SUBLUNAR SPACE - prayer

Hodie Hodie

2025-07-27T20:00:00+02:00

Here is a brief report of a just recently remembered impromptu act of magic I did during a very difficult itme two years ago with my six‑year‑old daughter that took effect instantly.

Vogon Territory

Mid October 2023. A week after the horrific events of October 7¹. Early morning.

My current temporary resident visa for Israel was due to expire three weeks later and we had an appointment with the immigration office scheduled for that date to extend it. Due to the complete chaos, the war that had just broken out, and the state of emergency a lot of the public administration was on hold and most branches closed.

My wife T had the wild idea to just drive there today to be there when it opened and ask them if we could just do it. This was an unthinkable request even during normal operational capacity and always required a scheduled appointment and hours of waiting. Research and anecdotes of other citizens backed this up.

On top of that, Middle Eastern civil clerks value their momentary moods way more than regulations or streamlined process, so any interaction with them is always a gamble. It's a pain to deal with Vogons² anywhere, but here they come with an attitude 🤌🏽.

But we tried anyway - mainly to have more flexibility in being able to re-enter the country in case we needed to escape the war for a few weeks rather sooner than later (problems I never imagined having to deal with).

I started thinking about how to nudge this improbable task magically to our favour. There was no time to do any ritual nor cast sigils, or anything else, but I remembered St. Expedite, the expert in "no time for..." cases.

I whispered a quick made up prayer before getting in the car and felt like a total imposter.

After a frustrating morning rush hour drive, we climbed the perpetually broken escalator of the run down shopping center that hosts the immigration office and stepped into the spacious lobby, its marble-and-nicotine color palette stretching beneath high ceilings. The queue was already quite long. My daughter E and I sat down on some chairs in a corner while my wife T waited in line.

A Centurion's Cogency

E had a little sketchbook with her and asked me what to draw. She was bored. I suddenly had an idea: "draw a Roman soldier with a palm branch in one hand and a cross in the other!" She found it an oddly specific request but happily started sketching. We refined it by adding a crow and having him say "Hodie!" and I explained to E that this guy might help us get a visa extension today.

She looked at me skeptically and asked me how. So I quickly briefed her that this was a way to do magic and that we needed to pretend that we already had success - so much that we would really believe it!

I asked her to imagine St. Expedite flying through the room and whispering into the bouncer's ear to let us in and to the clerk inside to give us a visa. So we did.

When we saw that T was at the front of the line and the grumpy security officer was about to address her. E and I both whispered "Hodie!" three times.

They exchanged a few sentences, the guy nodded and T looked over with a surprised look, waving us to come.

Inside we immediately got called to some clerk's desk and I had my renewed visa around 20 minutes later!

T was shocked how all of this was possible and I told her on the way back to the car that we might have just had some divine intervention from a Christian saint.

E was super excited that she did some REAL MAGIC and of course wanted to do more!

The Art of the Deal

Expeditus always acts swiftly but legend says you can boost his efficiency when there's something in it for him. He's modest though and responds best to public praise. What has worked for me is posting his icon on socials online along with a prayer.

Here are the posts I published on Instagram after both times Saint Expedite had helped me:

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first large-scale invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In total, 1,195 people were killed and the attack initiated the ongoing Gaza war. ↩
In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the Vogons are an alien race from the planet Vogsphere who are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats. More info on this fandom wiki page ↩

Canary Capricorn

2020-03-02T20:45:00+01:00

This is a detailed report of strange days full of pine tree portals, morning glory vines, tachycardia, synchronicities and personal gnosis that preceded (or retroactively followed) my initiation into the sphere of Saturn during a vacation with my wife and daughter on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

Escaping Winter

In the last years the time after Christmas has always been quite a downer. Berlin falls into a mode of total greyness that just makes you want to hibernate. Usually my freelance economy is also hibernating during that time when there are no jobs around. For this year my partner T. and I decided to escape this misery and booked vacations on my beloved Canary archipelago - first a couple of days on the chthonic gods' black rock altar manifested as the island of Lanzarote and then three weeks on the sacred island of Tenerife. We prepared for relaxed weeks, but ended up in wonderland...

A few days after we arrived on Tenerife things became very strange. It all started on a Wednesday, two days after we arrived by sea with a ferry from Lanzarote. The trip between the islands was beautiful but also wavy and quite long. All tired and unnerved from the journey we arrived at a small and quite cold little hut in the mountains of La Esperanza. The hut was cute but had no heating, just a malfunctioning fireside. That Wednesday we all decided to go for a walk in the forest which according to the map was only minutes away. Remembering the ancient pine trees we had visited last time we came to this island, I let my offline-map-app Osmand show me all points of interest of the "tree" category and chose the closest one to our house.

Ten minutes later we found ourselves in a stunningly beautiful forest of mostly pine trees with eucalyptus groves and small leaved shrubbery on hilly ground covered in an endless carpet of pine needles. The walk was very soothing and gave us back a sense of peace of mind. We eventually arrived at our waypoint marker: a really creepy and old pine tree that must have barely survived a wildfire. Its trunk was hollowed out and from the remaining black bark dripped thousands of threads of golden resin. The bottom part of the trunk was so thoroughly burnt from all sides it created a hole you could see through to the other side, large enough for a person to crawl through.

Baal's Portal

Well, that's what we did, jokingly calling it a "gateway to another dimension". First I, then my wife T. and a bit more hesitantly, my 3 years old daughter E. stepped through the tree trunk. It was fun! Before leaving I decided I wanted a branch from the tree to keep as a magic wand because maybe the old pine had been struck by lightning which is supposed to be the perfect magically charged wood for wands. I circled the tree four times and threw a small log at one of the branches that broke off. The branch was not as straight as I had hoped for but was a bit crooked like a sickle, but I kept it anyway.

We walked a bit further, had a small picnic and started our way back to the car. Making our way through a bushy and narrow path downhill my daughter started to get a bit tired and bored and made up one of her roleplaying games. She declared: "I am Juno now! You have to call me Juno, OK?” I smiled and nodded and we continued our descent. Suddenly I remembered that the ancient mother goddess who was venerated by the aboriginal population of the Canarian archipelago and who had been syncretized into the Catholic patron saint Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria was assumed to have been the Catharginian goddess Tanit, whom the Romans dubbed "Juno Caelestis." What a curious synchronicity!

In the following night I had a strange dream involving a village road that we needed to urgently pass through and that it had something to do with Saturn. We needed to pick up a brown rental car of the type "Reverend" and it was a brown SUV stretch-limousine. The pick-up location was at a wide sandy beach and there were plenty of people wearing suits wildly racing stretch-limousines across the sand and performing wheelies and other tricks. It was loud and stormy. I looked along the beach and saw a body of a woman lying face down in the wet sand, white roaring waves breaking violently around her. Suddenly a humanoid giant emerged out of the whitewater and carefully picked up the body. The woman was was my wife! I ran to the giant as fast as I could. T. was confused but seemed fine. I thanked the giant and suddenly had a moment of realization. I looked at her, saying "If they are on our side, this must be really important!" Then I woke up.

Horned Gods

I obsessively thought about the "Saturn" part all day long. I just couldn't shake it off. In the evening I did a search for "Saturn" in my collected research documents folder on my computer related to myths and archaeological findings of the Canary Islands and found an interesting paper¹ I had not read yet. It was about a curious theory that the Canaries must have been visited by Christian missionaries before the official arrival of the Spanish conquerors in the late 14th century, because the aboriginal population mainly venerated a heavenly creator god and his holy mother when encountered. The author found this a too curious coincidence and looked into what numinous creatures local folklore had declared "devils" like in so many other Christianized areas of Europe where the previous pagan gods were either syncretized into Saints or declared evil demons. He found matching stories about "wooly goat or sheep like creatures" with "red eyes" an on one island a "wooly black haired man" who were usually appeased on mountain tops with offerings of milk and butter. The author's theory was that this was probably their god before they started believing in a transcendental heavenly father. He related the goaty god to Baal-Hammon, who was the other prime deity next to Tanit worshipped in Catharge and throughout many areas of North Africa, primarily by Berber tribes. In the paper¹ it was mentioned that the Romans saw in Baal-Hammon a form of Saturn.¹

Mind blown, I went to bed and thought a lot about everything I had learned. Then it dawned on me: Saturn! Kronos! Baal-Hammon! My dream and the forest walk suddenly made sense in an uncanny way. The pine tree is considered a Saturnian creature. The branch I had broken off: it looked like a scythe! My daughter suddenly coming up with the name "Juno". Tanit!

The next days were weirdly interwoven with synchronicities. I felt strangely disconnected from life and seemed to experience everything from a weird observer perspective. I obsessively started to think about doing a ritual for Saturn or Baal-Hammon. Maybe using the Trithemius method from "Seven Spheres"? I didn't have my "table of practice" with me. I would need to make one. I needed materials, incenses, candles, corresponding plants... The moment I had just finished this last thought I just finished parking our car next to a park in the city of La Laguna and almost fell into a gigantic hedge completely overgrown by purple Morning Glory vines. There it is! A Saturnian plant! We walked through the city and past a large mural sculpture made from plastic trash. It was a black crow! A Saturnian animal! Needless to say that I noticed SUVs everywhere we drove to, all in this weird brown color like the one in my dream.

One afternoon we took a walk along the large meadows surrounding the little house we had rented for our vacation. Suddenly a large flock of sheep entered our neighboring field with their archaic looking shepherd and his dogs. Half of the livestock were sheep, the other half a strange looking breed of black and very wooly goats with very long corkscrew-like horns. "Baal-Hammon" I thought. The "wooly goat god" of the Canaries. Also "Capricorn" popped into my mind. Of course. The sun just entered the sidereal zodiac sign of Capricorn, home of the planet Saturn who would also join his sign in the upcoming days. This was too much!

At night I couldn't sleep well. Something really bothered me. It was the fact that the Catharginian cults of Tanit and Baal-Hammon were tightly connected to human sacrifice, specifically child sacrifice. Followers had allegedly offered their firstborns to their gods, unless the whole story was just Greek, Jewish and later Christian propaganda. Nobody really knows. But it bothered me a lot, being a father and all. I did not want to go that path of syncretizing Saturn with Baal-Hammon. It just felt: wrong! In the night I had a nightmare of which the only image I remembered upon waking in panic was holding the limp body of my daughter in my hands.

Another evening my wife and I had a long and serious talk about our current life. It was a talk that had been long overdue. About our financial situation. About our job situation and occupational outlooks. About the lack of overview over our assets. About living from day to day, the lack of perspective and planning. About stability and getting our shit together. It was good. We also had more and more serious talks about what we want in our life. About where we want to live our life. About how much we loved it here and whether we want to stay in Berlin or relocate to the Canary Islands. A once wild dream suddenly became a concrete topic that needed attention, consideration, planning. Saturn in Capricorn. It all felt appropriate and weirdly controlled, as if external forces made us finally have these talks.

Transience

I felt very light-headed and dizzy one early evening and went to bed earlier than usual. I felt weirdly sick. My body was completely exhausted, but my mind was highly alert. I took this as an opportunity to try to induce "sleep paralysis" and attempt and out of body experience. It didn't fully work. I was able to shift my awareness around in the room and even push it outside of the house, but wasn't sure how much of it was just vivid imagination. It was a strange evening and I had feverish repetitive dreams that night without actually having a fever. The following evening our daughter seemed extraordinarily restless and crazy. Even for a three and a half year old. She was clumsy and whiny and when my wife took her on her lap to comfort her she suddenly said: "her heart seems very fast!". I put my ear on our daughter's chest and counted. 22 in 6 seconds. Holy Shit. A heart rate of 220 beats per minute! We calmed her down and went to bed, hoping for her pulse to slow down during her sleep.

It didn't.

The next day we rushed to the hospital. The closest one was the University Hospital Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria. How appropriate, I thought. We were treated nicely and with patience, although the emergency ward was completely overcrowded and in chaos. Nobody spoke English or German, yet we managed with my very limited Spanish. The very young doctors in the pediatric section did an electrocardiogram and gave our little one a shot of adenosine. A heart reset. It stops the heart for a moment. It is a very scary thought. But it works. It did work. Her little heart reset to normal speed and we were very relieved. She was very scared and confused. Poor thing.

Apparently she had relapsed into a fairly common heart condition she had as a small baby which she was supposed to be cured from a long time ago. During the next 6 hours staying in the hospital for observation so many things went through my mind. About parenthood and responsibility. About not taking things for granted. About more awareness of risks. About protecting my child better from insensible doctors. About fear of loss and parental anxieties. It was hell. But my daughter loved it. So much attention and hours of cartoons.

Eventually we could go home. When I left the building to get our car I saw a rainbow in the sky above the city. Problem was that I couldn't find our car anymore. Where had I parked it? I randomly walked up and down the small roads around the hospital. They all looked the same. Then I saw the rainbow again, at the end of a small street. I took a turn and walked towards it to get a better look and suddenly there it was in front of me: our car!

Temporality

That evening I was scared to the bones. Baal-Hammon. Saturn. Child sacrifice. A moment of death before the heart resets. My nightmare of holding my limp daughter. It was way too much. I wanted it all to stop. I suddenly felt almost compelled to do a ritual. Not to start something, but to stop it. The next day I gave my wife a day off to recover from the stress and I took my daughter to Puerto de la Cruz, to do something nice, buy her ice-cream, visit some playground. The secondary objective was to go to the local Esoteric shop and a paper shop to buy ritual accessories. A quartz crystal. Storax incense. Black paper. Silver pen. It had to be done.

At some pont it hit me! Saturn! Father of time! Of course! I realized that everything that happened in the last days had the strange taste of initiation to it. I remembered the Jovial initiation I did last year. The feeling of outside perspective on my own life. The sparks of inspiration. The lessons and emotions. All the weird synchronicities that happened after I initiated into the sphere of Jupiter. This was the same but different. Why did all of this happen BEFORE my initiation ritual and not AFTER? Why? Because Saturn rules time! He can do whatever the fuck he wants with it. Why not reverse it and let the initiation ritual ripple into the past instead of the future, or why not both ways? It was crystal clear to me now that I had to do the ritual as soon as possible. I decided to do it on the 25th of January. New Moon in sidereal Capricorn, sun also, and Saturn just entering his home sign too. Plus it was a Saturday. Perfect space weather. I asked my Tarot whether it was a good election and what to expect.

To my defense: it wasn't just me who felt this omnipresent looming weirdness. T. felt it too. Ever since we crawled through that creepy tree, she said. Oh god, that tree. It was true. Like another dimension! We decided that we needed to go back and crawl through it again – this time from the other side! And we were not joking.

On Friday and especially on Saturday I felt awful. Very depressed and sad for no apparent reason, anxious and clumsy and very snappy. Tired and unnerved we barely managed to go back to the tree, but we did. It had to be done. I circled it four times, this time clockwise, and all three of us climbed back through the gaping hole in the charred trunk.

We suddenly felt very relieved and strangely happy and walked back to the car.

Calling Qaftsiel

In the evening I packed all my ritual accessories I had gathered and prepared in the days before and got into the car around sunset. I drove down the village road to a hedge I had spotted before. Overgrown by Morning Glory! I harvested a few vines with the purple flowers and hit the road uphill towards the mountain. It was pitch black as I drove up the serpentine roads through the forest. After cancelling a hike up to the mountain top due to the darkness and also deciding not to use a cave near the road due to unbearable urine stench I spontaneously opted for a manmade cave I had marked on my phone-map a few days before. It was just off an easy to find hiking path and should be doable even in the darkness.

I was a bit scared walking through the forest at night but I felt excitement and an urge to push through with the plan. I climbed down a steep hill into a small valley in total darkness, slipping on the pine needles and mossy rocks. My phone reception went dead. I should have left my coordinates. Fuck it. Let's do it. I eventually found the cave! It was a small horizontal mine shaft from old attempts to dig a tunnel for water. There are thousands of these on the island. This one was around a meter in diameter and just two meters deep into the rock. But it was dry and clean and fortunately too inaccessible to be used as a toilet. It was perfect!

I set up my altar and table of practice, decorated it with the flowers and checked the time. Almost an hour left until the appropriate planetary hour of Saturn. I crawled back out and sat down on a rock. I closed the flashlight and looked around. Complete darkness. Complete silence. Just the wind in the treetops and omg, the stars!

I was mesmerized by the beauty of the night-sky. The Pleiades were right above my head and I saw a satellite pass by when I looked up. I stared into the sky for a long time lying on my back enjoying each moment that seemed like eternity. Then it was time for the ritual.

It took quite a while. I started with the day's prayer of my ongoing novena to La Virgen de La Candelaria and did a full Headless Rite following my usual new moon routine. The cave filled up with the incense smoke and hummed in resonance with the frequency of my voice while I recited the prayers of the Seven Spheres protocol. I was an amazing feeling.

After I was done I had such an intense feeling of relief and peace of mind that I got high from it. Absolute Clarity.

I somehow made it back to the car and drove home. The remaining days on the island were dominated by peacefulness and joy. Hardly have I felt so happy and clear minded. My family too.

Cold and dry in the head. Capricorn season.

Wipf, Karl A. "Der sogenannte Hochgottglaube der Altkanarier." Almogaren 15 (1984): 45-76. ↩↩↩

Helleno-Kemetic Magic: Theoria

2019-12-09T20:30:00+01:00

Third of a series of articles about my careful attempt to recreate a generic framework of Helleno-Kemetic magic. For an introduction and overview check out this article

Version 1.1 - December 13, 2019

In this part I am recreating a technique of contemplative or ecstatic concentration based on commonalities between Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and Sufi methods. On the way we will dive into Kemetic epistemology, vocalizations of baboons, personal experience, and the mysteries of the barbarous names and vowel strings found in Helleno-Kemetic magical papyri. Feel free to skip directly to the praxis part.

Theoria

θεωρῐ́ᾱ • (theōríā) f (genitive θεωρῐ́ᾱς); sight, spectacle, viewing; consideration, theory, speculation, contemplation

Encircling the Heart

Although the Anastasi Handbooks never explicitly mention practices like contemplation, or meditation, there is no doubt about the importance about such techniques in systems of magic, be it for reasons of concentration, getting rid of distracting thoughts and being able to focus the will to modulate the fabric of the cosmos and influence contingency towards a desired intention.

Nowadays meditation practices and mindfulness techniques are readily available, mostly devoid of their "spiritual baggage" and usually appropriated from Buddhist or Tantric traditions of Asia. The theosophical movements of the Victorian era have introduced these schools of meditation into Western traditions of spirituality and heavily influenced magical techniques. The overwhelming discourse about Eastern knowledge about such methods has almost led to an abandonment of similar Western traditions of contemplation and styles of meditation and focus.

Most Eastern forms of meditation popularized in the West are inspired by Buddhist traditions. These are actually deeply connected to their spiritual roots where practicing these techniques are supposed to bring the practicioner closer to realizing that there is no self that is ultimate and immortal, separate and individual¹. This metaphysical concept is in fact quite alien to the idea of an individualized spirit and soul that has been predominant in Europe and the Near East all the way back to the Helleno-Kemetic era.

The fundamental differences in approach of contemplative practice between the East and the West has been nicely described by Mouni Sadhu²:

Nowadays, when we speak about concentration and other occult practices, the Eastern tradition or Yoga often involuntarily comes to mind. [...] in Raja-Yoga the mind and its functions are put before another power in man which is often called 'the heart'. From the start we hear little about feelings and emotions apart from constant admonitions, that both must be dominated and removed from the field of consciousness of a Raja-yogi. This happens because of an assumption, that if the mind, as superior to the emotional counterpart in man, has been subdued, the lower one - also called the 'astral-body' - will automatically be controlled. [...]

As the Eastern occult schools treat concentration as a means of achievement for the highest goal, so the mind takes precedence over the heart. But in the Western spiritual tradition this is reversed. [...] in the Western countries the heart aspect predominates, and the mind's subordination follows later. This means, that it is recognized - not without good reason - that first must come the purification and strengthening of the seat of human emotions, which often creates so many difficulties for aspirants of spirituality. The seat of our moral law must first be balanced, and then order comes to dwell in the pure heart. It is then that the development of the mind's powers cannot be dangerous, either for their owners or for their surroundings.²

In Western mystical traditions altered states of consciousness and mental focus have traditionally been achieved through various prayer techniques that keep the mind busy and the heart pure until the desired exalted state of the soul has been reached.

In "Holy Daimon" Frater Acher stresses the importance of purification of our soul in magical practice when we go into such mind states:

When we go into isolation, we [...] deliberately create emptiness and openness within us. We make of ourselves an untouched space, an empty vessel that attracts the attention of all sorts of spiritual beings who would love to take up residence in it and fill it with their own waters. It offers shelter and food and richness to all the spiritual beings who cannot provide these things for themselves, who prey on carrion. And carrion is exactly what such energy is to them.

[...W]e must guard this empty vessel and ensure that we don’t get tricked and abused by other beings who would prey on our openness. This is why we seal this vacant space with joy.

The type of joy we mean is the most wonderful protective seal. Joy is the shield that shines like the sun. [...]

Once we have experienced real joy, we’ll see how vastly different it is from the other contemplative emotions experienced in seclusion [...]. Melancholia, nostalgia, and daydreaming are red carpets rolled out for beings who would take up residence in the vessel of our mind. For as long as we are attached to these emotional states, our vessel cannot be considered empty.¹⁶

Walking Backwards

Besides Jewish and early Christian spiritual traditions during Helleno-Roman times that transmitted plenty of material on "inhibitory" contemplative and "excitatory" prayer practices, there was also an equally strong Greek tradition of contemplation:

Empedocles who lived around 500 BC already wrote:

You must plunge beneath your crowded thoughts and calmly contemplate the higher realities with pure, focused attention. If you do this, a state of inspired serenity will remain with you throughout your life, shaping your character and benefiting you in so many ways. But if you direct your attention instead to the trivial things most people obsess about, the silly nonsense that dulls their minds, you’ll just acquire more objects which you’ll only lose anyway.

In "Phaidon" Plato mentions:

Without a doubt, then the soul is perfectly meditated when it is not disturbed by anything, neither by hearing, nor by sight, nor by any pain, nor by any delight, but is isolated as much as possible in itself by farewell the body, and when it avoids, as far as possible, every collaboration and every contact with it, it flows in reality. (Phaidon 65c-d)

Pagan traditions probably had different orally transmitted techniques to achieve "henosis" ("one-pointed awareness"), but written accounts only survived through the works of Iamblichus descriptions of "theurgy" and another one by Plotinus based on his "Enneads".

In order to attempt to reconstruct an analog Helleno-Kemetic system of attaining an altered state of "gnosis" let's assume that foundations for all the later developments on the Western traditions of meditation and contemplation have been laid during the syncretic era of Helleno-Roman Egypt.

Based on that assumption let's go back in time and take a look at several traditions that potentially emerged out of Alexandria and then try to find common ground.

Chariot Rides

Already present in Helleno-Kemetic times were ecstatic Jewish prayer techniques. The so-called Hekhalot literature and Merkhaba mysticism from the Talmudic era were centered on visions and prophecies, ascents to heavenly palaces, abilites of man to draw down divine powers to earth through ecstatic techniques of prayer, recital of hymns, as well as the theurgic use of secret names of God. After the Talmudic period these methods and others based around the Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir and Zorah were exclusively known and practiced in secret circles. During the Middle Ages They were rediscovered by kabbalah scholars like Abraham Abulafia, Isaac of Acco or Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla.

Let's take a look at the techniques outlined by Abraham Abulafia who developed a system of practical kabbalah that involved the mantra-like chanting of Hebrew syllables. In his late medieval work "Life of the World to Come" he describes one method as thus:

At the same hour that you prepare yourself to speak with your creator, be careful to empty your thoughts from all the vanities of this world and request Him to proclaim his courageous victories to you. And adorn yourself in a prayer shawl (Tallit) and put phylacteries (Tefillin) upon your head and arms if you can, so that you will be in awe and fear of the Shekhinah (the female aspect of God) who is present with you at that moment. [...] And this will be a witness that you come to work the work of God your Lord in happiness and an innocent heart.

And begin to combine letters, a few with many, and turn and revolve them speedily until your heart is warmed by their revolutions. And put your heart in their movement and what their revolution engenders. And when you feel in yourself that your heart has been warmed very much by the combinations and you understand from them new matters that you did not grasp from human transmission and did not know them from yourself by intellectual effort, then you are ready to receive the abundance (Shefa). [...] And after [...] prepare your mind and heart to understand in your thought the many things that will come to you from within the letters computed in your heart, and study all of them or their parts like a person who is told a parable, a riddle or a dream, or as one perusing a topic in a book of wisdom deeper than he can comprehend.¹⁷

The Hebrew syllables are usually chanted with prolonged vowels and in other methods developed by Abulafia, even with repetitive head movements in the shapes of the "nekudot", the "vowel points" that adorn the Hebrew consonants. The important kabbalist work "Zohar" refers to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet as " the body" and the vowel points as their "animating spirit."

Although this Jewish mantra technique was developed much later it is based on Jewish mysticism contemporary with the Helleno-Kemetic times. We can find some direct parallels to how the Hellenic and Kemetic philosophers conceptualized the seven Greek vowels:

Egyptian priests claimed Greek vowel sounds as the divine inheritance of Thoth, while Greeks turned the same vowel sounds into the visual insignia of cosmic forces.¹⁸

And the tones of the seven spheres, each of which by nature produces a particular sound, arc the sources of the nomenclature of the vowels. These are described as unpronounceable in themselves and in all their combinations by wise men since the tone in this context performs a role analogous to that of the monad in number, the point in geometry, and the letter in grammar. However, when they are combined with the materiality of the consonants just as soul is combined with body and harmony with strings—the one producing a creature, the other notes and melodies—they have potencies which are efficacious and perfective of divine things.¹⁹

Descent Into the Heart

In Eastern Christian Orthodoxy there is a very rich tradition of contemplative practice from the Byzantine Empire to the Middle Ages called "hesychasm" that has been documented mainly in a theological anthology called "Philokalia":

Try to enter your inner treasure-house and you will see the treasure-house of heaven. For both the one and the other are the same, and one and the same entrance reveals them both. The ladder leading to the kingdom is concealed within you, that is, in your soul. Wash yourself from sin and you will see the rungs of the ladder by which you can ascend thither. (St. Isaac of Syria, Philokalia)²⁰

Wisdom moved by the Spirit is, according to theologians, the power of mental, pure, angelic prayer; a sign of this is that during prayer the mind is free from forms, with no image either of itself or of anything else appearing even for an instant, since it is drawn away from the senses by the light acting within. For then the mind is removed from everything material and is like light, being ineffably merged with God into one spirit. (St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia)²¹

Let us take a look at a description of a late Byzantine technique of hesychasm:

For Jesus, God and Son of God, if constantly and diligently invoked by us, [...] does not let [the demons] present any kind of image in the mirror of our mind, nor to say a single word to the heart. If no kind of image finds its way into the heart, then, as we have said, it will also be empty of all thought. For it is through thoughts that the demons habitually hold secret converse with the soul and incite it to evil. Thus ceaseless prayer keeps our mental air free from the dark clouds and winds of the spirits of evil. And when the air of the heart is pure, there is nothing to prevent the Divine light of Jesus shining in it, as long as we are not puffed up by pride, vanity, conceit and a boastful showing off, and we do not strive towards the unattainable and are not therefore deprived of Christ's help. For Christ, being the image of humility, hates all those things. (Hesychius of Jerusalem, Philokalia)²²

Ceaseless prayer keeps the air of the heart pure. But what is the "air of the heart?" Another section in the "Philokalia" makes this clear. Here a lesson from Nicephorus:

You know, brother, how we breathe : we breathe the air in and out. On this is based the life of the body and on this depends its warmth. So, sitting down in your cell, collect your mind, lead it into the path of the breath along which the air enters in. Constrain it to enter the heart together with the inhaled air, and keep it there. Keep it there, but do not leave it silent and idle; instead give it the following prayer: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me." Let this be its constant occupation, never to be abandoned. For this work, by keeping the mind free from dreaming, renders it unassailable to suggestions of the enemy and leads it to Divine desire and love. (Callistus & Ignatius, Philokalia)²³

Focus on breathing and lead the mind into the heart, ceaselessly keeping it busy with prayer to the Lord.

