suggest striving to see how it translates into your life — what it really means to you in your whole situation, including everything you do and the people you interact with.

The 4 Sоlar Adorations

Called Liber Resh Vel Helios (or Resh), the solar adorations have numerous benefits. Identifying yourself with the sun at its four stations establishes a conscious link to the energies it represents. The most apparent advantages of doing this regularly are that it keeps you mindful of the great work, teaches you god forms you’ll use in tons of other rituals, and increases awareness of your time which is your most valuable asset.

I also think Resh could be great for easing and humbling the mind. While there are different versions of it, to get the most out of the rite, I suggest Dr. David Shoemaker‘s Living Thelema book. Based on my research, the same provides the most thorough and concise explication of it.

Start Now

Like with anything else, i.e., transforming your physique, learning a skill, improving habits, etc., there’s no better time than now. (As the Rage Against the Machine song says). The sooner you begin, the quicker you’ll progress.

Also, the more mysteries you’ll get to explore (in this reincarnation), considering that Magick is a study of multiple lives. If there’s a thing I regret about my personal practice, it’s that it didn’t start earlier.

Belief and Intent are Your Best Friends

Magick is causing changes to occur in conformity with will. Remember that in doing so, your intent and belief are your best tools. While the first is pretty self-explanatory, the second is to always practice with intent. The same you formulate in your mind, possibly jot on your phone or a piece of paper and declare before closing the working. The more specific you are, the better. And more about that can be found in Lon Milo Duquette‘s Low Magick and on Scott Stenwick’s incredible blog. 

Do not Obsess with Paraphernalia

Weapons, Temple attributes, robes, and anything of that nature — all of them are great. And all of them are (more or less) icing on the cake. Embed your mind with the perception that you’re the Magick. And the Magick will work as long as it’s fuelled with your intent, belief, and commitment.

The only essentials you need for your practices are those three, a place where you won’t be disturbed for the time being, and perhaps a pair of ear taps (if living in a big city). Eliminating distracting noises, the last might also help with the vibration of the divine names. More about magickal weapons’ actual importance can be found in books like Damien Echol’s High Magick and Mark Stavish Egregors.

Greater Invoking Pentagram Ritual (4 Elements)

Usually written as GIRP, this is а more elaborate version of the lesser pentagram ritual. It invokes the 4 elements into your sphere of sensation much more potently. Nonetheless, it is regarded as perfectly safe because the four elements balance each other. The regular practice of GIRP teaches how to trace all standard pentagrams, giving room for experimentation. Plus, it gets you familiar with the basis of much more powerful rites like the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram and Opening By Watchtower.

According to different resources, GIRP makes you more aware of the Divinity within and can be used for obtaining the vision of the HGA due to being similar to Crowley’s Liber Vel Reguli. (IMHO) you should research and experiment with it. This way, you can find the exact version that works best and decide how often to perform it. 

Master the Lesser Hexagram Ritual

After the previously mentioned comes the time to learn the following exercise: The Lesser Hexagram Ritual. Like with the first, I suggest incorporating both versions simultaneously. I also offer to research and find which exact variation of the rite works best for you. Тhe pentagram represents the perfected microcosm, the spirit’s dominion over the 4 elements. Тhe hexagram, on the other hand, symbolizes the Divinity and the outer world that is the macrocosm.

Adopting the lesser pentagram and hexagram rituals gives the tools for using the different fields of operation. Initially, I suggest sticking to the 2 most commonly used: invoking and banishing fields. The first follows LIRP with LIRH. The second does that with LBRP and LBRH.You do the first couple in the morning, whereas the second in the evening. The Middle Pillar follows each couple. It is said that regular performance of the lesser pentagram and hexagram rituals introduces the process of uniting the 5 (the practitioner) with 6 (which is the HGA).

Use Your Left or Opposite Hand

Learning to do stuff with your opposite hand was advocated by both Crowley and Gurdjieff. By doing so, you make your brain’s right hemisphere active. The same’s functions are holistic, intuitive, mystical, etc. While this might be by learning how to write, I suggest starting small by merely utilizing it in your daily life.

For me, this includes cooking, shaving my head and body, vacuum cleaning, ordering things in my house, etc. To those playing an instrument, I offer to practice that the opposite way. I’m exceedingly grateful that I learned all my scratch techniques on both left and right deck as a turntablist.

To learn more about that, I suggest two books. The first is Robert Anton Wilson’s Prometheus Rising, particularly chapter 6 (The Time-Binding Semantic Circuit). The second is P.D. Ouspensky’s In the Search of the Miraculous. 

To get inspired to do it as a modern person, I propose researching the incredible Paul Rodrigues. Doing all of his tricks on both sides as one of the most legendary skateboarders to ever live, P. Rod also does that with his guitar skills.

Treat Your Body as a Holy Temple

Something I think gets a bit neglected by occultists is the subject of physical health. Here I mainly refer to two things. The first is achieving healthy body weight via proper nutrition, staying active, doing the types of resistance training you enjoy, and fasting for long enough. The second is to do your best in mastering your basic urges.

One of the first things you’ll learn on the magickal path is the 4 Qabalistic Worlds concept. And how that corresponds to the parts of the soul. Along with this, you also realize that one of the goals of the Great Work is getting your basic urges under control. Or said more Qablistically, mastering and reconciling your Nephesh, animal soul, so it collaborates with you.

A subject stressed in Don Webb’s Essential Guide to the Left-Hand Path is that:

While Webb advocates that for LHP initiates, I believe anyone should take this advice.

See that from the perspective that Magick is indeed a many lives study. Improving your health won’t just enhance your mental and physical performance but increase your life span giving you more time to study (in this incarnation). You’ll also remember and focus
better and have more stamina to do longer ceremonies.

Plus, you’ll begin testing your magick right from the start. As mentioned, magick is causing changes to occur in conformity with will. Usually, those changes are internal, happening within you, the microcosm. Then and only then, the macrocosm, or the objective reality, changes as well.

By eradicating your addictions and getting your nephesh under control, you are achieving a powerful transformation that won’t just energies your workings but also improve your whole life at all levels. (IMHO) It will also let you handle forces from a more balanced and empowered position. The tools I used and recommend for this are NoFap, specific low-carb diets, and the OMAD plan; all of them are the main subject of my book and the other part of this blog.

Thank You For Your Time!