Monday, December 26, 2016

The Planetary Work - the Moon

This article is Part Seven in a series. Part One can found here, Part Two can be found here, Part Three can be found here, Part Four can be found here, Part Five can be found here, and Part Six can be found here.

Today I will be moving on to working the Moon, the final planet in sequence according to the Chaldean Order. Liber 777 associates the Moon with "The White Tincture, Clairvoyance, Divination by Dreams." So working with the Moon is useful for developing skills such as scrying, lucid dreaming, and psychic perception. Much of what parapsychologists refer to as "psychic ability" falls under the Moon's sphere of influence, such as mind-reading, remote viewing, and so forth.

Parapsychologists also study abilities like telekinesis and precognition, which are slightly different. The Moon is associated with psychic abilities related to perception and information. Precognition is more properly grouped with Prophecy, which is attributed to Gemini. Telekinesis is more difficult to categorize. You could group it with Fire (Evocation, Pyromancy) on the grounds that there is a connection between kinetic and thermal energy. Or you could group it with Taurus (The Secret of Physical Strength) as physical energy projected into the macrocosmic realm.

The White Tincture is mostly beyond the scope of this article, but according to alchemical lore, the White Tincture and Red Tincture are manufactured separately, and then combined to create the Philosopher's Stone. In an esoteric sense, the symbolism is that of lunar consciousness (White Tincture) merging with solar consciousness (Red Tincture) to produce transpersonal realization (Adeptship). This process is also analogous to the mystic marriage between the human magician and the Holy Guardian Angel, the accomplishment of which is the mark of an Adept in the Thelemic tradition.

Scrying is probably the most common ability related to the Moon that magicians are looking to improve. Accurate scrying seems to be more talent-driven than many other magical skills, and seems to be correspondingly harder to cultivate. While I can personally do it after many years of work, I still find it difficult and get better, more accurate results with astral techniques such as "traveling in the spirit vision." Still, if scrying is an ability that you are looking to improve, the Moon is the right aspect to work with.

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.

The Moon does have two sides like the other planets, so in addition to cultivating psychic perception, it can be used to block the psychic perceptions of others. This can be used to create a sort of magical cloak that can help shield you from magical attacks and influences. Keep in mind, though, that an operation employing the Moon can also be used to bring down or penetrate this sort of defense, so it is usually not sufficient magical protection on its own. It is best to employ this sort of defense along with positive, protective aspects of Saturn and Mars.

Related to the Moon are the North and South Nodes, referred to as Caput Draconis and Cauda Draconis. In Liber O, the instruction is to use the lunar hexagram with the proper symbol to invoke or banish either node. Unfortunately, much of the lore surrounding the nodes is incomplete. They do not have columns associated with them in Liber 777, so some extrapolation is necessary. In Western astrology, the nodal axis is related to your purpose in life.

The South Node is associated with qualities from your past life, which could be thought of as related to reincarnation, childhood conditioning, or both, depending on your perspective on such things. The North Node is related to your life purpose or true spiritual nature, similar to but not necessarily identical with the Thelemic concept of True Will. In theory, these would be useful forces to conjure - South Node for breaking down conditioning, which is sometimes necessary, and North Node for gaining a greater understanding of your will.

So the most logical way to perform such a ritual would probably be to do it just like the lunar ritual outlined here, except that you use the symbols for Caput and Cauda Draconis rather than the glyph for the Moon in the center of your Greater Hexagram. Then, once the angel appears, you can ask some questions and see if you are really on the right path. I have not personally worked with the nodes, so I am not sure how well it will work. But the angel should be able to tell you. The symbols look like this:


Note the text above the diagram. In astronomy, the nodes of the Moon are used to predict eclipses. There is a great deal of lore about working magick during or associated with eclipses, much of it very negative. Some of this likely applies to the nodes as well, so I recommend treating them with care if this is an area you want to explore.

In the Vedic astrology of India, the nodes are called Rahu and Ketu, which you can look up if you are so inclined. In the Vedic system, they are viewed more negatively than in the European system. And the European system does not generally view them in a positive light.

As a personal anecdote, I once knew of an occultist who constructed an "eclipse wand," empowering it during a series of eclipses. Given what I saw of this individual's subsequent behavior, I cannot recommend constructing such a device. It seems more likely to wreak havoc with the user's psyche than be useful for any magical purpose, and this may also be true of careless work involving the nodes.

At any rate, for the Path of the Moon, the four scales of color are Blue, Silver, Cold Pale Blue, and Silver Rayed Sky-Blue. For ceremonial forms, you use the King scale, which is Blue. Its complement is orange. Note that when going from sephira to path, Jupiter and the Moon switch colors. All four scales should be used to construct the sigil of the angel. The first piece of the sigil is the character of the Moon, which looks like this:


The angel of the path of the Moon is Gabriel, spelled Gimel-Beth-Resh-Yod-Aleph-Lamed. The Moon kamea is 9 x 9, so the valuation for Resh needs to be reduced. For Resh, 200, I reduce to 20 rather than 2 because 20 can be found on the kamea and I generally employ minimal reductions. This yields 3, 2, 20 (200), 10, 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 the Moon are Menstrual Blood, Camphor, Aloes, and "All Sweet Virginal Odors." Associated plants are Almond, Mugwort, Hazel, Moonwort, Ranunculus, Alder, and Pomegranate. The associated metal is silver, and the associated precious stones are Moonstone, Pearl, and Crystal. 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 silver, opal, or agate 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-names in Assiah for the path of the Moon are Dah (Daleth-Heh) and Alim (Aleph-Lamed-Yod-Mem). Note that this is not the same as Elohim, which is spelled with an additional Heh. It is far more common for lunar operations to be taught using Shaddai El Chai as the god-name for the Moon, but this is actually the god-name appropriate to Yesod, the sephira of the Moon. 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 lunar operation is on a Monday, during the hour of the Moon. 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 the Moon. Beginning in the east, go to each quarter in turn and perform the following actions.

  1. 1. Trace the Hexagram of the Moon in Blue while vibrating ARARITA (ah-rah-ree-tah). The hexagram of the Moon is traced by starting at the bottom point and tracing the first triangle clockwise, and then moving on to the top point and tracing the second triangle clockwise from there.
  2. Trace the symbol of the Moon in the center of the hexagram in orange while vibrating DAH (dah) or ALIM (ah-LEEM). Either will work, just be sure to use the same one for all four quarters. Feel free to experiment and see which one works best for you.
The final figure being traced to all four directions should look like this:


Once the four figures are traced, return to face the east completing the circle.

Then, recite the Orphic Hymn to the Moon.

