Hey, I was thinking - if magic is all about intensifying emotion, doesn't it make sense to fully custom design a ritual and do away with the shemhamforash crap?
I'm thinking music, drugs & incense (or prefered smell enhancer) would be ideal ritual ingredients in that case.
Also, do you reckon ritual actually influences the world or is just emotionally gratifying?
It's not exactly a secret or anything. Whatever symbols, perfumes, drugs, altered states, deities, sexual stimulation, barbarous words of power do it for you, by all means do it.
LaVey makes overtures to this notion, but never went as far as Chaos Magic did. Whether you want to adhere to any sort of tradition is entirely up to you.
As far as the latter question goes, it's been addressed in other threads.
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If shaving your name into you cat while you listen to 13 minutes of a single note from a bag pipe achieves the mental state you want, then that's what works for you. Play around with things and find out what excites and stimulates you the most for the purposes you desire.
LaVey's rituals were just the rituals him and his friends liked, although they did contain themes and objects that should appeal to just about everyone across the board. That doesn't mean at all though that they will work for you in the slightest. You really do need to experiment and come up with whatever it is you need to achieve whatever it is that you feel you need to achieve. No objects especially need to be there, no music especially needs to be played, no lighting especially needs to be either present or absent, and no order need especially be followed. It's literally a blank canvas as far as it concerns the individual.
As far as group ritual, I can't really help you with that. I have theories, but I've never taken part in a group ritual and as such have no experience from which to speak.
Edited by Clicks (09/28/1102:04 PM) Edit Reason: I left out whole words. I feel so ashamed... I even proof read it twice. Why you do these things to me caffeine?!
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