I'm going to split chapter seven into two threads, the second one to
be posted later. I don't think we'll bother with chapter nine, further
reading and so on.

Soon after the second thread on chapter seven, and the thread on
eight, Tom has kindly agreed to post his thoughts to alt.magick on
another Trungpa book: 'Shambhala The sacred path of the warrior' by
Chogyam Trungpa. So if you want to, this is your chance to get hold of
a copy before the threads start.

chapter seven part one.

IB starts by considering the word ritual. He gives the Latin root of
"counting", explaining that in ritual things are done "in the proper
order in the proper way".
The rituals he first considers are religious ones, including catholic
mass. IB's summary is as follows:

On 13 Jul, 22:54, Chade newsguy.com> wrote:

Or rather the 'possessor'.

On Jul 13, 6:00 pm, Chade newsguy.com> wrote:

in Voudon you get ridden like a horsey by a bucking Loa!

Seriously, Voudon appears like something I would just LOVE! Spirit sex
is really fun, and yeah there is the holiness aspect of the Religion
but getting your rocks off from the INSIDE is an amazing experience.

"Chade" newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:5d4ec188-4b76-4d7e-ae73-9304bbe3440d@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

The Roman Catholic Church was in a decline around the time Isaac wrote this.
Membership and morale was down. There was a powerful traditionalist
movement shortly thereafter with the election of JP2 and which is being
carried on by the current pope. The hope was to get back some of the old
supernatural excitement. The incense and costumes are back, baby!

That whole traditional pederasty thing has become a bit of a problem,
though.

The intellectual types often need a little lubricating to lower their
inhibitions.

On Jul 14, 7:54 am, "Tom" comcast.net> wrote:

On 14 Jul, 07:54, "Tom" comcast.net> wrote:

"Chade" newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:edfe8813-0526-44f4-9161-b9a3d02cf6fa@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

I suspect it's a general lack of interest in doing what the group was
ostensibly set up to do. The interest lies in posing as a romantic
spiritual pioneer. Each new founder is a wannabe prophet of his or her own
personal New Age. Nobody really cares what it teaches, they all teach the
same thing anyway. The differences between what these groups do are largely
trivial.

One of the shamanic qualities of practical students of magick is their
exaggerated individuality. Everybody wants to be the Grand Poobah. Every
neophyte dreams that his godly nature will soon be recognized and he'll take
over the whole group, which is, of course, his divinely ordained role in
this incarnation. His or her only loyalty towards others on the group, or to
the group itself, depends on whether or not they support and further that
dream. Such people make poor followers and short-lived groups. They
function far better alone.

On Jul 13, 4:54 pm, Chade newsguy.com> wrote:

That's a perfect generalization. It is a manner of dealing with the
universe in a way that personalizes the world, makes it into another
being, with quirks, but also wants and needs, and is able to be dealt
with. It seems childish in this day and age, but its basically how
ancient peoples dealt with the world to hopefully minimize random or
unpredictable events.

The four adorations are psychological reinforcements. They do nothing
in themselves that seem miraculous. They are not magic. Celebrating
Samhain is an excuse for a party, also not magical.

For weddings and funerals, sure why not?

On Jul 15, 5:47 pm, Kisai gmail.com> wrote:

On Jul 15, 6:31 pm, Gemeral Sam gmail.com>
wrote: