The Raccolta and the Holy Guardian Angel

In my post yesterday on Lent I spoke about the unique moments of the Pascal season which provide liturgically significant times for spiritual work involved in connecting to the Holy Guardian Angel, and to The Beloved. The Angel runs parallel to the Prince of the Presence, who in early Jewish mystical systems was the angel charged with functioning as the apparition of God, and also as a guide forward into the higher realms of creation and unto the Palaces of the Divine Throne room. Along this path the angel also taught seals, passwords and invocations which gave access to the heavens and the spirits who resides therein along with their magical secrets.

For Abraham the Jew the function of the Angel was to teach the Sacred Magic and guide the magician in his magical endeavors, as well as to function as both an intermediary and a thwarting angel who singularly brought all demons within the purview of the magician's control.

In modern magic the angel is our guide, our source of power and authority and our connection to divinity.

Often people think of Knowledge and Conversation, or the Abramelin working, or Liber Samekh as the magic the angel relates to, but the angel is a part of our daily life and experience as a magician. Even for those who have not made firm committed contact with their angels, it is advisable to seek routine communion with the angel even from the beginning of one's magical career. If you have this communion already it becomes easier for the angel to guide you in determining if and when and how you should seek to make firmer your connection.

There is a lot of material in both magical and religious tradition which can be used for working with the angel. We've talked about some of it in posts here before, and we'll continue to do so. Since we took a stop into Catholic territory to discuss Lent I figured we could also look at a short simple prayer to the Guardian Angel from the Raccolta.

TheRaccolta is a collection of traditional Roman Catholic prayers which have been granted various “indulgences” by Popes. Essentially these are prayers which have been given added institutional power, a sort of official magic, which is supposed to add to their spiritual effect. Personally I think this is pretty cool. There are a lot of prayers in it which won't be of particular interest or use for the magician, but there are a lot which can be used in work with the Saints, the Dead, and of course the Angel. So for a magician working with these spirits this is a pretty awesome collection to explore because these are prayers which carry weight within the spiritual traditions connected to some of these spirits.

In the future we may explore some additional Catholic angels prayers (haha “may”...we totally will...) but for now here is a simple one we can look at today:

“112. "ANGEL OF GOD," ETC.

While we give thanks to God for having granted to each of us a holy angel for our guardian, we ought ever to bear in mind the respect, devotion, and loving confidence we owe to this blessed spirit; and with these feelings we should often think of him, and implore his constant aid with the following well-known invocation:

Angele Dei, qui custos es mei, me tibi commissum pietate superna, illumina, custodi, rege, et guberna. Amen.

O angel of God, whom God hath appointed to be my guardian, enlighten and protect, direct and govern me.

Or else.

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom His love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

Pope Pius VI., in order to kindle the fervour of the faithful to have frequent recourse to their holy Angel Guardian, granted, motu proprio, by a Brief of October 2, 1795 -
i. An indulgence of 100 days every time the above-named short prayer is said devoutly and with a contrite heart.
ii. A plenary indulgence to those who have been accustomed to say it morning and evening throughout the year, on the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, October 2; provided that on that day, after Confession and Communion, they visit a church or public oratory and pray for the Sovereign Pontiff.
iii. A plenary indulgence, in articulo mortis, was added by the same Pope, in another Brief of September 2, 1796, to all who had been accustomed during life frequently to say the said prayer. In this Brief also, motu proprio, he confirmed the Indulgences already granted.
His successor, Pius VII., afterwards, by a decree of the S. Congr. of Indulgences, of May 15, 1821, besides confirming afresh the above-named Indulgences, granted -
iv. A plenary indulgence to all the faithful who say at least once a day, for a month together, the said prayer, Angele Dei, &c., on any one day when, after Confession and Communion, they visit a church and pray as above.”

-- The Raccolta

I have included in our quotation the indulgence info just as an example.

The prayer itself does not need much updating to fit a less Catholic worldview. It's pretty standard in its connection to the angel. “Rule” might seem out of step for many contemporary magicians but it needn't imply submission to an authority so much as acceptance of a standard of guidance. It could easily be replaced by “inspire” if one dislikes “rule.”

The prayer could easily be said at the outset of the day, or before leaving for some task. It could be incorporated into a sort of rosary or used as a chanted prayer for meditation to connect with the angel. It is short enough to be memorized and could be used as a quick recitation to center oneself on the connection to the angel when the events of the day set you off center.

Adding a lamp or candle consecrated to the angel as a point of focus can be useful when praying such prayers. Anointing with Abramelin oil, or with an ash like that described yesterday can be another good material way to connect with the angel during such a prayer. Novena candles for the Guardian Angel or for the Holy Spirit, possibly combined with prayers on petition papers could draw a more magical focus to either building the connection or connecting the prayer into a magical petition to the angel.

Lent, The Holy Guardian Angel and the Calcination of Failure

I've had a bit of an interruption in my "American Gods" series of posts because of some work deadlines, but will be back to those soon. In the mean time, Lent is a really big deal to me, so I wanted to make an Ash Wednesday post. I would have liked to have made it yesterday...but...time keeps on slipping, into the future. 

Some people might wonder why Lent and Ash Wednesday would be exciting to a magician, but since I've had OTO friends literally suggest that I'm a crypto-Catholic it probably isn't too surprising. I like grimoires, and I like the pre-Reformation grimoires, I like studying Catholic liturgics and Sacraments to deepen my understanding of the grimoire practice as well as my work as a Gnostic Catholic Priest.

But I find this time of year to be one of the most exciting for a deeper reason than the appeal of traditional Catholic aesthetics. It is a time steeped in the Mysteries, in the sacramental theology and a Gnostic soteriology, so deeply that as a mystic, a Priest, and a magician I can't help but be excited by it.

It isn't a time of penitent contrition but one of anticipating Triumph. Which in my thinking is very Thelemic on its own, but when we explore this Triumph it gets even better.

Lent anticipates not just Christ's Triumph over death but our Triumph by way of participation in his death and resurrection. We experience the Mystery of the resurrection and likewise become an initiate who has conquered death. The whole Lenten season is steeped in the act of embodying the Passion within the experience of the people. The connection to the Passion Death and Resurrection is subtly built in the people every time they take the Eucharist - just as ours builds within us the sacred marriage of Earth and Heaven and with it communion with the angel; but Lent steps up the experience by immersing the people in reflection through the Stations of the Cross.

Triumphing over Death. This is central in most contemporary Mystery Traditions. The Wica explore this in the Descent of the Goddess, the Masons in the story of Hiram Abiff, the OTO in...well...I'll just say it's public knowledge that our Master Magicians explore the mysteries of death. This is such an important element of the Mysteries that we see it all throughout Europe and the Near East going back at least 3000 years.

