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Shadowclasping: By: William Hunter (Yellow Circle) A Ritual Process Wherein The Alchemist Consciously Reaches Within to Change the Interplay of Light and Dark according to Her own Will. Fear is an internal state which we as a species have evolved as a survival response to danger. The famous fight-or-flight behavior common to mammals has apparently served countless generations of our ancestors in their four f's: fighting, feeding, fucking, fleeing, which were the limits of the activities that they as primitive, barely human anthropoids,saw as being possible. The purpose of this working is an affirmation that, occasionally, even we practitioners of the Mystic Arts act outside that range of mammalian activities. To step beyond your fear is the second task that any person must perform to take conscious control over their life, their evolution. There is no escape from this requirement. There is no real progress in your life or evolution if, once reaching this initiation, you fail to take it and succeed. The initiation of Fear admits for no middle ground. We, each and every one of us, make a choice and it is a choice as simple and as ponderous as the choice to breathe. We surrender to our Fear or we do not. If we surrender then we become the slaves to our fear. It will require of us that we forgo all the risks that are essential to ourselves. No matter how many masters you have who oppress you, all of these are helpless against your Will unless you have let yourself be mastered by your fear. If we step beyond our fear, we have exchanged the illusion of safety for the reality of change. This does not mean that we lose our fear. Happily the adrenalin thrill of danger is something we can always count on. What we gain is the ability to step beyond our fear and use it as a warning system instead of a yardstick by which all actions are measured. This working is an invocation of the shadow side of each of the four elements. For earth fears of being buried alive, for water drowning, for fire being burned alive, for air falling. These are obvious examples. Your own tortuously twisted psyche can certainly provide a cornucopia of infinitely more personal/fetishistic fears for your own enjoyment and elucidation than I could. In each case the fear is categorized under one of the four elements. Wether it is best to concentrate on a single fear for each element, or even to only invoke and integrate one particular fear during the course of a ritual, is best decided by each practitioner on a case by case basis. This working can be performed by one or many. Materials: Altar: Suitably furnished with the four elemental weapons. Also let all the tools on it be appropriate to the elements. Circle: May be drawn on the floor, redrawn on a mat, or traced around the area of the working. Incense: Use any scent that combines the four elemental attributions, or any that is attributed to the element of the spirit. Weapons: In the case of a group working must absolutely be consecrated to group workings. If no such implements exist, each person must bring their own consecrated weapon attributed to the element they will be embodying or all of their own weapons if they are not each embodying a single element. Temple: Let it be dimly lit with one priority in the lighting arrangements: for shadows to play and dance on every surface. The only other furnishings should be those that pertain to the elements. Images of deities are particularly unsuited to this working unless the concerns of the deity are almost exclusively elemental. Robes: The participant(s) may wear any clothing. Normal attire until the Invocation(s) begin is ideal. Once the Invocations begin, though, skyclad is the best being a metaphor of nakedness and armor shed for our fears for us to approach and learn from them. Time: There is no absolute requirement save that the Ritual take place at Night. This symbolizes the realm of the unconscious that we wish to enter. Drugs: These are not recommended save in the case of a fear so overwhelming that it could simply not be faced any other way. Such participants are potential weakspots in the Cone of Power, though, so be cautious. Music: Optional. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, or any suitably sinister and/or soothing melodies depending on the temperaments and Wills of the participants. The formula for the overall construction of the ritual is banish-invoke-banish. Of course the incontrovertible necessity of performing opening and closing banishing in a working in which literally unknown numbers of demons are being stirred up in order to examine and integrate them is too obvious to comment on here. As is the sub-moronically simple precaution of repeating any part of the working that is not performed exactly to the predetermined formula for the working. Mistakes are costly when dealing with our fears. Obsession is a natural state for fear when excited, and usually the Will of the practitioner is better served by integration. Immediate entering of the working in your magickal diary is of incalculable value but you know that or you don't. Joy be to you in the attainment of your Will. The Working BANISH: Let the Circle be drawn and inscribed using the greater and lesser banishing rituals of the Pentagram, or the Elemental invocation of the system used by the practitioner. Let there be one circle drawn by each participant, and let that circle be drawn and redrawn to their satisfaction. The final circle will be the Greater Pentagram Ritual to be drawn by one chosen beforehand by all concerned.