Cease now to visualize the sword, but continue to visualize the circle until it expands to form a sphere of light all around you. Clasp your hands in prayer; raise them above your head toward the east, and say, “May the mighty archangel Rafá’íl preserve me.” Turn toward the south and say, “May the mighty archangel Jabrá’íl strengthen me.” Turn toward the west and say, “May the mighty archangel Míka’íl protect me.” Turn toward the north and say, “May the mighty archangel Úriyá’íl maintain me.” Turn to face the east again and say, “For before me flames the pentagram and within me shines the sacred star.” Visualize the star of the latá’if.

It is not necessary to shift the furniture or the bed in order to draw the circle; it will be formulated wherever it is visualized to be. It is necessary to reaffirm this circle each time the tides change; that is to say, a circle made after sundown will hold good until sunrise, and a circle made after sunrise will maintain its potency until sunset.

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Stand erect and face the east.

Construct an astral cross within your imaginal body; this will steady your vibrations and purify your aura. Use your right hand as you touch your forehead, your chest, your right shoulder and then your left shoulder, and invoke the Holy Maiden with these words: “In the Name of (with the first two fingers of your right hand) the Wisdom (touch your forehead), and of the Love (touch your heart), and of the Justice (touch your right shoulder), and of the Mercy (touch your left shoulder) of the Holy Maiden (touch your heart again), Amín (touch your upper lip just under your nose).”

Next imagine that you hold in your right hand a large, cross-handled sword; hold it point upright and say, “In the Name of the Most Luminous, I take in hand the sword of power for defense against evil and aggression.” Imagine yourself drawn up to twice your natural height, armed and mailed with the strength of the power of the Most Luminous with which you have been charged by your formulation of the sword of power.

Now proceed to draw a circle upon the floor with the point of the sword of power; see in your imagination a line of pale golden flame that follows the point of the sword from the east, to the south, to the west, and to the north. This affirms the rule of divine law in nature, the Way of the Sun.

When you are confronted by an insidious influence from an unwholesome spiritual source, you must cleanse the immediate magnetic field in which you find yourself through the means of ceremonial, specifically through a liturgy that consists of three parts, in this order:

The construction of an astral cross within your imaginal body; the formulation of four pentagrams within a circle of light that expands until it forms a sphere around you; and the evocation of the archangelic archetypes from within your own psyche. The formula we will give will be found effectual for all conditions.

Whenever you have to converse with someone who saps your vitality, interlace your fingers and lay your enfolded hands upon your solar plexus, your elbows pressed against your sides, your feet pressed against each other; your body is now a closed circuit. Now gaze steadily at the spot just above the base of his nose, between the inner ends of the eyebrows. Do not attempt to dominate him, merely keep your eyes on the spot and wait for him to weary of his efforts. No magnetism will depart from you while you maintain this impersonal attitude.

Díyáfat-i-‘Izzat, the Feast of Might

It is also advisable to seal your aura. Stand upright and cross yourself; your left hand is laid flat on your body below the breast, then with the first and second fingers of your right hand touch first your forehead, then your breast just below your left hand, then your right shoulder, and lastly, your left shoulder. Now invoke the Holy Maiden with these words: “By the power of the Most Luminous within me (extend your hands forward as far as you can reach at the level of the solar plexus, fingertips together, then sweep them round to the back and touch your fingertips together again behind you), I encompass myself about with the divine circle of her protection, across which no mortal error dares to set its foot.” This invocation is considered very effectual, but is believed to last only for about four hours.

Díyáfat-i-Asmá’, the Feast of Names

This is a pentagram or five-pointed star drawn in a particular way: extend the first and second fingers of your right hand, bend the third and fourth fingers toward your palm, and lay your thumb upon their nails. Now proceed to draw the pentalapha in the air; keep your elbow stiff and swing your arm at full length across your body, your hand at the level of your left hip (earth), your extended fingers downward and outward. Swing your arm upward until your fingers point straight above your head at arm’s length (ether). Sweep your arm down again, until your hand occupies the position on your right side (fire) to that from which it started on your left. Next swing your hand across your body on an upward incline, until it is stretched on a level with your left shoulder (air). Bring it across your body horizontally until it is in the same position on your right (water), with your fingers pointed away from your body. Finally, swing it downward across your body until your hand has come back to the point by your left hip whence it started.

