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If you've had a disagreement with someone, or you're in the middle of a conflict of some kind, then it's a good idea to ask for help from the divinities. This prayer isn't to help you win or to get the other person to apologize. It's simply to create peace and forgiveness all the way around:
"Beloved helpers in Heaven, please come to me now... Archangel Raguel, heavenly minister of fairness... Athena, goddess of peaceful solutions... Forseti, overseer of truth and justice... Guardian angels of [name the person or persons involved in the conflict]... I thank you for your intervention. I ask that you deliver my message to everyone involved in this situation and let them know of my desire for peace. I ask for a peaceful and rapid resolution, and I surrender this entire situation to you and God, knowing that it is already resolved. I know that only peace exists in truth, and that peace is everywhere, including within this situation and within everyone involved. Please clearly guide me as to my role in this peaceful resolution. Thank you."
"Source: Archangels and Ascended Masters by Doreen Virtue"
I love a long and involved ceremonial ritual as much as most ritual magicians, but sometimes you need something that you can cast relatively quickly - like in fifteen minutes or so. The full Enochian Ritual Template that is posted here runs a little under an hour, and sometimes you just don't have that kind of time.
With this in mind, I am in the process of composing a simple Enochian ritual form that takes less time to cast than the full template. Here is the first draft, which I will begin testing this evening.
The basic Enochian Temple setup will improve the results of this ritual dramatically. That is, you should at the very least have an Enochian ring and if possible a Holy Table or altar with the Holy Table design represented on the top. It will work without the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, but the Sigillum will further concentrate and intensify the effect. I'm assuming a solo magician in this rendition.
* Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
* Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram.
* Preliminary Invocation:
OMNISCIENT, OMNIPRESENT, AND OMNIPOTENT MAD, I INVOKE AND CALL UPON THY DIVINE POWER, WISDOM, AND GLORY BY THY TWELVE MYSTICAL NAMES: ORO IBAH AOZPI MOR DIAL HCTGA OIP TEAA PDOCE MPH ARSL GAIOL. BY THESE NAMES MAY ALL OF THY ANGELIC SPIRITS BE CALLED FORTH TO WORK MY MAGICAL WILL UPON THE EARTH. AMEN.
* First Call in Enochian
* Begin the Conjuration to each or the four directions starting with the East and moving clockwise, inserting the appropriate Angelic names.
[NAME or NAMES], DOOAIP [CONTROLLING NAME or NAMES], ZACAR OD ZAMRAN MICALZO!
Then conclude the Conjuration once you have completed the circle and are again facing the East.
ZACARE CA OD ZAMRAN, ODO CICLE QAA, ZORGE, LAP ZIRDO NOCO MAD HOATH IAIDA! AMEN.
"Dooaip" means "in the name of, zacar od zamran micalzo" means "move and appear in power," and the conclusion reprises the end of the First Call - "move and show yourselves, open the mystery of your creation, be friendly unto me, for I am the servant of the same your God, the true worshipper of the highest." * Charge to the spirits, concluding with AMEN.
* Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
This form will also work with my AOIVEAE/MADRIAX rituals rather than the Golden Dawn pentagram and hexagram ritual forms. The Star Ruby/Star Sapphire could also be used.
On the previous thread about Lisiewski's evocation methods, golden-dawn-hermetic wrote:
We all work classical grimoires, many are pre-Agrippa and Dee. It is one of the classical tests of spirits. You should ask them to move a physical object to prove they are present during an evocation.
I realize that the last article I posted was a bit snarky, but I am genuinely interested to see whether or not this effect exists and whether or not it can be managed and controlled reliably.
I have encountered a few physical effects during evocations, mostly things like candles flickering in unusual ways when the spirit manifests, breezes, and temperature changes in the room, but nothing that would rise to the level of small objects moving on their own. What sort of objects do you normally ask the spirit to move? I suppose you could hang a pendulum in the triangle or Holy Table and ask the spirit to make it swing or spin. Or are you talking about something more substantial, like commanding the spirit to slide around or levitate an object like a small stone or crystal?
I'm going to totally sound like James Randi here for a minute, and I apologize in advance, but if the spirits you summon can really move something as heavy as a small stone, why aren't you rich? I know, I've belittled skeptics for making that argument in the past, because it is a serious error to assume that if if you can create "any" sort of paranormal effect you should be able to accomplish "every" paranormal effect ever reported without limitations of any kind. But there is a genuine reason behind my asking. Theoretically, a spirit that is substantial enough to move a stone around could certainly line up a few ping-pong balls in a particular order, and in our modern world that's all you need to do to win a lottery jackpot. Or am I missing something here?
As readers of this blog know, I do lottery magick from time to time. It's a really good test of operant ability because all of the probabilities are spelled out. We know the exact odds for matching one number, two numbers, and so forth, and this allows me to gage the evolution of my magical abilities and also evaluate the effectiveness of different ritual methods. The best technique that I've come up with so far is the evocation of the four Enochian Watchtower Kings, though some recent work with the "Heptarchia Mystica" has suggested additional possibilities involving the Heptarchial Kings and Princes that I have yet to test.