( Or any other Ritual like the greater Pentagram.) In the case of one participant this final circle may not be necessary. In the case of a group working it may not be necessacary either if the Alchemists are familiar with each other, otherwise it is wise to include this final -- different -- circle as closure for the collective Will of the group. INVOKE: The sigil used for the invocation is the unicursal hexagram. This symbol, unlike the Star of David has two advantages: First it is not associated with any major religion, Second, its symbolism is not associated with the seven philosophical planets, but rather with the Sun and Moon as a duality containing all the attributions necessacary for a working of integration of the Conscious (Sun) with the Unconscious (Moon). The unicursal hexagram is for some a more harmonious blend of Fire and Water (Male/Female) symbols than the Star of David. This seems to me to be a function of the very structure of the drawn symbol itself. Instead of two triangles complete within themselves, that intersect at harsh angles to create a whole, the unicursal hexagram is better described as a whole from which the lines suggesting two triangles emerge from a common center. In that center can be placed any appropriate symbol, and it will remain a harmonious part of the whole, rather than being isolated. Each hexagram is to be traced in each quarter. This may be done with a weapon but is best accomplished by the bare hand. Unlike most tracings this is done with both hands, with the hexagrams for the active elements being drawn from the top point, and the hexagrams for the passive elements being traced from the bottom point. It is irrelevant which attributions for the elements to the quarters is used save that they are agreed to by the participants. In each quarter, trace the hexagram with the symbol of that element in the center. This symbol is traced with one hand, the non-dominant hand of the tracer. That is, if the invoker is left handed, let the symbol be traced with her right. And vice-versa. In the case of one ambidextrous, use one hand for the passive, and one for the actives or the hand you do not write with. The invocations may be done in any order as long as the invocations are done clockwise. When you have traced the hexagram, vibrate the appropriate Word of Power as you finish tracing the sigil of the element. Naturally, as you inhale you will be picturing the Word filling you with a radiance that travels from your nostrils throughout your entire body. Upon exhaling, imagine the Word leaping from you filling the entire quarter you are invoicing. Let this Word fill the multiverse with its resonance and through the power of your Will it will create a gate with the symbols you have astrally traced, to summon your fear or fears of this element to you face to face, within your circle. It bears noting that even if a fear is by no means wholly integrated by means of a single ritual, simply opening up to it will strengthen the will, understanding and imagination of the practitioner. These fears you summon may have any astral form(s) that are significant to you. Debate as to if each quarter should be invoked and banished separately, or if all four elemental shadows should be invoked and the banishing circles and hexagrams be traced at one time, must be resolved on a case by case basis. BANISHING: The banishing hexagrams are simply traced in each quarter in opposite sequence with the invoking hexagrams ie: first the elemental sigil, then the hexagram. If all four hexagrams are being traced at once at the end of the invocations, do so counter-cloc- kwise. Vibrate each word of power in the same way as you did for the invoking hexagrams. Picture the shadows leaving as they came, through each hexagram. Perform the banishing circles as described in the beginning, being even more careful, if possible, than with the opening banishing to insure smooth as possible integration. Words of Power: There are four of these. One for each quarter and Element. They must be decided on by each practitioner/group. The diversity of systems usable prevents me from being able to recommend any set of Words. I must also add a suggestion for a variation of this working in which there are five Unicursal Hexagrams, and Words. The fifth is attributed to Spirit. Expect unusual and vivid nightmares in the days immediately following this working. Nobody even implied that this integration business was going to be easy, or even what we usually consider fun (at least not in all its aspects!). You may also expect that at least some of the fear(s) integrated in the Circle are simply easier to face up to in day to day life. The true focus of Magick, and source of power for the practitioner is how s/he lives their daily life rather than these rituals. Use of this ritual for a focus for attacks on one's enemies is almost guaranteed to backfire. Joy be to You in the attainment of Your Will! Interested in communicating? Write to: Orgone Committee P.O. Box 614 Vanbrunt Station Brooklyn, NY 11215 SEX IS PEACE TRUE WILL NOT SLAVERY CONCIOUSNESS IS STRENGTH