Early rituals

Following the advice from MM, I've learned the Relaxation ritual (this one looks like a copy/paste from Kraig's book) and the Tarot Contemplation ritual (once again). I'm doing them each night, about an hour before going to bed. I'm supposed to write down my results in the diary, but honestly, I don't really feel/think anything when staring at the cards - I haven't read about the meanings of each card yet, that's for later. Once I get more used to it, things will surely become clearer.

As a friend of mine explained, a very important thing to learn at the very beginning is proper meditation. Something tells me learning it is one thing, but where the real power lies is actually doing it each day. This page has plenty of information about various forms of meditation, for both beginners and advanced people; I should probably make a list of interesting links and add them to the blog. I keep thinking that this is one of the most important aspects of not only magick, but everything even remotely spiritual-related in life - although regardless of how simple it is, meditating doesn't seem easy at all.

Another important issue is the LBRP - this is the first somewhat complex (with a beginner's eye, mind you) ritual that's tackled in MM, and also the most important, it seems. As someone said, those who dismiss it merely for its banishing properties are unworthy of performing it, it's so much more than that. Now my problem is that, scouting teh internets, I managed to find Frater Osiris' modified version, suitably titled the New Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. However I look at it, he does seem to have quite a few good points and while this one differs a bit from the one found in MM, I promised myself from the very start that I would not blindly follow one person's teachings, but instead research other methods, opinions and advice. In fact, this is something recommended by Kraig himself; so with all this said, I decided to go with this version, but quickly afterwards, I stumbled upon an even more refined variation, this time by a certain Frater Orthus 936. Well, one thing lead to another, and this is the one I'm going to stick with - yes, I'm well aware that there are a trillion versions out there, later on I will want to try the one from The Bible of the Adversary. This modified Golden Dawn version however, is very good to start out with, regardless of path.

In order to make learning it easier, I've written down a condensed version of the ritual, which goes like this:

1. Face E → Forehead → EHEIEH
2. Groin → MALKUTH
3. Right shoulder → VE GEBURAH
4. Left shoulder → VE GEDULAH
5. Osiris risen → LE-OLAH
6. Osiris slain → IAO
7. E → Air Pent. → Enterer → EHEIEH → Silence
8. N → Earth Pent. → Enterer → ADONAI → Silence
9. W → Water Pent. → Enterer → EHLOAH → Silence
10. S → Fire Pent. → Enterer → AGLA → Silence
11. Face E → Osiris slain → Before me, RAPHAEL [yellow, wand, wind]
12. Behind me, GABRIEL [blue, cup, waterfalls]
13. On my right hand, MICHAEL [red, flaming sword, warmth]
14. And on my left, URIEL [green, wheat, fertile landscape]
15. For about me flame the pentagrams and within me shines the six-rayed star!
16. Forehead → EHEIEH
17. Groin → MALKUTH
18. Right shoulder → VE GEBURAH
19. Left shoulder → VE GEDULAH
20. Osiris risen → LE-OLAM
21. Osiris slain → IAO

It's easy to follow if you're somewhat familiar with the ritual. If you desire to learn it as well, I recommend you to write your own list instead of simply copying mine, it should be a lot more effective. I don't really like writing things phonetically, so first I had to learn how to pronounce the words, which is not an issue, MM helps with that. I suspect the pronounciations aren't that important as long as you know what you mean. As you can probably see, the ritual itself is made of four major parts (actually five, the last part being identical to the first):

1. (1-6) - The Kabbalistic Cross
2. (7-10) - The construction of the Circle
3. (11-14) - The invocation of the Archangels
4. (15) - The affirmation of the Circle
5. (16-21) - The Kabbalistic Cross

With all this written down, learning the ritual should be easy and fast. I intend to do this at least once every day, perhaps eventually end up doing the LIRP in the morning and the LBRP in the evening. I found two helpful videos, things are a lot easier when we can see them:

• This one is very well done, but it's missing the Sign of the Enterer
• And this one, which does have the sign

There are infinite ways to start out (plenty of forum posts over at various communities), I suggest to do your research and stick to what you feel most comfortable with. Eventually you'll be modifying things to suit your needs and tastes and you might end up with something completely different, but, most importantly, a paradigm you're 100% comfortable with.