Hear, Goddess queen, diffusing silver light,
Bull-horn'd and wand'ring thro' the gloom of Night.
With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide
Night's torch extending, thro' the heav'ns you ride:
Female and Male with borrow'd rays you shine,
And now full-orb'd, now tending to decline.
Mother of ages, fruit-producing Moon,
Whose amber orb makes Night's reflected noon:
Lover of horses, splendid, queen of Night,
All-seeing pow'r bedeck'd with starry light.
Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife,
In peace rejoicing, and a prudent life:
Fair lamp of Night, its ornament and friend,
Who giv'st to Nature's works their destin'd end.
Queen of the stars, all-wife Diana hail!
Deck'd with a graceful robe and shining veil;
Come, blessed Goddess, prudent, starry, bright,
Come moony-lamp with chaste and splendid light,
Shine on these sacred rites with prosp'rous rays,
And pleas'd accept thy suppliant's mystic praise.

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.


GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL, GABRIEL (gah-bree-EL). Come unto me, great and mighty angel of LEVANAH (leh-vah-NAH) by the name of the great god [DAH or ALIM] (DAH or ah-LEEM, same as used in the Greater Hexagram). Send unto me MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM(mahl-KAH BEH tar-shish-EEM VA ah-AHD BEH roo-AH sheh-ha-KEEM), that great intelligence of thine, and thereafter attend to my behest.

Pause until the presence of Gabriel is perceived. If you don’t feel anything or see anything, wait a minute or so before continuing.

MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM, MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM (mahl-KAH BEH tar-shish-EEM VA ah-AHD BEH roo-AH sheh-ha-KEE). Come unto me, thou bright intelligence of LEVANAH (leh-vah-NAH), in the name of GABRIEL (gah-bree-EL) thy lord. Compel the spirit CHASMODAI (chas-moh-DYE) who is under thy dominion to manifest within this Table of Art, and thereafter attend to my behest.

Pause until the presence of Malkah Be Tarshishim va A'ad Be Ruah Shehaqim is perceived. If you don’t feel anything or see anything, wait a minute or so before continuing.

CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI, CHASMODAI (chas-moh-DYE). Come unto me, mighty spirit of LEVANAH (leh-vah-NAH), in the name of MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM (mahl-KAH BEH tar-shish-EEM VA ah-AHD BEH roo-AH sheh-ha-KEE) thy lord. Come forth within this Table of Art and thereafter attend to my behest, that I may wield the powers of GIMEL (gim-EL), the path of the Moon.

At this point, vibrate the name GABRIEL repeatedly until the presence of the angel and spirits of the Moon 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 the Moon as "The White Tincture, Clairvoyance, Divination by Dreams." For best results, your charge should fall within that area. Otherwise, you may be asking for something outside the Moon's 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 GABRIEL 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 [DAH or ALIM, same as used in the conjuration], 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.

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88 comments:

javier said...

Hi Scott ¡¡¡

wonderful work, umm The node north opens roads according to the house in which it is for example house 2 is related to possessions,The south node closes doors,It would be interesting to combine a ritual that incorporates a given node into a astrological sign but But taking into account the personal natal chart.

Scott Stenwick said...

It certainly might be worth experimenting with. I just have not done much with the nodes myself, so I can't speak from personal experience how to go about it. There's a lot of different lore about the nodes. I did some research on them in preparation for this article, and wasn't able to find much of a consensus - but many of those sources warned about dangers and issues associated with eclipses and the like.

It seems to me that you could just work with the sign in which your natal nodes fall, and get access to their aspects that way. In other words, a node in a particular sign might enhance the "closing" or "opening" capacity of the sign, whereas doing an invocation of the nodes themselves would be tapping into their more general chracteristics. But as I said, I don't know from experience, so a lot of that is just guesswork on my part.

Anonymous said...

Going directly to the sign itself is a good idea. I have the NN in Aries, but i was mostly stuck in SN Libra all the time. So I called the angel of Aries and asked it to bring into my personal sphere the energies of its sign that I need for this lifetime. I feel like a new person (almost) since March. It was so successful that I'm thinking of calling the angel of Libra and ask it to remove the energies of its sign I don't need anymore.

As for working with the nodes themselves, I have a feeling that tapping directly into them might unleash a series of events one could not be ready for at that time. Let's say you have the SN in Capricorn and the NN in Cancer. You have an awesome job at some huge company, making 20-30k per month. Then you work with the NN with the indent of manifesting your current lifetime destiny quickly, and you and up jobless and in debt because you need to be more emotional and care more about home&family and the likes. That's not good :) This example is a bit exaggerated, but only to prove my point.

Therefore, I think it's best for starters to call on the nodes and seek advice from the angel about them and the best way of handling their energies in your life.

Anonymous said...

In addition to the signs the nodes are in, I strongly suspect one can work with the signs corresponding to the houses. As an example, NN Aquarius 7th house and SN in Leo, 1st house. The 7th house corresponds to Libra and the 1st to Aries, so one would have 2 signs to work with for each node.

I've experienced this almost one year ago when I began practicing what's called the Inner Hexagram ritual. It's more of an exercise+active meditation. Nevertheless it had great results for me. I used a pendulum to indicate what planet to use in what day, and since the ritual can also be used for zodiac signs, I used it to find out those as well. What struck me is that the pendulum only indicated me to work with Aries and Leo, out of all the signs. I later realized that my NN is in the 5th house which corresponds to Leo.

This came as a synchronicity (I've had many of these since I began reading your blog) tonight, when an astrologer (and mystic, although he doesn't talk about it) talked about the life lessons of the lunar nodes in on his program.

Anonymous said...

Now that I'm looking through 777, I see that the houses have different angels (or genii) than the corresponding signs. So I guess those spirits can also be used.

Scott Stenwick said...

A caveat there - the mapping of signs to houses is entirely modern (As in 1st house to Aries, 2nd to Taurus, and so forth). It was not used in Medieval or Renaissance astrology, so if you are going to try and apply the Agrippa material that way, keep in mind that it was never intended to be used as such.

That doesn't mean it won't work, necessarily. Just that without some serious experimentation, you shouldn't be confident that it will.

Anonymous said...

Now that'something to think about. I guess I'll go directly to the signs and ask the angel if he can help with what I need.

I also suspect some of the multitude of lunar spirits are linked directly to the nodes, although i don't know which ones :)

Anonymous said...

*nodes, not signs - my bad

javier said...

Hi Scott ¡¡

and for zodiacals invocations the angels of decanates?asccendent,succedent,cadent what uses will?
for example for evocations of shemaphorash angels, the zodiacal questions can be interesting umm the zodiacal arcangels and lesser angels of the some sign- for example for virgo - hamaliel and Shelatiel.

Scott Stenwick said...

I do not use any special ceremonial forms for the decanates. I just use the Greater Hexagram for the sign. I make the distinction between the various angels according to their sigils, which I trace onto the kamea of the planet ruling the sign, and in the conjuration, by adjusting the controlling name if necessary.

Angels at the level of a sign are conjured using the permutation of Tetragrammaton for the sign, which is also what you use for the godname in the Greater Hexagram. But an angel that is ruled by one of the Shem names is conjured by the Shem name. For the Greater Hexagram you still use the permutation of Tetragrammaton regardless.

So basically, this gives you access to the full spiritual hierarchy without having to work all the way down from the top. I used to do that, but found that it's not really necessary to get to the spirit you want. You just need to conjure the spirit by the controlling name directly above it in the hierarchy.

