The Star Sapphire - Babalon Rising 2026

This is the second of four presentations I offered at the Babalon Rising Festival this year. It is based on a updated version of this post from back in 2016. I have done a lot of work with this ritual since then, and am happy to be able to share my insights. This material will also be found in my new book Thelemic Sorcery, which I am currently in the process of writing.

Aleister Crowley's Star Sapphire ritual is one of the most difficult rituals to work out in the entire Thelemic canon. It's not that the ritual instructions are difficult so much as they are so frustratingly vague. If you have seen the Hellier documentary all the way to the end you will see the paranormal investigation crew figure out that a paranormal message they received is telling them to do this ritual. They then completely freak out reading the instructions and decide that it would take them years to learn, let alone attempt.

I was halfway tempted to email them and just offer to do it, since at the time it was a big part of my daily practice. In fact, one of my students did wind up writing them with the same offer but never got a response. Maybe that means they were not quite as freaked out by it as they were suggesting, or maybe it means they had no real intention of following through on it. Whatever the case, Crowley’s vague instructions do no one any favors. He describes the ritual itself in one chapter of The Book of Lies and describes the Holy Hexagram that is traced to the four quarters in another. That’s everything we have to work with.

The Star Sapphire is Crowley's version of the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, just as the Star Ruby is his version of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. He described the latter as an "improved" version of the pentagram ritual, so I think it's safe to say that he probably considered the Star Sapphire an improved hexagram ritual as well. It is certainly true that both rituals incorporate more Thelemic symbolism than the Golden Dawn rituals that Crowley sought to improve. There is more than that, though. The structure of the two rituals represents an evolution of the Golden Dawn rituals he originally learned.

One of the concepts I hit upon early in my magical career is a structure that I call the operant field. It is a simple change that increases the power of ritual operations extensively, to the point where I sometimes compare it to Kepler’s revision of the Copernican model of planetary motion. For all that Copernicus was right about the arrangement of the solar system, his model was less precise than the Ptolemaic model he was trying to replace. But when Kepler made a small change, replacing round orbits with ellipses, he arrived at the law of planetary motion that NASA still uses today.

The simple change I’m talking about is (1) replacing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram with the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram when opening rituals, and (2) omit the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram when closing rituals. The rationale is that the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram works with the macrocosm while the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram works with the microcosm. When you combine the LBRP with the LIRH, you clear out your own sphere of sensation and then call into that space the macrocosmic powers of nature. This interlocks microcosm and macrocosm and creates a “field” in which thoughts and intentions translate more easily into the physical realm.

The dynamic of the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire is one of the pieces of evidence I like to cite for Crowley's potential knowledge of the operant field. He didn't call it that, of course, but from the design of the two rituals, the Star Ruby is essentially a banishing ritual and the Star Sapphire is essentially an invoking ritual. Banishing is implied by the widdershins motion of the Star Ruby, while invoking is implied by the deosil motion of the Star Sapphire. Also, the description of the Holy Hexagram in The Book of Lies strongly alludes to the invoking character of the latter rite.

I expect that Crowley worked out what I have found over the years - once you start seriously performing magick, it is rare that you use an invoking lesser pentagram or a banishing lesser hexagram. Some Golden Dawn magicians disagree with this statement, but when you think about it, the rationale behind it makes sense. If your goal is to influence the macrocosmic or external world, why would you banish the very macrocosmic forces you hope to influence by means of a banishing hexagram? Even though Crowley’s diaries show that he opened with LBRP/LBRH when doing Golden Dawn rituals, the structures of the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire as Crowley originally wrote them line up nicely with the operant field approach.

Two weeks ago I posted on Operant Fields and Goetic Circles, noting that the design of the traditional circle from the Lemegeton mirrors the idea of the operant field by placing pentagrams at the exterior of the circle and hexagrams within it. Again, the image of inverting microcosmic and macrocosmic elements appears as a metaphor for magical consciousness. Under normal circumstances, we our thoughts remain internal and personal. But when performing magick, we seek to impress those thoughts upon the external world around us.

