3 Hours of Abysmal Scrying Failures

Date: May 18, 2018
Time: 9:22 p.m to 9:35 A.M.
Sun Phase: Set
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent in 25 degrees Gemini, Lunar Mansion of Batn al-Hut
Planetary Day: Day of Jupiter with Jupiter in Retrograde
Planetary Hour: Hour of Saturn, Hour of Jupiter, Hour of Mars, Hour of the Sun, into Hour of Venus
Activities: LRP, Prayer, Offerings, and Invocations of HGA, crystal scrying, prayer, Temple closing

I performed ritual bathing and anointed my eyes with Solomonic Holy Water and Holy Oil. I then performed the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram with my consecrated Dagger and proceeded to “inflame myself with prayer,” invoking God and my Holy Guardian Angel and requesting a vision in the scrying crystal of whatever my HGA would like me to see to develop wisdom, to be more of service, or just increase the glory of God.

I then sat before the crystal flanked with two candles while consecrated incense burned and began a whopping 3 hours of scrying, repeatedly invoking my HGA and praying.

The result? I saw absolutely nothing. Zero. Neither astrally nor physically. This is a topic that most Magicians tend to avoid writing about, but I am writing about it to encourage beginners to magic that even after many years of experience, we can still have nights when absolutely nothing happens.

Tonigh was such a night. 3 hours of abysmal failures, a mind that wouldn’t settle, attention that flitted around, inconsistent and inconstant magical gaze states, and no visions, impressions, or insights at all to show from it.

How do we relate to a night like this? As a great Adept once told me, we learn what we can from it and then laugh, brush it off, and get back on the horse and try again another day. Abysmal failures are simply part of the process and the Path, just as much as towering successes. So if you have them, know you’re not alone! We all do. This remains the case even though some of us prefer only to talk about the successes. 😉

The take-home message? Learn what you can, be patient, compassionate, and gentle with yourself. And keep walking the Path anyway, refusing to be dissuaded through perseverance and commitment.

In truth, as we say in neuro-linguistic programming, there is no such thing as failure: only feedback. So take the feedback you can, keep an open-mind, and live to try again and potentially get more “feedback” another day!

The Hidden Key of Reverential Awe: Unlocking the Secrets of the “Fear of God” in the Grimoires

By Frater S.C.F.V.

The Key of Solomon opens with these striking words in Book I, Chapter I:

“SOLOMON, the Son of David, King of Israel, hath said that the beginning of our Key is to fear God, to adore Him, to honour Him with contrition of heart, to invoke Him 1 in all matters which we wish to undertake, and to operate with very great devotion, for thus God will lead us in the right way.

When, therefore, thou shalt wish to acquire the knowledge of Magical Arts and Sciences, it is necessary to have prepared the order of hours and of days, and of the position of the Moon, without the operation of which thou canst effect nothing; but if thou observest them with diligence thou mayest easily and thoroughly arrive at the effect and end which thou desirest to attain” (Peterson, 2004).

When contemporary Magicians hear the phrase “fear of God,” they tend to immediately assume that the Key is praising something like a state of terror, or what the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard called the state of “fear and trembling.”

Naturally, since fear is often considered to be an unpleasant, painful, or negative state, students of the Hidden Knowledge may be dissuaded by this phrase in the grimoires and may want to skip over it, disregard it as ‘outmoded’ or ‘negative,’ and intentionally decide not to put this instruction into practice.

Lest we mistake a nugget of gold for a piece of coal, however, it is worth carefully considering whether the grimoires actually are encouraging us to cultivate a disempowering state of terror here, which certainly would be negative if it were the case. What, if, on the contrary, the grimoiric writers have something very different in mind?

Thankfully, the state of debilitating fear does not seem to be what the grimoire writers mean by the phrase “fear of God.” Instead, they are using the word “fear” in an archaic sense that is different from how we use the word today. Properly-translated, the “fear of God” of the grimoire writers is a state far more profound than mere terror, a state that the ever-erudite Aaron Leitch aptly describes as a state of “reverential awe.” And, as we will attempt to show in this article, it is a state which holds the key to unlocking ever deeper regions of our magic, our life, and our psychological and spiritual experience.

When we are in a state of terror, we may indeed feel reverential awe for the power of whatever we are afraid of to overwhelm or harm us. True terror implicitly carries respect within it, for who among us fears what we do not respect enough to take seriously?

However, there are other states of reverential awe that do not involve terror as such. A prime and powerful example of such an alternative state is love. When a lover he holds and is enraptured by the vision of their beloved, they experience a state of ‘reverential awe,’ or loving wonder, which is undeniably pleasant, even blissful.

Thus, both fear and love can be states of reverential awe, and each implies a state of humility towards the beloved or the sublimely respected. This humility in the face of something vast and powerful is central to the grimoiric understanding of reverential awe.

