I am leasing the stairway to heaven

Last week on the 24th of June I performed a comprehensive Jupiter ritual for a summer solstice celebration, for entertainment, for adoration of the universe, and for personal enlightenment. This is a summary of the part of my experience which might be interesting or useful to others.

There was a warm-up on the 22nd of June. This was 32 minutes of a Gestalt therapy two chair exercise. I have done a small number of these (about ten) in the past, and I have nearly always gotten something out of them. If you have never done one, it might sound a little corny; hundreds thousands of satisfied users swear to the efficacy of the technique. There were three reasons for incorporating this in the procedure as a precursor:

1.) To solidify the idea that everything in my (pretty pagan) ritual was compliant with the first command--no gods before Yahweh. The fact conservative theologians consider participation in any pagan ritual at any level of engagement in violation of command number one is not any concern of mine. I am a liberal theologian.

2.) Israel Regardie advises psychotherapy as a prerequisite to advanced ritual practices. When you practice systematic mental agitation on your mind, you want to begin with your clearest mind you can arrange.

3.) Smoothing over ruffled psycho issues with the other character in the exercise. She was a close family member. And the person from my past who would be most disapproving of any activity which meddles with the boundaries of command number one.

This preliminary to the ritual turned out to be the most powerful element as far as I can tell, so far. What I said aloud from the viewpoint of her character was sensible and useful. Further, I discovered that I actually have no distinct recollection of a particularly harsh thing I have imagined and assumed that she once said to me close to forty years ago. The particularly harsh quotation is now into the garbage can and off my back. It is, in the phraseology of the Snopes web page,

"possibly true but not verified and perhaps not verifiable".

On the 24th of June I performed the ritual, altered in tune with the results of the preliminary of the 22nd. I had scripted a comprehensive sequence on Monday the 21st. The biggest alteration was I had planned to do them all one after another and build up an avalanche of powerful deep hypnotic trance. I ended up concentrating mostly on my work all day long and fitting in the pieces during break times. There were two hours of meditation involved, which I initially had intended to do all at one go right before the invocation. Instead, I did 40 minutes here, 30 minutes there, &c. I had planned to devote my day to the rite, but I easily got as much work done on that day as just about any other.

There were three prayers--one for health, one for joy at work, and the Lord's prayer. In the script they were going to be in an exact order, but I just fit them in during the day haphazardly. Just like a normal day.

There was a beginning and ending banishing ritual. The beginning one was done at a haphazard time; the ending banishing ritual immediately after the invocation was the only detail of the schedule I stuck to.

I read aloud the Ciceros' Emperor (#15) path working from Garden of Pomegranates. Some of their path workings are poor and some are excellent. This one is excellent. I did this before the invocation, but not immediately before the invocation as I had scripted. I improvised a reading of William Blake's Visions of the Daughters of Albion (aloud).

I fasted all day until finishing the rituals. I showered, and put on fresh laundered all blue clothing (pants, shirt, shoes) early in the morning. I was wearing my sapphire ring. My room was illuminated by candlelight, a blue light bulb, and dim overcast dusk through an open window.

As originally scripted, the ritual was going to take approximately three hours and I was hoping to get thunder and lightning outside by coincidence at the time of the ritual climax--the invocation of the jovian spirit. I ended up not leaving this to chance. The day's weather pattern made a thunderstorm inevitable. I waited until the thunder and lightning came early in the evening, put Led Zeppelin "Battle of Evermore" on my stereo, and did the invocation before the song-thunder-lightning episode concluded.

The next morning I did a tarot card reading to see what the cards had to say. They were interesting. I did not deal the Emperor.

This was my most complex ritual work ever. I am thinking about doing Venus for the Autumn equinox. It was absolutely entertaining. If the universe did not appreciate it, I am absolutely sure it was harmless. It may have enlightened me a little (the Gestalt therapy two chair exercise preliminary absolutely enlightened me), but I do not have a precise take on this yet.