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This article is Part Five in a series. Part One can found here, Part Two can be found here, Part Three can be found here, and Part Four can be found here.
Today I will be moving on to working with Venus, the next planet in sequence according to the Chaldean Order. Liber 777 associates Venus with "Love-philtres," which can be generalized to love and relationship spells of whatever type. As I mentioned in my previous article on love spells, there are two main approaches that people tend to use when working this kind of magick. The first is a love spell cast on a specific person, and the second is a love spell designed to bring you and a suitable person together.
The second of these is both more ethical and more effective. Generally speaking, a love spell cast on a specific person is going to violate their will in some way, since if they were already interested in you, you wouldn't need to be casting a spell. Spells that violate the wills of others are among the hardest to cast, simply because your magical power needs to override your target's inherent resistance. While it's true that a lot of people are fairly susceptible to magick, the probability shifts involved are still challenging.
The second form works by subtly influencing events in such a way that you and a suitable partner are brought together. This is easier to do because mostly, the things that keep us and potential lovers apart are little more than random circumstance. I don't care how lonely you are, or how unattractive you believe yourself to be. If you live in a city with millions of people, there are going to be at least a handful of people out there who would be happy to be in a relationship with you. The trick is bringing those people into your sphere of activity.
The nice thing about this more general method is that if such a person is already in your life, the second form of the spell will still influence circumstances so that a relationship between the two of you becomes possible - so long as it is in harmony with the will of said individual. Otherwise, it will affect circumstances so that you are brought together with somebody else. So in effect, if you're in one of those situations where you are attracted to a friend and want them to think of you in that way, you can get the same effect as you would casting a specific spell on them so long as being involved with you is in harmony with their will.
To review, in Qabalah the planets correspond to the double letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The letters are so named because they correspond to two specific sounds each, and this is reflected in the dual nature of the planets. On the Tree of Life, each planet corresponds to both a sephira or a path. Many magicians refer to the sephiroth as "spheres," and you may catch me doing that sometimes as well. It is, however, not a direct translation. The word actually means "emanations" - as in, emanations of divinity. But they are drawn as circles on most diagrams of the Tree of Life, and in addition, "sephira" and "sphere" sound very similar in English.
The important thing to understand about this for practical magick is that the sephira represent states of emanation, while the paths represent movement between them. Invoking the emanations themselves produces particular visions and states of consciousness, and invoking the paths produces particular practical effects. In Liber 777, the paths and sephira have separate sets of colors, separate angels, and even separate godnames. It is relatively common for people working practical magick to ignore these factors, and, say, conjure the angel of a sephira rather than a path. Often said angel is smart enough to figure out what you really want, but it works better if you go for the right aspect from the start.
Like all the planets, Venus can be employed in both positive and negative capacities. Venus rules over love and relationships, so it can be used to break up existing relationships and so forth. As with most forms of cursing, I think that working magick like this is usually pretty dumb. Why expend your magical energy making someone else unhappy when you can make yourself happy? I could possibly see an application for this in situations where the relationship you are breaking up is abusive in some fashion, but otherwise this manner of working doesn't make much sense to me.
At any rate, for the Path of Venus, the four scales of color are Emerald Green, Sky Blue, Early Spring Green, and Bright Rose or Cerise Rayed Pale Yellow. Note that in at least one edition, the column text says "rose OF cerise," but this appears to be a typographical error. For ceremonial forms, you use the King scale, which is Emerald Green. Its complement is red. All four scales should be used to construct the sigil of the angel. The first piece of sigil is the character of Venus, which looks like this:
The angel of the path of Venus is Anael, spelled Aleph-Nun-Aleph-Lamed. The Venus kamea is 7 x 7, so the valuation for Nun needs to be reduced to a single digit. This yields 1, 5 (50), 1, 30, to produce a sigil on the kamea that looks like this:
The final sigil is created by combining the two figures. The grid is not necessary, but I have still included it here to show the geometry. There is no formal method for determining which color goes where on the sigil, but it should include all four scales so that it will span all four Qabalistic worlds and thus constitute a complete symbol. This is largely left to your own ingenuity.
From Liber 777, incenses appropriate to Venus are Sandalwood, Myrtle, and "all voluptuous odors." Associated plants are Myrtle, Rose, Clover, Fig, Peach, and Apple. The associated metal is copper, and the associated precious stones are Emerald and Turquoise. Note that for the purposes of creating a talisman, the stones need not be gem quality and can be purchased inexpensively.
The plants may be dried and ground into a powder using a mortar and pestle and can be sprinkled onto the paper talisman as an offering to the angel. Likewise, a piece of copper, emerald, or turquoise may be placed on top of the paper talisman for the conjuration. You then use the paper to wrap up the whole thing when the ritual is complete and somehow bind or tape it together.
The god-name in Assiah for the path of Venus is Ahah (Aleph-Heh-Aleph). It is far more common for Venus operations to be taught using YHVH Tzabaoth as the god-name for Venus, but this is actually the god-name appropriate to Netzach, the sephira of Venus. This is a key distinction that few teachers make, and is a method that we have explored at the local Leaping Laughter Lodge Ritual Workshop. It appears to be quite effective, and allows you to make a meaningful distinction between sephiroth and paths in the context of the ceremonial forms.
The full ritual is performed as follows:
0. The Temple
The best time to perform a Venus operation is on a Friday, during the hour of Venus. To calculate the hours, divide the time between sunrise and sunset into twelve equal parts to get the hours of the day, and the time between sunset and sunrise into twelve equal parts to get the hours of the night. Days begin at sunrise. The first hour of the day is attributed to the planet ruling the day, and the subsequent hours are assigned according to the Chaldean Order.