But, we're not just conquering Death, with Life, we're conquering Falsehood with Truth. Liber AL tells us death is a lie. The Mysteries expose for us that we are the same light as the source, and death is not the submission of that light to darkness but rather the revelation of that light as it rejoins eternity. This idea touches both on the sacramental ideal f Ash Wednesday and the Gnostic soteriology of Easter Saturday.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a sort of alchemy. The ash in a traditional context is made from Palm leaves saved from Palm Sunday. This is often interpreted as wearing the ashes of penance while recalling the impending victory of Palm Sunday and the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

But Palm Sunday isn't Victory. It is a Pseudo-Thronosis, or false enthroning - a common act in initiatory passion plays. In these rituals the initiate is elevated and perceives success but the success isn't real. Being caught up in that falsehood we miss the reality of our situation and get caught in the snares and traps of life, but if we dig deep beyond the appearance of darkness and difficulty we can find that truth remains.

At Ash Wednesday we burn the Palms; we burn the falsehood. In alchemy one of the first phases is calcination or burning the material to ash. For the alchemist that which burns away is the dross, the false material that that hides the valued and true components of the material. That which is true survives fire, that which is false can not endure.

From a Gnostic and sacramental perspective this gives us an interesting liturgical moment from which to work. In the RCC Penance is one of the seven Sacraments. Tau Apiryon has said that the EGC equivalent of this is Will. I personally interpret this to mean that rather than seeking forgiveness we assess our shortcomings, our failures...the falsehoods which hold onto us and prevent us from succeeding at knowing truth and expressing that truth by doing our Wills. This flips the idea of penance on its head and instead of finding fault we find strength. We recognize that we aren't just our actions and instead of crapping on ourselves for not being perfect we can recognize our potential, we can seek divine inspiration, we can commit to being awesome.

Ritually I've applied this idea by writing a confession, not of sins but of ways I haven't committed to the Work and to my success. I've then burned the confession. Once the confession is burned I make prayers to my angel and reconstitute the "salt" or the ash of the confession with the "sulfur" or "soul" using Abramelin Oil. So my ash doesn't just have ash, but like Chrism it has fire. 

This confession first played out for me while doing the Abramelin Working, which contains a confession and wearing of ash. This idea of confessing to falling short of the Work seemed a fitting way to work on committing to it. From there, reflections on Ash Wednesday and Lent led to this association between the act and the season. It is of course something you can do at any time, and I personally keep my "angel ash" around as a means to connect with my angel through material imposition. It is a very refreshing meditative and spiritual practice. 

This connection to the angel brings me to my last part, the Gnostic soteriology. Soteriology is a theology or doctrine of salvation. In traditional Christianity Christ replaces the sacrifice and becomes the scapegoat. He takes on our sins and as a result, unlike the goat who is taken by the spirits of the wilderness, he descends to Hell weighed down by our sins, but he conquers Satan and Death and rises again so that our sin no longer has the power of death, since sin is what lead to death originally in Eden. He transforms the game by being awesome for us so that we can ride along and get into heaven based on his awesomeness. There are some interesting ideas at play here, but I don't want to get into most of them. 

From a Gnostic perspective it works a little differently. 

Jesus said these things:

"(13) Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like." 

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a righteous angel."
Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like."
Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out."
And he took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.""

"(108) Jesus said, "He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.""

"(50) Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?', say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?', say, 'We are its children, we are the elect of the living father.' If they ask you, 'What is the sign of your father in you?', say to them, 'It is movement and repose.'""

(The Gospel of Thomas)

Jesus compares his teachings to a bubbling stream of which his followers may drink and become drunk thereof if they truly understand, as does Thomas. He elaborates that there is no difference between himself and the one who carries his spirit by becoming drunk on his teachings. He further elaborates that the Father is the Light that established itself of its own volition, that man is a child of this light and as a child has the light in him and that this presence of the light is what makes man living. This presence of the light is likewise the basis of the teachings of the Word. 

Jesus stresses in many other instances understanding the living and the dead, and the relationship between the living and the dead and that one should not focus simply on the dead but appreciate the living Word which is before them, and which is the message they take in in order to become living themselves. A steady theme is the overlapping equation of Jesus, his message, life, and the Father. Each part in some way relates to another. But ultimately salvation for the Gnostic is not being saved by the act of another, salvation is recognizing death, seeking life through that recognition, and coming alive by embodying the Word and therefore becoming the same as the Word and therefore an expression of the Father. 

Salvation is the knowledge that we may uncover Truth and conquer death. 

In modern magic a key component of this is developing a relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel. In some ways Jesus's experience in the desert, like Moses's experience on Mt. Horeb, has a lot of similarity to encountering one's Holy Guardian Angel. Jesus continues this exploration further in the Pascal narrative with the Gethsemane. Jesus slowly uncovers and accepts his Will even if there are moments which are blinding flashes, not unlike the experience of a mystic or magician. Much of Lent suits itself to communing with the Holy Guardian Angel, which would reflect the Pentacostal imagery of initiation and the reception of the Holy Spirit, it is similarly hinted at in Christ's baptism, and of course his struggles in the desert and at Gethsemane to understand and accept who he is and what his calling is. But outside of the mythos, the ritual narrative plays this out for us as well. 

We burn away what we aren't as we seek to commit to what we are. This is the commitment we make when we seek the angel ardently for the purpose of making a firm commitment to on going communion. The angel speaks to us, and pours out the bubbling stream which changes and anoints us. The angel leads us through our Gethsemane moments, to Triumph through our own Golgatha and understand the light within ourselves. 

Ultimately this is the crowning moment of Lent. Not the joy of the resurrection, but the dark moment in which man can lose himself to distraction and terror or in which he can know that he is a child of the Light and that the light resides within him and is with him even in those moments in which we are most alone. As Jesus dies the veil of the Holy of Holies is torn asunder. The imagery calls to mind the leader of the Sanhedrin tearing his garments in protest as if God angrily shakes his temple and tears apart a symbol of His sacred presence in protest of his son's death. 

But this isn't what's happening at all. 

The veil kept people away from the adytum. The people couldn't directly experience God. But God became a man. In fact, God became man so hard that he died, an excruciating death, full of embarrassment, shame, fear, pain, and sin...so...much...sin, that you couldn't ever imagine having the weight of guilt, anxiety, self doubt, and confusion that God experienced. In that moment of death God is so infinitely human that the entirety of the experience of God is held within the experience of Man. God is ultimately alone in the darkness in a way which is the opposite of his infinite nature (which is likewise alone in the darkness), Which is what we are by virtue of being human. But here we see the divinity in that experience because here, for a moment, God is drawn into the lowest expression of our existence and therefore is closer to us than any other time. 

In a Liturgical sense the Roman Catholic Church recognizes this as the death of the Church. It is often explained that since Jesus is dead, and the Church exists as his Bride than she has no existence in that time that he is in Hell. But more than the Bride of Christ, the Church is an intermediary between Man and Christ, between Man and God. The intermediary dies because God is so deep in the muck with us that there is nothing to mediate anymore. We're there together alone in the darkness, and we just have to open up and realize the Light. 

