We have all heard the sayings about these rituals—especially of the LBRP: “perform daily to strengthen the magician’s aura!” But what exactly does this mean? What does it mean for the LIRP, LBRH, or LIRH?

It’s true that the feelings of “cleanliness” vs “holiness” are difficult to explain, but although their descriptions have so far been vague, the actual experience of them is rather specific—as specific as this list of emotions I’ve typed up above.

For me, the “cleanliness” of an LBRP can be explained in the following sentiment: “This [thing affecting my senses] does not affect me. I will not allow it to.” This is how an LBRP, when performed correctly, will alleviate me of anger, fear, frustration, impatience, laziness, obstinacy, hurt feelings, over-sensitivity, petulance, and sadness. In all of these cases, the emotion is objectified as an elemental force and banished. Anger, fear, frustration, and impatience correspond to the element of fire; laziness, obstinacy, and petulance to the element of earth; hurt feelings, over-sensitivity, and sadness to the element of water. The element of air, which is found in all of these emotions, is the repetition of thoughts that allow the elemental forces to spiral into a personal problem. For example in the case of anger, an external stimulus like an outburst from another individual may have provoked you, but without the quick, airy thought of “how DARE you snap at ME!” you wouldn’t be angry—instead, you might be amused or simply indifferent.

Moving on to the LIRP, the “holiness” I feel is explained thusly: “I, too, am [a thing] that affects others; we all do.” This is very different from the sentiment of the LBRP, yet both conclude with a feeling of peace. Depression, melancholia, misery, grief, ingratitude, despair, embarrassment, guilt, and envy are a more complicated bunch of emotions to fix and if left alone, tend to cause larger issues such as bad habits, physical ailments and chronic patterns of thinking that negatively affect the individual. In all of these cases, a pure form of an element needs to be invoked in order to balance the individual. Depression, melancholia, misery, and despair arise when a person loses touch with the bigger picture—their place in the bigger picture (fire). Grief, ingratitude, and envy occur because of an inability to see the bigger picture (water). Lastly, embarrassment and guilt are the result of focusing too deeply on something they’ve done that needs to be placed in perspective (earth).

Now progressing to the actions of the ruach, or intellect, we arrive at the employment of the LBRH. As a general rule, one performs the LRP before any LRH and thus allows for dual-layer protection. I would explain the sentiment of the LBRH as this: “Whatever I think is correct right now simply does not matter. The ‘I’ is nothing.” As you can see, it is easy to take this the wrong way. This is not exhibiting a thought in itself, but rather, a silencing of thoughts to allow peace of mind. Insecurity, doubt, dread, discontentment, anxiety, angst, regret, and disappointment are all symptoms of overthinking, negatively thinking or focusing too heavily on the meaning of a thought. Again, the elements are present, but perhaps more difficult to parse: anxiety, dread and angst correspond to fire; insecurity, doubt, and discontentment to water; regret, and disappointment to earth.

Finally, I would explain the LIRH as so: “All thoughts matter equally. All ‘I’s are equal. I am a part of something bigger than myself—we all are.” Here are the emotions that some require lifetimes to correct: intolerance, stubbornness, hate, shame, and resentment. Intolerance is denying the fact of the whole—it accuses another of not being part of something bigger. Stubbornness says, “but I AM the ‘something bigger!’” Hate is the perpetual separation of oneself from union. Shame is a self-enforced wall preventing one from being with the rest. Resentment is surrender of one’s own power, place, and ability by failing to recognize one’s own crucial part in the whole.

3. Success in ‘banishing’ is known by a ‘feeling of cleanliness’ in the atmosphere; success in ‘invoking’ by a ‘feeling of holiness.’ It is unfortunate that these terms are so vague. (Liber O, Pt. IV)

EMOTION LBRP LIRP LBRH LIRH Anger x Angst x Anxiety x Despair x Depression x Disappointment x Discontentment x Doubt x Dread x Embarrassment x Envy x Fear x Frustration x Grief x Guilt x Hate x Impatience x Ingratitude x Insecurity x Intolerance x Laziness x Melancholia x Misery x Obstinacy x Offense (hurt feelings) x Over-sensitivity x Petulance x Regret x Resentment x Sadness x Shame x Stubbornness (of thought) x

By Soror N.O. © 2017