The stark reality is that if we overlook, dismiss, or disregard the process of cultivating a state of reverential awe in our magical practice, then we deprive ourselves of one of the most powerful keys to unlocking the mysteries of Renaissance and classical magic. Conversely, by cultivating this state, we plug our magical workings deep into a root reservoir of magical power that stems all the way back to the shamanic roots of grimoiric magic, as Aaron Leitch (2009) lucidly describes in his Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, and which Agrippa (2000) similarly describes in his section on “phrensies” or ecstatic states.

Indeed, reverential awe–the ‘fear of God’ of the grimoires–is a kind of ecstatic state, that elevates the Magician into a charged condition of fully-present, fully-alert consciousness and open receptivity to the wondrous influence of higher powers.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

Reverential awe is no small thing, no mere state among other human states and equal to all others. As the great German writer Goethe points out, of all of the emotional and phenomenological states of which we are capable,

“the highest a man can attain is wonder, and when the primordial phenomenon makes him wonder he should be content; it can give him nothing higher, and he should not look for anything beyond it — here is the boundary” (Eckermann, 2011).

Indeed, beyond the Christian mystical experience, reverential awe is central to the experience of both profound Zen meditation and also in bhakti yogic samadhi states. In both experiences, one finds oneself ‘falling open’ into silent absorption that transcends the subjective experience of finite selfhood.

What’s more, as alluded to above, Agrippa’s (2000) “phrenzy of Venus” is also a state of “reverential awe,” while being a state of intimate immersion of an ecstasy of love that is far removed from ‘terror’ and more akin to a deeply-charged, blissful trust or surrender. Furthermore, even Kirkegaard’s aforementioned “fear and trembling” state of reverential awe can itself be seen as simply another modality of the Sufi and Mystical Christian’s loving absorption form of reverential awe.

Strikingly, the magical significance of reverential awe does not stop here. According to the Renaissance angelological lore that underlies the historical background of the grimoires, the Angelic beings with whom Magicians aims to perform Operations exist in a state of perpetual reverential awe of the Divine. As a result, when we enter this mode of consciousness, we find ourselves in an emotional and spiritual condition that is magically sympathetic with the ordinary state of the Angels (Agrippa, 2000).

Guitar strings vibrating in harmony, a metaphor for the sympathetic resonance that exists between the Magician and higher entities such as Angels when we cultivate the state of reverential awe, which the grimoires call the ‘fear of God.’

Thus, while immersed in reverential awe, we are, in effect, phenomenologically and spiritually harmonized or “vibrating in harmony” with the Angels themselves, like mutually-tuned strings on a guitar (Agrippa, 2000). As a result, when we are in such a state, it can be easier to communicate with Angels according to the Agrippan sympathetic theory. This holds true in my own practical experience as well.

Not is this an abstract or far-fetched idea. On the contrary, the logic at play in this grimoiric understanding of the ‘fear of god’ as a magical technology that enables two beings in the same state to better connect with one another also makes intuitive sense based on our everyday mundane experience.

For example, and to continue the musical metaphor, two metalheads often find it easier to connect than a country fan and a metalhead who loathes country from the black recesses of his iron heart.

Similarly, two people who are both experiencing sadness tend to find it easier to ‘sympathize’ with one another. In contrast, someone who is ecstatically joyful may find it difficult to connect with someone who is experiencing a deeply depressed mood and “meet them where they are at.”

Entering a state of reverential awe is much like this; in this state, we endeavour to meet the Divine and Angelic and celestial beings as much as possible “where they are at.” In so doing, it is easier for them as well to manifest and appear to us in a way we can detect.

What’s more, this point can be understood as a special case of a more general philosophical or natural law within the grimoiric worldview. Just as Magicians aim to bring their state of being into a harmonic resonance with that of the Angels through the cultivation of reverential awe, so do they do the same with other grimoiric techniques.

More concretely, if Angels exist in a state of purity, always giving offerings of loving reverential awe and service to God, then if we Magicians purify ourselves, give offerings, and cultivate a state of reverential awe, then we can more easily ‘sympathize with’ them. As a result, in such a state, we can more readily connect and communicate with these Spirits.

This is precisely why, in his Operations, John Dee spent hours working himself into a blissfully loving date through ecstatic prayer before approaching the Table and Crystal with Edward Kelley.

The back of the Shemhamphoras Diagram from the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

In other grimoiric texts, we find that this point not only recurs, but is applied in different magical contexts with illuminating implications. For example, there is a passage in Joseph H. Peterson’s (2006) edition of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, which describes the exact same elevation through reverential awe into a state of sympathetic resonance with higher spiritual powers to which we alluded above (Peterson, 2006). The passage in question is located in the text of the “Semiphoras” section of the Books and reads as follows:

“He who desires the influence of the Sun, must not only direct his eyes toward it, but he must elevate his soul-power [italics mine] to the soul-power of the Sun, which is God himself, having previously made himself equal to (that is, in harmony with the nature of God) by fasting, purification and good works, but he must also pray in the name of the intermediary, with fervent love to God, and his fellow-man that he may come to the sun-spirit, so that he may be filled with its light and luster, which he may draw to himself from heaven, and that he may become gifted with heavenly gifts and obtain all the desires of his heart.

