I think it was reading Donald Michael Kraig* that introduced me to the idea of “the Great Voice”. Back at the beginning of my path, having attended more than a few open rituals, I was first overawed by the loud theatrical booming voices; perfectly enunciated, perfectly timed.
But over time I became even more in awe of the quieter, stuttering, yet earnest voices that sometimes also participated. Their words often meant much more to me because they had overcome the fear and they had tried. Tried with all their might because this ritual and participating in it truly meant something to them. Slow and stumbling though those words might be they often had more power. Because intentional or not the person was using their “Great Voice”.
So what is the “Great Voice”?
It’s a way of reciting God names, invocations, prayers and words of power making little or no sound at all but despite the silence, the astral (and physical) body vibrates in harmony with the universe allowing it to hear the invocations. It’s like jacking into Super-fast broadband for the astral rather than dial up, there is less static and less chance of the connection dropping out.
You know when you are doing it; there is a buzz in your chest, an emotional feeling rises up within you a bit like those moments just before you wipe your eye in a movie that “isn’t making you cry, honest” and normally there is a slightly otherworldly feel to the world around you as if any second you might shift out of phase. In short you can get a little tiny bit spacey. It’s easy to know when someone else is doing it too if you have even a shred of empathy about you as it will evoke exactly the same reaction within you when you witness it. You know that their cry has echoed out in all directions and those entities who are being called cannot help but listen.
Mastering the Great Voice is an awesome skill to learn because it means that no matter where you are, or who you are with, it’s possible to shout out to the universe for whatever it is that you need and only another magician would know it. Think of the advantages of being able to use this. Feeling out of sorts and funky on the train to work, dog-breath boy leering over you again? Shut your eyes, visualise an LBRP and use your Great Voice, banish that sucker and his halitosis head. Want to perform ritual in a house with sleeping housemates who don’t share your love of paganism and the occult? No problem, the Great Voice to the rescue. Need someone to listen to you without having to join a room full of loud voices, yup you got it, use that Great Voice of yours.
For years I felt that silent ritual was a cop out, that for the God to hear, you needed to speak. But the reality is if you’re doing your Great Voice well, they will hear you loud and clear because you will be tuned to their frequency, one that not all the loud shouty show-boaters know how to access.
For the next month try doing all your rituals in silence, but think carefully about each word you internally speak, concentrate on how it affects you physically and mentally, chant, sing, shout and pray all in silence. Let me know how you get on.
*Modern Magick – 12 Lessons in the Magickal Arts, Donald Michael Kraig, Llewellyn Publications
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In