There is a name I never share. I speak it every day.
Every magician has two names. One is on the driver's license. The other is spoken only within the circle, and only a trusted few will ever hear it.
In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, each initiate took a magical motto on entering the Order and was known by it inside the temple. W. B. Yeats was Demon Est Deus Inversus. Aleister Crowley was Perdurabo, "I will endure to the end." The name wasn't a costume. It stated the soul's aspiration, the self a person was working to become.
Mine wasn't chosen from a list. It came to me, and I believe it came from my guides. It's two words long, and I share it only with a trusted elder in magic, such as a teacher. That isn't coyness. A magical name loses something each time it's spoken carelessly. Kept close, it holds its charge.
Uttering my magical name, followed by my Daily Magical Mantra
Stepping Into the Name
By this point in my practice, the Qabalistic Cross has balanced me, the circle has been designated and consecrated, and the veil has been opened. Everything so far has been preparation. The name is the threshold between preparing and working.
I begin with my hands low, at the side of my waist. Then I intone my name, slowly, and as the sound carries I raise my hands past my heart, past my face, until they're above my head. It feels like a sunrise. By the time my arms are fully raised, I've stepped into my most magical self, the one the name was given to.
The Most Personal Part of the Path
A magical name, and the vow that seals it, are among the most intimate elements of ritual practice. No one can hand you your name, but guidance can help you build the foundation that makes you ready to receive it. Ritual and ceremony are always best entered first with a guide at your side.
Ritual Workings are open to anyone who has previously had a Personal Reading with me. If your reading revealed that you're ready to step more fully into your magical self, this is work we can begin together.
Sealing the Ascent
Then I seal it. I bring my hands together, the fingers of each hand folded over the fingers of the other, each thumb resting over the middle knuckle of the opposite hand. The shape is close to an infinity symbol, a loop with no beginning and no end. Holding it, I speak my daily mantra:
"I further promise and swear that, with the Divine permission, I will forward apply myself to the Great Work, which is to so purify and exalt my spiritual nature that, with the Divine Aid, I may at length attain to be more than human and thus gradually raise and unite myself to my High Divine Genius, and that in this event, I will not abuse the Great Power entrusted to me."
These words are rooted in the Golden Dawn's Adeptus Minor obligation, the vow taken on entering the Inner Order, beyond the veil of Paroketh. I say them every day. A promise made once is a ceremony. A promise kept daily is a discipline.
The final clause matters most to me. The mantra doesn't end with power. It ends with restraint. Whatever the work opens, I've already promised how I'll use it.
My name stays between me and my guides. The vow doesn't. Who I am in the circle is private, but what I've sworn to do with it can be said out loud, every morning, by anyone willing to keep it.
A ritual working with Divinely Designed is only offered following a Personal Reading, if recommended. A Ritual Working will allow you to partner in magic with Divinely Designed and may include crystal gridwork, magic workings, advanced readings of Tarot or Oracle Cards, and other rituals based on Western Mystery Traditions.