As soon as he grasps the higher light and arrives at a state of perfection, being gifted with supernatural intelligence, he will also obtain supernatural might and power. For this reason, without godliness, man will deny his faith in Christ, and will become unacceptable to God, therewith often falling prey to the evil spirits against whom there is no better protection than the fear of the Lord and fervent love to God and man” (Peterson, 2006).

Reverential awe – the ecstasy of the Mystic and the Magician.

A few points are worth noting in this profound passage. First of all, we find that the grimoire recommends Magicians to undertake certain practices that result in elevating their “soul power” to the “soul-power of the Sun, which is God himself.” “Elevating one’s soul power” is another way of saying placing ourselves into a state of sympathetic resonance with the object of one’s devotions or work, in this case the Sun.

Indeed, the Hebrew word “Qadosh” means both “elevated” and “holy.” A holy state in the grimoires, then, is a state of sympathetic resonance achieved through shared qualities. Just as a sad person can sympathize with a sad person or an angry person can sympathize with a wrathful and malevolent spirit, a person in an elevated or holy state can better sympathize with a Spirit in an elevated or holy state, such as an Angel.

Interestingly, this notion is also well-known to Esperitistas, which is why they invest so much time in prayer, purification, and putting themselves in harmony with the “Developed Sporits” from which they aim to learn.

Second, and in this way, the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses suggest that by fasting, praying, doing good works, purifying ourselves with ritual bathing, and cultivating “fear of the Lord and love of God and man” that is, reverential awe, can make us “equal to God.” By “equal to God,” the text doesn’t mean that we miraculously develop omnipotence and omniscience; instead, it means that we enter into “a state that is sympathetically in harmony with the Nature of God” (Peterson, 2006).

This is the optimal state for doing magic with the help of Angels and via the invocation of Divine Names, which is the case for Enochian magic, Key of Solomon work, Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses work, the Abramelin Operation and many other grimoiric texts and approaches.

Similarly, there’s an interesting passage in the 18th century astrologer Ebenezer Sibly’s A New and Complete Illustration of the Occult Sciences, Book 4 which, in a like manner, suggests that the state of reverential awe or “fear of God” is central to the work of the Magician who aims to work with Angels. Sibly (2000) writes:

“All who in this world lived uprightly; and preserved a good conscience, walking in the fear of God, and in the love of divine truths, applying the same to practical use, seem to themselves as men awakened out of sleep, and as having passed from darkness to light, when they first enter upon their second or interior state; for when they think from the light of pure wisdom, and they do all things from the love of goodness; heaven influences their thoughts and affections, and they are in communication with angels” (Sibly, 2000).

This is the same essential idea we find expressed in the Renaissance sources and late Medieval grimoires and the underlying rationale for many of the grimoiric practices. As such, it is worth contemplating deeply, and not being too hastily discarded.

Indeed, reverential awe is not simply invaluable to the work of Magicians who aim to commune with Angels. In many texts, it is also the very same state in which the Exorcist or Conjurer conjures Spirits. In the Heptameron‘s Conjuration of Wednesday, for instance, we read:

“I conjure and call upon you, ye strong and holy angels, good and powerful, in a strong name of fear and praise, Ja, Adonay, Elohim, Saday, Saday, Saday; Eie, Eie, Eie; Asamie, Asamie; and in the name of Adonay, the God of Israel, who hath made the two great lights, and distinguished day from night for the benefit of his creatures; and by the names of all the discerning angels, governing openly in the second house [*Second Heaven] before the great angel, <Tetra> [*Tegra], strong and powerful; and by the name of his star which is Mercury; and by the name of his seal, which is that of a powerful and honoured God; and I call upon thee, Raphael, and by the names above mentioned, thou great angel who presidest over the fourth day: and by the holy name which is written in the front of Aaron, created the most high priest, and by the names of all the angels who are constant in the grace of Christ, and by the name and place of Ammaluim, that you assist me in my labours, &c” (Peterson, 2018).

Correspondingly, this same use of reverential awe in a combined blend of “fear and love” is included in the “Orations to be Said While You Conjure” in the Key of Knowledge transcribed from British Library, Additional Manuscript 36674 by Joseph H. Peterson (1999):

Lord Jesus Christ, the loving Son of God, which dost illuminate the hearts of all men in the world, lighten the darkness of my heart, and kindle the fire of thy most holy love in me. Give me true faith, perfect charity, and virtue, whereby I may learn to fear and love thee and keep thy commandments in all things; that when the Last Day shall come, the Angel of God may peaceably take me, and deliver me from the power of the Devil, that I may enjoy everlasting rest amidst the company of the holy Saints, and sit on thy right hand. Grant this, thou Son of the living God for thy holy name’s sake. Amen” (Peterson, 1999).

