Adeptus Minor (without) - is expected to perform the Great Work, and to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Adeptus Minor (within) - is admitted to the practice of the formula of the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost. He should be a master of dhyāna.
The Grade of Adeptus Minor is the main theme of the instructions of the [the Order]. It is characterized by the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (See The Equinox, “The Temple of Solomon the King”; The Vision and the Voice 8th Æthyr; also “Liber Samekh,” etc., etc.) This is the essential work of every man; none other ranks with it either for personal progress or for power to help one’s fellows. This unachieved, man is no more than the unhappiest and blindest of animals. He is conscious of his own incomprehensible calamity, and clumsily incapable of repairing it. Achieved, he is no less than the co-heir of gods, a Lord of Light. He is conscious of his own consecrated course, and confidently ready to run it. The Adeptus Minor needs little help or guidance even from his superiors in our Order.
His work is to manifest the Beauty of the Order to the world, in the way that his superiors enjoin, and his genius dictates.
To attain the Grade of Adeptus Major, he must accomplish Two Tasks; the equilibration of himself, especially as to his passions, so that he has no preference for any one course of conduct over another, and the fulfillment of every action by its complement, so that whatever he does leaves him without temptation to wander from the way of his True Will.
Secondly, he must keep silence, while he nails his body to the Tree of his Creative Will, in the shape of that Will, leaving his head and arms to form the symbol of Light, as if to make oath that his every thought, word and deed should express the Light derived from the God with which he has identified his Life, his Love and his Liberty—symbolized by his heart, his phallus, and his legs. It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; a secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his Grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother’s God, or the Rite that invokes him.
The Masters of the [Order] have therefore made no attempt to institute any regular ritual for this central Work of their Order, save the generalized instructions in [The Vision and the Voice] (the 8th Æthyr), and the detailed Canon and Rubric of the Mass actually used with success by [Crowley] in His attainment. This has been written down by Himself in “Liber Samekh.” But they have published such accounts as those in “The Temple of Solomon the King” and in “John St. John.” They have taken the only proper course; to train aspirants to this attainment in the theory and practice of the whole of Magick and Mysticism, so that each man may be expert in the handling of all known weapons, and free to choose and to use those which his own experience and instinct dictate as proper when he essays the Great Experiment.
He is furthermore trained to the one habit essential to Membership of the [Order]; he must regard all his attainments as primarily the property of those less advanced aspirants who are confided to his charge. (from "One Star in Sight")
The Syllabus of a Adeptus Minor
His duty is laid down in Paper F, Class D [The Task of the Adeptus Minor].
It is to follow out the instruction given in the Vision of the Eighth Æthyr for the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
(NOTE. This is in truth the sole task; the others are useful only as adjuvants to and preparations for the One Work.
Moreover, once this task has been accomplished, there is no more need of human help or instruction; for by this alone may the highest attainment be reached.
All these grades are indeed but convenient landmarks, not necessarily significant. A person who had attained them all might be immeasurably the inferior of one who had attained none of them; it is Spiritual Experience alone that counts in the Result; the rest is but Method.
Yet it is important to possess knowledge and power, provided that it be devoted wholly to that One Work.)
The Task of an Adeptus Minor
Let the Adeptus Minor attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel.
Adeptus Minor Curriculum
"Liber AL vel Legis", "The Book of the Law".
"Thien TAO".
"Liber Viarum Viæ".
"The Mass of the Phœnix".
"Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni".
"Liber Stellæ Rubeæ".
"Liber B vel Magi".
Course VIII publications are specially suited to the grade of Major Adept, whose task is the attainment of the full Magical Power. It is highly desirable that Aspirants to this grade should have attained the 9th degree of O.T.O., in which case much secret knowledge is offered them besides that openly published. The methods of examination for the Inner College differ therefore from those employed in the Outer.
The Oath of an Adeptus Minor
I, ______________________ (motto), being of sound mind and body, and prepared, on this ___ day of ___________ (An ______ SUN in __° of __) do hereby resolve: in the Presence of ______________________ an Adeptus of the A.'.A.'.: To prosecute the Great Work: which is, to attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
May the A.'.A.'. crown the work, lend me of Its wisdom in the work, enable me to understand the work!
Reverence and duty do I bring to the A.'.A.'. and here and now may I be admitted to the knowledge and conversation of the A.'.A.'.!