Notes on Keeping a Magical Diary

Below you will find various authors notes on keeping a magical diary gleaned from
the web. I do not own copyright nor claim copyright ownership over the following
material. The following posts are for entertainment purposes only and copyright
remains with the original authors.
Used under the Fair Use Licence 2016.

Notes On The Magickal Diary

August 27, 2008 by Peter Vaughn
The practice of keeping a Magickal Diary is as old as dirt. We can see the old
Grimoires in just about any book shoppe, and also online. The fascinating diaries of
John Dee and Edward Kelly are being re-constructed and the originals are in the
British Museum.
Aleister Crowley said that it was far better to fail at a Magickal ceremony than to fail
to record it. The magicians diary is his chief asset. Recording what worked, and what
didnt, aids the magician in all future workings. Imagine writing a ritual, and having
spectacular results, and then failing to record it. In a years time you decide to repeat
the Operation. But you never bothered to record the particulars: moon phase, weather,
your mood, the day and hour of your working, etc. What then? This is the folly of
Magick without method. And it lowers your Magick to the realm of guesswork. Your
Magickal progress can be best analyzed through your own Magickal record. How else
would you see your progress?
Many beginners are overwhelmed at the thought of keeping such a diary. They often
ask what is proper to put into it. I always suggest that anything relevant to your Work
and progress. Ive seen Magickal diaries online that seem to have taken this concept
to the extreme, practically recording each and every bowel movement or else they
include any silly, stray thought that enters their minds.
Some have suggested keeping the diary on the computer. I once scoffed at the idea
because if you ever find yourself w/out a computer for a time, it may present a
problem. And yet, in looking at it again, there are some advantages. For one thing, it
is probably more aesthetically pleasing. You can use coloured fonts, and more
importantly, include pictures, which add greatly to its look and usefulness. Ive
always been old-fashioned and merely laughed at the thought of keeping my Magickal
journal on the computer; but now Im not so sure. But the main thing is to always
keep a record of your Magick. I can go back years and see exactly what I was up to,
and with the wisdom of a little more age, see where I went wrong, and where I went
right.

In my next post, I will take this subject a step further by actually creating a servitor,
going through all of the steps that I would use, and showing exactly how I would add
the entry into my Magickal journal.

Basics 2: The Magical Diary

Written by Alan

Thursday, 01 March 2007

The Point
1). A means of improving magical methods by acting as a record of experiments;
2). A goad to further work (there's nothing quite like a blank page to give you a kick
up the arse);
3). A method of integration;
4). The provision of a better record than your memory;
5). The diary renders predilections explicit, either as an indicator for specialisation
or high time you tried something new.
The Practice
1). Get a fancy journal;
2). Record your magical activity every day. That means, if you did nothing, write it
down!
3). Include: Date, Time, Activity, Results and any speculations.
Expected results
Keeping a magical diary will make you a better magician for all of the reasons given
under 'The Point'.

AN OPEN EPISTLE ON THE MAGICKAL DIARY

by Frater Achad Osher Copyright (C) Cornelius 2006
(This paper is adapted from series of lessons distributed by the AA titled
The Magickal Essence of Aleister Crowley, Understanding the New Aeon
through the teachings of the Great Beast.)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.-AL I:40
This article will discuss the first and most important requirement often
overlooked or taken lightly by the average would-be magician. If this practice is
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ignored one borders on very dangerous waters. This is no idle threat. I'm talking about
the practice of keeping a Magickal Diary or Record. The latter implies the record of
specific magickal working(s) while the diary is a personal overview of one's life
activities which may, in fact, include magickal records. Like every magickal exercise,
the theory of this practice is based in simplicity but it is multilayered and includes
intricate reasons for the advanced student. I find it tragic that some 'self-help' books
reportedly published by serious students of magick don't even bother to discuss the
Magickal Diary, or they give it such a weak overview that it offers little help for the
novice. Must I remind these authors that it was Aleister Crowley who said in Magick
Without Tears that "The first and absolutely essential task for the Aspirant is to write
his Magical Record." (p.491) Shouldn't these authors at least include something about
this seemingly simplistic requirement? Although, in all honesty, I might point out that
it was also Crowley who stated in the same book that the student "should do
nothing ... which he does not understand." (p.377) Maybe this statement holds the
clue as to why some authors avoid the topic while others have kept their statements

up a copy of Aleister Crowley's novel The Diary of a Drug Fiend. At the age of 46 the
Great Beast dictated this masterpiece to Leah Hirsig, his Scarlet Woman, while both
were staying in a room at 31 Wellington Square in Chelsea. Reportedly it took him
twenty-seven days, twelve and a half hours to complete it. For any magician it is a
must to read. This is probably the best material Crowley has written on the theory
behind the Magickal Record. As the title implies, the diary is central to the cure of
two drug addicts. It is a complicated story and often misunderstood by babbling
sensationalists who, having never read the book, believe it's simply about the joy of
drugs which is far from true. It is the story of a young couple who traveled throughout
Europe in a madness of drug addiction only to end up at the Abbey of King Lamus, a
Master Adept, who attempts to free them from their curse. The book is layered with
useful hints and views spewed forth by King Lamus. He expounds upon keeping a
record as an attempt to discover the reasons behind the couples' problems with drug
addiction, amongst other things. I think Sister Athena, a member of the Abbey, said it
best when she turned to the couple, saying, "the Magical Record is always the first

"development of the Magical record is by far the most important of one's weapons.
How to use the Record is not easy to explain; but there is a sort of knack which comes
to one suddenly." (p.382) Before such a knack can be understood we must first ask
ourselves, on a mundane level, what makes a Magickal Diary stand apart from some
plain old daily diary. For starters, some of you may want to run out and buy one of
those cute little blank books with a picture on the cover or purchase one of those
ready-made spiral diaries which have the dates neatly printed at the top of each page.
Please, don't. These prefab diaries are limiting and extremely restrictive, remember
Liber AL vel Legis warns us that the only sin is restriction. (AL I:41) Some days your
entry may be a paragraph, other days you may want to write nothing at all, while
some entries could run twenty pages. Don't limit yourself into an unconscious mental
block of a single page entry because of some preprinted pulp. In fact, you shouldn't
use any book which is already bound as loose paper is far better for the beginner.
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Remember, you're a scientist and although a note pad, bound or not, is always a
good idea for immediate thoughts, it is not your final Magickal Diary. As for myself,
during the course of every day I am continually jotting down what occurs on my note
pad for convenience. Later, everything which I've written down is transferred into a
final record. It is my suggestion that one uses a specific time of the day set aside for
just such a task. I usually begin my day by writing out yesterday's events from my
notes while they are still fresh in my mind. This allows me to reflect upon yesterday
in order to fulfill today. Occasionally, during the day itself, I am given the luxury of
typing out my record but usually I limit such to events which require immediate
attention due to a conversation, an event or, especially, the emotional mood of the
moment. A computer can be used to keep an on-going log, day by day. This is far
easier. However, be sure you have a back- up disk in case an 'elemental' tampers with
the hard drive. You might laugh at this thought but, years back, when I was first
beginning my workings, my own handwritten diary was messed with on a few
occasions while being under lock and key. Things were drawn and scribbled across

but there is no easy answer to this question. Can we tell a botanist to use the same
format as that of a brain surgeon in labeling flowers and plants? Of course not. No
two records will ever be the same because no two needs are alike. You must
determine what is required for yourself. Still, there are a few mandatory things which
must be entered in your record. For instance, a few things which should be included
with each entry is the date, day of the week, the Sun sign and Moon sign. With time it
will become apparent why these are important but such usually occurs only in one's
retrospect of a past period. Also include the exact time, place and who might have
been present when you do any rituals, especially Liber Resh vel Helios. Any
comments about how you felt or quirks which occurred while doing this ritual should

your Magickal Diary. If something went well, acknowledge it. If it didn't and was a
failure, tear your soul as to why and learn to correct it. Do not create phantoms in this
book. Yes, the world is your playground to do with as you want in order for your
spirit to gain experience. However, it is important to acknowledge that there is a time
and place for everything. There must be some place where honesty prevails to the
utmost. The Magickal Diary is this place. Although most beginners are unaware of
how it works, the diary reflects a discourse which is being established between the
mundane, your spirit and your Holy Guardian Angel. Only with time will you
understand how it works. Do not take it lightly. Furthermore, nothing will lead to the
destruction of a magician quicker, when reaching the threshold of the Abyss, than if
he or she laid a foundation based on deceit and lies. Such magician can not, I repeat,
can not cross Abyss. They are destined either for madness or the Black Brotherhood
and their actions shall reveal which path they have taken. Remember, what you write
in your diary is merely words, which are earthed out onto the mundane plane in order
to follow the magickal principles of birth, life and death. The next stage for these, or
any words, is that they plant seeds deep in your unconsciousness for further growth. If
you're fabricating deceit in your Magickal Diary then what do you expect will come
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to bloom in order to fulfill such written aspirations? It's quite simple -- phantoms
breed more phantoms, which are inevitably the food of Choronzon upon reaching the

paper. For now, let me explain one way a beginner can use the Magickal Diary in
relation to this ritual. Perform and record your doing Liber Resh, let's say, for a
required test period of a month. At the end of this period you should make a count of
the exact number of times which you have done each adoration. If you're normal there
will always be one adoration which you do the most and one the least. With time and
practice this unbalanced quality must be overcome by doing that which you have
lacked the most. Liber Resh opens an internal door and I can't stress enough that it is
mandatory for a student to learn the proper proportions. The door should be of equal
sides, not lop-sided. A distorted image draws down unbalanced qualities and,
remember, any unbalanced quality in your psyche can become a very dangerous
obsession. It is this reason that recording and reviewing the quantity of each Resh is
very important. The door which opens is like a flower slowly blooming in the
Muladhara Chakra. Its petals should be radiant and of equal size to enable the current
or tides to flow unhampered within, regardless if a ritual you are planning taps into
only one particular elemental tide. The purity of the overall current is mandatory even

Resh into a square. Let's say each ten days reflects one inch. If the month had thirty
days and you did the Air adoration a full 30 times, the Fire 20, the Water 25 and the
Earth adoration only 10 you would only be able to draw a box 3" x 2" x 2 1/2" x 1" ...
hardly a balanced four-fold door in your psychic anatomy. Remember, the number

Binah (Mother) on the Tree of Life. In most renditions of this Tarot card there is a
depiction of a flowing stream. This symbolizes not only the four-fold tides or Lifeforce, but also the basic stream of unconsciousness which is found in all of humanity.
If the stream is unbalanced it cannot flow evenly. A blockage will occur in your
psyche, obsession is easy at this point and it usually occurs in the direction of the
strongest element or impression put into the stream. It is very important that we allow
the stream to flow unhampered so that the impressions or images put there by an
entity, like one's own Holy Guardian Angel, can be clear and pure. Otherwise instead
of being a vehicle for the communications, or descending Gnosis, we tend to interfere
with such on an almost unconscious level, often becoming obsessed by the
communicated imagery without even knowing it. Aleister Crowley warns us in The
Book of Lies that "no impression must be allowed to dominate you, only to fructify
you; just as the artist, seeing an object, does not worship it, but breeds a masterpiece
from it. (p.19) I'd like to quote a chapter from Aleister Crowley's The Book of Lies
which refers to the mysteries of the Tarot card of The Empress, even if some of my
critics state that it will go over the head of most of my readers.


