Bornless Ritual

The Bornless Ritual, also known as the Preliminary Invocation, is a ritual of Western ceremonial magic generally used as an Invocation of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, since it was introduced as such by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It was derived from the Greek Magical Papyri, specifically PGM V. 96-172: "Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist in his letter."^[1]

Content

Here is an example stanza as translated by Hans Dieter Betz:

I summon you Headless One, who created earth and heaven, who created night and day. [...] I am the Favor of the Aion; my name is a heart encircled by a serpent.^[1]

Use in theurgy

The ritual was used in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for establishing contact with one's Holy Guardian Angel.^{[citation needed]} It was further explicated by Aleister Crowley in his Liber Samekh.^{[citation needed]}

Use in goetia

Originally, grimoire magic did not include this particular ritual but routinely advised the magician (or "exorcist") to have a close bond to the heavenly powers before meddling with demons (e.g. the Book of Abramelin, the Keys of Solomon, etc.).^{[citation needed]} However, it is often considered the proper preliminary invocation to the Ars Goetia since it was introduced as such by Aleister Crowley.^[2]

References

Works cited

Betz, Hans Dieter (1996). "PGM 96-172: Stele of Jeu the hieroglyphicist in his letter". The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Volume 1 (2nd ed.). Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0226044477.
Sumner, Alex (2004). "The Bornless Ritual". Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition 1 (7).