The potency of this sign should be augmented with the invocation of the Name; this will be found effectual for most conditions. Simply place your hand (fingers together and parallel, thumb stretched at a right angle to your forefinger) in the center of the star and speak the Holy Name; this affirms the presence of the Indivisible One and its abode in the human heart. It is ultimately your own interior state of consciousness that the pentalapha purifies; since the senses themselves are expressions of the elements in the human state, a sincere invocation brings your entire elemental state into alignment with the world of creation.

Traumatic energies are often produced whenever a person experiences intense stress or tension. These traumatic energies are not negative entities as such, but rather are elementals born in the mind of man, embodiments of particular qualities and energies within life itself. Therefore, we must first use meditative methods in order to purify and harmonize our own consciousness, and only then use various forms and symbols to concentrate our attention.

In this context, it is important to note that any act performed with intention becomes a rite; if we bathe with the intention to attain spiritual cleanliness, the efficacy of the action will extend beyond the physical plane. The use of forms and symbols is merely a device to enable the mind to apprehend the abstract, intangible elements of human existence.

The pentalapha or pentagrammon is the best form of defense to deal with elementals or non-human entities.

Díyáfat-i-Kamál, the Feast of Perfection

Rahma, the Arabic word for mercy, is derived from a root that connects it with the Arabic word for womb, rahím, which is itself a feminine linguistic form. In the mystical cosmology of Islám, the effulgence of erotic energy is masculine and is envisaged as the primordial pen, qalam, with which Alláh inscribes the destinies of all creatures on the Heavenly Tablet, a pre-existent book that is preserved in paradise. The Divine, through the act of creation, releases itself from its uroboric unity; separation and union are interdependent because separation was created to enhance union.

Ascension of Marie, Queen of Romania

For Kat.

The revelation of Bahá’u’lláh has been handed down as authority—accept it or reject it. But such a dictatorial approach is an inadequate and neurotic response to the current crisis in consciousness in the West. It is no longer possible to effectively present a religious tradition using the established forms of the past; a new way is needed for people to rediscover a true bond with the sacred and a possibility of authentic freedom. It is simply reactionary to preserve what was, for the simple reason that it has been, without any regard for its true worth.

The principal point of any spiritual practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego, particularly its constant desire for a higher, more spiritual, more transcendental version of knowledge, religion, virtue, judgement, health, comfort, or whatever it is that the ego seeks. One must step out of spiritual materialism; the desire to improve oneself, the desire to achieve imagined goals. Spiritual materialism is indeed the disease of the present day, the accumulation of techniques and paraphernalia in order to impress the soul and the psyche. The soul and psyche simply need stillness, silence and humility.

Ascension of Bahíyyih Khánum

In his seminal work The Seven Mysteries of Life, Bahá’í author Guy Murchie notes that humans are occasionally known to shift gender and actually manage to function as both male and female at the same time. We now understand that biological sex is not synonymous with gender; gender embraces the socially and culturally constructed experience of what it means to be a woman or a man, which will vary in accord with time and place, as well as other factors such as ethnicity, class and marital status. We attach cultural significance to biological differences, but such perspectives are far too narrow and only serve to reinforce the limitations and constraints of the conventional gender binary and any social system which is based thereon.

Julia Serano, author of Whipping Girl, the premiere text on transgender issues and experience, believes that gender is neither entirely inherent in people nor entirely constructed by society. She believes there are some aspects of gender that people are intrinsically inclined to express and others that society creates. In this sense, gender is both an attribution and an assumption, a process we live and a project we construct every day of our lives.