Article taken from Regardie's 'Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic'
"Reproduced by permission of New Falcon Publications"

The Neophyte Ritual and that of the Adeptus Minor Grade are the most important and effective rituals of the Order. Those in between are the so-called elemental rituals. Crowley took a rather dim view of these. Francis King assumed wrongly that I also held much the same attitude. In fact, however, I think that they have a very definite place in the entire process of initiation. That they are verbose and overlong I will admit to. Nontheless there are ways and means of overcoming this problem. In my recently published book Ceremonial Magic (Aquarian Press, England) a ritual opening that I called Opening by Watchtower (first demonstrated in the consecration ceremony of the Vault of the Adepts) could be elaborated meaningfully in a variety of different ways which could be construed as effective as abbreviated elemental initiations.

To be concise, an elemental initiation is one in which the elementals are invoked in such a way that they affect the sphere of sensation or the energy field of the candidate. A series of impressions or symbols are impressed on this energy field in such a way thay they act, for the candidate, as a kind of passport providing safe entry and freedom of movement in that elemental sphere of operation.

Assuming that this is the case, then the four elemental grade initiations of the Outer Order, in reality do little more than the abbreviated Opening by Watchtower ceremonies. A number of advantages flow from this assumption. The first is that the ritual is nowhere as turgid, lengthy and tiresome as is the grade rituals, all criticism which led Crowley and others to the faulty conclusion that they could be dispensed with as useless. The second, and I think the most important one, is that the Watchtower rituals described in the book named above could be employed as self-initiatory rituals.

Again, assuming that this is factual, then we have reached a stage which fulfills the original promise of some of my early writing on the Golden Dawn - which was that since the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was now defunct, the isolated student here, there and everywhere, could now be his own initiator. This does not preclude the possibility that new temples might arise and have arisen in various parts of the world independently of any other temple. Several new temples have in recent years been formulated and are functioning very successfully, with new temples emerging even now.

In stating that the isolated student could now be his own initiator, one important phrase is rendered imperative. And that is he must be persistent and as thoroughgoing and exacting as if he were an initiator in a regularly constituted Golden Dawn temple under the constant scrutiny of officialdom and higher adept authorities. The responsibility for progress is thus placed inexorably on the student or candidate himself. As I see it - and I have watched this on a very few students - each elemental initiation or Watchtower ceremony requires its repetition several times. One student whom I am thinking of at this juncture has performed the whole Opening by Watchtower ceremonies some 50 or 60 times. It is therefore my opinion that she has initiated herself as effectively and as positively as any temple initiatory hierophantic team could possibly do. All the important "command" symbols of elemental significance are altogether imbedded in her aura or energy field so that should she visit their sphere of activity, via skrying in the spirit vision, they would not regard her as an enemy alien invading their hallowed circle. Instead, she would be regarded as friendly and as a divine helper because she carries, as it were, the only correct and valid passport recognized by them as an official password.

The only and still major problem remaining as of this moment is how to convert the Neophyte and Adeptus Minor rituals into self-initiatory operations. I am willing to write of the Adeptus Minor ritual as impossible to convert to a self-initiatory ceremony. It still requires an authentic initiator to accomplish the purpose of this ritual. I see no possibility of converting this, as things stand at this moment.

However, I still feel that the Neophyte ritual does contain the possibilities of conversion. It has been done in other ways. For example Crowley, while in Mexico, did one series of meditations, almost tantric in nature, that utilized the clairvoyant visions of G.H. Frater S.R.M.D. The latter did describe in Z-1 and Z-3 what happened to the candidate during the Neophyte initiation in full temple ceremonies. This I described in my biography of Aleister Crowley, The Eye in the Triangle, Falcon Press, 1982. (Although some students dislike Crowley the study of his life and the effect of the Golden Dawn on him is essential to our understanding of extending the work of the Order.) Years later, when he came to full term as an initiatior himself, he wrote a book of instruction entitled Liber HHH (included in Gems from the Equinox, Falcom Press, 1982.) In one section of that Liber he refined his early meditation and created a magnificent instruction. This also I have quoted in The Eye in the Triangle. However, I am not looking in that direction at this particular moment. What I wish to do is so to simplify the Neophyte ritual as practiced in the Order, by deleting a number of segments which are not necessarily integral to the process of initiation. And leaving a ceremonial skeleton which can be adapted by any student to the service of his own initiation. For example, the entire section in which the various officers give speeches describing what some of the symbols amount to and furthermore name the various subjects that must be studied by the candidate before he can be advanced further in the Order. This would eliminate a good deal of unnecessary baggage and shorten the ritual the student would have to learn. It is quite likely too that most of the opening of the temple in the Neophyte grade could also be left out without harm to the entire initiatory process - with the exception of that passage of the Hierophant which stated that by names and symbols are all powers awakened and re-awakened. Whether the circumambulations should be omitted I have yet to decide, on the basis of some experimentation myself. Much the same applies to the purification by water and the consecration by fire - processes which are repeated several times.