My best result with the Watchtower Kings is 4 numbers out of 6 on the Powerball, and if there's a set of traditional grimoire spirits I could be using who can beat that I'm all for it. Even matching five numbers wins you real money. I do find some of the traditional grimoire methods cumbersome and time-consuming, but what's spending forty days on an operation if it means that afterwards you'll have enough money to spend the rest of your life working magick rather than working a normal job that consumes your waking hours? I know I'd be willing to make that trade.
UPDATE: For those of you who don't follow Strategic Sorcery, Jason Miller has his own article up over there on the subject of psychokinetic phenomena during evocations. He makes several good points, as usual.
"Originally posted on 11/2/2006 on the previous version of this blog. It's good publicity for a fellow OTO brother who self-published this excellent piece of magical work."
I just finished "Enochian Initiation" by Frater W.I.T. and found it to be a fascinating piece of magical work. It is exactly the sort of magical research that I have contended for years that our community should be publishing. Except under certain specific circumstances (like initiation rituals that are designed to surprise the candidate in some way) secrecy is not terribly useful in magick, despite a great deal of prejudice in favor of keeping magical teachings hidden throughout the history of the Western Esoteric Tradition. If even a dozen or so magicians a year could publish a collection of magical diaries like this every year we would be well on our way to building a collection of techniques and practices that would be effective for many people.
The book is made up of two sections. The first is a collection of magical journal entries spanning five years, from 1999 to 2004. During that period the author invoked all of the Kings and Seniors who inhabit the Watchtowers of John Dee and Edward Kelly's Enochian system of magick twice. The first round of invocations was done quickly, more to get a feel for the nature of the energies involved, and the second was slower and more deliberate, done with the intention of fully assimilating and integrating the nature of each King and Senior. The second section of the book consists of the temple rituals used in the invocations along with commentary on them.
The author works from the perspective of the Golden Dawn elemental mappings for the four quadrants of the Watchtowers, and uses the Golden Dawn order for the Angelic Keys or Calls. I've explained some of my concerns about those attributions in other articles, but it is also true that a number of modern magicians have observed that the Enochian system adapts well to various symbolic mappings. Whatever intellectual criticism can be leveled against the Golden Dawn system, it is basically coherent and has been used for many years. From the journal entries in the book, it clearly works, at least for the author. Many of the visions described are quite profound and seem to follow the general order of unfolding realization described in many spiritual systems, not just Western Esotericism. Looking at the cover of the book I also realized that if you place the quadrants of the Reformed Tablet as they appear in Dee's 1587 diagram and use the Golden Dawn elemental attributions for the Kings, they follow the order of the points of the pentagram. I spent years studying the Reformed Tablet and never made that connection.
As an interesting observation, here is another magician who has figured out the Operant Field. The author uses Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram to open his rituals and moves on to the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram rather than the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram recommended by Donald Michael Kraig and many other modern magical writers. In my experience, following the LBRP with the LIRH is much more effective for any sort of practical magical work, and most of the skilled magicians that I know use the invoking form of the Lesser Hexagram as well. Also, the author went ahead and developed his own Thelemic keyword analysis, which is a step that our ritual group took as well. It's helpful to do that because the standard Golden Dawn version represents the aeonic formula of Osiris while Thelemites work with that of Horus.
The only real criticism of the book that I can put forth is that I would have liked to see more examples from the author's life that could clarify how well these rituals actually worked. Especially toward the beginning of the book the author keeps talking about how he invoked one angel or another "to excellent effect." In my experience, it is not that difficult to perform a magical ritual that "feels good." To be sure that a ritual is working, you need to look at your life and see if unlikely things that support the objective of the rite or are in some way related to it are really happening. Of course, since the author published the book under a pseudonym he probably wants to remain at least somewhat anonymous, and that would preclude the inclusion of detailed personal information beyond the workings themselves.
In short, the book is excellent and I recommend it to any serious ritual magician, especially anyone interested in the Enochian system. At some point in the future my magical working group may try working through the Kings and Seniors and see if we get similar results.
Want to buy your own copy of "Enochian Initiation" by Frater W.I.T.? Order from my Books and Media page and you can help support Augoeides.
Perhaps one of the most compelling rituals that I have ever studied or attempted to perform is known as the Bornless Rite, which I have called the Bornless One Invocation rite. It's part of the extended Golden Dawn lore, but has little or no documentation accompanying it. In fact, it doesn't even fit in with the rest of the extended Golden Dawn rituals and writings, it's just there, alone and seemingly completely out of context. However, it was not at all ignored, since the language that it is uses is remarkable, powerful and profoundly relevant even today. It is most likely the crown jewel of the Golden Dawn tradition, but the question remains - where's the rest of the jewels that go with it - and where is the crown? These questions have been in my mind for years, but there really wasn't any ability on my part to answer this question, because it wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered the source material for this ritual. I admit that I have been a bit slow in making that connection, since other magicians have been examining that source material for over a decade or more.
Aleister Crowley was quite taken with this ritual as well, since he published a version of this rite in the Equinox, which is called Liber Samakh. This article has been used and studied for quite some time. However, whether Crowley knew the source of this ritual, or like me, accepted it as is (with modifications and re-working) is unknown. He does mention revising the ritual with corrected versions of the god-names and barbarous words of evocation, but careful examination shows that he may not have known the actual source of this ritual.