Nor is the cultivation of reverential awe only called upon for use in evocation or as a general way of life of sanctity and spiritual uprightness.

Indeed, in his Third Book of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa (2000) recommends cultivating reverential awe as a prerequisite for all forms of divination. He writes:

“Every one therefore that works by lots, must go about it with a mind well disposed, not troubled, nor distracted, and with a strong desire, firm deliberation, and constant intention of knowing that which shall be desired.
Moreover he must, being qualified with purity, chastity, and holiness towards God, and the celestials, with an undoubted hope, firm faith, and sacred orations, invocate them, that he may be made worthy of receiving the divine spirits, and knowing the divine pleasure; for if thou shalt be qualified, they will discover to thee most great secrets by vertue of lots, and thou shalt become a true Prophet, and able to speak truth concerning things past, present, and to come, of which thou shalt be demanded.

Now what we have spoken here concerning lots, is also to be observed in the auguries of all discemings, viz. when with fear, yet with a firm expectation we prefix to our souls for the sake of prophecying some certain works, or require a sign, as Eleasar, Abrahams countryman, & Gideon Judge in Israel are read to have done.”

In short, Agrippa (2000) points us to the importance of cultivating a state of purity, holiness and reverential awe married to “firm faith” so that our nature can be made sympathetically resonant with the “celestials” and “divine spirits” who can help us to conduct the divination of things unknown and hidden (i.e. occult). This, in effect, is an act of placing ourselves into the sympathetic magic equation in the same way that we place corresponding stones, metals, or incenses into a ceremonial ritual with the aim of amplifying the sympathetic power of the Rite.

Therefore, although many of us modern Magicians seem to have forgotten it, Magician are not only a conductor of sympathetic ingredients; we ourselves are such ingredients. And therefore, we must ensure that we work ourselves into the appropriate state of sympathetic harmony–such as reverential awe–that will enable us to maximize the effectiveness of our rituals.

Nor do we only find the grimoires and Early Modern sources enjoining us to cultivate reverential awe through the mouths of human writers; instead, the Spirits also offer similar instructions. For example, in John Dee’s True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits (2003), we find the Archangel Gabriel telling Dee and Kelley that:

“Blessed are those who dwell in charity. Persevere to the end: not negligently, but with good will, which good will, is called fear, which fear is the beginning of wisdom, the first step into rest.”

This is a very interesting passage for several reasons. First, Gabriel links the “fear” or reverential awe of which he speaks to “good will,” or sincerity or being goodhearted and well-intentioned.

Second, the Archangel also links this state to the “beginning of wisdom,” which sincerely Dee sought as the legendary King Solomon had done before him. Reverential awe is the beginning of wisdom, because in this state, we cease to rely on our flawed human opinions and open ourselves to spiritual inspiration. In Dee’s case, this was from the Angels themselves. Agrippa (2000) had a similar idea in mind in the passage quoted above.

Third, it’s also worth noting that Gabriel here links this reverential awe state not only to wisdom, but also to rest; indeed, in its pleasurable form of a loving ecstatic absorption, one can happily rest in abiding well-being.

This was precisely the state that the Advaita Vedanta sage Nisargadatta Maharaj (1973) had in mind when he recommended his devotees to “rest in the pure sense of Being, not being this or that, but simply being.” Resting in the pure sense of being is the same as communing with the Divine, which proclaims Eheieh (I Am). This sublimely subtle form of reverential awe is a peaceful state, as well as a pleasurable one, in which the heart is exalted (made ‘holy’) in Divine Presence and worshipful abiding.

Similarly, the Angels tell Dee and Kelley (2003) that:

“God is He whose wisdom unto the world is foolishness, but unto them that fear Him, an everlasting joy, mixed with gladness, and a comfort of life hereafter, partaking infallible joys, with him that is all comeliness and beauty.”

In this way, this reverential awe before the Divine, this opening of oneself to a surrendered, intensely alive, awe-filled state of openness and humility not only empowers our magic and enriches our life here on Earth, but also affords Paradisiacal benefits in the life hereafter.

Whether one believes in such an afterlife or not, it is certainly the case that this state is indeed conducive to the development of wisdom, rest, and empowered magical work in this life, a claim which is demonstrable through practical testing.

Indeed, if one can attain this state of reverential awe and bring it into daily life, mundane life itself takes on an enchanted feeling of spiritual depth, holy/exalted (qadosh) presence, and gratitude which constitute a kind of “Heaven in the Now” in this life” in their own right.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).

Indeed, one of the easiest ways to excite this reverential wonder and awe is the contemplation of Beauty, a fact which was well-known to Plato and the Neoplatonists who followed him, such as Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus.

