Not that anyone would reference it much here, but I found a complete online copy of Israel Regardie's classic tome at this link. For some time it was my Bible.

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I came to Regardie through Crowley (and Crowley through RAW). Somewhere in that mix is one of our honorable precursor lineages in terms of postmetaphysical spirituality. The 20th century euro-occult strand must still be understood as one of our most vital root pathways.

I too came to all this through RAW's Illuminatus books. I then started to study the Tarot on my own through Crowley, Waite and Case, then decided to go where they began, HOGD and BOTA.

The video below is from a BOTA esoteric service. BOTA invokes the divine names through song. They equate each Hebrew letter with a tone and a color. Hence for them to invoke a divine name in Hebrew it to sing the corresponding tones while sounding the letters. Around 2:50 they start singing the names. Since the tones correspond to the letters and not musical scales one gets the most interesting combinations of notes, often eerie and altered state producing.

Interesting -- the words are not conventional, but the first portion of the recording sounds much more like a mainstream church service than I had imagined.  Things get interesting ... even Lovecraftian, to my ear! ... when the chanting of the divine names begins.

Keep in mind that that service is open to the general public, hence more generic. The ritual performances with funny hats, robes, insignia, implements etc. are reserved for initiates. You can though view pieces of GD rituals at YouTube with this search. For example:

See this post from another thread. From the Adeptus Minor initiation ritual:

"The Keyword is I. N. R. I. which is inscribed with its correspondences upon this complete symbol of the Rose and Cross which I bear upon my breast. 'These letters have been occasionally used as the initials of the following sentences: JESUS NAZARENUS REX JUDECORUM, whence it symbolizes the Grand Word of this Grade which is YEHESHUAH or the Hebrew Name of Jesus, formed of the Holy letter Shin, representing the Ruach Elohim, placed within the Center of the Name Tetragrammaton. Also it has been interpreted as: Igne Natura Renovatur Integra, Igne Natura Reliovando Integrat, Igne Nitrum Roris Invenitur; Intra Nobis Regnum dei."

From Crowley, Liber O:

"In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them."

However per Pasi in this article Crowley shifted from a naturalistic and psychological interpretation of magical states to a metaphysical belief in entities independent of his psyche. The article notes that  Regardie, one of Crowley's students in the same tradition, retained the naturalistic/psychological interpretation where "the integration of the human personality" was the goal. I am more inclined to earlier Crowley and Regardie in this respect.* The article is long and goes into history, citations and technical issues probably not of much interest to most, so skip to the conclusion for the summary.

* But including the integration of self and culture, inside and outside, quads, levels, lines, states etc.

And I can accept 'entities' independent of our knowledge, just not in the metaphysical sense that Crowley did. E.g., not only the withdrawn aspects of the real but also actual suobjects outside our knowledge, still in a naturalistic frame. And of course even suobjects within our knowledge, since they retain their independent autonomy that does not depend on our relationships to them. And so on ad nauseum in many other posts.

Crowley's prime certainly outclasses his later years -- whether he really gave up the post-metaphysical, open-ended approach to "entities" or simply relaxed his concern about clarifying that part of things.  Hard drugs, hard living, and the pushy approach to self-growth take their toll on our integrative comprehensiveness.  Or at least upon its expressions. 

I saw this on FB today, a recent podcast on Crowley.

Remembering RAW and his books I recalled his use of Leary's 8-circuit model, archived here. There are also a number of related links in the upper right corner. Leary thought the first 4 circuits were for bio-survival, the second 4 for space travel survival.

Also of note on the 4th circuit is says that a drug has yet to be invented for this circuit. Since then Ecstasy, the love drug, was created and aptly fits for this one.

The 8th circuit goes metaphysical in that it is post-physiological and asserts that "consciousness probably precedes the biological unit or DNA tape-loop. [...] It is therefore possible that the mysterious 'entities' (angels and extraterrestrials) monotonously reported by circuit VIII visionaries are members or races already evolved to this level. But it is also possible, as Leary and Sarfatti more recently suggest, that They are ourselves-in-the-future." I'll go with the "more recent" hypothesis.

Of particular interest is this section by Leary called "The post-larval must be very cautious in communicating with larval humans." It talks about how to frame things so that larvals can understand, warning that "you cannot use butterfly language to communicate with caterpillars." There's also a caution of communicating with those in the initial transition to the post-larval, or hippies (aka greenies). They tend toward "vague, mystical terms."

I met Leary and RAW in their latter days and their 8-circuit model was the first "developmental ladder" I spent any time pondering.  The 4th circuit (socio-sexual) is sometimes related to caffeine and probably other socially promoted "hive work" substances like prozac, ritalin, etc. 

Ecstasy, from my experience, is somewhat like THC in its ability to simulate or engender 5th circuit neurosomatic relaxation, turn on, dropping of socialized inter-body anxieties.

I suspect that most of the "entities" are functions of the 7th circuit but we must always leave ourselves an opening to 8th circuit entities in whatever fashion we are willing to conceive them -- provided we do not start pretending we can conceive the impossible.

And, yeah, Leary is very much a prominent foregrounder for the pragmatics of dealing between levels and tiers.  He was sharpened by his frequent run ins with political and clandestine agencies in a way that contemporary progressive mutants often loose touch with. 

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