Daily practice

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I'm sure that anybody who has set out on any sort of spiritual path has had the fun of establishing a daily regimen of practice, and has therefore also probably gone through various iterations of that practice. Over the years my own has changed and developed, sometimes it has adapted with the grade work I was engaged in, other times as a matter of convenience or mood. I thought that this morning I would share some of my experiences of daily practice and how it has adapted and changed at various stages of my life.

I started out when I was about 13 (back in the early 1990's), with neo-pagan practices. I was for a few years very much into Wicca and Druidry, with a side-order of Tarot and Qaballah. The gods and spirits of nature were my inspiration, and still are to a great extent. However at that stage it was mainly about acquiring knowledge, so I read a lot, wrote in a 'book of shadows', learned simple rituals and practiced them, either in my bedroom or out in the woods, usually in the very early morning. I kept the pagan sabbats, the wheel of the year meant a lot to me, and still does to this day. But practice was informal and very much as I felt like it, I was eclectic in my tastes and somewhat disorganised.

When I discovered Crowley a year or two later at about 15, I read book 4, the book of lies and 777, and I tried to formalise it a bit more. Back in those days the Order was difficult to contact, so I operated alone, learned the LBRP etc, practiced them and spent time summoning deamons and spirits and engaged in the darker side of things, what we might call the left hand path, essentially a search for adventure and personal power. Again it was an ad-hoc affair but I learned a lot. I learned Tarot and with it the correspondences which are the building blocks of the tree of life. I guess this was my true 'neophyte period', on the inner plains at least. I did a lot of astral/etheric work, got burned a few times, and learned a lot from it all.

After that I had to work for a living, physical labour mainly. I also discovered martial arts, tai chi, the Japanese sword. I became very practically oriented, a good antidote for too much astral work and exactly what I needed. Daily practice revolved around the cutting exercised and forms of my chosen arts, under the tutelage of a teacher this time who was very practical minded but was also well aware of the spiritual dimension of the martial arts. He remains to this day a good friend and mentor and is ever ready to bring me down to earth with a crash should I need it.

When I formally joined the A.'.A.'. as a Probationer in 2010 I had been trying to contact the Holy Order for several years, so by that time already had much of the theory under my belt, I knew the syllabus inside out, so was in a good position to know where to start. There were of course ordeals, but that's a different topic. As for practice, it was proscriptive on my part, LBRP, Liber Resh, Liber O, daily asana and pranayama. My intention being to really nail down these fundamentals. This carried on through the outer college grades alongside training in martial arts. In fact the martial arts training contributed significantly to my Zelator work, since my chosen martial art has at it's heart Raja Yoga, which was brought to Japan by Tempu Nakamura and incorporated into Ki-Aikido. I would highly recommend this particular style to any Thelemite interested in Japanese martial arts for that reason. 

Memorising the Holy books took more work. I used to carry around a paper copy of Liber 65 while I was at work. I was at college and cleaning in the early mornings, so I would recite passages of my chapter whilst scrubbing toilets and sinks. Later, Liber VII would be my companion on long walks in the countryside and mountains when I was at university. Liber CCXX was much easier and the other memorisation tasks being relatively short didn't take that long. The trick is daily, consistent practice and recitation.

These days daily practice consists of daily readings, several times a day; first in the pre-dawn darkness, then at dawn and again just before work. If I have time I will read during the daytime but will always engage again at sunset and once more before bed. Meditation, pranayama and asana are practiced in the very early mornings, along with the forms and practices of Ki-Aikido and Yangs long form Tai chi. I usually read before bed, or perhaps do some short meditation. I do very little 'magic', I have no use for it at the moment.

Over the years these things have become instinctive, it is as simple as breathing. It actually helps me to settle in when I move around, which I still do frequently, if I can quickly re-engage with some sort of practice. It centres me, so wherever I happen to be, there I am, at the centre of my universe. The practice is both formal and instinctive. This didn't happen over night, but now it is established it has it's own momentum. The result is an inward focus that turns naturally towards God, as I am now happy to call him (again, that's another topic, perhaps to be discussed another time, but if you don't like the 'G' word you can insert Adonai, Hadit, HGA, or whatever, it makes no difference).

The rest is simple attentiveness, stillness of the surface of the water that "reflects the moon and a flying bird", that is to say, can distinguish between the two, a trait that begins to emerge at the grade of Practicus, and given purpose through the devotion learned as a Philosophus. This inner stillness, silence, receptiveness, even in apparent darkness, is the core of it. The words of Leonard Cohen in his song 'you want it darker', taken from the Torah: "Hineni"  (הנני)  , "Here I am", "Send me!", express this perfectly, a willingness to do the Will of the Angel, which is at this point recognised as my own 'True Will'.

Love is the law, love under will.