Liber MMM and the Novice
Applications in writing to:
Novice Guide
BM8482
London
WC1N 3XX
The minimum requirements for admission are 6 months unbroken recorded work on Liber MMM (see reading list below) and if geographically possible some work with an IOT group or Temple. During this six month period, you are referred to as a Novice and you have a Mentor, a contact within the IOT who supports you in your work. The work programme you are required to do for a minimum of six months includes:
- Banishing Rituals: master a couple of these - e.g. Gnostic Pentagram & IAO banishing.
- Dreamwork: keep a record of your dreams and suggest interpretations.
- Metamorphosis: self-transforming magic deliberately undertaken.
- Asana: sitting still, practice this on its own then within other work.
- Pranayama: breath control - practice this on its own and in asana, as part of motionless-no-thought exercise, 30 minutes minimum daily.
- Sigils, Mantras: learn how to create and use these.
- Divination: develop and record divination skills - e.g. Tarot spreads, etc.
- Any spells, rituals, or talismans done: keep a record of how & why you did these.
- Image Concentration: visualisation of images in the mind's eye to gain trance.
- Object Concentration: staring at objects, e.g. wall, clouds, in order to gain trance.
- Sound Concentration: repetition of mantras or meaningless phrases to assist trance.
All Liber MMM work is to be recorded in a diary with your own comments and self-assessment. You may choose to keep your MMM diary separate from your more personal records. A suggested diary layout would include:
| DATE | TIME | WORK DONE | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12th April | 20mins | Banishing Rite - GPBR | Got good visualisation of the colours associated with the sounds this time. Very energising and centring but a bit spacey. |
| Question: Isn't the pentagram completely irrelevant in this context? | |||
| 12th April | 30mins | Divination - Tarot (gossip spread) | Q: what is Mary up to? A: 7 Swords is mischief. Dominance of Swords suggests worry, troubles, as does Tower as Incoming Influence. Mary looks like a dodgy character! |
| Result of Sigil from 5th April: someone found my missing spectacles and returned them (see entry April 5th) | |||
| 13th April | 20mins | Asana/Pranayama/Object Concentration | Sat staring at the telephone as an exercise (Great work - keep it up). Found it hard to keep still - my nose was itching. Gave up after 20mins because someone knocked on door. Must practice this more. |
It is suggested that the first time you do new work - e.g. a Banishing Rite - you write it up fully- thereafter shorter comments can be used e.g. 'Gnostic pentagram becoming more fluent now'.
Books
The following forms an incomplete reading list:
- Peter J Carroll
- Liber Null and Psychonaut. This is the original manual of the IOT. It contains Liber MMM, which is the training schedule for entry into the IOT.
- Liber Kaos. This book contains Liber Pactionis, the description of the Pact of the IOT. (Both books pub. Samuel Weiser)
- Dave Lee Chaotopia (£10 available from Chaos International, BM Sorcery London WC1N 3XX)
- Phil Hine
- Prime Chaos
- Condensed Chaos (available from Chaos International)
- Ramsey Dukes - any of his brilliant meditations on magick
- Jan Fries Visual Magic (pub. Mandrake Press, PO Box 250 Oxford OX1 1AP, UK) excellent material on semi-automatic drawing methods and sigilization.
Mentor and Novice
Please note: we do not chase Novices up; we are only interested in highly motivated people. It is up to you to stay in regular contact with your Mentor. If we do not hear from you for a while, we assume that you are have found something better to do with your time. This does not mean that the door is closed, but it is up to you to make the effort to get back in touch if you do wish to continue.