It was also a familiar insight to the Renaissance Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, occultist, and cosmological theorist Giordano Bruno, who, in his De Gli Eroici Furori or On The Heroic Frenzies (1582), writes:

“He who arrives at some most excellent and most beautifully adorned edifice and considers it in each detail, is pleased, contented, and filled with a noble wonder; but then should it happen that he also see the Lord of these images in his incomparably greater beauty, he would abandon every concern and thought of such images, turn and become completely intent upon the contemplation of that Lord.

Such is the difference between the state in which he see the Divine Beauty in its intelligible aspects which are drawn from the Divine Beauty’s effects, operations, designs, shadows, and similitudes, and that other state in which we might be permitted to see it in its own unique being” (Bruno, 2013).

The Reverence that Reveals: Conclusion

As Bruno (2013) knew well, and in conclusion, the entry into Divine reverence via the contemplation of the Beautiful offers another layer of meaning that lies within the “fear of God” that unlocks the potent inner currents of grimoiric magic. This reverential awe is, at its heart, a noble wonder, a state of Divine communion with Beauty itself. And while, as every adolescent male knows all too well, the sight of profound beauty can excite fear, it can also excite wonder and loving absorption.

In this blissful ecstasy, the longings of the human heart and the noblest human capacities for contemplative wonder and spiritual exaltation are mobilized for the completion of the Magician’s aims. By harnessing the most potent of human powers, in the state of reverential awe, therefore, our grimoiric Magic can itself become the most potent it can be.

References

Agrippa, H. C. (2000). Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Ed. Joseph H. Peterson. [online eBook] Esoterica Archives. Based on a transcription from Moule: London, 1651. Available at http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm [Accessed 03 June2018].

Bruno, G. (2013). De Gli Eroici Furori or On the Heroic Frenzies (1582). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Dee, J. (2003). A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed For Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits. Ed. Joseph H. Peterson. [online eBook] Esoterica Archives. Available at: http://www.esotericarchives.com/dee/tfr/tfr1.htm [Accessed 4 June 2018].

Eckermann, J. P. (2011). Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret (Vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.

Leitch, A. (2009). Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Decyphered. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications.

Nisargadatta, S. (1973). I Am That: Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, 2 Vols.(M. Friedman, Trans.). Bombay: Chetana.

Peterson, J. H. (1999). The Key of Knowledge from Additional Manuscript 36674. [online eBook] Esoterica Archives. Available at: http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/ad36674.htm [Accessed 25 May 2018].

Peterson, J. H. (2004). Key of Solomon. [online eBook] Esoterica Archives. Available at: http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/ksol.htm [Accessed 25 May 2018].

Peterson, J. (2018). The Magical Elements or the Heptameron. [online eBook]. Esoterica Archives. Available at: http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/heptamer.htm

Peterson, J. (2006). The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. [online eBook]. Esoterica Archives. Available at: http://www.esotericarchives.com/moses/67moses.htm

Sibly, E. (2000). Ed. by Joseph H. Peterson. A New and Complete Illustration of the Occult Sciences. [online eBook]. Esoterica Archives. Available at: http://www.esotericarchives.com/moses/67moses.htm

Crafting a Solomonic Circle

By Frater S.C.F.V

Crafting a Solomonic Circle : Introduction

After an astounding, and very enjoyable, three weeks of work, I have finally finished crafting my version of a Solomonic Circle based on a combination of the Consecration Circle from the Clavicula Salomonis (16th c.) and the Circle from the Goetia of the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis (17th c.). My source materials for this project included the critical editions of both texts from Joseph H. Peterson, Renaissance manuscripts of the texts (Sloane MSS. 3091, Sloane MSS. 3548, Kings MSS. 288, and Harley MSS. 3981) and ideas from my respected colleagues in Aaron Leitch’s Solomonic group.

In this article, I would like to share how I approached the process of crafting of this Circle, why I made the decisions I did in terms of its design, and the stages through which the project unfolded from its conception to its creation. My hope is that the information shared here will be helpful to those who are wondering how to get started with a project of this magnitude and are looking for some useful tips and assistance. For example, I will endeavour to offer some clear tables and ideas for faithfully rendering the Hebrew letters in the Mathers-Crowley edition of the Goetia Circle, which can be very hard to read in many of the manuscripts.

“Icon of St. Cyprian and Justine” by Elen Kishkurno.

The Devotion of the Art: A Philosophical Approach

When I decided to take on this project, which I intended to use for practical work with the grimoires, it was clear to me that I had to do so in the right spirit and proper frame of mind. Anyone who has worked with the Solomonic grimoires knows that they are extremely devotional in nature. They make extensive use of prayers, glorification and devotional proclamations to the Divine, and, like the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, encourage the Magician or “Exorcist” to inflame themselves in prayer. Indeed, this devotional and ecstatic aspect is key to the Solomonic approach, as Aaron Leitch explains in his excellent Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires.