COMMENTARY ()

PEACHES

Daleth is the Empress of the Tarot, the

Soft and hollow, how thou dost overcome letter of Venus, and the title, Peaches,
the hard and full!
again refers to the Yoni.
It dies, it gives itself; to Thee is the fruit! The chapter is a counsel to accept all
impressions; it is the formula of the
Be thou the Bride; thou shalt be the
Scarlet Woman; but no impression must
Mother hereafter.
be allowed to dominate you, only to
fructify you; just as the artist, seeing an
To all impressions thus. Let them not
object, does not worship it, but breeds a
overcome thee; yet let them breed within masterpiece from it. This process is
thee. The least of the impressions, come exhibited as one aspect of the Great
to its perfections is Pan.
Work. The last two paragraphs may have
some reference to the 13th Aethyr (see
Receive a thousand lovers; thou shalt bear The Vision and The Voice).
but One Child.
This child shall be the heir of Fate the
Father.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/crowley/lies/7.htm
I'm not going into all the sexual innuendoes regarding how peaches refers to the
vagina, "soft and hollow," overcoming the 'hard' because this chapter in Lies might be
far too difficult for the novice to understand but, never-the-less, I made the above
reference for those few who might read between the lines and grasp further insight on
all levels. The average person might simply be asking, "How can we avoid becoming
dominated by an impression which flows through us?" I can only say that this is
difficult to explain because, to the average reader, this might imply that one is
manipulating the communications. This is not true. The 'tampering' usually takes
place deep in the subconscious or within the flow of the tides. We must learn to keep
these tides moving in a balanced order. By doing this we can rule out a person's
psyche effecting the impression. An unbalanced door symbolizes a stream moving in
torrents, chaotically and uncontrolled through our system, while a four-fold door tells
us the tides are moving perfectly in harmony. If everything is running smoothly the
images placed into the waters by one's HGA flow through us. It's that simple. If you
find that there is one tide which you perform or acknowledge more than the others
then it reflects the widest opening by which a particular current can move in
abundance. As an example, let us say it's the Air tide. Even if the Air tide is what you
have decided to utilize in a given elemental ritual there is great, great danger if you
continue. You need the other three elemental qualities, in equal quantity, to flow
through you to balance the Air impressions being received. Without them obsession is
almost certainly guaranteed.
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After writing the above paragraph I realize that I need to elaborate the last few
lines because I can see some idiot's mind grinding its wheels right now over the
possibility that I've given them an easy way out. Let me explain clearly. If you're
doing a group ritual and you review the records of everyone who is going to be
involved in an elemental or magickal working and find that, due to the lack of a
specific adoration, none of them are completely compatible with the ritual you're
planning, do not rewrite it to fit the incompetence of the whole. You're only asking for
trouble. Discovering the 'strongest' tide is not the reason for reviewing the quantity of
times that individuals do the adorations. You're suppose to be looking for a balanced,
even flow of elemental currents within the people who are involved in the ritual.
Consider yourself a scientist. If you've set out to accomplish a specific goal and find
that the staff around you is not qualified, you fire them and hire people who are.
Friendship has no place in a temple, especially if they're not committed to the ritual at
hand by laying the appropriate foundation. Ideally the door, like the flower blooming
in the Muladhara Chakra, should be perfectly balanced within each person in the ritual
chamber, even those who are only there as witnesses. After all, this is not a spectator
sport. Everyone present can and does effect the outcome of the ritual. If people aren't
committed enough to do Liber Resh then they shouldn't be involved in one's

paper distributed within Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis states that "the
greatest tool a magician has to aid him in his noble quest for attainment is his own
Magical Diaries." (The Magical Diary, The Minerval Obligations, Lesson One
(Connecticut: Brocken Mountain Lodge OTO, 1979), p. 1.) This is, of course, true.
The paper continues to explain that all individuals who join the order by taking the
first step of Minerval Initiation are obligated to begin keeping such a record. That was
then. Today the fraternity has tragically dropped its magickal repertoire and no longer
requires any obligations from one degree to another. Although, in all fairness, it hasn't
discouraged such practices. This same unpublished OTO paper acknowledges that to
"understand why this Diary is important, think of it as an intricate chart which has the
capability of guiding an Initiate in any direction, or path which he chooses. Without
this guide most path-finders perish in the vast wilderness of their own minds. Thus the
more in depth an Initiate goes is to his own benefit. For it will enable him to venture
deeper in an understanding of his own inner being. A shallow Magical Diary with few
entries symbolizes the same achievement in reality. It also symbolizes the depth
which he has sunk in his efforts to penetrate the very core of his soul in his pursuits of
his True Will." (Ibid., p. 3.) What the author implies is that you must include as much
data as possible, leaving very little out. Exactly what to include would be determined
by the individual and the ritual itself, although the golden rule here is that more is

Remember, if scientists do not keep a record then their 'alleged accomplishments' are
never taken seriously. This same attitude should be extended toward any Thelemite
who likewise doesn't keep a Magickal Diary. If they claim any lofty accomplishment,
especially magickal degrees, and have no record to show for it, then take everything
they say as being suspect of deceit. I have vivid memories of Grady McMurtry joking
7

that those of the Black Brotherhood never keep records, nor commit into writing their
accomplishment, out of fear that such would expose them for what they truly are.
According to them, you're simply suppose to 'accept their Word' as to their greatness.
I agree with Crowley that this is one of the reasons why the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn failed. It embraced the Black Brotherhood and allowed its membership
to claim degrees without accomplishing the simplest of obligations, as for example
the Magickal Diary. For any real magician it is important to realize that you must lay
an appropriate foundation. I can not stress it strongly enough, Aleister Crowley tells
us that the first and absolutely essential task for all students is to keep a Magical

Crowley makes another important point. He warns the student in Book Four that
"there are very great difficulties to be overcome in the training of the mind. Perhaps
the greatest is forgetfulness, which is probably the worst form of what the Buddhists
call ignorance. Special practices for training the memory may be of some use as a
preliminary for persons whose memory is naturally poor. In any case the Magical
Record ... is useful and necessary." (p. 71.) It is no secret that the average person lacks
perfect recollection. Often past memories about a given incident fade into obscurity or
change to help a newly fostering mythos. By writing a diary you begin to train
yourself to continually dredge out of your mind daily events before they are forgotten.
The entire key to this process of recollection is that it occurs on an unconscious level.
You're not aware of the subtle changes occurring over time. However, your
recollection of events definitely becomes sharpened, and after awhile you realize that
you can remember the most minute details. It is mandatory for a magician to have this
thought process, especially if doing astral workings and ceremonial rituals. For this
reason and this reason alone, training the mind to write out a Magickal Diary is a

Diary. If you are truly a New Aeonic pathfinder who enjoys sailing off into uncharted
waters, you will inevitably hear the terms "obsession and possession" being thrown
around. Madness is real for anyone who plays in the astral waters of their mind. It
should not be taken as an idle threat. However, on the most mundane level, if every
early explorer listened to the fears of their times--that the Earth was flat, or that
monsters lived in the deep who sought to devour their ships--we would still be living
in the Dark Ages. Yes it is true, many early explorers lost their sanity and their lives
as they forged their way into the unknown parts of our globe. However, those who
followed used the maps and diaries of earlier explorers so that they might continue
even further. This general statement is important to understand. No matter if you're an
explorer of Self or the invisible world all around you, you're still a pathfinder into
uncharted waters. Regarding these 'maps and diaries' Crowley wrote in Magick
Without Tears, "Without this you are in the position of a navigator with neither chart
nor log." (p. 286.) If you did a one night stand in magick, a shabby record implies the
lack of ability to determine the results of your venture. If you were to continue again
and again, night after night, careful and intricate records are definitely required of
your voyage to enable you to arrive at your destination. To continue forward you must
reflect upon the past and the steps which you've already taken to get to where you're
now standing. If you do not study your own history, or reflect upon previous diary
8

records, you're doomed to repeat the same errors. If errors become apparent, study
them and determine what is required to overcome these problems blocking Self. If
things worked all too well then obviously you've planned things correctly. Therefore,
duplicate your successes and go further. You are a scientist and magick is no child's

students of Aleister Crowley's teachings are well aware. I don't feel the need to detail
how to use your magical record to achieve this, except again quoting Crowley'
Magick Without Tears, "The construction of this Record ... leads to the acquisition of
the Magical Memory-the memory of your previous incarnations." (p. 491.) The Beast
has written much on this topic and students wishing to learn more can easily find
further data if they look. As I've said, this practice is for the more advanced student
who has kept damn good diaries for many years and who knows the correct way to
'begin'. In this article we are not concerned with this type of 'beginning' because it
requires more thought than the average person can handle and is usually something

expect. I have given you only a brief over-view. The bottom line is that, regardless of
one's experiments, a shabby record offers little help if such is required. I can not stress
enough the need of creating an accurate and in-depth record of any magickal working,
especially into Self. In Magick in Theory & Practice it clearly states, "To do magick
without a record is like trying to run a business without book-keeping." (p. 141.)
Throughout his books Crowley continually uses examples like this to explain why a
diary is needed. He adds, "if you call in an auditor to investigate a business, and when
he asks for the books you tell him that you have not thought it worth while to keep
any, you need not be surprised if he thinks you every kind of an ass." (Ibid) Burn that

time you'll obtain a knack on how to use your Magical Diary. This knack becomes
apparent in your relationship with your Holy Guardian Angel. If rituals like Liber
Resh vel Helios, the Banishings and Will are performed over a period of time, your
record will begin to speak to you in a fashion that only you will understand. This only
occurs through the descent of Gnosis and requires the perfect recollection of thought.
Remember, keeping your Magickal Diary trains you in this particular ability, even
though you'll probably be unaware of it when you begin. This process takes time. You
can not start a diary today and expect results in a week. However, once you start
obtaining Inner Knowledge you'll become driven to pursue Self even further and your
angel will guide you step by step, bringing you to the very threshold of your Star and
the Laws of your True Will. If you haven't bothered to keep a Magickal Diary there
can be no serious reflection upon Self and without this it is virtually impossible for an
angel to descend unless one lives an extremely pious lifestyle which seems impossible
for Thelemites. So, if you haven't started yet, begin to keep a Magickal Diary today.
Love is the law, love under will.-AL I:57.