It is true that Crowley never explicitly equated the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire to the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, describing them instead as "improved" versions of the pentagram and hexagram rituals. But as they are general in character, I'm comfortable making that association. I also have experimented with both of them, and as far as I can tell they form an operant field in the same manner as the Lesser Pentagram and Lesser Hexagram do.

As I see it, as Crowley describes the rituals in Liber O, "Lesser" means "General" and "Greater" means "Specific" - that is, the Greater rituals are used for invoking and banishing specific planets, elements, and signs of the zodiac while the Lesser rituals are used to set up your magical working space. I occasionally see people talking as if "Lesser" is supposed to mean "Sad" and "Greater" means "Awesome," but this is simply not the case. The “Lesser” rituals are foundational, not less important. Both the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire are these same sorts of general rituals, of the pentagram and hexagram respectively.

The Star Sapphire corresponds to the Star Ruby, and as such should always follow it, just as the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram always follows the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. As this piece is about the Star Sapphire, I will assume that the reader is already familiar with the Star Ruby ritual and has performed it before implementing these instructions.

The text of the Star Sapphire as given by Crowley, with my commentary and instructions, follows.

Let the Adept be armed with his Magick Rood [and provided with his mystic rose].

In the Golden Dawn tradition, the hexagram rituals were only taught to initiates who had attained the grade of Adeptus Minor (5=6) and higher. I believe that "Adept" refers to this tradition, as only an Adept would be performing a hexagram ritual of any sort. Today, though, non-Adepts perform rites like the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram all the time, so I think it is completely reasonable to perform the Star Sapphire at whatever grade.

Adept consciousness is closely related to transpersonal mystical realization. Some of the old texts make it sound like "becoming an Adept" is a singular event, after which this sort of awareness is somehow completely stabilized. But modern practitioners such as Ken Wilber point out that long before that, it can still be accessed from time to time. Peak experiences involving otherwise non-spiritual people are good examples of this. The Buddhist tradition also records many stories of such experiences involving beginning meditators. Enlightenment - that is, expanded realization - can strike at any time. The difference between an Adept and a non-Adept practitioner is the degree to which this realization is stabilized and integrated into regular life on an ongoing basis.

It seems to me that if you're a magical practitioner and want to be an Adept, performing magical rituals designed to cultivate that realization is a good way to go about it. In effect, you "fake it 'til you make it." Failed magical operations are hardly ever dangerous. Usually, the worst that will happen is absolutely nothing - that is, the ritual simply fails to produce the desired effect. To summarize, if you are not an Adept but feel drawn to perform the Star Sapphire, go for it. You're not going to hurt yourself, and you might be surprised by how well it works.

To move on, the rest of this instruction is the first of many allusions to the ritual as a sex magick operation. "Magick Rood" and "Mystic Rose" could certainly refer to the sex organs of the two participants if this ritual is being performed by a couple as a sexual rite. One interpretation of this ritual went so far as to assert that the proper way to perform is for the couple to have sex at each of the four quarters and once more at the center to conclude the ritual! I suspect that is rather impractical for most people. To me it makes more sense for the sexual act to be performed at the step of the ritual where “the rosy cross” is made. More on that later.

As a sex magick ritual, the Star Sapphire is not necessarily heterosexual in nature, but it does imply an active and receptive participant. These correspond to godforms alluded to in the rite, and I am of the opinion that regardless of sex or gender, any magician who can hold the appropriate godform can perform either role successfully. The active participant sets the goal of the operation, and the receptive participant harmonizes their intent with it. The better the two partners can harmonize with each other around the intent, the more effective the ritual will be.