Later occultists identified where the ritual came from, although I am at a loss to state exactly who first made this discovery (was it Stephen Flowers?). Needless to say, I myself didn't discover it until I checked my assumption that the ritual was taken from the Leyden Papyrus located in the British Museum. Of course, I didn't find it there, and further research revealed a much larger work that was both obscure and significant, and that is the now famous Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago University Press - 1992), released in an edited format by Hans Dieter Betz, but the translations have been accomplished by many different scholars since the scrolls were first discovered in the early 19th century.
The Greek Magical Papyri have their own unique history that is quite interesting. According to sketchy historical records, the different sections of papyrus were originally a single massive scroll, buried in the tomb of some unknown important and wealthy person in Thebes, perhaps sometime in the first or second century of the common era. This tomb was discovered, illegally entered into and its contents pilfered by professional tomb robbers, of the kind that have been stealing the contents of tombs great and small since dynastic times. The massive scroll, however, deemed to be worth less than the artifacts, eventually found its way to Cairo, to be sold along with a myriad of other stolen artifacts to European collectors who had ready cash for such priceless pieces.
When all this occurred is unknown, however, the scroll was sold to a foreign collector named Jean d'Anastasi, who was an ambassador to the Egyptian pasha in Alexandria, and from there, in 1820's, the collection of papyri found their way to several European museums, where they continue to be examined and studied to this day. Apparently, seeking to maximize his profits, d'Anastasi cut the papyrus scroll into smaller sections. Each of these museums had their own section, and each, apparently, thought that their section was unique. It wasn't until almost the end of the 19th century that scholars, by accident, noted that the different sections of papyri were in fact from the same massive scroll. They began to translate and pull the different sections together so that once again, at least in translation, the great work is once again whole - or at least more so than it was previously.
This collection of scrolls contains perhaps the only extent copy of magical practices and spells as they were supposedly used in Egypt in antiquity. It's possible that the collection spans a long period, and the original collector pulled together a very heterogeneous batch of magical spells, recopying them into a scroll that was apparently continually added to. The text is written predominantly in Greek, but other parts are written in Coptic and even Demotic. The spells incorporate magical ideas and practices from all over the known world, including Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, Persian, Chaldean, Christian and Gnostic god names, techniques and materials. The magical spells are representative of what magic probably was like from that time period, incorporating the religious beliefs, practices and esoteric notions of all of the peoples of the Graeco-Roman world. This shouldn't be too surprising, since other rare sources of magical writings (Hermetic, Gnostic or Christian) show a decidedly heterogenous mixture of nearly every religious creed and belief in antiquity. However, these rare glimpses show that magicians were anything but strict sectarians, and would use whatever worked for them.
These spells cover the gamut of typical magic, such as various kinds of divination, love spells, money and buried treasure spells, curses, healing spells, exorcisms, the creation of magic artifacts and the summoning of spirits, whether gods, powerful entities of obscure origin, or even souls of the dead. Yet the most intriguing thing found in all of these spells are the collection of powerful and barbarous words of evocation, a seemingly plethora of what historians call "verba ignota" (unknown words). Some of the magic words are obvious corruptions of identifiable god names from various religions, others are more obscure and even indecipherable. But these words of power and magic, even after all these centuries, when properly pronounced and intoned, still have a remarkable effect - so this is the value that these spells have, the words of power.
The Bornless rite was taken from one of these scrolls, pulled from its source context and given a name remotely like it's original. The section of scroll that it was liberated from is known to scholars as PGM V, lines 96 through 172. The full blown ritual is actually an exorcism, where the magician invokes his highest godhead in order authoritatively order the spirit out of the body of the victim. The name of this godhead is the "Headless One", and that functions as a rubric for the spell. It could be surmised that Mathers, having been introduced to the British museum's section of the scroll and an 1850's translation of it, expropriated the interesting part of the ritual to be used in the advanced lore of the Golden Dawn. It may have been his intention to liberate other parts as well, perhaps to build a magical system based on that which was practiced in antiquity, but this never occurred, and the Bornless rite was stored alone with other bits of ritual lore until Aleister Crowley published his own version of it in the Equinox. Some editions of the Golden Dawn published by Israel Regardie had this ritual in its original form included, other editions omitted it for unknown reasons. Needless to say, this is what the practitioners of modern ritual magic have to work with, at least until recently.
A question about the name that the Golden Dawn chose for this rite has rankled a number of occultists, who have said that the original title for this ritual is the "Headless One", which is not the same thing as the Bornless One. However, I have a theory that would explain why the title, Bornless One is actually a good one. In Hebrew, the word head can have the additional meaning of "beginning", and an example is the first word of Genesis, which in Hebrew is "Brashet." This word means "in the beginning" - or literally, "in the head", since "rosh" means head. Similarly, Rosh Hashanna - beginning of the Year - New Year (literally "head of the year"). I suspect that the Hebrew word Rosh has cognates in Arabic and even Hamitic languages (such as Egyptian). So perhaps, with that being said, the Greek translation of "Headless" might actually be from the original Egyptian, which would have meant, "Without Beginning", or "Bornless", similar to the Greek "Autogenes" - self-begotten, which is a powerful Gnostic name for an aspect of the Godhead. I believe that the term Headless has this meaning and is comparable to Autogenes. But, that's just my opinion. The proof would be to trace the word to either Coptic or Egyptian, and see if it's used in a similar manner to the way it's used in Hebrew and Arabic.