FROM MY MAGICAL DIARY

By DeShaun Johnson (Frater E.L.O.)

Introduction: I was a skinny kid brought up by my mother. I never knew my

father. When I started school, I was so small that the administrators wanted to
hold me back a year. But my mother wouldn't hear of it.
So within the first few weeks, I was made fun of by the bigger kids at school. I
told my mother and she said that I had to stand up for myself. "Jesus helps
those who helps themselves," she used to say. Then she'd break up in
laughter because she knew that wasn't correct English. She wasn't making
fun of those who didn't know better, but of those who choose to speak
incorrectly just to be accepted by some in the American/African community.
She refused to call herself an African-American, saying she was an American
first and then honored her African heritage. She insisted I learn to read and
write English properly, and that was one of the few classes where I always got
A's. She was a devout Christian, too, and brought me up that way.
As I got older, the insults from bigger kids started to change to beatings. I was
approached by some members of a gang (I won't say which one, but the
name of the gang is associated with the name of a street). They said that if I
joined, they could protect me. I talked to my mother about it and I thought her
head was going to explode! She took me to church and we prayed about it for
hours. The next day she picked me up after school and took me to a dojo to
learn Karate. Within six months, the big kids didn't pick on me any more.
By the time I was in high school, I was considered a "weird loner." I wasn't
part of a gang. I was too small for any sports. I wasn't interested in any of the
school clubs. I studied Christianity and always had a Bible with me. If you're
wondering, as long as I didn't bring it out in any class and didn't try to share it
with anyone, the school administrators left me alone.
In high school I became friends with another "weird loner," Curtis. He insisted
that people call him "Chuku." I asked him what that was all about and he said
he'd tell me all about it after school. Later that day he revealed that "Chuku"
was the name of the supreme god of the Ibo people. The Ibo came from an
area of Africa that is now in Nigeria. "Chuku," he explained, "is like the Father
part of the Christian trinity. Everything good comes from Chuku. He created
the universe and brings the rains that allow the plants to grow. And just as
Jesus is the Son of God, Chuku has the Sun for his symbol, and the Sun
"dies" each year at the winter solstice and is born again to bring the sunlight
and rain."
I was in shock. "That's not Christianity. That's Paganism. That's Satanism.
That's evil."
Chuku laughed aloud. "Yeah, I know. That's what everyone says. But it's not
true. Let me tell you about what I believe. Then you tell me if you think it's
10

evil." So, he shared what he believed and the practices he followed. Although
it wasn't what I believed or did, it didn't sound evil to me. "Some people call
me a Wiccan or a Witch," he said. "You'll have to make up your own mind if
that's evil."
I was really mixed up. What he said sounded fine, but I had learned about the
evils of Paganism and the occult. He gave me some books to read about
Wicca and the religion of the Ibo. What I read sounded okay to me, but my
upbringing kept me from adopting either. I was, and am, a Christian.
Curiously, these books on Witchcraft and the Ibo also described some things
about mysticism and spirituality that were related to Christianity. This
surprised me, as I had never heard anything about this stuff. I started to study
it, and a year ago, on the day I graduated from high school, I vowed to myself
that I would become a Christian Ceremonial magician.
My mother doesn't make a lot of money and I only have a part-time job while I
attend City College. That means I don't have a lot of free time, but I am still
working on my magical studies. But it's slow, and I don't have anyone to work
with or help me, so I'm stuck working exclusively through books.
One of the things I read about is keeping a magical diary. I've been keeping
one since I took my personal vow. Below is a summary of certain aspects of
several months worth of diary entries. I've added some references to help
people follow along.
THE ADORATIONS
I started doing the Four Adorations, which are related to the movement of the
Sun. However, I didn't like all of the references to Egyptian gods, so I changed
them to Jesus at sunrise (being born again), Jehovah at noon, Jesus again at
sunset (He "dies" so He can be born again at sunrise), and the Holy Spirit at
midnight.
THE LESSER BANISHING RITUAL OF THE PENTAGRAM
I was able to use this ritual with no changes. It only took me a week to
memorize it, but it took me a month to be able to really do it. I practiced it
morning and night. For a time I did a Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram
ritual in the morning and the Banishing at night, but I didn't notice any
difference in my life, so I went back to just the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the
Pentagram morning and night.
By the end of four months of twice-daily practice, this ritual really sizzled. The
pentagrams were bright blue and when I did the ritual in a candlelit room,
there would be a faint bluish glow everywhere. I felt stronger and for some
reason, I would stand a bit taller.
11

There are some guys in the neighborhood, big guys with lots of rock-hard
muscles, who are not good to mess with. Everybody walking down the street
would give them lots of room. Recently, they have started crossing the street
to avoid being on the same sidewalk as me. I tried not doing the LBRP for a
couple of weeks and they treated me like everyone else. Within two weeks
after I started it again, they were going to the other side of the street when I
walked by. It was proof enough for me that the ritual had something to do with
it.
After six months or so doing the LBRP, I felt filled with power and energy. And
that was the problem. Where do I go from here? What do I do with it? After
looking at a couple of web sites, it seemed like the next thing I should learn
was the Middle Pillar Ritual. From the instructions I found on the internet, it
seemed easy, but I didn't feel like anything was happening. So I went to the
bookstore and got a copy of the book, The Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie.
BOOK REVIEW
I was surprised to see an entire 300-page book dedicated to one ritual. As I
went through the book, I discovered that it is actually two books. New in this
edition is a book by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero called The
Balance Between Mind and Magic. This makes sense, because much of
Regardie's original book focused on psychology. The Cicero's also added lots
of notes for each of the chapters in Regardie's original text, so this edition is
probably the best.
The key to this book is the order of basic magical ritual given on page 40:
1. The Qabalistic Cross.
2. The Lesser Banishing ritual of the Pentagram.
3. The Formulation of the Middle Pillar and the Tree of Life in the Sphere
of Sensation.
4. The Methods of Circumambulation, and the Vibratory Formula of the
Middle Pillar.
5. Ceremonial Magic.
It is my hope that this book will enable me to do the final three steps as I
already do steps one and two.
LEARNING THE MIDDLE PILLAR
Regardie writes (p. 69) that it his "confirmed belief that several weeks at the
very least of patient application to the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the
Pentagram should precede any effort to perform the Middle Pillar. For one
thing, it will have trained the student in several little tricks of routine and
magical techniques quite apart from the intrinsic virtues of the exercise, which
is to purify and cleanse the entire sphere of personality to the end that the
12

higher self may manifest through a purified body and mind. If the exercise has
been labored at for two or three months, performing it two or three times
during the course of each day, the student will approach the further stages of
magic well-prepared, quite able to cope with and accommodate the increased
vitality and power which will pour through him."
Although I had already been doing this ritual for several months, I rededicated
myself to it and started doing it three times a day. I was excited to read (p. 70)
Regardie's opinion that, "the exercise described as the Middle Pillar is the
groundwork of all actual developmental work. It is a process that is the basis
of magic. That this has been but seldom realized is obviously at the root of the
futile attempts to do ceremonial and perform ritual, of which the general public
hears every now and again. Even students of magic of many years standing
have been guilty of negligence in this respect, and also in failing to
recommend it to their successors."
As I understand it, the basics of this ritual are simple. It works with the famous
Qabalistic diagram known as the Tree of Life. The thing is, the Tree of Life is
not just a picture, it also really exists within our auras. By energizing the
central column of the Tree of Life (which equates, in part, with the spine), we
can bring a tremendous influx of balanced energy into ourselves. This we can
use to energize all parts of our being (the "circumambulation" he described,
although the Ciceros, in a footnote, say it would be more correct to call it the
"circulation" of energy [p. 46]) as well as direct it outside of us (do magic).
Not long ago I saw a movie on TV called "The Gate." It's about some kids who
muddle through some sort of magical ritual and end up opening up a "gate" to
another dimension filled with demons and such. Well, it's clear that this
doesn't happen. That's good, because if it did, everybody would be causing
trouble doing magic. In reality, to do magic requires preparation, practice, and
understanding.
And that's what most of The Middle Pillar is all about. The actual ritual itself is
fully described on pages 7273. For my use, I have listed the instructions from
the book in a numeric format:
1. "Stand upright, hands to side, eyes closed, breath being inhaled and
expired steadily. Above all the mind should be quiet, calm, and still."
2. Transfer your attention to the region immediately above the crown of
the head where you should "endeavor to visualize a sphere of white
brilliance...Let it be regarded with a certain sense of devotion, and
contemplated as being the spatial correlative or correspondence of the
vital core of..." your being.
3. "This devotional attitude should enliven it considerably, and the sense
of light and power, the first avenues of sense by which this higher
phase of consciousness may be grasped, should increase wholly
beyond anticipation."