Therefore, I approached the creation of this Circle, as the Solomonic grimoires recommend, not as preparation for magical work, but as an act of magic in itself. Indeed, my approach to the work was that I would offer up my energy, my time, and the very best work I could possibly do for the greater glory of the Divine and as an offering to the Divine and to the Angelic spirits that the Circle itself calls upon for protection and empowerment. My entire approach, therefore, was one of devotion and of a spirit of offering. I believe this is very important, because if approached in this way, the Magician infuses that devotional spirit and fervent energy of prayer and the ecstatic “phrenzy of Love”–to quote Agrippa– into the Circle itself. This, in effect, adds an additional layer of power and consecration to the Circle as a greater tool for work.

Bernini’s “Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila” (c. 1647–1652).

As a result, I incorporated a series of devotional and ceremonial aspects into the very creation of the Circle itself. First, I performed ritual bathing before every session of work on the Circle to ensure I was in a state of ritual purity. I recommend Key of Solomon, Book II,  Chapter IV for instructions on the bathing or using the Islamic ghusl method).

Second, on some of my work days on the Circle, I fasted (see Key of Solomon Book II, Chapter IV for guidance on fasting as well as Aaron’s Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires).

Third, I consecrated the markers I used for drawing the characters and figures on the Circle and used acrylic paint following the method for the exorcism and consecration of the Ink of the Art given in Book II, Chapter XIV of the Key of Solomon.

Fourth, I burned Frankincense during the painting sessions, which was consecrated according to Book II, Chapter X of the Key of Solomon in the appropriate Planetary Hours.

Fifth, during my work on the Circle, I listened to devotional hymns, songs, Gregorian  chanting, and Biblical Hebrew chanting of Psalms. I also chanted and prayed as constantly as I could.

In short, the entire process of creating the Circle, which took many hours over a three-week period, was a rite of devotion, prayer, purification, meditative absorption, and consecration. This is the state of mind and attitude in which I approach the creation of any magical tool, but particularly projects of the scale of a Circle of this kind.

Circle and Triangle of Art from Sloane MSS. 3648 of the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis.

Approach to the Lettering and Symbolism Used

In order to craft a Circle of this type, it is very important for the Magician to first study the symbolism used in great detail in order to understand its function and the Forces that the ritual implements call upon for empowerment, exorcism, and consecration.

Therefore, I studied the symbols and rationales behind all aspects of the Circle in great detail through the secondary and primary sources and in consultation with other Solomonic practitioners. Dr. Stephen Skinner recommended that if I were to use the serpent motif, as present in the Crowley-Mathers take on the Goetia Circle, then I should place its tail in its mouth to complete the ouroboros symbolism which links it back to the Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM) via the Hygromanteia. I took his advice and did exactly this.  Frater Ashen Chassan’s own amazing work on his Goetia Circle inspired me to push myself to produce the most beautiful Circle I could as an act of devotion to the Divine and Offering to the Spirits.

As I studied the Hebrew words–written in Latin characters in the original manuscripts–it soon became clear to me that the letters in the outer circle of the Goetia Circle had originated in Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1531). As a side note, this very fact tells us that the Lemegeton text cannot, therefore, be older than 1531, and is probably considerably younger.

More specifically, the Hebrew words around the ring of the Circle come from Chapter 13 of Agrippa’s Second Book of Occult Philosophy, a Chapter which is entitled “Of the Number Ten and the Scale Thereof.” In this Scale, Agrippa provides a Table with 10 Columns devoted to the 10 Sephirot of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. These Columns supply the Hebrew Names of God, the Sephirot, the Angelic Choirs, the Archangels, and the names of the “Spheres of the Celestial World” which were transliterated into English characters in the ring of Names around the Goetia Circle.

Realizing that these were originally Hebrew names, Mathers and Crowley restored them to their original Hebrew. I agree with this decision and decided to go along with it in my own Circle. In the Goetia Circle, however, only 9 out of the 10 columns were included; the Malkut column was omitted. Some Magicians have argued that the reason for this was that the Circle itself represented the Sphere of Malkuth, and therefore the names were not needed. This is a fair argument, although one with which I humbly and respectfully disagree.

Image of the “Scale of the Number Ten” from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

It seems to me that the Malkuth column contains key Names of God, Sephirot, Angelic Choir Names, and Archangelic Names, which if omitted, deprive the Circle of additional protection and talismanic power; conversely, if added, they add an additional layer of talismanic and protective power to the Circle as well as a greater sense of holistic and unified completeness.

Through this addition, the physical Circle then becomes a potent and complete mandala of all of the Powers in the Four Qabalistic Worlds mapped around the Magician; in effect, it becomes a completed microcosmic mandalaic representation of the macrocosmic forces that Agrippa lays out in his Ten Scale. Therefore, I transliterated the Names from the Malkut column in Agrippa back into Hebrew and followed the same symbolic conventions as Mathers-Crowley edition (e.g. using the astrological sigil of the associated Planet, in this case Earth).

