Lbrp, Middle Pillar, And Kundalini Options

I recently on the advice of this site purchased a copy of MODERN MAGICK: Eleven Lessons on the High Magickal Arts.

I have begun practicing the LBRP and found it quite useful, leaving me with powerful shielding, a banished and clean atmposphere, and also a highly charged magickal / spiritual energy.

I then moved on to the Middle Pillar Ritual which as it stated in the text is quite similair to Eastern practices having to do with the chakra and kundalini, which i have been practicing for years now.

I was wondering, is there any particular reason / difference in experience that i should know about when practicing these rituals or would it perhaps better to continue with my chakra / kundalini work as a "MIddle Pillar" sort of ritual since i already know the technique.

Overall, the style of Ceremonial Magick is more complicated then i'm used to, but i think that having set up my altar, gotten some rudimentary tools, and begun practicing that aspects of it will be quite useful to add to my repitoire of other magickal styles.

Any comments, thoughts, advice, as i continue my practice?
(See my entry in the profile piece if you wish more background on the type of magick i am used to performing.)

*bows*

Light and Darkness,

Velarius

I guess I'll toss in my 2 cents:

I have done the Middle Pillar exercise but not over a long period of time. I did not find it the same as spinning up the chakras. You used the word similar. One of the biggest cautions that was hammered in to me by my teachers is DO NOT compare exercises form different traditions. They may seem similar but they are not.

The Middle Pillar uses hebrew names, where as spinning up the chakras do not. Yes there are sounds associated with the chakras but they are not in hebrew.

I found the Middle Pillar to be very powerful and not as gentile although a very nice exercise. THe opening of chakras seem more subtle to me, maybe because I have been doing it for over 40 yrs.

Besides the obvious difference in the 2 exercises there is the intent of the exercises. That is pretty much completely different, and there for the effect is completely different. I am speaking here of the intent of the originator of the exercise.

If it were me I would treat them as totally different exercises. I would do that with all exercises, but that is me and my training. Please save your self problems down the road and try not to compare one exercise to another. We all do it, at least I do until I catch myself. There are exercises out there that are old beyond belief and were made and done with a specific intent, comparing them could be disastrous. I am not trying to scare off experimentation, but I do think one gets more out of an exercise if they do the exercise for the exercises sake.

A note on spinning up the chakras:
Some years ago I was taught a different way instead of starting at the top or at the bottom as is traditional, some of the native american traditions would start at the heart, then the solar plexus and the throat at the same time, then the navel (actually about 2" below) and the 3rd eye, then the root and the crown. This I have found no where else in my studying (50 yrs worth). I have been doing this now for at least 5 yrs and I find it remarkable. It adds heart power (as some put it) for spinning up the chakras, which seems to raise ones compassion a bit (not my strong point).

Anyway maybe that will help.

Krell