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Royal Art Society Candidate
Grade Nothing
Until you have completed the Candidate Registration and Investiture described below you will be considered an applicant for Candidacy. Please take note: the following ritual may be done physically alone or with a group, however, it was primarily intended as a guided visualization for self-initiation and meditation.
The Candidate’s material well-being from the perspective of the global economy under international law is considered as fundamental to the Royal Art Society. The society may act as a catalyst between alchemists across the globe, connecting them in a forum and creating opportunities for trade, travel, and education.
The applicant for Candidacy must maintain physical and mental well-being and is therefore required to drink adequate water for hydration and look to his or her diet. Meals should be made of healthy and nutritious food. Ideally, the food is organic, fresh, and as raw as possible. Meals ought to consist mainly of vegetables and fruit. The amount of food eaten should be moderate. The Candidate should refer first to their physician for recommendations before changing any regimen related to health, including exercise and diet.
The applicant for Candidacy is expected to regularly engage in moderate physical exercise, at the very least, walking. Examples are Qigong, taijiquan, martial arts, yoga, body building, wrestling, therapeutic massage, dancing, hiking, climbing, swimming, golf, European football, sailing, horseback riding, archery and fencing. Training in a musical instrument, the fine arts, poetry, or theatre are alternatives for those whose physicians recommend abstinence from physical exercise, and are recommended endeavors for others, as well. The time invested and the activity or activities chosen are left entirely up to the individual Candidate.
The Candidate, and every alchemist, is urged to contemplate the evolution of human civilization. Chinese Daoist alchemists of Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province of the People’s Republic of China advise collecting qi from sites such as revered temples, sacred mountains, and certain trees. Often, ancient qigong practitioners and their successors have built up a strong field of qi in these locations, in other words, these settings are sources of wisdom and power.
Likewise, the Royal Art Society promotes visiting museums and historic sites, libraries, theatres, monuments, cemeteries, parks and centers of commerce and government, temples and other socially relevant landmarks. These may all be considered to have significance on many levels, including the possession of important and unique concentrations of life-force, which can instruct, nurture, energize and inspire.
How to Apply for Candidacy
The applicant for Candidacy should have become familiar with the Candidate’s Introduction chapters of the Book of the Royal Art. The Candidate may then begin the Alchemist’s Curriculum with the Candidate’s Handbook. At the time specified, the Candidate takes the Grade of Earth and becomes an Apprentice. This simply means that one advances to the Apprentice Alchemist’s Handbook.
At the proper time, the Apprentice graduates to the Grade of Man (Homo Sapiens) and after the Spring Festival may begin using the Master Alchemist’s Handbook. There are four rituals for the Alchemist degree, one for each equinox and solstice of the year, upon completion of which the Alchemist may begin study of the Book of the Mage, otherwise known as the Immortal’s Handbook. At the end of the following year, the Alchemist may attempt to pass the Degree of Heaven and become an Immortal. The Immortal begins study with the fourth and final volume of the Book of the Royal Art, the Experimental Alchemy of the Royal Art Society.
To apply for Candidacy in the Royal Art Society, one may complete, sign and date a copy of the application. That copy may be treasured, buried, burned, cast away or otherwise ritualistically kept or disposed of. Beyond this symbolic act, Royal Art Society ritual may be done physically alone or with a group, but it was also intended to be guided visualization for self-initiation and mystical exercise. The inquirer will be invested as a Candidate of the Royal Art Society on or about the next Vernal Equinox at six o’clock am.
Candidate Registration
Name ________________________________________________________________________
Date of Birth ________________________________________________________________________
I apply for Candidacy to the Royal Art Society by my own free will and with fit mind.
A new member is given the title of Candidate on or about the next Vernal Equinox and is registered as an Apprentice on or about the following Summer Solstice at noon.
Signed, __________________________________________ Date __________________.
Candidate Investiture
Rite of Manifestation (Calcination)
Vernal Equinox, Six O’clock Morning
All participants and observers are dressed in formal attire. The Officers except the Candidate(s) process clockwise from the North-East to their stations. When the Officers are in their stations the Master of Ceremonies (MC) conducts the Candidates who are to be installed from the North-East clockwise to the West of the Altar. The MC receives the proper manuscripts on a cushion from the Archivist when he passes the South, and all Officers bow to the MC. The MC bows to the Candidates and stands before them to the East of the Altar of the Royal Art. The initiation begins with the Royal Art Society Martial Hymn recited by all of the Officers present. The hymn describes a particular symbolic ritual or visualization.
The Royal Art Society Martial Hymn
“O One, O Law, You made all Opposites:
Negative and Positive, Darkness and Light, Evil and Good,
From eternal rest the Good awakens and challenges the Evil.
Each Opposite is given his Strength.
I am prepared at the right hand of the Lord,
Facing Evil at the left hand of the Lord.
In the center are the Sacred Fire and the Holy Graal,
About us is a circle of stone below, and heaven above.
My Opposite teaches me the revelation;
I am presented before the Lord,
Stripped of my adornments, and given a new robe.
I am presented with the Book of Life
And led to the Feast.
It is here that All returns to One.”
After the hymn, the MC then administers the Oath to the Candidates being installed, who simultaneously repeat the words of the Oath.
Candidate’s Oath
I, ________ (full name), in the presence of this worshipful Royal Art Society, united in Spirit and dedicated to the same, do hereon promise and swear to always conduct myself as a person of honor: to remember my vows and exercise the noble virtues. All of which I swear, with a fixed and steady purpose of mind, to keep and perform, binding myself under no less a penalty than that of betraying the Way of Truth and Life, and losing my connection to the Source. I invoke the Nameless One to keep me steadfast in the performance of this, my Royal Art Society Candidate’s solemn obligation.
The MC then performs the Act of Installation by shaking hands with the new Candidates. All bow. The MC hands the Candidates each a copy of the Book of the Royal Art and reads the following to the Candidates:
“Congratulations on your appointment in Candidacy to the Royal Art Society. You have received the title of Candidate upon your merits and you are authorized to be passed to the First Degree, the Grade of Earth, on or about the next Summer Solstice at noon. Welcome to the Royal Art Society, the Way of the Royal Art, and may peace be with you.”
All bow, and the MC leads the Candidates clockwise to the exit, followed by the other Officers in procession, all reciting the Royal Art Society Martial Hymn.
Congratulations! Thank you for joining the membership of the Royal Art Society.
Continue to the Candidate’s Handbook >
The next ritual marks the transition from the Candidate, the Grade of Nothing, to the Apprentice Alchemist, the Grade of Earth. It is called the Rite of Formation.
Book of the Royal Art Table of Contents
