Season of the Spirits

So over the last two days I posted about Solstice and Equinox rituals using the grimoires as a basis.

You can find those here:

http://blog.ararita418.com/2016/07/grimoires-and-cycle-of-year-pt-1.html

http://blog.ararita418.com/2016/07/not-flashy-but-holy.html

I'm not going to post the ritual I used, but it was basically a series of conjurations of different types of spirits associated with the season based upon traditional correspondences. The information for these correspondences comes from Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, Cephar Razielis, the Heptameron, and Book Two of Agrippa.

You can easily put together a similar ritual yourself. Use the preliminary ritual components and purifications from your preferred grimoire.

Set up the tools, circle, temple space as you normally would with the appropriate conjurations of the incense, flame, circle, and whatever else you would use. Use the appropriate rites for robing up.

Then use the conjuration of the divine as you would do normally.

After this when you get to the point of conjuring the spirit, this is where it changes up a bit. You'll conjure several spirits, and instead of asking them for something you'll just ask for their help in achieving the blessings of the season.

The correspondences below will help you determine which spirits. The order in which you conjure them will kind of be up to you as well. Do you start elementally? Do you start with the zodiacal? Do you go right for the spirits of the season? The winds and direction? What comes first?

Well that depends on your way of doing things.

Personally I started with the zodiac, and conjured the element and planet of the zodiacal sign and then the angel of the sign itself.

Then the Sun, so that the sun is within the sign.

Then the element, the elemental king, the aerial spirits, and the spirits of the parts of the world and of the season itself.

So starting bigger and drawing smaller.

Some people like the opposite. Some people want to feel it unfold. So they start with the manifest components, the season itself, the parts of the world within the season, then elemental rulers, then planetary, then zodiacal.

It's up to you. The power, is unreservedly, held in your hands, to discover how you and your spirits want to work.

So...here is some guidance on the spirits.

Season	Direction	Element	Name of Season	Zodiac	Gregorian Months	Hebrew Months
Spring	West	Air	Talvi	The Sun enters Aries	March April May	Nisan – Full Moon in Aries Iyar – Full Moon in Taurus Sivan – Full Moon in Gemini
Summer	East	Fire	Casmaran	The Sun enters Cancer	June July August	Tammuz – Full Moon in Cancer Av – Full Moon in Leo Elul – Full Moon in Virgo
Autumn	South	Earth	Adarael	The Sun enters Libra	September October November	Tishrei – Full Moon in Libra Marchesvan – Full Moon in Scorpio Kislev – Full Moon in Sagittarius
Winter	North	Water	Farlae	The Sun enters Capricorn	December January February	Tevet – Full Moon in Capricorn Shevat – Full Moon in Aquarius Adar – Full Moon in Pisces

Season	Head of the Sign	Name of the Earth	Name of the Sea	Name of the Air	Name of the Underworld	Name of the Sun	Name of the Moon
Spring	Spugliguel	Amadai	Angustiz	Ystana	Hahan	Abraym	Augusia
Summer	Tubiel	Festatvi	Theon	Furayl	Cipaon	Atbemay	Armatas
Autumn	Tolquaret	Rabianira	Maddrylk	Oafion	Meresac	Abragini	Matasignais
Winter	Altarib	Gerenia	Sebillgradon	Gulynon	Aycyhambabo	Commutaf	Affaterim

Season	King	Angels of the Season	Angels of the Four Directions	Devils	Celestial Powers
Spring	Paymon	Caracasa Core Amatiel Commissoros	Raphael	Azazel	Jupiter and Venus
Summer	Oriens	Gargatel Tariel Gaviel	Michael	Samael	Mars and Sol
Autumn	Amaymon	Terquam Gualbarel	Gabriel	Mahazael	The Fixed Stars and the Moon
Winter	Egyn	Amabael Ctarari	Uriel	Azael	Saturn and Mercury

Season	Month	Zodiac Sign	Angel of the Zodiac	Planet	Hebrew Month	Angel of the Month
Spring	March	Aries	Malchidiel	Mars	Nisan	Oriel
	April	Taurus	Asmodel	Venus	Iyar	Safuel
	May	Gemini	Ambriel	Mercury	Sivan	Amariel
Summer	June	Cancer	Muriel	Moon	Tammuz	Moriel
	July	Leo	Verchiel	Sun	Av	Byny
	August	Virgo	Hamelial	Mercury	Elul	Magnyny
Autumn	September	Libra	Zuriel	Venus	Tishrei	Suriel
	October	Scorpio	Barbiel	Mars	Marchesvan	Karbiel
	November	Sagittarius	Adnachiel	Jupiter	Kislev	Adoniel
Winter	December	Capricorn	Hanael	Saturn	Tevat	Anael
	January	Aquarius	Gabiel	Saturn	Shevat	Gabriel
	February	Pisces	Barchiel	Jupiter	Adar	Romiel

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.