13

4. At this point you should "vibrate three or four times, slowly, the name
Eheieh. This is a Hebrew divine name meaning 'I am' (or more
accurately 'I will be') a statement which in reality is all that one can
truthfully say of the self."
5. Steadfast in the contemplation of this source of power and
enlightenment, you "should endeavor to feel that an all-penetrant beam
of brilliance is emitted downwards towards the nape of the neck. Here it
widens, expanding to form a brilliant center similar to, though smaller in
diameter than, that above the head. Applying the same vibratory
technique here [to the name,Ye-hoh-voh E-loh-heem, you will]... again
feel the radiation of power and vitality. So marked and powerful should
this become at this juncture that even in the palms" of the hand will this
be felt.
6. This pattern is continued with the heart (Ye-hoh-voh El-oah ve-Da-ath),
the groin (Shah-dai El Chai), and the feet (Ah-doh-nai ha-Ah-retz).
"This very briefly is the technique. Little can be said which the zealous student
will not be able to discover through application to it. If the student spends
about five minutes in the contemplation of each Sephira on the middle
column, the exercise will take approximately twenty-five minutes to half an
hour. And surely there is no one so busy today who cannot devote at least
one half hour a day to the task of self-mastery, to the cultivation of spiritual
insight, and in the quest of his [or her] own divine nature."
CIRCULATING THE LIGHT
From what I've seen on the internet, many people think that this is the end of
it. But in chapter five of The Middle Pillar, Regardie goes on to discuss doing
something with the energy you have raised and placed into the power centers
associated with the spine/Middle Pillar. Regardie writes on page 86:
"Having been awakened from latency into some degree of activity, it is
necessary that the power that the centers generate should be circulated
through the invisible or psychic system. Failure to do this is, in my estimation,
one of the most potent sources of nervous trouble and disturbance
experienced by dabblers in occultism, who have experimented with various
amateur or incompletely delineated methods of awakening the psychic
centers. The energy thus awakened streams back and forth from the center.
But unless some method is devised for distributing it and thus relieving the
pressure, the center itself will in the course of time suffer derangement
through over stimulus, and there is bound to ensue some serious disturbance
to the nervous and psychic system...
"With every one of the five centers active and throwing power into the mind
and body, and there is a clear awareness of an actual column extending
interiorly from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, an entirely
different technique must now be pursued." Following are my interpretation of
the instructions:
14

1. Focus once again on the area above the head which should be like a
lamp of invisible light.
2. The energy from it passes down the head to the left shoulder, down the
left side of the body to the sole of the left foot, across to the right sole
and up the right side of the body to the shoulder and eventually back to
the energy center above the head.
3. Repeat this several times.
4. Repeat this process, only allow the energy to go down the front of the
face, down the front of the body, under the soles of the feet and up the
back to the top energy center.
5. Repeat this several times.
6. Note that these should have "produced wheels of power spinning
around the periphery of the aura or sphere of sensation at right angles,
as it were." (p. 87)
7. Focus in the energy center at the feet. Note its "inherent power of
stability and equilibrium and fertility." (p. 88)
8. Feel the energy wind up around you in tight spirals like the "act of
swathing or bandaging a leg" (p. 88) only do it for the entire body. The
bandage should be of pure white light. Continue upward until it reaches
the energy center at the top of your head.
MY RESULTS
I have been practicing these techniques completely, now, for a couple of
months. The results have been, to say the least, quite phenomenal.
I feel the energy growing and surging around me. Sometimes, the room
seems to glow with a faint, bluish color. When it is going really strongly, my
head sometimes feels like it might explode with all of the energy. When I
finish, my body feels like it is tingling or shivering. This sometimes lasts for
hours.
MY QUESTIONS
This leaves me with a bunch of questions:
1. Am I doing this right?
2. I'm not sure what Regardie means when it comes to using this for
magic. How is this done?
3. After I use this system and succeed with magic, what should I study
and practice next?
4. If you've been doing this work, what sort of experiences have you had?
What might I expect?

Editor's Note: The Middle Pillar by Israel Regardie (Edited and Annotated with
New Material by Chic Cicero & Sandra Tabatha Cicero) is Llewellyn
15

Worldwide, Ltd. All quotes are used by permission.

SOME STEPS TOWARDS MAGICAL

DISCIPLINE
Copyright 2003-2006 by Soror P.I.A.M.D.
Think of some activities which you perform every day of your life, with no
particular effort. You shower and brush your teeth? Of course. Make coffee and
eat a meal? Chat on the telephone to family or friends? Switch on the TV? Write
e-mails or surf the Net? Naturally, you say, who could get through the day
without doing one or all of these things? Theyre part of life, built into the daily
routine. Heres another question then: what about your magical work? Do you do
that every day too? Every day? .. Oh er well, Ive been busy lately, just
havent had much time. You know, work, friends, family commitments. Well, I
was about to start yesterday, but then the phone rang and I just didnt get round
to it. But Im definitely going to do something tomorrow.
Have you heard something along these lines before? Does it have an
uncomfortable ring of familiarity? The member in our imaginary scenario is
sincere in his motivation and has a genuine love for magical work, so why the
excuses? Why does he find it such a struggle to keep up a regular discipline of
daily rituals, and is there a way through this problem? Ive been through similar
phases myself. Ive used every excuse in the book and I could take a degree in
displacement activities. I am also, by nature, the laziest person on this side of the
Abyss. However, gradually, through painful trial and error and some hard lessons,
I have learned a few secrets about building and, most importantly, maintaining a
firm pattern of consistent daily discipline, which I will gladly share.
I originally trained as a music teacher, and I can perceive certain similarities
between magical and musical work. Both are concerned with the manipulation of
energy, vibration and emotion, and both require huge amounts of personal effort
and steady application. I was fortunate in being able to bring the discipline into
my magical work which Id learnt over the years as a musician, and it could be
that some of the insights which I gained will be useful to those who are struggling
to keep up their daily rituals.
There is no doubt that firm discipline, preferably formed during the earliest stages
of the work, will pay incalculable dividends later on. The establishment of this
discipline demands will-power, determination, self-mastery and self-knowledge,
16

all of which are essential attributes for the aspiring magician. The habit of daily
practice must become so embedded into the routine that it becomes virtually
impossible to neglect it. The magician, whether beginning or advanced, should
make contact with the Light/the Divine force every single day of his or her life.
This is the ideal, and it all sounds very fine. But what about the reality? The
reality is that we are human beings, with mood-swings, problems, jobs and
families, and we dont always feel spiritual, focused and disciplined. What
happens when we just dont feel like doing our daily rituals, when suddenly we
realise with a guilty shock that its actually a week since we performed the LBRP,
and we have started avoiding our mentor in the street? Why do many people
have such difficulty in keeping up their daily ritual work and, most importantly,
what can be done to help them?
The first step towards a well-grounded discipline is to have a thorough awareness
of the aims and purposes of the work. Most people find it difficult to be motivated
if they have no clear objective, so it is vital for the student to meditate seriously
on what s/he personally hopes to achieve through the ritual work. Our goaloriented society creates particular problems for students on the occult path, who
have been educated in the world to expect tangible results for their efforts. The
disciplined occult student will surely obtain results if s/he sincerely perseveres
but the main stumbling-block is that the results may not be immediately obvious.
This lack of a tangible result can lead frequently to disappointment and loss of
motivation in the early stages, if it is not properly understood. Sadly, many
beginning students arrive at the following apparently logical conclusion: 1) if I do
the daily rituals, I dont seem to get any results 2) if I dont do the daily rituals I
still get no results but, on the other hand, at least I dont have to make any
effort.
At this stage, it is vital to have faith in the process and to trust that, if you
persevere diligently, there will be results, although maybe not in an immediately
recognisable form. After all, if you plant a seed and water it regularly, you cant
see anything happening for some time. So do you just stop watering it? No, of
course not; this would be somewhat counter-productive. Instead, you must
simply continue to nurture the seed, while trusting that the creative process is
unfolding beneath the surface. Magical work is similar in this respect, and it is
certainly not only the neophyte who spends prolonged periods groping through
apparent darkness. Its during these frustrating, confusingly dry periods that a
mentor can be especially valuable: someone who has been through similar
problems, and who can help to maintain the students faith in the work, support
them and boost their motivation. The mentor, like the Kerux, can lead and light
17

the way through the darkness until the student can see the path ahead for
himself. (I feel, incidentally, that the Swedish word handledare, one who leads
by the hand, expresses this concept much more satisfactorily than the English
word mentor).
Having sincerely meditated on his/her personal aims and motivation, it is vital for
the student magician to form a clear will and intention to do the regular work.
This may sound obvious, but all too often there is a lack of firmness at the outset
which can undermine the work later on. There must be no vagueness here and no
room for excuses, unless in the case of severe illness or a family emergency. It
can be an excellent plan to make the intention into a formal, personal magical
vow, as this will help to guard against weakness during the difficult periods which
will inevitably come. It is never too late to do this. An experienced magical
colleague, after fighting a battle with inertia for over 10 years, performed a ritual
of solemn intent, wrote and signed a vow to his H.G.A. and fixed the document
over his altar as a perpetual reminder: today he claims that this one act
revolutionised his approach to his daily magical work. Such a vow, perhaps
together with a reading of the Neophyte Obligation, could be renewed on the
anniversary of ones initiation, in the form of a ritual of rededication.
However, even with firm intentions and a magical vow in place, the way of
discipline is never going to be easy, and there are certain techniques which can
assist in forming good working habits. If work and family allow, it is
advantageous to establish a routine of doing rituals at the same time in the same
place each day. This is the single most effective factor which I have discovered so
far. The human body and psyche adapt favourably to an established routine (this
can be seen even in very young children), and this natural tendency can be
usefully harnessed when attempting a regular discipline of any kind.
If possible, try to select a time which fits the natural cycle of your own personal
body-clock. If you are, as I am, a zombie in the mornings, then there is little
value in rising for dawn rituals at this stage. Its best to choose a time when you
are feeling alert and refreshed, and preferably not immediately before or after a
meal (both hunger and repletion can be equally distracting). For the first week or
so, try setting an alarm-clock for the chosen time, and stick to it faithfully. If your
body or mind object and rebel (and they will), simply ignore their protests and
carry on calmly with the work, always remembering the firmness of your original
intention. After a week of working regularly in this way, the alarm-clock is rarely
necessary something goes click in the brain at the appointed time, and this is
a very good sign that the routine is becoming firmly established and internalised.