You must descend with your mind into your heart. At present your thoughts of God are in your head. And God Himself is, as it were, outside you, and so your prayer and other spiritual exercises remain exterior. Whilst you are still in your head, thoughts will…always be whirling about like snow in winter, or clouds of mosquitoes in the summer…. All our inner disorder is due to the dislocation of our powers, the mind and the heart each going its own way. The mind must come to an initial concord with the heart, growing eventually into a union of the mind with the heart. (St. Theophan)²⁴

The Coptic Connection

Although the Byzantine monastic traditions of hesychasm can be traced back to the Coptic desert fathers of very early Christianity in Egypt, the ascetic practice of sitting in silence was never part of Coptic tradition and has also not been adapted at later times. Repeating the Jesus Prayer and other short "arrow prayers" was already a developed technique in monastic circles. Another central feature of prayer in the Coptic Church is that the body is continuously involved in various actions during prayer to counter the dualistic separation of the praying soul and body. Besides simply praying while working and being engaged in other common human duties, also more formalized prayer techniques involving the body are essential in Coptic worship. Both mind and body participate in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ.

Standing facing the East is the most frequent prayer position. The person praying usually holds his or her hands outwards in the ‘orans‘ position, which is a common Christian position of prayer, frequently portrayed in ancient Christian art, including in Coptic iconography. [...] The second main position is bowing, of which there are two kinds: a quick bow, and a profound bow. [...] Two sorts of prostration, too, can be observed: one frequent, and the second reserved for adoration. In the frequent kind of prostration, the person begins by crossing himself. The person then holds both fists at a ninety degree angle to the body. Both thumbs are on the top of the fists, making the impression of the cross itself on the hands. The person then prostrates by kneeling down, and then moves the head down to touch the ground, while the knuckles and both thumbs touch the ground. [...] The second kind of prostration is liturgical and the person does not rise up immediately. This prostration is one of adoration. [...] In this way, standing, bowing, and prostrating for prayer transform the body into a medium to express the Lordship of Jesus²⁵.

Other unique aspects of Coptic orthodoxy are the preservation of their late pharaonic Demotic dialect as liturgic language and direct adaptation of ancient Egyptian ritual practices into a Christian framework that has been passed on until today. According to the Alexandrian philosopher Philo (1st century AD), the early Christians had borrowed Ancient Egyptian music and styles of chanting into their practice. Echoing the supplications of the ancients Copts still chant seasonal prayers asking God to bless the annual flood.

The Egyptian musicologist Ragheb Moftah worked to preserve, document and record the ancient ritual and liturgy of the Coptic (Egyptian) Orthodox Church. He said:

It should be remembered that the Copts are the direct descendants of the Ancient Egyptians, who possessed a very ancient musical tradition, and from early times worshipped their gods with hymns and music and elaborate rites. [...] Demetrius of Phaleron, the librarian of the Library of Alexandria in 297 B.C., reports that the priests of Egypt used to praise their gods through the seven Greek vowels which they used to sing one after the other; and, in place of the flute or the harp, the utterance of these vowels produced a very agreeable sound. The music of many of the Coptic hymns is still entirely chanted on the one or other of these seven vowels. The text of certain long chants may consist of only one verse, or merely a single word like Alleluia.²⁶

Here is a quote by a Belgian composer and music critic describing the characteristic Coptic vocal extensions, repetitions of vowels and syllables and improvised embellishments:

We could provide many examples of it, but one will suffice; we take it from a Hymniary of the churches of the Orient. Here it is: Aga a a a a a aaté é é é é mara ky y y ri i i i i ou. The musical phrase placed on these words is very long: these repetitions of a a a a a, é é é é, y y i i i, which require for each one an articulation of the throat, produce a ridiculous effect. The Copts exaggerate this kind of monstrosity not only by repeating the vowels, but by repeating the first and second syllable of the word several times, and by starting this word again without having finished it, until at last they end it. It is in this way that they lengthen their chants to the excess: a few words are enough for their interminable sequences of sounds, and one can grasp the meaning only with extreme difficulty.²⁷

Here is a video example of the the Good Friday hymn 'Πεκ'θρονος' which is Coptic for 'Your Throne.' Its words are taken directly from Psalm 45:6: “Your Throne O God, is forever and ever.” In Coptic, this translates into a mere eight words (including a final "Alleluia"); and yet in most churches, the hymn takes more than twenty minutes to chant³. The hymn’s length is a result of way it hangs on each and every vowel. the music of the hymn was chanted by the Ancient Egyptians to express their grief for the dead separating from them, which is evident in the first half of the hymn. With this music also, they rejoiced that the deceased had bordered the Sun-Ship that would take the soul to the god Ra to grant it eternal life. The joyous music is evident in the second half of the hymn⁴.

Imam Tehuti

Let's take a brief look at Islamic mysticism. There is a controversy about the question whether 'Sufism' is a purely Islamic tradition or has been influenced by Christian monastic practices. The latter is quite likely⁵, but the influences might actually even be older.

A Sufi practice that seems very similar to hesychast prayer is that of Dhikr or Zikr (ذِكْر "reminding oneself"), devotional acts, in which short phrases or a variation on the name of god are repeatedly recited silently or aloud. Analysing the similarities and differences of Orthodox Hesychasm and Sufi Dhikr practices scholar Samira Awad Melki concludes:

The basic character of Hesychasm, like the basic identity of Sufism, points to the same way, is hindered by the same obstacles, and leads to the same intentions, regardless of the dogmatic differences. [...] The practice of the Jesus Prayer in Orthodox Christianity and Dhikr in Islam, as two methods of prayer that bring people closer to God, are similar in the method and means and they developed in mutual influence. Much of the language among the Hesychasts as among the Sufis is similar due to the contact between the two groups, and because of the similarity in the religious experience lived bv the Hesychasts and the Sufis.²⁸

An influencial early (9th century) master of Sufism was the Persian Muslim scholar Sahl al-Tustari (سهل شوشتری) who provided an important theoretical foundation for the Sufi exercise of Dhikr. Tustari himself was heavily influenced by ideas of the Sufi saint Dhū'l-Nūn Abū l-Fayḍ al-Miṣrī (ذو النون المصري) who is considered as the originator of the aspects of Sufi discourse concerning sainthood (awliyāʾ), spiritual states (aḥwāl) and the various stages a Sufi's soul must attain in its search for God (maqāmāt).⁶⁷ Al-Miṣrī was born in Upper Egypt in 796 and is said to have made some study of the scholastic disciplines of alchemy, medicine, Greek philosophy and the Kemetic hieroglyphs. It can be assumed that Al-Miṣrī was quite knowledgeable of Hermetic philosophy and older Kemetic traditions which he weaved into the early philosophies of Islamic Sufism.⁷

An especially powerful form of Dhikr is the Hadra (حضرة "presence"), an ecstatic group ritual that involves repetitive chanting and sometimes drumming, music and dance. Like Coptic practices the Hadra is a very embodied form of prayer. It is not practiced among all Sufi orders, but especially popular in North Africa, the Middle-East and Turkey.

It is said by the Sufis that at the beginning of the hadra, we do the dhikr, but in the second part Allah Himself does it and we are spiritually taken over—we are no more, we have been annihilated in Allah. Afterward, in the calm that follows such a vibrant storm, someone recites the Qur’an in the most gorgeously melodic way, which is like cool water from a mountain spring poured over us to flow throughout our limbs and consciousness. A person of some wisdom and experience (everyone usually knows who this is in any gathering) then gives a teaching, again not a scholarly discourse, but one that seems to have come on the wind, from the heart of the speaker as well as from all those present, filled with the wisdom of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his almost palpable presence among us, and all the teachers over the centuries that have proceeded from him.²⁹

Here is an entrancing video of such a performance:

Decolonizing Sophia

We can safely summarize that the methods of chanting or cycling vowels or words of power were paramount in all three, the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mystical traditions of contemplative practices and likely influenced by earlier ones. The technical goal of all of the discussed methods was to descend one's mind into the heart.

Although the different techniques of attaining that goal were mostly developed much later, their underlying philosophies are entirely in line with ancient Kemetic concepts of the heart:

It was regarded as the spiritual centre of a person, the place where a person would come closest to his or her ka. [...] For, as the organ in the body most associated with the spiritual self, the heart was essentially pure. It was therefore considered necessary to protect the heart from corrupting influences or tendencies. We thus find admonitions to “conceal” or to “seal” the heart. This idea of the essential purity of the heart is linked to that of the heart as the source of a person’s being. [...] The heart, then, was a part of oneself that ultimately could not be identified with any of the desires, decisions, or actions that were out of tune with maat. The heart was the incorruptible core of a person, and thus detached enough from all that was mundane in them to stand as witness against them. [...] Horus ["mind"], to the ancient Egyptians, was the earthly image of Ra: the radiant source of light physically embodied. And the place where Horus came to reside in the initiate’s psychophysical organism was the heart.³⁰

Spell 30B from the Ancient Kemetic Book of the Dead is a petition to one's own heart:

My heart of my mother, my heart of my mother, my breast of my being, stand not against me as witness, oppose me not in the Council. Outweigh me not before the keeper of the balance. Thou art my spirit that is in my body, Khnum who makes sound my limbs. When thou goest forth to the goodly place prepared for us yonder, make not our name to stink to the courtiers who create mankind in (his) place, that it may be well for us and well for the Hearer and that the judge may be glad. Think not up lies (against me) beside the God in the presence of the great God the lord of the west. Behold, thy distinction as a triumphant one is (involved).³¹

Many of the theological concepts of the three Abrahamic religions seem to be deeply influenced by syncretic Hermetic and even Kemetic ideas. Sometimes the similarities are quite striking. For example the congruity of the Hermetic principle "as above, so below" with Sufi doctrine described by Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad aṣ-Ṣādiq (جَعْفَر ٱبْن مُحَمَّد ٱلصَّادِق):

Man is the microcosm, creation the macrocosm — the unity. All comes from One. By the joining of the power of contemplation all can be attained. This essence must be separated from the body first, then combined with the body. This is the Work. Start with yourself, end with all. Before man, beyond man, transformation.³²

But aside from the influences and similarities and prevalent romantization of alleged "Egyptian roots" of the Western mystical traditions I think it is essential to acknowledge that the Kemetic culture was actually quite alien to the cultures that have colonized Kemet and appropriated their wisdom. I don't mean mere cultural differences, but a radically different epistemology. Generally speaking Kemet was fundamentally Afrikan and it's citizens "worlded" with an Afrikan mindset. So did (and do) the Christianized and later Islamized communities that emerged out of the ancient empire's ruins.

Afrikan studies scholar Vernon J. Dixon termed the epistemology "affect-symbolic imagery" as opposed to the "object-measure cognition" prevalent in European cultures:

Affect refers to the feeling self, the emotive self engaged in experiencing phenomena holistically; in other words, putting one’s self into the experience and not separating one’s self from the totality of the phenomena. Symbolic imagery is the use of phenomena (words, gestures, tones, rhythms, objects, etc.) to convey meaning. In other words, one takes a single phenomenon and formulates alternative ways to conceptualize that phenomenon. As people engage themselves (mentally, physically, and emotionally) into the experience of symbolic imagery, they are personalizing their way of expressing meaning.

In contrast, the epistemological perspective from a Eurocentric cultural orientation is object-measure cognition. That is, European/European Americans know phenomena through counting and measuring. If a phenomenon cannot be counted and measured, then the phenomenon does not exist. The separation of self from the phenomenal world is the method of cognition that enables one to know reality. In sum, the phenomenon must be physically observable, tangible, and manipulable for one to know and experience it. ³³

Kemetic people were much more immersed in a holistically magical perception of reality than the more "left-brained" European and Middle Eastern colonizers. As Schwaller-de-Lubicz has pointed out⁸, they worlded with a suprarational mindset he called "symbolic" in contrast to the European "mentality of complexity."

Every action, no matter how mundane, was in some sense a cosmic corresponding act: plowing, sowing, reaping, brewing, playing games—all were viewed as earthly symbols for divine activities. [...] In Egypt, what we now call religion was so widely acknowledged that it did not even need a name because it is life itself, in all its aspects.³⁴

The endeavour of Hermetic philosophy is a perfect example of an attempt to translate an incompatible Kemetic epistemology into a recognizable way to the Hellenized mentality by systematizing moral teachings.

there are some differences between the Egyptian instructions and philosophical Hermetica. Egyptian wisdom is ethical, social and engaged with current life here and now. The Hermetica are individualistic, theological, reflective and invoke the inner, mystical initiation during life on Earth. They also show an influence from Dionysian and Orphic traditions. Moreover, Hermetism is ascetical and rejects matter and the world.³⁵

In a Hellenized and later Romanized Kemetic society the need for getting oneself into the right mindset for religious or magical practice probably became more and more important as the foreign mindset of "object-measure cognition" became more prevalent. The Helleno-Kemetic sages seemed very aware of the clash of their worldviews and still persisted in trying to find a common ground by not even attempting to translate magical or philosophical concepts from one into the other but entangling or superimposing them. One of these way was probably the use of barbarous words.

Here is a quote by Iamblichus :

For, since the gods have shown that the entire dialect of the sacred peoples such as the Assyrians and the Egyptians is appropriate for religious ceremonies, for this reason we must understand that our communication with the gods should be in an appropriate tongue. Also, such a mode of speech is the ﬁrst and the most ancient. But most importantly, since those who learned the very ﬁrst names of the gods merged them with their own familiar tongue and delivered them to us, as being proper and adapted to these things, forever we preserve here the unshakeable law of tradition.³⁶ (De Mysteriis VII, 4)

The excessive use of "barbarous names" and vowel strings in Helleno-Kemetic magical and theurgical practice almost seems to have been a technique of trying to shift the Hellenized mind to a more "symbolic" perspective, but also an attempt of the Kemetic priests to prevent their sacred language and it's inherent magical powers to be lost.

The Egyptian perception of the superiority of their language is a premise of their magical thought. [...] Translation of original texts was taboo. It was a way to corrupt their true meaning, and by replacing the original Egyptian sound, the effect of the magic would be lost. Translating a sacred text could also mean giving the enemy the efficacy of the ritual word, since the word was not a mere expression but also an act. [...] Egyptian thought had no formal separation between mental and magical operations. Therefore, by talking about the power of the sounds made by Egyptian words, the subject of this criticism is not the Greek language as a symbol of Greek/foreign culture. What is in debate here is the magic and creative power of what one expresses by words versus philosophy. Philosophy was not able to produce any kind of transcendental effect as it was restricted to the use of words for the intellectual interpretation of the meanings and context of what has been written. [...] The major problem in translating Egyptian thought into Greek words is the Greek separation of reason and emotion as two distinct and even antagonist categories.³⁵

To conclude this section, here is a quote illustrating the fated and difficult relationship between the Hellenes who had colonized the land of Kemet centuries after the Kemets had colonized the minds of the Hellenes:

the Egyptians were the first people to establish solemn assemblies, and processions, and services; the Greeks learnt all this from them. I hold this proved, because the Egyptian ceremonies are manifestly very ancient, and the Greek are of late origin³⁷. [...] Further, the Egyptians said they first used the appellations of twelve gods which the Greeks afterwards borrowed from them; and it was they who first assigned to the several gods their altars and images and temples, and first carved figures on stone. (Herodotus, Histories. Book II)³⁸

Weaving the Threads Together

Let's summarize the findings from all the rabbit holes we dove into in the sections above and use the insights for attempting to recover a Helleno-Kemetic system of concentration:

In Western systems of meditation the heart aspect predominates, and the mind's subordination follows.
Reconstructed Jewish techniques centered around syllable mantras that lead to states of "gnosis" and their focus on vowels matches Kemetic esoteric ideas.
Byzantine Hesychasm teaches us the descent into the heart through ceaseless repetitions of mindful prayer. The Eastern Orthodox concept of the heart is very much in line with ancient Kemetic beliefs.
Coptic practices show us ways to counter the dualistic separation of the praying soul and body by rejecting ascetism and embracing a more embodied form of prayer akin to older Kemetic temple traditions. Their chants also show quite probable prayer techniques of more ancient Kemetic origins.
Islamic Sufi practices show many overlaps to Christian techniques and in combination with musical elements also turn it into ecstatic group rituals. Earliest Sufi masters were influenced by Hermetic and Kemetic ideas.
There seem to be fundamentally different epistemologies between Afrikan and European peoples and their encounters and interactions with the divine that are reflected in the different practices.

As Within, So Without

The sensual experiences of actually performing spells from the Anastasi Handbooks raise the question to what extend the purpose of the voces magicae was evoking "external" powers or an "internal" meditative one to focus or entrance the mind - probably both ("as above, so below"). Aside of manifesting magical will in the shape of spells by means of one's voice out into the universe, vibrating barbarous names seems to noticeably open one's gates to an influx of daimōnic powers into the soul.

Putting Helleno-Kemetic spells into praxis, soon one is confronted with the question of how exactly to "vibrate" the barbarous words and vowel sequences. Simply reading them out loud feels a bit awkward at first, but when you start to "chant" them, they start to unfold quite some power - especially the vowels. Closing one's eyes while doing so reveals that the vowel sounds resonate in parts of the body and the sensations range from soothing and calming to entrancing. The seemingly nonsensical nature of the utterances really intensify the sense of a shift from the mundane human world to a more blurry, enchanted, daimōnic reality in which the building-blocks of the universe dissolve into warped fields of vibration and volatility.

Trance can be described as the deconstruction of ordinary perception as well as the habitus of quotidian interactional patterns and customary organization of time, all in order to empower the subject to experience the accustomed life-world in a more vital manner. In more political terms, [...] the ordinary frames of reference can be read as semihypnotic interpolation of social beliefs. In other words, we are speaking of a kind of power struggle between two forms of trance contesting the field of individual consciousness. [...] merging the horizons of religious theory, anthropology, hypnotic theory, and microsociology can provide a flexible yet clear working definition of shamanic experience: movement beyond habitual frames of reference, as a transformative process, culminating in return to these frames in pursuit of revitalization.³⁹

Here is a quote of a blog article by fellow mage Pentamegistos about his own practice of repeating vowel sequences in a mantra-like fashion:

Not only do they impel the mind to transcend any lust of result, they draw the attention of the force invoked, or perhaps, to echo Iamblichus, they elevate our souls such that they mirror the those very powers, allowing for direct communication or even systasis therewith. [...] Now, it goes without saying that mantric vibration is but one component of successful magic, but a cardinal one nonetheless. [...] I can provide countless examples of how this approach has transformed my magical life. The first time I achieved direct communication with a Deity was after vibrating its name continuously for over an hour, after which the veil finally opened so to speak.⁴⁰

Even more perceptible power can be added by intoning simple melodies on the vowel strings. There are various musical theories out there assigning each vowel a certain pitch. Joscelyn Godwin⁹ went into much depth of research and experimentation about the musical mysteries of the vowels, but concluded:

It is certainly an attractive idea, that the vowel-sequences encode a secret song. But if this is so, then it must be said that the Greeks nowhere else chose to notate their music in this clever and convenient way; and that even if this was an exception, it is very unlikely that any modern readings agree with ancient practice.⁹

Instead of the quite technical activity of matching pitches with vowels I found it much more aestetically pleasing and much more practical in a ritual context to improvise a melody. It works especially well with the type of melodies used in Coptic monastic chanting. It feels quite powerful. Let's return to "Holy Daimon" where Frater Acher talks about this forgotten power of singing as a magical practice:

Singing a statement of magical intent can grow to become one of the most powerful and immediate forms of magic open to us. Spirits love (or depending on the song and their nature, fear) listening to the voice of humans. The human voice, if used well, is capable of creating all-vibrating rays of power that can stir, sublimate, or separate spirit and substance. And most importantly, the physical human voice is something entirely out of the reach of spirits. The spoken word is the sword blade of the magician. It forms the bridge between the realm of the spirits and the realm of matter. It is itself a hybrid power, half born from flesh, half born from spirit. Singing—making our voice carry particular melodies and vibrations that express intent not only in the words spoken but also in the meaning of the melody—is a force not many beings or objects in creation can resist.¹⁶

Baboon Beatitude

While it is common magical practice to "vibrate" voces magicae monotonously or chant them in a liturgical sense, in some cases the Anastasi Handbooks are very explicit about the way the magical language is supposed to be uttered. This involves imitating sounds of animals, most prominently falcons or baboons.

In PGM IV, 1002-1006 after a vowel sequence "α εε ηηη ιιιι οοοοο υυυυυυ ωωωωωωω" the scribe noted "speak as a baboon," PGM V. 1-53 says to pronounce the letter Eta "like a baboon," in PGM XIII. 1-343 the name "Abrasax" is described as "baboonic" because his "name is hidden and unspeakable, it cannot be uttered by a human mouth." The same text also says "he who appears on the boat rising together with you is a clever baboon; he greets you in his own language."

The baboon on the boat is of course Tehuti (Thoth) the Kemetic Hermes, scribe of Phre, and most importantly demiurge who created the world from utterance. In "Philebus" Plato goes into detail about this role:

Some god or divine man, who in the Egyptian legend is said to have been Theuth, observing that the human voice was infinite, first distinguished in this infinity a certain number of vowels, and then other letters which had sound, but were not pure vowels; [...]; and observing that none of us could learn any one of them and not learn them all, and in consideration of this common bond which in a manner united them, he assigned to them all a single art, and this he called the art of grammar or letters.⁴¹

In a Ptolemaic liturgical funerary papyrus¹⁰ Tehuti explains himself:

I am Tehuti and I speak to you in the language of Phrē anew, for it was spoken to you even before my words were heard.

I am Tehuti, lord of divine speech, He who sets things in their proper place.

I render divine offerings to the Gods, invocation offerings to the Akhu.

I am Tehuti, He who grants Ma'at to the Ennead and all that comes from my mouth is made manifest, just as what issues from the mouth of Phrē.

I am he whom none can expel from heaven or earth, for I know what is hidden in the heavens, what is inaccessible on earth, hidden in the Nun.

I am the creator of heaven, I am he who formed the mountains, I am he who creates the stream by means of thought, who creates the arms of the river, and when I bring forth the flood, I fertilize the fields, giving life unto Gods and men. Hearken O Gods! Hear my words which are the words of Phrē himself.

Besides the role of manifestations of Tehuti, baboons were highly respected in Kemet. The grunting sounds of baboons sound very similar to human vowel sounds, as even scholars of acoustics have demonstrated¹¹. The shouting of vowels in combination with what appear as singing and dancing with raised forepaws, especially upon sunrise put them in high regard as "ideal and true performers of religion. A human being, even the pharaoh, was at best only an imitator of baboons".¹²

The vowel language of the baboons was considered secret and sacred and the original primordial language, so it makes sense to imitate their utterances as as closely as possible for magical efficacy. In the next sections let's take a closer look to the secret meaning of the "shudderful names" uttered in this original language.

Coefficient of Weirdness

I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name

I am the sign of writing and disclosure of difference⁴²

In "Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie", Franz Dornseiff pinpoints the beginning of the use of vowel variations to the end of the 19th Kemetic dynasty (around 1150 B.C.)¹³. He concludes that a probable reason for the vowel combinations was the magical practice of seeking a deity's "real name" beyond their given name that ususally does not come close to their true essence in a limited human alphabet and language¹⁴.

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 14:2)

Dornseiff also notes that one should not forget that not all magicians were pious idealists, some also made up gibberish on the fly, because they had paying customers¹⁴. While I agree with the notion that practicing magicians who served paying customers probably did add some more than necessary trickery and pomp to their public displays of magic, I don't think they took the effort of noting down long vowel sequences of spontaneously made up gibberish while at the same time noting a mere "do the usual" all over their handbooks. No, it seems more probable that the vowel sequences we can find in the PGM have an underlying logic to them.

Before discussing ideas for a possible logic of the vowel strings it is important to note that even if they would be "mere gibberish" the "nonsense" in their literal wording has potential to carry magical force especially through its weird daimōnic alien-ness. The language of man being twisted and distorted until the borders to the "other" dissolve:

But that written word is an alphabetical fantasia, and it is precisely here that magical language preserves the Platonic conundrum that living language, which cannot be captured by writing, is itself a kind of writing! By writing the name of God, the ultimate form of living discourse, in jumbles of letters that do not make sense, these texts show that it is really ordinary writing that is scrambled and confused, a mere imitation of another kind of inscription. Magical writing takes the form of ordinary writing by using its letters and so is faithful to it, but it betrays that writing by its nonsensical use of those letters and is thus faithful to the writing that is an invisible inscription on the soul. Yet it betrays the invisible inscription as well by writing it in actual letters! Magical language is thus thoroughly paradoxical, betraying and safeguarding with every vowel. It carries forward the Platonic sensibility in a radical way.⁴³

The anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski coined the term "coefficient of weirdness" to describe the "nonsense" in magical language. Although he used it for his own research on the magic of the Trobriand islands of Papua-New Guinee, his insights have an immense value also for our area of enquiry:

A spell is believed to be a primeval text which somehow came into being side by side with animals and plants, with winds and waves, with human disease, human courage and human frailty. Why should such words be as the words of common speech? They are not uttered to carry ordinary information from man to man, or to give advice or an order. The natives might naturally expect all such words to be very mysterious and far removed from ordinary speech. And so they are to a large extent, but by no means completely. [... A] great deal of the vocabulary of magic, its grammar and its prosody, falls into line with the deeply ingrained belief that magical speech must be cast in another mould, because it is derived from other sources and produces different effects from ordinary speech [...] [A]ll magical verbiage shows a very considerable coefficient of weirdness, strangeness and unusualness. [...] The wording of magic is correlated with a very complicated dogmatic system, with theories about the primeval mystical power of words, about mythological influences, about the faint co-operation of ancestral spirits, and, much more important, about the sympathetic influence of animals, plants, natural forces and objects. [...] Since meaning is function within the context of situation and the situation of magic is different from that of everyday life, we might prima facie expect to find a magical language corresponding to this difference. Add to this the native belief that magic is prehuman in origin, that it existed underground before it emerged with the first ancestors and we should not be surprised if the magical formulae were composed of mere gibberish or nonsense words, concatenated according to a grammar of their own. If a word is believed to be effective, that is, to have a magical meaning, because it has had a different origin, a different history and a different place in language, then obviously its unusual, quaint character is well correlated with this belief. The mysterious and sacred words which are supposed to have a direct hold over reality need not conform to the rules of the grammar and word formations of ordinary speech.⁴⁴

Various authors of late antiquity argued that normal human language was not appropriate in addressing higher beings or gods:

Homer already knew that there was a specific language of the gods, and despite centuries of human prayer in normal human language, the idea of a special divine language never completely disappeared from human imagination. In later antiquity it was believed that demons or gods understood the sounds of the voces magicae, even if the human producers did not. In other words, now these terms did serve communication but a communication that could only be understood by one of the two partners in the communication.⁴⁵

In a similar fashion Iamblichus gave this statement:

It is essential, therefore, to remove all considerations of logic from the names of the gods, and to set aside the natural representations of the spoken word to the physical things that exist in nature. Thus, the symbolic character of divine similitude, which is intellectual and divine, has to be assumed in the names. And indeed, if it is unknowable to us, this very fact is its most sacred aspect: for it is too excellent to be divided into knowledge.³⁶

Sonorous Sigils

In contrast let's look at some hypotheses about the vowel strings actually representing encoded meaning or intent: In some spells of the PGM we find powerful voces magicae with a notation of the amount of letters they are composed of and at the end of the spell a vowel sequence with a matching amount of letters. For example in the "Stele That Is Useful for All Things" (PGM IV. 1167-1226) of the "Great Magical Papyrus of Paris":

I invoke your hundred-lettered name which extends from the sky to the depth of the earth; save me, for you are always ever rejoicing in saving those who are yours, αθηζε φωι ααα δαιαγθι θηοβις φιαθ θαμβραμι αβραωθ χθολχιλ θοε οελχωθ θιοωημχ χοομχ σαησι ισαχχοη ιερουθρα οοοοο αιωαι (100 letters). (PGM IV. 1210ff)

and further down we find:

ιαω αιη ιωη ωιη ωιη ιη αιωαι αι ουω αωη ηει ιεω ηυω αηι αω αωα αεηι υω ειη αηω ιευ αεη ιαια ιαω ευ αευ ιαη ει ααα ιιι ηηη ιω ιωη ιαω (100 letters), for a blessing (PGM IV. 1222ff)

In the "Eighth Book of Moses" we find multiple references to a great name:

So your name is great and marvellous. I am βιαθιαρ βαρβερβι σχιλατουρ βουφρουντωρμ (36 letters) (PGM XIII. 520ff)

and here too we find a vowel-heavy phrase at the end of the spell:

say to the earth once and to the moon once, to water once and to sky once ωαωη ωω εοηιαω ιιι ααω θη θου θη ααθω αθηρουω (36 letters) (PGM XIII. 644ff)

The vowel sequences seem to explicitly correspond to the barbarous names, like daimōnic synonyms with a higher "coefficient of weirdness", spoken in a more exalted and primordial language of the gods. While the syntax is interchangeable, their meaning remains intact because the number of letters match up.

