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This is a post I wrote a little while back that explains in decent detail why a literal approach to understanding a ritual is often not sufficient for understanding or performing it. It should in particular be extremely useful for any new occultist.

Literalism: The outlook that things within literature, music, or so on should be read in their most basic form, otherwise known as a literal interpretation. Literalism will, naturally, be the approach most people have for subjects with which they are not well acquainted: I know nothing about art, so of course I am more likely to interpret what the art shows me in a literal way than try to dig deeply.

In occultism I have been using this to refer to a specific, dangerous outlook: the application of this thought process to rituals, grimoires, and so on that are not meant to be taken literally. When we interpret art that shouldn’t be interpreted literally the mistake stops there and is not harmful. When we do this for ritualism, however, we can be sent on very long, fruitless wild goose chases that often lead to wasted money, time, and potential delusion.

So how do we avoid this? The first thing we want to do is learn to view ritualism as what it actually is: a tool. Regardie, in his Garden of Pomegranates, makes this statement about ritualism: ‘Magic (in reference to ritual) is a Mnemonic process… By each act, word, and thought, the one object of the ceremony… is being constantly indicated. Every fumigation, invocation, banishing, and circumambulation is simply a reminder of the single purpose until – after symbol upon symbol, emotion upon emotion having been added – the supreme moment arrives in the predetermined direction.’ (all excluded text within the quote is either his infamous verbosity or in reference to the Qabalah)

Here he reflects on the following: ceremony is a tool that is dedicated to putting the user into a state that makes the results he is looking for happen, by focusing his mind, his emotions, his surroundings, his actions, and his will on that single direction. As a result any properly constructed ritual can be broken down into pieces meant to reinforce the end goal. The pentagram (and even the manner in which you draw it) in the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, the moonlight and vessel in the earthenware ritual, the various tools and steps within the Summoning Letter Ritual; all of these and all other such examples are a part of the ritual for that specific purpose, or to communicate a specific idea.

So why is this important? This knowledge allows the user to do three things:
1. It allows the user to design their own rituals using symbolism that they know, even personalized symbolism that wouldn’t apply to more general rituals.
2. It allows the user to read the language of ritualism, and thus decipher the true meaning behind many rituals, becoming more proficient at this the more symbolism and ceremony they learn. Many rituals, especially in older grimoires or writings aren’t meant to be performed at all, instead being designed to communicate what was, at the time, hidden knowledge.
3. It often allows the user to learn key information about things that aren’t even related to the rituals in question: For example, a ritual used to summon a specific entity will often reflect through its symbolism a lot of the things about that entity, which will be useful to know when the user tries to interact with said entity.

Along with granting the above, the knowledge allows the user to change their viewpoint towards rituals. Obsession with getting every last detail right during performance, which will happen if the user thinks that a ritual is something to be taken literally down to the last detail, will often lead to performance anxiety and obsession over said details. This will greatly detract from the user’s ability to perform the ritual to a successful degree, knocking them out of their meditative mindset and preventing any necessary trance states. It also introduces many negative emotions that may actively conflict and detract from whatever intention the user has set out to make use of.

Viewing rituals in the correct manner, however, does the opposite. It allows the user to avoid stress in performance and to better work themselves into any necessary emotional flow state. It also allows them to save money and time in preparation for more complex rituals. So, knowing this, the question arises: is the ritual ever necessary? The answer is technically no: if a ceremony is just a tool for a result, this implies the result can be reached without the ritual. However, the use of a ritual is often the difference between hammering a nail in with a hammer and hammering it in with your fist. The latter may be possible, and often is a lot more possible for someone strong, or in our case practiced, but the fact of the matter is that it is in the best case a far more strenuous way to reach the needed output to make the result happen. So while in technical discussion a ritual may never be absolutely required, it is often functionally required. What this knowledge mainly provides is the fact that the user can adjust his ritual to his needs, removing or adding parts and symbolism as his practice, and wallet, requires. Rituals approached or prepared with this mindset will be far more often successful, as well as cheaper and less mentally stressful, and this is the true use of this knowledge.

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