Crowley writes that one possible way of doing sex magick is to work with an entirely naïve partner who knows nothing of the operation, but this is in my opinion profoundly unethical. It also results in little additional magical power gained despite adding another person to the rite. If both partners are fully aware of the operation and are competent sex magicians, the effect will be greater, meaning that the additional work required to integrate a second person into the rite will be worthwhile.

Crowley agrees with this point as well, framing it as the best situation is when both partners are “initiated into the supreme secret.” It seems from a lot of Crowley’s writings he had the idea that sex magick was this secret thing that you could only learn by being initiated into an order such as OTO, rather than a practice that shows up in various traditions from around the world. Victorian prudery just meant it was never talked about in polite company.

Another method is to perform an individual sex magick operation, much like how sigils are charged in chaos magick. The basic method that Austin Spare would go on to develop is laid out in Liber A’ash and would involve the “mystic rose” referring to some sort of container into which the sigil is placed to be anointed with sexual fluids, such as a cup or a containment structure like the Sigillum Dei Aemeth or Trithemian Table.

The main difference between Liber A’ash and the Spare method is that Liber A’ash refers to the “sigil of the demon” – that is, a specific spirit – while Spare developed his “alphabet of desire” for sigilizing intents directly without reference to any specific entity. Chaos magicians have further developed the sigilization technique to work with any alphabet, and it is usually employed that way these days.

I have encountered practitioners who insist that a sex magick operation is the only way in which the Star Sapphire can be performed, but that lines up poorly with Crowley’s account of being initiated into the “Supreme Secret” of OTO by Theodor Reuss. Allegedly, it was the rendition of the Star Sapphire in The Book of Lies that convinced Reuss that Crowley knew the secret to begin with, and once it was revealed he saw the ritual in a new light. This implies that his original intent was that the ritual be performed symbolically, and this is often going to be more practical when incorporating it into daily magical practice.

Since Crowley's Gnostic Mass is a symbolic sex magick ritual from around the same period as the Star Sapphire, some clues can be taken from that rite. In the Mass, the "Magick Rood" would refer to the lance wielded by the Priest. Likewise, the "Mystic Rose" would refer to the chalice held by the Priestess. In the context of symbolic ceremonial work, then, the "Magick Rood" would refer to the wand and the "Mystic Rose" would refer to the cup.

One way to enact this instruction is to perform the ritual with an altar in front of you and place a cup of wine on the altar to serve as eucharist (the sacrament, mentioned later). Another method for use with evocations would involve placing a containment structure in the center of the altar rather than a cup to serve as a container for the evoked force. A cup is appropriate for eucharistic rituals, while a containment structure is more appropriate for rites of evocation.

In the center, let him give the L.V.X. signs, or if he knows them, if he will and dare do them, and can keep silent about them, the signs of N.O.X. being the signs of Puer, Vir, Puella, Mulier. Omit the sign I.R.

Hermetic Qabalah divides the Tree of Life into three sections. The first section, below the Veil of Paroketh, includes Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malkuth. This region corresponds to the microcosm as the term is generally used - the internal, individual field of consciousness or awareness. This is personal realization, the awareness of your own separate mind.

The second section extends from the Veil of the Abyss to the Veil of Paroketh, and includes Chesed, Geburah, and Tiphareth. This region corresponds to the macrocosm as the term is generally used, though the entire Tree above the Veil of Paroketh is macrocosmic in nature. This is transpersonal realization, the awareness that “you” extend beyond the boundaries of your personal aura and into the world around you.

A person operating from the perspective of transpersonal realization has internalized the understanding that their field of consciousness includes all that is perceived and therefore does not end at the boundary of his or her mind or body. This sort of realization corresponds to the grade of Adept and is employed to produce practical magical effects.

Finally, the third region lies above the Veil of the Abyss and includes Kether, Chockmah, and Binah - the three supernals. I refer to this region as the cosmic field, since it represents the unified field of consciousness spanning the entire universe. Stabilization of cosmic realization corresponds to the grade of Magister Templi.

