Roman Catholic Worried... Options

As you can tell from the topic title, all this stuff interests me and I'd like to be able to perform some of it, but everything about the Golden Dawn, Hermeticism, and Ceremonial Magick in general tends to freak me out. I'm a Roman Catholic and I'm obscenely worried about my spiritual self getting into some trouble by doing this stuff. Are there any 'Judeo-Christian' roots to these rituals? I mean it doesn't take a lot to notice the archangels and God's names in the rituals, but seeing videos of people using sinister voices and generally acting like they want to be Lucifer's best friend during said rituals is a little worrisome.

If anyone has any advice for me I'd really appreciate it. I want to be closer with my HGA and thereby God by doing a little magick everyday, I desperately want Him to work through me, but what if unwittingly I allow myself to be worked by an entity with less than amiable goals? Etc., etc.

Thanks in advance..

Ave

I dare to disagree with you waldoworld. The key of those texts lies in their translation, and as the very superstitious church and fundamentalist christians do not want to allow any magick at all, because they do not understant it, they translate things like "Deciever" and "Poisoner" in the original as Sorcerer and Witch in the translated edition. While true that there is much in the Bible to be said about Divination, it is speaking directly at Necromancy (or using the spirits of the dead to divine the past, present, and future) as that was the most prevelant type of divination at the time of the writings. And, it is obvious why the Bible would forbid such acts as disturbing the spirits of the dead at all, it is very disgraceful and hinders the conjured soul at it's very core. This is also what the Bible calls Sorcery (or ledgermain as many of these "Sorcerers" demonstrated tricks to fool the peoples into believing they had attained Spiritual Gifts). When you look at the Bible, you see many instances of Magick, in none other than Jesus Christ Himself, such as He spit into dirt and made a healing salve that gave the blind man sight, and purifying the well with blessed salt (let's not even get started on His breaking bread with His Disciples). And my final contestation to your very strong posisition is the fact that Western Ceremonial Magick is entirely based upon the Kabbalah, a tool of the Rabbis, who knew the Torah in and out, and were Priests first and foremost, not Magicians, and took to this system emphatically. When it comes down to it, High Magick is in perfect accord with the scriptures. It is not a "Christian" thing to deny what the Church can't control, that's a Church thing. One thing that is a constant in my Magick, is my aim for Grace from God, Communion with Christ, Through the Holy Spirit, without whom, I could do nothing.

Ad Scientiam

I totally agree with you here Lucian and I will say that you've presented a very elegant argument. What it is, is this, if you read the bible literally, with only one interpretaiton then indeed magick is off limits, along with pretty much half the pleasures of the world.

To answer the question of the post, let me just say that the LBRP, the BRH, the RCR and most Golden Dawn ceremonial type ritual is perfectly suited to christians to practice. It's just another form of prayer, indeed a form that has some power. Also, you'll find the use of many different voices just another way of accepting the many aspects that God represents, after all in the old testament God killed, and killed and killed.