Archangels do not like scripts

I am now working on chapter 3 of JM Greers "Learning Ritual Magic" which is where the LRBP is introduced (yes, I know I've been calling the Quarters and creating Circles for years, it is the same thing, and yet it is very different, trust me, Witchy Friends).

My first attempt was so clumsy that I embarrassed myself-and I was alone. (I had no trouble seeing the pentagrams or the line connecting them, but then, I've been doing that for years.) I finished that evenings ritual spacey and ungrounded in the extreme. I had nightmares all night. The Greer book says (at least in chapter 3) to do the LRBP once, every day, but every other source that I could lay eyes on, suggested doing it more often than that, so the next day, I did it twice. I found that I didn't need the script the second time, that day. I slept very well that night-with the sensation that I was sleeping within the ritual, itself.

My study partner (whom I know only via email. One day I will throw a party and invite all my email and internet associates, it should be a very interesting gathering!) was having similar visualization issues. He sent me a color chart, with the appropriate colors for each Archangel, to use as a visual aid. Alas, it didn't help me, and that mornings attempt was very nearly as clumsy as the first.

And then, yesterday. No script. No visual aid. No trying to create images in my head of celestial beings that do not call this plane home, nor exist in human bodies. After seeing the pentagram in the north connect with the one in the east, I closed my eyes. Lo and behold, as I called each name, I saw a flame spring into existence in each of the proper places. No special colors of attribution-just fire. I could even see Gabriel's fire behind me, behind my head, as if I had 360 degree vision. My first reaction was a sense of awe, such as I have not felt in a year (and those of you who know me, know what kind of year I've had). And after the closing gestures, awe and glee. (and relief from the intense questioning of my own abilities for the first time in a long while, too).