After learning about the real source of the Bornless rite, and purchasing a copy of Hans Dieter Betz's book, I decided that I should at least look over all of the rituals in that massive tome and see if there were any other rituals that might be useful. My premise was that if one could expropriate one very powerful ritual from it, then why not repeat the exercise, especially since I had a resource that was much larger than Mather's had over a hundred years ago. So I looked over the collection of spells and began to pick anything that really grabbed my attention, knowing that such an exercise would have to be done many times and in minute detail to give the massive collection a fair assessment. So, I performed this exercise, going over all of the known spells in the Greek Egyptian Papyri collection. I found several excellent additional sources that can be used as additional lore to the Bornless Rite, producing, what I think would be a complete set of rites for that type of magick. What I found required some extensive rewriting and reinterpreting, but it was not any more difficult than what the Golden Dawn did 120 years ago to produce the Bornless Rite. I am quite tickled by the whole process that I found additional cool ritual lore, and I am looking forward to adding more rituals to the lore of the Order.
So has anyone else done magical work with this extensive collection of rituals and spells? The answer is, of course, "yes", but no one (that I am aware of) has actually thought of adding companion rites to the Golden Dawn Bornless rite. Other authors have actually done the task of reclamation to make some of this lore available to practicing magicians, most notably, Tony Mierzwicki's book, Graeco Egyptian Magick (which I very highly recommend). Then there is the book Hermetic Magic by Stephen Flowers, a lesser work in my opinion, but also of value to the practitioner. These books assemble a workable system of magic from the extent source materials, but I do wonder why no else has come up with the idea of looking for additional rituals to accompany the Bornless rite? Certainly, GD students and high magick practitioners have known about the source for the Bornless Rite for some time, but no one thought of producing additional lore. The loneliness of this rite does scream for additional companion rites, or at least that is how I interpret it. I guess no one else saw the insular-ness of the Bornless Rite but me.
I would, therefore, assume that the Bornless rite is part of a suite of rites that would include rituals that would assist the magician in assuming the spirit of the Bornless One. Other tasks would be consecrating a magical ring, which would act as a powerful link to deploy the magic of that assumption. A rite of envisioning would also be appropriate, one that would allow the magician to perform a kind of active divination, projecting his true will into the present or future, and so fulfill the will of the godhead. So, to recap, I have deduced the following rituals to be part of the Bornless One suite of rituals, making for a total of four rites in all. In addition, I have also decided to merge the Abramelin ordeal with the Bornless rite, but perform it using one and half lunar cycles instead of the traditional six or eighteen months. I would also perform the Bornless rite as a climax to the ordeal and not at the two to four times a day that Aleister Crowley proposed in Liber Samekh. This is the list:
1. Bornless Rite and the temple stairway of four Qabbalistic Worlds and Ante Chamber of Ultimate Spirit (this is already done)
2. Assumption of the Bornless One and vestment of powers and wisdom of the Monad (extension of the existing Bornless Rite)
3. Consecration of the Magician's Ring (the ring is used as a physical link to the Bornless spirit)
4. Rite of Envisioning (Bornless Spirit vision quest)
These rituals were taken from PGM IV (the Paris Papyrus), PGM VII and PGM XII, and they should be completed in the very near future, since I am currently working on them as I write this article. Much of this material hasn't been used in over two thousand years, but they are still very valuable and quite powerful, requiring only an extraction and integrating them into a modern ritual structure. (I have also found that Stephen Flowers had also identified some of the spells in his book that I have chosen, but since I am using them to create companion rites for the Bornless One, they won't be used in a similar manner at all.)
Reclamation has many different approaches. Some might seek to reconstruct the rituals in some manner, perhaps skipping the animal sacrifices and other dubious practices, and others will just pull out the words of power and use them in an analogous rite. I respect both of these approaches, and in fact, my workings tend to give justice to both, since I am more faithful to the actual original use and purpose of these spells.
While I was pouring through the various spells, I found something quite interesting. There is a pseudo Egyptian-Jewish Eighth Book of Moses (PGM XIII) that I would like to carefully examine, and I suspect I will find more gems amongst the thousands of mundane spells as well. I also invite others to carefully look over the Greek Magical Papyri to find yet other gems and useful spells to reclaim and bring into a 21st century context. I suspect that in time, there will be more rituals culled from this collection than what I am presently proposing, or what previous authors have already done.
Frater Barrabbas
I would like to propose a simple system of theurgy and evocation that could be used by a practicing Qabbalist. I will incorporate the classical five stages of magickal evocation into this methodology to build up a modern system. Since I currently use a completely different system to perform theurgy and invocation than what is available in published books, my proposed simple system will unfortunately not be one that I would consider using. However, it will be capable of producing successful results. Since I have been performing ritual and ceremonial magick for well over 30 years, I think that I can assemble something that will efficiently and successfully produce the desired results.
One important consideration that I would like to declare before continuing is that this method is more conducive to working with the various angels associated with the Qabbalah than with the evocation of demons. Therefore, I will concentrate on producing a system that addresses that need, while the erstwhile student can consult with other grimoires to fill in the blanks to work with the goetic demons, if that is his or her desire.