Saturn --> Jupiter --> Mars --> Sun --> Venus --> Mercury --> Moon
Following the hour of the Moon, the order starts over again with Saturn. While it seems complicated as first, once you do it a bunch, you'll find that it actually is pretty easy. At this point I can almost do it in my head. There are also a number of software programs that you can download to do the calculation for you, and even some websites that will tell you the hours.
There are a number of different ways to arrange the temple for an operation such as this. What we do is place an altar in the center with the banishing dagger and invoking wand. Also on the altar is a containment structure such as the Sigillum Dei Aemeth or the Trithemian Table of Art. The diagram depicting the character and sigil should be placed within this structure. A small container of some sort for offerings may be placed on the Table of Art, or you can sprinkle the offering directly upon the diagram itself.
The Table of Art shown above is from The Digital Ambler. You can read about the design and how it was put together here. You can click on the image to enlarge.
If you employ scrying in your work, an appropriate device such as a crystal or mirror should also be placed in the containment structure. If you are using incense for such an operation, the traditional method is to place the incense burner between the scryer and the mirror or crystal. Otherwise, it may be placed anywhere in the space. Some scryers like to place a taper candle on either side of the device, and while I can't say that method does anything at all for me, a number of others report good results with it.
1. Opening
Light incense, if used. Open the magical field using the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, Star Ruby and Star Sapphire, or the Field Ritual. The usual field for practical work is the operant field, with banishing pentagrams and invoking hexagrams.
2. Preliminary Invocation
Raise energy using the Middle Pillar, Elevenfold Seal (the "First Gesture" from Liber V vel Reguli), or some other appropriate ritual method as you may know how to do.
Make the Sign of Apophis and Typhon, raising both arms and holding them straight with an angle between them of 60 degrees, and proclaim, very strongly:
Then make the Sign of Silence, by standing straight with one arm at your side and placing your thumb or forefinger to your lips.
3. Tuning the Space
Perform the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram for Venus. Beginning in the east, go to each quarter in turn and perform the following actions.
Once the four figures are traced, return to face the east completing the circle.
Today I will be moving on to working with Venus, the next planet in sequence according to the Chaldean Order. Liber 777 associates Venus with "Love-philtres," which can be generalized to love and relationship spells of whatever type. As I mentioned in my previous article on love spells, there are two main approaches that people tend to use when working this kind of magick. The first is a love spell cast on a specific person, and the second is a love spell designed to bring you and a suitable person together.
The second of these is both more ethical and more effective. Generally speaking, a love spell cast on a specific person is going to violate their will in some way, since if they were already interested in you, you wouldn't need to be casting a spell. Spells that violate the wills of others are among the hardest to cast, simply because your magical power needs to override your target's inherent resistance. While it's true that a lot of people are fairly susceptible to magick, the probability shifts involved are still challenging.
The second form works by subtly influencing events in such a way that you and a suitable partner are brought together. This is easier to do because mostly, the things that keep us and potential lovers apart are little more than random circumstance. I don't care how lonely you are, or how unattractive you believe yourself to be. If you live in a city with millions of people, there are going to be at least a handful of people out there who would be happy to be in a relationship with you. The trick is bringing those people into your sphere of activity.
The nice thing about this more general method is that if such a person is already in your life, the second form of the spell will still influence circumstances so that a relationship between the two of you becomes possible - so long as it is in harmony with the will of said individual. Otherwise, it will affect circumstances so that you are brought together with somebody else. So in effect, if you're in one of those situations where you are attracted to a friend and want them to think of you in that way, you can get the same effect as you would casting a specific spell on them so long as being involved with you is in harmony with their will.
To review, in Qabalah the planets correspond to the double letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The letters are so named because they correspond to two specific sounds each, and this is reflected in the dual nature of the planets. On the Tree of Life, each planet corresponds to both a sephira or a path. Many magicians refer to the sephiroth as "spheres," and you may catch me doing that sometimes as well. It is, however, not a direct translation. The word actually means "emanations" - as in, emanations of divinity. But they are drawn as circles on most diagrams of the Tree of Life, and in addition, "sephira" and "sphere" sound very similar in English.
The important thing to understand about this for practical magick is that the sephira represent states of emanation, while the paths represent movement between them. Invoking the emanations themselves produces particular visions and states of consciousness, and invoking the paths produces particular practical effects. In Liber 777, the paths and sephira have separate sets of colors, separate angels, and even separate godnames. It is relatively common for people working practical magick to ignore these factors, and, say, conjure the angel of a sephira rather than a path. Often said angel is smart enough to figure out what you really want, but it works better if you go for the right aspect from the start.
Like all the planets, Venus can be employed in both positive and negative capacities. Venus rules over love and relationships, so it can be used to break up existing relationships and so forth. As with most forms of cursing, I think that working magick like this is usually pretty dumb. Why expend your magical energy making someone else unhappy when you can make yourself happy? I could possibly see an application for this in situations where the relationship you are breaking up is abusive in some fashion, but otherwise this manner of working doesn't make much sense to me.
At any rate, for the Path of Venus, the four scales of color are Emerald Green, Sky Blue, Early Spring Green, and Bright Rose or Cerise Rayed Pale Yellow. Note that in at least one edition, the column text says "rose OF cerise," but this appears to be a typographical error. For ceremonial forms, you use the King scale, which is Emerald Green. Its complement is red. All four scales should be used to construct the sigil of the angel. The first piece of sigil is the character of Venus, which looks like this:
The angel of the path of Venus is Anael, spelled Aleph-Nun-Aleph-Lamed. The Venus kamea is 7 x 7, so the valuation for Nun needs to be reduced to a single digit. This yields 1, 5 (50), 1, 30, to produce a sigil on the kamea that looks like this:
The final sigil is created by combining the two figures. The grid is not necessary, but I have still included it here to show the geometry. There is no formal method for determining which color goes where on the sigil, but it should include all four scales so that it will span all four Qabalistic worlds and thus constitute a complete symbol. This is largely left to your own ingenuity.
