I stared at the broken fragments in despair: what could have caused my precious Chalice to shatter? I felt particularly galled since it had accompanied me for at least twenty-five years in one form or another. I had to face the unfortunate fact: if I wanted to continue practising ceremonial magick, I would need a new Water Cup
I immediately decided that in order to do this properly, I would have to cut no corners and consecrate a new Cup in the traditional manner, using the ritual for the consecration of elemental weapons in full form. An unexpected benefit of doing so arose in the form of being able to appreciate this ritual with the benefit of many more years experience. In other words, when an Adeptus Minor first consecrates his tools, it will be not long after he has attained that grade, and hence, presumably, still rather naïve. Whereas I was coming back to it with the benefit of what I had learnt since.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in the realisation that when consecrating the Tools, the new 5=6 is expected to use Enochian magick, the full details of which he is only expected to learn after he has finished consecrating the same Tools!
The actual ceremony is pretty straightforward in structure. There is a general opening: following which there is a three-part invocation for each of the Tools – Wand, Cup, Dagger and Pentacle. The first part is a Qabalistic invocation of the element in general, by appealing to the Hebrew Divine, Angelic and Elemental names most of which are contained in the outer order knowledge lectures.
The second part is Enochian: the Adept is imbuing or linking the Tool with the properties of the specific parts of the Enochian Watchtowers. Firstly: the three secret names of God born upon the Banners of that respective quadrant, as well as the King. The three names (from the Linea Spiritus Sancti) command the spirits of the Tablet in general, whilst the King, whose name spirals around the centre, creates the Invoking Whorl which rouses those spirits to action in the first place. Secondly, the Six Seniors, who represent the planetary energies at work in that Element. Thirdly, the spirits of the individual lesser angles who are each represented by the primary Kerub associated therewith.
When one makes this invocation, one is facing the relevant Enochian Watchtower over the altar on which the Elemental tool is currently resting. Despite the fact that no Enochian calls were being used at this point, I could still sense the presence of the link being made between the Watchtower and the Altar / tool – and the presence of these Enochian beings – simply by calling upon them confidently.
The third part of the invocation is to take the Elemental Tool on its “maiden voyage” as it were, by performing a Supreme Invoking Pentagram Ritual of that particular element whilst using it. This I interpreted as a regular Supreme Invoking Pentagram ritual, but with the addition of an extra Elemental Pentagram to invoke the relevant Lesser Angle of each Watchtower.
After all the tools are consecrated, there is a general closing, with the lesser banishing rituals. As on this occasion I had only consecrated one Tool, I performed an extra Supreme Banishing Ritual Pentagram of that particular Element, before wrapping it in silk – and placing it in a box to make sure it would not suffer the same result as its predecessor.
As for my new Water Cup, the hardest part was carefully drawing out all the sigils that I would need to paint on the thing – and use in the ceremony when making the Qabalistic invocation.
Once I had done that, painting the Cup itself was quite straightforward: I used a small tin of orange enamel paint, purchased from an art supply shop; and a tumbler made of blue glass which I had picked up from a charity shop. Total cost of materials approximately £5, and a couple hours of my time. I also printed out the consecration ceremony, making sure that I had figured out the correct pronunciation of the Enochian names involves, so I would not have to resort to guesswork or stumble over a bunch of eldritch consonants in the critical moment.
In conclusion, I cannot help but think of the various arguments for and against whether it is possible to self-initiate into the Golden Dawn tradition. To my mind, the path of the Adeptus Minor itself starts off as a regular initiation, followed by a series of Self-Initiation Rituals in all but name: i.e. when one consecrates ones own lotus wand, rose cross lamen, magic sword, and elemental tools, one is deliberately taking one’s spiritual destiny into one’s own hands.
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 