Appareillamentum for EGC

This (NOT Official EGC) ritual is loosely based on the Appareillamentum of Jules Doinel's Eglise Gnostique, one of our antecedent traditions, but it has been expanded, as well as brought in line with the Thelemic current. Our justification for composing this ritual is as follows:

• Roman Catholicism has 7 sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, Communion, Confession, and Extreme Unction.
• EGC has the corresponding rites of baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, Mass, and the Greater Feast, but no rite of confession.
• Thelemites, not having a traditional Christian conception of Sin, don't really need or want the same sort of "confessional" rite as Roman Catholics.
• The underlying purpose of Confession is twofold, 1) to purify the communicant to prepare hir to receive Communion and 2) to remove obstacles between the Soul and God (ie, sin).
• Regarding the first purpose, I posit that Thelemites could have as much use for a preparatory rite prior to attending Mass as any RC.
• Regarding the second purpose, "the word of Sin is Restriction" and we are all, to a greater or less degree, restricted by one thing or another from achieving the Knowledge & Conversation of our Holy Guardian Angel, accomplishing the Great Work, discovering & doing our True Will

To this end, then, we made a sort of alchemical marriage of the RC sacrament of Confession to Thelemic philosophy in order to create a pre-Mass rite that will serve as a means both of (re) aligning a communicant with hir True Will and of preparing a communicant to get the most benefit out of receiving the Virtues administered in Mass, so that it can truly be declared "may what we have partaken fulfill us of the Stone of the Wise, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom & Perfect Happiness"

This process should incorporate both an act of counselling (or something similar) by the Priest or Priestess and an act of meditation or devotion by the communicant (by way of corresponding to the Priest's role in the confessional and to the communicant's imposed penance).

The ritual should take place in a Temple set up as for Gnostic Mass (though see the after-notes for suggestions on how to do it elsewhere). The Font should have on it a vessel of lustral water prepared as for Mass; the Fire Altar, incense and a censer with lit coal; the High Altar, a vial of Oil of Abramelin. Between the Fire Altar and the High Altar is a seat for the Priest/ess, with a cushion in front of it for the communicant to kneel on.

Additionally needed are a 1-1.5' length of sturdy metal chain, and a veil of black gauze or other light material.

The communicant holds the chain in hir two hands such that it is wrapped around the wrists to bind the hands together, but would not so bind if s/he let go of the ends. The veil goes over hir head and face, such that s/he can see through it, dimly.

To prepare hirself, the Priest/ess kneels at the High Altar in contemplation for a time, then takes the Oil of Abramelin and anoints hirself over the Ajna chakra, the Anahata chakra, and the lips, saying the following:

Adonai abide in my mind, that I may see with clarity, and judge with discernment.
Adonai abide in my heart, that I may act with love under Will.
Adonai abide on my lips, that I may speak with wisdom and understanding.

The Priest/ess should then be seated in the East; the communicant may then enter and stand before the Tomb in the West.

When the communicant is ready, s/he begins,

Weary, weary! saith my soul, who shall lead me to the sight of the Rapture of my master?

The Priest/ess replies,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. What is thy will?

Communicant: My will is hidden from me.

Priest/ess: How hidden?

Communicant: Mine eyes have been so long blind that I cannot remember that there ever was such a thing as sight.

Priest/ess: There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death; this is none of me.

The Priest/ess rises and moves on the south side of the Fire Altar and the north side of the Font to stand before the communicant, saying as s/he does so:

I come in the power of the Light.
I come in the Light of wisdom.
I come in the mercy of the Light.
The Light hath healing in its wings.

S/he leads the communicant to the west of the Font, saying,

Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as silver.

S/he removes the veil and sets it aside, saying,

Aspergeris hyssopo, et mundaberis. Lavaberis, et super nivem dealbaberis.

S/he dips hir right index finger in the vessel of water, then touches the communicant on the right eyelid, the left eyelid, and then draws a cross with the water over the communicant's Ajna chakra, saying,

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales.

S/he leads the communicant to the west of the Fire Altar, saying,

Through the second, gold.

Priest/ess: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. What is thy Will?

Communicant: My Will is unachievable by me.

Priest/ess: How unachievable?

Communicant: I am afflicted in my spirit; I am stricken of dis-ease; I faint; I fail.

Priest/ess: Fear is failure, and the forerunner of failure: and courage is the beginning of virtue.

The Priest/ess lays incense on the coal, saying:

Accendentur in te ignis amoris et flamma æternæ caritatis.

S/he then censes the communicant with a cross over the right shoulder, one over the left, and one over the Anahata chakra, saying,

Now is Hoor let down into the Animal Soul of Things like a fiery star that falleth upon the darkness of the earth.

S/he leads the communicant to before the Priest/ess' seat, saying,

Through the third, stones of precious water.

The Priest/ess sits, and directs the communicant to kneel, and then repeats,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. What is thy Will?

Communicant: My Will is unattainable by me.

Priest/ess: How unattainable?

Communicant: Through my sin, my grievous sin.

Priest/ess: The word of Sin is Restriction. How art thou restricted?

At this point, free-form dialogue can occur between Priest/ess and communicant, by way of trying to sort out what exactly is restricting the communicant. This will require, probably, both a certain amount of psychic reading and a certain amount of peer-counselling skill on the part of the Priest/ess, to get to the root of the problem and then to advise on its solution. And, of course, there's always the possibility that the Priest/ess' HGA will step in with a timely word on behalf of the communicant's HGA...

When this stage is deemed complete by both parties, the Priest/ess loosens the communicant's grasp on the chain, and removes it, saying,

Thine Angel unbind in the Inner what I have unbound in the Outer. Nu is thy refuge, Hadit thy light, Ra Hoor Khuit the strength, force, vigor of thine arms.

S/he rises and helps the communicant to hir feet, leading hir to the Altar in the East, saying,

Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.

S/he anoints the communicant with Oil of Abramelin upon the Sahasrara chakra, saying,

Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

S/he then blesses the communicant as in the Gnostic Mass:

The Lord bless thee.
The Lord enlighten thy mind, comfort thine heart, and sustain thy body.
The Lord bring thee to the accomplishment of thy True Will, the Great Work, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.

Finally, s/he finishes by saying,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

To which the communicant at last replies,

Love is the law, love under will.

The communicant then exits the Temple in silence, unless, as a corresponding move to the penitent in Doinel's Appareillamentum reciting the first few verses of KATA IWANHN, the communicant wishes to recite a Chaplet of the Holy Guardian Angel.

After-notes

If this ritual isn't or can't be done in a Gnostic Mass Temple, it may still be done in any convenient space, in which case there should also be a Stele replica in the East and three places for the water, censer, and oil.

If there's absolutely no room to move, the entire thing could be done with the communicant kneeling at the seated Priest/ess' feet, the Priest/ess simply saying the lines from AL III:64-67 without doing any leading, and there should be a small table at the Priest/ess' hand for the water, censer, and oil.

If the Priest/ess prefers not to use "Adonai" for the name of hir HGA, s/he may use "Heru Ra Ha", or the actual name of the Angel if s/he is fortunate enough to know it.