Occult, Qabalah, Golden Dawn disillusionment

[Aion]

I sometimes have a focus before I meditate. I'll just try to center myself and remind myself not to cling to my thoughts or whatever I learned in the previous "session." I meditate while lying down on my bed in my room. My back starts to hurt too much if I'm in a sitting posture, and I just can't get comfortable in general enough to not be distracted. I do have a regular time. I have a regular time because it helps me be consistent with my meditation. I meditate for an hour beginning at 9:00 pm, roughly. The reason I do it so late is because I feel that no one's going to bother me at that time. But I do have to be disciplined as far as that time goes. I take a medicine that makes me sleepy at around that time. So if I take the medicine at around 8:00 pm, that makes me sleepy during my meditation. So I try to take my medicine at around 8:30 or later. And when I drink my medicine I only take two sips of liquid at the most and leave the rest for after I meditate, or else I want to use the bathroom while I meditate.

I find it interesting and strange that you're asking me this. This is something that I've wanted to share, but I haven't had a chance to tell anyone.

So this is my point - that is your ritual. I think that ritual is actually more like a western term for meditation rather than being something different. Meditation as a concept is derived largely from yoga as well as Buddhism and other such Eastern practices. The equivalent in the west is rituals, 'workings', 'exercises'. In this case the ritual is signified by consistency. There are 'chaotic' rituals but I don't personally believe they are the most efficient.

There are lots of different types of rituals just as there different kinds of meditations. For example, your meditation ritual at 9pm is a daily ritual which, as it appears to me, is your form of 'spiritual hygiene', the way in which you collect yourself back in to your center. This is good to do regularly for anyone because it releases excesses in the mind, body and spirit. So with that in mind you can see why shikantaza is an effective practice for you.

Now, that being said, like the bicycle or space station, the technique will be limited in its mode of transformation of your consciousness, just as it will be able to do thing others techniques won't.

That's pretty interesting. I would have never thought of a meditation routine as a ritual, but when you break it down like that, it makes sense.

Do you see any link with OCD "rituals" and magic rituals?

I would like to study Teutonic magic, but it frustrates me that I don't really have privacy. I don't think that there's a way to work around that limitation. Maybe I should just study the cosmology since I'm so into it. But seeing everything as a ritual will allow me to not get frustrated if I see something that doesn't jibe with my belief system in that system. I can see it as that system's way to achieve consistency if I can extrapolate from what you're saying.

I have considered that and I think that ritual/meditation is a sort of instinctual mechanism which can be taken to a conscious level. So really, I think everyone has little rituals they engage in. However, I would bring the point around to function. You could consider an OCD compulsion to be like a ritual in concept, but different in function. You could maybe even see it that those whom are drawn strongly to ordered ritual magic may have some manner of spiritual OCD. Or, people are just built differently and you can do away with labels, which I what I do.

I always try to look at my situation in terms of how it has me positioned to do certain things in my life. For you, perhaps at the moment you don't have as much space for practice but you do have space for study. In that case I would assume this is a period of study for you. When you are ready for practice your life will naturally grow in to its space.