From Liber 777, incenses appropriate to Venus are Sandalwood, Myrtle, and "all voluptuous odors." Associated plants are Myrtle, Rose, Clover, Fig, Peach, and Apple. The associated metal is copper, and the associated precious stones are Emerald and Turquoise. Note that for the purposes of creating a talisman, the stones need not be gem quality and can be purchased inexpensively.
The plants may be dried and ground into a powder using a mortar and pestle and can be sprinkled onto the paper talisman as an offering to the angel. Likewise, a piece of copper, emerald, or turquoise may be placed on top of the paper talisman for the conjuration. You then use the paper to wrap up the whole thing when the ritual is complete and somehow bind or tape it together.
The god-name in Assiah for the path of Venus is Ahah (Aleph-Heh-Aleph). It is far more common for Venus operations to be taught using YHVH Tzabaoth as the god-name for Venus, but this is actually the god-name appropriate to Netzach, the sephira of Venus. This is a key distinction that few teachers make, and is a method that we have explored at the local Leaping Laughter Lodge Ritual Workshop. It appears to be quite effective, and allows you to make a meaningful distinction between sephiroth and paths in the context of the ceremonial forms.
The full ritual is performed as follows:
0. The Temple
The best time to perform a Venus operation is on a Friday, during the hour of Venus. To calculate the hours, divide the time between sunrise and sunset into twelve equal parts to get the hours of the day, and the time between sunset and sunrise into twelve equal parts to get the hours of the night. Days begin at sunrise. The first hour of the day is attributed to the planet ruling the day, and the subsequent hours are assigned according to the Chaldean Order.
Saturn --> Jupiter --> Mars --> Sun --> Venus --> Mercury --> Moon
Following the hour of the Moon, the order starts over again with Saturn. While it seems complicated as first, once you do it a bunch, you'll find that it actually is pretty easy. At this point I can almost do it in my head. There are also a number of software programs that you can download to do the calculation for you, and even some websites that will tell you the hours.
There are a number of different ways to arrange the temple for an operation such as this. What we do is place an altar in the center with the banishing dagger and invoking wand. Also on the altar is a containment structure such as the Sigillum Dei Aemeth or the Trithemian Table of Art. The diagram depicting the character and sigil should be placed within this structure. A small container of some sort for offerings may be placed on the Table of Art, or you can sprinkle the offering directly upon the diagram itself.
The Table of Art shown above is from The Digital Ambler. You can read about the design and how it was put together here. You can click on the image to enlarge.
If you employ scrying in your work, an appropriate device such as a crystal or mirror should also be placed in the containment structure. If you are using incense for such an operation, the traditional method is to place the incense burner between the scryer and the mirror or crystal. Otherwise, it may be placed anywhere in the space. Some scryers like to place a taper candle on either side of the device, and while I can't say that method does anything at all for me, a number of others report good results with it.
1. Opening
Light incense, if used. Open the magical field using the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, Star Ruby and Star Sapphire, or the Field Ritual. The usual field for practical work is the operant field, with banishing pentagrams and invoking hexagrams.
2. Preliminary Invocation
Raise energy using the Middle Pillar, Elevenfold Seal (the "First Gesture" from Liber V vel Reguli), or some other appropriate ritual method as you may know how to do.
Make the Sign of Apophis and Typhon, raising both arms and holding them straight with an angle between them of 60 degrees, and proclaim, very strongly:
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, by standing straight with one arm at your side and placing your thumb or forefinger to your lips.
3. Tuning the Space
Perform the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram for Venus. Beginning in the east, go to each quarter in turn and perform the following actions.
- 1. Trace the Hexagram of Venus in Emerald Green while vibrating ARARITA (ah-rah-ree-tah). The hexagram of Venus is traced by starting at the lower right point and tracing the first triangle clockwise, and then moving on to the upper left point and tracing the second triangle clockwise from there.
- Trace the symbol of Venus in the center of the hexagram in red while vibrating AHAH (ah-HAH).
Once the four figures are traced, return to face the east completing the circle.
Then, recite the Orphic Hymn to Venus.
Heav'nly, illustrious, laughter-loving queen,
Sea-born, night-loving, of an awful mien;
Crafty, from whom necessity first came,
Producing, nightly, all-connecting dame:
'Tis thine the world with harmony to join,
For all things spring from thee, O pow'r divine.
The triple Fates are rul'd by thy decree,
And all productions yield alike to thee:
Whate'er the heav'ns, encircling all contain,
Earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main,
Thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod,
Awful attendant of the brumal God:
Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight,
Mother of Loves, whom banquetings delight;
Source of persuasion, secret, fav'ring queen,
Illustrious born, apparent and unseen:
Spousal, lupercal, and to men inclin'd,
Prolific, most-desir'd, life-giving., kind:
Great sceptre-bearer of the Gods, 'tis thine,
Mortals in necessary bands to join;
And ev'ry tribe of savage monsters dire
In magic chains to bind, thro' mad desire.
Come, Cyprus-born, and to my pray'r incline,
Whether exalted in the heav'ns you shine,
Or pleas'd in Syria's temple to preside,
Or o'er th' Egyptian plains thy car to guide,
Fashion'd of gold; and near its sacred flood,
Fertile and fam'd to fix thy blest abode;
Or if rejoicing in the azure shores,
Near where the sea with foaming billows roars,
The circling choirs of mortals, thy delight,
Or beauteous nymphs, with eyes cerulean bright,
Pleas'd by the dusty banks renown'd of old,
To drive thy rapid, two-yok'd car of gold;
Or if in Cyprus with thy mother fair,
Where married females praise thee ev'ry year,
And beauteous virgins in the chorus join,
Adonis pure to sing and thee divine;
Come, all-attractive to my pray'r inclin'd,
For thee, I call, with holy, reverent mind.