In the Golden Dawn the Signs of L.V.X. represented entry in the sphere of Tiphareth and therefore realization of the transpersonal realm. When Crowley added the N.O.X. signs, he attributed them to the spheres from Geburah upwards to Binah. That is, they represent a symbolic crossing of the Veil of the Abyss.

Therefore, according to my model you would begin the Star Sapphire with the signs of L.V.X. for transcending the Veil of Paroketh, and with the signs of N.O.X. for transcending the Veil of the Abyss. In practice, this generally means L.V.X. for practical magical work and N.O.X. for mystical work, which would include regular daily practice.

Note that the N.O.X. signs are given here in a specific order that does not correspond to their "letter order" that most people use in the Star Ruby. The order that most people seem to give them in the Star Ruby is as shown here, with the elemental attributions found in Liber Reguli:

- Puer - Fire
N - Puella - Air
O - Vir - Earth
X - Mulier - Water
- Mater Triumphans (Isis Rejoicing)- Spirit

This order yields a counter-clockwise circle starting in the south that follows the microcosmic "winds" model of the elements, where Fire is in the south, Air is in the east, Earth is in the north, and Water is in the west. This lines up nicely with the counter-clockwise rotation of the Star Ruby. Conversely, the order given in the Star Sapphire is like so:

- Puer - Fire
O - Vir - Earth
N - Puella - Air
X - Mulier - Water

The zodiac or macrocosmic model of the elements, as used in the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, places Fire in the East, Earth in the South, Air in the West, and Water in the north. The order here starts in the east and represents a deosil walk of the quarters - just as you do when making the hexagrams! So clearly, this order was not accidental.

Furthermore, the sephiroth to which these signs allude map out the path taken by one who aspires to become a Magister Templi. The L.V.X. signs correspond to Tiphareth. Puer corresponds to Geburah, Vir to Chesed, and both Puella and Mulier to the Babe of the Abyss. Finally, at the culmination of the rite, Set Triumphant/Mater Triumphans corresponds to Binah above the Abyss.

The sign of Mater Triumphans (I.R.) is not performed here, but rather at the center following the hexagrams, in the form of the sign of Set Triumphant. From an elemental standpoint it represents Spirit, which equilibrates the other four elements, and thus corresponds to the charging of the cup, containment structure, or receptive partner. This sign is given whether you opened the ritual with the signs of L.V.X. or the signs of N.O.X.

Then let him advance to the East and make the Holy Hexagram, saying: Pater et Mater unus deus Ararita.

There are two different ways to arrange the temple for this ritual, and only one is amenable to literally advancing to the east. If an altar is placed in the center of the space with a containment structure, the hexagrams are traced across the altar to the corresponding direction. This means the magician is always standing to the side of the altar opposite the tracing, such that it is directly in front of them. In this case, the hexagram is traced without advancing.

In a sex magick operation involving two participants, the active partner stands in the center and the receptive partner stands at the edge of the circle to the appropriate direction. The active partner steps forward and traces the hexagram onto the receptive partner. Then they take a step back to the center, and the receptive partner moves clockwise to the next quarter. This sequence is continued until all four hexagrams are complete with their corresponding statements.

The Holy Hexagram is explained in The Book of Lies, which is where the Star Sapphire was also first published. The Star Sapphire is Chapter 36, and the Holy Hexagram is explained in Chapter 69. This is another sex magick allusion, but in addition it explains how the figure should look along with the interpretation thereof.

This is the Holy Hexagram.
Plunge from the height, O God, and interlock with Man!
Plunge from the height, O Man, and interlock with Beast!
The Red Triangle is the descending tongue of grace; the Blue Triangle is the ascending tongue of prayer.
This Interchange, the Double Gift of Tongues, the Word of Double Power - ABRAHADABRA! - is the sign of the GREAT WORK, for the GREAT WORK is accomplished in silence. And behold is not that word equal to Cheth, that is Cancer, whose sigil is

This Work also eats up itself, accomplishes its end, nourishes the worker, leaves no seed, is perfect in itself.
Little children, love one another!