First, let's review the five classical stages of magickal evocation, which were the assumed steps that a magician in the Renaissance would have performed. These are associated with the Latin words: Consecratio, Invocatio, Conscrictio, Ligatio and Licentia. (See The Goetia of Dr. Rudd, p. 91 - 94)
Consecratio, or Consecratio Dei, represented all of the activities that the magician performed to prepare for the work, including sacred baths, aspurging the temple and tools with lustral water, burning incense, and performing psalms, prayers and orisons to achieve the favor and benediction of the Godhead; a required state prior to performing the work. These activities would be performed even after the magician had sealed himself up in the magic circle, and might include the preparation and sanctification of the circle, vestments, tools and temple area, as well as the fumugation, reciting psalms, and engaging in a final bout of contemplative prayer.
Invocatio were the invocations and incantations that the magician declared once he was safely ensconced in the magic circle, fully vested and prepared for the work. All preparations had already been minutely addressed and successfully accomplished, and all that was required at this point was to summon the spirit, angel or demon. The magician might begin with a general invocation, such as of the angels of the four parts of the world that rule over the air. To invoke a demon, the magician might first invoke one of the corresponding angels of the Ha-Shem, since they were believed to be the rulers of the Goetic demons. Often there were anywhere from one to several invocations, and if the spirit did not appear, then there were even more severe conjurations.
However, it was assumed that if the preparations were correct, the timing auspicious, and the integrity and faith of the magician impeccable, then the spirit invoked would materialize in some form or another. The magician could use his talismans and protective lamen to assist in adding greater force to the invocation, but if, after a time, the spirit failed to appear, then the magician had to perform either a single or several exorcisms, burn obnoxious herbs and generally banish anything that might have been summoned before breaking the magic circle and leaving the work place.
Constrictio was where the magician sought to constrain the manifesting spirit. He also had to verify the spirit's identity, ensuring that it was exactly what the magician had summoned in the first place. If a demon was summoned, then the magician had to force it to assume a favorable aspect and to desist in acting in a threatening and vile manner. Constraining a spirit was a requirement when summoning a demon; but often the magician had to validate an angelic entity as well, at least to verify that he was not being deceived by some lesser spirit or demonic influence. The magician used his special ring, talismans, pentacles, and various words of power to constrain the spirit. Once this was accomplished, the invocation process was considered to be stable, and the magician could move on to the objective of his work.
Ligatio was the act of binding the spirit, usually with an oath, words of power, threats (if it were a demon), to perform a task suited to its nature, and for it to be accomplished in a specific duration. Binding a spirit could be considered a kind of pact, except that there was no quid pro quo - the spirit obeyed the magician because of his acquired (although temporary) holiness and because of his assumed authority granted by God and his angels. The constraint was performed in a less severe manner with an angel (or not at all), and was extremely important and quite severe with any other spirit, especially a demon.
To harness the spirit, the magician also required it to reveal its secret name and mark (usually as a seal, character or sigil), which the magician noted down in his magical book. The sigil that the magician used to summon the spirit may also be marked or charged in some special manner, and collected later to be kept in the magician's book (a special Liber Spiritus). The charged sigil or special name and mark could be used in the future to summon the spirit without having to repeat the ordeal of invocation, and it could be done at any time that the magician desired it. The spirit was constrained to obey the magician, and over time, the magician collected other such names and marks until his workbook became a treasure trove of obedient spiritual servants, ready to do the will of the magician whenever required.
Of course, in some cases the spirit was summoned to perform a specific task within a specific time frame, and after that, the spirit would be released. In other situations, a magician may permanently bind a spirit to his will, turning his eventual death into an event where all of the spirits kept in his book would be instantly released (if his workbook was properly burned). A truly legendary and catastrophic event, where the spirits sought to avenge themselves on the soul of the magician before he ascended to heaven, or more likely, descended to hell. The magician might also constrain the spirit to reside in a receptacle, such as a sealed lamp or brass jug, to be available whenever released and commanded to appear.
Licentia was the license to depart that the magician gave to the spirit once it had been properly bound. It was important for the magician to realize that the spirit was to be treated with some respect, and that he would not therefore perform any kind of banishing action if the binding of that spirit was successful. The idea was to conditionally allow the spirit to return to its natural abode, there to await future summons and willed appearances. The license to depart was therefore quite different than performing a banishment or an exorcism, which would only be performed if the magician either failed to manifest the spirit or failed to constrain it. Once the spirit was properly and completely departed via the license, the magician might perform banishments and exorcisms afterwards to ensure that nothing else was lurking outside of the magic circle. In addition to the above five steps, the magician might also perform banishments and exorcisms in case the operation fails, or they could be performed before the invocation and afterwards, to ensure that nothing is summoned that doesn't conform to the purpose and will of the magician.
All of the verbiage of these various invocations, constraints, licenses to depart, exorcisms and banishments would be kept in the magician's personal grimoire (the black book). Although the magician should memorize all aspects of the operation, he may not have recourse to all of the actions contained in the book, and he might also find himself under extreme duress or supernatural attack. Thus having the words written down would be a form of insurance, and it would also be a form of magic itself.