The space should now be tuned for the conjuration.
4. The Conjuration
Note: It has come to my attention that the manner in which I do the conjuration is less clear than I originally intended. The conjuration has been clarified to reflect this point, but it is significant enough to discuss and draw attention to it here. First of all, I am NOT working my way down through the hierarchy to get to "the guy at the bottom" (the spirit) who actually does the work. In fact, I address my charge to ALL THREE entities called below.
If the Godname is included, the four names represent the four Qabalistic worlds - Godname = Atziluth, Angel = Briah, Intelligence = Yetzirah, Spirit = Assiah). By addressing the charge in this way, the operation can "fire on all cylinders" and affect the manifest universe at all level. The Godname represents the power itself, the Angel ushers that power across the Abyss from potential to actual, the Intelligence shapes that power through the realm of formation, and the Spirit interfaces that power directly with the material world from moment to moment.
ANAEL, ANAEL, ANAEL, ANAEL, ANAEL, ANAEL, ANAEL (ah-nay-EL). Come unto me, great and mighty angel of NOGAH (noh-GAH) by the name of the great god AHAH (ah-HAH). Send unto me HAGIEL (hah-ghee-EL), that great intelligence of thine, and thereafter attend to my behest.
Pause until the presence of Anael is perceived. If you don’t feel anything or see anything, wait a minute or so before continuing.
HAGIEL, HAGIEL, HAGIEL, HAGIEL, HAGIEL, HAGIEL, HAGIEL (hah-ghee-EL). Come unto me, thou bright intelligence of NOGAH (noh-GAH) , in the name of ANAEL (ah-nay-EL) thy lord. Compel the spirit KEDEMEL (keh-deh-MEL) who is under thy dominion to manifest within this Table of Art, and thereafter attend to my behest.
Pause until the presence of Hagiel is perceived. If you don’t feel anything or see anything, wait a minute or so before continuing.
KEDEMEL, KEDEMEL, KEDEMEL, KEDEMEL, KEDEMEL, KEDEMEL, KEDEMEL (keh-deh-MEL). Come unto me, mighty spirit of NOGAH (noh-GAH), in the name of HAGIEL (hah-ghee-EL) thy lord. Come forth within this Table of Art and attend to my behest, that I may wield the powers of DALETH (dah-LETH), the path of the planet Venus.
At this point, vibrate the names ANAEL, HAGIEL, and KEDEMEL repeatedly until the presence of the angel and spirits of Venus is perceived within the Table of Art. Various methods may be used to accomplish this, from simply waiting until a presence makes itself known to scrying for an image in a crystal or dark mirror. If this is being performed as a group ritual, with everyone chanting the name together, it is helpful for the officiant or scryer to have a bell chime that can be rung once he or she perceives a presence in whatever manner. At the bell chime, the chant stops.
5. The Charge
My instructions for the charge are simple and straightforward, just as you can find in my published books. Address it to all three entities named above. Make use of an Injunction, which is what you want the angel and associated spirits to do, and a Limitation, which is what you do not want them to do. The Limitation helps you avoid "Monkey's Paw" situations in which your Injunction may manifest, but in an undesirable way.
As I mentioned above, Liber 777 catalogs the powers attributed to Venus as "Love-philtres" - that is, love and relationship spells in general. For best results, your charge should fall within that area. Otherwise, you may be asking for something outside Venus' sphere of influence.
At this point you may also make offerings to the angel by placing them in the small container. After the angel has had a chance to partake of the offerings, be sure to dispose of them. Alcohol may be allowed to evaporate on its own, and natural substances may be scattered outdoors. Do not attempt to reuse an offering - generally speaking, spirits do not take kindly to that.
Your other option is to place the offerings directly upon the sigil itself, if this is practical, as it is with ground-up plant material or spices. If you decide to go this route, you will be wrapping the offering up in the paper sigil and need give it no further thought. Obviously, though, this becomes less practical with liquid offerings, such as alcohol.
Also, You should get some sort of assent from the angel before you proceed to the License to Depart, or an explanation of his objection. When the charge lies outside the angel's sphere of influence, often he will be willing to direct you to another spirit that would be more suitable to conjure in order to better accomplish your intent.
6. The License to Depart
Mighty ANAEL and the spirits of Thy domain, because thou hast-diligently answered unto my demands, and hast been very ready and willing to come at my call, I do hereby license thee to depart unto thy proper place, without causing harm or danger unto man or beast. I charge thee to withdraw peaceably and quietly with the blessings of the great god AHAH, and that peace be ever continued between us. So mote it be!
7. Closing
The ritual may be closed with either a final banishing pentagram ritual or with the Qabalistic Cross performed on its own. These should match the rituals used in the opening, so for example if you opened with a Star Ruby you should repeat it or perform the corresponding version of the Qabalistic Cross.
Generally speaking, if you want to release your intent out into the world to accomplish some task external to yourself, you should close with a banishing pentagram ritual. This is similar to the chaos magick idea of releasing a sigil once it has been created and empowered.
On the other hand, if you also want the effect of the ritual to linger within your sphere of awareness, whether or not the intent is also external, you should close with the Qabalistic Cross. This stabilizes the operation, but does not detach it from your sphere of awareness.
40 comments:
Bottom right in the kamea is 28 rather than 38,I believe.
This one here is also fixed now. Again, this one does not affect the sigil.
Thank you HAnael for helping me. Please continue to give guidance and help to me, I am grateful. Amen
Dear Scott,
Thank you for your guidance. That is of a tremendous help. Please continue your great work.
