Ceremonial Magick has been practiced in varying form for centuries. What separates it from other schools of thaumaturgy are analyzed and brought forth in this article.

It's arguable whether or not Wicca is thousands of years old, despite what its adherents attest. Most tradition follows either Alexandrian or Gardnerian theory, which dates back less than a century. But it's roots, much like Ceremonial Magick, reflect a practice and tradition which is at least as old as recorded history, in varying and divergent form.

High Magick vs. Low Magick

Ceremonial Magick was initially referred to as 'High' magick to differentiate the complexities associated with rituals, ceremonies and various heavenly summonings juxtaposed against folk magick and Wicca whose focus predominately leaned toward a more Earth-based concept. Both traditions utilize key elements such as astrological times and seasons, but Ceremonial Magick places a far greater emphasis on interaction with archangels, spirits, complex languages such as Enochian and a practiced emphasis on Will.

Equally important is the philosophy that result is obtained by making belief and dogma into drama and symbol in order to create ceremony.

Ceremonial Magick encompasses (but is not limited to):

• Thelema
• Goetic Magick
• Enochian Magick
• The Golden Dawn System

Influences and the Influenced

Ceremonial Magick embodies and draws from a wide berth of influence such as Hermeticism. Alchemy, the Kabbalah and the works of John Dee and A.E. Waite. Popularization in this century are due primarily to authors such as Aleister Crowley, MacGregor Mathers, Dion Fortune, Eliphas Levi, and Israel Regardie.

The poet W.B. Yeats was intimately involved with the Order of the Golden Dawn and practiced Ceremonial Magick. Much of that influence can be found in his mid-career works.

An interesting aside: Almost unilaterally accepted by Occult Theorists is the understanding that Ceremonial Magick and it's offshoots are singularly responsible for heralding and popularizing the Tarot as we know it today.

Ceremony and Ritual

The elaborate invocations and rituals associated with Ceremonial Magick are deliberate, elaborate and rife with magickal tools and implements designed to achieve a desired aim through the power of will and the aid or binding of elementals and/or other astral beings.

Melta Denning and Osborne Phillips extrapolated the meaning of all Ceremonial Magick ritual as being quantified into one of four basic categories:

1. a) Acts directly imitative of an intended project, including the desired outcome.
2. b) Acts imitative of cosmic and meteorological processes.
3. a) Acts meant indirectly to induce or to avert influences by allusive or symbolic association.
4. b) Mythic presentments and acts of propitiation or of worship, intended to link the rite with a specific divine force.

The complexity of that categorization alone lends a good example and ideaology to the spirit of Ceremonial Magick as a whole.

Recommended Reading:

The Book of Ceremonial Magick, A.E.Waite [Citadel Press; October 1999]

The Magicians of the Golden Dawn, Ellic Howe [Red Wheel Weiser ;June 1978]

The Magus, Francis Barrett [Back Bay Books; January 4, 2001]

The Key of Solomon the King R.A. Gilbert [Weiser Books; February 2000]

Further References and Links:

Ra-Hoor-Khuit's Magickal Library

Thelemaepedia

Liber Legis - The Book of the Law