For Great Justice

A reader asked me about writing up an evocation for Libra. The magical power attributed to Libra is "works of justice and equilibrium," so this operation has a wide range of applications.

As I practice it, zodiacal magic is quite similar to planetary magick. The Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram are employed, along with the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram for the sign. The figure for this is the hexagram of ruling planet, and the color and godname attributed to the sign. In the case of Libra, the color is green, just like for Venus. The godname is the permutation of Tetragrammaton for Libra, which is VHYH, pronounced something like "weh-YAH" or "veh-YAH." You vibrate ARARITA while tracing the hexagram in green, and VHYH while tracing the symbol of Libra in red.

According to Liber 777, the Geomantic Intelligence - that is, the angel conjured for this ritual - is Zuriel (Zayin Vav Resh Yod Aleph Lamed). You draw the sigil on the magic square (or kamea) of Venus, because Venus rules Libra. To do this, first convert each letter to its value in Hebrew gematria.

Zayin - 7
Vav - 6
Resh - 200
Yod - 10
Aleph - 1
Lamed - 30

Once you have converted the name to a series of numbers, there are a number of different ways to trace the sigils onto the kamea. The rules that I use are as follows:

1. Your first choice should always be the exact number.
2. Any number too large for the square must be reduced by as many factors of 10 as necessary to match one of the numbers in the square. But do this as few times as possible. So, for example, Resh is 200 and the largest value in the square is 49. So you could reduce Resh to 20 or to 2. I go with 20, because it requires only a single tenfold reduction rather than two of them.
3. The sigil may touching any point within the individual number square. So while I usually default to the center of the square, as it turns out I can draw a more aesthetically pleasing sigil by touching the 1 square and the 30 square on the lower left.
4. I start with a circle and end with a straight line perpendicular to the line of the sigil. Not every magician does this, and it's not clear whether it's really necessary. To me, though, it alludes to John Dee's comment in the Monas Hieroglyphica that all things in nature are generated by the circle and the straight line. It also alludes to the Thelemic principle of 0=2 and a model of manifestation. The circle has zero explicit points, and the straight line connects two points. The direction of manifestation, then, is from the zero to the two, or from the circle to the straight line.

This image shows the sigil of Zuriel traced on the Venus kamea according to this method.

This sigil will be placed in the center of your Table of Practice when performing the conjuration. Some magicians will use a drawing of just the sigil, which is usually my practice. Others draw the entire kamea complete with numbers, or convert the numbers into Hebrew equivalents and draw those.

Temple Setup

The temple should be arranged with some sort of altar in the center. You will want a dagger for banishing and a wand for invoking placed on either side so that you can access them easily. I usually put the invoking wand on the right and the banishing dagger on the left.

In the center of the altar you place your Table of Practice. This image shows the "Trithemian" design adapter from "Agrippa's" Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. I put those names in quotes because it's pretty clear that Agrippa didn't actually write the Fourth Book, and there's no evidence that his teacher Trithemius designed this version of the Table of Practice.

You can click on the image to enlarge and just print it out. Or, you can make a more elaborate Table by burning the design into wood, engraving it into metal, and so forth. For the ritual, the sigil should be placed inside the triangle. If your ritual has any sort of external target, place the magical link in the Table of Practice along with the sigil, again within the triangle. This can be a photograph, or even something as simple as the name of a person or organization written on a separate piece of paper from the sigil.

Any offerings that you will be making to the angel should also be placed within the triangle on the Table of Practice. So it is useful to print it or draw it fairly large to accommodate whatever you might need. It must also be large enough to accommodate a crystal or dark mirror if you plan on employing scrying during the rite. If you wish to burn incense, Liber 777 names Galbanum as the proper incense for Libra. You could also use incense attributed to Venus or Air, or some other sort of zodiacal blend.

Opening

This step of the ritual opens the temple, and sets up the operant field. You could use a banishing lesser hexagram here if you wanted to go the traditional route, but I vastly prefer the operant field method for all of my own operations.

Perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram with the banishing dagger.

Perform the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram with the invoking wand.

Preliminary Invocation

This step identifies you, the magician, with the highest aspect of divinity. You can do something like a Middle Pillar here to align your energies with the various godnames on the Tree of Life, followed by something like this invocation, which I adapted from the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn.

Make the Sign of Apophis and Typhon (raise your arms above your head, forming a “V”). Say:

Thee I invoke, who art universe. Thee I invoke, who art in nature formed.Thee I invoke, the vast and the mighty. Source of darkness, source of light.

Then make the Sign of Silence. This sign is made by dropping your arms and placing your right index finger to your lips. Pause for a moment to let the divine presence within you stabilize.

Tuning the Space

This step "tunes" your temple environment so it is hospitable to the angel that you are conjuring, in this case Zuriel. This tuning is most effective when the ritual is performed on a Friday, or during a Venus planetary hour.

Perform the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram for Libra. Venus hexagram in green with ARARITA, symbol of Libra in red with VHYH.

The Conjuration

From here, the ritual works pretty much like a planetary operation. You conjure the angel by the godname that you used in the Greater Hexagram.

ZURIEL (x7) (zoo-ree-EL), glorious and mighty angel of the path of MOZNAIM (moz-nah-EEM), by the name of the great god VHYH (weh-YAH) I conjure and call you forth. Appear now within this Table of Art, that you may answer my behest.

Then you vibrate the name ZURIEL repeatedly, until you perceive the presence of the angel.

The Charge

Here is the point where you deliver your behest to the angel. Make sure that you include an injunction of what you want the angel to do, and any limitations defining what you don't want the angel to do. Be as precise as you can, to avoid any unwanted consequences of the rite. Also, always give a time limit to the operation, as you don't want it to go on running forever if it fails, or for the angel to get whatever you want done eventually. They don't have the same sense of time scales that humans do.

If you wish, you may make offerings to the angel related to the sign Libra. As you might expect, angels like all spirits often work better if you give them some sort of payment for their efforts. The offering can be something as simple as a candle dressed with essential oil attributed to Libra, or Venus/Air. It is important that you explicitly identify it as such to the angel.

The License to Depart

This sends the angel on its way to accomplish its appointed task. This is pretty much the same license as I use for my planetary operations.

O thou ZURIEL (zoo-ree-EL), because thou hast-diligently answered unto my demands, and hast been very ready and willing to come at my call, by the name VHYH (weh-YAH) I do hereby license thee to depart unto thy proper place; without causing injury or danger unto man or beast. I charge thee to withdraw peaceably and quietly, and peace be ever continued between us. So mote it be!

Closing

This serves to detach your personal field of consciousness from that of the angel and the operation as a whole. I only banish at the microcosmic level here, since at the macrocosmic level the angel should be busy at work until the conclusion of the operation.

Perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram with the banishing dagger. The rite is complete.

If you offered a candle to the angel, just leave it burning. Seven-day candles are idea for this purpose. Any other offerings should be left within the triangle for a substantial period of time. Offerings like alcoholic drinks work well because they can be allowed to naturally evaporate.

As I've included most of the logic I use for working out the sigils and identifying the angels, it should not be that difficult to rework this rite for any of the other signs once you have copy of Liber 777 and a handle on what you're doing. Most of the information contained in Liber 777 can be found online as well at sites such as Thelemapedia.