What I wanted to ask: if I am to go the path of attracting a specific person (who I used to be together but am not anymore for a couple of years to this day, though I know he is single but won't come back to me), am I to put his photograph or other link in the center of the Table of Art and them be specific in my conjuration?
If I am to achieve a particular result, do I give the spirits a time frame within which the effect has to be achieved? Is any action required on my part after the ritual and does it make sense to perform a series of the same ritual in order to strengthen it?
While I practice magick for a number of years, my astral senses are not quite developed. That is I'm weak at serving or seeing spirits. Does it make sense to use the Table of Art with no intention of serving, merely as a tool of concentrating the energy, to which after the 'Let the Divine Light Descend' it descends to energize the link?
Then, make no mistake, I've read everything on this website, but I'm still struggling with the concept of the hexagrams. That is, should one trace the same hexagram in all four directions or use its eastern, southern, western and northern forms as per, say, David Griffin's? Does it make much of a difference in terms of practical effects?
Many thanks. It's just these minor things I need to clarify to dive deep.
93
Oh, and lastly. Do I keep the link as a talisman for this particular operation or do I dispose of it?
Hi Alex. First and foremost, let me get this caveat out of the way - I don't recommend doing love spells on specific people. Not only are there ethical issues involved, it also can wind up creating some unintended side effects. That being said, I don't know anything about you or your relationship with this person, and under your particular circumstance it might very well be warranted.
As for the technical bits, here you go.
1. Yes, you would ideally want a magical link to the person and name them if you are indeed casting on a specific person. You need to cast for precisely what you want.
2. Time frames are helpful. I almost always use them. If the time frame runs out you can always recast, and having one gives you a better sense of success or failure than something open-ended. Actions on your part aren't required, but they help. For example - lets say that the probability against you getting together with this person is 20-1 against if you do nothing and 10-1 against if you take some set of mundane actions. If you can conjure a 15-1 probability shift, it means that you need to take that set of mundane actions in order to bring the likelihood of what you want "within range" of what you can cast.
3. I often do evocations with no scrying device. I can usually sense when the spirits show up, but they usually do once you have a few of these rituals under your belt, so to speak. You can do the conjuration, vibrate the name of the spirit repeatedly for about a minute or so, and then assume it's present. That usually will work.
4. In the Thelemic tradition, for the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram (or really, general ritual of the hexagram) you use the four directional forms for the macrocosmic elements. For the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram you use the Earth hexagram only, as per Crowley's Liber O. The Earth hexagram is the regular Star-of-David hexagram that you see most commonly. You start tracing from the point corresponding to the planet on that hexagram as shown above for Venus.
In my opinion, a "Lesser Hexagram of [Planet]" like Griffin teaches is nonsensical. The whole point of the Lesser rituals, again, in my Thelemic tradition, is that they are general rituals that you use to set up your space, not rituals for specific planets.
5. A talisman is separate from a link, though you can make a talisman that includes a link like the classic "mojo bag" with herbs and stones plus a photograph or something like that. Whether the link becomes a talisman depends on your charge. If you charge the spirit to empower the link as a talisman, you should keep it and treat it as such. Note that when you make a talisman, you don't generally give it a time limit because a talisman is intended to produce a constant force in the direction of your goal.
On the other hand, if you are doing a simple casting to set in motion an effect, then the link is just a link and you can do whatever you want with it. You can dispose of it, or you can keep it for future spellwork. When used in this way, links can work for multiple castings - like, say, if your time limit runs out and you want to recast.
Is brass an acceptable alternative for copper ?
It contains a lot of copper, so it can be used as such. But it is an alloy, and as such you probably will get better results with copper. This is similar to using brass in place of gold for the Sun. It does work, but if you had the ability to procure a similar amount of gold it would work better. Gold is just way more expensive to get than copper, generally speaking.
Do you use a Trithemius-type table or your Sigillum for this type of conjuration ? I used my Sigillum for the 1st time today during a Jupiter working and didn’t feel the spirits’ presence, despite powerful sensations prior. Using a simple printed out table of art I could always at least feel a pocket of cold air above it…
I use my Sigillum just because I have it, along with the Enochian Holy Table setup in my temple. It seems to work fine for me, and I commonly feel those cold pockets above and around it.
Some possible differences between your setup and mine - I do have the full Holy Table. I don't just use the Sigillum on its own. I hadn't necessarily thought that was significant for non-Enochian operations, but maybe it is. My Sigillum is wax - but I have also used a paper one glued onto a wooden disk when I presented at a national OTO conference on the Heptarchia. I could feel the presence of spirits fine with that, even though it wasn't wax. I did have a printed out "mat" under it, though, with the full Holy Table diagram.
Another thought - I haven't done a lot of direct comparison between the two to see if the "feel" is affected by the Sigillum versus the Trithemian table. It makes sense that it might, so maybe the sensation isn't quite what you're used to? Maybe you'll start to notice something more once you've worked with your Sigillum a bit.
In any case - if you find that one works for you and the other doesn't, or one or the other works better, stick with what works.
The problem is that regardless of your intent, when you are doing a love spell on a specific person, the odds are that they aren't interested in a relationship with you. That's because if it was something they wanted and something you wanted, you probably wouldn't need a spell. Magick is what you use when other approaches fail, after all.
Even if you wouldn't mind somebody casting a love spell on you, you can't assume that any other person would feel the same. In my experience most don't. Remember, too, that if you get into a relationship that is being held together by a spell - that is, the feelings that the other person has for you are the result of magick and not actual affinity - you have to keep the spell going all the time if you want the relationship to last.