Does that make sense?

javier said...

Yeah Scott, I understand some example will serve I use your ritual models( are excellent I adore then) but For example I want to lower the energy of the 9th gold, -Venus in Virgo-, that is, Yesod in Assiah for this, I would invoke Shaddai El Chai, Gabriel, Hamaliel (zodiacal of Virgo) Hazyael and Eldiah (Shenhamphorash angels) the card would be the magic link for That force,for zodiacal work maybe :
Godname atziluth of the sephira
YHVH permuted for the zodiacal sign required
Archangel of regent sphere (briah)
Archangel of the astrological sign (briah)
angelic chorus (yetzirah)
lesser angel For the yesod -malkuth connection to bring down and manifest the energy of yesod to malkuth. I would have the seal of this angel,I think you can name the whole hierarchy, and draw in the picture the sigil of the lesser Angel for example Sharahiel for Aries,I do not know how you would raise it Scott,

Scott Stenwick said...

Right, those are the hierarchies I am talking about. These days I rarely work through all the levels, though. For a planet in a sign I would probably do the GIRH for the sign, conjure the angel of the sign by the Tetragrammaton permutation, then GIRH for the planet, then conjure the angel of the planet by the planetary godname.

The final godname of the planet is already in Assiah, so I would say you can simplify that bit. And the consciousness of angels extends through the other three worlds, so I've found that you usually get away with summoning one entity by one controlling name, unless you are trying for something like a planet in a sign, in which case you summon two angels by two controlling names.

Basically, what I've found is that you get the same results whether you navigate through the whole hierarchy or not. So that implies to me that while that level of complexity doesn't hurt, it doesn't really help you either. It's more important to be explicit when dealing with less intelligent spirits, but those that we generally refer to as angels are pretty intelligent and usually don't need much explicit direction. You just give them the charge, and they can figure out how to do it.

I'm not sure what you mean by the last line. Most of the angels *rule* their sphere of influence, so that means if they can bring energy down they can also raise it. So if that's what you're asking, all that you need to change is the charge. But again, I'm not sure if that was your question.

Anonymous said...

A short intrusion here. I don't think there would be any problem of working with the angels of the signs corresponding to the houses the nodes are in. I just remembered the bible quoting Jesus who told the apostles to follow the water bearer into his house. This clearly means the sign of Aquarius, but it has a house associated to it.

Scott Stenwick said...

You can read it that way, I suppose. In Medieval astrology the house of the water bearer would be the house of Saturn, because Saturn rules Aquarius. That fits the quote just as well, and the house-to-sign thing only dates back to about the 1800's.

My point is not that this would necessarily be a "problem," it's more like I just don't know how well it would work. It could possibly be an effective modern innovation, but it isn't even as old as the Middle Ages, let alone ancient.

javier said...

More or less is clear, it is best to try with rituals and see results...I personally want to use the tarot minor arcana as representatives of magical energy, I will place it in the tritemium chart

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it was just in idea though. Rolling your idea forward is also interesting. It never occurred to me to use the ruling planet of the sign corresponding to the house.

Thing is, I already started working with the nodes for issues specific to them, such as adding and removing energies from one's personal sphere. Nothing fancy yet. I'm waiting to see how it's going to unfold.

When I think about the nodes RO's articles about the genius and the evil daimon pop into my mind - you know, the ones in which he talks about sealing the evil daimon in lead :) I'm not going to seal the energies of the SN in lead, just contain them and use them to my own advantage.

Scott Stenwick said...

I really do not know what to think about sealing the evil daimon in lead. I have never tried anything like that, so I can't say for sure that it won't work, but it sounds dubious to me. Among other things, in astrology Saturn is the major malefic, so how would this be any different from making a Saturn talisman incorporating the evil daimon's name? It's not like you can seal spirits related to Saturn away using the metal appropriate to Saturn, after all. And I think that especially from a Renaissance astrological perspective, the evil daimon would qualify. So I think you are wise to not go down that path.

Still, I probably would have to try it to have an informed opinion.

Anonymous said...

I was amazed myself upon reading those articles. I don't know much about the evil daimon, but I think it's a necessary part of our lives in a sense of punishing us when we go astray from our path. At least that's what I understand so far. So sealing it away - if possible - would bring a person more freedom, but at what cost in the end? I don't know how Frater RO felt after that, not the people for which he performed the operation. I would ask him myself, but i don't think he's going to answer - guess he's too busy.

The same goes with the lunar nodes. Eliminating the energy of the SN all together could produce a great unbalance... I'm still waiting for noticeable results so far. When I conjured Gabriel using the SN symbol in the hexagram, I explained to him that I wanted the specific energies that cause torment to be removed from a person's sphere.

Anonymous said...

I posted this on fb some time ago, but no one commented on it. I don't know if you've seen it, but I'm interested in your opinion relating to it and any possible applications:

I think I've got an idea of a curse that will not only hurt the target during this lifetime, but in the next one as well, if there's actually such thing. The curse won't necessarily hurt them, so it's not quite a curse per se. It involves the astrological meaning of the Lunar Nodes, so it might sound like mumbo jombo, but bear with me.

So the Lunar Node axis shows a person's path during this lifetime. The South Node (by sign and house) shows where they come from, their comfort zone, the way their soul is and acts like, despite the Sun sign and the placements of the rest of the planets in their birth chart. Their North Node is where they need go in order for their soul to evolve. Need to learn the lessons of the NN and then act according to what they have learned, by using the mindset of the sign and house their NN is placed in. Failing to do this would bring hardships for the person along the way, which can last for more that one lifetime if the individual is too stubborn to go out of their comfort zone. At least that's what astrology says in general.

So what if someone would conjure Gabriel and ask him to completely block the energies of the NN in another person's sphere? I mean for good. For the rest of that person's current life that is. This is hypothetical of course, but wouldn't it result in the soul of the target having to experience double the hardships relating to the transition from the SN to the NN in their next lifetime?

Scott Stenwick said...

I did see the idea on FB, but the problem is that since your results are entirely unverifiable there is no way to tell whether this is just something you are telling yourself for your curse to be "nastier" or a real effect.

If all those assumptions about the lunar nodes are correct, sure, it might be possible to make what you're talking about. But if any of them are wrong, or reincarnation disrupts all magical links, or if there is no reincarnation, and so forth, you're just wasting your time.

You could conjure Gabriel and ask. That's going to be more reliable than asking me, honestly. It is really difficult to speculate on something where pretty much by definition, you can never verify your results by empirical means.

Anonymous said...

It was just an idea and I was hoping to get more ideas regarding it. Talking to Gabriel is appropriate, although i suspect that a lunar spirit has slipped this thought into my mind after I had given them offerings. I did not enquire about the specific source though.

In any case, the spell would only need to act on the target for their current lifetime, halting their progress. The seemingly impossible part would be to verify the results in the next lifetime, if any :) It's just an idea, and I had to let it out :P Hope you don't mind :D

Merlyn78 said...