Another even more powerful method of such magical correspondence was the use of Greek "isopsephy" or "gematria": adding the numerical values of the characters of a string of text and encoding meaning through the numerical total. Words become magically entangled with each other when two or more words have an equal numerical value.

The Anastasi Handbooks are filled with barbarous names whose power derives partially from their numerical total. The most famous example is the name "Abrasax" whom the Kemetic priests identified with their great sun god Phrē. Here is a quote by Saint Jerome about this correspondence:

Basilides called the omnipotent God by the more fantastic name Abrasax (Αβρασαξ), and that name he said contains, according to the Greek letters, the number of the course of the year in the circuit of the sun. The pagans under the same number by other letters call him "Meithras" (Μειθρασ) (In Amos 1.3.9-10)⁴⁶.

In a footnote of the "Stele of Jeu" (PGM V. 96-172) we find reference to "the great name" that totals to 9999: χαβραχ φνεσχηρ φιχρο φνυρω φωχω βωχ and a noted vowel sequence of the same value (αιη αιωι ηωιαη αη ιω ωη αιηουευωαι εαι υο ιαω ιωη οαυ αεη υωυω). Additional magical meaning is added by making it 49 letters long, the square root of 7, the number of the divine vowels and of course the planets.

The Anastasi Handbooks contain enough hints pointing to an underlying logic behind the vowel sequences therein. They do not only make up a secret divine language in which the mage can call a daimōnic entity or deity more directly. Magical intent can also be possibly encoded into vowels by means of gematria or a matching number of letters.

This methodology lends itself to encoding magical intent in vowel sequences by means of number-matching and isopsephy, but also could be utilized analog to the famous sigil technique by Austin Osman Spare in which magical intent is encoded in a symbol:

Enshrine your desire in a short sentence; write out the sentence and then put down all the individual letters of which it is composed, omitting any repetition of a letter. When the sentence has been reduced to a minimum number of letters, unite them graphically in one composite glyph which does not suggest the nature of the desire. Then—and this is of great importance—forget the desire and sink the sigil in the subconsciousness.⁴⁷

Grant Morrison popularized a variation of Spare's method where all the vowels are removed before the omission of duplicate characters to just leave a string of consonants as a base for the sigil construction.

By reversing this very method, omitting all consonants and preserving the redundancy of all remaining characters you end up with a string of vowels suitable for being chanted as a kind of sonorous sigil.

Although it is not the same technique, chanting a sigil is loosely related to the method of "Mantric Sigils" described in works of Chaos Magic, especially in Frater V∴D∴'s "High Magic: Theory & Practice."¹⁵ Using the Greek alphabet with this method results in exactly the kind of vowel sequences we find so abundantly in the PGM and other magical texts of the Helleno-Kemetic era.

In Helios Unbound Nick Farrell also supports a similar idea about the nature of vowel sequences:

I suspect that the use of vowels by themselves in the Greek Magical Papyri and other magical texts might represent [a] form of magical reduction to create a chant of power. They could represent divine names or phrases that have been boiled down to their vowel essence to create a more potent magical effect.⁴⁸

Praxis

Drawing from all of the theoretical conclusions of all the sections above, here is my attempt of a reconstructed system of Helleno-Kemetic techniques of contemplation:

Creation of Sacred Space

based on PGM XIII. 822-834

Find a calm place where you feel undisturbed
Optionally put on a phylactery
Make it into a temporary sacred space by circumambulating it four times counterclockwise, saying "Hekas, hekas este bebeloi" while fumigating appropriate incense and/or sprinkling some natron
Enter the circle from the East, walk to the center, turn around facing East
Looking to the East, stretching out your right and left hand to the left, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "A"
Turn and face North, while you turn, putting forward only your right fist, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "E"
Turn and face West, extending both hands in front of you, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "Ē"
Turn and face South, holding both hands on your stomach, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "I"
Turn and face East again, bend over to the earth, touching the ends of your toes, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "O"
Slowly come back up, look straight, focus on your center, having your hand on your heart, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "Ü"
Look up into the sky, having both hands on your head, inhale deeply and for a full outbreath vibrate "Ō"

Instead of mechanically switching between the described postures try to do shift between them in one continuous flow of movement: when you are finished vibrating a vowel, try to smoothly transition to the next posture while turning. Try to let yourself be guided by the rhythm of your breath. (If you practice any form of Tai Chi you know what I mean.)

Grounding

Close your eyes, keep both feet shoulder-width apart and more or less parallel. Keep knees slightly bent and unlocked and try an overall completely relaxed and loose posture while keeping your spine erect. Hands should remain completely relaxed, with fingers slightly curled and palms hollowed. Keep your eyes half-open and unfocused. Breathe calmly.
Visualize yourself radiating peace and harmony into the sacred space around you.
Stay like this for a few minutes until you feel grounded and protected and ready to begin.

I prefer standing while praying, hence the grounding in an upright position. If you have problems standing or prefer to sit instead, you may of course do so. It also works sitting down.

Basic Chanting

Take the "orans" position: raise your hands up and outwards, palms facing up but relaxed, keep the elbows close to the sides of the body.
Breathe slowly, but naturally, without forcing a rhythm.
Collect your mind and observe your thoughts.
With every following inbreath lead your mind into the path of the breath along which the air entering in.
With every following outbreath vibrate the words through your whole body, give each word a full length of exhale.

Variations of Power

Have a sound of around 110Hz playing in the background and try to chant the words in a pitch resonant or in harmony with that sound. Nick Farrell has some sound examples of that techniques on his blog.
Try to sing the words by introducing improvized melodies to your chant, listen to Coptic liturgical chants for inspiration.
Try to make out a rhythm in your chant and start to slightly rock your spine.
Experiment with prostrating. When chanting IAO as an adoration for example, vibrate "I" standing up, then go down on your knees with the next inbreath and then vibrate "A", with the next inbreath bow down until your head touches the ground and vibrate "Ō". With the next inbreath raise your head back up, exhale, with the next inbreath get back up to your feet, exhale, inhale and start over.
Experiment with walking or turning in a counterclockwise circle while chanting. This works especially well with voces magicae that are palindromes.
Repeat the word over and over until it warms your heart. 100 times is better than 10 times.
Try the variant for uttering vowel strings is by imitating the grunting of baboons.

Words of Power

If your goal is a meditation to raise your magical mojo while purifying and descending your mind into your heart, here are some suggestions of mantras to chant using the methods described above.

Besides the Jesus Prayer also many other verses from the Bible could be used for contemplation and have also been popular as spells in magical workings and talismans. In the spells of the Anastasi Handbooks several such examples can also be found. Not only from the Bible but also Kemetic phrases of power or verse from Greek sacred texts. In his forthcoming work "Helios Unbound" Nick Farrell writes:

Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad were not just treated as beautifully written poems but sacred texts which explained how the universe worked. [...] The very sentences were holy and could be taken out of context and used to make a point, in the same way that Bible verses were. [...] Through-out the ancient world, we see these verses from the Iliad or [Odyssey] used for divination or the basis of spells. This use of Homeric verses pre-dates and suggests many of the same uses that modern magicians find for Psalms and Bible verses.⁴⁹

Here are some suggestions of powerful "grammata" for chanting

IAŌ
AEĒIOYO
Abrasax⁵⁰
Achebukrōm⁵¹
Bainchōōōch⁵²
Ablanathanalba⁵³
Aōth Abaōth Basym Isak Sabaōth⁵⁴
Biathiar Barberbi Skhilatour Bouphrountōrm⁵⁵
Aski kataski aasian endasian⁵⁶
Askion kataskion lix tetrax damnameneus aision⁵⁶

Here are the most used Christian Orthodox "arrow prayers":

Iesou⁵⁷
Amen
Maranatha⁵⁸
Kyrie eleison⁵⁹
Christe eleison⁶⁰
Kyrie Iesou Christe, Yie tou Theou, Eleison me ton/tin amartolon.⁶¹
Epshois Esos Pikhrestos, emshiri emifnouti, anok pe pi-ref-ernovi.⁶²

Here are some popular phrases used in Sufi Dhikr:

Allāh⁶³
Allāhu ʾakbar⁶⁴
Alhamdulillah⁶⁵
Lā ʾilāha ʾillā llah⁶⁶
Lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata ʾillā bi-llāh⁶⁷

Analog to kabbalistic practice you can also experiment with syllables, combining all consonants of the alphabet with the seven Greek vowels:

Ba, Be, Bē, Bi, Bo, Bu, Bō,
Da, De, Dē, Di, Do, Du, Dō,
Fa, Fe, Fē, Fi, Fo, Fu, Fō,
...

Voces Magicae in Existing Spells

If you encounter barbarous names in spells like the ones found in the Anastasi Handbooks, or Coptic or Gnostic papyri, try to analyze the context they are used in.

If they are supposed to be secret names of gods within a longer recitation and the text gives no explicit hint about a melody or any way of speaking them, then the default way of vibrating them monotonously or with simple melodic embellishments is probably the way to go.
If they are listed at the end of a spell and/or are numerically or gematrically connected to some other barbarous words within that spell, they might have a more meditative or ecstatic function and should probably be intoned in a more powerful way than the rest of the spell. Try adding elements of embodiment, movement or singing to them and remain in a quiet and receptive state after you are finished reciting them.
If they are vowel strings, usually in company of other barbarous names, instead of merely vibrating, try to grunt them in a nonhuman baboonic way. It's a lot of fun and very powerful.

In future articles on Helleno-Kemetic Magic in which I will cite spells I will add my own interpretations for ways of reciting the barbarous names and vowel strings therein.

Barbarous Spellcrafting

If you want to create your own Helleno-Kemetic spells or rituals, here are some easy guidelines to make them powerful:

try to find barbarous names in the PGM that suit the deities or spirits you are planning to involve in your working
try to find sacred verses that match your intention or magical goal. Check Bible psalms, Homeric texts, Kemetic spells. Find the original Greek versions. Optionally reduce them to just vowels.
Add vowel strings to the end of the spell, matching them numerically or through gematria to your intent or barbarous names of the deities involved.
Create a sonorous sigil by writing down your magical intent and then crossing out all consonants and use the remaining vowel string as a chant. Optionally translate your intent into Greek first.

The Buddha's Teachings on Not-Self – Anatta – An Introduction. In the Words of Buddha. January 10, 2014. ↩
Sadhu, Mouni. Concentration. Mandala Books, 1959. ↩↩
Kaldas, Samuel. A Coptic Good Friday. First Things. April 6, 2012 ↩
Mikhail, Deacon Albair Gamal, Good Friday. The Heritage of the Coptic Orthodox Church. April 2, 2004 ↩
Nicholson, Raynold A. The Mystics of Islam. Routledge, Kegan Paul, London, 1914 ↩
Ghofrani, Shayesteh. Comparative Analysis of Wilāya in the Formative Period of Shi'ism and Sufism. University of Exeter, 2014. 238 n.1 ↩
Gadalla, Moustafa. Egyptian Mystics: Seekers of the Way. Tehuti Research Foundation, 2003. 25 ↩↩
de Lubicz, R. A. Schwaller. Symbol and the Symbolic: Ancient Egypt, Science, and the Evolution of Consciousness. Aware Journalism, 1981. ↩
Godwin, Joscelyn. The Mystery of the Seven Vowels: in Theory and Practice. Red Wheel/Weiser, 1991. 46 ↩↩
Papyrus New York 35.9.21, col. 28, 9-13 ↩
M.J. Owren et al. The Acoustic Features of Vowel-like Grunt Calls in Chacma Baboons (Papiocyncephalus Ursinus): Implications for Production Processes and Functions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 101, 1997 ↩
H. Te Velde, Some Remarks on the Mysterious Language of Baboons. J.H. Kamstra et al. (eds.). Funerary Symbols and Religion. J.H. Kok. Kampen, 1988. 129-137 ↩
Dornseiff, Franz. Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie. BG Teubner, 1925. 52 ↩
Ibid. 54 ↩↩
Frater U∴D∴. High Magic: Theory & Practice. Llewellyn Publications, 2005. 161ff ↩
Frater Acher. Holy Daimon. Scarlet Imprint, 1980. Part 3, Chapter 3: Why Joy Matters ↩↩
Solomon, Avi. The Heart of Jewish Meditation: Abraham Abulafia’s Path of the Divine Names. 2013. 5-6 ↩
Frankfurter, David. The Magic of Writing and the Writing of Magic: the Power of the Word in Egyptian and Greek traditions." Helios 21.2, 1994. 189-221. ↩
Nicomachus of Gerasa, Harmonicum enchiridion. von Jan. Musici Scriptores Graeci. 276, 8ff. Translation: Stephen Gersh, From Iamblichus to Eriugena, 295. ↩
Kadloubovsky, E. & Palmer, G. E. H. Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart. Faber & Faber, London, 1951. 30 ↩
Ibid. 63 ↩
Ibid. 315 ↩
Ibid. 192 ↩
Coniaris, Anthony. Confronting and Controlling Thoughts: According to the Fathers of the Philokalia. Light & Life Publishing Company, 2004. 18 ↩
Dawood, Bishoy. Stand, Bow, Prostrate: The Prayerful Body of Coptic Christianity. The Clarion Review. December 8, 2013 ↩
Moftah, Laurence, & Croom, Philipp. Ragheb Moftah and Coptic Music. 2007 ↩
Fétis, François-Joseph, Chapitre Septième. Le Chant dans les églises de l'Afrique II. Le chant de l'église copte. - Son caractère. In Histoire générale de la Musique depuis les temps les plus anciens jusqu'a nos jours. Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot Frères, Fils et Cie, 1874, vol. 4, pp. 96-101. Music Division, Library of Congress. ↩
Melki, Samira. The Jesus Prayer and Dhikr: A Potential Contribution to Christian-Muslim Dialogue. In: Papademetriou, George C. Two Traditions, One Space: Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Dialogue. Somerset Hall Press, 2011. 194-199 ↩
Cornell, Vincent J. Voices of Islam: Voices of the spirit. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. 59 ↩
Naydler, Jeremy. Temple of the Cosmos: The ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co, 1996. ↩
Allen, Thomas George. The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization no. 37, 1974. 40 ↩
Shah, Idries. The Sufis. Octagon Press Ltd, 1999. 198 ↩
Moore, T. Owens. Revisited affect-symbolic imagery. Journal of Black psychology 22.4, 1996. 443-452; also see Carroll, Karanja K. Africana Studies and Research Methodology: Revisiting the Centrality of the Afrikan Worldview. Department of Black StudiesState University of New York, 2008 ↩
Gadalla, Moustafa. Egyptian Mystics: Seekers of the Way. Tehuti Research Foundation, 2003. 21 ↩
Gurgel Pereira, Ronaldo Guilherme. The Hermetic Logos: Reading the Corpus Hermeticum as a Reflection of Graeco-Egyptian Mentality. Diss. University of Basel, 2010 ↩↩
Clarke, Emma C., John Dillon, Jackson P. Hershbell (eds. and trans.). Iamblichus: De Mysteriis. Society of Biblical Lit. Atlanta, 2003. 297 ↩↩
Godley, Alfred Denis. Herodotus: with an English translation by AD Godley... in four volumes. William Heinemann, 1920. 279 ↩
Ibid. 345 ↩
Garb, Jonathan. Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah. University of Chicago Press, 2011. 23 ↩
Pentamegistus. Transcending Lust of Result: a Tested Method . October 03, 2018 ↩
Jowett, Benjamin. Plato. Philebus. Oxford University Press, American branch, 1892. ↩
Taussig H., Calaway J., Kotrosits M., Lillie C., Lasser J. (2010) The Thunder: Perfect Mind, Annotated Coptic Text and English Translation. In: The Thunder: Perfect Mind. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. 5 ↩
Miller, Patricia Cox. In Praise of Nonsense. Classical Mediterranean Spirituality, 1986. 490 ↩
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Coral Gardens and Their Magic: A Study of the Methods of Tilling the Soil and of Agricultural Rites in the Trobriand Islands. The language of magic and gardening. II. Psychology Press, 2001. 218 ↩
Mirecki, Paul, et al. Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World. Brill, 2001. 116 ↩
Ferguson, Everett. The Early Church at Work and Worship-Volume 2: Catechesis, Baptism, Eschatology, and Martyrdom. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014. 247 ↩
Grant, Kenneth. Austin Osman Spare: An Introduction to His Psycho-magical Philosophy. Carfax Monographs, Vol. IV, 1961 ↩
Farrell, Nick. Helios Unbound (Limited Edition). Self published on lulu.com. Forthcoming by Immanion Press, 2020 ↩
Farrell, Nick. Helios Unbound (Limited Edition). Self published on lulu.com, 2019. Forthcoming by Immanion Press, 2020; see also: Collins, D. (2008). The Magic of Homeric Verses. Classical Philology, 103(3), 211–236. ↩
sun god of the year, gematria value 365 ↩
secret name of Helios ↩
Egyptian "b3 n kkw" or "Ba of Darkness", an epithet of the primordial god ↩
popular palindrome, from Aramaic, meaning "Thou art our father" (אב לן את) ↩
taken from the Stele of Jeu, from Aramaic, meaning "Host, heavenly host, in the name of Isaac, heavenly host!" ↩
secret name from the 8th Book of Moses (36 letters) ↩
Ancient Greek magical formula ↩↩
Greek for "Jesus" ↩
from Aramaic, "our Lord comes" (מרנא תא) ↩
Greek for "Lord have mercy" ↩
Greek for "Christ have mercy" ↩
The mostly used "Jesus Prayer" in Hesychasm in Greek: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Use "ton" if you are male, "tin" if you are female. ↩
The Jesus Prayer ↩
الله is the Arabic word for God ↩
الله أَكْبَر means "God is greater" or "God is the greatest" ↩
الحمد لله means "All praise is due to God" ↩
لا إله إلا الله means "There is no god but Allah" ↩
لا حول ولاقوة إلا بالله means "There is no power or strength except with God." ↩

Into the Spheres

2019-04-18T14:00:00+02:00

Trying Trithemius

I have to admit my guilt of initial skepticism towards Rufus Opus' "Seven Spheres" from an ignorant armchair magician's perspective. The magical system seemed too "watered down" in comparison with the original framework laid out by Trithemius in "Drawing Spirits into Crystals" and other modern interpretations of it, like Frater Ashen Chassan's outstanding work.

My mind was changed by listening to the lovely Charm the Water podcast and following the reports of incredible synchronicites and life-changing events that unfolded around Aaron and Kelly's lives around each of the planetary initiation rituals. It has been on my bucket list ever since and a few weeks ago I finally managed to plunge into the first sphere.

How Aaron diverged from RO's original ritual order and timing resonated very much with me. The schedule in Seven Spheres seems quite tight and the order of planets to initiate into very strategic. Aaron approached it in a more organic way by following his intuition to tell him which planet to reach out to next and to let much more time pass after each ritual. It allowed him to fully experience each unfolding of planetary enchantment without hurry.

I knew that I wanted to initiate into the sphere of Jupiter first, because he rules my sun sign (Pisces) and I wanted to do it around my birthday at the end of March. I elected April 4 for the ritual, a Thursday, in the evening hour of Jupiter. The space weather seemed auspicious: the Sun and Moon were in Pisces, Jupiter himself at home in Sagittarius, and visited in his sign also by grumpy old wizard Saturn.

Allowing myself some artistic freedom constructing the required Trithemian table of practice, I followed Ashen Chassan's lead (backed up by Peterson and Stratton-Kent) and used the names of the Four Kings instead of the Archangels. Instead of the Gothic Latin names of the planetary angels RO uses and Chassan's classic Hebrew version which both are quite difficult to draw due to the calligraphic serifs I followed the layout by Polyphanes and used the Celestial Hebrew typeface popularized by Agrippa. Here is the final design I went with:

Dialing Sachiel

I painted it onto a wooden plate using black permanent marker and some minor decorations in gold and silver. The crystal is a scrying glass sphere I bought in my local New Age shop together with two royal blue candles, corresponding with Jupiter. For the required lamen and seals I used cardboard in the same color. Following Chassan I placed the altar towards Southwest and I intuitively turned the table of practice so the Four Kings would point into their respective cardinal directions. As suffumigation I went with a delicious combination of aloe- and cedar-wood. I quit smoking three years ago so I skipped the cigar smoke offering part, but I adorned the altar with some dried laurel leaves from the kitchen and an olive branch I had taken from a small tree that was next to the altar of Bona Dea Heia Augusta that I found during an obsessive quest in Croatia last summer. The alcohol offering of choice was a glass of my favorite Scotch Whisky Glenmorangie and as music I first played "Ode to Joy" and then a compilation of loungy Austrian jazz that seemed appropriate.

My preferred ritual language is German, so I had to translate the prayers from English first. You can find the translations here.

Despite neither seeing anything appear in the crystal, nor feeling any Angelic presence, I followed through with the whole ritual, confident that it would take some time for the effects of the initiation to unfold in the next days and weeks - and boy, did they unfold...read on

Sieben Sphären

2019-04-18T13:59:00+02:00

Sieben Sphären ist ein Buch des US-amerikanischen hermetischen Magiers Frater Rufus Opus, der basierend auf einem Werk von Johannes Trithemius von Spanheim ein modernes magisches System geschaffen hat, mit planetischen Engeln in Kontakt zu treten und mit deren Hilfe Herrscher über die eigene Lebenssphäre zu werden.

Hier sind einige Gebete und Formeln aus dem Buch, übersetzt ins Deutsche von Sublunar Space und frei verfügbar unter Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Lizenz.

Gebet an den Ersten Vater

Erster Vater, Quelle allen Lichts, der dennoch in absoluter und ewiger Dunkelheit weilt; Du, der durch Dein Wort alles erschaffen hat; Du, mit dem liebenden Spiritus Mundi, der mich in deinem Ebenbild als göttlicher Schöpfergott geformt hat, Ich rufe Dich an, jetzt diese Riten zu segnen und zu weihen.

Gebet an den übernatürlichen Assistenten

Du übernatürlicher Assistent, allgegenwärtiger Freund und Führer, bereite jetzt den Weg zwischen mir und der Sphäre des [Planeten] und seiner Intelligenzen. Bereite ein Fest für diese Wesen vor, die wir anrufen werden und machen den Weg zwischen uns frei.

Weihung des Kristalls

Oh unbelebtes Geschöpf Gottes, sei geheiligt und geweiht, und gesegnet zu diesem Zweck, damit in dir kein böses Gespinst erscheine; oder, falls sie es tun, dass sie gezwungen seien, verständlich zu die Wahrheit zu sprechen, und ohne die geringste Zweideutigkeit, um Christi willen. Amen.

Beschwörung des Erzengels

Im Namen der gesegneten und heiligen Dreieinigkeit beschwöre ich Dich, Du starker mächtiger Engel [Name], wenn es der göttliche Wille des Tetragrammaton ist, des Heiligen Gottes, der Vaters, dass du eine Form annimmst, die Deine himmlische Natur am besten widerspiegelt, und hier in diesem Kristall erscheinst, im Namen der Herrlichkeit und Ehre seiner göttlichen Majestät, der lebt und die endlose Welt regiert. Amen.

Herr, dein Wille geschehe auf Erden wie im Himmel; - Reinige mein Herz in mir und nimm nicht deinen Heiligen Geist von mir. O Herr, ich habe ihn in deinem Namen gerufen. Dulde ihn mir dienen zu lassen. Und dass alle Dinge für deine Ehre und Herrlichkeit zusammenarbeiten, denn dir, dem Sohn und dem Heilige Geiste werden alle Macht, Majestät und Herrschaft zugeschrieben. Amen

Oh Herr! Danke dass Du mein Gebet erhörtest und danke, dass du deinen Geist für mich erscheinen lässt. Amen.

Anmerkungen

Im Originalbuch gibt es auch noch eine Weihung des Räucherwerks, orphische Hymnen an die Planeten, und eine Lizenz zum Abgang. Da ich die Hymnen bereits nutze bzw. andere Formeln benutze, habe ich diese nicht übersetzt.

Dawn of the Dead

2019-02-13T19:40:00+01:00

Death Cycles

At my morning walks along the canal this last week it has already become apparent that the winter is slowly fading and the sun is growing in strength. Nevertheless the all encompassing greyness and hardly visible but relentless February rain is just occasionally broken apart by blue sky and sunlight. From Capricorn to Aquarius, Saturn rules this time of the year and it seems appropriate. Before All Saints and All Souls got shifted towards the end of the year, the ancient Romans celebrated Parentalia during mid February - starting today and lasting for nine days of remembering and communing with the spirits of the dead ancestors.

To me it feels like a nice framing of time to connect with the dead in November and then again in February - almost like two twilight moments like dusk and dawn with the winter solstice at its darkest midpoint. It is the twilight between the world of the living and the world of the dead, liminal periods where the two realms bleed into each other and where it seems more easy and appropriate to have interactions between the two.

Magician and blogger BJ Swain has a brilliant chapter about ancestor work in his highly recommended book "Living Spirits". He touches on concepts and beliefs from the Kongo and how traditions there understand and conceptualize life and death. I found it very enlightening because it ties in with what I wrote in the previous paragraph about the worlds of life and death mirroring the daily and yearly solar cycle and puts in words what I could only describe as a feeling until now: the Dikènga cosmogram. It serves as a fundamental law of the universe and is especially suited to describe a cyclic relationship between the living and the dead. It also struck me as heavily resonating with ancient Egyptian cosmology:

Coded as a cross, a quartered circle or diamond, a seashell spiral, or a special cross with solar emblems at each ending - the sign of the four moments of the sun is the Kongo emblem of spiritual continuity and renaissance par excellence. [...] The horizontal line indicates the divide between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It also indicates the divide between night and day. The circles at each quarter point can indicate the sun, or they can indicate moments in the life and death cycle. This cycle is characterized not simply by each step feeding the next step until we return to where we begin, but also by the idea that life and death reflect each other. So when we are born into the world of the living we die from the world of the dead and vice versa. When the Sun is at noon in the world of the living it is midnight in the world of the dead. We do not simply exist in a step by step cycle but in a symbiotic reflection, where what occurs for us is coordinated with what occurs for them, and what occurs for them predicts what occurs for us and so forth. [1]

I dove deeper into the fascinating Dikènga rabbit-hole and found this description of the concept as a whole:

the stage known as Musoni is the stage of the conception of ideas, human beings, and ail things conceivable. Musoni corresponds to when the sun is at midnight and is represented by a yellow color. Although the sun has set and therefore cannot be seen directly by the observer, it is understood to still exist. Similarly, when a person dies, he/she is understood to still exist in the same fundamental way as the human being is conceived of as ntângu a môyo 'a living sun' (Fu-Kiau 1994: 26).' By the same token, matter is not created or destroyed - it simply changes form. [...] After Musoni, the next stage is Kola, illustrated in Black, which represents birth, sunrise, and [...] the beginning of the story. Next, Tukula, associated with the color red, represents the sun at noon. It corresponds to the highest point in a person’s life [...]. The next stage is Luvèmba, shown in a grey color. This represents sunset. This is the stage of the transformation that occurs when a person passes on. However, in the Afrikan worldview, this is not truly the end. Indeed, Fu-Kiau asserts that “Dying is not an end. Dying for the Kongo is just going on vacation” (Fu-Kiau 2001b). The underlying concept is articulated in the proverb "tufwanga mu soba — we die in order to undergo change" (Fu-Kiau 1994: 27) Luvèmba is where the story comes to its closing formula but continues to exist in other forms. [2]

Croissants, Coins, and Crows

The Romans celebrated Parentalia not only at home but visited the family tombs in the liminal space just outside of the cities to commune with their ancestors and bring them offerings of flower-garlands, wheat, salt, wine-soaked bread and violets. I really resonate with this practice and especially during these periods of the year really would like to do similar rites. But today not many of us still live in the same place where our ancestors were buried and we do not have a ritual space to be near to their physical remains. For me it is the same. I live around 700km away from my grandparents graves and I only have very few chances to "visit them."

But I discovered a magical solution to the problem - or it was rather Saturn who sent a cold black spark of inspiration that led me to a solution. But first let's rewind a bit...

It was during a visit in my hometown around Christmas two years ago. I was on the way to visit my sister at her home to have breakfast together. Before, I wanted to buy some croissants and other delicacies at a French bakery around the corner of where she lives. Upon entering I checked my wallet to see if I had enough cash. In my usual early morning pre-breakfast clumsiness I managed to drop a handful of coins on the street right in front of the bakery. Mumbling curses I managed to pick most of them up and realized that among them were also three Chinese coins that I occasionally used for I Ching divination. There were only two of them on the pavement and I crawled around looking for the third one. Then I saw the gully...