I use this intent for love spells - "bring to me a partner who is in harmony with my will, and whose will I am in harmony with." It runs like a sort, arranging the universe so that the kind of person I want who also wants a person like me get together. If it happens to be the particular person you're thinking of, great. But it could also be someone else entirely who is a better match and whose feelings for you will be genuine and won't need to be maintained by the spell.
Basically, my method isn't just more ethical, it's a lot less work.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I agree with your points. If there isn't a natural connection there then it's really just one forcing it. From my POV this changes the caster more than the other, and sometimes in ways that aren't beneficial to that individual.
I should have been more specific though. I didn't someone casting a love spell to make another fall in love with them when there isn't any love there to begin with. If anything, I don't see how the intent can be pure if there isn't an established connection, more so it'd be a love spell out of infatuation rather than genuine love.
Like for example, let us say a woman is in love with a man, and the man does have feelings for her and they share a genuine connection but for some reason due to his past conditioning, he runs from the connection. Now, in this aspect, the man does want to be with the woman but certain beliefs or patterns of the past are preventing him from doing so. Would casting a "love spell" but more so to remove the complications standing in the way of the connection be ethical or faulty?
Personally, though, I agree with the intent you use, it's bound to bring much better results as one might not be fully conscious of what kind of partner is best for them. But it's just interesting to see the perspectives people have on topics like these.
Leo is better and more direct for working with your conditioning than Venus is, though. If you do this spell:
https://ananael.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-zodiacal-work-leo.html
with an intent like "remove all of my conditioning keeping love from finding me" or something like that, you can act on the issue you describe above directly. It should work better and more efficiently than a general Venus operation, and focus the full effect of the operation on the caster.
Does spell looses its intensity after some time or just when its planet it s in its weak sing?
For example a waxing moon in Cancer will produce positive result but when moon enters into Scorpio the spell works less effective or the spell just fades away?But it has a effect.
The spell locks in the intensity based on the time it is cast. The power of the spell doesn't vary based on subsequent astrological events. The moment of creation is what's key.
Some astrological conditions can create more obstacles for a spell to overcome, but that doesn't have to do with the spell getting weaker. It's the result of the astrological condition affecting the rest of the world separate from the spell.
If someobody does the LBRH and the talisman he maked are close psychicly to him but he don t intentionally banish them they are hidden will the LBRH do something to them?
What would be the Operant Equation for a operation that it s done at good astrological time versus a neutral one?
When doing Liber Samek ,Initiations over longer time does something happen psychicly with brain like change of neuron network or DNA?
1. Possibly. In the Golden Dawn system it is recommended that talismans be wrapped in silk because that insulates against any possible interference. You can also keep your talismans someplace outside your circle, and then they won't be affected.
2. I haven't worked that out yet. The idea would be to incorporate a factor that acts to increase or decrease the effect, but as for what the number should be, I haven't been able to finalize it yet. The range would be something like 0.X to X, where X is the factor that determines how much reduction or amplification zodiacal effects can make.
So let's say that X is 2 (it probably isn't, but let's say for the sake of argument). With the worst astrological conditions, you would multiply the resulting probability by your assessment of astrological conditions, with the worst being .2 and the best being 2.
You might arrive at a different result if the range is more than one order of magnitude. So the effect could in theory range from .02 to 2, or from .2 to 20 (though I haven't ever seen a 20-fold increase in a spell's effectiveness based solely on astrological conditions, so the amplifying effect is almost certainly lower than that).
I'm thinking X is somewhere in the 2-4 range and it covers about an order of magnitude. But I need a much bigger and more diverse sample size to prove that.
3. All magick can affect neuroplasticity, so there's certainly something neurological going on when you practice. I haven't seen any evidence, though, for measurable DNA changes. Probably the only thing that could potentially affect genetics (and this would be epigenetic, not the DNA itself) is the relaxation response induced by altered states of consciousness such as trance, which can be found in meditation, magick, and other similar practices.
What world be the most appropiate symbols to visualize while working on Sephirots in all 4 worlds?
For example King on a Throne is appropiate for Tipharet in Aziluth ,for Tipharet in Briah is ...Angel sigil appropiate,while vibrating Angel name and visualize coresponding colour in Briah?
I normally break down the associations in planetary work as Godname = Atziluth, Angel = Briah, Intelligence = Yetzirah, Spirit = Assiah. So for example, you could visualize these as something like planetary character = Atziluth, Angel sigil = Briah, Intelligence sigil = Yetzirah, and Spirit sigil = Assiah. You could then visualize each in the corresponding sephirothic colors.
Hi Scott,
Would you say a printed Table of Art is sufficient for a containment structure or would it be more beneficial to have it drawn and painted, or caved in wood, for instance?
On the side note, unrelated to the first question, what would you be able to suggest in terms of developing the astral senses to make spirit contact more pronounced?
Many thanks!
I would say that a printed one is sufficient. You could, however, make one out of other materials and consecrate it like you would a talisman or tool. I would expect that to work better in terms of concentrating the energy of a spirit.
Personally I did a lot of meditation so I could pay attention to information coming in from my psychic senses even if it wasn't at nearly the same "volume" as my internal thoughts. Meditation helps you notice when thoughts arise, and helps you interact with them more deliberately.
Good morning Scott!
So I have a quick question...I wanted to perform a spell that heals and reconciles a past relationship...not REKINDLE, but put us on good/solid ground. Unfortunately there are a lot obstacles to overcome and the probability is pretty low, but I was going to try anyway. Because of that, I intended on using two groups of angels...one Planetary and the other Enochian, one after the other, because the hour of the Moon follows the hour of Venus...
My question is, am I using the right sets of angels? Anael for the Planetary and Prince Bagenol for Enochian? I know I will be splitting my energy between the two, but figured two groups of angels would be best to try and overcome the odds (a longshot no matter).