We have to burn the Palms.

Ain't No Holla Back Mystic

Last week for the Feast of the Annunciation Fr. James Martin, SJ, wrote an interesting reflection on having a profound divine experience...and then the facilitator of that experience, in the case of Mary the Archangel Gabriel, ends up leaving. And you have to go back to normal and you have to go back to day to day life. From Fr. James's point of view “and then the angel left,” the words which powerfully but subtly describe the singular nature of the moment which Mary experienced, are the words which are most important for Catholics trying to relate to this passage, or this event in scripture.

And then the angel left.

This describes the fact that moments of peak religious experience end, and then like Mary, you have to go back to dealing with your day to day life.

Fr. James's point about the Annunciation is a pretty interesting one. Especially, perhaps, from the perspective of a magician. We engage in some pretty amazing experiences. We do some epic stuff on a mundane level, like cool rituals or initiations, or traveling to interesting places to discover unusual things, or reading interesting forgotten histories and stories, and various things like that which most other people just don't think about. On a more directly magical level, we experience stuff like visions and revelations, foreknowledge of the future, awareness of things we shouldn't be aware of, conversations with angels, demons and other spirits, and moments where we mold our world to our will, or where we experience the coalescence of the divine. All of these things can pepper our lives with amazement.

But then the angel left.

We go back to school, or work, or taking care of the kids. We vacuum the rug and sweep the floor, make dinner and do the dishes, pay the bills, and find time to make it to bed at night to get just enough sleep to survive. All that other amazing stuff happened but it's just that, it's something that happened, in the past, and it was cool...but, what about the rest of the time?

People often ask “what's it like for the hero of the movie after the movie is over and his life goes back to normal?” In a way, that can be what our lives are like when we do magic. We have our spiritual adventure and then we're back to the grind, knowing that we get to do amazing stuff and be amazing...but just not right now. Right now we get to be humdrum.

That shift can be ok, depending on what our life is like; but it can also be miserable. Because it's fun getting sweet talked by a good looking angel...

Until the point where the angel left.

I think some of what we see online, or even in offline occult communities, is explained in part by this. Sometimes people get into magic because they feel small, but they want to feel epic. Sometimes they get to experience a moment that lets them know that epicness is there...but it's fleeting, or it might even be scary and so pursuing more epic moments might not feel comfortable. It's a lot easier to go online and be a mystical magical bad ass in your spare time, and that way your magical adventure movie is part of daily life.

But there are better ways to avoid that awkward feeling of waiting for the angel to call you back after what you thought was a great time.

Maybe, just don't be humdrum. Maybe you can be epic as a magician, and you can also fill your life with other epic things. Not to brag, but as a financial adviser I have multi-millionaires who ask me what to do with their money, and the bulk of my non-work non-magic time is filled with teaching people to use swords. In conjunction with that last part, this past summer I watched the Olympics, with an Olympian, who has complimented me several times on how well I train people in her sport. To me this seems not quite humdrum. My life has some cool stuff but that said I might not always feel epic, and I might totally hang out in the valleys of mental and emotional experience sometimes, but I keep my life pretty interesting even when I'm not talking to angels and seeking visions of the whirling potentials at the beginning of the cosmos. I think we all have that potential to live our lives in ways that are cool. So staying legendary is one option for diminishing that sense of banality.

The other option is to be a proper mystic. Because...when I had my most vivid experience of an angel, and it made its annunciations to me of those things it had to announce, the angel didn't leave. We have knowledge of one another that allows us to converse as needed. Your angel is there with you. You just have to build the relationship where you can keep in communion with it and where you can learn to rely on its contact and inspiration.

So yeah, in a lot of religious contexts, there are peak experiences and then the rest of life is the doldrums. But not so for adepts. The Sacred Magic is all about the angel showing up and not leaving.

Now, you won't always be in a place where you're grooving on mystical consciousness, but that's fine. There will be times in life where your angel might seem further away because you're in a place where you just can't do whatever it is you're called to do, and you can't do the magic, and you can't look to your angel, because, sometimes life is just like that. It may even feel like you're cut off. But, once you claw out of that place, and you reach out to your angel, and you show you're ready to get back to your work, your angel will be there ready to jump right into it with you.

So even when you're not riding high on spiritual experience, it's not because the angel left. The angel is still there with you, waiting for you to be ready again. To me that's a lot better. I'd rather know my angel is still there for me than know that after he's said his message he's going to bounce, and he may or may not ever be back.

I guess part of this difference is because we're choosing to be mystics, we're choosing to be magicians, we're actively seeking to create a relationship with the angel rather than going about our days until some flash of brilliance appears for a fleeting moment.

With that in mind, the practical piece of this is that we have to do the work to meet our angels. That doesn't mean we all have to dive into the Abramelin working. But being mindful when we engage in our developmental magical exercises how they might engage our angel is a start towards forming that connection.

Find prayers and rituals that connect to your angel. For instance I really like the Anthem from the Gnostic Mass for that purpose. With the Mass in mind, reflect on how the Eucharist connects you to your angel. Dive into that connection as your feel it.

Maybe set an altar for your angel and do devotional work with it. Come up with some prayers to use for the purpose of communion or opening lines of communication. Consecrate a candle or lamp to your angel and light it when you talk with the angel. Get some Abramelin or temple incense, or at the least frankincense, to offer to the angel while you're working at the altar.

There's lots of options short of the retreat. The PGM has several useful prayers that can help with this or be an inspiration towards it. Find what suits you and do it. And when your angel helps you determine it's time for the retreat you'll be all the more prepared.

Visible Appearance and Physical Manifestation in Spirit Magic

Recently I was at a pretty cool lecture and the presenter made the comment that perhaps it's time to toss out the idea of evocation to physical appearance because it just isn't real. He suggested it was an example of something in magic where people are either lying or fooling themselves. The thing is, with the exception of Crowley, and Joseph Lisiewski, there aren't many magicians who I've gotten the impression meant to suggest that they conjure spirits to physically manifest as material creatures. Most magicians don't talk about visible appearance often or physical manifestations, but when it comes up and people are open about their experiences it's usually pretty clear that we're talking about sensory experiences and physical occurrences that are signs of the presence of the spirit rather than creatures building bodies out of nothing.

As far as conjuring spirits goes the important part has never been whether or not you conjure to physical appearance but whether or not you get results from your spirit work. If anything that is what I would stress. Visible appearance is so not an issue that when we look at historical magical works we don't see this concept clearly presented as a criteria for judging success, in fact we see crystallomancy frequently presented as a means of interacting with spirits. So yeah, results, not spontaneous generation of physical bodies.

