Spiraling into the Zodiacal Ritual

Now we're moving onto the mental and spiritual planes of the Cosmic web diagram, the inner core ritual.We are at ritual #21 on the White Ray, which corresponds to Yule (Winter Solstice) for the first of the Zodiacal rituals from Sophia. These rituals are complex and require a good bit of research and preparation to be performed successfully.

I have participated in most of the Magi rituals up to this point, except for "The Labyrith" (#8), but not all of the Zodiacal ones in Sophia. The ones I have been in have been profound experiences, but required a lot of work to prepare for doing them well.  One other word: Although these rituals do call for a "cast of thousands" it is quite possible to do them solo—you just read all the parts yourself!

First of the Zodiacal Rituals, Pisces and Cerridwen (#21) lies on the White Ray, signifying North. The FOI considers the Piscean age to be passing away, and that the FOI belongs to the Aquarian Age that is beginnning, so it runs through the Zodiac from Pisces to Aquarius at #32. We continue through the Zodiac with Aries and Durga (#22) on the Red Ray at Imbolc, then Taurus and Isis (#23) on the Orange Ray at Oestre. Lastly, Gemini, Artemis, and Apollo (#24) marks the end of our travels on the Mental plane.

Moving onto the Spiritual plane at #25, we find Cancer and Tiamat on the Green Ray and Summer Solstice. Next, on the Blue Ray at Lughnassadh, we find Leo and Sekhmet (#26), then Virgo and Dana (#27) on the Indigo Ray at Mabon.

(I had an intense experience with Virgo and Dana a few years ago when we performed it at a pagan festival up in the Rockies. The ritual begins with the gods of Ireland, but ends up with the gods of the Aztecs, a rather startling change of venue unless you do the back work to see why such pairing made sense to Lady Olivia and Lord Lawrence. In any case, coming away from the site where we'd done the ritual, I saw a vision of Quetzalcoatl looking down at us through the clouds. Sometimes the "mystery" you receive is pretty obvious.)

At #28, we find Libra and Quan Yin on the Violet ray and Sahmain, and then back to the White ray for Scorpio and Kundalini (#29). We have one more half-turn of the Coils of Tiamat to traverse.

Back on the Red Ray (#30), we have Sagittarius and Brynhild.  Then we have Capricorn and Terra (#31) on the Orange Ray, and finally Aquarius and Juno (#32) on the Yellow Ray where the spiral moves into the center sphere with the Ankh.

The Ankh represents a 33rd degree that may only be granted directly from deity to the individual.

That concludes our look at the Magi degrees. Next, I will go through the degrees on the Spiral of Adepti to show how their correspondences work. Lyceums primarily work with the Magi degrees, but should be familiar with the other parts of the liturgy to ensure that they use them well when they do.