As you can see, the above five stages would require quite a bit of time and resources to successfully achieve. However, through the use of the Qabbalah, the above five steps can be made into an almost fool-proof methodology for performing a theurgistic invocation or a goetic evocation. The key to this whole process is that the Qabbalistic magician already knows the spiritual hierarchy and the matrix of correspondences that will greatly assist this procedure, and ensure that it produces the expected results.
One of the first things that a Qabbalistic magician needs is a symbol that represents his spiritual beliefs, authority and power. This symbol is called the magician's "lamen," and it traditionally consists of some kind of pentagram or hexagram device drawn on leather, parchment, fabric or etched on a piece of precious metal and worn on the person of the celebrant. This lamen should also be consecrated in some manner, either being touched by incense smoke and lustral water, blown upon by one's breath or blessed with sacred words and signs, or a combination of all of these forms.
The lamen should be a personal creation and not look like anything else that is in print. Base geometric forms that can be used are the pentagram, hexagram, septagram, octagram, eneagram, Vesica Pisces, or whatever is personally significant. The geometric form should be decorated with sigils, characters, symbols, or other elements that are personally meaningful to the magician. The design can also be colored, using specific symbolic colors that the magician finds important and symbolically representative of him. The magician draws from various sources, including Qabbalistic correspondences, to build up this design. The most important element for the lamen is that it should have the magician's magickal name or moto inscribed within it, either using a foreign or magickal alphabet, or fashioning it into a sigil form.
Once completed, the magician's lamen represents the power and authority through which she operates, and it becomes the foundation for all magickal workings. To help the magician align herself to this newly developed and crafted design with the mind and will of the magician, she should spend quite a bit of time gazing fixedly at the lamen, until its form and structure are completely absorbed into her memory. The magician should be able to project the image of this lamen from her memory unto a blank wall just by staring and focusing her mind.
Two tools that the Qabbalistic magician will need to build and design are the dagger and the wand. These can be made to any specification or taste, purchased and customized or made completely from scratch. I will leave the specifics to the imagination of the magician, but there are many examples of these specific weapons. Basically, the dagger is used to aggressively protect and ward the magician, and the wand is used to summon and call spirits. Also, it would be prudent for the magician to have use of a room and to be able to draw or paint a magick circle on the floor, especially if she is going to be performing goetic evocations. Examples of a traditional magick circle are found in a number of grimoires, and the magician may adapt and create a unique circle custom made for his work. Yet if the purpose of the magick is to just invoke angels and perform theurgy, then a circle is not needed, (nor, for that matter, would the magician need a dagger).
Still, having a room reserved for meditation, contemplation and simple rituals is a requirement, however that is achieved. Other items that the magician will need are incense, an incense burner or brazier, charcoal, lamps and lamp oil, and a gallon container filled with consecrated salt water (called lustral water). Vestments (robe), jewelry, perfumed oil, and a colored cloth scarf to wear around the neck and shoulders should round out the necessary things needed to work simple Qabbalistic magick. All of these things must be blessed, consecrated and kept clean and completely apart from any mundane belongings; they should also be exclusively used for the work and nothing else.
The first thing that the celebrant must determine in order to perform a working is to choose a specific angel to invoke. Then a time must be selected for the operation, with certain basic auspices determined in advance, such as that it should be performed at night and with the moon waxing. The operation should also be done during a period of three days and nights, and the magician will have to be completely sequestered during that time.
Once a spirit is chosen, then the magician will determine the entire line of the spiritual hierarchy associated with that entity, particularly the Godhead name of the Sephirah, or the Sephiroth and Pathway. All of the symbolic correspondences should be noted, particularly the color (for the scarf), incense, perfume and anything else that would be pertinent. The imagery, symbology, characteristics and quality of the spirit would also be noted down for use by the magician. A sigil, seal or character combination also needs to be crafted that can uniquely identify the target spirit, and this should be constructed with paint or ink on a piece of parchment.
Preparation would include all of the obligations and tasks associated with the first stage of classical theurgy and evocation, which is Consecratio Dei. The focus of this first stage should be upon the spiritual hierarchy, most notably the qualities and characteristics of the Godhead name. The magician should employ a partial fast, pray, meditate, contemplate and essentially commune with the Spirit of this Godhead, and thereby become totally immersed within that entity. Other spirits who reside in that linear hierarchy may also be called and communed with once the magician has successfully connected with the specific Godhead.
You can see that learning to master this technique of forging a deep inward connection with aspects of the Deity is quite important to any Qabbalistic work, but it makes the process of an invocation far more certain than it would if this step were omitted. Ensuring that all of these preparations are completed and successful is critical for the next step (invocatio) to be successful. The more time and effort spent in preparation, the better the overall outcome. The key to this operation is acquiring a powerful link with the Godhead associated with the target spirit's hierarchy. Unless or until that link is forged, the invocation should not be performed.
At the appointed time, the magician will perform her final ablutions by taking a bath in consecrated water, anointing herself with the correct perfume, donning the robe with the correctly colored scarf draped over her shoulders, and the lamen worn prominently on her person. The room where the operation is to take place has already been prepared, with the floor carefully cleaned and the circle consecrated with lustral water. The consecrated sigil of the spirit is placed either in a triangle just outside of the circle (if a demon), or in the center of the circle, if its an angel. The lamps are lit, and the magician proceeds to fumigate the area with the proper incense. Then she enters into the circle and proceeds to pray and meditate for a period of time, focusing on that all-important connection with the Godhead.