Pointing my phone's flashlight into the shaft while dodging confused customers who tried to enter the bakery I spotted the lost coin. It was lying on a layer of rotten leaves that had clogged the shaft, just a few centimeters below the gully's opening. The slots on the lid were too narrow to put my finger through so I decided to try again on my way back after breakfast.

Two hours later I returned, confident of victory, armed with a magnet, a string, and a coat hanger made of wire. The first blowback was to find out that the damn coin did not stick to the magnet, so I tried it with the coat hanger. I got more frowns and suspicious looks from bakery customers and owner, crawling around on the floor poking around in the gully.

Eventually...instead of managing to stick the end of the wire through the coin's square hole, I poked a hole into the layer of leaves and the coin dropped right through it and disappeared in the darkness.

I chuckled when I looked up, still on my knees - because the bakery's entrance had a little black iron crow as decoration of their doorstep - and they had dressed it with a red scarf and a Santa hat for the Christmas season. It seemed to mock me - I guess I deserved it.

Graveyeard Wormholes

I don't remember if it was on the same day or a day after, but in the afternoon I walked through my favourite cemetery that I use as a shortcut on my way from my parents house to the inner city. Some of my relatives from my mother's side are buried there, so I decided to visit their grave. When I walked past the beautiful crematorium building in the middle of the cemetery that was built in the late 1900s and looks like an antique temple I was suddenly struck with an insight and a plan:

Today was Saturday, the day of Saturn. The crow in front of the bakery: a Saturnian animal. It all suddenly made sense to me now and I instantly knew what to do: I remembered that had wanted to collect earth from my ancestors graves for some time already and I also remembered that in the African American Hoodoo Rootwork tradition you offer coins to the spirits in exchange for graveyard dirt. In this particular moment these two thoughts developed into a magical idea...

I walked to the crematorium because I remembered the beautiful mosaic of a skull and a sand clock it has on the floor of the front gable. I placed my remaining Chinese coins on the mosaic, recited the Orphic hymn to Kronos and did an impromptu request to Saturn to cleanse the coins of all previous influences. Then I asked him to aid me in fusing all of my Chinese coins together to one etherically interconnected network of magical tokens that by themselves should act as portals to exchange magical energies with each other across the network. I waited for a moment and recollected the coins.

After I went to the grave of my grandparents and uncle, recited a requiem prayer and asked for permission to take some dirt. I placed one of the freshly created Saturnian portal coins into the earth and told my ancestors that through this object we will be connected with each other beyond space and time.

A few days later I did the same at the grave of my father's parents on a different cemetery and also at the grave of our old neighbors who were close to my heart because they were also like grandparents to me when I was a child.

Back home in Berlin I placed all the collected earth from the graves into a beautiful glass container and put another of the Saturnian coins on top of it. This acts as a proxy or portal to the physical graves of my ancestors and when I want to give offerings to them I pour libations over the coin or wave it through incense smoke and imagine how the offering's energies travel across the etheric network and reach their graves. I also imagine the portals to be open for exchange and meditate on this image while communing with my ancestors spirits.

Feel free to use this idea yourself and see if it helps you to be closer to your ancestors if you whish so. It certainly helps me. I can also imagine that instead of coins you could use a rock or other item broken into pieces or make up a batch of tokens with the same sigil on it.

Spirit Communion

The general protocol that I have currently settled with for my own practice of communing with my ancestors is mainly based on the ritual outlined in this highly recommended Sphere & Sundry article, but also heavily inspired by a Shinto ritual that I love for its powerful minimalism. I combined the two and I work with Tehuti as psychopomp, because I already had a relationship with this god through my Tarot practice.

The full protocol is suitable for first contact or special occasions and can be easily simplified for more casual subsequent communication. The calls to the ancestors in the ritual outlined below are a spin-off from a general prayer to the ancestors that I wrote a while ago and which I frequently use in other ritual settings:

You ancestors who came before me. I call you. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons. All you, from whose community I came forth, whose blood flows through my veins, whose traces and memories I carry within me. With deep compassion, I think of your sufferings and your pains, through which you had to go on your life's path. With gratitude and love I think of your struggles, your dreams, your achievements, your courage and your strength. May your blessing and guidance bring out the best in me, for the benefit of all, whom I may meet in this life. Amen.

Full Ritual

Preliminaries

Ritual bath
Anoint with oil
Light candles
Light general incense (Frankincense)
Place a bowl of Natron or Butsudan ash powder in the center of the altar

Orphic Hymns

I prefer to do this rite during planetary hours that combine the hour and day of Mercury and Saturn. Hour of Mercury on Saturdays or hour of Saturn on Wednesdays. I start with the Orphic hymn of whoever rules the day, then the one of whoever rules the hour. For Mercury I use the hymn to Hermes Chthonios. You can find different versions of the Orphic Hymns. The recent translation by Patrick Dunn flow very well in English. Or use the free ones you can find here. For best pronunciation in Greek check Susan Chang's amazing video. Light Storax / Benzoin incense before you start. One for Mercury, one for Saturn.

Prayer to Tehuti

Burn some Egyptian papyrus or Kyphi incense and give an offering of Natron.
Pray the Hymn to Tehuti down to "Who enters duat, knows those in it"
Call to Tehuti:

Tehuti, I call you! Thrice greatest Tehuti, scribe of Ra, Silver Aton, leader of souls in the hereafter. I invoke you in your great, divine names: ALIPS, THABLIPS, STSILIPS, GAGARPAOTHAR, THANASIMA, QHAH, ORTHOMENKHROÔN, BALSA, ALABAKHABEL [4], Come to me here and now to this place that will serve as a meeting place for myself and my ancestors, guardians, and leaders who now dwell in the afterlife, whose blood runs through me, and all whose spirits have helped shape me.

Thrice greatest Tehuti, I humbly ask you to aid me as a messenger and as a light for those I seek. Open the veil between this world and the hereafter. Find my ancestors and make sure they receive my words, gifts and intentions.

Thrice greatest Tehuti, accept these offerings of smoke, light, water, food and wine. Accept them in gratitude for your help, and please spread them to the dead I call and invite them to attend and see to it that no uninvited intruder comes to this place.

Be praised, oh Thrice greatest Tehuti, forecaster of the future, notary of Ra!

Peret kheru ta, heneket, khau kau apedu, khut nebet noferet wabet ankhet netjer im. [5]

Offerings to the Dead

Place all offerings on the table, smudge them with incense.
Place a lit stick of incense into the bowl of Natron, a bit to the rear right of its center. This is for all women in your bloodline.

I call you: mothers and grandmothers, sisters and cousins, daughters and granddaughters. All you women, from whose community I came forth, whose blood flows through my veins, whose traces and memories I carry within me. With deep compassion, I think of your sufferings and your pains, through which you had to go on your life's path. With gratitude and love I think of your struggles, your dreams, your achievements, your courage and your strength. Come to this altar in your honor and accept my offerings, giving thanks for the sacrifices you made for our family. Accept these gifts, along with my gratitude and love.

Place another lit stick of incense into the bowl of Natron, a bit to the rear left of its center. This is for all men in your bloodline.

I call you: fathers and grandfathers, brothers and cousins, sons and grandsons. All you men, from whose community I came forth, whose blood flows through my veins, whose traces and memories I carry within me. With deep compassion, I think of your sufferings and your pains, through which you had to go on your life's path. With gratitude and love I think of your struggles, your dreams, your achievements, your courage and your strength. Come to this altar in your honor and accept my offerings, giving thanks for the sacrifices you made for our family. Accept these gifts, along with my gratitude and love.

Place a third lit stick of incense into the bowl of Natron, a bit to the front of its center, so all three sticks shape a triangle. This is for the lost and forgotten ones of your bloodline and the ones who are not genetically related to you, yet important.

I call you: all you forgotten dead, you unborn dead, you who died as children. I also call you, all you friends and acquaintances, and all those who have stood with and helped my family and me, whose influences and benevolence I carry within me. Come also to this altar in your honor and accept my offerings, giving thanks for the sacrifices you made for our family. Accept these gifts, along with my gratitude and love.

(Optionally, call the mighty dead.

I call you: you inspiring ancestors, you artists and magicians, poets and thinkers, you role models who have given your lifeblood for the benefit of all, you mighty forefathers, who have made this world a better one before your transition to the next world. With gratitude and love I think of your struggles, your dreams, your achievements, your courage and your strength. They live in me and flow through my veins, they inspire my existence and from them I draw strength. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Accept these gifts, along with my gratitude and love.)

If it is the first time you do this ritual, I recommend to say something about the collected earth and the Saturnian tokens:

Dear grandparents and dear uncle (or whose graves are connected with each other through the token network), through this earth and through the tokens, which are consecrated by Saturn and connected to each other beyond distance, I can always be close to your graves. All of you other ancestors, I ask you to acknowledge this earth as symbol also for the earth of your graves and to recognize the network of tokens also as a symbol of our inseparable connection.

Play music, commune with the present spirits, have a party, do whatever you want to do.

Closing the Space

Thank you all, my ancestors who have appeared. May your blessing and guidance bring out the best in me, for the benefit of all, whom I may meet in this life. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hereby grant you a license to depart. Return to your resting places and do not stay in this house. But come back soon when I call you. My love and gratitude are always with you!

Thrice greatest Tehuti, make sure that all the souls called here today find their way and return to their resting places and close the veil again between this world and the hereafter. This ritual is closed.

Requiem

O Lord, grant all eternal rest. And let eternal light shine on each of them. May the souls of the ancestors rest in peace through Your mercy. Amen

Family Troubles

I know that it can be difficult to connect with the own dead relatives, be it because some of them have been abusive towards members of the family and caused traumata and grief, or because they would not have agreed with their descendants life-style, beliefs, sexuality, identification, etc. or vice versa. You can find important thoughts about these issues in the linked Sphere & Sundry article above or in BJ Swain's book, and many other places, but my own are as follows:

First of all nobody has to talk to the ancestors, there are other ways of getting help from the dead. A good example would be working with the "Lost Souls" in "purgatory", as I recently heard and read about in this great article by Agostino Taumaturgo or in the pure Shinto way. You can also tie Catholicism and pagan Roman rites together and do a kind of Parentalia Novena.

An important point that made a huge difference for me was involving a psychopomp in aiding to make contact with the dead. You can ask them to filter out unwanted ancestors, either by explicitly naming them or by asking him to not let the ones come who are not comfortable supporting your current life, or something along those lines. You can also ask them specifically to invite only your magically operand ancestors, or the artists among them, or the queer ones, and so on. Use them as a bouncer to your party.

Incarnations

Coming back to the "Saturnian coins": I came across an article on Gnome School that had a quote from a book by Henry Rogers about very intriguing objects that I can very well imagine being used for such an "etheric network":

From the period 8500-3000 OLD, a large number of artefacts known as tokens have been found. There are small clay objects of simple geometric shapes: spheres, cones, tetrahydra, cylinders, disks, lens-shaped disks, etc. tokens of this period are known as plain tokens. They are associated with the beginnings of agriculture [and] were used for record keeping… some have been found stored inside sealed, hollow clay balls forming envelopes around the tokens… these envelopes represented a way of safegaurding the record of the contract. If there was a disagreement, the envelope could be broken, and the evidence of the tokens would be inside. [3]

This magical network concept lends itself also to many other potential magical applications. Some research revealed that it is apparently also nothing really new. The famous DKMU "Ellis" aka. "Linking Sigil" and Chaos Magick 101's Sigil Matrix followed a similar line of thought. My plan is to further explore this technology of linking talismanic tokens to each other.

(1) Swain, BJ. Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits. Independently published. 2018
(2) Kambon, Ọbádélé. "Akan Ananse stories, Yorùbá Ìjàpá tales, and the Dikènga theory: worldview and structure." Contemporary Journal of African Studies 4.2 (2017): 1-36.
(3) Rogers, Henry. Writing systems: A linguistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
(4) translation from demotic spells with secret names of Tehuti from Louvre E 3229 papyrus (Betz PDM lxi. 63-78 and PDM Suppl. 149—62) found in: Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. The Greek magical papyri in translation, including the Demotic spells. Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press, 1996. pg. 288 and 328.
(5) Common Egyptian offering formula. It translates to: "A voice offering of bread, beer, a thousand of beef and fowl, and every good and pure thing on which a god lives"

Three Wise Kings

2019-01-15T20:00:00+01:00

(version 2.0 updated 6/01/2020)

The Three Magi, or Drei Könige as they are called here in Germany, were my favourite characters in the Christmas tale when I was a kid: their names seemed so foreign and exotic and hey: they followed a star and ended up being the first ones to visit baby Jesus and brought him gold and other stuff that I didn't even understand. Couldn't get any more magical than that for my taste.

My best memories of the Christmas season were from the times when my parents took us to the Canary Island of Fuerteventura. Not only could we spent the days playing naked on the beach while everyone back home was freezing, but also Christmas itself was very different: We just celebrated it in our small family circle without having to fulfill any grandparents', aunts' and uncles' expectations, no boring church visits, no carols we had to sing, and so on. I was looking forward to Epiphany during those holidays, because that's when the local Spanish kids received their presents delivered by the Three Magi. The Magi would come riding into town on real camels, tossing candies to the children awaiting them in awe and escorted by police cars playing "Feliz Navidad" from their megaphones!

Anyway, ever since I found myself on this magical journey I had rediscovered my interest in the Three Kings and had consecrated a piece of chalk on the last two annual Epiphany days to mark our house's door with the C + M + B initials for protection. Last year I was very excited to find out that Dr. Al Cummins has written a whole book on the Three Magi that also includes some practical chapters about devotional and magical items to make. Of course I had to have it...and gifted the book to myself as a Christmas present. This last Epiphany I found myself working all day on producing Three Kings Oil, Three Kings Chalk, and a protective talisman, as described in Al's book ¹.

The most fascinating item for me covered in the book is a seal from the Folger Manuscript Vb.26 (aka. "Book of Oberon", pg. 372 ²) that features the Three Magi's names and a SATOR square. The original manuscript's talisman description reads: "to be delivered from all fear, and against shot to be further off". In his book Dr. Al proposed it to also be used as a kind of magic circle or plate for objects to be consecrated in the Three Kings names ¹.

Having never heard of a connection between the Three Magi and the SATOR square, I did a bit of research and found some intriguing bits of information: in a group of Byzantine churches from 900 CE in Cappadocia, mural decorations name the shepherds who came to adore the Christ-child as Sator, Arepo, Teneton, in another one Peratoras ³. According to a Byzantine bible of an earlier period ⁴ and also as reported by 16th century philologist Isaac Casaubon, the names Ator, Sator, and Peratoras were supposedly the names of the Three Magi ³.

Of course their alleged names have been many throughout the ages depending on who you asked: Apellus, Amerus, Damascus; Megalath, Galgalath, Saracin; Dionysius, Rusticus, Eleutherius; Enoch, Elijah, Melchidezek; Hôrmîzdah, Îzgarad, Perôzâdh; Bathezora, Melchior, Thaddias; and many more ³. As we know, the ones that have prevailed in the West were: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Nevertheless I had found a promising connection to the SATOR square.

In his book Dr. Al suggests to draw the seal on a plate in golden colour, which I also considered. But eventually I followed a gut-feeling and decided to draw it on a sheet of Egyptian papyrus instead. Iwas satisfied with the outcome:

The accompanying consecration ritual Dr. Al proposes includes burning three candles with the Magi's names carved into them and sprinkling circles of rue and hyssop around the square ¹. I could not obtain any rue on the days before Epiphany and because I wanted it to be more "Middle Eastern" - to suit the papyrus vibe - I diverged from that, skipped the herbs and candles completely and went "full Egyptian" by burning incense instead: As a representation of the Three Magi I arranged three sticks of incense (Frankincense, Myrrh, Aloeswood) in a triangle formation in a bowl of Natron which I placed in front of a thick white candle, representing the star / Christ. I recited Psalm 72, Matthew 2:1-12, Psalms 51 and 22. The consecration of my Epiphany materia magica went really well and felt quite powerful.

Because it was also New Moon I did my monthly Stele of Jeu operation right after that, but with the slight variation of adding "Hear me and turn away this restraining spirit, in the names of Caspar Melchior and Balthasar" to the exorcism part. I had been a bit wary about even doing the Headless Rite because this New Moon was also a Solar Eclipse and the Sun conjunct Saturn, but after the whole day dedicated to the Three Magi I felt quite protected and empowered enough to do it anyways (the talisman that "delivered from fear"?).

Also, Epiphany coincided with the sun entering the headless / disk-headed Decan Kenmu, - a powerful synchronicity to the Eclipse near the headless south-node Ketu - it felt like the most auspicious headlessness moment, so I felt compelled to do it whatever it takes...also because of a powerful synchronicity that happened a few days before.

Synchronicity

The next day, a jaw-dropping synchronicity sent shivers down my spine when this blog post from the Coptic Magical Papyri research-project popped up in my Facebook feed about an Egyptian papyrus named "P. CtYBR inv. 1792" dated to the 6th or early 7th century CE that features several magical sequences, most promintently a SATOR SQUARE (!!!) in its center and next to that the Coptic names of the THREE MAGI (!!!): Melchior, Thaddias, and Bethezora! Below the magical sequences is written:

"+ Christ was born on the 29th of Khoiak. He came down upon the earth, and he rebuked all of the venomous crawling things. Your word is the lamp of my feet, oh Lord, and the light of my way."

Coincidence or not, I was left with the feeling that this was a confirmation of yesterday's work!

Update: Some months later I re-created the phylactery myself. Here are the instructions:

Use the SATOR and ALPHA-LEŌN magic square on papyrus. Optionally add the Coptic names of the Three Magi and/or the psalms below.

Σ Α Τ Ο Ρ
Α Ρ Ε Π Ο
Τ Ε Ν Ε Τ
Ο Π Ε Ρ Α
Ρ Ο Τ Α Σ

Α Λ Φ Α
Λ Ε Ω Ν
Φ Ω Ν Η
Α Ν Η Ρ

Μελχιωρ, Θαδδιας, Βαθηζωρα

(Melchiōr, Thaddias, Bathēzōra)

Λύχνος τοῖς ποσί μου ὁ νόμος σου καὶ φῶς ταῖς τρίβοις μου

(Psalm 118-105: Your word is the lamp of my feet, oh Lord, and the light of my way)

ἐπὶ ἀσπίδα καὶ βασιλίσκον ἐπιβήσῃ καὶ καταπατήσεις λέοντα καὶ δράκοντα

(Psalm 90-13Thou shalt tread on the asp and basilisk: and thou shalt trample on the lion and dragon)

Prayers to the Three Magi

These prayers are referenced in Dr. Al's book. They first one is a beautiful adoration and the second one a powerful petition. I dug up the originals and translated the second one also into German

Prayer of Epiphany

Latin original: En omnipotens astrorum conditor • Qui incar nationem tuam praeclari sideris testimonio indicasti • Quod uidentes magi oblatis maiestatem tuam muñe ribus adorauerunt • Propterea gratias agendo of feram tibi hostiam laudis ac deprecor concede mihi propitius ut in mea semper mente appareat stella iustitiae • et in tua confessione meus thesaurus sit domine mi iesu christe Amen ⁶

English: O Almighty Creator of the Heavens, who revealed thy incarnation by the testimony of a bright heavenly star, which seeing, the Magi adored thy Majesty with the offering of gifts: in thanksgiving therefore, I offer thee the sacrifice of praise and graciously beseech thee to grant to me that in my mind the star of righteousness may always appear, and that my treasure may be confessing thee, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. ¹

German: Oh allmächtiger Schöpfer des Himmels, der seine Menschwerdung durch das Zeugnis eines hellen himmlischen Sterns offenbarte, dem die Weisen durch Opfergaben Verehrung erwiesen, lasse in meinem Geist immer der Stern der Gerechtigkeit erscheinen und dass mein Schatz dich, Herr Jesus Christus, bekenne. Amen.

Je Vous Requer

Anglo-Norman original: Je vous requer, Jaspar, Melchior, e Baltazar, rois coronez, que Jesum alastes quere quant il fust né de la virge Marie, par icel douçour que vous vers ly ustes quant vous quere ly alastes, e pur cele joye que vous ustes quant ly trovastes e vos douns ly offristes, que vous me consilez de ce dont je vous requer sicome Dieu vous oy e vos offrendres resçust. Verroi Dieu, auxi come lur offrendres reçustes, recevez huy ma oreisoun pur lur amour; e auxi come l’estoille lur apparust en orient, que lur mena a vous al lu qu’il urent grantment desire, auxi, Sire Dieu, aemplez mon desir a leesse e joie. Otreiez moi que je puisse avoir e vere ce que mon cuer desyre, a la loenge Dieu e ma Dame seinte Marie. Amen. ⁷

English translation: I entreat you, Jaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, crowned kings, who went to seek Jesus when he was born of the Virgin Mary, for that sweetness you felt toward him when you went to seek him, and for that joy you felt when you found him and offered him your gifts, that you advise me regarding that which I ask you inasmuch as God hears you and accepted your gifts. True God, as you accepted their gifts, may you accept today my prayer on account of their love; and as the star appeared to them in the east, which led them to you in the place they had so greatly desired, so too, Lord God, you filled my desire for gladness and joy. Grant me that I may have and behold what my heart desires, for the praise of God and my Lady Saint Mary. Amen. ⁷

German translation: Ich flehe Euch an, Caspar, Melchior und Balthasar, gekrönte Könige, die sich zu Jesus begaben, als er von der Jungfrau Maria geboren wurde, bei der Süße, die Ihr ihm gegenüber empfandet, als Ihr ihn aufsuchtet, und bei Eurer Freude, als Ihr ihn fandet und ihm Eure Gaben darbrachtet, mir Rat zu geben hinsichtlich dem, was ich Euch frage, genauso wie Gott Euch anhört und Eure Gaben annahm. Wahrer Gott, wie Du ihre Gaben entgegennahmst, so mögst Du heute mein Gebet ob ihrer Liebe annehmen. Und wie ihnen der Stern im Osten erschien, der sie zu Dir an den Ort führte, nach dem sie sich so sehr sehnten, genau so erfülle mir, Herr Gott, auch mein Verlangen nach Fröhlichkeit und Wonne. Gewähre mir, dass ich bekommen und erblicken werde, was mein Herz begehrt, beim Lob Gottes und meiner heiligen Jungfrau Maria.

Coptic Hymn

This unique Coptic hymn is said during the Paramoun of the Nativity feast. An analysis of the hymn reveals unique characteristics. This hymn is one of the few hymns in the Coptic Church that has no translation. The unique usage of Greek, Bohairic and Sahidic Coptic suggests that the hymn was written in Upper Egypt in Late Sahidic.⁵

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Yestermeje

Coptic: ⲓⲥⲑⲉⲣⲙⲉⲅⲓ ⲁϥⲉⲛⲉ: ⲫⲁⲥⲓⲗⲉⲟⲥ ⲫⲣⲟⲓ ⲁⲛⲟⲛ: ⲕⲉⲕⲁⲡⲡⲉⲥⲓ ⲉⲫⲏⲗⲉ: ⲇⲉⲩⲇⲉ ⲡⲣⲟⲥⲕⲉⲛⲓⲥⲟⲙⲉⲛ: ⲇⲉⲩⲇⲉ ⲥⲑⲓⲛⲧⲁⲉⲡⲁⲅⲓⲥ.

ⲃⲁⲝⲓⲟ ⲃⲁⲫⲟⲛϩ ⲉⲛⲓⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ: ⲡⲉⲣⲣⲟⲩ ⲉⲧϩⲏⲧ ⲛⲛⲓⲉⲛⲉϩ: ⲉⲛⲓⲫⲩⲗⲏ ⲧⲏⲣⲟⲩ ⲙⲡⲕⲁϩⲓ: ⲉⲛⲁⲓ ⲧⲏⲣⲉⲛ ⲧⲉⲛⲟⲩⲱϣⲧ: ⲙⲡⲉⲛⲧⲁⲩⲙⲁⲥϥ ⲉⲧϣⲉⲡⲙⲕⲁϩ.

ⲫⲗⲉⲡⲓ ⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ ⲇⲉ ⲑⲁⲩⲙⲉ: ⲍⲱⲓ ⲛⲉⲛⲓ ⲉⲧⲁⲉⲗⲗⲟⲥⲁ (ⲉⲧⲉⲉⲗⲗⲟⲥⲁ): ⲉⲛⲓⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ ⲁⲩⲧⲁⲥϣⲟⲩⲣⲉ (ⲉⲩⲧⲁⲥϣⲟⲩⲣⲉ): ⲑⲉⲟⲛⲁⲛ ⲙⲙⲟⲛ ⲛⲧⲁⲥ ⲉⲡⲉ: ⲕⲉ ⲛⲛⲁⲕⲝⲁⲥⲓ (ⲛⲛⲁⲕⲝⲱⲥⲓ) ⲁϫⲓⲁ.

ⲛⲓⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ ϫⲟⲩϣⲧ ⲉⲛⲓϣⲫⲏⲣⲓ: ⲉⲫⲟⲛϩ ⲛⲛⲁⲩ ⲉⲧⲁⲩ ϯⲱⲟⲩ: ⲉⲛⲓⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ ⲛⲛⲁⲩⲇⲱⲣⲟⲛ: ⲉⲩϩⲱⲥ ⲙⲫⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲡⲉⲛⲧⲉⲃⲉⲧϫⲫⲟϥ: ⲧϣⲉⲡⲉⲟⲩⲛⲁⲕ ⲡⲉⲧⲉⲛⲧⲟⲩⲁⲓ.

ⲓⲧⲟⲩⲡⲁⲣⲑⲉⲛⲟⲥ ⲧⲉⲕⲁⲩⲥⲁ: ⲕⲉⲏⲑⲏⲟⲩ ⲛⲛⲁⲛⲧⲣⲟⲡⲓⲥ: ⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ :ⲉⲟⲥ ⲉⲛⲓⲫⲩⲗⲏ: ⲙⲁⲑⲁⲑⲟⲛ ⲙⲩⲥⲧⲏⲣⲓⲟⲛ: ⲑⲟⲛⲧⲟⲕⲟⲧⲟⲩ ⲉⲙⲙⲁⲛⲟⲩⲏⲗ.

ⲁⲥⲓϯ ⲡⲁⲣⲑⲉⲛⲟⲥ ⲛⲧⲉ ⲡⲁⲥ ⲛϣⲱⲡⲉ: ⲁϥⲟϫ ⲙⲡⲉⲛⲛⲟⲧⲉⲛ ⲧⲉϥⲛⲣⲟⲙⲁ (ⲧⲉϥⲛⲣⲟⲙⲉ): ⲁⲩⲫⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ ⲁϥϣⲁⲛⲟⲩⲟⲛ: ϫⲉ ⲙⲙⲩⲥⲧⲏⲣⲓⲟⲛ: ⲡⲉⲛⲉⲧϣⲡⲱ ⲛⲉⲙⲙⲁⲛⲟⲩⲏⲗ.

ⲛⲁϭⲟⲓⲥ ⲕⲩⲣⲓⲟⲥ ⲕⲉ ⲓⲡⲟⲙⲉⲛⲓ: ⲓⲛⲉ (ⲓⲛⲁ) ⲛⲧⲟⲩ ⲑⲁⲩⲙⲁⲑⲁⲑⲟ: ⲱⲟⲩ ⲙⲫⲟⲟⲩ ⲁⲩⲗⲁⲕⲥⲁⲩⲧⲏⲥ (ⲁⲩⲗⲁⲕⲥⲉⲩⲧⲏⲥ): ⲡⲁⲥⲟⲓ ⲉⲛⲓⲫⲏⲗⲉ ⲧⲉⲥⲧⲏⲥ: ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲙⲁⲕⲁⲣⲓⲍⲟⲙⲉⲛ ⲁⲩⲧⲟⲩ (ⲉⲩⲧⲟⲩ).

ⲃⲣⲡ (ⲃⲱⲣⲡ) ⲡⲛⲉⲩⲙⲁⲧⲁ ⲡⲉⲛⲧⲁϥϣⲱⲡⲉ: ⲱϣ ⲙⲙⲟϥⲡⲉ ⲡⲓⲑⲁⲩⲙⲁ: ⲡⲁⲛⲧⲁϥⲱϣ ⲟⲩⲟϩ ⲛqⲏⲧϥ: ⲱⲛⲓⲇⲉⲗⲉ ⲧⲏⲣⲟⲩ ⲙⲡⲕⲁϩⲓ: ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛ ⲙⲁⲕⲁⲣⲓⲍⲓⲛ ⲙⲙⲟⲥ.