In trying to understand the nature of the Intelligence of the Moon, I used online sources to translate the Hebrew into English. However, the translation does not appear to make sense. Did I miss something? Thanks.


MALKA BETARSHITIM AD BERUACH SHECHAKIM
Queen House Acacias Perpetual Breath Clouds

Scott Stenwick said...

So the Intelligences of the Moon are just a mess in Agrippa and other sources. I do not have proof for this, but I have wondered for years if the Intelligences of the Moon relate back to the lords of the lunar mansions. So the idea would be that you select the lunar mansion appropriate to your operation and sigilize the lord of the mansion as the Intelligence. Then you would use Graphiel as the spirit.

My Planetary Work - Moon post does just include the "mess" from Agrippa because I haven't yet had time to do a full round of experiments with the above methodology so I don't know if it works well or not. If you'd like to give it a try, I'd love to hear back. The lords of the lunar mansions from the Picatrix can be found here, last sentence of each description:

https://www.renaissanceastrology.com/mansionsmagicpicatrix.html

My thought is that MALKA BETARSHITIM AD BERUACH SHECHAKIM may be a corrupted version of a Hebrew phrase that was originally telling the magician to use the lord of the lunar mansion. Then, at some point, it was accidentally turned into a sigilized name of power - maybe by Agrippa himself or Trithemius, since (as far as I know) you don't see the Intelligence/Spirit names in earlier sources besides the Three Books.

What got translated as "Queen House" might be an allusion to "lunar mansion." "Ruach" in Beruach could be "spirit" rather than breath and allude to an entity. "Perpetual" might be closer to "eternal." "Clouds" could be closer to "sky" or "heavens." And so forth. Not sure where "Acacias" would fit in. But you could wind up with something like:

"The eternal spirit of the house of the Queen of the Heavens."

That sounds a lot like a general description for "lord of the lunar mansion" to me.



Merlyn78 said...

Thanks, Scott. All of that makes a lot of sense and even gave me a better translation of what I got through the online translators. Of course, When I do experiment with the Lunar Mansions, I'll be happy to report the results.

Merlyn78 said...

I initially found this in an ebook of David Griffin's Ritual Magick Manual. I didn't notice until now that, in a footnote, he says the sigils were created using the Kamea of the Moon from Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy. He also said a lot of the Restoration work was done by Donald Tyson.

Footnote in David Griffin's Ritual Magick Manual:
"The Sigils of the Planetary Intelligences and Spirits derive not from the Rose, but rather from a system of Magic Squares called the Kameoth. The names of the Kameothic Hierarchy (i.e. the Intelligences and Spirits [Demons] of the Planets) may be found in Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, pp. 318-328. For a description of the Kameothic system and an explanation of the derivation of the Sigils see, ibid., pp.733-751. Donald Tyson has done a marvelous job of restoring the Sigils. His restoration of the Name of the Intelligence of the Intelligences of the Moon is of particular magical value. All Sigils for Kameothic Entities in this book have been redrawn from the Kameoth, in recognition of the Tyson’s insights, but conforming their style with the other Sigils."

Scott Stenwick said...

I use the Kamea system from Agrippa all over the place in all my practical rituals. I like it better than the rose method because it seems more mathematical and therefore a little less contrived. What you are seeing in the "sigil of the intelligence" is the entire Hebrew phrase mapped onto the lunar kamea.

Tyson did a good job on his edition of Agrippa. He stuck to the facts for the most part without careening off into wild speculation, unlike how he treats the Enochian system. I wish he would stick to work like that instead of "Necronomicon Gnosis" or whatever piece of nonsense he's likely working on today.

I picked up a copy of his edition of Probably-Not-Agrippa's Fourth Book recently but haven't had a chance to scrutinize it closely. I'm hoping it's of similar quality to his Three Books.

TyroneLove said...

I don’t have all the right colors to cover the 4 scales for the sigil so I thought I’ll probably use a colorless version of the kamea sigils along with the Priestess card from the Toth tarot. That should be fine right ?

Scott Stenwick said...

Yes, that should work. The Thoth Tarot was deliberately painted in all the right colors from the different scales.

TyroneLove said...

Hello Scott. I plan on doing a working with the Moon next Monday and wrote the following charge :
« Angel Gabriel (…), I hereby command you to infuse this silver bracelet with the powers of thy sphere LEVANAH, and make it a talisman to enhance psychic abilities. As I wear the bracelet, it is my will to see improved my abilities to : skry in my crystal, to visualize more vividly the symbols I draw in the air during ritual, my capacity for active imagination during travel in the spirit world and pathworkings, my confidence and ability to receive the messages of my tarot cards during readings, and to be generally more in tune with the presence of energies and spirits, and to feel a more tangible connection with my higher self and my HGA »

I was wondering, do you think it’s ridiculous do go into such detail and to ask for so much in a single operation ?
I did a Golden Dawn circle spread regarding the outcome of the ritual and drew The Lovers, so that feels very encouraging, but maybe I should simplify the charge I dunno, that might be greedy.

Scott Stenwick said...

Not in the slightest. One of the advanced methods of creating talismans, in fact, involves spelling out in a lot of detail how you want the talisman to work. It can be arbitrarily complex like a computer program, and really, one of the ways magicians limit themselves is to oversimplify their talismanic charges.

It is possible that you might do better creating a talisman for each of the effects that you want, because the power of the talisman could potentially be divided among all those points, but at the same time if you had only one really good astrological election and wanted to make the most of it this could still be an effective way to go.

TyroneLove said...

You mentioned the importance of always giving a timeframe to the spirit for fulfilling your request, which I find a bit confusing, especially when it comes to changes within the magician’s consciousness. Last night I gave the following charge to Gabriel (the whole ritual felt amazing btw) :

O Mighty and Beloved Gabriel, I hereby command you, by the name of the True and Living God ALIM, to come at my aid in a matter of the mind. Relieve me of the fears, worries, illusions and self-doubts that torment me so. Cast some of the Moon’s revealing light, the ruler of my sign Cancer, cast some of its light unto my shadows, that I may regain a sense of levity and enjoyment out of life, and continue the Great Work with a more peaceful heart, on my path towards Balance. I give you 2 weeks, O Gabriel, to make the effect of your wise and loving power on myself as potent as possible.

In that case and from your experience, how do you think my command is interpreted by the spirit regarding the timeframe ? Does it probably mean concentrating its power for 2 weeks before finally delivering it and fulfilling my request after that time has passed ? Working on the fulfillment of my request for 2 weeks after which I’ll stop benefiting from his assistance ? Or like I intended, causing a lasting change on my psyche that will become gradually more profound over a 2 week period after which the Angel would have fulfilled my request, while the effect of its intervention will remain ? Is it really necessary to include a timeframe in my charge for such matters ?

Scott Stenwick said...

For changes in consciousness the timeframe is less important. The big pitfall you are trying to avoid is casting for something beyond your power and/or the spirit's power to accomplish. Without a timeframe that runs forever, consuming potential magical resources the whole time. The timeframe provides a cutoff so that can't happen. It's a bigger deal with practical magick because it's sometimes hard to estimate the probability shift you need for an effect. Consciousness is more malleable than the physical world, so there's a lot less risk of a "runaway spell" like what I described.