Crowley further explains in the commentary for the chapter:

This chapter alludes to Levi's drawing of the Hexagram, and is a criticism of, or improvement upon, it. In the ordinary Hexagram, the Hexagram of nature, the red triangle is upwards, like fire, and the blue triangle downwards, like water. In the magical hexagram this is reversed; the descending red triangle is that of Horus, a sign specially revealed by him personally, at the Equinox of the Gods. (it is the flame descending upon the altar, licking up the offering.) The blue triangle represents the aspiration, since blue is the color of devotion, and the triangle, kinetically considered, is the symbol of directed force.

In the first three paragraphs this formation of the hexagram is explained; it is a symbol of the mutual separation of the Holy Guardian Angel and his client. In the interlocking is indicated the completion of the work.

"Plunge from the height, O God, and interlock with Man" refers to cosmic realization. "O God" refers to the Qabalistic parts of the soul that reside above the Abyss, which descend to interlock with the Ruach of the Master of the Temple. Likewise, "Plunge from the height, O Man, and interlock with Beast" refers to transpersonal realization, in which the full Ruach of the Adept, spanning the Veil of Paroketh from Chesed to Yesod, interlocks with the Nephesh or animal soul that corresponds to Malkuth.

The description of the Holy Hexagram given here at first seems straightforward. It consists of a downwards-pointing red triangle and an upwards-pointing blue triangle, and the two are interlocked. Thus, the figure is that of the Hexagram of Earth just like the Golden Dawn Hexagram of Nature. The only difference is the inversion of red and blue on the two triangles. (Both the Hexagram of Nature and the Holy Hexagram are shown and labeled as such in the image at the top of this article --SMS--).

Some authors have suggested that the Star Sapphire should use the same hexagrams as the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, but this does not make sense. While all the "lesser hexagrams" are made up of two triangles, only in the case of the Hexagram of Earth do they interlock. And the Lesser Hexagram of Fire does not even include a downward-pointing triangle.

Others suggest the unicursal hexagram rather than the Hexagram of Earth, but while the unicursal hexagram interlocks, it is not made up of two triangles so the commentary does not apply. The Hexagram of Earth is the only figure that fits both qualifications. When I first started seriously exploring this ritual, this seemed to be the most obvious answer and I practiced it this way for a long time. However, after a couple years of work comparing the regular hexagram with the unicursal. I reached the conclusion that the unicursal does work better. So that is how I practice and teach the ritual today. I visualize the downward-pointing angle in red, the upward-pointing angle in blue, and the interior lines transitioning between red and blue.

The unicursal hexagram should be traced to all four directions. In terms of tracing, the best method I have come up with is to start at the top point when the phrase begins with a male name (Pater, Filius) and from the bottom point when it begins with a female name (Mater, Filia). This nicely reflects the line “Be he ever a Sun and she a Moon” from The Book of the Law.

This is because, while many modern magicians attribute the unicursal to the planets just like the regular hexagram, the original attribution attributes the Sun to the top point, the Moon to the bottom point, and the four elements to the four side points. The unicursal switches directions as you trace it, so the invoking form (the one that is generally used) goes clockwise from the starting point, whereas the banishing form goes counterclockwise from the starting point.

Let him go round to the South, make the Holy Hexagram and say: Mater et Filius unus deus Ararita.
Let him go round to the West, make the Holy Hexagram and say: Filius et Filia unus deus Ararita.
Let him go round to the North, make the Holy Hexagram and say: Filia et Pater unus deus Ararita.

The four phrases mean "Father and Mother are one god ARARITA," "Mother and Son are one god ARARITA," "Son and Daughter are one god ARARITA," and "Daughter and Father are one god ARARITA." ARARITA is the same word of power used in the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, and represents unification. It is a Notariqon or acronym for a Hebrew phrase that translates to "One is His Beginning, One is His Individuality, His Permutation is One" or something similar.