ⲣⲉϥⲧⲟⲥ ⲛⲧⲟⲩ ⲁⲁⲣⲟⲛ: ⲥⲉⲛⲧⲟⲩ ⲁⲅⲉⲛⲛⲉⲧⲟⲩ (ⲉⲅⲉⲛⲛⲉⲧⲟⲩ): ⲧⲉⲛⲛⲉⲥⲕⲗⲓⲑⲟⲥ ⲁⲗⲱⲥⲱ (ⲉⲗⲱⲥⲱ): ⲉⲡⲉⲛ ⲧⲟⲛϥⲣⲉⲟⲛ: ⲧⲁⲩⲧⲉ (ⲧⲟⲩⲧⲉ) ⲡⲣⲟⲥ ⲕⲉⲛⲓⲥⲱⲙⲉⲛ.

ⲧϣⲉⲣⲟϥ (ⲧϣⲁⲣⲟϥ) ⲛϩⲁⲛϫⲓϫ ⲛⲁⲁⲣⲟⲛ: ⲟⲩϣⲫⲏⲣⲓ ⲙⲡⲛⲉⲩⲙⲁ ⲛⲁϥⲕⲗⲁⲑⲟⲥ (ⲛⲁϥⲕⲗⲉⲑⲟⲥ): ⲙⲃⲉⲣⲣⲉⲡⲓ ⲣⲉϥϯϩⲟ: ⲧⲉⲛⲓⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ ⲛϩⲉⲃⲣⲓⲟⲥ (ⲛϩⲁⲃⲣⲓⲟⲥ): ⲁⲙⲟⲓ ⲧⲉⲛⲧⲏⲣⲉⲛ ⲛⲧⲉⲛⲟⲩⲱϣⲧ.

ⲫⲟⲥ ⲁⲕϥⲟⲑⲉⲥ ⲉⲛⲓⲧⲉⲗⲉⲛ: ⲕⲉⲣⲁⲛ ⲡⲉⲡⲗⲓⲣⲓⲑⲓⲙⲁ: ⲧⲥⲁⲗⲗⲁⲧⲉⲥ ⲙⲁⲧⲉⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ: ⲟⲩⲉⲡⲟⲩⲧⲉⲛ ⲡⲓⲥⲧⲉⲩⲥⲱⲙⲉⲛ: ϯⲙⲡⲉⲣⲣⲟⲥⲓⲁ ⲛⲧⲉ ⲟⲩⲣⲓⲥⲧⲟⲩ.

ⲡⲓⲟⲩⲱⲓⲛⲓ ⲉⲃⲟⲗqⲉⲛ ⲡⲓⲟⲩⲱⲓⲛⲓ: ⲁϥⲙⲟϩ ⲧⲏⲣⲉⲛ ⲛⲣⲉϣⲁ: ⲛⲁⲣⲓⲁⲗⲓⲛ ⲱ ⲛⲓⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ: ⲁⲛⲓⲁⲑⲛⲁϩⲧⲉ ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛⲛⲉϩⲧⲉ: ⲉⲑⲃⲉ ⲡϫⲓⲛⲓ ⲙⲡⲓⲣⲓⲥⲧⲟⲥ.⁵

Coptic Transliteration: isthermegi afene: phasileos phroi anon: kekappesi ephêle: deude proskenisomen: deude sthintaepagis.

baksio baphonh enimagos: perrou ethêt nnieneh: eniphulê têrou mpkahi: enai têren tenouôšt: mpentaumasf etšepmkah.

phlepi magos de thaume: zôi neni etaellosa (eteellosa): enimagos autasšoure (eutasšoure): theonan mmon ntas epe: ke nnakksasi (nnakksôsi) ajia.

nimagos joušt enišphêri: ephonh nnau etau tiôou: enimagos nnaudôron: euhôs mphnouti pentebetjphof: tšepeounak petentouai.

itouparthenos tekausa: keêthêou nnantropis: logos :eos eniphulê: mathathon mustêrion: thontokotou emmanouêl.

asiti parthenos nte pas nšôpe: afoj mpennoten tefnroma (tefnrome): auphnoute afšanouon: je mmustêrion: penetšpô nemmanouêl.

nacois kurios ke ipomeni: ine (ina) ntou thaumathatho: ôou mphoou aulaksautês (aulakseutês): pasoi eniphêle testês: marenmakarizomen autou (eutou).

brp (bôrp) pneumata pentafšôpe: ôš mmofpe pithauma: pantafôš ouoh nqêtf: ônidele têrou mpkahi: maren makarizin mmos.

reftos ntou aaron: sentou agennetou (egennetou): tennesklithos alôsô (elôsô): epen tonfreon: taute (toute) pros kenisômen.

tšerof (tšarof) nhanjij naaron: oušphêri mpneuma nafklathos (nafklethos): mberrepi reftiho: tenimagos nhebrios (nhabrios): amoi tentêren ntenouôšt.

phos akfothes enitelen: keran peplirithima: tsallates matemagos: ouepouten pisteusômen: timperrosia nte ouristou.

piouôini ebolqen piouôini: afmoh têren nreša: narialin ô nimagos: aniathnahte marennehte: ethbe pjini mpiristos.

English Translation: In the summer, the Magi offered the king understanding and worship. Come worship. Come sing strong.

Worthily, the Magi forever changed the hearts of all the tribes of the earth. These, and us all, worship Him who was born and who suffered.

The Magi looked. Truly the Living made the Magi speechless when He became God. There is no reed mat worthy of the holiness.

The Magi saw the signs revealed to them when they glorified. The Magi offered their gifts praising God who was born, who received them and whom we glorify.

And a virgin, (gave birth?) to the Incarnate Word of God. The tribes were instructed of the mystery of the Theotokos of Emmanuel.

The Ancient Being came to the virgin. She gave birth to our Mighty God. God revealed the mystery of Emmanuel that was set in motion

My Lord, the patient Lord, the Physician of wondrous glory - today He lowered himself to the tribes. Come let us bless (Him) with them.

Send the spirit (of the Magi) that came to proclaim Him. And (that) truth that was proclaimed is in Him. All you tribes of the earth, let us bless Him."

The Rod of Aaron (blossomed and gave?) birth (while also?) destroying (the unbelief?) of our hearts. Come, worship.

The censer in Aaron's hands is a spiritual sign. Its new branches are the Hebrew inquirers, the Magi, All of us come to worship.

The Light from Light has filled us all with joy. Sing O Magi. The unbelievers - let them believe because of the Coming of Christ.⁵

Ghostbusting

2018-10-26T21:00:00+02:00

Aqueous Luck

In the last few months I noticed an increase in general luck in my life. It's mostly small things like new checkout lines opening in the supermarket when I approach them, or being offered to skip the cue at the airport check-in, my daughter finding money bills in the park, stuff like that. I am not sure what the cause for it is, as I several ongoing small rituals that I regularly practice, but I am mainly suspecting the regular offerings to the river spirit. I usually offer consecrated tobacco or dry bread to him and simply ask for luck.

The most outstanding and mind-blowing incident of luck was the whole story around moving to a new apartment at the end of August of this year.

I've been living in the same house in a lovely street full of trees next to a park in the heart of Berlin for the last seven years. My former "apartment" that I have lived in until August consisted of two old adjacent ground-floor shops. I had used them in different configurations as office space, living space, co-working space, second hand clothes shop. My girlfriend moved in with me a few years ago, we got married soon after, and two years ago our daughter E. was born. Suddenly the beloved "interesting apartment" had become a challenge because it didn't really suit the lifestyle of our small family anymore.

Anyways, out of the blue, around the middle of June I got a visit from two ladies of the property management company. They came to offer me a deal: if I would agree to cancel my business rental contract and leave one of the two shops they would offer me another apartment in the same house in exchange. The other flat was perfectly sized for our new little family, with a real private rental contract with all the benefits of legal protection of tenants and rent control, no questions asked about any financial securities from our side, and a rent that is way below the average of this neighborhood that is a hotspot of gentrification struggle. We could not believe our luck.

Uninvited Flatmate

But soon after we moved in, things started getting a bit edgy. Our cat didn't like the place at all, behaved very anxious and was outside most of the time, but he's a cat, so we were kind of expecting weird behavior from him. After a week my wife T. started having strange rage attacks and nervous breakdowns almost on a daily basis. I also felt unusually aggressive and snappy and without any of my usual patience. Little E. was restless and took hours to fall asleep. In addition, our renovation attempts kept failing in absurd ways. Screws kept falling back out of the wall and curtain rails would fall off the ceiling. Tools would get lost or stopped functioning. I almost killed myself with exposed electricity cables in an indescribably clumsy accident. One evening when T. and I were not snapping at each other in unprecedented irrational fights I joked that maybe the new place is haunted. Well, as it turned out, the joke was on us.

T. revealed to me that her attacks almost felt like she was not herself - more like "possessed". It dawned on us that our issues were not only results of being overtired parents trying to turn the new apartment into an inhabitable home, but might actually be related to a presence that did not like us! Poltergeist activity!

Was this the price for the luck we've had? A magical test?

The next morning I went straight to the organic supermarket a few blocks down the road and bought camphor, as suggested by my mage friend Ricardo who is more into the Eastern esoteric traditions where this method is used to cleanse. I did as instructed and put small pieces of the intense smelling substance into the four corners of the house.

The same evening E. fell asleep peacefully after 20 minutes and also T. had not felt so relieved for days. We keep an old radio running in the bedroom, tuned between stations so it produces white noise, which helps our little daughter to sleep better. T. always stays in bed with E. until she sleeps. She texted me the good news while I was in my office downstairs. I wrote back that maybe it was because of the "spiritual cleansing".

The moment T. had read my message she heard the radio making sudden evil grunting sounds that scared her a lot and that she had never heard before! Damn! Another proof of an uninvited etherial flat-mate ...and that the camphor didn't work well enough to drive it away.

Full Latin

I consulted with Ricardo about what to do about this problem and he advised to "go full Latin". He suggested a protocol that included a few Catholic prayers and an exorcism and I spiced it up with some more witchy additions. Below is the full list of operations I performed.

Although eventually it worked and the "ghost" vanished, it didn't leave without yet another prank which was also his creepiest:

T. told me that while she was in the bathroom and brushed her teeth she had the sudden feeling that the door opened behind her. She turned her head but the door was still closed. So she continued to brush her teeth and then felt that someone pulled her hair from behind! She turned around: nothing!

Ghostbusting Protocol

Place peanut sized chunks of camphor in the four corners of the house/room. It evaporates quite quickly, so you need to replace it every other day.
Soak some mugwort in hot water and let it get cold. Do a quick consecration with your intent on invoking the plant spirit to assist you with its cleansing powers. Sift out the leafy bits and fill the water into a pump spray bottle. Turn the bottle to fine mist spray mode and spray every room, going around the house from room to room in a counterclockwise movement until you are back where you started.
Make up an introductory prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary to assist you in driving out the unwanted forces from your home that haunt you and your family.
Prayer "August Queen of Heaven":

August Queen of Heaven,
sovereign queen of Angels,
you who at the beginning
received from God
the power and the mission to crush the head of Satan,
we beseech you humbly,
send your holy legions so that,
on your orders and by your power,
they will track down demons,
fight them everywhere,
curb their audacity and plunge them into the abyss.

Who can be compared to God?
Oh good and tender Mother,
you will always be our love and our hope.

Oh divine Mother,
send the Holy Angels and Archangels to defend me
and to keep the cruel enemy far from me.

Holy Angels and Archangels defend us,
protect us.

Amen.
The 1902 short form of the exorcism formula and prayer to the Archangel St. Michael from the Rituale Romanum:

In name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

St. Michael the Archangel, illustrious leader of the heavenly army, defend us in the battle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of darkness and the spirit of wickedness in high places.

Come to the rescue of mankind, whom God has made in His own image and likeness, and purchased from Satan's tyranny at so great a price. Holy Church venerates you as her patron and guardian. The Lord has entrusted to you the task of leading the souls of the redeemed to heavenly blessedness. Entreat the Lord of peace to cast Satan down under our feet, so as to keep him from further holding man captive and doing harm to the Church. Carry our prayers up to God's throne, that the mercy of the Lord may quickly come and lay hold of the beast, the serpent of old, Satan and his demons, casting him in chains into the abyss, so that he can no longer seduce the nations. Amen
The Latin version for even more oomph:

In nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Sancte Michaël Archangele,
defende nos in proelio;
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Imperet illi Deus,
supplices deprecamur: tuque,
Princeps militiae caelestis,
Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos,
qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo,
divina virtute in infernum detrude.
Amen.
Thank the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Archangel for their assistance.
Draw crosses with Holy Oil on all doors of the rooms.
Here is a modified and shortened version of the Stele of Jeu for the purpose of driving out the evil forces from my home:

I invoke you, headleess one, awesome and invisible God who dwells in the void of emptiness.
You who created the Earth and the Heavens,
You who created the Night and the Day,
You who created the Darkness and the Light.
You are Osoronnophris, whom no one has ever seen.
You are Iabas; you are Iapos.
You have distinguished the Just from the Unjust.
You have made the Female and the Male.
You have made the Seed and the Fruit.
You have made men Love and Hate one another.
Arbathiaō reibet athelebersēth ara blatha albeu ebenphchi chitasgoē ib aōth iaō
Hear me and turn away the uninvited spirit from these rooms.
Arogogorobraō sochou modoriō phalarchaō ooo
Deliver this place from the spirit that restrains my family and me.
Roubriaō mari ōdam baabna baōth ass adōnai aphniaō ithōlēth abrasax aēoōu
Mighty headless one, deliver this home from the evil spirit.
Mabarraiō ioēl kotha athorēbalō abraōth
Deliver this place from the spirit that restrains my family and me.
Aōth abaōth basym isak sabaōth iaō
Repeat the mugwort water spraying described above while saying your intent of cleansing the space from all unwanted spirits.
Replace the evaporated camphor in the upcoming weeks.

The hair-pulling prank was the last weird thing that happened. After that we were left alone. Our moods went up significantly, our patience and general wellbeing also. The cat was finally relaxed and started trying out different sleeping spots in all of the rooms as he used to do in our old home. It almost felt like someone had exchanged the whole atmosphere of our home. It felt clean.

Because this presence had heavily affected my whole family I chose the nuclear solution, so I am not sure which step exactly did it in the end. You might want to choose a more selective approach by starting simple (mugwort, camphor) and waiting for a result, then calling for air support (prayers, holy oil), if that doesn't work dropping the Mother of All Bombs aka. the Blessed Virgin, and if the presence is still around, finally going full WMD (St. Michael, Headless One).

Thanks again Ricardo for the Catholic weaponry and overall support through the whole process and to my cat C. for being such a reliable bio-sensor and familiar in this and the other world.

Novene der Heiligen Jungfrau von Candelaria

2018-08-05T20:30:00+02:00

Version 2.1 - 06/08/2018

Übersetzung der Novene an die Jungfrau von Candelaria aus dem Englischen und Spanischen ins Deutsche von Sublunar Space und frei verfügbar unter Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Lizenz.

Am besten startet man die Novene, so dass ihr letzter Tag auf eine der beiden Gedenktage der Jungfrau von Candelaria fällt, den 2. Februar oder 14./15. August.

Vorbereitendes Gebet

Liebe Jungfrau von Candelaria, wir versammeln uns mit Dir. Wir schenken Dir unsere Hingabe und unsere Liebe. Nimm sie an, unsere Mutter. Lass uns über Deine Tugenden nachdenken und lehre uns, sie nachzuahmen. Mögen wir Dir jeden Tag mehr ähneln, um dem Herrn zu gefallen, wie Du es getan hast und so in Frieden und Freude leben und um dann mit Dir die ewige Glückseligkeit der Herrlichkeit zu teilen. Amen.

Oh, Jungfrau von Candelaria, über allen Geschöpfen gesegnete. Wir beten, dass Deine Seele heute bei uns sein wird, um unsere Anbetung für Gott zu bezeugen.
Die ganze Erde erhebt sich für unsere geliebte Dame.
Erbarme Dich denen, die auf Dich vertrauen, Du bist der Hafen der Erlösung.
Beschütze uns vor allen Gefahren, besonders vor Stürmen, Wind und Hagel und ewiger Verdammnis.
Oh, Maria, unsere Hoffnung, unser Schutz und unser Beistand, zeige uns den Weg zu Jesus.
Gott erlöse Dich, Maria.

Tägliche Gebete

Erster Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria, die in den Augen Gottes rein war: Du warst bereit, wie ein Sünder gereinigt zu werden, um uns zu lehren, wie wichtig es ist, in Gottes Gnade zu leben. Wir wollen es Dir gleichtun und auch versuchen, dem Leben in Gottes Augen gebührende Bedeutung zu geben, obwohl wir uns selbst demütigen müssen, um unsere Sünden in der Beichte zu erkennen. Amen.

Zweiter Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria, die, obwohl sie voller Heiligkeit ist, sich dennoch im Tempel offenbart hat, um das Gesetz Gottes zu erfüllen: lass uns es Dir gleichtun und mache, dass auch wir unseren Tempel lieben und ihn mehr und mehr als einen Ort unserer Annäherung an Gott betrachten. Amen.

Dritter Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria, die nicht zögerte, Ihren Sohn Jesus in die Hände Simeons zu legen, wissend, wie er im Tempel für die Gnade betete, den Erlöser zu sehen, damit auch wir seufzend danach verlangen Christus in unserem Herzen zu haben und so überbringe es Gott. Amen.

Vierter Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria: die, nachdem sie ihren Sohn Jesus im Tempel vorgestellt hat, die Verkündigung ihrer Schmerzen gehört und sie als den Willen Gottes akzeptiert hat, lass uns nicht dieses Schwert werden und unsere Sünden die Ursache deiner Sorgen. Amen.

Fünfter Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria: Du, die nicht im Tempel erschienen ist und niemals auf ihre Stellung als Mutter Gottes Bezug genommen hat, um die Wichtigkeit und den Wert der Demut zu demonstrieren, lass uns ewige Selbstbezogenheit beiseite legen und mögen wir nach Deinem Vorbild in Wertschätzung der Demut wachsen. Amen.

Sechster Tag

Oh selige Jungfrau von Candelaria: Wir beten, dass Du für uns von Deinem geliebten Sohn, unserem Herrn Jesus Christus, die Gnade erlangst, Deine Tugenden nachzuahmen, die Gebote zu halten und vom Schrecken der Todsünde abgestoßen zu werden. Eines Tages werden wir uns ewig im Himmel freuen. Amen.

Siebter Tag

Liebe Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria: im Bewusstsein unserer Schwächen kommen wir zu Dir, damit Du für uns die Gnade unseres Herrn Jesus Christus erlangst, ein Leben führen zu können, welches unserer christlichen Berufung würdig ist, um Deine Tugenden nachzuahmen und als Belohnung das ewige Leben zu erhalten. Amen.

Achter Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria, durch Deine jungfräuliche Reinheit, Deine unbefleckte Empfängnis und Dein Vorrecht als Mutter Gottes, erlange für mich von Deinem geliebten Sohn Demut, Gelassenheit, Reinheit des Herzens, des Körpers und des Geistes, heilige Beharrlichkeit im Guten, die Gabe des Gebets, ein heiliges Leben und eine herrliche Ewigkeit. Amen.

Neunter Tag

Unbefleckte Jungfrau von Candelaria: Durch Deinen Gehorsam gegenüber dem Vater, der sich unseres Stolzes und unserer Arroganz bewusst ist, bitten wir Dich, uns zu helfen, den Willen Gottes anzunehmen, damit unser ganzes Leben ein erneuertes Ja zum Willen des Ewigen Vaters werden kann. Amen.

Schlussgebet

Wir danken dir, unsere heilige Jungfrau und Mutter. Wir sind Deine Kinder und wir geben uns in Deine Hände, damit Du uns erziehst und uns zu wahren Kindern Gottes, heiligen und frohen Christen zu machen. Amen.

Ehre sei dem Vater und dem Sohn und dem Heiligen Geist.
Wie es am Anfang war, jetzt und für immer und ewig. Amen.

Heilige Jungfrau von Candelaria.
Bete für uns. (dreimal)

Räucherung

Als passendes begleitendes Räucherwerk empfehle ich kanarische Kräuter, z.B. die aus meinem anderen Artikel, oder getrocknete "smudge-sticks" aus Kanarischem Beifuß, oder natürlich einfach Weihrauch.

Diosa Madre Chaxiraxi

2018-06-14T11:30:00+02:00

Version 1.2 - 14/06/2018

Introduction

I was baptised and raised Protestant and have always been puzzled by and admired Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin. During my spiritual journey I have always been drawn more towards the old pagan goddesses and archetypes of the feminine divine, who seemed to have more depth than merely praising the Catholic virtues of "immaculate virginity" or "divine motherhood" and the Neopagan analog of "Maiden, Mother, and Crone" that always felt way too patriachic to me.

It was the outstanding book "The Black Virgin" by Jean Hani that blew my mind, explained and "jailbroke" the "Marian Mysteries" for me. After I had finished it I finally understood the underlying forces of this archetype and immediately felt an urge to connect to her, the "Primordial Mother", the "Shekhinah", "Shakti", "Magna Mater", the "Yin" in the cosmic duality of "Yin and Yang" in her Christian form as Blessed Virgin Maria.

Through my life-long connection to the magic of the Canary Islands I eventually found a form of her that I could very much relate to and connect with and I am happy I got to meet her "in person" on a vacation I did this year.

Before the Beginning of things Thou didst exist in the form of a Darkness which is beyond both speech and mind, and of Thee by the creative desire of the Supreme Brahman was the entire Universe born. This Universe, from the great principle of Mahat down to the gross elements, has been created by Thee, since Brahman Cause of all causes is but the instrumental Cause. It is the Ever-existent, Changeless, Omnipresent, Pure Intelligence unattached to, yet existing in and enveloping all things. It acts not, neither does It enjoy. It moves not, neither is It motionless. It is the Truth and Knowledge, without beginning or end, Ineffable and Incomprehensible. (Mahanirvana Tantra, Chapter 4, 24-28)

This article is about the patron saint of the Canary Islands, the Virgen de la Candelaria and how she is a syncretized form of an older Guanche goddess called Chaxiraxi. For better contextual understanding and my interest in her form of the Blessed Virgin Mary, please check my other article.

Pronunciation Note: The Guanche terms and names in this article are written in a phonetic way suitable for English speakers, but consider the following rules:

"ch" (t͡ʃ) pronounced like the "ch" in "leach"
"sh" (ʃ) pronounced like the "sh" in "sheep"
"gh" (ɣ) is a bit more difficult as it does not exist in English and it is pronounced like the "g" in the Spanish word "amigo" or the Portugese word "agora" or the German word "damalige" or the "γ" in the Greek word "γάλα". In Spanish representations of Guanche language it was usually written as an "x".

La Morenita

Once upon a time, long before the Canary Islands were even known to the Christian world (approximately during the 14th century) two Guanche herdsmen pasturing their flocks had to cross a sandy beach going towards a ravine when suddenly their sheep were frightened and turned back. One of the shepherds went forward to see what had frightened the flock and saw a dark figure standing on a rock, holding an infant. He took a stone and raised his arm threatening that he would throw it. At that moment he was paralyzed and stiff and could not move his arm anymore. The shepherds were puzzled about this and came close to the figure, a statue of a woman holding a baby. Still unsure whether it was alive or not one of them tried to cut one of the statue's fingers with a sharp tool and miraculously only found himself cutting his own until he was bleeding.

[...] the most important element concerning the origin of Black Virgins is the collection of legends explaining in it terms of a miraculous 'discovery'. Nine times out of ten these statues were found, thanks to a supernatural sign, underground, in a tree, flowering bush, spring, lake, well, or foundation. And eight times out of ten it was an ox that made the discovery [...] (The Black Virgin, pg. 15) (1)

The two herdsmen went straight to their Mencey (king) to report what had happened and he was so curious about this, that he ordered them to go and bring this figure to him. When they carried the statue back to him their stiff arm and cut finger were suddently healed. The Mencey and his followers concluded that this visitor must be something supernatural or divine and the statue was put into the Mencey's cave palace at Chinguaro.

Decades later when some of the islands were already in Spanish hands, the Mencey of Güímar learned from a baptized Guanche who came from Mahorata (Fuerteventura) who the depicted lady was. Not knowing anything about Christian faith they still understood the identity of the icon and called her "atch mayes wayya ghi raghi āhghuran ashshaman" - "the mother of him, the spirit that is sustenance of the universe. Sparkling one. Heavenly one." - short "Chaghiraghi" (Spanish: "Chaxiraxi"). The statue was moved from the Mencey's cave to Achbinico, a lava cave right next to the sea.

From the reports about this legends from later missionaries and Spanish historians it usually seems that the Guanches had picked up veneration of the Virgin Mary as something completely new that would replace their pagan beliefs, and that the Achbinico cave was established for this spiritual purpose. But according to carbon-14 dating of ashes found in the cave it had been used for ritual purposes for already at least 3,000 years and had a sacred eternal fire like the Vesta in Rome.

A stone stele known as "Stone of Taganana" was found in a different village on Tenerife that featured engravings of symbols, and most prominently the symbolic representation of the Catharginian goddess Tanit. So it is obvious to assume that the Guanches already had a concept of a primordial mother goddess they called "Chaghiraghi" and saw in the found statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary a fitting representation of an already venerated female divine principle. This goddess even had a herd of over six hundred goats under her protection who had their own grazing land forbidden to be trespassed by anyone and rams from that herd were used as sacrifice - something that resonates with ancient Phoenician cults, but also with the mediterranean goddess Artemis, to whom goats were sacred before the bear became important in more Northern areas (6). A number of names and by-names of Artemis/Astarte has an uncanny overlap with personal names (Artemi, Artendeyfa) and locatives (Artejeita, Artagayda, Aritarime, Artaos, Artenara) on the Canary Islands, as well as the royal title Guanarteme (guan arteme = "Man of Artemis") which Menceys of Gran Canaria carried (6). All evidence that the mother goddess was present for millennia on the Canaries before she took the form of La Morenita.

...the Virgin Mary recapitulates and stores the ancient figure of the neolithic Great Mother, which, over the course of time, had deteriorated in some of its materialized forms [...]. The spiritual message that the pre-Christian figures were no longer able to deliver passed over to Mary, in whom the total truth burned anew through the eternal symbols she salvaged, a truth that is [...] an essential element of every religious conception (The Black Virgin, pg. 69) (1)

The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary became known as the "Lady of Candelaria" and she became and remained until today a strongly venerated patron saint of the Canary Islands. She is one of the enigmatic "Black Madonnas" also found all across Europe, built from a dark, almost black wood, and thus her nickname among the Spanish until today is "La Morenita" ("the little brown one").

Under its benefic aspect, [...] black symbolizes mystery, the inexpressible and ineffable, and inwardness, particularly in connection with Knowledge. Obviously, the black representations of the Virgin should be considered under this latter aspect, and immediately we recognize in the symbolism of the color black the principal characteristics and attributes of the Virgin [...]. First and foremost, we have the chthonic character of Mary as she is likened to the earth, for black evokes not only its surface, which more often than not is dark, but more especially its inwardness, its mysterious depth, which is revealed at the surface in grottoes and caverns, those privileged places of manifestation of the Virgin, and their ritual substitutes, crypts. These places recall the womb of the earth, where life develops in darkness, and thus immediately refers us to the maternal womb; we could also say to the womb of the waters, whose depths are the image of the dark Primordial Waters. The maternal womb is related to the mystery of life, the gestation of wheat in the earth being the image of that of the embryo in the belly of the mother. The blackness of the earth, like that of deep waters, also has two senses: its visible color, or inwardness, and the mystery of the hidden gestation of life. (The Black Virgin, pg. 85-86) (1)

Symbols and Codes

The Lady of Candelaria has her name from the tall green candle that she carries in her left hand (Axis Mundi?!). The 16th century Historian Alonso di Espinosa described La Morenita in detail:

This image is of carved work and perfectly finished, the like of which I have never seen in my life. It is almost five palmos (1 meter) in stature, and the pedestal on which its feet are placed has a thickness of two dedos. It is of reddish wood, not very heavy, close-grained, but it is not known to what tree it belongs. The face is very perfectly proportioned to the body, rather long, the eyes grand and so placed, that in whatever direction a man may be they look as if they were fixed on him. Such gravity and majesty is represented in them, and in the face, that no one can look at them fixedly without his shoulders rising and his hair standing on end. (2)

An interesting feature of the figure is that infant Jesus is holding a bird in his hands. It alludes to the interpretation of it symbolizing the Holy Spirit, but my mage friend Ricardo pointed out to me that it could also relate to a chapter in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, an apocryphical text about the wizardy youth of Jesus:

This little child Jesus when he was five years old was playing at the ford of a brook [...] And having made soft clay, he fashioned thereof twelve sparrows. And it was the Sabbath when he did these things. [...] And Joseph came to the place and saw: and cried out to him, saying: Wherefore doest thou these things on the Sabbath, which it is not lawful to do? But Jesus clapped his hands together and cried out to the sparrows and said to them: Go! and the sparrows took their flight and went away chirping. (Infancy Gospel of Thomas, II. 1-3)

The Virgen de la Candelaria had letters engraved in the carved drapery that puzzled people for centuries as it doesn't make any sense in any known liturgical language and the words were assumed to be secrets written in a code. The meaning was unknown until 2007, when the Spanish philologist specialized on North African Tamazight language, Ignacio Reyes decoded their meanings (3):

In the waistband of the neck:
Text: TIEPFSEPMERI
Pronounciation: Ti yebb f sǎb Meri
Translation: The Father protected by the Virgin Mary.