That said, some pretty cool, pretty clear things happen sometimes which indicate the presence of spirits or the reality of their work. I was talking with a friend the other day and he asked about physical stuff with spirits. It seemed useful to him to hear some stories, and I figured talking about stuff that happens and what physical manifestations are might help newer conjurors who are worried about whether or not they're missing out by not having partial legs materialize in their triangles.

So let's tackle evocation to visible appearance first. Spirits making bodies out of incense. This is kind of true, but not in the sense of turning smoke into flesh. Since Poke Runyon a lot of people have interpreted the incense, and the mirrors, and the crystals as a way of tricking the mind and allowing for a psychological projection that we can interpret as a spirit. But, spirits aren't just psychological projections, and the results of real conjure work are more impressive than squinty distorted misapprehensions.

Incense is traditionally burned as an aromatic offering for spirits. There is a traditional view that prayers were carried upward on incense, but intermediary spirits were also once thought to be the means by which this is done. So incense has a traditional connection to the working of spirits. Traveling through the air also being a traditional association of spirits incense connects back to this nature giving substance to the otherwise insubstantial air. It connects to three of the four abodes of spirits, aerial in the smoke released, terrestrial in the material burned, and infernal in the fires which stir the smoke from the body of the incense. As an offering, with its intermediary spiritual nature, incense becomes a material focal point for the spirit which is gifted to the spirit and therefore feeds the spirit adding a material component to the force of its manifest interaction with the physical world. So no, the incense doesn't give a materium from which the spirit can build a physical body, it provides a physical substance the spirit is able to draw on in strengthening its anchor to act in the world. Crystals and mirrors likewise have physical and esoteric properties that allow them to serve as links between the spirit world and the physical world making them, like incense, useful tools in interacting with spirits. But not tools for transubstantiation ala Weird Science.

So what things happen when a spirit shows up? Sometimes the temperature changes. I've been in rituals where it's gotten dramatically warmer typically, but a few where it's gotten cold. Sometimes the incense will shift and start to form a more consistent cloud in one area rather than become diffuse through the room. Sometimes there is a shift in the air, almost like when you see rippling from heat off a black top. I was leading a conjuration once where afterwards I spoke with several people who attended and they noticed the same thing I noticed, a particular part of the room where the spirit showed up during a particular part of the ritual (not near the designated area or when he was called directly) and initially he seemed to give off a sense of criticizing the method we were using until we got to the God names, at which point he moved to the appropriate spot and seemed more attentive. About 5 people all had this same response and discussed it independently, but nothing visible or physical happened on this particular conjuration. I've had stuff turn off or on, fall over, candles produce concerning amounts of fire, things like that. But usually it's mostly just a “Hey, I'm here, what's up...oh, ok finish conjuring me and then we can talk” kind of impression that cues me in to the presence of a spirit rather than the cool physical signs.

Much cooler than those kinds of physical signs are ones that occur as a sign that stuff is going on rather than announcing the presence of the spirit.

A really neat one I had several months back actually had to do with the spirit leaving. We had finished the interaction, there was fire burning as a place for the spirit to be present. When we were wrapping up the interaction I wondered about if it was appropriate to just put out the fire or let it burn out. When the spirit left, the fire immediately went from a decent size fire to sputtering and going out.

A couple months back I was about to get cozy with someone on my couch, reached in my pocket to grab the Venus talisman I carry, and at the time I had just recently done work with Hagith, the Olympic spirit of Venus, and Hagith's seal was still on my altar, with my crystal sphere sitting on it. The sphere sits there every day undisturbed, the planetary disk on which it sits has a ridge to hold it in place. With nothing disturbing the altar when I reached to grab the talisman in my pocket the sphere rolled off the disk, off the altar, and across the floor to the coffee table in front of us.

Years ago, and this one is one of my favorites, I was leading a conjuration of Raphael in his office of Archangel of the Sun, for my local OTO lodge. We were focusing on healing in the community. The ritual left me pretty drained, it was one of my first few Solomonic conjurations and the first one of an archangel. I believe it was my first public one as well. We went to a Pagan coffee house event afterwards. On my way home, in the three miles or so between getting off the highway and driving across town to my house I passed six ambulances. Not only were there six, the number of the sphere of Tifaret, but all six were at homes actively helping people. Usually when I see ambulances while driving they are driving around, but in this case all six were stopped at homes with medical personal deployed into these homes. Clearly not a sign of “physical manifestation” of the spirit during the conjuration, but a neat manifestation of that force within the community surrounding the place where we did the invocation. Also, several people reported their healing intentions having worked out...but, numerologically significant ambulances are WAY cooler.

Last fall I was building an altar for a spirit I was working with who resides in some liminal places. I had gotten most of what I needed but he wanted a walking stick. I couldn't find a good one in the places I went and so I resolved to get it within the next few days. The next morning I was heading to work, got to the end or my street and in the middle of the cross roads was an old black wooden cane which was exactly what I needed.

Sometimes it's pretty physical signs that work is being done to fulfill what you asked for. Another recent incident involved asking the gnomes for money for some stuff and the next morning getting in my car to go to work and finding a $50 bill in the door. Sometimes you do work with a spirit and then find something which is a traditional emblem or offering for them. Sometimes they teach you stuff and then books turn up, or you find stuff you weren't looking for in books you happen to be reading that confirms or further explains what they were showing you.

I'm not someone who goes on a lot about synchronicity. I think if you lead a magical life in the sense of developing yourself and your world to be harmonious and in synch yeah you'll start having a lot of synchronicity because the work you're doing will be harmonious with how your world is moving.

Work with spirits is different.

You'll have stuff happen that is a byproduct of the spiritual presence (like the ambulances), but you'll also have stuff happen that is the direct hand of the spirits showing you they're doing the work you asked for even if it isn't immediately done yet (like with the gnomes).

Personally I think having invisible friends who can make cash appear in my car and throw rocks across a room to high five my efforts to get it on is way cooler than having an Owl wearing a crown of diadems astride a crocodile with ape fur manifest in a ball of smoke.

Conjuring Prosperity in a Less Prosperous Time

Conjuration of Bariel Contra VirgoFr. RS

The table of practice should be set with a scrying crystal, four candles for the directions, and one for the divine presence. There should be a chalice of wine, a wand, a dagger, and a blank tile of wax or wood. The Seal of Solomon is present, along with a seal for Michael, and for Hameliel. There are also seals for Adnachiel, and Bariel and any seal or talisman for the work intended. There should be water, an incense burner, temple incense, and saffron incense. The magician should have his robe and lamen, and anointing oil.

Prior to entering the ritual space strip naked and bathe.

Anoint your head, lips, and heart in holy oil and say:

“There is water in water, there is fire in chrism.”

Put on your robe and pray:

“Ancor, Amacor, Amides, Theodonias, Anitor, by the merits of your Angel, Oh Lord, I will put on the Garments of Salvation, that this which I desire I may bring to effect: through You the most holy Adonai, whose kingdom endures for ever and ever. Amen.”