Thanks Scott and keep up the great work! (Literally)
Also, can I reuse the same photo and article of clothing for the links to cast for both operations if I'm NOT using them as talismans?
Multiple operations sound appropriate for a problem like this.
You don't wind up splitting your energy between the two if you have them empower talismans in separate rituals. Might be worth considering.
Anael and Bagenol would be the correct angels in the Agrippa and Enochian systems respectively.
And yes, you can re-use the magical link in separate operations.
If I want to meet a woman compatible with me and that looks as attractive as a specific actress, for example, would it work if I use a photograph of said actress or any image of an attractive woman? In the charge I would ask for a suitable lover as attractive for me as the woman in the photo, or physically similar or something like that. Would it work?
Can I ask to meet my soulmate instead of just a lover? And would it work?
And finally, how do you think I should write the charge if I want to meet the woman perfect for me, with whom I can have the best relationship possible and have a family in the future, and that at the same time is very beautiful or attractive?
This is the one I always use for spells like this:
"Bring to me a partner who is in harmony with my will, and whose will I am in harmony with,"
Works like a literal charm.
The problem with being too specific, even "looks like this person," is that you eliminate a lot of channels for manifestation. Build your spell around your will and the will of any potential partner and things will work out better.
Okay, I like that charge, but does "harmony of will" translate to compatibility? For example, lets say I want to meet a woman that is perfect for me, as I said before, a soulmate (or at least that ideal). Wouldn't it be more effective to ask for that instead of harmony of will? Have you experimented with this?
I know that you eliminate possible manifestation paths, that's why I said that looks as attractive as her for me. Not that she looks like her, but that she generates the same feeling for me. And I guess I could add that she feels the same for me.
Finally, in the grimoire tradition, it is common practice to purify yourself for a period of 3-7-9 days before an evocation. Do you find this necessary, or that it affects practical results?
Aditionally, can you share with me how well it meshes the ritual template you use in your planetary rituals and the grimoire method described in The Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals by Trithemius?
I read somewhere in your blog that you tried it. You recommend doing LBRP-LIRH-Preliminary Invocation-GIRH-Conjuration-QC, so I guess the idea would be to add the DSIC ritual in the conjuration section. My doubt is if you did the whole DISC ritual (prliminary prayers, consecrations of the crystal, incense and circle...) or just the conjuration of the spirit. What do you think would give better results? Thanks again!
You could maybe do something like "soulmate as I define it," but I would not use the term on its own. You need to define some sort of standard. In Thelema, Will is fundamental. The idea is that anything in harmony with your will is going to be that which best aligns with your fundamental nature. That, in turn, should make you happiest with the situation.
I don't bother with extensive purifications and the like. They never have done anything for me, but feel free if that's what works for you.
Yes, the drawing into crystals technique would go where the conjuration does. I haven't done experiments comparing just the charge with the whole sequence, so I'm not sure if it adds anything or not. I doubt that it would hurt anything, though.
Okay, thanks for your answers. But it isn't entirely clear to me what you mean with the "drawing into crystals technique". I'm guessing you mean the whole ritual with all the tools, not just the conjuration to call the spirit, correct?
And if I were to try this mix, should I add the seal/sigil of the spirit inside the Table of Practice (below the crystal)? In your planetary rituals you put the sigil there, but DSIC only says to use the lamen hanging from your neck. Should I add the seal inside the Table of Practice and use both, lamen and seal?
When I do it personally I do my forms and then just the conjuration. But if you want to add the entire procedure following the operant field, I don't think it will hurt anything. Is that clearer?
I generally put the sigil within the Table of Practice the way I do it. I haven't tried integrating the entire DSIC ritual structure, though, so I can't say what would work the best for that. You might just have to experiment and see for yourself which is the better option of the two.
Okay, it is clear now, thanks for answering! Since you haven't tried the whole ritual I will have to experiment.
On another note, I'm in an occult discord and I mentioned your operant field method, someone made a few comments I would like to share with you. I would like to know what you think about it.
I said "You can use the Operant Field (LBRP+LIRH) and preliminary invocation (Middle Pillar) to open every ritual. It enhances everything."
He agreed and then said this:
"only downside is for beginners that havent elementally balanced it may be overwhelming.
scott went through the grades and tapped into useful tech, but i guess he expects people reading his blog to have a better foundation. He kinda talks about it when talking about how he wasnt able to publish his book on it since more people just want beginner level info."
I then asked him to expand his point, he said:
"Franz Bardon and most cermonial systems focus on elemental work and meditation to start with, to help people balance out issues and baggage they may carry. Being exposed to certain energies can be destabalizing for some people. LRH was orginally taught after the element grades.
Also depending on the astrology going on you may pull in forces you're not ready to handle mentally. you can use the rituals to help balance things out if you're aware to look for them.
part of knowing thyself is understanding the energies that impact you, the systems give you tools to address them. If you're exhibiting signs of too much fire counter with Water, LBRP/LIRP can be tailored to help you that way. same way with the LRH. "
So, what do you think about this?
I have taught a lot of beginning students who have never reported problems like this. I have to wonder, is this based on experimentation or speculation? If they really have had beginning students have problems with it, I would like to know the difference between how they are teaching and how I teach.
The issue with Operant Magick had nothing to do with the operant field method itself being advanced. They didn't think beginners would be able to follow my integration of advanced philosophical concepts, physics, and neuroscience. They probably still wouldn't, so I'll be publishing Thelemic Sorcery myself.
I know that's how the GD originally taught it, but in my experience it works better when I do it. The specific combination of LBRP/LIRH/MP calls on the macrocosmic energies of the middle pillar, not the microcosmic version that resides in the psyche. Because of its macrocosmic nature, it should have a strong balancing effect.
