A testimonial from a solo practitioner of the Ritual Magic Manual

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The other day, a year after the publication of my review of David Griffin’s The Ritual Magic Manual: A Complete Course in Practical Magic, I received a mail with a testimony of someone’s personal experience with the magical formulae revealed in that book. It is a fascinating tale that needs to be told, and I have also received the permission by the author to publish it here on my blog. For me it was a true inspiration to read as I hope it will be also for you, and thus I publish his letter almost in its entire:

I wont give you a long boring biography, but I wanted to say that I agree with your review 100%.

I spent almost 20 years studying all aspects of the occult from the armchair. At some point my teacher...gave be a copy of ISIS UNVIELED by H. Blavatsky, and jokingly instructed me to read that and someday maybe we could have an educated conversation.......approx two years later, I went to visit my old teacher who had since moved away.

While I was visiting him we caught up on old times, and had an educated conversation...lol. When I was leaving he stopped me and asked me to hold up a minute....he disappeared into the back room for a few minutes....when he came out he was holding a book.........he looked at me sombrely and stated; “this has been authorized” and he proceeded to give me a brand new hardback of David Griffin’s Ritual Magic Manual. To this day he will not talk about the gift or what he meant with his cryptic words.......

That was about 5 years ago. Again I wont give the entire biography, but in brief:

I started using the manual much like you described.....With the knowledge of the generations of research that went into this system, I just simply put full trust in my predecessors and like the path of the Moon, I followed the footsteps very carefully. I didn’t understand at all what I was saying or doing....I just went for it.

The elemental phase was gruelling as each element that I invoked, would put me through about a three week wringer....it was tough....but I learned more about the elements in each of those three week period than all 20 years combined.

Then finally the Greater ritual of the pentagram [Here I suppose the writer actually means the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram – S∴R∴]. Wow, after the ritual, I was intensely buzzed for about 6 hours.... I would go into fits of laughter every so often, it felt much like a psychedelic.

I’ve been working with Planetary forces for almost 4 years now, and I love it. I just started working with the subtle, cool, starlight of the astrological realms. The reason I decided to move on to the Zodiacal was instructed to me in Gnosis.

One day while after invoking Venus and Jupiter (as they were in the sky above me), Lady Venus swept me up in her arms and introduced me to Jupiter, he laughed and said that he knew me well. I was between them, wrapped in love as they delivered me to The Emperor. He was much nicer than the image on Crowley’s Thoth deck. He told me it was time to start on my astrological theurgy.

So there you have a transformation story of a solitary practitioner. David Griffin’s Ritual Magic Manual has transformed me totally.

When I started I was in my 30s and overweight, starting down the other side. Now I am almost 44, and in the best shape in my life. Health wise, Mental, Emotional, and even intellectually transformed. I actually feel and look younger than 5 years ago. Some people tell me they want to be ready before they do ritual.... I laugh to myself because I now know the secret....you really don’t start to understand the ineffable mystery until you actually start ritual.

He ends his letter by saying that he nowadays is confident enough to regularly write articles for the front page of Realms of Magick on the subjects of Tarot and Magickal Forecast.

In my opinion if The Ritual Magic Manual has made such a dramatic transformation in one of its readers it already has served its purpose. But I bet there are numerous silent practitioners out there all over the world, both solo and in Temple, both outside and inside the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn/Alpha et Omega, that has had beneficial results from the ritual instructions in that book. There clearly is a reason for why this book is so sought after today, judging from the amount of money people are prepared to invest upon a second hand copy; there simply are no other instructional manual on Rosicrucian Theurgy out there of this magnitude. I believe that in the decades to come it will be remembered as a true companion to Israel Regardie’s The Golden Dawn.

S∴R∴