Light the candles on the altar and pray:

“Holy art thou Lord of the Universe,

Holy art thou whom Nature Hath not Formed

Holy art thou Vast and Mighty One

Lord of Light and of Darkness”

Then sprinkle the water and trace the downward pointed triangle in each quarter and over yourself while saying: First then the priest of fire must sprinkle the lustral water of the loud resounding sea.

Take up the candle and make the upward triangle followed by a cross in each quarter and over yourself while saying: Then when all the phantoms have vanished you will see that holy and formless fire that darts and flashes in the hidden depths of the universe.

Place the temple incense on the burner.

Raise the chalice of wine

Oh great and blessed N. my Holy Guardian Angel, vouchsafe to descend from your holy mansion which is Celestial, with your holy Influence and Presence, into this cup of ecstasy, that I may behold your glory; and enjoy your society, aid and assistance, both now and for ever hereafter. O you who are higher than the fourth heaven, and who knows the secrets of Elanel. You who rides upon the wings of the winds and is mighty and potent in your Celestial and superlunary motion, descend and be present I pray; and I humbly desire and call upon you. That if ever I have merited your society or if any of my actions and intentions be real and pure & sanctified before you bring your external presence hither, and converse with me your pupil, by and in the name of the great god YHVH, where unto the whole choir of heaven sings continually: O Mappa la man Hallelujah. Amen.

Drink the wine.

Hold up the Seal of Solomon in the left hand, take the dagger and hold it to the seal of Michael.

In the name of Adonai Tzvot, Lord of Hosts, Throne of Thrones, by the seal of God given to Solomon, I call upon the archangel Michael to hear my command. Withhold from this rite, from my work, and from my intentions on this day the forces of Mercury and its influence.

Place the dagger upon the seal of Hameliel.

In the name of Adonai Tzvot, Lord of Hosts, Throne of Thrones, by the seal of God given to Solomon, I call upon the archangel Hameliel to hear my command. Withhold from this rite, from my work, and from my intentions on this day the forces of Virgo and its influence.

Take the dagger and make a cross above both seals.

By the sign of the cross I seal my work this day against the the powers of Mercury and Virgo that they may not diminish or bring detriment to the forces which I shall here and now call upon.

Turn over the seals of Hameliel and Michael.

With the dagger etch the geomantic sign of Acquisitio on the tile.

By Adonai Tzvot, Lord of Hosts, send the Holy Angel Adnachiel that the light of the Archer strengthen and fortify the power of Jupiter.

Uncover the Seal of Bariel and any seals particular to the work being done. Replace the dagger and take up the wand. Place the saffron incense on the burner. Touch the seal of Bariel with the wand and pray:

O Jove much-honored, Jove supremely great,
To you our holy rites we consecrate,

Our prayers and expiations, king divine,
For all things round thy head exalted shine.
The earth is thine, and mountains swelling high,
The sea profound, and all within the sky.
Saturnian king, descending from above,
Magnanimous, commanding, sceptered Jove;
All-parent, principle and end of all,
Whose power almighty, shakes this earthly ball;
Even Nature trembles at thy mighty nod,
Loud-sounding, armed with lightning, thundering God.
Source of abundance, purifying king,
O various-formed from whom all natures spring;
Propitious hear my prayer, give blameless health,
With peace divine, and necessary wealth.

I conjure and confirm upon you, you strong and holy angels, by the names Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Eschercie, Escherei, Eschercie, Hatim, Ya, strong founder of the worlds; Cantine, Jaym, Janic, Anic, Calbot, Sabbac, Berisay, Alnaym; and by the name Adonai, who created fishes and creeping things in the waters, and birds upon the face of the earth, flying towards heaven, in the fifth day; and by the names of the angels serving in the sixth host before Pastor, a holy angel, and a great and powerful prince and by the name of his star, which is Jupiter, and by the name of his seal, and by the name of Adonai, the great God, Creator of all things, and by the name of all the stars, and by their power and virtue, and by all the names aforesaid, I conjure you, Sachiel, a great Angel, who is chief ruler of Thursday, and Bethor, Holy Spirit of the Firmament given to rule the regions of Jupiter, and Adnachiel angel of the Constellation Sagittarius that you will bring forth the manifestation of Bariel, spirit of Jupiter that he might appear in this crystal and serve and labor in all my requests!

Make your requests of Bariel, and ask any questions you have. When you have finished give the license to depart.

Bariel, spirit of Jupiter, under the authority of Sachiel, aided by Adnachiel, who all serve the same Lord I serve, united in this bond, go forth and fulfill our work together and then return to your abode, peacefully, and return to me in friendship when we are called by the Lord to work together again.

Extinguish the candles, let the incense burn out and quit the temple. 


If you try this out I would love comments with your results. Also  if you liked this post, please share and like us on Facebook

A Ritual for the Holy Guardian Angel: The Lamp Upon the Throne

A lot of people look at work with the Holy Guardian Angel as something specifically connected to seeking Knowledge and Conversation. Knowledge and Conversation is a particular sort of relationship one can enter into with the Holy Guardian Angel, but it is not the only interaction which exists. Work with the Holy Guardian Angel can be as simple as an acknowledgement, or reference at the beginning of a ritual to connect with it, or a prayer for its assistance, or presence, or guidance. Or it can be a full on conjuration for the purpose of asking it questions, communing, or asking for assistance. It's useful to make the angel a part of your magic early on whatever approach to connecting with it you're using.

The ritual presented here is one I've been working with for about 9 or 10 years. It utilizes elements of the Golden Dawn tradition, Roman Catholicism, and of course, the Merkavah. In my view the Sar HaAnpin, or the Prince of the Face/Prince of the Presence, and the related SarHaTorah, the Prince of the Torah, serve in roles similar to the HGA, and there are ritual elements which overlap between the Abramelin and the Merkavah work with these angels...although these elements show up in lots of spirit magic, the Abramelin claims to be a separate tradition of Jewish magic outside of the Kabbalah, so Merkavah derived grimoire work could relate to the origins of the Abramelin. This would also fit well with the probable time, location, and author of the Abramelin.

In any case, this ritual can be done individually, or its parts can be divided for a group. It is used to conjure the Holy Guardian Angel by use of a Conjuration of the Metatron. I hope you enjoy it, I'd love to hear about any response folks have to working with it.

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The Lamp Upon the Throne

VH

Participants enter.

The Doorkeeper anoints them with water and oil individually as they enter. In response to being anointed each participant says

"Sprinkle me with hyssop, Oh Lord, and I shall be clean, wash me and 1 shall be whiter than snow."

The participants continue to the center of the temple and are seated around the central altar.

One of the participants takes the sword goes to the east and proceeds through the quarters tracing and vibrating the appropriate god names.

East: AL

South: YH

West: AGLA

North: ADNI

He returns to the center and says:

"By the holy names AL, YH, AGLA, and ADNI, by which the prophets wrought miracles and by which the world is bound together and then is set to trembling and shaking, which form the foundations of the Heavens, I banish this temple."