Speculation aside, my students haven't had problems using these forms. Some of them have never encountered magick, and it gets them up and running very quickly and efficiently. That's an observation based on years of experimentation, not lore that may or may not be accurate. The only way to know is to test it objectively, not just repeat it.
I would say it is speculation since he doesn't teach anyone, as far as I know. That's all I wanted to know, if it safe for beginners to start with those "advanced" rituals. I have a few friends I want to introduce to magick, and I was thinking of teaching them your method since it is pretty beginner friendly and it has a lot of potential.
Maybe it's too much to ask you this, but, how would you describe your way of teaching? How do you teach and how do you suggest me to teach these friends of mine? It would be really helpful for me.
Finally, do you have a success rate of the manifestation of your rituals using your template/method? For example, I have an excel where I write every ritual and charge I've done, with the name of the spirit, etc. Then it calculates the success rate I have and other things. My current success rate is 65%. Which is not that bad, but it can be better, that's why I want to test the template you use in your articles. So I'm just curious how well it works for you, so I can have a benchmark to measure against. If you don't have a number, can you estimate it? It would be amazing. Thanks again for everything!
Right, as far as I know there is nothing dangerous about my methods. The worst that generally happens is operations just don't work.
First I teach LBRP, then LIRH, then Middle Pillar. Those are your daily practices. I get people up and running with those before anything else. Once they're comfortable with those, then I move on to practical stuff like tuning the space with the GRP and GRH. Then conjuration, charge, license to depart. Once you've done all those, you just wrap up your operation with a final LBRP. No additional elaborate closing.
I would need to look at the relative likelihood of each of your operations. I measure magick by probability shift, not raw number of successes. The problem with using raw success numbers is that you could be casting for some pretty easy stuff in probability terms and those will almost always succeed, whereas more difficult operations usually fail.
The way I measure it, I can do a probability shift of around 100 to 1 to about 120 to 1. You could convert your numbers to mine by (1) calculating the relative probability of success for each operation you've done, (2) convert that to an average overall odds number, and then (3) multiply that number by .65.
Yeah, but measuring with probability shifts is a bit subjective. How do you determine the probability of something occuring (that is not already known, like a lottery)? For example, the probability that an operation to find a partner in harmony with your will works. Or the probability of getting the specific job you asked for? Or the probability of changing an aspect of your personality? It seems subjective to me.
I guess you have a system for this, right? I don't know how you would do it, but if you can share it with me it would be great. I want to make experiments myself.
It is, but your method has the same issue. If you are not able to determine the probability or at least guess at a reasonable range you really do not know how powerful your spells are because your successes could just be a bunch of easy things.
For jobs you can look at aggregate numbers and get an idea of how likely you are to get a job during the period of the spell, then look at how many jobs in your field are available, and so forth.
Changing an aspect of your personality is pretty much impossible to quantify, as far as I can tell. There are way too many individual differences to get an aggregate number, and besides, there's no truly testable condition there. What is the difference between (A) just deciding to act a different way, versus (B) deciding to act a different way with assistance from a spell?
Lotteries are actually a great way to test the power of spells and I use them for that relatively often. You need to go with a lottery that uses one of those old school picking machines instead of a computer, because computers do not actually generate random numbers. But with the right sort, you can measure the exact likelihood of getting one number, two numbers, and so forth and get accurate results.
I will grant, you have to understand how to interpolate statistics based on demographic aggregates to measure the likelihood of many operations succeeding. But that's just the way it is. Magick is that kind of a phenomenon, so that is the necessary approach to get reliable measurements.
Okay, I don't think I have the necessary knowledge to do that, so I gave Claude (AI) our conversation and asked it to analize its viability, I hope it doesn't bother you. Anyway, here is what it said, it can be wrong though, so check it out:
"Thanks for the breakdown. I've been thinking about whether your 100:1 to 120:1 shift is actually calculable, even as an estimate, and I think the answer depends on the category of operation, not a single method.
For things with real base-rate data (lottery, hiring rates by sector, actuarial stats), you can get a defensible p_i with a reasonable margin of error. For things like "a partner in harmony with my will," there's no comparable dataset. Any number you assign is a guess dressed up as statistics, not an actual estimate.
But I think there's a deeper problem with the conversion formula itself, separate from how good the base rate estimate is. Averaging the base odds across operations and multiplying by my 0.65 success rate isn't a valid calculation. It mixes population base rate with my individual outcome in an arbitrary way.
The statistically sound version would be: for each operation, estimate p_i, then treat successes as a Poisson-binomial process across all operations. Sum the p_i to get expected successes under the null hypothesis that magick does nothing, then compare that to actual observed successes. That gives a p-value, how unlikely the result is by chance alone, which is a real signal if it's low enough.
Even that doesn't solve the bigger issue though: for most of these operations (job, partner) I'm also acting on the mundane level in parallel with the ritual. There's no way to isolate what the spell contributed versus what sending out resumes or showing up at the gym where she is contributed. Without a control condition, matched mundane effort with no ritual, any shift I calculate could be entirely attributable to non-magical action. That seems like a bigger hole in the method than the subjectivity of estimating p_i.
Curious how you'd respond to that, especially the control problem."
For lottery spells, I do control cases - I buy a ticket and do no ritual. Then I compare the ritual set to the non-ritual set.
Obviously there's no good way to quantify "in harmony with will," so that would be a case where truly scientific measurement is impossible. I can tell you that it has been successful for me in the past and that's about all I can say. Many things are subjective like that, unfortunately. That's why I do most of my testing with hard number sets like lotteries, or estimates that I can easily extract from demographic data.
Mundane versus ritual is easy. Every mundane step you take increases the probability of success, and the key is to move that success rate within the range that you can shift with magick. In theory, that combination guarantees success most of the time.
Not that I expect AI to get even something that simple, but that's a whole other conversation.
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