In effect, what this means is that the cross-quarters of the ritual, starting in the northeast, would be associated with these figures following the order of the letters of Tetragrammaton.

Father - Yod - Northeast
Mother - Heh - Southeast
Son - Vav - Southwest
Daughter - Heh final – Northwest

The progression follows this order and concludes with the unification of Father and Daughter. That is, as Crowley writes elsewhere, "the daughter shall be placed upon the throne of the father." Returning to the East thus completes the circle.

Let him then return to the Centre, and so to the Centre of All (making the Rosy Cross as he may know how) saying Ararita Ararita Ararita (in this the Signs shall be those of Set Triumphant and of Baphomet. Also shall Set appear in the circle. Let him drink of the Sacrament and let him communicate the same.)

This is the vaguest instruction in the entire ritual. To break these steps down, from the last hexagram continue on to the east so that the circle is complete and keep going deosil back to the center. From there, the process depends on the kind of ritual being performed.

1. For a sex magick operation with a partner, the receptive partner should advance from the east to the center and join with the active partner. The full sexual operation is performed at this point. Then the active partner traces the symbol of the Rosy Cross over the receptive partner while saying ARARITA three times.

2. For an individual sex magick operation such as sigil work, the magician charges the sigil and anoints it with sexual fluid. They then trace the symbol of the Rosy Cross over the sigil while saying ARARITA three times.

3. For a eucharist involving a physical sacrament, the magician traces the symbol of the Rosy Cross over the cup while saying ARARITA three times.

4. For an evocation ritual, the entire ritual goes here – preliminary invocation, GRP or GRH, conjuration, and charge. Following the charge, the magician traces the symbol of the Rosy Cross over the containment structure while saying ARARITA three times.

5. For regular daily practice, the symbol of the Rosy Cross can be traced in the air in front of the magician while saying ARARITA three times.

The symbol of the Rosy Cross is a cross with a circle imposed over it. It symbolizes the union of active and receptive polarities, and brings the magical child into existence. I usually trace it saying ARARITA for the first line of the cross, then ARARITA for the second line of the cross, and finally ARARITA for the circle.

Once the magical child is created, you make the Sign of Set Triumphant (Mater Triumphans/Isis Rejoicing). There has been some argument over whether Mater Triumphans is the proper sign for "Set Triumphant." Some online commenters have proposed that it should instead be the Sign of Apophis and Typhon, as that seems more appropriate to "Set Triumphant" in the context of the Osiris myth. However, in the context of this analysis I think Mater Triumphans is correct because it corresponds to nourishing the magical child so that it can begin to grow.

And thus, Set appears in the circle. Set corresponds to Saturn, the planet attributed to Binah, and he was also the god of boundaries and liminal spaces in the ancient Egyptian cosmology. The Greek myth of Saturn involved the god consuming his own children, and this is relevant to one of the key applications of this ritual. When this ritual is performed in a eucharistic fashion by whatever means, the magical child is consumed as Set “partakes of the sacrament.”

For a physical sex magick operation, this is accomplished by consuming a portion of the sexual fluids. For an operation involving a sacrament such as wine, the sacrament is consumed. For a symbolic operation, the energetic form of the magical child is absorbed by the magician.

Crowley wrote in De Thaumaturgia that this sort of operation did not drain the vitality of the practitioners but instead fortified them energetically. This is because the magical child is created as a separate manifestation of spiritual force that does not draw its power from the magician. Therefore, when it is consumed, the energetic effect is to increase the strength of the magician’s personal energy. It can also provide momentum for the Master of the Temple to cross the abyss when performed in the NOX variation.

An important point here regarding practical applications of this ritual is that the magical child is not always consumed. The magical child can also be charged to perform some function, and in this case the consumption step is skipped. Using magical children in this way can be especially powerful, since each operates as an independent entity that does not draw any power from the magician to accomplish its objectives. This has more ramifications for powerful magick than I will be addressing in this talk, but my Programming the Universe talk on Saturday will cover many ways in which this technique can be applied effectively.

