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.

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!