This then leaves as the most important part of the ritual the obligation at the Altar, the charge of the Hierophant to quit the night and seek the day, the reception into the Order and the Hegemon's guiding the newly initiated Neophyte between the two pillars between the altar and the station of the East.

It was only when discussing this matter with V.H. Soror Sic Itur Ad Astra in Los Angeles recently that some light was shed on this problem. The core of the solution revolved around the notion that initiation outside of a regularly constituted Temple was only possible with two students. They would have to prove to themselves - not to anyone else - that they were wholly devoted to the Great Work, devoted enough to spend at least several months jointly or individualy practising the Middle Pillar technique as described in The Foundations of Practical Magic, Aquarian Press, 1979. If this practice were assiduous and intense both students would have awakened in themselves the psycho-spiritual energy that could not only hasten their own inner development but that the latter could be communicated to yet another in a manner not too dissimilar to that described in Z-3.

The fundamental requirement was that the initiator shoud be an initiator - not a layman out of the brute herd. Something mush have happened to him to have redeemed him of the stigma of being "ordinary." Of course it would have been better if he (or she) had been the recipient of a spontaneous mystical experience of the type described in James' Varieties of Religious Experience. Since this kind of attainment cannot be made to order, as it were, the only alternative is to fall back on time honored methods of development and growth.

I am well aware of the debate which has gone on for years as to whether mystical or occult practices can induce the mystical experience - conversation or samadhi or satori, call it what you will. If not, then it is maintained that these practices prepare the student for that possibility if not inducing it actually. And if he have patience to "wait upon the Lord," as it were, then the one is as good as the other, from my point of view.

While pursuing their work with the Middle Pillar technique and any other set of exercises to which they may be drawn, they could set themselves to the task of studying the Neophyte Ritual and the Z documents that pertain to it. There is additional suggestive material on this topic in The Eye in the Triangle. Using the clairvoyant description given my Mathers of what really happened between the Two Pillars to the candidate, Crowley developed a meditation incorporating all those ideas, as I have intimated above. Apparently this meditation must have proven successful, for many years later after he had come to term he wrote a document for his own Order, The A.A., known as Liber HHH. The first section of this document elaborates this meditation and transforms the clairvoyant description of Mathers into an extraordinary piece of magical work that has fascinated me for many years for as long as I have known of the Equinoxes that he published as long ago as 1909-1914.

All of this could give them ideas and hints as to how to proceed in the task of initiating themselves or others. First one and then another could be helped to come to the Light in much the same way as if they were operating in a duly constituted Temple. In fact, to go one further, there is no reason why the officers of a regular Temple should not follow some such procedure as this temselves. It would certainly do no harm, and in fact would accomplish a great deal. Since a Golden Dawn Temple is being instituted here and there throughout not only this country, but the world as a whole, this counsel might be very useful to all concerned to enhance the whole process of initiation.

Once this were accomplished, they could either go their own separate ways or maintain the relationship for mutual aid and comfort. But from here, with the aid of the Opening by Watchtower, as it has come to be called, the elemental initiations would be taken care of, and from there they face the task of the Adeptus Minor initiation. What needs to be done in that regard is something I would rather not speculat about. But as one initiate has said, all that remains is to prepare theTemple and then hope and pray that it may become indwelled.

This entire discussion however is to be suggestive only. A great deal must be left to the ingenium of the student involved in this great adventure. Their intuition must be sharpened by their adherance to the work itself, and their progress and their plans must be left to unfold by itself. Enough has been said at least to show that the way is not without light, and however bleak the path seemed without teachers and a temple of the Order, they are not left to stumble unaided in the darkness of the outer world. For as the Ritual says "My soul wanders in darkness and I seek the Light of the Hidden Knowledge."

In conclusion it is strongly sugested that students closely study two or three of the discussions in this present volume. One of them is the Cautionary Note which directly follows this. Another is a document dealing with the Inflation of the Ego, a result which is to be avoided at all costs by self observation and study. And finally the important article written by Hyatt and myself concerning some major errors and confusions which students have made in the past. Other documents scattered throughout the different segments of this book will also be found supremely helpful in achieving the ends desired.