As far as your charge goes, it looks good to me and I'm glad the ritual felt good. As far as how it will be interpreted, there is no clear rule. It usually depends on the particulars of what the spirit needs to do and the most effective way to get it done. I think with the wording you're more likely to see a big effect at the end of the two weeks as opposed to small effects throughout the period, but that's just based on my reading of it. Angels are smart, and generally speaking they will work out the best way to get the biggest effect.

TyroneLove said...

Thank you again for the clarification.

Roth said...

I think you mentioned in your recent ritual night talk that most earthbound spirits could be classed as ruled by the moon. would spirits that manipulate dreams and are able to effect the physical world fairy directly (snap crackle pops in the walls/door frames etc) generally be considered such? would spirits ruled by another planet cause that type of phenomena? I have Saturn and Mars protection talismans running along your guidelines but still experience intrusion via dreams. It’s sounding like adding a lunar talisman to the mix should round things out.

Scott Stenwick said...

If you are experiencing unwanted spirit contact in your dreams, a lunar talisman is probably the best way to deal with it. In addition to earthbound spirits being under the domain of the Moon, the Moon also rules dreaming. So it's pretty much the perfect tool for the job.

Roth said...

these spirits are also present etherically/in physical space upon waking and I’ve deduced through dreams with confirmation via psychic that these are the result of a human practitioner cursing me. running a lunar talisman with the same mirroring charges as Mars/Saturn with an addendum regarding dreams would cover all bases then, even if the person recasts their curses?

now that all the dots have been connected I realize I’ve been under attack from this person for many years, to the point of some ill health that almost smoked my ass a couple different times and had me suffering from semi-regular bits of obsession for a while. if shielding talismans do the trick that’s chilly, I’m not raring to pull active Saturn curses into the ring but I also would like to just never have to worry about this person harming myself or those close to me again and they’ve shown they have no scruples with getting real shitty about it. as far as retaliatory magic goes, does setting a condition that nothing comes back around to harm anyone around me/myself handicap the magick from getting the job done? just thinking along the lines of “every action/equal reaction” but maybe thinking too much into it.

Scott Stenwick said...

Yes, I think that should do what you want it to do.

I actually am kind of amazed that anyone would bother to put in that level of effort, or if they are running some sort of automatic talisman-based method, that anybody who could do that level of work would want to spend all their energy on you. But I suppose there's no accounting for people, right?

A thought - if you are using a mirror-type charge with your talismans, intelligent spirits can sometimes get through that. If the spirits just get "reflected" back to the caster, all they will do is show up back in the caster's temple or whatnot. The "bounces" also might rebound at the spirit and not the original caster, and an intelligent spirit will figure out pretty quickly to use attacks that can damage a person but not a spirit once they realize what's happening.

Ideally you want a charge that will explicitly disenchant or dispel the spirit (or something like that) when it tries to attack. That way it can't just evade like it can with a simple mirror charge.

Alex Scaraoschi said...

Mars is still super strong so you could make the third and sixth pentacles of Mars from the KoS for protection http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/ksol.htm#chap21

You can also make a simple witch bottle and see how that goes although I think it'd be best to make one just in case before any possible signs of a curse manifest.

As far as retaliation goes, I've found that in lack of any link to the attacker due to several reason which include not knowing their identity, you can use the target of the curse to channel a counterstrike. This can be tricky because the initial target can have their personal sphere already weakened and a counterstrike channeled through them might weaken it further. But it's worth to try if you lack other options. Although a decent recovery would be best prior to doing that.

Roth said...

very cool, I will give that a go with the lunar talisman and see what happens, and try reprogramming the Mars and Saturn ones next time conditions are favorable. I have noted that the spirit intrusions both in dreams and in waking seem to have really had their teeth pulled after working with Mars and Saturn. Instead of getting my shit wrecked in sleep i tend to wake up with a bit of a window before any sensory presence shows up, and when they do it doesn’t manage an air anything like some of the really heavy ones I’ve encountered before.

I was amazed myself as I can’t for the life of me picture any of the people involved having the discipline or structure to be of much effect at anything magickal but I guess with how many other lanes there are aside from ceremonial if there’s a will there’s a way!

Roth said...

I know who they are and have some photos ready, got a big mason jar of nasty saturnine things soaking for three week duration to try some physically anchored work as I believe they operate more along those/wiccan lines.
Will look into witch bottles too.

and damn, I had “that their swords may pierce their own hearts” in my charge and didn’t even realize that was in Solomons mars stuff lol.

Alex Scaraoschi said...

Splendid then!

Haha even better then.

Roth said...

Also!! I recall reading somewhere on here that Crowley may have placed the Balasti Ompedha banishing prior to the cab cross because the cc is invocatory. I can add that from my experience dealing with all these goofies that opening with a cab cross when there is another entity present very much seems to give its influence a greater window into your own consciousness, making it more difficult (via mental static) to establish your banishing field cleanly. I think this would fit with the theory that Crowley might have had the abramelin demons up his ass constantly on account of never fully finishing said operation?

Scott Stenwick said...

I think it probably is a lot simpler than that. You are always supposed to banish before you invoke, but when working with the LIRP how do you do that? It would be silly to open with LBRP -> LIRP because it's so redundant. But if you put a basic banishing by fiat prior to the QC, it means you can go right into the LIRP without any issues.

Also - the "Balasti Ompehda" prior to the QC is mine, not Crowley's, added for the exact reason I quote above. You won't find it in Crowley's version of the LRP in Liber O, for example. You could maybe make an argument similar to what you say here, though, for the the APO PANTOS KAKODAIMONOS prior to the QC in the Star Ruby.

Still, there's not a lot of evidence in Crowley's magical diaries that the Abramelin spirits hounded him for the rest of his life after not finishing the ritual. They hounded him while he was trying to perform it at Boleskine, not afterwards.

Alex Scaraoschi said...

This is a stupid question, but I hope you've gotten used to my stupid questions so far :)

I'm thinking of making kamea talismans as per Agrippa on metal (since, you know, if it's not on metal it won't work *wink*) because I want to five use them as "jewelry" and such and paper ones would obviously not work. So far I've made a few Mercury ones back during godawful times and stacked each of them alongside the appropriate link to the target and so far it seems there's signs those people are experiencing their effects. See here: https://scaraoschisbooksofsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/11/mercury-talisman-experiment-bonus.html

But anyway, I bought a small dremmel tool and I found it quite difficult to use it on metal since a very steady hand is required and straight lines are very difficult to make. My question is whether the kamea require the grid pattern to be drawn as well, or doe the numbers arranged in the particular order suffice?

Thanks.

Scott Stenwick said...

Nope, no stupid questions! I am not able to use a dremel well either - poor motor skills or something. Instead, I use one of these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dasco-Pro-7-in-Scratch-Awl-431-0/100192459

You can scratch figures into the metal with it just like using a pen, and for straight lines you can just use a straightedge like drawing with a pen. For Mercury I generally use shiny brass (an alloy) on which the scratch awl works quite well and the figures are very visible, especially at the right angle.