In the left sleeve:
Text: LPVRINENIPEPNEIFANT
Pronounciation: Lbu rinni bǎb nə ǎfa ənt
Translation: Be gracious in the victory Lord of the original eternal light.

In the lower part of the tunic:
Text: EAFM IRENINI FMEAREI
Pronounciation: Ê af-m irenni f-əme arey
Translation: Oh, your find increases the protection against superstition!

In the belt:
Text: NARMPRLMOTARE
Pronounciation: Narəm əbər ɣər muttar
Translation: Sharing food is a duty towards the needy

On the mantle, on the right arm:
Text: OLM INRANFR IAEBNPFM RFVEN NVINAPIMLIFINVIPI NIPIAN
Pronounciation: Ul-m yən ǎr anfər Iaeb ənubi f-m ǎr fwen. Nwi-ina bib am əliffi n wibbib. Ni bi-an.
Translation: Your heart, the place of the treasure more important, Yahweh child over you, luminous treasure. A weight in our consciousness is like a pile that is carried on our backs. Dominate that load.

On the border of the left hand:
Text: FVPMIRNA ENVPMTI EPNMPIR VRVIVINRN APVIMFRI PIVNIAN NTRHN
Pronounciation: Ffu b-mirna. Ǝnubi am ti ewen am bir ur wiwi-n rn, abu i məfri. Bib-wən əyyan nut ərɣun.
Translation: Dawn, great power. The child, like the father and the path of perfection, avoid illness, they are a balm for the person who suffers. Your only weight must be a bright candle.

In the back, in the tail:
Text: NBIMEI ANNEIPERFMIVIFVF
Pronounciation: Nəbbi y əməyyi, An-năy əberref mi əwif Uf
Translation: We welcome the ignorant pagan. We will forgive the offense that is fear of the Sublime.

Abduction and Disappearance

The Lord of the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Sancho de Herrera, heard of the legendary Virgen de la Candelaria and he wanted to possess her and was convinced that she should belong to the Christians who understood how to appreciate and venerate her, while the Guanches, being a people without God, did not possess that knowledge. The Mencey of Güímar denied his request of transferring the statue to his island, so Sancho de Herrera plotted a kidnapping. The seizure was successful and La Morenita found a new home in the church of San Salvador on Lanzarote where she was venerated with great joy and devotion. But Lady Morenita did not like it.

For in the morning of the day after they had very joyfully received the image, they found it turned with its face to the wall and its back to the people, which was no small mortification for them. They turned it with its face to the people, but as often as they did so, it was found next morning with its back to them. The people consulted together and determined to have processions, public prayers and penances, that the Lord might see fit to let them have that sacred image, for they knew better how to serve and venerate it than the gentile Guanches where it had made its first appearance. But God was not served by listening to them, and another course was ordained. In order to undeceive them, a noisome and pestilential sickness was sent, of which many persons died. (2)

Sancho de Herrera decided to bring La Candelaria back to her original cave, but when he arrived there nobody believed him that the statue had been stolen, because she had been seen by the locals in her usual spot all the time - to them she had never been absent!

Decades later, after all of the Canary Islands and their autochtonous inhabitants had been brutally murdered, raped and forced into submission and conversion to the Christian faith by the Spanish overlords, the Lady of Candelaria was moved into a larger home a stone-throw away from her cave, the Basilica de la Virgen de Candelaria that better suited the growing number of pilgrims and which featured more pomp that seemed more appropriate to the new servants of La Morenita. A small chapel was built in front of the Achbinico cave entrance and dedicated to Saint Blas.

The Black Lady seemed to not really have liked her new home. She had to bear with it for a few centuries, but in the year 1826 a big storm hit Tenerife that created such rivers of water coming down from the mountains that it flooded the Basilica and washed the statue of the Lady of Candelaria into the sea. Back to where she had risen from five hundred years before.

Whoso knows my essence in the water of the inner sea, Attains he the Goddess’s abode. (Devi Upanishad, 7)

Spirit on a Mission

The Basilica was rebuilt and a new statue was made to replace the lost icon. A bronze copy of the original icon of la Morenita was made and put in her old spot in the Achbinico cave as a memorial. It is a quite strong image, because the bronze is all black and her famous gaze has been replicated in an uncanny way it gave me chills when I saw it.

The rebirth did not lessen the passionate devotion she enjoys up until today, not only on the Canaries, but across the world, especially in the Americas and the Philippines, to which Canarian migrants had taken their cult along with them. In the Cathedral of San Fernando of Texas, USA is a replica of the Virgin of Candelaria, which is accurate to the venerated in the Canary Islands. This is because the city of San Antonio was founded by Canarians. She is widely venerated in South America and the Caribbean, Bolivia, Medellín, Puerto Rico, and she is the patroness of Western Visayas and Negros Occidental in the Philippines.

In Cuban Santería, the Virgin of Candelaria is identified with Oyá as well as Oba. In Brazilian Candomblé, the Virgin of Candelaria is identified with Oshun. For the indigenous people in the Andes, she is identified with the Pachamama.

The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. (Proverbs 8:22-31)

Stella Maris

The Catholic Feast Day of La Candelaria is on Candlemas (February 2nd) and on the Canary Islands she is celebrated mainly on August 15th.

Both dates are roughly in sync with the heliacal setting and rising of the brightest star of the Southern Hemisphere, Canopus. This ties her back nicely into the ancient Guanche / Berber cult of Chaghiraghi / Tanit for whom this star is the mother of him, the spirit that is sustenance of the universe. A similar association exists also in other parts of the world:

Atutuahi is the star Canopus, hymned as ‘the Mother of the Moon and Stars.’ Sometimes male, Atutuahi is one of the primary stars used by the Polynesians for open ocean navigation, equivalent to the Northern Hemisphere’s Pole Star. (Star.ships) (4)

Christian Conspiracy

Today it is taken for granted that the original image of La Candelaria with the amazigh inscriptions on her drapery was left on the beach in Tenerife on purpose by very early missionary friars of the Islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. And for their planned mission to fully unfold, they used the aforementioned Guanche that had been captured before, then "Christianized", and finally returned to their land to tell his people about the Virgin Mary: the one today known as Anton the Guanche Monk.

Depending on who you ask, their conspiracy was a success and turned the heathens into devote followers of the BVM, or it failed because the inhabitants of Tenerife simply continued their already ancient cult of Chaghiraghi now disguised under the embroidered mantle of the Virgin of Candelaria. In the end it does not matter, because from the spirits perspective the Primordial Mother prevailed, flourished and spread across the globe.

Dialing up La Candelaria

Aside of inhaling the island's omnipresent magic on every step I took on our vacation on Tenerife, through the lava deserts, pine and laurel forests and black beaches, I had some rituals planned to connect to the local spirits and Queen Chaghiraghi herself. I prayed the novena to la Morenita for nine days in a row and visited her on the last day to give praise and do the last prayer in front of her. It was a quite touching moment.

I did some research about fragments from the Guanche language and found some that can be used as "barbarous words". I added them to known prayers to the Virgin de Candelaria, which you can find below. To stick with the strictly Catholic originals, just omit the Guanche parts.

Prayers to Chaghiraghi

Oh, atch mayes wayya ghi raghi ahghuran ashshaman (a), Oh Lady of Candles, Oh Great Mother, blessed above all creatures, I pray that your soul is now with me as I give tribute of my worship to the Creator.

Achuhuraghan achuhukanak, A atti chchash shagren sha ondi, Wassksad anti ishachcha-ana, onan-da er ar-i (b)

Virgen de la Candelaria, we come to you with the trust and simplicity of children. We arrived with our anxieties and hopes, our joys and sorrows, with the fatigue of work and the weight of our sins; with all that we are and have.

Virgen de la Candelaria, You are the first carrier of Light, which is Christ; You are our Mother; You wrangling us with Christ the Saviour; You are our hope, comfort and joy; You accompany us in the city, the desert, the valleys, the mines, and the sea; You are our star on the way to the Father; You are our footpath to meet Jesus.

Virgen de la Candelaria, Virgin Mother of God, hear our prayers, bless our homes, obtain for work and health; teach us to hear the word of your Son and to live it every day, obedient to the Holy Spirit. We know to build a nation of brotherhood in our Church and in our land. Amen.

And here a shorter prayer:

Atch mayes wayya ghi raghi ahghuran ashshaman (a),
Our Lady of Candles, give me a mother’s protection
for I need your watchful care.
Comfort me in my discouragements,
solace me in my fatigues,
raise me after my falls,
reward me for my successes.

Our Lady of Candles, bearer of Jesus, the Light of the world,
please obtain for me this favor… (silently mention your petition here).
I shall always rely on your help,
to be what Jesus wants me to be.
Achwayaghiragh (c),
I am His; I am yours, my good Mother. Amen.

Translations of the 'barbarous words':

(a) the mother of him, the spirit that is sustenance of the universe. Sparkling one. Heavenly one.
(b) Here is this that is in the fiery or bright, here is this one that is in the rain, from the rising of the sun to its sunset the Name of Yahweh is praised
(c) here is the spirit that (is) sustenance (or support) of the universe

Instead of these, also other prayers can be used to address the mother goddess, for examples Orphic Hymns (5) to Hera, Rhea, Gaia, or any other of the desired forms of the archetype, but most self-evidently the hymn of Meter Theon:

(The Fumigation from a Variety of Odoriferous Substances.) Mother of Gods [Meter Theon], great nurse of all, draw near, divinely honored, and regard my prayer: Throned on a car, by lions drawn along, by bull-destroying lions, swift and strong, Thou swayest the sceptre of the pole divine, and the world's middle seat, much-famed, is thine. Hence earth is thine, and needy mortals share their constant food, from thy protecting care: From thee at first both Gods and men arose; from thee, the sea and every river flows. Vesta [Hestia], and source of good, thy name we find to mortal men rejoicing to be kind; For every good to give, thy soul delights; come, mighty power, propitious to our rites, All-taming, blessed, Phrygian saviour, come, Saturn's [Kronos'] great queen, rejoicing in the drum. Celestial, ancient, life-supporting maid, fanatic Goddess, give thy suppliant aid; With joyful aspect on our incense shine, and, pleased, accept the sacrifice divine. (5)

Another beautiful option is the Prayer to Tanit taken from the English translation of Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô" by M. Walter Dunne:

Oh Tanit, white deity, goodness fecund, oh mirror of purity, send in severity your beams on the world. Your radiant chariot is in horror of sombre night. So mysterious monsters, as soon as you appear, return to the desolate gloom. How lightly you slip through the clouds moist and clear. The golden stars in the firmament. like a flock gently go where you guide them. You reign on the ocean where the wave mounts on high; fill the air with thy splendor, carpeting earth with flowers, at the bottom of the sea the pearl. The crowd madly in love follows thee, enchantress. You take them in your course, changing as you do every day, only more youthful tomorrow. Oh, Tanit, white goddess, goodness fecund, oh, mirror of purity, send in severity your beams on the world.

Novena to the Blessed Virgin of Candelaria

(Based on this with translated additions from here)

Novenas are prayed on nine days in a row, optimal is the same hour of the day on each of the nine days. Start each with the Opening Prayer followed by the day's prayer and finish with the Closing Prayer.

Opening Prayer

Dear Virgen de la Candelaria: we gather together with you. We bring our devotion and our love. Accept it, our Mother. Let us contemplate your virtues and teach us to imitate them. May we resemble you more each day, to please the Lord as you did and live like this, in peace and joy and then come to share with you the eternal bliss of glory. Amen.

Day 1

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria: you who being pure in the sight of God, were yet willing to be purified like a sinner to teach us the importance of living in God's grace, grant that we, in imitation of you, seek to give due importance to being purified in the eyes of God, even though we should humble ourselves to recognize our sins in confession. Amen.

Day 2

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria, who, being full of holiness have nevertheless presented yourself at the temple to fulfill the Law of God, grant that we, in imitation of you, come to love our church and consider it more each day as a place to approach God. Amen.

Day 3

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria: you who did not hesitate to put your son Jesus into the hands of Simeon, knowing how he prayed in the temple for the grace of seeing the Redeemer grant that we too may sigh to have Christ in our heart so that you may hand it to God. Amen.

Day 4

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria: You who upon presenting your son Jesus in the temple heard the announcement of your pain and accepted it as the will of God, grant, that we shall not become that prophesied sword and our sins the cause of your pain. Amen.

Day 5

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria, You who neither upon presenting yourself in the temple nor at any time thereafter invoked your condition as Mother of God, demonstrating the importance and value of humility, let us put aside everlasting self-concern and based on your example may we grow in appreciation of humility. Amen.

Day 6

Oh Blessed Lady of Candelaria: we pray that you obtain for us from your beloved Son Our Lord Jesus Christ the grace to imitate your virtues, keep the commandments and be repelled by the horror of mortal sin. So one day we will rejoice eternally in heaven. Amen.

Day 7

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria: aware of our weaknesses, we come to you, so that you may obtain for us the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be able to lead a life worthy of our Christian vocation, to imitate your virtues and thus obtain the reward of eternal life. Amen.

Day 8

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria, through your virginal purity, your immaculate conception and your prerogative as Mother of God, obtain for me from your beloved son, humility, serenity, purity of heart, body and spirit, holy perseverance in what is good, the gift of prayer, a holy life and glorious eternity. Amen.

Day 9

Immaculate Lady of Candelaria; by your obedience to the Father, aware of our pride and arrogance, we beseech you to assist us to accept the will of God, so that our whole life may become a renewed Yes to the will of the Eternal Father. Amen.

Closing Prayer

We thank you, our Mother and Lady. We are your children and we put ourselves in your hands, so that you educate us and make us true children of God, holy and joyful Christians. Amen.

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, now and forever and ever. Amen.

Blessed Virgin of Candelaria. Pray for us. (3 times)

Incense

A suitable incense for all invocations would be an ancient Guanche mix of Canarian herbs, which you can find in my other article, or dried "smudge-sticks" of Artemisia thuscula, or simply frankincense.

Other

Here is a beautiful poetic piece I found on the website of the Order of the Black Madonna about the spirit of the Lady of Candelaria that I resonate well with.

Bibliography

(1) Hani, Jean. "La Vierge noire et le mystère marial". Trédaniel, 1995. / "The Black Virgin - A Marian Mystery". Sophia Perennis, 2008.

(2) Espinosa, Alonso de. "The Guanches of Tenerife, the holy image of Our Lady of Candelaria, and the Spanish conquest and settlement", 16th cent; Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert), Sir, 1830-1916

(3) Reyes García, Ignacio. "La madre del cielo. Estudio de filología ínsuloamazighe." (2007).

(4) White, Gordon. Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits. Scarlet Imprint / Bibliothèque Rouge. Kindle Edition.

(5) The Hymns of Orpheus. Translated by Taylor, Thomas (1792). University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

(6) Caridad Arias, Joaquin. "Artemis-Astarte". Die Göttin in der vorspanischen kanarischen Kultur. Almogaren 32-33. Wien 2002

Rehoboam's Cheat Sheet

2018-05-08T20:00:00+02:00

(updated 20/01/2019)

Pay attention, my dearest son Rehoboam, to the details of this art of mine, your father Solomon, regarding the things in which the entire attention of Hygromanteia lies...

For talisman and sigil creation, as well as for other minor spells that don't fall into my usual PGM inspired practice I like using the days and hours and their angels and daimons from the Hygromanteia. The inspiration came from Gordon White who uses them in his sigil practice.

This is a cheat sheet in the sense that it is a searchable digital document and features different language options for the prayers and conjurations. I switched from using the more popular 15th century Codex Harleianus 5596 manuscript version of the Hygromanteia to the 16th century Codex Monacensis 70 because it's the only one featuring the lists of the angels and the daimons of the hours I could find in Greek online and because the planetary prayers are shorter and more to the point. It suits me well because as adoration of the planetary deities I usually already recite the Orphic Hymns beforehand.

The German translations have been done by myself and are freely available (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license). The English translations are copied from The Magical Treatise of Solomon - or Hygromanteia by Ioannis Marathakis and fixed where needed. All rights remain reserved.

The Epistle to Rehoboam

it is absolutely necessary to find the proper hour in order to accomplish your will. At first recite the prayer of the planet that rules this hour and then conjure the angel and the servant, that is to say, the demon.

Afterwards, draw the characters of the planet with the appropriate ink and incense. The lord and ruler of the hour will grant you the power he owns.

The Hours of the Days

Hour Elections

Day	Hour	Ruler	Purpose
☉	1	☉	[Begin an adress]
☉	2	♀	it is good for getting the love of lords, great men and rulers
☉	3	☿	good for encounters with lords
☉	4	☽	for addressing to lords
☉	5	♄	for preventing encounters
☉	6	♃	for appearing before lords
☉	7	♂	take care to do nothing
☉	8	☉	do anything you need regarding lords
☉	9	♀	the same regarding ladies
☉	10	☿	for making a petition
☉	11	☽	start an address
☉	12	♄	do nothing
☉	13	♃	speak in aid of friends
☉	14	♂	for preventing an address
☉	15	☉	for sending dreams to a king
☉	16	♀	for sending dreams to a lady
☉	17	☿	do nothing
☉	18	☽	a good hour for working
☉	19	♄	take care to do nothing
☉	20	♃	for getting the love of lords
☉	21	♂	for restraining somebody's activities
☉	22	☉	for appearing before a king
☉	23	♀	for appearing before a lady
☉	24	☿	rest
☽	1	☽	it is good for making a talisman for buying or selling
☽	2	♄	bad hour
☽	3	♃	good hour for opening workshops
☽	4	♂	for restraining workshops
☽	5	☉	for beginning to sell
☽	6	♀	for dealings
☽	7	☿	for going on a journey
☽	8	☽	for buying
☽	9	♄	for restraining
☽	10	♃	set up a business, [f 241)
☽	11	♂	for preventing luck
☽	12	☉	set up a business
☽	13	♀	rest
☽	14	☿	for earning a living
☽	15	☽	work on your affairs
☽	16	♄	do not work on anything
☽	17	♃	write and speak (for your affairs)
☽	18	♂	for restraining and hindering
☽	19	☉	start plans
☽	20	♀	rest and work on affairs
☽	21	☿	move and stir affairs
☽	22	☽	reckon your plan
☽	23	♄	do not work on anything
☽	24	♃	open your workshop
♂	1	♂	it is good for making a talisman for winning at war and the similar
♂	2	☉	for taking loot
♂	3	♀	for displaying your (military) skills
♂	4	☿	for going to war
♂	5	☽	for going and returning
♂	6	♄	beware of the war
♂	7	♃	for appearing before enemies
♂	8	♂	ask for aid
♂	9	☉	for taking loot from a castle
♂	10	♀	for doing mighty deeds
♂	11	☿	for standing out
♂	12	☽	hour for despoiling slain enemies
♂	13	♄	be careful
♂	14	♃	for bringing someone into discredit
♂	15	♂	for asking aid for your salvation
♂	16	☉	useless
♂	17	♀	for rising in honor
♂	18	☿	for escaping
♂	19	☽	for winning over opponents
♂	20	♄	for marching against enemies
♂	21	♃	for keeping concealed
♂	22	♂	pray to God
♂	23	☉	for appearing at war
♂	24	♀	enviable hour
☿	1	☿	it is good for making (a talisman) for invisibility and the similar; also for teaching children
☿	2	☽	for resting and cheering
☿	3	♄	useless hour
☿	4	♃	for practicing alchemy
☿	5	♂	for revealing secret things
☿	6	☉	for finding treasures
☿	7	♀	for dominating a woman
☿	8	☿	for making (a talisman) regarding the decision of a tribunal
☿	9	☽	for cohabiting with a woman
☿	10	♄	be careful
☿	11	♃	begin whatever you want
☿	12	♂	do nothing
☿	13	☉	win over a discourse
☿	14	♀	begin praying
☿	15	☿	for making (a talisman) concerning dreams
☿	16	☽	for casting binding spells
☿	17	♄	useless hour
☿	18	♃	for harming people
☿	19	♂	for making retribution
☿	20	☉	hour useful for everything» [f 242]
☿	21	♀	for sending dreams
☿	22	☿	for teaching
☿	23	☽	hour for casting binding spells
☿	24	♄	useless hour
♃	1	♃	it is good for making (a talisman) concerning the healing of any man or animal
♃	2	♂	useless hour
♃	3	☉	for appearing before kings
♃	4	♀	for appearing before a lady
♃	5	☿	for the learning of rhetoric
♃	6	☽	for changing residence
♃	7	♄	be careful at this hour
♃	8	♃	good and blessed hour
♃	9	♂	hour for causing jealousy
♃	10	☉	for making (a talisman) concerning the benefit of your body
♃	11	♀	for healing a woman
♃	12	☿	for emigrating far away
♃	13	☽	for success
♃	14	♄	useless hour
♃	15	♃	hour for every kind of healing
♃	16	♂	for making surgical incisions
♃	17	☉	for healing kings
♃	18	♀	for healing a lady
♃	19	☿	for not being afraid of robbers
♃	20	☽	useful hour
♃	21	♄	useless hour
♃	22	♃	in this useful hour do whatever you want
♃	23	♂	for causing hassles
♃	24	☉	make (a talisman) regarding decisions of tribunals and lords
♀	1	♀	make (a talisman) concerning love and affection
♀	2	☿	for messages of matchmaking
♀	3	☽	good for everything
♀	4	♄	obstacles of love
♀	5	♃	for gifts and pleasant conversations
♀	6	♂	for causing jealousy in love
♀	7	☉	good hour, beneficial for love
♀	8	♀	good hour for making (a talisman) concerning love
♀	9	☿	hour for messages concerning engagements
♀	10	☽	good hour, if you want to do something
♀	11	♄	it is a useless hour
♀	12	♃	for making agreements
♀	13	♂	begin an engagement
♀	14	☉	for binding a couple with a spell
♀	15	♀	for binding someone with love spells
♀	16	☿	for sending dreams of love
♀	17	☽	good hour
♀	18	♄	for sending dreams of hatred
♀	19	♃	for making (talismans) towards any beneficial aim
♀	20	♂	do nothing
♀	21	☉	good hour
♀	22	♀	an hour of love
♀	23	☿	hour for alchemy
♀	24	☽	for restraining (love)
♄	1	♄	it is an hour for making (a talisman) for the harm of your enemies; that is to say, for striking men with illness
♄	2	♃	for causing a shipwreck
♄	3	♂	for setting up enchantments
♄	4	☉	for making lords fight each other
♄	5	♀	for making a couple hate each other
♄	6	☿	useful for finding a treasure
♄	7	☽	for speaking with demons
♄	8	♄	for performing basin divination
♄	9	♃	for performing skull divination
♄	10	♂	for causing peoples to plunge into the sea
♄	11	☉	for making litigants mad at each other
♄	12	♀	for causing fear and enmity
♄	13	☿	beneficial for discovering secret things
♄	14	☽	for seeing people long dead
♄	15	♄	for seeing visions by water divination
♄	16	♃	useful for teaching
♄	17	♂	very malign hour
♄	18	☉	useless hour
♄	19	♀	for gaining money in dice
♄	20	☿	for restraining every good thing
♄	21	☽	hour without virtue
♄	22	♄	for causing visions
♄	23	♃	useful for profit
♄	24	♂	hour for hassle and enmity