When the moment is right, the magician will begin with the invocations, knowing that they are being done through that sacred link with the Godhead. It will seem as if the Godhead itself is speaking through the magician, instead of the magician acting and speaking his words in vain. The magician should focus now on the qualities and characteristics of the spirit, concentrating on the sigil wherever it has been placed. Between each of the three invocations, the magician should pause for a period of time to gauge its effect. If it is successful, then he will proceed to the next three stages, if not, then he must abort the working and perform a thorough banishing. This won't be necessary if the magician has successfully contacted and established a powerful link with the Godhead associated with this spirit, since such a connection will make the rest of the invocation process successfully assured.
Whatever transpires between the celebrant and the target spirit should be noted in a note book kept for that purpose. If there is a specific task that the magician is seeking, then he or she should write this desire down on parchment, including a specific period for this thing to be accomplished. The task should be given as a command through the Godhead link (during the ligatio stage) to ensure that it will be done without prevarication or deception. The magician should also make certain that such a command is given in a clear and concise manner, making certain that any ambiguity is carefully eliminated. Often times, though, it is just as well to seek knowledge and advice or a blessing directly from the spirit, especially if it is from archangels and super archangels.
Crafting a set of powerful invocations is also an important requirement. The erstwhile magician should consult the old grimoires to find the proper kind of word choice and tone. I would recommend the Heptameron as a good primary resource, but other choices and select grimoire material would work as well. The magician may choose to use words of power, such as the infamous barbaric words of evocation (verba ignota), or she may even choose to use a sacred language, such as Latin, Greek or Hebrew. When using a foreign tongue, it's very important to know exactly what you're saying, so having a good translation as well as knowing how to pronounce the words is quite critical. Care should also be given to the selection of the various Godnames and the religious tone of the invocation, since each religion would verbalize such pronouncements differently. You may replace the Christian or Jewish elements of an known invocation with elements of your own spiritual pantheon, and by doing so, you will not destroy either the intent or the power of that invocation. A pagan or wiccan practitioner could also use pagan gods and goddesses as the Godhead for a specific Qabbalistic correspondence.
The most important element of Qabbalistic theurgy is that the magician uses the innate hierarchy of the Tree of Life to formulate the invocation, and that the highest level, the Godhead, is the primary empowered link for a successful magickal outcome. The Qabbalist has some advantages over the sorcerer because he is able to make this effective spiritual connection before attempting a magickal operation. There is less guess work and a much better indicator of success, at least in my opinion. If you add to this technique the methodology of Qabbalistic pathworking, then you will see that it can be done in a completely comprehensive manner, where the spiritual mechanisms of personal transformation are also harnessed.
Granted, this is not the way that I practice magick today, but it was a system and a methodology that I intuitively discovered and developed many years ago when I first learned to use the Qabbalah in my magickal workings. I hope that you have found this exposition interesting and perhaps even helpful.
Frater Barrabbas
RITUAL CONSTRUCTION By: Keitha (FireWind)
Okay... let's talk about rituals. First, the basic question: what is the point of doing a ritual? Well, first of all, the point is not for spells. True, spells can be a part of ritual, but it's not the main point. A ritual is done to converse with the Deities, deep meditation, celebration, or other personal reasons. Celebrating the return of the Full Moon, the coming of Spring, the turning of the leaves: these are reasons for ritual.
By it's very nature, a ritual is done in a specific way, in a specific order, repeatedly. That doesn't mean that every ritual will be the same as every other ritual. Your full moon rituals will probably not be at all like your Samhain rituals. But your Samhain ritual this year will probably at least resemble your Samhain ritual next year. Your full moon rituals will be very similar to last full moon, and next full moon. There is a certain satisfaction in doing the same movements every time, in the same way, with the same words in the same order. That's not to say that ritual should be boring, by any means. It is the spiritual meaning behind the words and the actions that speak to us.
This is the basic outline for most personal rituals.
1. Decide why you are doing the ritual, what your point is, and what you hope to accomplish.
2. Get your tools, space, and everything you need for ritual together.
3. Ensure you will not be disturbed for the duration of the ritual.
4. Have a ritual bath.
5. Take some time to gather and focus and prepare yourself.
6. Cleanse and bless the space.
7. Cast the circle.
8. Call the elements.
9. Call the Deities.
10. Do whatever you have planned.
11. Thank the Deities.
12. Thank the elements.
13. Take down the circle.
14. Ground.
15. Clean up.
1. Decide why you are doing the ritual, what your point is, and what you hope to accomplish. It's important to know why you are dong the ritual. If you are celebrating the full moon, which mythology are you basing the celebration on? Is this the return of the Mother Goddess, or is this Sky Father smiling down? Are you trying to contact and speak with a particular Deity? Will you be petitioning for something, and why are you choosing this particular time? How will you accomplish this? Is what you are attempting completely ethical? These are questions you will have to ask before you begin the ritual. Understand also, that from the moment you begin to plan the ritual, you are actually beginning to do it. As you think about what you will do, and how, you are communicating your intent to the spirit world; you are participating in spirituality.