He proceeds to the East and then through the quarters tracing the rose cross in each, he returns to the center when he is finished and says:

"By the light of the cross I seal this temple against the unholy and the profane."

He returns to the center and returns the sword to the Karcist.

The Karcist kneels before the altar bearing the bread and wine and raises his arms

"My beloved is white and ruddy, pre-eminent above ten thousand.

His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are curled, and black as a raven.

His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks; washed with milk, and fitly set.

His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; his lips are as lilies,

dropping with flowing myrrh.

His hands are as rods of gold set with beryl; his body is as polished ivory overlaid with

sapphires.

His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold; his aspect is like

Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend"

The Karcist rises, and makes crosses over the bread and wine:

"Beloved, bless + and consecrate + this vessel of bread and wine by the power of your right hand and the mercy of your left; and grant, through the merits of St. John, the Gnostic, that all who drink of it may find wisdom and understanding through splendor. As the blessed John drank the poisoned potion without any ill effects, so may all who today drink the blessed wine in honor of the Beloved be delivered from the poison of corruption.

By the name YHVH ELOAH VA-DAAT+, bless this creature of grain and vine, so that it may be a life-giving medicine to all who use it; and grant by your grace that all who taste of it may enjoy bodily and spiritual health in calling on your holy name; in their search for their own highest light."

The Karcist steps away. A participant rises, makes a Yod over the bread and wine.

"The spark of life and motion "

He then intones the names YHVH TZVOT, HANIEL, HANIEL, HAGIEL, KEDEMEL,

charging the bread and wine as he does so

He sits, another participant rises and traces a Heh over the bread and wine.

"The shape of light and joy"

He then intones the names ELHM TZVOT, MICHAEL, RAPHAEL, TIRIEL,

TAPHARTHARATH charging the bread and wine as he does so

He sits, another participant rises and traces a Vav over the bread and wine

"The form of purpose and direction"

He then intones the names SHADDAI EL CHAI, GAVRIEL, GAVRIEL, MALKAH BE TARSHISIM VE-AD RUACHOTH SCHECHALIM, SCHAD BARSCHEMOTH

charging the bread and wine as he does so

He sits, another participant rises and traces a Heh over the bread and wine

"The body of man upon earth"

He then intones the names ADNI HA-ARETZ, SANDAPHALON, MICHAEL, KERUB,

PHORLAKH charging the bread and wine as he does so

He sits, the Karcist returns to the alter, he traces Shin above the bread and wine, he raises it saying

"May this spark the lamp which is the light of the world, by the names, YHVH ELOAH VA-DAAT, RAPHAEL, MICHAEL, NAKHIEL, SORATH"

He replaces the bread and wine, breaks a piece of the bread and eats it, drinks the wine, and passes the bread on. Each participant breaks a piece of the bread and eats it and takes a goblet of wine and drinks it.

A participant goes to the South and traces Yod and intones the name MICHAEL, he proceeds to the West traces Heh and intones the name GAVRIEL, he crosses to the East traces Vav and intones the name RAPHAEL, and then ends in the North traces a Heh and intones the name URIEL. He returns to his seat.

The Karcist rises, faces the East, all sit in meditation, the Karcist says the invocation:

"I conjure you, angels of dread, fear, and shaking,

who are appointed to hurt those who are not pure

and clean and desire the services of my heavenly

servants — I conjure you in the name of YHVH

ELOAH VA-DAAT, who is mighty over all, and

rules over all, and everything is in His hands, that

you do not hurt us, nor terrify us, nor frighten us;

verily, in the name of the powerful one."

"Eternal, Mighty, Holy El, God only-supreme

You who are the Self-originated, the

Beginningless One Incorruptible,

Spotless, Uncreated, Immaculate, Immortal, Self-

complete, Self-illuminating,

Without father, without mother, unbegotten,

Exalted, Fiery One! Lover of men, Benevolent

One, Bountiful One,

Jealous over me, and very compassionate, Eli, My

God,

Eternal, Jehovah Zebaioth, Very Glorious El, El,

El, El, Jah El!

You are the One whom my soul has loved!

Eternal Protector, Shining like Fire, Whose voice

is like the thunder, Whose look is like the

lightning,

You are the All-seeing One, Who receives the

prayers of all such as honour You,

And turn away the requests of those who

embarrass You with their provocations

Who dissolves the confusions of the world

which arise from the ungodly and the righteous

mixed up in the confusion of the corruptible age,

And renewing the age of the righteous,

Shine O Lord, shine as a light, even as that light

with which you clothed Yourself on the first day of

Creation,

Shine as the Light of the Morning on Your

creatures

And let it be Day upon Earth,

For in these heavenly dwelling places there is no

need of any other light

Than the unspeakable splendour from the light of

Your Countenance,

O answer my prayer, O be well-pleased with it,

O accept my sacrifice which You have prepared

for me to offer,

Accept me favourably, and show me, teach me, all

that You have promised!"

All meditate in the light of the beloved until they feel that they are finished at which point they leave the temple silently.

Conjuring Wisdom Pt. 2: Ritual for Conjuring the Prince of the Torah

Last summer I posted about the Prince of the Torah, and the conceptual ideas regarding his conjuration. That post can be viewed here:

http://blog.ararita418.com/2015/06/conjuring-wisdom-prince-of-torah-part-1.html

The Prince of the Torah is basically the Prince of the divine truth. He is similar to the Sar HaAnpin, or the Prince of the Presence, an angel which is similar to the Holy Guardian Angel. The Prince of the Torah texts seem to take their origin from the diaspora period during which the Talmud was written. This makes sense with the preoccupations of the time and the lack of access to the temple.

Here are the instructions for conjuring the Prince of the Torah as they were recorded by the early Rabbis. This could be useful for modern magicians in exploring ways to call upon their Holy Guardian Angels.

“He who would bind himself to the Prince of the Torah must wash his clothes and his garments and immerse in a strict immersion in case of a nocturnal emission. And he must enter and dwell for twelve days in a room or in an upper chamber. He may not go out and he may not come in and he must not eat or drink. But from evening to evening see that he eats his bread, clean bread of his own hands, and he drinks clear water and he may not taste any kind of vegetable.

And he must insert this midrash of the Prince of the Torah into the prayer three times in every single day; it is after the prayer that he should pray it from its beginning to its end. And afterward he must sit and study it for twelve days, the days of his fasting, from morning until evening, and he must not be silent. And in every hour that he finishes it he must stand on his feet and adjure the servants by their King and he must call for every single prince twelve times. Afterward he must adjure him by the seal – every single one of them.