Angels and Daimons of the Hours

Day	Hour	Ruler	Angel of the Hour	Phonetic	Daimon of the Hour	Phonetic
☉	1	☉	Μιχαηλ	Michaēl	’Ασμουαι	Asmouai
☉	2	♀	Αρφαναηλ	Arphanaēl	Ορναι	Ornai
☉	3	☿	Περουηλ	Perouēl	Πηρραθ	Pērrath
☉	4	☽	Ιωραηλ	Iōraēl	Σιληδων	Silēdōn
☉	5	♄	Πιελ	Piel	Σιτρος	Sitros
☉	6	♃	Ιωχθ	Iōchth	Ζηφαρ	Zēphar
☉	7	♂	Πελ	Pel	Μανιηρ	Maniēr
☉	8	☉	Ιοραν	Ioran	Οσμιε	Osmie
☉	9	♀	Καταηλ	Kataēl	Πνιξ	Pnix
☉	10	☿	Βιδουηλ	Bidouēl	Γηρατ	Gērat
☉	11	☽	Ηδιηλ	Ēdiēl	Νηστα	Nēsta
☉	12	♄	Σαναηλ	Sanaēl	Πελιωρ	Peliōr
☉	13	♃	Οψιηλ	Opsiēl	Ο Ιστος	Hoistos
☉	14	♂	Τεραηλ	Teraēl	Απιος	Apios
☉	15	☉	Λυσιελ	Lysiel	Νηγμος	Nēgmos
☉	16	♀	Ναλουηλ	Nalouēl	Αραξ	Arax
☉	17	☿	Ορκιηλ	Orkiēl	Νηστριαφ	Nēstriaph
☉	18	☽	Περιηλ	Periēl	Ασκινος	Askinos
☉	19	♄	Ιαρηλ	Iarēl	Κινοπιγος	Kinopigos
☉	20	♃	Αθουηλ	Athouēl	Αραψ	Araps
☉	21	♂	Θαμανιηλ	Thamaniēl	Ταρταρουηλ	Tartarouēl
☉	22	☉	Βραδηλ	Bradēl	Μελμεθ	Melmeth
☉	23	♀	Κλινος	Klinos	Μηθριδανου	Mēthridanou
☉	24	☿	Ιων	Iōn	Φροδαινος	Phrodainos
☽	1	☽	Γαβριηλ	Gabriēl	Μαμονας	Mamonas
☽	2	♄	Φαρσαφβηλ	Pharsaphbēl	Σκολιων	Skoliōn
☽	3	♃	Πινδωηλ	Pindōēl	Θετιδωφ	Thetidōph
☽	4	♂	Κοτπηλ	Kotpēl	Αρβαν	Arban
☽	5	☉	Κελεκιηλ	Kelekiēl	Αζαν	Azan
☽	6	♀	Ταριηλ	Tariēl	Μεμαχθ	Memachth
☽	7	☿	Μνιηλ	Mniēl	Σκαμιδινος	Skamidinos
☽	8	☽	Εζεκιηλ	Ezekiēl	Στιρφαν	Stirphan
☽	9	♄	Ιωηλ	Iōēl	Γιραμ	Giram
☽	10	♃	Σιναηλ	Sinaēl	Μενακτινος	Menaktinos
☽	11	♂	Μεναηλ	Menaēl	Μεκακτινος	Mekaktinos
☽	12	☉	'Ροχαηλ	Rochaēl	Μεξιφων	Mexiphōn
☽	13	♀	Αρησιηλ	Arēsiēl	Ουτολωχ	Outolōch
☽	14	☿	Τραπηδωηλ	Trapēdōēl	Νυκτιδων	Nyktidōn
☽	15	☽	Ακινατιελ	Akinatiel	Ουιστος	Ouistos
☽	16	♄	Οργανιελ	Organiel	Κασιερωφ	Kasierōph
☽	17	♃	'Ρωματιηλ	Rōmatiēl	Κησιεποπος	Kēsiepopos
☽	18	♂	Σελπιδων	Selpidōn	Ανδροφαι	Androphai
☽	19	☉	Οuτιτωμ	Outitōm	Νιωεχ	Niōech
☽	20	♀	Μεταβιηλ	Metabiēl	Ενταυρος	Hentauros
☽	21	☿	Ακβαηλ	Akbaēl	Συριτωρ Φλιναφε	Syritōr Phlinaphe
☽	22	☽	Εικονιηλ	Eikoniēl	Κυκνιτ	Kyknit
☽	23	♄	Γενηκιηλ	Genēkiēl	Κηνοψ	Kēnops
☽	24	♃	Κροτιηλ	Krotiēl	Σαρκιδων	Sarkidōn
♂	1	♂	Σαμουηλ	Samouēl	Κακιστων	Kakistōn
♂	2	☉	Ιασμηλ	Iasmēl	Λιθριδων	Lithridōn
♂	3	♀	Φρερεηλ	Phrereēl	Μαιλωθ	Mailōth
♂	4	☿	Ευδηλ	Eudēl	Σαραπιδιε	Sarapidie
♂	5	☽	Πικτωηλ	Piktōēl	Ταρταρουηλ	Tartarouēl
♂	6	♄	Οκαηλ	Okaēl	Κερινουδαλος	Kerinoudalos
♂	7	♃	Γναθαηλ	Gnathaēl	Κλινοτιος	Klinotios
♂	8	♂	Περγανιηλ	Perganiēl	Τυρρυτωρ	Tyrrytōr
♂	9	☉	Γεστιηλ	Gestiēl	Πληλαταν	Plēlatan
♂	10	♀	Λεγμιελ	Legmiel	Συθλος	Sythlos
♂	11	☿	Ναχωηλ	Nachōēl	Οσθριδιε	Osthridie
♂	12	☽	Οκναν	Oknan	Ομιμοτ	Omimot
♂	13	♄	Γορφιλ	Gorphil	Απρωξ	Aprōx
♂	14	♃	Πατιηλ	Patiēl	Σκωην	Skōēn
♂	15	♂	Παρταν	Partan	Προφαι	Prophai
♂	16	☉	Σαλτιηλ	Saltiēl	Αχλιτωλ	Achlitōl
♂	17	♀	Αβαηλ	Abaēl	Ορναν	Ornan
♂	18	☿	Στραγιηλ	Stragiēl	Χαλμωθ	Chalmōth
♂	19	☽	Οπαδοuηλ	Opadouēl	Τοuδδεδην	Touddedēn
♂	20	♄	Μαρνιηλ	Marniēl	Τεφρα	Tephra
♂	21	♃	Μεθνιηλ	Methniēl	Νιραν	Niran
♂	22	♂	Στιρωηλ	Stirōēl	'Ρακιρω	Rakirō
♂	23	☉	Ισματιηλ	Ismatiēl	Ιργοτιε	Irgotie
♂	24	♀	Τριζιωηλ	Triziōēl	Γεγαωρ	Gegaōr
☿	1	☿	Ουριηλ	Ouriēl	Λουτζιφερ	Loutzipher
☿	2	☽	Αρακηλ	Arakēl	Γουκουμωρ	Goukoumōr
☿	3	♄	Μιεμφιηλ	Miemphiēl	Εισπνιρυξ	Heispniryx
☿	4	♃	Τρωσιηλ	Trōsiēl	Μιδωκητ	Midōkēt
☿	5	♂	Χαρτισιελ	Chartisiel	Νταδαδιφ	Ntadadiph
☿	6	☉	Σφυκινοηλ	Sphykinoēl	Σκιντογηρ	Skintogēr
☿	7	♀	Οuλωδιας	Oulōdias	Φνιδωτας	Phnidōtas
☿	8	☿	Καλβαγιελ	Kalbagiel	Καραταν	Karatan
☿	9	☽	Σκιταμιηλ	Skitamiēl	Μιαγ	Miag
☿	10	♄	Τιρωηλ	Tirōēl	Γατζαρ	Gatzar
☿	11	♃	Μιελ	Miel	Πνιδωρ	Pnidōr
☿	12	♂	Χαρακιηλ	Charakiēl	Τοιβλας	Toiblas
☿	13	☉	Υδρωηλ	Ydrōēl	Ταξιπων	Taxipōn
☿	14	♀	Σιδρηλ	Sidrēl	Οφιταν	Ophitan
☿	15	☿	Παραπιηλ	Parapiēl	Αβλυχος	Ablychos
☿	16	☽	Μουρουηλ	Mourouēl	Μαλακις	Malakis
☿	17	♄	Κουρταηλ	Kourtaēl	Βλεμιγχ	Blemigch
☿	18	♃	Κουπεηλ	Koupeēl	Χειρων	Cheirōn
☿	19	♂	Περανιηλ	Peraniēl	Εφιππας	Hephippas
☿	20	☉	Σανταηλ	Santaēl	Ορκισταφ	Orkistaph
☿	21	♀	Κατζιελ	Katziel	Λογιναφ	Loginaph
☿	22	☿	Λουλιελ	Louliel	Φαρως	Pharōs
☿	23	☽	Σαλταηλ	Saltaēl	'Ροκτατ	Roktat
☿	24	♄	Γαβτελ	Gabtel	Οπναξ	Opnax
♃	1	♃	'Ραφαηλ	Raphaēl	Μελτιφρων	Meltiphrōn
♃	2	♂	Περνιφελ	Perniphel	Οχλος	Ochlos
♃	3	☉	Κισφαηλ	Kisphaēl	Ουηρος	Ouēros
♃	4	♀	Καλιηλ	Kaliēl	θαφωτ	Thaphōt
♃	5	☿	Γλωστας	Glōstas	Τζιππατ	Tzippat
♃	6	☽	Μνιμεηλ	Mnimeēl	Αμωρ	Amōr
♃	7	♄	Χαλριηλ	Chalriēl	Ορφωρ	Orphōr
♃	8	♃	Σκιαηλ	Skiaēl	Ουταητ	Outaēt
♃	9	♂	Μισοελ	Misoel	Εργωτας	Hergōtas
♃	10	☉	Δαλβωθ	Dalbōth	Αζουβουλ	Azouboul
♃	11	♀	Χαρτωηλ	Chartōēl	Απληξ	Aplēx
♃	12	☿	Κιφαρ	Kiphar	Σιγως	Sigōs
♃	13	☽	Σιτιοηλ	Sitioēl	Ασμοδας	Asmodas
♃	14	♄	Βοκιελ	Bokiel	Ουωχ	Ouōch
♃	15	♃	Σενοηλ	Senoēl	Νικοκεπ	Nikokep
♃	16	♂	Οριατορ	Oriator	Κοπινος	Kopinos
♃	17	☉	Χυμεριηλ	Chymeriēl	Καητε	Kaēte
♃	18	♀	Ορφνιηλ	Orphniēl	Λαστωρ	Lastōr
♃	19	☿	Κιδουηλ	Kidouēl	Επιη	Hepiē
♃	20	☽	Γοθ	Goth	Οργαν	Organ
♃	21	♄	Φισναελ	Phisnael	Νιεριερ	Nierier
♃	22	♃	Καρααηλ	Karaaēl	Ουαλιελος	Oualielos
♃	23	♂	Κωνδαρ	Kōndar	Γαλιελιωρ	Galieliōr
♃	24	☉	Κισπωλ	Kispōl	Χουκαν	Choukan
♀	1	♀	Αγαθουηλ	Agathouēl	Γουλιων	Gouliōn
♀	2	☿	Νιδουηλ	Nidouēl	Βιζηκ	Bizēk
♀	3	☽	Αμφιλοηλ	Amphiloēl	Ζορζοραθ	Zorzorath
♀	4	♄	Κανικελ	Kanikel	'Ραφιωφ	Raphiōph
♀	5	♃	Σελινιελ	Seliniel	Ερμαγ	Hermag
♀	6	♂	Καρκανφερ	Karkanpher	Κερινουδαλος	Kerinoudalos
♀	7	☉	“Ανιελ	Aniel	Ταβαλταλις	Tabaltalis
♀	8	♀	Μουριηλ	Mouriēl	Θαφνιξ	Thaphnix
♀	9	☿	Τοφατιηλ	Tophatiēl	’Ελιασεμ	Heliasem
♀	10	☽	Σκιρτουηλ	Skirtouēl	Αμιχ	Amich
♀	11	♄	Αρμωηλ	Armōēl	Γ αλγιδων	Galgidōn
♀	12	♃	Οτραηλ	Otraēl	Εφιριτ	Hephirit
♀	13	♂	Ταλκιδονιος	Talkidonios	Στραγετ	Straget
♀	14	☉	'Ρουδιηλ	Roudiēl	Ανθηρος	Anthēros
♀	15	♀	Θηκιελ	Thēkiel	Πηζητος	Pēzētos
♀	16	☿	Γλυκιδωλ	Glykidōl	Απριξ	Aprix
♀	17	☽	Ψαλματιος	PSalmatios	Νιφων	Niphōn
♀	18	♄	Σταυφνηλ	Stauphnēl	Οτριχος	Otrichos
♀	19	♃	Δεαυκων	Deaukōn	Χιμερι	Chimeri
♀	20	♂	Ασφοδηλ	Asphodēl	Μελυ	Mely
♀	21	☉	Πετιλωλ	Petilōl	Καπνιθελ	Kapnithel
♀	22	♀	Γοργιελ	Gorgiel	Ταχμαν	Tachman
♀	23	☿	Βαταανιηλ	Bataaniēl	Ουκισεμ	Oukisem
♀	24	☽	Πολιων	Poliōn	Ουνιφρηρ	Ouniphrēr
♄	1	♄	Σαβαπιελ	Sabapiel	Κληνδατωρ	Klēndatōr
♄	2	♃	Σαλωηλ	Salōēl	Χειριμ	Cheirim
♄	3	♂	Βεσαηλ	Besaēl	Σπινδωρ	Spindōr
♄	4	☉	Αβαηλ	Abaēl	Κεριακ	Keriak
♄	5	♀	Γ ιελμων	Gielmōn	Νικεμ	Nikem
♄	6	☿	'Ρεταηλ	Retaēl	Μωριηλ	Mōriēl
♄	7	☽	Πελαφιηλ	Pelaphiēl	Συνιγειρωμ	Synigeirōm
♄	8	♄	Σαμωσαν	Samōsan	Αφιος	Aphios
♄	9	♃	Πλετανιξ	Pletanix	Θοριος	Thorios
♄	10	♂	Μαρμιχαηλ	Marmichaēl	Στελφα	Stelpha
♄	11	☉	Ντεχαριγξ	Ntecharigx	Κυπως	Kypōs
♄	12	♀	Αρκιηλ	Arkiēl	Σκαρ	Skar
♄	13	☿	Γεαβιηλ	Geabiēl	Τηχαρ	Tēchar
♄	14	☽	Πιτριηλ	Pitriēl	Ακρωκ	Akrōk
♄	15	♄	Γολγοηλ	Golgoēl	Αργιταν	Argitan
♄	16	♃	Σανιπιηλ	Sanipiēl	Ατομεος	Atomeos
♄	17	♂	Βελαραηλ	Belaraēl	Γ νωτας	Gnōtas
♄	18	☉	Οπιαελ	Opiael	Μερκου	Merkou
♄	19	♀	Οφχινηλ	Ophchinēl	Εναριταρ	Henaritar
♄	20	☿	Πατριηλ	Patriēl	Νιουχαν	Niouchan
♄	21	☽	Ιανιηλ	Ianiēl	Αμφου	Amphou
♄	22	♄	Κονδιηνηλ	Kondiēnēl	Μανκως	Mankōs
♄	23	♃	Ουξουνουηλ	Ouxounouēl	Μοιγρων	Moigrōn
♄	24	♂	Θαναηλ	Thanaēl	Νιγρισφ	Nigrisph

Planetary Prayers

Kronos

Greek: Ο θεος ο αιωνιος, το ασχετον κρατος, ο παντα οικονομων επι τα της ημων σωτηριας, δος ημιν χαριν, ινα υποταξω τον δεινα πλανητην εις το εμον θελημα. ορκιζω σε, πλανητα Κρονε, εις την οδον σου και εις τον αεραν σου και εις την κληρονομιαν σου και εις τον ουρανον σου και εις την λαμψιν και ενεργειαν σου και εις τα ονοματα σου ταυτα· Γασιαλ, Αγουνσαελ, Ατασσερ, Βελτολιελ, Μεντζατζια, ινα μοι δωσεις χαριν και ενεργειαν και δυναμιν εις την ωραν, εν η κυριευεις.

Phonetic Greek: O theos o aiōnios, to ascheton kratos, o panta oikonomōn epi ta tēs ēmōn sōtērias, dos ēmin charin, ina hypotaxō ton deina planētēn eis to emon thelēma. Orkizō se, planēta Krone, eis tēn odon sou kai eis ton aeran sou kai eis tēn klēronomian sou kai eis ton ouranon sou kai eis tēn lampsin kai energeian sou kai eis ta onomata sou tauta· Gasial, Agounsael, Atasser, Beltoliel, Mentzatzia, ina moi dōseis charin kai energeian kai dynamin eis tēn ōran, en ē kyrieueis.

English: Eternal God, irresistible might, who arranges everything towards our salvation, give me the grace to subdue so and so planet to my will. I conjure you, planet Kronos, by your orbit, by your air, by your properties, by your heaven, by your brightness, by your virtue and in your following names: Gasial, Agounsael, Atasser, Beltoliel, Mentzatzia, grant me grace, virtue and power during the hour that you rule.

Deutsch: Ewiger Gott, unwiderstehliche Macht, der alles für unserer Erlösung anordnet, schenke mir die Gunst, den Planeten meinem Willen zu unterwerfen. Ich beschwöre dich, den Planeten Kronos, bei deiner Bahn, bei deiner Luft, bei deinen Eigenschaften, bei deinem Himmel, bei deiner Helligkeit, bei deiner Tugend und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Gasial, Agounsael, Atasser, Beltoliel, Mentzatzia, gewähre mir Gnade, Tugend und Macht während der Stunde, die du beherrschst.

Characters:

Draw the characters of Kronos with the dross of lead and with vinegar. Cense them with sulfur. Draw them on a male kid's parchment.

Zeus

Greek: Κυριε και θεε, πατερ παντοκρατωρ, ο δημιουργος ορατων και αορατων, ο βασιλευς των βασιλευοντων και κυριος των κυριευοντων, επιδος ημιν δυναμιν χαριτος, ινα ο Ζευς υποταγη ημιν, οτι παντα δυνατα σοι, κυριε. ορκιζω σε, Ζευ, εις την σοφιαν σου και εις την γνωσιν σου και εις την ιαματικην σου ενεργειαν και εις την ουρανιον πορειαν, εν η περιπατεις, και εις τα ονοματα ταυτα, Ανωφ, Ορσιτα, Ατνοξ, Ονιγευι, Ατζινιελ, Ανκανιτει, Τυνεος, Γενιερ, Κανιπτζα, ινα υποκλινης εν εμοι την χαριν σου εις την δουλειαν τουτην, εν η ποιω.

Phonetic Greek: Kyrie kai thee, pater pantokratōr, o dēmiourgos oratōn kai aoratōn, o basileus tōn basileuontōn kai kyrios tōn kyrieuontōn, epidos ēmin dynamin charitos, ina o Zeus hypotagē ēmin, oti panta dynata soi, kyrie. Orkizō se, Zeu, eis tēn sophian sou kai eis tēn gnōsin sou kai eis tēn iamatikēn sou energeian kai eis tēn ouranion poreian, en ē peripateis, kai eis ta onomata tauta, Anōph, Orsita, Atnox, Onigeui, Atziniel, Ankanitei, Tyneos, Genier, Kaniptza, ina hypoklinēs en emoi tēn charin sou eis tēn douleian toutēn, en ē poiō.

English: Lord God, almighty father, creator of things visible and invisible, King of kings and Lord of lords, give me the power of your grace in order to subdue Zeus, for everything is possible to you, Lord I conjure you, Zeus, by your wisdom, by your knowledge, by your curative virtue, by the heavenly orbit you follow and by your following names: Anōph, Orsita, Atnox, Onigeui, Atziniel, Ankanitei, Tyneos, Genier, Kaniptza, grant your grace in this operation I attempt.

Deutsch: Herr, Gott, allmächtiger Vater, Schöpfer der sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Dinge, König der Könige und Herr der Herren, gib mir die Macht deiner Gnade, um Zeus zu unterwerfen, denn dir ist alles möglich, Herr, ich beschwöre dich, Zeus, bei der Weisheit, bei deinem Wissen, bei deiner heilenden Tugend, bei der himmlischen Umlaufbahn, der du folgst, und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Anoph, Orsita, Atnox, Onigeui, Atziniel, Ankanitei, Tyneos, Genier, Kaniptza, gewähre deine Gnade für dieses Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche.

Characters:

Draw the characters of Zeus with the dross of silver and with rose water. Cense them with myrrh. Draw them on an unborn calf's parchment.

Ares

Greek: Ο θεος ο φοβερος, ο θεος ο αδιηγητος, ο θεος ο αθεωρητος, ον ειδεν ουδεις των ανθρωπων ουδε ιδειν δυναται, ον οι αβυσσοι ιδοντες εφριξαν και οι ζωντες απενεκρωθησαν. Χαριτωσον ημας, ινα δυνηθωμεν υποταξαι τον Αρεα τον πλανητην. Ορκιζω σε, Αρη πυρινε, εις τον θεον τον κτισαντα τας νοερας ουσιας και πασαν την πυρινην στρατιαν ορκιζω σε εις τας ενεργειας σου και εις την οδοιποριαν σου και εις την λαμψιν σου και εις τα ονοματα ταυτα Ουτατ, Νουητ, Χορηζη, Τινιαη, Δαχλι, Αμπιρα, Νολιεμ, Σιατ, ’Αδιχαηλ, Τζανας, Πλησυμ, ινα μοι δωσης την χαριν σου δια ταυτην την δουλειαν.

Phonetic Greek: O theos o phoberos, o theos o adiēgētos, o theos o atheōrētos, on eiden oudeis tōn anthrōpōn oude idein dynatai, on oi abyssoi idontes ephrixan kai oi zōntes apenekrōthēsan. Charitōson ēmas, ina dynēthōmen hypotaxai ton Area ton planētēn. Orkizō se, Arē purine, eis ton theon ton ktisanta tas noeras ousias kai pasan tēn purinēn stratian orkizō se eis tas energeias sou kai eis tēn odoiporian sou kai eis tēn lampsin sou kai eis ta onomata tauta Outat, Nouēt, Chorēzē, Tiniaē, Dachli, Ampira, Noliem, Siat, Adichaēl, Tzanas, Plēsym, ina moi dōsēs tēn charin sou dia tautēn tēn douleian.

English: Dreadful God, indescribable God, invisible God, whom no man has seen nor can see, whom the abysses saw and bristled and the living became lifeless, give us your grace in order to be able to subdue the planet Ares. I conjure you, fiery Ares, by God who created the intellectual natures and the whole fiery host. I conjure you by your virtues, by your orbit, by your brightness and in your following names: Outat, Nouēt, Chorēzē, Tiniaē, Dachli, Ampira, Noliem, Siat, Adichaēl, Tzanas, Plēsym, grant your grace in my present action.

Deutsch: Schrecklicher Gott, unbeschreiblicher Gott, unsichtbarer Gott, den niemand gesehen hat, noch sehen kann, den die Abgründe sahen und sich sträubten, und die Lebenden wurden leblos, gib uns deine Gnade, um den Planeten Ares bezwingen zu können. Ich beschwöre dich, feuriger Ares, bei Gott, der die geistige Substanz und alle feurigen Heere erschaffen hat. Ich beschwöre dich bei deinen Tugenden, bei deiner Bahn, bei deiner Helligkeit und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Outat, Nouēt, Chorēzē, Tiniaē, Dachli, Ampira, Noliem, Siat, Adichal, Tzanas, Plēsym, gewähre deine Gnade für mein gegenwärtiges Werk.

Characters:

Draw the characters of Ares with pure cinnabar and rose water. Cense them with dried human blood. Draw them on a seal's parchment1 and the ruler will grant you .

Helios

Greek: Βασιλευ των βασιλευοντων και κυριε των κυριευοντων, η υπεραρχιος φυσις, δυναμις αεναε, φως ακατανοητον, φως απειρον, ο μονος πλουσιοπαροχος, ο χορηγος του ελεους, επισκεψαι ημας δια της σης χαριτος και ευεργεσιας, οπαις τον παροντα πλανητην τον Ηλιον, ινα δυνηθυιμεν υποτοξοι και κατασχειν αυτου την ενεργειαν ορκιζω σε Ηλιε αφαυστε, ακατεργαστε, ημεροφεγγης, εις τον χρονικον σου κυκλον και εις τους τεσσαρας σου καιρους και εις την οδον σου και εις τας ακτινας σου και εις τος πτερυγας σου και εις τας ενεργειας σου και εις τα ονοματα σου ταυτα Γλιβιωδ, Αντικον, Λιθετιουδ, Αχριπαλ, Ελβιουλ, Αυτιουρ, Νοτιωλιοσημ, Οωγην, Γωδασωρ, Τουλδωραφ, Ηνιυαν εις ταυτα τα ονοματα ορκιζω σε μη παρακουσης μου, αλλα δια της χαριτος της σης συνεργησον εις ταυτην την δουλειαν.

Phonetic Greek: Basileu tōn basileuontōn kai kyrie tōn kyrieuontōn, ē yperarchios physis, dynamis aenae, phōs akatanoēton, phōs apeiron, o monos plousioparochos, o chorēgos toy eleous, episkepsai ēmas dia tēs sēs charitos kai euergesias, opais ton paronta planētēn ton Ēlion, ina dynēthuimen hypotoxoi kai kataschein autou tēn energeian orkizō se Ēlie aphauste, akatergaste, ēmeropheggēs, eis ton chronikon sou kyklon kai eis tous tessaras soy kairous kai eis tēn odon soy kai eis tas aktinas soy kai eis tos pterugas sou kai eis tas energeias sou kai eis ta onomata sou tauta Glibiōd, Antikon, Lithetioud, Achripal, Elbioul, Autiour, Notiōliosēm, Oōgēn, Gōdasōr, Touldōraph, Ēniuan eis tauta ta onomata orkizō se mē parakousēs mou, alla dia tēs charitos tēs sēs synergēson eis tautēn tēn douleian.

English: King of kings and Lord of lords, supreme essence, eternal power, incomprehensible light, infinite light, the only generous, the dispenser of mercy, look upon us with your grace and benevolence, so that we will be able to subdue this planet, Helios, and possess its virtue. I conjure you, untouched, unconquered Helios who shines at day, by your annual cycle, by your four seasons, by your orbit, by your rays, by your wings, by your virtues and in your following names: Glibiōd, Antikon, Lethetioud, Achripal, Elbioul, Autiour, Notiōliosēm, Oōgēn, Gōdasōr, Touldōraph, Ēniuan. In these names I conjure you; do not disobey me, but assist my present work by your grace.

Deutsch: König der Könige und Herr der Herren, höchstes Wesen, ewige Kraft, unbegreifliches Licht, unendliches Licht, der einzige Großzügige, der Spender der Barmherzigkeit, schau auf uns mit deiner Gnade und deinem Wohlwollen an, damit wir diesen Planeten, Helios, bezwingen und seine Tugend erlangen können. Ich beschwöre dich, unberührter, unbesiegter Helios, der am Tag strahlt, bei deinem jährlichen Zyklus, bei deinen vier Jahreszeiten, bei deiner Bahn, bei deinen Strahlen, bei deinen Flügeln, bei deinen Tugenden und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Glibiōd, Antikon, Lethetioud, Achripal, Elbioul, Autiour, Notiōliosēm, Oōgēn, Gōdasōr, Touldōraph, Ēniuan. Bei diesen Namen beschwöre ich dich; verweigere mir nicht den Gehorsam, sondern unterstütze mein gegenwärtiges Werk durch deine Gnade.

Characters:

Draw the characters of the Helios with gold or orpiment plates and water. Cense them with nutmeg. Draw them on a parchment from a human fetus or on a foal's parchment.

Aphrodite

Greek: Ο θεος ο μονος αγαθος, ο ανεξικακος εν φιλανθρωπια, ο υπεραπειρον εχων της αγαθοτητος το ανεξιχνιαστον πελαγος, παρ’ ου της φιλιας η ευσπλαγχνια, προσπιπτω τη ση φιλανθρωπια, 'ινα δωσης ημιν δυναμιν και χαριν, ινα την ενεγρειαν χρηστην και πεπληρωμενην δωσης εις εμε τον πλανητην τουτον, δια να ποιησω ταδε· ορκιζω σε, ωραιοτατη και γλυκεια Αφροδιτη εις την χαριν σου και εις την οδον σου και εις την ενεργειαν σου και εις την γλυκυτητα σου και εις τα ονοματα ταυτα· Ηρεθ, Λαβαμ, Συαρ, Σατηρ, Τουιδ, Τουτιμαρ, 'Ρεσφοδωμ, Σιρωφ, Κακεμ, Σετιαπ. εις ταυτα δε ορκιζω σε, ινα μη παρακουσης μου, αλλα την σην χαριν εμοιγε δωσης, οπως το δεινα ποιησω.

Phonetic Greek: O theos o monos agathos, o anexikakos en philanthrōpia, o yperapeiron echōn tēs agathotētos to anexichniaston pelagos, par’ ou tēs philias ē eusplagchnia, prospiptō tē sē philanthrōpia, 'ina dōsēs ēmin dynamin kai charin, ina tēn enegreian chrēstēn kai peplērōmenēn dōsēs eis eme ton planētēn touton, dia na poiēsō tade· orkizō se, ōraiotatē kai glykeia Aphroditē eis tēn charin sou kai eis tēn odon sou kai eis tēn energeian sou kai eis tēn glykutēta sou kai eis ta onomata tauta· Ēreth, Labam, Suar, Satēr, Touid, Toutimar, Resphodōm, Sirōph, Kakem, Setiap. eis tauta de orkizō se, ina mē parakousēs mou, alla tēn sēn charin emoige dōsēs, opōs to deina poiēsō.

English: O God, the only benevolent, who keeps off the evil by your philanthropy, who infinitely possesses the inscrutable sea of goodness, from whom derives the compassion of love, I beg your philanthropy, grant me the power and the grace, so that I may possess the virtue of this planet effectively and fully, in order to do such and such. I conjure you, most beautiful and sweet Aphrodite, by your grace, by your orbit, by your virtue, by your sweetness, and in your following names: Ēreth, Labam, Suar, Satēr, Touid, Toutimar, Resphodōm, Sirōph, Kakem, Setiap. I conjure you in your above names, do not disobey me, but grant me your grace in order to do such and such.

Deutsch: O Gott, der einzige Wohltäter, der das Böse durch deine Menschenliebe fernhälst, der ewig das unergründliche Meer der Güte besitzt, von dem das Mitgefühl der Liebe stammt, ich bitte bei deiner Menschenliebe, gewähre mir die Kraft und die Gnade, damit ich die Tugend dieses Planeten wirkungsvoll und vollständig besitzen darf, um das und das zu tun. Ich beschwöre dich, die schönste und süßeste Aphrodite, bei deiner Gnade, bei deiner Bahn, bei deiner Tugend, bei deiner Süße und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Ēreth, Labam, Suar, Satēr, Touid, Totimar, Respodōm, Sirōph, Kakem, Setiap. Ich beschwöre dich in deinen obigen Namen, mißachte mich nicht, sondern gewähre mir deine Gnade, um so etwas zu tun.

Characters:

Draw the characters of Venus with the blood of a bat, or with pure lapis lazuli and rose water, on a pup's or on an unborn fawn's parchment. Cense with mastic and labdanum.

Hermes

Greek: Παντοκρατωρ κυριε, ο ευρετης της σοφιας και της γνωσεως, ο των ουρανιων και υπερουρανιων τεχνιτης, παντεποπτα και παντοδυναμε, ευεργετησον ημιν χαριν, οιαν του σου πλανητου Ερμου εγκατελιπες, ινα δυνηθωμεν πραξαι το δεινα · ορκιζω σε, Ερμης πανσοφε, λογιωτατε και συνετωτατε, ευσυναπτε και εγρηγορωτατε, εις την σοφιαν σου και εις την λογιοτητα σου και εις την ζωνην, εν η περιπατεις, χαι εις τα ονοματα ταυτα· Νηφαν, Πιουτ, Νομην, Σελακ, Μερεπων, Στεμηνος, Καζητοκ, Μιωτ, 'ινα μοι υποκλινης την χαριν σου και την ενεργειαν σου εις την πραξιν ταυτην, εν η βουλομαι ποιησαι.

Phonetic Greek: Pantokratōr kyrie, o euretēs tēs sophias kai tēs gnōseōs, o tōn ouraniōn kai yperouraniōn technitēs, pantepopta kai pantodyname, euergetēson ēmin charin, oian tou sou planētou Hermou egkatelipes, ina dynēthōmen praxai to deina · orkizō se, Hermēs pansophe, logiōtate kai synetōtate, eusynapte kai egrēgorōtate, eis tēn sophian sou kai eis tēn logiotēta sou kai eis tēn zōnēn, en ē peripateis, chai eis ta onomata tauta· Nēphan, Piout, Nomēn, Selak, Merepōn, Stemēnos, Kazētok, Miōt, 'ina moi hypoklinēs tēn charin sou kai tēn energeian sou eis tēn praxin tautēn, en ē boulomai poiēsai.