18

As I mentioned earlier: in addition to selecting a regular time, it is helpful to do

the work in the same place each day. Of course, not everyone has the luxury of a
separate temple room; however, one area, even if it is only a desk or small table,
should be set aside as a permanent place for ritual practice, as this will be a
powerful aid towards triggering an appropriate state of mind for the work.
Wearing robes, using a favourite incense or wearing a particular item of magical
jewellery set aside for ritual use will all serve to enhance this trigger effect.
Later on, it will be quite easy to achieve the correct mood and focus without any
props, but until that happy stage is reached, it makes sense to use whatever
works best.
It is better not to be too ambitious regarding the duration of the ritual practice,
particularly if discipline has already been a problem. Over-fatigue will act as a
serious disincentive to further practice. Quality and regularity are much more
important than length: it is more valuable to do a modest, short session on a
regular daily basis than to indulge in lengthy ritual extravaganzas at erratic
intervals.
As the student advances through the grades, the quantity of required ritual work
increases. My own experience is that, if work and family commitments permit, it
can be enormously helpful to divide the work into two (or even three) shorter
sessions. Again, it is best if regular times can be firmly established. Experience
will be the guide as to which kinds of rituals work best at particular times of day.
If certain invocations need to be performed at astrologically elected hours, this
will of course be a governing factor. Equally, if the student chooses to perform
regular solar adorations, such as those in Crowleys Liber Resh vel Helios, the
times for these will obviously be set astronomically and can be usefully combined
with other ritual work.
The keeping of a daily magical diary is an essential tool for the disciplined
magician. It should be as ruthlessly honest and objective as is humanly possible,
giving precise dates, times and content of ritual practice, together with details
such as the phase of the moon and the students own state of mind. This
objective record can be a powerful incentive to regular daily work. Excuses about
phone-calls and social visits make no impression on a magical diary: a day
without ritual is an uncompromising blank page, and the mere knowledge of this
can be sufficient to spur one on to daily activity.
Many people find it quite difficult to work on their own over long periods:
therefore another valuable source of inspiration and motivation can be to team up
with a fellow-member for regular rituals, preferably one of the same grade who is
19

going through a similar process. This can provide valuable support and feedback,
and can do much to restore enthusiasm if the work has become a little stale. It is,
however, unwise to draw comparisons between ones own progress and that of
another member, as each persons magical path is unique and each member
develops at his or her own individual pace.
Although the need for constant vigilance and discipline will never disappear
completely, the student should find, after steady long-term effort, that the daily
practice eventually takes on a momentum of its own, as the heart and soul
become increasingly focused on the Higher. The realization that this is happening
is one of the greatest rewards of steady and faithful application to the work, and
makes sense of the struggle which has gone before. At this stage, it is truly both
a duty, a joy and a privilege to perform the daily rituals, and the period set aside
for the work becomes the high point and the focus of the entire day. It is then, if
we are fortunate, that we may be granted a vision of the true purpose and nature
of our work:
If we are willing to persevere, to be patient, and to work at self-discipline, to
aspire and to invoke often, the Angel will allow us to do all of this. For every step
we make in His direction, he will take two
(Israel Regardie, The One Year Manual)

Chapter v
The Practice of the Magical Diary
Keeping a diary of one's spiritual exercises, experiences, and reflections is one of the
most important and effective activities the aspiring magician can dedicate themselves
to mastering. Why is this?
Crowley was fond of describing his approach to magical training with the motto "the
method of science, the aim of religion". This motto was used in every issue of his
massive publication The Equinox.[1] This idea of a scientific approach to mysticism
and Magick is a key component of the Thelemic tradition, and is at the basis of the
usefulness of the diary as well.
What is 'science' then? If we attempt to answer that question, we will discover that the
word designates more of a variety of background assumptions, activities, and
attitudes, rather than something really specifable by a set of propositions that
everyone would agree with. In the 18th and 19th centuries, 'science' was often used to
connote any kind of knowledge arrived at through reason. Hegel uses the term in this
20

manner, for example. Magick posits a transrational source of knowledge, however, so

Magick is not scientific in this sense. Today, science is perhaps best understood as a
set of methods for recognizing repeatable regularities. The goal of using these
methods is not itself determined by the methods, so this kind of 'science' is not
necessarily tied to a particular metaphysics such as materialism or physicalism. Many
scientists are materialists. Many are not. This way of understanding the idea of
science also has the attitude that beliefs, assertions, or theories should be subjected to
some kind of appropriate testing or verification.
Crowley's Magick does legitimately have some features of this type of science, and in
few places more clearly than in his use of the diary record. The diary functions
explicitly as a kind of lab notebook for various investigations that the magician
undertakes. What is the nature of these investigations?
The oath of the probationer of AA is to explore the nature of one's being. One's
own being, one's self is therefore the phenomenon to be subjected to experimentation.
The aim of the experimentation is "religion" and so this determines the type of
experiments with which the phenomenon is interrogated. Our questions therefore are:
what is this self, what is its nature, its limits, its meaning?
It may turn out, in exploring this phenomenon, that the self is not at all like a physical
object, and that it is opaque to analysis in quite the same quantitative manner as are
the chemical properties of H2O, for example. Nevertheless, the method will remain
scientific in the broad sense already outlined if one proceeds with attention paid to the
observation of repeatable regularities, and if one refuses to be convinced of states of
affairs by other then conclusive results. Skepticism is an important element but, as in
physical science, as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself. The end is the
attempted discovery of the meaning of one's existence. Most crucial to all of this is
that a record of the procedure be made for oneself and others. This is the magical
diary.
As for the actual practice of the magical record, here are a few personal reflections
from my own work along these lines over the years:
First of all, don't worry too much about presentability in terms of what one writes on.
Fancy manuscript books give a weight to the value of one's diary work but loose
binder paper sheets have become my own preferred means of recording entries. They
transport easily and can be copied without difficulty. The value of the diary is what is
written in it, not what it's written on. Nevertheless, a quality bound book has a real
magical effect that should not be overlooked. This is a matter of preference, but don't
be afraid to use a format that gets you to write, but doesn't look pretty.
Try to write something every day, even if it's "did nothing", because if you get that
down you haven't done nothing, you've at least worked on your diary. Crowley would
not advance anyone past Probationer in AA unless they could keep a complete
diary for a year. He didn't care if what was attempted in it was completely successful,
but they had to do something, and there had to be a record of it. Try holding yourself
to the same standard and see what happens. I guarantee that whatever practices you
21

are doing or experiences you are having, they will be enriched by writing them down.
The self-reflection necessitated by the nature of the activity will act to deepen your
spirituality.
Don't try to make too much of a distinction between your spiritual activities and your
daily life. Let the record deal with your mundane goings on let it be a regular diary
at times but keep in mind as you do so the ultimately religious nature of the record.
Let that aspect of the diary bleed into and infltrate your supposedly profane goings
about. See how they tie into and are inseparable from your explicitly magical practice.
Let yourself discover, through your diary work, exactly how it is that your whole life
really is dedicated to the Great Work.
Finally, don't worry about how good a writer you are. The important thing is to write.
If you're a poor prose stylist, keeping a regular diary will make you a better one.
There are many more kinds of work one can do with the record, above and beyond the
basic use that has already been discussed. Two exercises I have found to be of
particular value. These come originally from Phyllis Seckler.[2]
The first involves keeping a record every day for 3 months of issues related to your
health. What are you doing to keep yourself healthy? Do you feel ill often or have
chronic problems? What are you eating? Do you smoke and if so how much? Try
each day to do something in a positive direction toward maintaining or enhancing
your health. Make a note of it in the diary.
Many kinds of spirituality suffer from a kind of dualism, a belief that the physical
body is somehow unimportant or inessential. This is a limited point of view. Thomas
Aquinas says that the human existence is a unity of body, soul and spirit. These are
distinguishable in some contexts, and yet if they are separated the human being ceases
to be as such. In alchemy, the analogue is the presence of the three alchemical
principles in all things. Salt is body, sulfur is soul, and mercury is spirit. This sacred
triad further corresponds to the three mother letters and ultimately to the Supernal
trinity which is thereby manifest in all substance. You can't abuse a third of
yourself and hope to succeed in your goals of a superior life. This health practice is
designed to remedy that tendency to imbalance, and to keep one in a balanced and
grounded state.
The second practice is to make notes, every day for three months, on one's process of
psychological projection. That is to say, on one's tendency to interpret others, or to
expect them to behave in a manner that has not to do with the way they actually are,
but with the processes and prejudices of one's own psyche. This kind of thing goes on
all the time to color our perceptions. It is not something which we can ever somehow
stop, because all of our judgments and perceptions will necessarily be from some
perspective. The task of this exercise is rather to become mindful and aware of our
own process, so that we can learn to project in appropriate, rather then inappropriate
ways. This kind of mindfulness is most necessary when one is working with a
spiritual group, where projection issues are in continual danger of distracting from a
frank commitment to the work that occurs there.
22

One good rule of thumb in the practice is always to remember that it concerns one's
own projections only, not those of others. Making judgements about the projections of
others is often its own subtle form of projection. It is also not the focus of the practice.
So if the diary starts to fill up with what you think other people are doing wrong,
those opinions may be right or wrong, but they are not the practice.
Both of these diary practices are intended to develop habits that should persist
throughout one's life. They are mindfulness exercises, and while they have initial time
limits, they can be returned to formally or informally in one's future journal work.
They're tools, so to speak, which one may keep in one's kit to use when necessary.
We can learn a bit more about the diary from reading what Crowley has to say about
it in his magnum opus Book 4. In part two of this work he devotes a chapter called
'The Book' to this subject.[3] He begins by writing:
"The Book of Spells or of Conjurations is the Record of every thought, word, and
deed of the magician; for everything that he has willed is willed to a purpose. It is the
same as if he had taken an oath to perform some achievement."
In speaking of 'the Book' Crowley is here speaking of far more than the physical
diary. That is here revealed to be a symbol of the very life as a whole of the magician.
This Book is said to be a book of Spells and Conjurations, for one's life is itself a
spell, the greatest spell that one will ever cast. It is the creation and conjuration of a
reality, of a life. Everything in this life is said to be willed to a purpose. That is, every
occurrence in one's life is an expression, in one phase or another, of the True Will.
Insofar as the diary comes to demonstrate this, it will come more and more to
correspond to the sacred Book described by Crowley. The goal of the diary, therefore,
is to make a record of this life, such that through its analysis the True Will can be
shown. This is the ultimate purpose of the record.
"Now this Book must be a holy Book, not a scribbling book in which you jot down
every piece of rubbish that comes into your head. It is written, Liber VII, V 22-29:
'Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an act of love with Thee. Be
this devotion a potent spell to exorcise the demons of the Five.'"
One's life, one's career in Magick is not a meaningless, random sequence of
occurrences. It is an expression of the True Will. Nihilism is not the ultimate
philosophy. The discovery that this has always already been the case is the Great
Work. How is this accomplished, and what part does the magical record have to play
in this? The quoted passage from the Holy Books might give us a clue. It reads in full:
"23. Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an act of love with Thee.
24. The songs of me are the soft sighs:
25. The thoughts of me are very rapture:
26. And my deeds are the myriads of Thy children, the stars and the atoms.
23