My understanding of the Agrippa kameas is that the character of the planet stands in for the entire kamea. So in theory, all you would need is the Mercury character without the grid for a Mercury talisman, which is how I do it and it seems to work fine.

In some other systems like Hoodoo the kameas are used as talismanic figures, and what I have seen is that people doing that usually include the grid. I'm not an expert on that system, though, so I'm not sure if it's required. I haven't done any testing comparing with versus without with respect to the grid. That would be the real test - try both and see if one is better than the other.

Alex Scaraoschi said...

Yep you're right and you've just given me an idea! I will use a regular kitchen knife with a sharp tip to trace the grid after I've inscribed the numbers with the dremel tool. Now I know many grimoirists would be appalled by this, but I will use the "Golden Dawn LRP 'any convenient pointed instrument' technique" and trace the LBRP at the beginning using that other knife so that knife will become consecrated simply by being used in the LBRP haha.

I want to try this Mars thing https://scaraoschisbooksofsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/11/mars-talisman-experiment-bonus.html

I'm using a small pocket knife for it simply because I can't go around carrying a sword everywhere I go and also because for some reason I can't find a decent piece of iron or stainless steel for that matter... Go figure... So I bought a small red handled pocked knife and my problem is its blade is 1 inch wide at most. While I can etch numbers on its width, I can't trace the proper grid lines in between them with the tool. So I will simply use the other knife.

Thank you!!!

Scott Stenwick said...

You can also use something like the Aries operation I have here to generally consecrate any tool.

https://ananael.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-zodiacal-work-aries.html

Consecrating tools by using them doesn't appall me or anything like that, but I find it doesn't work very well. The tool will get consecrated if you use it enough, but the charge has to build up with time and repeated usage. The Aries operation gets it done in one pass.

Alex Scaraoschi said...

Definitely, although I am quite lazy and I thought it's not worth doing a separate ritual just to consecrate a knife I will likely use as an engraving tool only once :) Whereas the pocket knife is the actual talisman anchor.

Bishop said...

Can Moon be used somehow for skill since Mercury is in Retrogade?
Moon rules senses so i could ask for adapting my senses for skill?

Scott Stenwick said...

In some ways, sure. The Moon rules not only senses, but conditioning. So for example, skills that require "muscle memory" (which isn't really memory and isn't really in your muscles, but that's a whole other conversation) are exactly the sort of thing that the Moon would be good for, in addition to honing senses and the like.

Bishop said...


Yesterday i did a conjuration of the Moon entiites to influence a person so they send something to a family member that they promised and gave milk as a ofering!So the object is not send for 2 months and i did the conjuration and charge the entities to influence a person via dreams or psychical infuence so that they send it quick!
Now today i got the information that they want to send it today or soon

It s really impressive how it turned out.I guess Moon can be used for this type of influence and it s the fastest of planets compared to other planets.
Maybe it has also to do with something Moon being in Libra and justice.
I also did Alex s Moon MP because it s feels right.

Anyway i wanted to report a result that s obvious.

Scott Stenwick said...

Cool. Thanks for sharing!

Alex Scaraoschi said...

Yea congrats!!!

Bishop said...

When moon is waning let s say at Waning phase 60 this means that the moon will reflect on material world does this the influence of conjuration realtivly ok ?

Or does the waning phase has a effect that it s better to use it for stuff like banishment,lowering something or it can be use for actibe goals like"Make me better at A"and the waning phases will not limit that if its like 70 or 80 procent light in waning phase?

Scott Stenwick said...

I am not really proficient down to that level of detail, and have not really tracked the percentages of light for Moon phases in my operations.

You can do conjurations during both the waning and waxing Moon in my experience. The waxing Moon tends to be stronger because of the chart victor - more commonly, on a waxing Moon the prenatal lunation for your operation will be in the same sign as the Sun, so that works better for operations that are in harmony with the current Sun sign. Waning Moon is the opposite - prenatal lunation is most commonly in the sign opposite the Sun, so its energy will be at odds with that of the current Sun sign.

That can in theory be what you want, if you are trying to do an operation that is more in harmony with the opposite sign than the current sign. But with prenatal lunation it's either the point of the last Full Moon (opposing Sun) or the point of the last New Moon (conjunct Sun). Percentages don't really play into that.

But in none of these case will the magick just not work in my experience. It just works better when the conditions are right. Over the years I've been able to cast pretty haphazardly with respect to the Moon and still get good results most of the time.

Bishop said...

How Planetary entities starting from Angel to Planetary Spirit influence our world?
Is it like Planetary entities do something with the concentric circles constantly influencing the world in form of emiting energies that materializes in Assiyah?

When a person casts a spell in a sing where planet for example Venus in Libra and Moon waxing is strong then he got I guess a nice probability!
But when Venus enters a sing where it s weak like Virgo ,is the spell or energy that entities emit weak until Venus leave it s weak sing Virgo?
Then I guess when Venus orbits in its neutral sing it sends a good probability and strong in its strong sings!

Scott Stenwick said...

I think the whole way in which spirits work have to do with things like overlapping quantum information fields based on consciousness that shift probability at the wavefunction or pilot wave level. But nobody really can answer the question of how spirits influence the material world from a definitive scientific perspective. All you are going to get for answers are basically guesses.

The condition of a planet does affect probability shifts related to the planet. A planet is strongest in rulership, strong in exaltation, weak in fall, and weakest in detriment. Paying attention to those can help in terms of getting good results.

Desmond G. said...

Hi Scott! A week or so ago I told you that I was going to perform a rite with the moon to reflect unwanted energies and better sleep. I followed your template and used a silver ring to consecrate it to said intention. It's funny because I didn't ask to improve intuition or visualization and that's exactly what I've noticed. As for the dream, I would not recommend it because the lucid dream would even say that guides appear but from close people who through symbols give information, but the message is not for me. I wouldn't recommend it for sleeping if you want a peaceful sleep. As for reflecting bad energy, it worked but only for about 3 days, but I think it's because I have little strength as a mage.

I also did a rite of saturn including the spirit that had never used it. The deference is that when I finished with Agiel (intelligence) I felt very sad. When I finished with Zazel I felt a huge strength and it was weird because I was expecting feelings of melancholy. Of course the planetary spirit has incredible strength.
I have been able to make mistakes, but since I know that you like experimentation, I tell you how my experience was.
Thank you very much.
All the best.

Scott Stenwick said...

Thanks for the info. Maybe you need to specify restful sleep or something like that in your charge for the Moon to prevent some of the lucid dreaming effects? The Moon rules that sphere of influence, so lunar spirits should be able to increase or decrease those effects.

If you want a spell to last longer, create a talisman rather than casting directly. Talismans work a lot better for maintaining effects over time than direct operations do.

Bishop said...

