Rituals · technique
How a divine name is spoken in these rituals: breathed in, drawn down through the body, sent out with the Sign of the Enterer, and closed with the Sign of Silence.
The pentagram ritual says “Say (i.e., vibrate) I H V H”. This is Liber O's account of what vibrating means, from the chapter before the rituals.
Each step gives the action in plain language, the spoken words with their Hebrew, and the corresponding line from Liber O in The Equinox I:2 (1909). The drawings follow those instructions.
(a)
Stand with the arms stretched out.
(a) Stand with arms outstretched. (See Illustration.)
(b)
Breathe in deeply through the nostrils, imagining the name entering with the breath.
(b) Breathe in deeply through the nostrils, imagining the name of the God desired entering with the breath.
(c)
Let the name sink slowly: from the lungs to the heart, the solar plexus, the navel, the generative organs, and the feet.
(c) Let that name descend slowly from the lungs to the heart, the solar plexus, the navel, the generative organs, and so to the feet.
(d)
When it seems to touch the feet, step forward with the left foot, throw the body forward and shoot the hands out — the Sign of the Enterer — breathing the name out as it rushes up through the body.
(d) The moment that it appears to touch the feet, quickly advance the left foot about twelve inches, throw forward the body, and let the hands (drawn back to the side of the eyes) shoot out, so that you are standing in the typical position of the God Horus, and at the same time imagine the Name as rushing up and through the body, while you breathe it out through the nostrils with the air which has been till then retained in the lungs. All this must be done with all the force of which you are capable.
(e)
Draw the left foot back and lay the right forefinger on the lips — the Sign of Silence.
(e) Then withdraw the left foot, and place the right forefinger upon the lips, so that you are in the characteristic position of the God Harpocrates.
It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.
It is a sign that the student is performing this correctly when a single “Vibration” entirely exhausts his physical strength. It should cause him to grow hot all over, or to perspire violently, and it should so weaken him that he will find it difficult to remain standing.
It is a sign of success, though only by the student himself is it perceived, when he hears the name of the God vehemently roared forth, as if by the concourse of ten thousand thunders; and it should appear to him as if that Great Voice proceeded from the Universe, and not from himself.
The order's instruction has the name spoken inwardly and the whole body felt to throb with it, the vibration sent out to the ends of the quarter. The edition is in copyright and is cited, not quoted.