The Guild keeps seven grades in three Halls. Each grade stands under one of the seven planets, taken in order from the swiftest to the slowest, and each is a body of work completed and shown. A grade is a record. It is not a rank.
Grades I to III
The Outer Hall
Three grades of foundation. The member learns to attend, to read the language of the Art, and to make its tools.
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I
Apprentice
Under the Moon
The Apprentice learns the three daily works, and nothing else until they are habitual: the Lamp, the Gates and the Record. To these are added a month's study of each of the four elements and the daily drawing of the lots. The Moon rules rhythm, memory and habit, and the grade is given to the making of a rhythm.
- Book
- The Book of the Lamp, 13 Papers
- Minimum time
- One year
- The piece
- The Rite of the Four Gates performed from memory, and a summary of the year's Record
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II
Scribe
Under Mercury
The Scribe learns the language. The tables of correspondence are committed to memory and then tested. The cards and the figures of divination are studied. Sigils are made and scored. And the Scribe writes a first rite of his or her own, and learns by performing it how much a rite must leave out.
- Book
- The Book of the Pen, 12 Papers
- Minimum time
- One year
- The piece
- A rite of the member's own composition, performed before the Chapterhouse and defended line by line
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III
Artisan
Under Venus
The Artisan makes. The wand, the cup, the blade and the disk are fashioned by hand and consecrated one at a time. Talismans are made and reviewed. Scrying is begun. The Artisan learns to dress a Hall so that everything in it says one thing. Venus rules art and the love of the work, and this is the grade in which most members discover that they have come to love it.
- Book
- The Book of the Hand, 12 Papers
- Minimum time
- One year
- The piece
- The four instruments, with the Record of their making
Grades IV and V
The Middle Hall
Two grades of practice. The member can now work the Art unaided, and begins to carry responsibility for others.
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IV
Journeyman
Under the Sun
The Journeyman is a qualified practitioner. The grade is given to invocation, first of the four elements and then of the seven planets in a cycle of forty-nine days, and to the full use of the planetary hours. By old custom the Journeyman also travels, visiting and working with at least two Chapterhouses other than his or her own. The title is traditional and is borne by members of every gender.
- Book
- The Book of the Road, 24 Papers
- Minimum time
- Two years
- The piece
- The cycle of seven planetary invocations, fully recorded, and the journey
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V
Keeper
Under Mars
The Keeper guards. Evocation is taught, at first always under the eye of a Master. The arts of protection and of closing are perfected. The Keeper takes office in a Chapterhouse, where the safety of a group at work becomes his or her charge, and serves as sponsor to petitioners and as mentor to members of the Outer Hall.
- Book
- The Book of the Gate, 24 Papers
- Minimum time
- Two years
- The piece
- Three witnessed evocations, and a year's service in office
Grades VI and VII
The Inner Hall
Two grades of custody. The member teaches, examines, and keeps the tradition.
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VI
Master
Under Jupiter
A Master is one who can teach the whole of the craft and has added something to it. The grade is not given at the end of a course. It is given on the presentation of a Master's piece: an original operation, conceived, performed and recorded by the candidate, and laid before the General Convocation, where any member may question it. Masters may preside over Chapterhouses and may be elected Wardens.
- Book
- The Book of the Chair, 36 Papers, studied after admission
- Minimum time
- None is fixed. No one has yet been admitted in fewer than seven years from Apprentice.
- The piece
- The Master's piece
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VII
Elder
Under Saturn
The grade of Elder is conferred by the Council on Masters of at least seven years' standing who have withdrawn from office. Elders hold no authority. They advise when they are asked, keep the vigil of the Lamp at the Mother Hall on the four Convocations, and by custom say very little. There are at present nine.
- Book
- The Book of the Silence, 26 Papers
- Admission
- By invitation of the Council
- The piece
- None
On titles
The titles of the grades are used within the Hall and in the correspondence of the Guild. Outside it members do not use them, and no member signs a public writing with a grade. On the roll of the Guild every name stands in the order in which it was signed.
On equality
Every member who has been admitted Apprentice has one vote in the General Convocation, and no grade has more than one. On the Seal of the Guild the seven points of the star lie on a single circle.
On training received elsewhere
Many petitioners come to the Guild with years of practice behind them, alone or in other bodies. Their experience is welcome and usually shows within weeks. It is not credited as a grade. Every member begins as an Apprentice and keeps the minimum times, because the first year is not a course of information to be skipped by those who already have it. It is a year at the Lamp.