English: Almighty Lord, the inventor of wisdom and knowledge, the maker of the celestial and supercelestial things, omnispective and omnipotent, grant us the grace you bequeathed to your planet Hermes, so that we may do such and such. I conjure you, all wise, most erudite, most intelligent, adaptable, most watchful Hermes, by your wisdom, by your erudition, by the orbit you follow and by the following names: Nēphan, Piout, Nomēn, Selak, Merepōn, Stemēnos, Kazētok, Miōt; grant your grace and your virtue to the operation I wish to attempt.

Deutsch: Allmächtiger Herr, der Erfinder der Weisheit und des Wissens, der Schöpfer der Dinge im und jenseits des Himmels, allwissend und allmächtig, gewähre uns die Gnade, die du deinem Planeten Hermes hinterlassen hast, damit wir das und das tun können. Ich beschwöre dich, ewig weiser, gelehrtester, klügster, anpassungsfähigster, wachsamster Hermes, bei deiner Weisheit, bei deiner Gelehrsamkeit, bei der Umlaufbahn, der du folgst und bei den folgenden Namen: Nēphan, Piout, Nomēn, Selak, Merepōn, Stemēnos, Kazētok, Miōt; Gewähre deine Gnade und deine Tugend für dieses Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche.

Characters:

Draw the characters of Mercury with the blood of an ox, of an ass or of a lamb, or with rust and water on virgin parchment, and cense them with the skin of a hare and frankincense.

Selene

Greek: Δεσποτα κυριε, ο δεσποζων ζωντων τε και νεκρων, ο εν σοφια κατασκευασας τον ανθρωπον, ινα δεσποζη των υπο σου γενομενων χτισματων εν οσιοτητι και συνεσει, συνεργησον μοι, ινα δυνηθω ο δουλος σου χαριν λαβειν και οποταξαι τον πλανητην την Σεληνην και τελειωσαι το εργον, ο επεχειρισθην ορκιζω σε Σεληνην, του ουρανου ωραιοτατη πορφυρα και της νυκτος παραμυθια. ορκιζιυ σε εις την οδον σου χαι εις την ανακαινισιν σου και εις αναμετρητους βαθμους, εν οις κατερχει, και εις τα ονοματα ταυτα- Σαβαηλ, Βοαηλ, Ωνιτζηρ, Σπαρου, Σωρτηρχα, Γαβηδ, Ουτουπων, Καιπολης, Γωμεδην, Μαρηβατ. εις ταυτα σε ορκιζω, Σεληνη, ινα μοι υποκλινης την χαριν σου και την ενεργειαν σου εις την δουλειαν ταυτην, εν η επιχειριζομαι.

Phonetic Greek: Despota kyrie, o despozōn zōntōn te kai nekrōn, o en sophia kataskeuasas ton anthrōpon, ina despozē tōn hypo sou genomenōn chtismatōn en osiotēti kai synesei, synergēson moi, ina dynēthō o doulos sou charin labein kai opotaxai ton planētēn tēn Selēnēn kai teleiōsai to ergon, o epecheiristhēn orkizō se Selēnēn, tou ouranou ōraiotatē porphura kai tēs nyktos paramythia. orkiziu se eis tēn odon sou chai eis tēn anakainisin sou kai eis anametrētous bathmous, en ois katerchei, kai eis ta onomata tauta- Sabaēl, Boaēl, Ōnitzēr, Sparou, Sōrtērcha, Gabēd, Outoupōn, Kaipolēs, Gōmedēn, Marēbat. eis tauta se orkizō, Selēnē, ina moi hypoklinēs tēn charin sou kai tēn energeian sou eis tēn douleian tautēn, en ē epicheirizomai.

English: Lord and master, the ruler of the living and the dead, who fashioned man by your wisdom, in order to dominate your creatures with piety and prudence, assist me, your servant, so that I may receive the grace to subdue the planet Selene and finish the operation I have started. I conjure you, Selene, most beautiful purple of the heaven and consolation of the night. I conjure you by your orbit, by your renewal, by the innumerable degrees you pass through and in your following names: Sabaēl, Boaēl, Ōnitzēr, Sparou, Sōrtērcha, Gabēd, Outoupōn, Kaipolēs, Gōmedēn, Marēbat. In the above names I conjure you, Selene, grant your grace and your virtue to the operation I attempt.

Deutsch: Herr und Meister, Herrscher über die Lebenden und die Toten, der den Menschen in deiner Weisheit geformt hast, um deine Geschöpfe durch Frömmigkeit und Klugheit zu beherrschen, hilf mir, deinem Diener, damit ich die Gnade erhalte, den Planeten Selene zu beherrschen und das Werk zu vollbringen, das ich begonnen habe. Ich beschwöre dich, Selene, schönstes Purpur des Himmels und Trost der Nacht. Ich beschwöre dich bei deiner Umlaufbahn, bei deiner Erneuerung, bei den unzähligen Graden, die du durchläufst und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Sabaēl, Boaēl, Ōnitzēr, Sparou, Sōrtērcha, Gabēd, Outoupōn, Kaipolēs, Gōmedēn, Marēbat. Bei den obigen Namen beschwöre ich dich, Selene, gewähre dem Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche deine Gnade und deine Tugend.

Prayer of the Angels

Greek: Ορκιζω σε, ω αγγελε [δεινα], οστις κυριευεις την ωραν ταυτην και ει συ βαλλομενος προς προβλεψιν και υπουργιαν του ανθρωπινου γενους, [δεινα], ο παντοτε προθυμος, δυνατος και ανδρειος και οξυς, ορκιζω σε εις τον θεον, ος σε εταξε φυλαττειν την ωραν ταυτην, ινα εισαι συνεργος μου μετα του υποτακτικου σου του [δεινα] δαιμονος, ος επροεταχθη να εναι δουλος εις την ωραν ταυτην και εσυς να μοι συνεργησεται και να ποιησεται την δουλειαν ταυτην, να εναι δοκιμος, καλη και αληθινη.

Phonetic Greek: Orkizō se, ō angele [NN], ostis kyrieueis tēn ōran tautēn kai ei su ballomenos pros problepsin kai hypourgian tou anthrōpinou genous, [NN], o pantote prothymos, dynatos kai andreios kai oxus, orkizō se eis ton theon, os se etaxe phylattein tēn ōran tautēn, ina eisai synergos mou meta tou hypotaktikou sou tou [NN] daimonos, os eproetachthē na enai doylos eis tēn ōran tautēn kai esus na moi synergēsetai kai na poiēsetai tēn douleian tautēn, na enai dokimos, kalē kai alēthinē.

English: I conjure you, angel [so and so] who rules this hour and who is appointed for the provision and the service of mankind; angel [so and so], eager at all times, strong, brave and sharp, I conjure you by God, who ordered you to guard this hour, to be my collaborator, together with your submissive demon [so and so], who is appointed to be servant at his hour. Cooperate with me, and make my work effective, good and true.

Deutsch: Ich beschwöre dich, Engel [so und so], Herrscher über diese Stunde, der der Vorsehung und Sorge der Menschheit folgt; Engel [so und so], allzeit eifrig, stark, mutig und pünktlich, ich beschwöre ich dich bei Gott, der dir befohlen hat, über diese Stunde zu wachen, mein Partner zu sein, zusammen mit deinem ergebenen Dämonen [so und so], der als Diener in seiner Stunde beauftragt wurde. Begleite mich und mache mein Werk wirkungsvoll, gut und wahr.

Orphische Hymnen

2017-11-28T20:00:00+01:00

Eine Auswahl der Hymnen des Orpheus, die ich aus mehreren Übersetzungen zusammengetragen habe. Sie sind hier nach den sieben Wochentagen sortiert, beginnend mit Helios (Sonntag), da ich sie, ähnlich wie die Planetischen Gebete zur täglichen Andacht nutze. Der Name des Übersetzers bzw. Inhaber des Urheberrechts der jeweiligen übersetzten Hymne steht in Klammern unter jedem Titel.

HELIOS

(Joseph Otto Plassmann)

Hör mich, Glückseliger! Waltend Des alldurchschauenden, ewigen Auges, Fernhochwandelnder, himmlische Leuchte, Goldblinkender Titan; Unermüdlicher, Selbsterzeugter, Holder Anblick der Lebenden! Zur Rechten der Morgenröte Erzeuger, zur Linken der Nacht, Du mengst im Viertakt des Reigens Der Horen wechselnde Schar; Schnellfüßiger, Feuriger, Wirbelentfacher, Heiterblickender, Lenker des Wagens, Der in Wirbeln umfährt Des unermehlichen Kreises Bahn. Frommen ein Weiser zur Schönheit, Doch den Bösen feindlich gesinnt. Du lenkst mit goldener Leier Des Alls harmonische Bahn, Aufzeiger der Werke des Guten, Held, der die Horen emährt. Herrscher des Alls, mit Flötengesang, Feuriger Renner, im Kreise wirbelnd, Schimmemder Bringer des Lichts, Spender des Lebens, fruchtgebender Paian, Ewigblühender, Fleckenloser, Vater der Zeit, unsterblicher Zeus! Heiterer, Allerleuchtender, Kreisendes Auge des Alls, Brennend und lodernd, schönglänzend in Strahlen, Richter des Rechtes, der Flüsse Freund; König des Weltalls, Wächter der Treue, Immerdar Höchster, Helfer und Freund, Lebenslicht, der Gerechtigkeit Auge, Rosselenker, mit schwirrender Geißel Den vierspännigen Wagen treibend - Helios, höre mein Wort: Wonniges Leben zeige den Mysten!

SELENE

(Joseph Otto Plassmann)

Höre mich, göttliche Königin, Lichtspendende, hehre Selene, Mene, mit Hornschmuck der Stiere geziert, Nachtwandelnde, die in den Lüften schweift, Fackelträgerin, nächtlicher Mond, Sternenfreundliche Jungfrau, Wachsend und schwindend, männlich und weiblich, Mildleuchtende, Freundin der Rosse, Fruchtspenderin, Mutter der Zeit; Schimmernde, Herzbeschwerende, Allüberstrahlende Spährin der Nacht, Allsehende, Freundin fehlenden Schlafes, Übersät von der Schönheit der Sterne, Freundin erquickender Ruhe Und des freundlichen Wohlgeschicks! Hellschimmernde, Hörnerträgerin, Heldblickende Wonne der Nacht, Sternfürstin, vom weiten Gewande umhüllt, Läuferin des Kreises, allweise Jungfrau: Komm, Selige, Freundliche, Sternenfreundin, Rette, schimmernd im Lichte Deiner neuen Schützlinge Schar!

ARES

(Stilian Ariston)

Sohn des Zeus, Wächter der Städte, Speergewaltiger Hort des Olymp, Führer gerechtester Männer, Ares, erhöre uns! Kampferprobter, gewähre deinen Beistand. Handstarker Gott mit eisernem Willen, leuchte dein mildes Licht auf unser Dasein, bewahre uns vor Angriffen und stütze den Frieden. Sei unser Schild, gib uns Mut. Gib uns deine Kraft die kriegerische, die Fäden sinnlosen Leids zu durchschneiden. Unbezwingbar ist deine Macht, allein Aphrodite kann sie binden, die Schaumgeborene. Beende die Schlacht und auch den Schmerz im Herzen, Wache über uns, wie du über den Kosmos wachst, Erhöre mich Seliger, lasse meine Worte nicht von Winden weggetragen werden. Entfache die Glut, wenn Erschöpfung nach uns langt, Tapferkeit, zu verscheuchen die elende Feigheit, Durchhaltevermögen, wenn die Kraft sich dem Ende neigt, Geradlinigkeit im Angesicht des Sturms. Sohn des Zeus und der Hera, gewähre Frieden und Sicherheit, zärtliches Glück und gute Gesundheit.

HERMES

(Joseph Otto Plassmann)

Höre mich, Bote des Zeus, Hermes, der Maja Sohn, Allbezwingenden Mutes mächtig, Walter des Streites, der Menschen Gebieter; Scharfsinniger, schillernd von List, Geleitender Argostöter, Freund der Männer im Flügelschuh, Künder des Wortes den Sterblichen, Listenreicher Übungen Freund Und des trügenden Spieles; Träger des Schlangenstabes, Aller verkündender Herold, Schlauer Kaufmann, Löser der Sorgen, Haltend in Händen des Friedens Untadligen Heroldstab. Herrscher von Korykos, schimmernd von Worten, Seliger, Bringer des Heils, Helfer strebender Mühen, Den Menschen ein Freund in der Not; Der Zunge wirksame Waffe, Den Menschen Schrecken und Furcht: Hör mein Gebet! Gewähre dem Leben, Reizvollen Worten und hohen Gedanken Und den Taten ein tugendlich Ende!

ZEUS

(Joseph Otto Plassmann)

Vielgepriesener Zeus- Unvergänglicher Zeus; dieses Zeugnis Bringen wir dir: Erlösung und Bitte. O König, all dieses erschien durch dein Haupt: Mutter Erde, die göttliche, Der Berge ragende Höhen, Das Meer und was der Himmel In seinen Wölbungen wirkt. Kronios Zeus, du Träger des Szepters, Niedersausender, mächtig an Mut, Aller Erzeuger, Anfang und Ende, Erderschütterer, Mehrer und Nährer, Allbewegender, Sühnender, Blitzender, grollender Donnerer, Höre mich, zeugender Zeus! Luftgestalt, gib mir schöne Gesundheit, Gib mir götttichen Frieden Und des Reichtums vollendeten Glanz!

APHRODITE

(David Karl Philipp Dietsch)

Himmelsmacht, glorreich, du holdanlächelnde Kypris, Meergeborne Gebärerin du, nachtfeiernde, hehre; Nächtliche, knüpfend das Band, trugflechtenden Mutter des Zwanges! Alles ja stammet von dir, ja dir gehorchet das Weltall; Selbst des Geschicks Göttinnen beherrschest du, alles gebährend, Was im Himmel nur lebt, und was auf fruchtbarer Erde, Und in des Meeres Abgrund. Erhabne Gesellin des Bakchos, Froh des Freudengelags, Ehstifterin, Mutter der Sehnsucht; Peitho, im Lager der Liebe geheim, Huldgeberin, Fürstin; Sichtbar und unsichtbar, schönlockige, edeles Vaters; Bräutliche, sitzend am Mahl, mit der Ewigen Zepter, Lykäna; Quelle des Stamms, Mannfreundin, ersehnteste, Quelle des Lebens; Welche die Sterblichen fesselt mit unauflöslichen Banden, Und des Gewildes Geschlecht, im rasenden Taumel der Liebe. Komm, Aphrodite, du göttlicher Spross, ob du im Olympos, Götterkönigin weilst, in freudiger Schöne das Antlitz; Ob du in Weihrauchduft den syrischen Tempel umwandelst; Ob in den Segensaun des heiligen Landes Aegyptos Du, mit goldenem Wagen, umhegst die fruchtbaren Wasser, Oder mit dunklem Geschirr zu des Meers aufwogender Wallung Jetzo genaht, dich erlabst am Zirkeltanze der Robben; Oder der Nymphen dich freust, blauäugiger, jetzo in Dia, Taumelnder Wonn', am sandigen Strand leichthüpfendes Fusses; Ob in der heimischen Kypros, o Königin! alwo dich holde Unvermählte Mädchen und Bräut' in jeglichem Jahre Preisen, o Selige, dich und den himmlischen reinen Adonis, Komm, o selige Göttin, in deiner reizenden Anmut! Reines Herzens ja ruf' ich dich an mit heiligen Worten.

KRONOS

(Ewald K Strohmar)

Entflammter, Vater der seligen Götter und der Menschen, listiger Ratgeber, Unbefleckter, Mächtiger, streitbarer Titan, du verzehrst alles und vermehrst es dennoch selbst, mit unzerstörbaren Bändern hältst du den unendlichen Kosmos zusammen, Kronos, Erzeuger der Zeit, Kronos von den kunstvollen Geschichten, aus der Erde entsprossen und inmitten des Himmels, erzeugt, gewachsen, verkleinert Gemahl der Rhea, heiliger Prometheus, der du wohnst in allen Bereichen des Kosmos, Beherrscher alles Gewordenen, Verschlagener, Bester! Höre meine bittende Stimme und gewähre ein glückliches Leben und ein zufriedenes Ende.

Routines in Theurgy

2017-11-28T20:00:00+01:00

As an almost full-time father of a now one year old child my spare time for enchantment is quite limited. The only thing I manage to routinely do is a daily adoration of the day's ruling planetary spirit. I have formed a habit of doing early morning walks with my daughter through a lovely park nearby and mostly they happen around sunrise. The park has a small hill at one end of it that I have chosen as my temple for the daily visits. Since June of this year I've visited the hill almost every day and recited the daily Planetary Prayer from the Hygromanteia. (My daughter started to say "Amen" right when it's appropriate, in sync with me, it's freaky!)

The other routine I have is a monthly run of the Stele of Jeu aka Headless Rite around every New Moon when the illumination is just after 0% and it just starts waxing again. It feels like a great starting point for the upcoming month's endeavors, and so far it has served me well. I also try to do this on the same hill, depending on the time of the day and how much privacy I will potentially have up there.

I started to dislike the commanding tone of the Planetary Prayers and how the planets are being subdued in the name of god and I switched to the Orphic Hymns two week ago. It makes a huge difference for me! I feel more connected to the planets than before, and I have the feeling that I am being increasingly noticed by them too.

Especially in the last two weeks since the last New Moon some things have happened that seem like "results" without me even having specifically asked for them. I got four freelance job offers within a couple of days after months of really almost nothing going on, also my relationship has improved, my general mood too.

Yesterday, after having finished my hymn to Selene and closed the widdershins circumambulation of the temple mound, on the way down I found a little yellow children's torch. Instant synchronicity! Just the night before, in bed I had read one of Uncle Chuckie's e-books on Psionics in which he talks about how he's always had a problem with having to imagine a beam of light coming out of his magic wand when using it in ritual and eventually ditching it for a torchlight. This idea resonated with me and I intended to imitate it one day, turned around in bed and fell asleep. And the next morning I find one on my temple mound! Well, here's my new wand! And its brand is "Brainstorm Ltd" (online research revealed that it's actually a toy photo projector that projects images up to one meter wide onto walls and ceilings!) I was puzzled by my find and on the way home through the park my daughter pointed to something on a park-bench. I looked and it was a kids drawing block, soaking wet from rain. I picked it up and opened it and on the first page someone had written "Each takes what he needs" and drawn a heart below it.

Alright then, thanks universe!

Ankle of God?

2017-06-15T18:00:00+02:00

When I translated the planetary prayers from the English translation of the Harleianus 5596 manuscript (Hygromanteia) by Marathakis into German for my personal use I stumbled over this peculiar expression in the prayer to Jupiter:

I conjure you, most valorous and most beneficial Jupiter, by the immeasurable ankle of god.

Marathakis seems to have been puzzled by this too as he added a footnote claiming that it must have been a corrupted text because he could not find any other reference to this 'ankle of god'.

Digging a bit around myself I came to a different conclusion. The Greek word for 'ankle' is αστράγαλος and the term might actually refer to a game of chance similar to dice popular in ancient Greece and elsewhere that was played with ankle bones:

Knucklebones (astragali), were an essential part of many ancient games: αστραγαλισμοσ was played using four astragali with different values on each side […] πευτελιξοι was played with five astragali, simultaneously thrown into the air to be caught on the back of the hand. Natural knucklebone was usually cut down, grinded, drilled and filled with lead. (source)

Die Planetischen Gebete

2017-06-14T12:00:00+02:00

In der Hygromanteia sind die Gebete an den Tagen und Stunden der jeweiligen Planeten als Anrufung und Vorbereitung zur Weihung und Aktivierung von Talismanen beschrieben. Sie eignen sich aber auch zur täglichen Gebetspraxis.

Sonntag

Im Namen des allmächtigen und höchsten Gottes beschwöre ich dich, Herr Sonne, den Erleuchter, den König aller Sterne, den Erzeuger der Sichtbarkeit. Oh Herr Sonne, der nährt und die Kräuter und die Bäume dazu bringt, Früchte zu tragen, der die ganze Welt mit Herrlichkeit verziert, der Ungemach in Dunkelheit verbannt, der die schönen Dinge von den Hässlichen trennt; Oh Sonne, Zierde der unschätzbaren Dinge, Schönheit und Herrlichkeit der Perlen, Gold und Edelsteine, Ruhm der Könige und Gedanke der Richter; Ich beschwöre dich, Sonne, Herr Sonne, unvorstellbarer, unergründlicher, der die Kräfte des Himmels sieht und die Pracht des höchsten Gottes versteht. Ich beschwöre dich, Herr Sonne, Kerze, die vor dem schrecklichen Gott Sabaoth brennt, gehorche mir. Ich beschwöre dich bei den folgenden Namen: Pithankouz, Doriel, Sinae, Madoél, Lytrophar, Phryktouel, Pelkadón, Andraphor, Iymedón, Alianos, Gararouél. Bei den vorgenannten Namen gib deine Gnade, Macht und Tugend für das gegenwärtige Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

Montag

Herr, allmächtiger, höchster Schöpfer, König der Könige und Herr der Herren, der den Menschen erschaffen und gemeißelt hat, der den Himmel mit Sternen verziert und mit Blumen und Tieren auf der Erde geschmückt hat, in Angesicht dessen Macht jede Kreatur, sichtbar oder unsichtbar, erzittert und erschauert, ich, dein unwürdiger Diener, bitte dich und ich flehe dich an, mich zu erhören und mir die Tugend dieses Planeten zu unterwerfen. Herrin Luna, Ordnung und Erkenntnis der Welt, Gestalt des Himmels, Trost der Nacht und Königin der gefesselten Geister; Herrin Luna, Offenbarung der Zeit, Zeichen aller Feste und Bräuche; Ich beschwöre dich, Luna, beim hohen Thron Gottes, bei den Sonnenstrahlen, bei der Ruhe Gottes, bei den Cherubim und den Seraphim, bei allen Rängen der heiligen Engel und bei den folgenden Namen: Khariómó, Gallagil, Benouel, Agramouel, Adekael, Thyeloel, Rhaphael, Zygothoel, Galael. Bei den vorgenannten Namen gib deine Gnade, Macht und Tugend für das gegenwärtige Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

Dienstag

Oh Herr, gewaltiger und mächtiger, dessen Zorn den Grund des Meeres trocknet, dessen heftiger Blick die Berge zerbricht, die Berge fürchteten dich und der Abgrund erschrak vor dir. Jeder Chor der Erzengel und Engel verehrte dich. In deinem Namen, mein Herr, wage ich es, jedes Werk zu vollbringen. Ich beschwöre dich, Mars, kriegerischer Mars, beim Herzen des mächtigen Löwen und bei der Flamme des starken, brennenden Feuers, mir zu gehorchen. Ich beschwöre dich, Mars, heißblütig und kühn, bei der Luft, bei der Erde und der Erdmitte, mir zu gehorchen. Oh Mars, der sich am Unheil erfreut und das Glück verachtet, ich beschwöre dich bei Ihm, den du und jede planetarische Schöpfung fürchtest, und bei deinen folgenden feurigen Namen, Agla, Aser, Pioriroth, Alband, Endor, Omer, Skonapher, Kalonos, Almanos. Bei den vorgenannten Namen gib deine Gnade, Macht und Tugend für das gegenwärtige Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

Mittwoch

Im Namen des All-wohlwollenden Gottes, Amen; Oh Herr, der in der Höhe weilt und auf die Demütigen herabbschaut, der die Zügel und die Herzen leitet, Herr der Geister, König des Himmels und der Erde, gewähre mir, dem Sünder, die Gnade, Herr, die Mächte des Planeten Merkur zu unterwerfen. Oh Merkur, geschicktester in logischen Argumenten, wirksamer und erhabenster in Weisheit und in jeder Wissenschaft; Der die Kunst und das Handwerk unter den Menschen aufteilt und verbreitet; Erfahrener und geschickter Soldat, ohne dich wären alle Dinge, bewegliche oder unbewegliche, nicht denkbar; Oh Merkur, Schöpfer, Philosoph und größter unter den Rednern, der über den Verstand herrscht; Ich beschwöre dich bei Gott, der dich erschuf und dir deinen Platz im Himmel zuwies. Ich beschwöre dich bei deinem Himmel, bei deiner Sphäre, beim Schatz und der geheimen Weisheit Gottes, bei seiner starken und unermesslichen Hand und bei allen unzähligen Engeln, gehorche mir. Ich beschwöre dich bei den folgenden Namen: Siboraz, Hyielisphak, Iagrou, Hysoreono, Eililoph, Naendor, Gelstamot, Khaselon, Aseoulouel, Teratouon, Sphalikon, Kyrmaen, Barnidon. Bei den vorgenannten Namen gib deine Gnade, Macht und Tugend für das gegenwärtige Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

Donnerstag

Herr, unser Gott, der große, gelobte und unergründliche, dessen göttliche Erhabenheit unermesslich ist, für dich bete ich. Ich, der Unwürdige, flehe um die Größe deines Mitgefühls, erhöre mich und mache mein Streben und das Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche, höchst wirksam. Ich beschwöre dich, den tapfersten und wohlhabendsten Jupiter, beim unbegreiflichen Würfel Gottes (1), gehorche mir. Ich beschwöre dich, Jupiter, bei der Gnade aller Kräuter. Ich beschwöre dich, Jupiter, bei deiner Tapferkeit und Gerechtigkeit, bei deinen wundersamen Tugenden und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Misthan, Mesaou, Alasigno, Pelkhaous, Aabio, Kedesod, Olaber, Sedio, Azanor, Merran. Bei deinen großartigen und tapferen Namen schenke mir deine Gnade, Macht und Tugend für das gegenwärtige Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

(1) eigentlich "beim unermesslichen Knöchel Gottes (Erklärung hier)"

Freitag

Im Namen des höchsten Gottes, bei seinen begehrtesten Namen, beschwöre ich dich, die harmonischste, schönste und lieblichste Herrin Venus, die in Tapferkeit liegt und in der Macht der Liebe, die das menschliche Fleisch von innen her quält. Oh Venus, die über die Leidenschaft herrscht und die Liebe verbreitet, schönste Venus, die jede Sehnsucht in die Herzen von Männern und Frauen führt und die Eingeweide der Menschen bewegt; Oh Herrin, gekrönt mit dem Kranz der Liebe, ich flehe dich um deine Macht an, in meinem Willen die Leute zu peinigen und vor meinen Füßen niederfallen zu lassen. Ich beschwöre dich, Venus, bei Gott, der dich erschuf und dich in den Himmel gelegt hat. Ich beschwöre dich beim Siegel, das in deinem Herzen ist, bei deinem Kranz, bei deinem Himmel und bei deinen folgenden Namen: Montoaran, Maugoran, Ktioel, Pyrgeton, Lioikon, Ikarizi, Iakor, Ladokon, Parinos, Phrektiouz, Phaloumpol, Kraipophon, Alleopon, Estoge, Iaseph, Zaglytai, Krigenos, Ooulan. Bei deinen vorgenannten Namen mißachte mich nicht, sondern gib deine Gnade und Tugend für das Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

Samstag

Herr, unser Gott, der Große und Höchste, der den Menschen erschaffen und gemeißelt hat, der Abgrund sah und fürchtete dich, das Leben sah dich und wurde leblos. In seinem Namen und durch seine große und mächtige Macht beschwöre ich dich, Saturn. Durch die Höhen des Himmels und durch die Tiefen des Meeres beschwöre ich dich, Saturn, gehorche mir. Bei deinem Alter und deiner überragenden Bedeutung beschwöre ich dich, oh kalter Saturn, der über jedes Leid herrscht, der Schätze gibt und der alles bietet. Ich beschwöre dich wieder, oh Saturn, bei deinen folgenden Namen: Arphin, Orkip, Ouliob, Berik, Ouraphon, Sarok, Taimon, Odel, Sigep, Sotad. Gib deine Gnade und Tugend für das Werk, das ich zu vollbringen suche. Wende dein Unglück von mir ab. Bring mir nur Glück. Amen.

Übersetzt ins Deutsche von Sublunar Space und frei verfügbar unter Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Lizenz; Die Quelle war die englische Übersetzung des Harleianus 5596 Manuskriptes aus dem Buch The Magical Treatise of Solomon - or Hygromanteia von Ioannis Marathakis.