2. Get your tools, space, and everything you need for ritual together I don't think this needs much explanation. Needless to say, it is distracting to have forgotten something in another room after you begin ritual (matches tend to be the #1 culprit).
3. Ensure you will not be disturbed for the duration of the ritual It is extremely distracting to be disturbed halfway through ritual. But that's nothing compared to being nervous the entire time. If you feel too nervous to speak out loud, make a noise, or really enter meditation because someone may hear you, then perhaps it is time to find another time and place for ritual. Try to come to an agreement with family, roommates, etc, where they will understand that this really is sacred time, and unless the house is burning down, you are not to be disturbed. Also, unplug the phone, turn off the TV and radio, shut down the computer, cover the clocks, take off your watch, get rid of your beeper. Some people will say that this is to prevent EM energy from interfering with your ritual, and this may or may not be true. In a practical sense, these are potential distractions, and should be avoided.
4. Have a ritual bath. A ritual bath serves many purposes. It will clean your body so you feel refreshed, it will clean your mind as you allow daily distractions to slip away, it will clean your emotional state as you become relaxed and begin to enter a ritual frame of mind. Yes, a ritual shower will serve the same effect. The important thing is to imagine all your problems, worries, distractions and fears washing down the drain while you wash. See your troubles as dust on your skin, and wash them away. This is purification in it's most basic, and useful, form.
5. Take some time to gather and focus and prepare yourself Alright... you are relaxed, you are alone, you have everything gathered, you know what you are going to do. Take a moment to breathe deeply, bringing yourself to focus on the moment: there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow.. there is only now. You are the center of the universe, and the universe is as powerful as it is beautiful. You are strong, you are unashamed, you are independent, you are connected, you are in love with the force of creation. And you are ready.
6. Cleanse and bless the space. You wouldn't invite guests into your home if it was piled high with pizza boxes and unwashed dishes, would you? It is equally so with the Gods. The first step to encountering divinity, apart from self-purification, is to clear out all the 'ickies' that are normally present in a room. All the leftover thoughts that we regularly leave lying around behind us. There are many ways of doing this, but the standard one is to sweep with a broom. Head around the circle in the direction that makes most sense to you, and sweep from the inside of the circle out. Any store-bought broom is fine, but will be better if you consecrate it for that purpose. Chanting while you sweep may help, but remember that you are sweeping as much in your mind as you are with the broom. Telling jokes and laughing hard at this time is especially useful; laughter is cleansing by its very nature, and adds positive energy to the mix. While you are sweeping, imagine negative energy as clouds of black gooey dust, and sweep it away from the space to be cleansed.
7. Cast the circle. Casting the circle creates a space that is neither of this world, or of the spirit world. It is a place that exists between the worlds, but in which both you and the spirits can interact. It keeps the space clean, and will hold in energy until you release it; it is a focused manifestation of your desire to communicate with the Gods. For a more detailed explanation, try our page on Circle Casting (it focuses mostly on energy work).
8. Call the elements. There are different reasons to call the elements, and the reason may define how you call them. If you are calling for their attention, to attend your ritual, then calling the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water themselves is fine. If you are looking for protection for any reason, then calling the elementals: Gnomes, Sylphs, Salamanders and Undines may be best. (For more information on the elementals try our page on the Elementals). You may also have your own totems for each of the directions. The Elements can bless you, the space, and your ritual with their respective qualities, can lend power and mystery to your rituals, and can guard against energy that may conflict with your plans. It is a personal choice as to what order to call the elements in; the popular choice seems to be to start in the East and work around to the North, although personally I prefer starting in the North and ending in the West. It's a personal choice that's up to you.
9. Call the Deities. Calling the Deities is something like calling the Elements. It increases the power and mystery of the ritual, but much more. You can converse with the Deities and get to know them, you can find out their personality quirks, and let them get to know about you. If you would like to know more about Calling the Deities, try here.
10. Do whatever you have planned. I don't think this needs much explanation, either. Think of it as an 'insert here' tag. :)
11. Thank the Deities. It would be extremely rude to say to a guest, 'okay, that was fun, get out'. The Deities were good enough to come to your ritual when you asked, so treat them with the same respect. Thank them for coming, and be polite.
12. Thank the elements. See above.
13. Take down the circle. If you leave the circle up, you will have all this energy just hanging around for Goddess knows how long, doing nothing but get in the way. When you are finished ritual, send the circle back to where it came from, preferably as something useful like healing energy.
14. Ground. Grounding means to return yourself to a 'normal', everyday state of mind. Doing ritual increases your perceptions, and it's unpractical to go about everyday activities in this state. You can ground by using a grounding meditation, where you can imagine all the excess energy returning to the Earth. If you opened your chakras during the preparation step, this would be the time to close them. But by far the most popular way of grounding is to eat and drink. Because hey, what can be a more enjoyable way of relaxing? :)
15. Clean up. This is a purely practical step. If you leave your stuff around it could get damaged. Not to mention that you'll get sick of seeing it lying around all the time. Finally, ritual is a time you take away from the regular world. If you leave your tools lying around it becomes less special.
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Copyright Keitha (FireWind), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, keitha@g..., The Glass Temple: http://www.glasstemple.com/, Contributed by Athena
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