When i charge a talisman with Angel conjurations ,and let s say i use the Planet s kamea and Angel s sigil to act as one,and i don t put anything on other s side of talisman ,the talisman still works right!
Some sources say that a talisman needs to have a B side and if don t it it works harder.

Also let s say my talismans have just been into a drawer inside a folder ,not placed into linen cloth, something maybe will interfere with it,and if i do put them later into linen cloth ,they may work better since the entites maintain energy forever!I guess the interfernce od other energies shouldn t do permanent damage to them!

Samat said...

I am curious about whether angels respond only to the Judeo-Christian ideology and whether the Greek gods respond to other belief systems. If we start with Selene, would you suggest any alterations to the ritual? Selene has two hymns dedicated to her: the Orphic hymn mentioned in this article and a Homeric hymn. Both can be used together, but do spirits outside of the Judeo-Christian pantheon, especially celestial ones, resist the Kabbalistic God names we use?

I do not have an issue with Gabriel, but I find it challenging to accept him as the spirit that rules over all lunar spirits, including pantheons older than Judaism. While he is not Selene, Hecate, or Artemis, a magician once told me that Thoth can be invoked through Raphael. Therefore, I am curious about your opinion on whether Gabriel can call Selene or if Selene can call Gabriel.

Scott Stenwick said...

They seem to respond fine to other belief systems. I am a Thelemite, for example, and they work fine with me.

I rarely work with the Greek pantheon, so I can't give you much in the way of seasoned advice. I know of practitioners who work with them within the overall Qabalistic framework, but I'm not sure exactly how they do it.

Remember that rulership in the spiritual hierarchy does not mean exclusive rulership. Gabriel is one entity that rules over lunar spirits, but other spiritual systems have different entities that do the same. Gabriel's rulership over those spirits doesn't mean other spirits can't rule over them as well.

Honestly, not having tried it I don't know and I'm not just going to guess. The arrangement seems a little weird, since I would put Selene at "deity" level along with Qabalistic lunar godnames like Shaddai El Chai. Same with Thoth. "Angel" is generally below "deity" with the way the hierarchies generally work.

So calling a deity by an angel doesn't feel quite right to me - but again, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. You really have to try it to be sure, and my first rule of magick is that if it works, it works.

Samat said...

Our Liber 777 has to say this about her: 'Line 13: Add Selene who was a personification of the Moon as distinct from the goddesses with lunar aspects such as Artemis, Hekate, etc.'

13th path is the Moon. So even 777 puts them in the paths rather than the sephirots which makes sense given their right as a separate entity of the path coexisting with the path archangel. The sephirot however rules over both deities and Archangels of the paths and magicians generally seem to agree that celestials deliver similar results.

I think I will try with Selene, she seems cool enough to start with the Greeks and I don't think diety has any problems with path or sephirotic godnames because the name of God is IAO in the Greek translation with Jewish agreement and if I remember correctly from somewhere, that name has been used for the Greek pantheon. I'll report back here if it works.

Rodav said...

Hi Scott, I'm starting to get a collection of little statues, jewellery, bottles etc that I've consecrated into talismans. It's soon going to become impractical so my question is - how much does the type of object impact on the power of a talisman ? ie Does a piece of paper have the same potential as a piece of jewellery?

Scott Stenwick said...

The big difference with paper versus metals or stones is that paper is less durable over time. You can get similar probability shifts with a paper talisman, but with metals and stones the effect will last a lot longer. Basically talismans have a longer life if they are made from stronger materials.

Samat said...

Having worked with your system for a year but not having conjured using your kamea method, I'm warming up to the idea more and more. I wonder why did Agrippa include the sigils for the intelligences of the planets, the spirits of the planets, the intelligence of the intelligences, the spirit of the spirits but completely forgot to put in the sigils for the archangels. Why? I've made the Heptameron sigils of the archangels which are the classical 'standard' sigils for them but ever since you told me that the type of sigil makes no difference, I don't see why I shouldn't go for the kamea system entirely just like you do. Maybe you got some insights.

Scott Stenwick said...

I am not sure why Agrippa did not include the angel sigils. Tracing them on the kameas works well, so I doubt it is for any practical reason. I currently am reading through the new Purdue translation of Agrippa - which is much clearer than the Tyson - but I have not come across anything yet that explains the omission.

I like the kamea system specifically because it is grounded in mathematical relationships, and as a result is less arbitrary than something like the rose cross sigil generator. I would say to go ahead and see if the kamea sigils work as well as the grimoire sigils - which probably were received from the spirits by whoever originally wrote the grimoire. If they work just as well, the kamea sigils have the big advantage that they are essentially universal as long as you have a name.

Samat said...

And on top of that, you have included the sigils for the intelligence and spirit onto the main archangel sigil for a threefold contact. A genius solution. Don't see grimoire magicians come up with that.

And yes, you are correct that the Heptameron sigils were divined from the archangels. The grimoire magicians are not 100% sure on this so someone asked Anael what the phallic looking symbol on her sigil represented and she said, 'It's a cannon', proving that these sigils were divined.

I have skipped the grimoire sigils entirely because I just don't care if they work 'better' than the kamea sigils - I hardly even believe that the Heptameron sigils work better than the kamea sigils - because I've come to learn that if the intelligence and spirit sigils from Agrippa's kameas work for everybody, and the zodiacal archangels' kamea sigils work for you and your group, then I see no reason to not use the Kamea entirely.

As for mathematical sigils of angels and spirits not belonging to any path or sphere, what would we do? Take the Jewish angel, Galitzur for example.

Scott Stenwick said...

To create a kamea sigil for an angel, you first want to look at what the angel's powers are. Everything in the magical universe is going to attributed to an element, planet, sephira, and/or sign. By working that out, you can figure out which kamea to use.

Elements - Moon Kamea will work for all elements.
Planets - Use the kamea for the planet.
Signs - Use the kamea for the planet ruling the sign.
Sephiroth - Malkuth is Moon, Kether and Chockmah are Saturn, and the other sephiroth match their corresponding planets.

These are the fundamental elements of magick. Every spirit will be associated with at least one of the above, if not more than one.

Luis said...

Invoking the nodes through the Lunar Hexagram seems like an interesting experiment. Would it be too far out instead of calling on the Western Lunar correspondences, instead calling on the Vedic ones? (Ganesha tames Ketu, south node and Durga tames Rahu, north node). In Vedic, both nodes are extremely malefic (as they represent a split in the subjective consciousness (Moon-Mind) of the individual, aka the illusionary perception of duality; they represent extremes) but I'd imagine invoking them and calling on the right deities to tame them could be beneficial for those going through planetary periods which involve them. For Rahu, for example, one could call Varāha (Vishnu avatar of Rahu) and/or Durga, for Ketu it'd be Ganesha. The sign of the nodes could be imbued with their name in Sanskrit (Rahave Namah for North node, Ketave Namah for south node). It seems to me like a good way to purify the malefic tendencies of the nodes but I worry the significations from different traditions might be too far different for this to work.

Luis said...

I want to add to my comment but I'm thinking maybe it would even be beneficial to invoke them both, where East is the NN, west is the SN, north is the NN, etc.