These are their names. He must say SQDHWZY'Y YHVH the prince; NHBRDYW'LW YHVH the prince; BYR GHWRYRY'L YHVH the prince; and there are some who say (GHWRYDYHW'L YHVH the prince) SRWYL'YL YHVH the prince; (ZBWDY'L YHVH the prince) ZGKWHR'Y UHVH the prince; TWTRUSY'Y YHVH the prince; PLYTRYH YHVH the prince; WHWB'RY YHVH the prince; MRGYWY'L YHVH the prince; RHDBYWRWN YHVH the prince; W'DYRYWDWN YHVH the prince. Thirteen.

He must adjure them for the twelve days in the name of YWPY'L who is the adornment of the height of his King and in the name of SRBY'L who is one of the princes of the chariot; and in the name of SHRRY'L who s a beloved prince; and in the name of HSDY'L who is called to might six hours in each day. And he must go back and adjure them, the latter four princes, with a great seal, and in the name of SWRTQ a holy name and a fearsome crown.

When he completes the twelve he will go forth to all the the principles of Torah that he seeks, whether to Bible or to Mishnah or to the vision of the chariot, for he goes forth in a pure condition and away from grief and away from great pain. For the learning is in our hands, the reform of the set down for generations (to come), for the humble to make use of it. And whoever is fit is answered by them.”

Not Flashy but Holy

So, my previous post talked about Solstice and Equinox rituals, the important of a magical religious structure and how that might fit the grimoire tradition or other magical traditions. There are a ton of options for observing these occurrences, this idea is just one of many possibilities. You can view that here: http://blog.ararita418.com/2016/07/grimoires-and-cycle-of-year-pt-1.html

So...Grimoiric Solstice and Equinox rituals.

The basic idea is observing the movement of the Sun into the Sign that indicates the beginning of the new season. The frame work I used came from the Heptameron. So, the preliminary stuff happens, the angel who rules the hour is called upon, the angel ruling the day, the elemental powers of the season, the powers associated with the sign ruling the season, the angel of the sun, and the angels of the season. Along with the angels we call upon the powers of the earth, air, sea, inferno, and the season itself. An offering is made. Chill time with the spirits is had. Wine is blessed and consumed. All in all about eight angels, two kinds of elementals, and other spiritual forms of parts of nature are all conjured together.

It might seem like it would be busy. People talk about not calling a spirit and being like “ok you stand over there, while I call some others” but this doesn't run like that. There is a definite element of awareness of the Heavenly Majesty throughout and so the coalescence of the spirits really creates a feeling of divine harmony. The spirits are called in a way that is organized based on the state of nature we are reifying into a spiritual presence. So for them there is a natural fit into the harmony we experience.

The first thing which was evident was how smooth and harmonious the invocations felt. Maybe it was because of other work recently, or maybe it was because the spirits wanted to be called this way, whatever the cause, there was a striking feeling of true adoration that overtook me. A lot of times when I conjure it's much more a feeling of drawing power and pulling together authority. Before I started I thought about how the framework I had didn't have as much of that. I kind of wondered “how do I get to groove with God so the spirits will talk with me?” During the invocations I felt an abiding sense of love and engagement where there was no feeling of going through the motions, or rationalizing the Christian components. There was just desire and adoration. It was elevating. It made me realize that as much as I've answered in the past about the ability to adopt a worldview that allows you to accept Christian imagery while using it in conjuration, whereas this was simply the ability to love and embrace the reality of the imagery.

As I went it occurred to me that I was about to conjure a lot of spirits but wasn't going to stop and talk with any or commune with any. Individually. What ended up happening was that as I called upon natural forces, fire, the moon, water, the sign of cancer, the sun, I felt immersed in each. I could feel the joy, and adoration which inspired the Salamanders and Undines as they experienced their love for their creator. I felt bathed in moon light as I prepared to conjure Gavriel to empower the sign of Cancer, the overarching wheel of stars encasing an earth made of harmonized fire and water as I conjured the angels of Cancer, and the glowing light of the sun as Raphael harmonized it. Oriens when called took a particularly elevated place and when asked to bring the the beneficial forces into the world and he reached over and brought the beauty and harmony of the celestial imagery into the material world.

Sitting to commune with the spirits as they received their suffumigation felt like sitting in the heavenly throne room. The candles before me took on a regal beauty and there was a sense of powerful light everywhere. I put on my ring and felt a sense of completion, and a spiritual glow about it as the angels imbued it with the harmony.

The ritual concluded with requesting their blessings on myself and all those around me and drinking a cup which had been blessed by the spirits. It felt good being immersed in the light. It felt peaceful, and happy, bidding farewell to the spirits, feeling them move out into the world to carry that light and unity with them.

So yeah. Not flashy, but Holy. Nothing major, nothing new, but something good. Sometimes that's really all we need from those moments of religion within magic. When we do magic, it should make something happen in the world, theurgy and mysticism should make us better – closer to God or to what we were intended to be, religion should settle and balance us within those forces of the world which we engage in magic. It just needs to be a moment where we get closer to and connect more deeply with the powers that inspire us, and that move the world with us. We shouldn't lose sight on the practicality of magic, but that practicality shouldn't make us overlook those less flashy moments of connection.

That said...part of the idea...was harmonizing the forces of creation at work in the season. So practically speaking it should also help everything flow better.

Grimoires and the Cycle of the Year Pt 1

How does time play into our magic? What about space? Aside from conjuring spirits to teach us about magic or about themselves are there ways we should ground ourselves or explore the powers we invoke aside from practical magic? Yes. Yes, there are, or, there should be.

Magic should be part of a lifestyle and to some degree a culture, and a lifestyle and culture which is spiritual should generally involve something religious. Not necessarily belonging to a Church or adopting a religion, but a way to routinely connect with and seat oneself in the context of the LIVING COSMOS OF SPIRITUAL FORCES with which your magic is engaged. Religion is at its core a pattern of rituals. Those rituals mirror the ideas we have about creation, existence, and the end. So for a magician magical religious ritual would be the exploration of these cosmic forces in the light of our understanding of the world.

We see this somewhat in the modern magical religions. Feasts of the times are important for Thelema because they're a way of doing this, and accessing important knowledge and mysteries within that system on multiple levels. Similar magical holidays play into the Golden Dawn, Thelema, Wicca, Druidry, and various other groups from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. These holidays deal with natural and cosmic movements which reflect the changes in the forces and concepts central to these particular worldviews. For those of us that are magicians, we're dealing with the forces that shape and move the world, so rituals to acknowledge the very visible, physical, movements of those forces are a reasonable way of engaging this same religious benefit. But for those of us not working purely in a modern context do we have a way of doing this? If we simply engage religions like Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, which helped shape the grimoires, we won't address the powers and forces relevant to magic. Can we structure feasts of the times for traditional magic?