27. Let there be nothing!

28. Let all things drop into this ocean of Love!
29. Be this devotion a potent spell to exorcise the demons of the Five!"[4]
The demons of the five are obscurations and distractions of Will, Thought, Emotion,
Body, and Spirit away from the True Will Qlippoth of the elemental realm. They
are overcome through dedication of these components of the self to the Knowledge
and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Then the deeds of one's will become
the myriads of children of the living God the stars and the atoms. One's thoughts
become "very rapture". The songs of one's emotions become the "soft sighs". The life
of one's body, the beat of one's heart, becomes the pendulum of love to the Angel.
Finally, one's spirit becomes one pointed to the experience of what Liber 7 calls in
mystical language "the Nothing". All things, all experiences are then immersed into
"this ocean of love" of gnosis of the Angel. This gnosis is the goal of all magical and
mystical practice of the Thelemic initiate.
The task of the diary is to build mindfulness of this goal. The awareness of the angel
is built in stages. One of the most difficult things for the beginning or even advanced
magician to overcome is a kind of forgetfulness of past moments of breakthrough
experience. This becomes particularly acute during periods of ordeal. The record can
be a weapon in this struggle. The passions and distractions of the moment may seem
to overwhelm the larger trajectory of the True Will. The diary can bring us back to an
awareness of that trajectory, back to what is essential. "All the sorrows are but as
shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." (AL II: 9) This
remembrance acts to bind and exorcise the demons of distraction.
"The Book must then be thus written. In the first place the magician must perform the
practice laid down in Liber 913 so that he understands perfectly who he is, and to
what his development must necessarily tend. So much for the first page of the Book."
This is a recommendation to undertake the practices laid out in the AA
instructional paper Liber Thisharb.[5] These exercises are assigned to the Exempt
Adept insofar as their successful completion results in the Gnosis of the True Will,
and therefore passage through the Abyss to Understanding. Even though this Liber's
tasks are specifically assigned to the Exempt Adept, anyone can undertake them in a
preliminary manner. Some of these practices are very advanced in nature, but the
general exercise is a very basic one. One must ask of oneself the three questions posed
at the 1st pylon of initiation in Liber Pyramidos:[6]
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Where am I going?

24

In other words, ask seriously the big question what is the meaning of my life? As
we say in Thelema what is my True Will?
The diary is one of the best ways to begin to approach this question, as it involves a
study of oneself. Through this conscious study, carried out in the record, one can
begin to grasp the parameters of the issues involved.
Completion of the task of Liber Thisharb is said by Crowley to constitute only the
"first page" of the Book. After discovering one's True Will, one must then live it.
"Let him then be careful to write nothing therein that is inharmonious or untrue. Nor
can he avoid this writing, for this is a Magick Book. If you abandon even for an hour
the one purpose of your life, you will find a number of meaningless scratches and
scrawls on the white vellum; and these cannot be erased. In such a case, when you
come to conjure a demon by the power of the Book, he will mock you; he will point
to all this foolish writing, more like his own than yours. In vain will you continue with
the subsequent spells; you have broken by your own foolishness the chain which
would have bound him."
Evocation, or more properly Goetia, is here again used as a metaphor for the
confrontation in our lives of perceived obstacles to our True Wills. These must be
summoned, faced and bound by the power of the Angel, by the power of the True
Will. Insofar as we distract ourselves from our real purpose we are helpless before
these forces of dispersion. We cannot control them and so they master and use us,
rather than the proper relationship where we should master and use them in
accordance with our True Will.
The situation described in this passage is metaphor and yet in some situations it
can be literal. In The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage the first task
of one who has accomplished the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel is to summon the 4 great devils of the world and all of their legion of servitors.
[7] These are evoked and bound by the traditional magical methods. The Adeptus
Major in AA is expected to perform or have performed some kind of analogous
task. Some interpret it as assigned to the path of Lamed, corresponding to Libra the
balances. This path involves the equilibration of one's past karma.
With regard to the practice of the diary, this passage involves an exhortation by
Crowley to discipline and dedication in the execution of its writing. The more
seriously one takes the exercise of the magical record, the more seriously it will be of
value to one.
"Even the calligraphy of the Book must be firm, clear and beautiful; in the cloud of
incense it is hard to read the conjurations. While you peer dimly through the smoke,
the demon will vanish, and you will have to write the terrible word 'failure'.
"And yet there is no page of this Book on which this word is not written; but so long
as it is immediately followed by a new affirmation, all is not lost; and as in this Book
the word 'failure' is thus made of little account, so also must the word 'success' never
25

be employed, for it is the last word that may be written therein, and it is followed by a
full stop.
"This full stop may never be written anywhere else; for the writing of the Book goes
on eternally; there is no way of closing the record until the goal of all has been
attained. Let every page of this Book be filled with song for it is a Book of
incantation!"
These passages involve some rather deep reflections. Crowley seems to imply here
the mystery and paradox that one can never completely realize one's True Will, that
one can never achieve a completely perfect state, because imperfection and failure to
achieve the True Will somehow is itself part of the True Will. Suffering and ordeal is
part of the game of life, of a constant veiling and unveiling of the True Will by the
True Will. To remove this completely and forever is to create a perfect stasis of that
Will. This is a negation of the value of life. Being in a coma is not a state of perfect
mastery.
So we can never stop this practice of the magical diary. We can never put down our
pen and say I've become enlightened, I don't need to practice anymore. That's
death. Better to shun it for life.
"The pages of this Book are of virgin vellum, made from the calf which was borne by
Isis-Hathor the Great Mother, to Osiris-Apis the Redeemer. It is bound in blue leather
on which the word Thelema is written in gold. Let the pen with which the writing is
done be the feather of a young male swan - the swan whose name is AUM. And let
the ink be made of the gall of a fish, the fish Oannes.
"Thus far concerning the Book."
The life of the initiate is the product or issue of the dualities of existence, here
represented by Isis and Osiris. Their child is Horus, the chief deity of the Thelemic
pantheon, eidolon of the True Will. The book is blue to signify Chesed, which
corresponds to the faculty of memory in the Qabalistic system. The name of the book
is written in gold to signify Tiphareth and the True Will, and its title is 'Thelema' to
signify the same. All of the other materials associated with the book are likewise
divine. So is the life of the initiate. Let him try to understand this through its use.

Format for the daily entries in your magical diary

record
The way in which your magical diary record is kept is as much part of your training as
the knowledge in the text. Therefore, the following format is to be followed in all
your daily meditation work.

DATE:
26

TIME:
PLACE:
MEDITATION SUBJECT: Subject is to be written in full each day, even
when repeated. Do not refer your Supervisor back to the previous day for the
title of the meditation subject.
REALISATIONS: This is the most important of your diary entry. It is the key
to your understanding of the Lesson and the meditation you have just
completed. Train yourself to be straight-forward and to the point - and, if
possible, keep your realisations within ten lines or so. Again, this is good
training, for it teaches you to discard the irrelevant and find the kernel of the
meditation.
REMARKS: (If any).
REALISATIONS DURING THE DAY: Sometimes you get further insight
into an earlier meditation, and you should write this down, noting that it was a
later insight.
N.E: (time of Noon Exercise)
E.E: (time of Evening Exercise) C.E: (number of Catch Exercises done)
TITLE OF BOOK READ: Note the book that you are presently engaged in
reading.

http://www.servantsofthelight.org/courses/first-degree/sample-diary-entry/

The Magical Diary

2003/05/08 by Salomo Baal-Shem (and the Brotherhood of the Eternal Light)
(This text is an excerpt from the forthcoming book High Magic in the Western Mystery Tradition by
Salomo Baal-Shem.)

The magical diary is one of the most important aids of practical occultism.
In spiritual work it is most important to keep records, because these records do not
only preserve our experiences in a durable form that enables us to compare our
memories at a later date with our real experiences, but keeping records is also an
important part of processing the results of the meditation.
Very often realisations and experiences of meditation and ritual are kept in our
consciousness only in a subtle and ephemeral form. Our consciousness can only keep
these kinds of experiences in our memory to a limited extend.
Only by means of the process of recording our experiences and finding precise
verbalisations for our experiences our realisations will gain a form comprehensible to
our consciousness mind. For that reason keeping records is not just a necessary chore
but a very important part of spiritual work itself.1 (By the way the same applies to
eastern spiritual traditions - although in that case the written record is often replaced
by a verbal record to the teacher.)
Without this translation process into our language, our conscious mind cannot
assimilate these realisations because our mind thinks in the form of language.
27

Very often, the lack of this translation process is the reason why even after years of
meditation some people only make very little spiritual progress (moreover, in some
unfortunate cases the lack of recording even leads to self-deception regarding their
own spiritual progress).
It is much better to do one single meditation with records rather than three without.
Meditation - similar to dreams - takes place at a different level of consciousness. After
waking up we tend to forget our dreams very fast unless we retrieve them to our
wakeful consciousness. In the same way meditation realisations will slip our
conscious mind unless they are "grounded" immediately. The meditation diary has a
similar function as a dream diary which helps to make the level of dreams accessible
to our wakeful consciousness.2 The real benefits of meditation are bestowed upon us
only if we can integrate our realisations into our personality and into our life.
Especially for meditations the notes of our realisations should not be to elaborate in
order focus the mind on learning to concentrate on the essentials (a maximum of 10 to
15 lines should be sufficient). For records of a ritual it is different - of which more
later.