Having consumed the union of active and receptive polarities, or having sent forth the magical child to accomplish some task, you then give the Sign of Baphomet (or Mulier), which represents the union of opposites and the merging of microcosm and macrocosm at either the transpersonal (Adept) or cosmic (Magister Templi) levels. It is referred to here as the Sign of Baphomet because of this latter association. It can refer to the union of magician and magical child when the latter is consumed, or the union of the magician with the macrocosmic universe separate from the magical child if it has been charged with a function.

I generally hold the Sign of Baphomet as I make the following declaration.

Then let him say: Omni in Duos: Duos in Unum: Unus in Nihil: Haec Nec Quatuor nec Omni nec Duo nec Unus nec Nihil Sunt. Gloria Patri et Matri et Filio et Filiae et Spiritui Sancto externo et Spiritui Sancto interno ut erat est erit in saecula Saeculorum sex in uno per nomen Septem in uno Ararita.

The first sentence is almost always incorrectly translated into English by editors as “All in Two, Two in One, One in Nothingness, These are neither Four nor All nor Two nor One nor Nothing.” However, the way it is written, the correct translation would be “All into Two, Two into One, One into Nothing. These are neither Four nor All nor Two nor One nor Nothing.”

This is because the word IN can mean either “in” or “into,” depending on how the word connected with it is inflected (that is, spelled). IN UNUM would mean "into one," whereas IN UNO means "in one." This is a neat piece of insight because it reflects Liber Ararita Chapter VII, which describes a process by which the Fire Qadosh dissolves "All and One and Naught" in the context of the principle word of power associated with this ritual. As the cup of Babalon has been emptied, not even nothingness remains.

The second sentence translates to "Glory to the Father and the Mother and the Son and the Daughter and the external Holy Spirit and the internal Holy Spirit as was, is and ever shall be in the world, six in one by the name of seven in one ARARITA" This recapitulates once more the unification of the various elements of the rite.

Let him then repeat the signs of L.V.X., but not the signs of N.O.X.: for it is not he that shall arise in the Sign of Isis Rejoicing.

This then means that if the magician began with the Signs of L.V.X. they should be repeated here. One interpretation I have heard is that it means you always should end with the Signs of L.V.X. no matter how you began the rite, but this doesn't make sense with the word "repeat." The Signs of L.V.X. can only be repeated if they have been previously given. But if you begin with the Signs of N.O.X., the ritual simply ends here.

The consciousness of the Adept stabilizes at Tiphareth, represented by the repetition of the L.V.X. signs. Likewise, those who aspire to transpersonal consciousness should ceremonially reposition themselves there. But for the Magister Templi, who has transcended both mundane and transpersonal realization to apprehend the cosmos as a whole, it is not meaningful to speak of such an individual arising as him or herself in the mundane sense. Instead, Crowley speaks of a "star cast forth" from the Body of Nuit which from that point forward inhabits the Adept's mundane consciousness.

None of this should imply that a single performance of this ritual represents the Crossing of the Abyss. I have performed it myself countless times and the Crossing of the Abyss is an entirely different operation. Crowley does write, though, that a good preparation for Crossing the Abyss "in the actual" is to practice crossing it "in the imagination." It seems to me for anyone who aspires to the realization of a Magister Templi one day that the regular performance of the Star Sapphire with the Signs of N.O.X. should prove quite effective, as it dramatizes the entire process in a relatively concise ritual framework.

This is a lot of material to cover for such a superficially simple ritual, so maybe the Hellier folks were less far off than I originally assumed when I watched them literally freaked out by the idea of performing it. None of them had a background in ceremonial magick, so I probably should cut them a little slack there. Still, the application of this ritual is not so difficult that it can’t be picked up with some practice. I hope that my analysis will help you to do just that.