This idea sprang forth in full armor from my mind while working on another project. Rufus Opus had challenged me to reconstruct a complete and workable system of grimoiric magic from the mish mash of pieces and references held within the Heptameron. (As it is, you could pick up the book and work it, but it's really presenting several different magical ideas all swirled together). I had already been working a little bit with ideas regarding the angels of the planetary hours, and the very cursory approach to grimoiric timing found in modern magic versus the robust focus on the powers of time in the grimoires. So while working with the Heptameron, and the Raziel texts, and various Solomonic texts, I kept coming back to the INTENSE IMPORTANCE of TIME and SPACE in real magic. We talk in modern magic about “time outside of time, and place outside of space” which is a neat idea, but SPACE-TIME is fucking magical on it's own, and when we begin looking at directionality, the spiritualization of locality and the environment of the moment, the powers of time as they manifest in hours, days, months, and seasons, we begin to see that there is a whole magical way of addressing the reality in which we live, work, and manifest magic, and without connecting with and understanding the magical forces that build and move the context of our existence, we miss out on a huge way of connecting with creation and the power therein.

As I read through more and more of Raziel instructing Adam about the importance of understanding time, and it blended with the ideas of time in magic found in the Heptameron, and it ran up against my remedial explorations of astrology, I began to form a greater picture of what I was looking at. The idea of invoking the components of time and place more clearly than we tend to in modern magic had already begun creeping in for me based on the PGM, but in that context it seems to sometimes be a simple acknowledgment of time and place, what we see in the grimoires particularly those influenced by the Raziel tradition we see something much deeper than just mentioning them.

The grimoires understood every element of time and space in a way which allowed it to be approached as a spirit, or at least, a spiritually imbued part of our interaction with the Creator. Each element of time and direction has a name, it has a spirit, or spirits associated with it. We see pieces here and there in the grimoires referencing these spirits of time but not necessarily integrating them. While looking for this integration the circle in the Heptameron became an inspiration for more deeply engaging these forces directly, it became much more than simply as a map laid out on the floor of the space in which a ritual would be performed.

So while getting excited about all this, and about the magic of time and space, and while mapping out secret names given by the Heptameron and Raziel it occurred to me...ceremonial magicians not engaged in modern magic don't have rituals to observe major moments of time...but we could, and maybe long ago some system from which part of our system is drawn may have had such a thing. And the grimoires map out everything we need. In fact, with the importance of astrological timing in the older forms of magic, and the astrological treatment of the seasons in the grimoires, and the break down of correspondences mapping the seasons, the directions, and through them connecting the celestial, sublunary, and infernal realms made it apparent that marking the seasonal shifts was an easy way to incorporate all the various elements of time, space, and our overall cosmology into a ritual structure of observance.

So, over the last couple months the back of my mind has been playing out how to set up such a ritual, and I decided for the Solstice I would try it. It was pretty awesome. It was subdued, but it was pretty nifty. There were moments of being bathed within the various forces that make up the shift into the season of summer and define its nature. A lot of beautiful imagery conveyed by the spirits. Quiet moments to chill in their presence and to drink in their blessings and power.

The ritual was pretty nifty, and I definitely noticed beneficial currents in my life following its performance. Tomorrow we'll go into more about the ritual and the experience.

Legal Relief from the Highest of Thrones

About a year ago I posted about using Merkavah techniques of angel magic from the early part of the first millennium to solve a misunderstanding with a creditor, something which is relevant for a ton of people today.

Another thing that comes up frequently for people today is dealing with legal issues. So I figured now that the issue that caused me to use this method is well in the past, I would share it.

A few months prior to the creditor post I had run into some ridiculous moving violation nonsense. My attorney pointed out that the charges weren't even the correct charges and most of what the officer said in the instance wasn't correct. I had evidence with me when I was pulled over that the issue was resolved but the officer ignored it. Basically, I fell into a convergence of multiple administrative tangles that swelled up into a series of costly charges and penalties.

At first my attorney was confident that I had been wronged; he discounted my legal fees because of it and assured me how easy it was all going to be. Then a few months passed and we didn't meet again until a few weeks before the court date. At this new meeting he explained that he was handing me off to his partner, who was way less impressive. He needed new copies of some of my documentation, and the two of them started confusing and forgetting the various elements of the incident. They assured me that they knew everyone in the local legal system and would get everything dismissed...unless it was this one judge, but they hoped it wouldn't be her. All in all they felt like they were going to bungle it and I got nervous.

So...the obvious solution, was magic. Angel magic.

The Sefer HaRazim has a few pieces that describe dealing with magistrates and officials. I decided to work with the angels of silence who reside in the second heaven. They are said to exonerate you by commanding the silence of anyone who would speak against you.

HaRazim requires significant purification to approach the angels. You have to avoid all causes of impurity for three weeks. In a previous blog post I recommended this alternative: http://blog.ararita418.com/2015/04/easier-than-not-sinning-aka-reset-button.html

Once you're clean enough for angels to not mistake you for a drop of semen, (the Hekhalot texts suggest that the angels like to refer to humans that way) you have to steal bread that was offered at an altar to an idol.

This is kind of a tough one. We don't live in a world with idols all over the place. If you happen to have a friend with idols he probably won't like you stealing offerings he has made to his gods. If you yourself are Pagan or work with spirits, your gods or spirits may not like you stealing offerings to give to angels. The idea has a sort of antinomian vibe when you consider that it was written in a time where memories of Pagan dominant cultures probably still influenced the work. The angels are subduing something that would otherwise be dominant over you, and so you subvert another possible force of domination. But to do this, you have to violate some boundaries. My solution was to offer a Mass to my Holy Guardian Angel and then take back the remaining host to use for the angels. This way I had bread offered up to some divine force, without having to insult that divine force.

Once you have the bread you say over it the names of the angels in reverse order seven times.

These angels are from the first step of the second heaven, they are angels who “stand in terror, cloaked in wrath, girded with dread, surrounded by trembling, their raiment like an image of fire, their faces like the appearance of lightning, and their mouths never cease to utter mighty words. Nevertheless, their voice is not heard, for their task is to silence, to frighten, and to terrify anyone who opposes the man who calls on them in purity.”

These angels are:

HMRY'L, HDRY'L, RSY'L, HSCY'L, DMYMY'L, ZBDY'L, RNZY'L, CNS'L, KTBR'L

Once you've said the names of the angels say this:

“I ask from you, angels of silence, that in this place, you silence every mouth and every heart of the children of Adam and Eve who arise against me to say anything evil. Let their mouths utter good things about me and let me be exonerated in my lawsuit, do not permit any mouth to speak evil about me.”

Then sprinkle the ashes in a relevant place. I sprinkled them on steps outside the courthouse on my way in.

I went in, was there for about 45 minutes, and then was told I could go because the prosecutor decided not to prosecute my case.

So again, simple run down:

1. Purify yourself
2. Steal some idolatrous bread
3. Burn the bread to ash
4. Say the names of the angels from the first step of the second heaven in reverse order seven times
5. Say the incantation
6. Spread the ash in a relevant place (court house, city center)
7. Be awesome as the angels exonerate you through their power to silence your accusers

Good luck!