You see, Ketu is literally the transcendental/unmanifested, while Rahu is literally the physical/manifested, but both as extremes are illusionary, and in Vedic astrology moksha/liberation is actually seen through the union/balance of both, aka what in Western esotericism we would refer as to the union of the microcosm and macrocosm, the Great Work.

Ketu at its extreme is stagnation by trying to escape physical reality, while Rahu at its extreme is obsession with materiality to the point that's all they see, so it gets me wondering if invoking both at the same time could be beneficial.

The Vedic understanding of the nodes is very complete (I study this, I'm a tropical Vedic astrologer), in natal readings they are as important as the 7 classical planets, but Western astrology has a very superficial view of them with a LOT of information missing. I want to try to build a bridge between the significations/understandings from the East and apply them to Western magick. But there is a lot of info lacking as mixing systems can be a mess.

Any help is appreciated really, although it also gets me wondering if this would even be necessary considering the Operant Field pretty much does what this would do, uniting the microcosm and macrocosm, the heavens and the earth.

Scott Stenwick said...

Honestly, I am not familiar with the Vedic attributions at all, so I probably can't offer a very informed opinion regarding them.

The nodes are not used much in Western magick, so there certainly is room to experiment with them. This is probably something that you would just have to test and see how it works.

NightHermit said...

Hey scott. I did this ritual today for a talisman, and it went okay except for the fact that my candles kept going out and spilling wax everywhere. unfortunately candle wax got all over my table of art (luckily its made of paper) but i was wondering if a table of art gets damaged, is it fine to just throw away? or is there a better way to go about getting rid of it. sorry if this is a stupid question.

Scott Stenwick said...

Yes, the Table of Art is just a tool. If it gets damaged you can dispose of it in whatever manner you choose.

Percival said...

I don't know if I have already asked this (forgive me if I have already did) but what does "You then use the paper to wrap up the whole thing when the ritual is complete and somehow bind or tape it together" mean?

Is this the offering and the sigil to be disposed of after? Or should the talisman created join in the bundle and sit for awhile? Thank you!

Bishop said...

Can natal Moon in Scorpio make problems while manifesting stuff ,like casting a spell Will have a slower manifesting time !

Scott Stenwick said...

I would not think so. That would suggest everyone with a Scorpio Moon would not be as good at magick as everyone else, and I have seen no evidence of that. The chart that is most important when casting a spell is the timing for the operation itself. Natal chart can have an effect, but it doesn't seem to be very predictable.

Example - I'm a total whiz at Jupiter spells. They work great for me almost every time. But I have natal Jupiter in Virgo, which is in detriment.

Scott Stenwick said...

Here is what I mean by wrapping up the whole thing. A talisman should consist of at least two pieces, the talismanic object itself and a piece of paper with the sigil of the spirit on it. If you are casting it at another person, it will be three objects - the talisman itself, the paper with the sigil, and the magical link to the target. This could be something like a picture or if you want to go in a more hoodoo-ish direction something containing their DNA. Those three things are what you tape together. Any offerings are separate. You do not, for example, soak it in wine or anything like that.

These can be consolidated, for example with a paper talisman. You can print the sigil of the spirit over a digital photograph on the same piece of paper and ink the sigil prior to starting your operation. Then you just are folding up and taping the one piece. Or, you could use a paper talisman with a separate link like a photo of the target. Then you tape your paper sigil/talisman around the photograph.

Does that make sense? You tape up the sigil, the talisman, and the link together. Also, it's advisable to notate the outside of this bundle so you remember what it is. That can be helpful if you have a lot of talismans going at once.

Percival said...

So the talismanic object (let's say a gem) should ALWAYS be with the sigil of the spirit? What happens when they are separated (e.g. I want to wear a talismanic gem necklace and don't want a paper sticking to it for obvious reasons). Will the talisman/gem be disenchanted if it's on its own?

Scott Stenwick said...

If you make a talisman for wearing you do not need to include the paper like I am talking about here. This procedure is for talismans that are going to sit in your temple and operate remotely. If you plan on wearing it, just the stone or metal piece is fine.

Percival said...

Thank you for the clarification, very much appreciated!

Samat said...

Scott, have you confirmed through your lunar rituals whether MALKAH BE TARSHISHIM VA A'AD BE RUAH SHEHAQIM is an actual spirit? I ask because I see in your comments above where you doubted the veracity of the intelligence of the moon. So I'd like to ask, is the intelligency of the intelligence of the moon real? Is it actually a spirit that you and others have verified to be real? I do see your lunar mansion explanation about how the intelligency might be linked to them originally but I only care about whether that hyper long name is actually a spirit.

Scott Stenwick said...

I have not confirmed it one way or the other. I have experimented with some rituals with the lunar mansion angels, but have not seen a clear enough difference to draw a firm conclusion.

I do think the longer name describes a group of spirits rather than an individual entity. But I need to do more testing before I can say for sure.

Samat said...

I thought that all this time you had been doing lunar magick you called all 3 spirits and conversed with them via pathworking. Has that not been the case? Does Malkah not appear in pathworkings?

Samat said...

As for lunar mansions, I learned recently that they have nothing to do with the moon. They are neither lunar spirits nor sublunar, zodiacal and not even angels. They are their own hierarchy. They are higher than sublunar spirits meaning terrestrials and demons of course but also lower than angels. So evoking Gabriel before them doesn't make much sense to me.

Their applications only range from cursing and prosperity to health and love. The Picatrix community considers them and their talismans dangerous to the user. What applications have you evoked them for? The very fact that their electional requirements are the easiest in the Picatrix got me hooked on working with them but after finding out about their dangers, I don't feel that confident. Just 1-2 errors in election and the ritual turns against the magician.

How did you go about it and were you satisfied with the results?

Scott Stenwick said...

Remember, I generally feel spirits and do not see them. The energy of calling in Malkah along with the other lunar spirits feels different than the other spirits and intelligences, hard to explain exactly. There's something odd about it, which is what got me thinking about how it sounds like a group of spirits rather than a name.

I am using my structure for planetary operations, calling Gabriel, then Mansion Angel, then Chasmodai. My results have been mixed so far, so it feels like there are other things I need to tweak a bit before it's truly optimized. That's why I haven't published an article on it yet.

Samat said...

This might explain why Malkah is not in any other occult tradition or book because the intelligency of the moon was just made that way. Regardless, I have read an article where a practitioner communicated with her (Malkah means Queen) so she's definitely a sentient spirit. I only ever did one spell with the lunar hierarchy for a simple goal which failed so haven't had the chance to pathwork to them.

Now for the lunar mansions, what elections were you using to work with them? As mentioned, the Picatrix has easy electional requirements for them and they're not lunar spirits so a Moon almuten is not it either but it's close. Instead of the ASC or MC being placed on Cancer, it's placed on the Moon and negative aspects with Saturn and Mars are avoided and positive aspects with other planets are favoured.

Scott Stenwick said...

I obtained the elections I used from an astrologer friend familiar with Picatrix electoral requirements, so there should have been no problems there.