Meditation Records (scheme)

Date: Here you should mention the weekday and the date. Abbreviations such as Sun
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat may be used. For better overview it is helpful to number
the meditations of one year consecutively. For a correspondence course such as this
one the numbering should be based on the course year and not the calendar year that
is you should begin again with "1" once you have come to the exercises of the first
week of the second year.
Time: Here you should note the exact start and end time of the meditation. To
simplify matters exercises like the candle exercise are included in the duration of the
meditation.
Place: If you meditate at the same place most of the time you need to note the place
only in case it differs. If you keep your meditation records on a computer, you can
prerecord the usual place here and change it if necessary.
Meditation Posture: You need to record the meditation posture only if it is changed.
For digital records the same as above applies.
Meditation Subject: Please always note the current subject! It is rather inconvenient
if the subject in the diary always reads "see above". Since you will usually do many
meditations about one subject it makes sense to write a number after the subject. For
example for the first meditation about the subject "Who am I?" One writes "Who am I
(1)?", for the second "Who am I (2)?" and so on. This has no bearing on the general
numbering described above.
Visualisation: This field is only necessary for pathworkings or other visualizations or
if an analytical meditation contains inner images. If a meditation is done in the Inner
Temple, this field should begin with the remark "In the Inner Temple:" (This is a
general remark and includes the entire meditation of the Inner Temple even the
journey to the Temple). For other kinds of meditations the same applies. This field
should contain only information about new or unusual circumstances. For example, it
is not necessary to mention all the well known details of you Inner Temple over and
28

over again (please no use more than 5 to 10 lines).

Realisations: Here the realisations about meditation subject are recorded. A students
of the mysteries should learn right from the start to focus on the bare essentials
(please no use more than 10 to 15 lines!)
Concentration: Describe in a few words what your concentration was like. (For
concentrative meditations you can count the number of distractions using a meditation
chain. For other meditations you should not do this, because the counting makes it
difficult to immerse yourself in meditation.
Relaxation and physical sensation: Shortly note how well your relaxation has been.
Other physical sensation should not be noted in too much detail. The main purpose is
to record problems or special experiences.
Later realisations: It may happen that important realisations do not surface in your
conscious mind until some time after the mediation. Maybe you were blocked by
whatever thoughts or emotions you had during the meditation, and at a later time
when that condition has changed , realisations that have been induces during
meditation may enter the conscious mind. These "later realisations" belong to the
meditation and should be recorded in this column.
Candle exercise: The daily candle exercise is an important part of your spiritual
practice. Here note the time either as "before meditation" or "morning" or "evening"
including the exact time (which is of course not necessary in case of "before
meditation"). Moreover you can note down any realisations and experiences resulting
directly from the candle exercise.
Other Exercises: In a regular diary all other exercises should be mentioned.
(Attention, especially beginners tend to overstrain themselves by doing lots of
additional exercises and thereby disregarding the basic exercises.) Additional
exercises should be noted with exact time and the student of the mysteries should
always concentrate on one exercise a time. If he, for example, trains the pentagram
ritual he should not practice the rose cross ritual or the exercise of the middle pillar
concurrently. (As an exception an experienced personal mentor may sometimes
advice his student to do several exercises, but as a general rule it is better not to
dissipate one's energy.) Only the duration of the candle exercise should be included in
the meditation time.
General realisations: The student of mysteries should live his live consciously and
carry out his everyday tasks with personal commitment. (Occultists call this "Walking
the path of the hearth-fire".) By living our life consciously we may attain important
realisations resulting from lifes experiences or from cognitive processes. These
realisations should not be wasted but recorded like all the other realisations. That is
the purpose of this category. (General cognition should be reduced to the essential and
do not exceed an average of 5 lines. General realisations are an important aspect of
spiritual work, but the student of mysteries, is a member of an occult school, they
cannot expect his mentor to comment on all of these realisations.

Meditation Records (example)

The structure of a typical record of your diary will be explained by way of a fictive
example for a possible meditation about the subject: "Who am I?"

29

Course of thoughts: Well, who am I really?... Stupid question. I am just me...Yeah,

that doesn't say much. But it shouldn't be too difficult to answer that question... Ok, I
am the son of XX and YY... and the brother of that little brat who is just knocking on
my door. Hope the dimwit stops soon... Bother! He has disturbed my concentration..
But I am not only a son and brother; there is more to it, like I do have a job and
hobbies... But I am not my profession, or am I?!... Let's try again...I have black hair
and I am 1,74 m and weigh about 70 kg, probably a bit more. I should really lose
some weight... but back to the subject. That was more a kind of description of myself.
Seems, not that easy to tell who I am. Most ideas I come up with are only superficial
characteristics of myself...The sum of all these attributes like family background,
profession and appearance cannot really tell who I am...Somehow the picture of a bird
crosses my mind...hmm... as far as I remember there is a bird which symbolizes the
soul Egyptian mythology...what was its name.. I think it is called Ba... yes, it is Ba...
Let us assume that the relaxation was deep, except for the beginning, when the
meditator felt a light pain in the back, the breathing was deep and easy although
sometimes he lost his rhythm. Towards the end his right foot went numb.
The actual resulting diary entry would look like this:
Date: Sun, Sep 21st 2008 / Meditation No. 1
Time: 8:00-8:55 o'clock am
Place: bedroom
Meditation Posture: upright sitting posture
Meditation Subject: Who am I? (1)
Visualisation: For a short moment I saw the picture of a bird, which reminded me of
the Egyptian "Ba-soul".
Realisations: I am not as sure about who I really am as I thought I would be. Neither
my family background nor my profession nor my appearance is an adequate
description. Also, the sum of family background, profession and appearance together
does not tell who I really am.
Concentration: relatively well
Relaxation and physical sensation: Relaxation was deep, in the beginning light pain
in the back, breathing ok.
Later realisations: The Egyptians believed that the Ba soul would survive the
physical death. I too believe that my real self will outlive death.
Candle Exercise: (before meditation) Felt a strong bonding with the Divine Light.
Other Exercises: Qabbalistic Cross (just before meditation): sense the energy well
and can well visualize the light
Visualization Exercises (7:25-7:40 pm): at Kim's game I remember 12 out of 15
items in average.
General realisations: Today at dinner I felt a strong gratitude for having all I really
need and not missing something essential. It does not go without saying to have
enough food. Very often we complain about lots of trivia and do not understand that
we live a good live and that there is much in our live we can (and should) be happy
about.

Records of Rituals:
30

Records of rituals should be more detailed.

Example of a fictive record of a ritual:
Qabbalistic Summer Ritual
Name: Tara Rhea Milin
Date: June 21st 2003/ Time: 3 pm - 4:30 pm/ Place: Temple of the Lodge in
Frankfurt/M
Position: Officer of the West
Personal impressions: (What is your general impression about the ritual? What was
the most intensive emotional or spiritual experience?)
A festive ritual during which the pleas of the community for the gifts of the summer
took a strong effect. In the beginning the mood had been a bit too serious but became
more and more celebratory and even high-spirited in the end. The ritual left me in a
good mood and gave me lots of power for several days.
Opening and closing of the Quarters: (Please give details for each direction!)
During the opening of East and South I felt a strong sensation, especially The
archangel Michael was clearly visible and lively. The heat of the landscape of the
South has been very definite. My own opening could have been stronger. I could not
feel the presence of West and North as clearly. Closing of all directions seemed fine
to me.
Course of Action in General: (Please do not repeat the ritual text but only what you
did notice in particular!)
When calling archangel Gavriel I mixed up two lines of my text. Nevertheless this
was not important enough to start over again. The magus approved my decision with
a short nod.
Apart from some difficulties with the hot thurible no other problems occured during
the ritual.
The communion was very celebratory and gave us a strong feeling of companionship,
of giving and receiving. I had the impression that I was doing something really
important for the group by passing on the chalice.
Hearing the "voice of the archangels" has been really touching to me. Especially
while I did not have any text to speak at this moment so I could let the impressions
sink in and concentrate on my inner perception.
Astral perception/meditation: (Did you have any inner pictures, perception or
meditation results?)
I very impressed by the atmosphere when every officer presented a symbolic gift
from the archangels. At this moment I got the strong impression that the archangels
were present and took our gifts and will give us a wonderful summer in return. To me
the impression of this blessing of the archangels has been present even before the
seer confirmed it. Therefore I could celebrate the following communion quite
relaxed.

31

A meditation without notes is similar to a tea ceremony in which the tea is poured away without
drinking from it.
2

You may do the following experiment: Ask yourself if you can remember what you dreamt last
night? Can you remember what you did this morning right after getting up? Why is the last one easier
to remember? Can you remember what you dreamt last week? Probably not...What did you do during
that day? Do you remember? Think whether you do remember anything and why it is easier. Tomorrow
write down your dream in detail. Tell somebody about it right after getting up or read your notes aloud.
Can you still remember your dream in the evening? Think about it! ... Try to remember it a week later.
You will see that the dream experience is much more present if you write it down immediately.

