Occult, Qabalah, Golden Dawn disillusionment

[Aion]

Also, all that being said, I am actually infinitely more familiar with meditation and its techniques than I am with ritual magic which is something I have explored very slowly over a period of time while actually just meditating daily. However, my beliefs and view of reality has opened up ritual work fairly easily for me. The hard part is getting to know the tools.

You say you believe in the power of symbols. You can view a ritual as a 'symbol complex', it is the careful arrangement of concepts and energies. Of course, the thing that draws me to ritual magic is the point that is most refuted by modern magicians and that is the reality of entities, thought-forms and deities. Most modern magicians hold a view similar to Matt1, seeing these things as psychology. I, however, believe that is only one level of these things and it is much weirder and mysterious than people know.

Of course, I actually know and have spoken with Golden Dawn adepts and the interesting thing is that they all also went through a period of skepticism regarding the realities of the practice.

Now, that being said, I think I am weird even by magicians standards. I have mostly seen people approach it from the 'aspect of the self' perception but I admit that I genuinely believe in the actual existence of other entities, deities and higher planes of vibration and reality.

So, while some may invoke an elemental or something and feel they are just interacting with a self-reflection I believe it's possible to interact with actual entities. However, I think this depends on a willingness to see them as such, to see them as an other-self.

I actually see what you said there as fascinating, but to me it seems overly complicated in practical reality. Did you have an early exposure to ritual magic? Early in life?

Honestly it's always sort of been within me. I remember seeing visions of rituals as I was growing up and understood it but it wasn't until after high school that I actually learned what it all was. So I knew these things without knowing what they were called.

Sure it seems overly complicated, but that's because it's a sophisticated system. The way it was expressed to me is that different systems have different functions. For an analogy, a space station and a bicycle are both vehicles but they have very different levels of sophistication. Bicycles are still cool, but they can't do what a space station does, just as a space station won't be able to accomplish simply what the bike is able to do easily. You have to choose your tools.

There are much simpler forms of ritual magic that aren't quite as in depth as some others. I actually have more experience with pagan/druidic rituals than I do with WMT. However, that being said, can I ask you, when you meditate is there any way you usually like to start or a particular space or position you like to be in?