The Practice of the Magical Diary

Posted by Nathan W. Bjorge on November 08, 2000

Keeping a diary of one's spiritual exercises, experiences, and reflections is one of the
most important and effective activities the aspiring magician can dedicate themselves
to mastering. Why is this? It's not a necessary activity for spiritual attainment, since
most other religious traditions do not promote a diary practice as a normative
undertaking. Thelema does.
Crowley was fond of describing his approach to magical training with the motto "the
method of science, the aim of religion". This motto was used in every issue of The
Equinox, which he also called the 'organ of Scientific Illuminism'. This idea of a
scientific approach to mysticism and magick is a key component of the Thelemic way,
and is at the basis of the usefulness of the diary as well.
What is 'science' then? If we attempt to answer that question, we will discover that the
word designates more of a variety of background assumptions, activities, and
attitudes, rather than something really specifiable by a set of propositions that
everyone would agree with. In the 19th and 18th centuries, 'science' was often used to
connote any kind of knowledge arrived at through reason. Hegel uses the term in this
manner, for example. Magick posits a transrational source of knowledge, however, so
Magick is not scientific in this sense. Today, science is perhaps best understood as a
set of methods for recognizing repeatable regularities. The goal of using these
methods is not itself determined by the methods, so this kind of 'science' is not
necessarily tied to a particular metaphysics such as materialism or physicalism. Many
scientists are materialists. Many are not. This way of understanding the idea of
science also has the attitude that beliefs, assertions, or theories should be subjected to
some kind of appropriate testing or verification.
Crowley's Magick does legitimately have some features of this type of science, and in
few places more clearly then in his use of the record. The diary functions explicitly as
a kind of lab notebook for various investigations that the magician undertakes. What
is the nature of these investigations?
The oath of the probationer of A.'.A.'. is to explore the nature of one's being. One's
own being, one's self, is therefore the phenomenon to be subjected to experimentation.
32

The aim of the experimentation is 'religion' and so this determines the type of
experiments with which the phenomenon is interrogated. Our questions therefore are:
what is this self, what is its nature, its limits, its meaning?
It may turn out, in exploring this phenomenon, that the self is not at all like a physical
object, and that it is opaque to analysis in quite the same quantitative manner as are
the chemical properties of H2O, for example. Nevertheless, the method will remain
scientific in the broad sense already outlined if one proceeds with attention paid to the
observation of repeatable regularities, and if one refuses to be convinced of states of
affairs by other then conclusive results. Skepticism is an important element but, as in
physical science, as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself. The end is the
attempted discovery of the meaning of one's existence. Most crucial to all of this is
that a record of the procedure be made for oneself and others. This is the magical
diary.
As for the actual practice of the magical record, here are a few personal reflections
from my own work along these lines over the years:
First of all, don't worry too much about presentability in terms of what one writes on.
Fancy manuscript books give a weight to the value of one's diary work -- but loose
binder paper sheets have become my preferred means of recording entries. They
transport easily and can be copied without difficulty. The value of the diary is what is
written in it, not what it's written on. Nevertheless, a quality bound book has a real
magical effect that should not be overlooked. This is a matter of preference, but don't
be afraid to use a format that gets you to write, but doesn't look pretty.
Try to write something every day, even if it's "did nothing", because if you get that
down you haven't done nothing, you've at least worked on you're diary. Crowley
would not advance anyone past Probationer in A.'.A.'. unless they could keep a
complete diary for a year. He didn't care if what was in it was any good, that was the
Probationers business, but they had to do something, and there had to be a record of it.
Try holding yourself to the same standard and see what happens. I guarantee that
whatever practices you are doing or experiences you are having, they will be enriched
by writing them down. The self-reflection necessitated by the nature of the activity
will act to deepen your spirituality.
Don't try to make too much of a distinction between your spiritual activities and your
daily life. Let the record deal with your mundane goings on -- let it be a regular diary
at times -- but keep in mind as you do so the ultimately religious nature of the record.
Let that aspect of the diary bleed into and infiltrate your supposedly profane goings
about. See how they tie into and are inseparable from your explicitly magical practice.
Let yourself discover, through your diary work, exactly how it is that your whole life
really is dedicated to the Great Work.
Finally, don't worry about how good a writer you are. The important thing is to write.
If you're a poor prose stylist, keeping a regular diary will make you a better one.
There are many more kinds of work one can do with the record, above and beyond the
basic use that has already been discussed. Two particular exercises I have found to be
of special value. These come from Phyllis Seckler.
The first involves keeping a record every day for 3 months of issues related to your
health. What are you doing to keep yourself healthy? Do you feel ill often or have
33

chronic problems? What are you eating? Do you smoke and if so how much? Try
each day to do something in a positive direction toward maintaining or enhancing
your health. Make a note of it in the diary.
Many kinds of spirituality suffer from a kind of dualism, a belief that the physical
body is somehow unimportant or inessential. This is a limited point of view. Thomas
Aquinas says that the human existence is a unity of body, soul and spirit. These are
distinguishable in some contexts, and yet if they are separated the human being ceases
to be as such. In alchemy, the analog is the presence of the three alchemical principles
in all things. Salt is body, sulfur is soul, and mercury is spirit. This sacred triad further
corresponds to the three mother letters and ultimately to the Supernal trinity - which is
thereby manifest in all substance. You can't abuse a third of yourself and hope to
succeed in your goals of a superior life. This health practice is designed to remedy
that tendency to imbalance, and to keep one in a balanced and grounded state.
The second practice is to make notes, every day for three months, on one's process of
psychological projection. That is to say, on one's tendency to interpret others, or to
expect them to behave in a manner that has not to do with the way they actually are,
but with the processes and prejudices of one's own psyche. This kind of thing goes on
all the time to color our perceptions. It is not something which we can ever somehow
stop, because all of our judgements and perceptions will necessarily be from some
perspective. The task of this exercise is rather to become mindful and aware of our
own process, so that we can learn to project in appropriate, rather then inappropriate
ways.
Both of these two diary practices are intended to develop habits that should persist
throughout one's life. They are mindfulness exercises, and while they have initial time
limits, they can be returned to formally or informally in one's future journal work.
They're tools, so to speak, which one may keep in one's kit to use when necessary.
Electronic version of keeping a magical diary:
https://github.com/mcnemesis/diary/blob/master/README.md

Pope Training or The Practice of the

Magical Diary
Autohagios June 2013
Or: So I've Decided to Become a Magician and How I Lost My Mind.
The magical diary is an extremely important part of magical practice. In it is kept a
record of all the experiments, rituals, meditations, divinations, and practices that the
magician undertakes. The purpose is to have an ever-growing record that the magician
can mark his progress by and keep everything he has experienced. The importance of
keeping a record becomes clear as one begins to mark not only the successes of
practice but the failures and errors as well. In time, it will become your greatest ally
and your greatest comfort.
34

Some of the benefits of keeping a magical diary are having a direct access to the past,
increasing self understanding, and an ability to help others who are on the same path.
Keeping the record is an act of discipline and should be treated as a holy practice.
How to do it:
1.Obtain a nice journal or notepad.
2. WRITE IN IT EVERYDAY, record what your practices were, what results
occurred(or didn't), and note everything (emotions, the weather, anything that might
have influence on you or the operation).
3. Though it is hard to do, remain as objective as possible. The goal is to have a
scientific record of all of your magical doings.
Some Words and Instructions From the Master Therion:
"1. It is absolutely necessary that all experiments should be recorded in detail during,
or immediately after, their performance.
2. It is highly important to note the physical and mental condition of the experimenter
or experimenters.
3. The time and place of all experiments must be noted; also the state of the weather,
and generally all conditions which might conceivably have any result upon the
experiment either as adjuvants to or causes of the result, or as inhibiting it, or as
sources of error.
4. The A.. A.. will not take official notice of any experiments which are not thus
properly recorded.
5. It is not necessary at this stage for us to declare fully the ultimate end of our
researches; nor indeed would it be understood by those who have not become
proficient in these elementary courses.
6. The experimenter is encouraged to use his own intelligence, and not to rely upon
any other person or persons, however distinguished, even among ourselves.
7. The written record should be intelligibly prepared so that others may benefit from
its study.
8. The Book John St. John published in the first number of the "Equinox" is an
example of this kind of record by a very advanced student. It is not as simply written
as we could wish, but will show the method.
9. The more scientific the record is, the better. Yet the emotions should be noted, as
being some of the conditions.
Let then the record be written with sincerity and care; thus with practice it will be
found more and more to approximate to the ideal."
-Liber E vel Exercitorum http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib9.htm
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"He may select any practices he that prefers, but in any case must keep an exact
record, so that he may discover the relation of cause and effect in his working..."
-Book IV, Part 2, pg. 93
"...on coming to himself, let him write down soberly and accurately a record of all that
hath occurred, yea a record of all that hath occurred."
-Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae
Examples of diaries
John St. John
http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib816.htm
A Master of the Temple
http://hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib165.html
"Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of
us."
-- Liber AL II,20
Comments by
Autohagios June 2013
Hrair
I haven't had much trouble adding writing in my diary in my day to day practice, as I
have set aside time everyday for me to do my various rituals and meditations (a little
scheduling and time management goes a long way). Also, I've taken up the idea that
keeping the record is always a part of whatever working I'm doing, and that it is not
complete until the pen hits the paper.
I only keep two Journals though, magical and dream, as I treat tarot work as a magical
act. However, I can see how keeping more than two (or one even!) a daunting task.
The actual writing of the record definitely does help in the overall understanding of
the previous task. Often, I find myself in an afterglow of ritual, but the act of
recording the rite snaps me back to a place of objective observance in which I can
dissect layers and states into something more tangible and "grounded" that can be
recounted in a sensible layer when I've sobered up from the gnosis a bit.
I'm also toying around with the ideas of the pen and diary being double-magic tools in
the formulae of YHVH. The will (active/wand/fire/YOD/chiah) is focused onto the
paper (passive/cup/water/HE/neshamah) through the pen (activepassive/sword/air/VAV/ruach) until the word(s) are complete (passiveactive/disk/earth/HE final/nepesh).
"Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of
us."
-- Liber AL II,20

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 abramelin June 2013

Hrair
The value of the magical diary is something that I got after about practicing some
basic stuff for a while.
Now i use it for almost everything.
its fun how you develop a kind of shorthand that surely looks like the scribblings of a
madman.
here is an example, lets see if you can guess the different parts:
16:23 - lbrp,lirp lirh,nap, mpr(20)cbl(10)BI,Dynamischant x3,lbrp
then i write if there was something interesting that happened during the different
parts( achieving some sort of ASC). if my performance was good and focused. any
visions.
Post edited by abramelin at 2013-06-23 05:16:07
The secret is: the law of action - if you actually do shit, stuff happens
Vansuch June 2013
Hrair
You took a nap in the middle? Sorry, had to...
I started a journal earlier this year, and was pretty dedicated to it for a few months. I
found it to be tedious (hence I haven't kept up), but it did help me crystallize a lot of
the experiences I was having. Also dealing with the multiple journal issue, and my
tarot journal (less formal, larger pages) has been my go-to for most magickal work.
Some great ideas posted here, time to get back at it!
I may go digital, just to be able to SEARCH... Also could consolidate easier...
Also, props to Autohagios for all the recent posts. Discussions about the Work are
really what keep me coming back to the forum, and chatting with all you fine fellow
freaks has truly been a blessing.
93
Post edited by Vansuch at 2013-06-23 20:56:49

Autohagios June 2013

Hrair
93
Thanks for the props Vansuch!
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I hope your new dedication to the practice is rewarding and becomes easier for you!
"Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of
us."
-- Liber AL II,20

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