An additional issue that anyone who wishes to construct a version of the Lemegeton’s Goetia Circle must face is the issue of the Hebrew.  Unfortunately, there are many errors in the Hebrew both in the original manuscripts in the Mathers-Crowley Hebrew as well. Mr. Gilberto Strapazon has done some excellent work in meticulously correcting these errors in his own take on the Goetic Circle. When you add together my work with Mr. Strapazon’s, the result is the following list of Names for the 10 Columns of Agrippa’s Ten Scale, all in their original Hebrew, which are to be written in the outer Circle.

Here are the corrected Names for the original 9 columns used in the original Lemegeton’s Goetia Circle as transliterated back into Hebrew by Mathers-Crowley, with credit to Mr. Strapazon:

In addition to the above, my restored version of the 10th column Earth/Malkut Names, which are to be written after the Luna Names, is as follows:

To write the Names around the Circle, if you use the serpent motif from the Crowley-Mathers Circle–as I did–I suggest to begin with the Names in the S.P.M. (Sphere of Primum Mobile) row starting from the snake’s head, and working your way to the left along the serpent’s body.  Recall that Hebrew is written from right to left, so you would not start with the letters S.P.M., but rather with the Aleph on the right-most side of the column that starts the name Eheieh in Hebrew (אהיה). Then you would work from right to left until you reach “S.P.M.,” start at the rightmost letter in the row under that (the S.S.F. row), and work your way to the left towards the letters “S.S.F.” and so on through the rest of the Names.

In my own version of the Circle, I decided to make some additional augmentations because I wanted this Circle to double as a Pentacle consecration Circle for Key of Solomon work. As a result, I opted to add the Four Names from the Key‘s Pentacle Consecration Circle into their respective cardinal quarters, as shown in the original diagram from the text:

As shall be seen in the images below, I placed these four Names above the Hexagrams in the central circle in each Quarter. In this way, a single Circle can be used both to consecrate Pentacles and to do evocations and invocation work.

In addition, as I explained in a previous post, in Book 2, Chapter 9 of Mathers’ Key of Solomon, Mathers’ diagram of the Circle shows the Hebrew text of “Who is like unto thee, oh YHVH?” from Exodus 15:11 added in the second band of the Circle.  However, in almost every source I’ve seen, there are many mistakes in the Hebrew given for this verse, including both Mathers’ original presentation and Mr. Donald Tyson’s presentation thereof in Serpent of Wisdom, where it is erroneously transliterated as “MI KMIK BALIM IHVH.”

After consulting the passage in the original Hebrew Tanakh to verify it, here is the correct Hebrew as it should be written, shown in the context of the full verse from the Tanakh:

In my Circle, these words were included towards the end of the Serpent’s body where it weaves back towards its head to complete the ouroboros as per Dr. Stephen Skinner’s instructions.

Moreover, attentive readers will also notice that I followed Frater Ashen Chassan’s example of using Medieval and Renaissance calligraphy in the English or Latin characters used in the circle (e.g. “ALPHA,” “OMEGA,” and “TETRAGRAMMATON”).  This is not required by the original manuscripts or even by the Crowley-Mathers edition, but it adds a great deal of beauty to the final result.  The practical magical benefit of aiming to maximally beautify our magical tools is that, as Neoplatonic Theurgy explains, the more beautiful our magical tools, the more they participate in the ‘nature of the Beautiful,’ which sympathetically helps them to resonate more strongly with the Divine forces we use them to invoke.

Finally, it will be noted that I made some subtle changes to the Hexagrams and the Pentagrams used in the Circle. For the large central Hexagrams in the inner circle, I used the general structure of “Solomon’s Hexagonal figure” from the Goetia to add additional power to the Circle as shown in the following image. I also added smaller forms of the Pentagram and Hexagram of Solomon near the Consecration Circle Names in each quarter for aesthetic balance and additional empowerment.

“Hexagonal Figure of Solomon” or Hexagram of Solomon from the Lemegeton’s Goetia.

It is worth noting, as I was surprised to recently discover, that at the time of crafting this Circle, I had not encountered the idea of including smaller Pentagonal Figures of Solomon in the four Quarters of the Circle in any existing manuscript of the Clavicula Salomonis.  I had been nudged to do it by the Spirits overseeing my work in crafting the Circle.  Over a year later, I discovered BNF or Bibliothèque Nationale de France Italien 1524, which happens to be our earliest published manuscript of the Key of Solomon proper and dates to 1456.  Amazingly, the version of the Circle in BNF Italien 1524 includes Pentagonal figures of Solomon, albeit with different lettering, in each quarter of the Circle just as I had intuitively been nudged by the Spirits to do in my own Circle! Note the four Pentagonal Figures in each Quarter of the diagram of the Circle in BNF Ital 1524:

As for the four Pentagrams, which surround the Circle, I kept the “TETRAGRAMMATON” text, but added crosses at the vertices and Alpha and Omega signs to align them with the symbolism in the Hexagram of Solomon.  I also felt an intuitive nudge from the Spirits overseeing my Circle work to include the name “EL” (Aleph-Lamed or God in Hebrew) twice and the Name “YAH” (Yod-Heh) once, with the following final design for each Pentagram:

When I investigated the resulting Gematria, I was struck by the esoteric implications of these additions. In Gematria, each Hebrew letter is assigned a numerical value. Therefore, each word also has a numerical value, which is equal to the sum of the values of its letters. Words with the same numerical value are taken to share occult or hidden connections with one another. For example, the word “El” (God) in Hebrew (Aleph-Lamed) has a value of 31, the same value as the Hebrew words for “Love of Yah,” “Seer,” “Holds” (as in an embrace of love or protection), and “Brother of Union.” Similarly, the word “Yah” (Yod-Heh) has a value of 15, the same value as the Hebrew words for “He is,” “To utter, to confess, to praise,” “to speak, to breathe” (recall that ‘spirit’ comes from the word for breath in Latin), “to be hidden,” “projection,” “flow, flux,” “splendor,” “exaltation,” “majesty,” and “to love excessively” (“God is love” – 1 John 4:8).

As it turns out, the two Els and one Yah give the Names around a single Pentagram, as shown above, a value of 77 (31+31+15 = 77). This is the same value of the Hebrew words for being “bound together,” “vault,” “bubbling or welling up,” “longing for,” “to pray,” Gichon (the name of a River in Eden), “Yah Builds,” “Yah is Bountiful,” “a strong, raised place, castle or fortress” (fitting for a protective Circle), “Planet” (fitting for Planetary Names used in the Circle and Planetary Talismans consecrated therein), “Fullness, bounty,” “to wrap up, cover” (appropriate for the ‘cover’ provided by the Circle and Pentagrams), and “strong, mighty, fierce, firmness, stability,” which all resonate with the Circle’s function and symbolism.

Moreover, if we add the values of the Names around all four Pentagrams, we get a value of 308 (77 x 4 = 308). 308 is the same value as the Hebrew words for “God is Helper,” “God’s Help,” “Shepherd” (a name for Christ), “To turn white” (which resonates with the phrase “cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” in Psalm 51, which is used in Key of Solomon rituals and evokes the use of hyssop in the ritual cleansing bath), “innermost, deepest part” (Resh-Qoph-Chet), and “an enclosure, a Home” (Resh-Yod-Tzaddi-Chet), which are also fitting for a Circle.

The Stages of Making the Circle

The actual crafting of the Circle proceeded through a series of stages. Each time I worked on the Circle, as mentioned above, I proceeded with great devotion and purified myself with ritual bathing, burned consecrated incense, prayed, and listened to chanting, devotional songs, hymns, and Psalms. Indeed, there were times, after multiple hours of praising and painting simultaneously, when I would enter states of ecstatic love, and offer up all of the energy to the Divine and the Angelic beings invoked in the Circle. I also learned to draw each letter one at a time, focusing on one line at a time, and making each line as perfect as I could make it, offering it up as an offering unto itself within the larger mandala of the Circle.

I began with laying down newspapers on the ground of my workspace to protect my carpet from the paint going through the white sheet on which I would be painting:

I then lay down my white sheet and used weight plates to stretch it out as tautly as possible:

I then placed a standing fan in the center of the sheet and attached a rope to it. To that rope, I attached a consecrated marker, and then traced first a larger Circle (for the outer circle) by walking around the circle pulling the marker attached to the base of the fan with me to form a circle. I then reeled in some of the rope by winding it around the fan to make it shorter and traced a smaller circle (for the inner circle) within the larger one. I traced over each circle multiple times to make them bolder. The result was the following:

With the base circles complete, I drew the central diamond and the four central Hexagrams and the crosses at the vertex of each around it in free-hand. If you have a large ruler, I would recommend using that instead more equally-sized figures than my rather idiosyncratic ones:

Once this was done, I proceeded with filling in the letters and Tau crosses within the central figures using my consecrated permanent marker. I also added the four Key of Solomon Consecration Circle Names along with smaller versions of the Pentagram and Hexagram of Solomon above each larger Hexagram and around the Consecration Circle Names. After I drew the three coils of the Serpent and placed his tail in his mouth to complete the ouroboros as per Dr. Stephen Skinner’s recommendation, the result was the following:

I then began to write the Hebrew Names around the serpent, starting from his head–in which I placed an ‘eye’ composed of an equal-armed cross–and winding towards the left around the Circle, writing the names as given in the lists above. I also painted in the Eastern Hexagram just to test my golden acrylic paint and began to paint the area around the serpent in the outer circle as well, with the following result:

Notice that I first painted in the full points of each Hexagram in gold, allowed it to dry, and only then added the letters of “ADONAI” over the painted points, as will be seen in the picture below.  I followed the same approach with the Pentagrams in the corners, painting them in gold first, allowing it to dry, and then drawing the calligraphic “TETRAGRAMMATON” over them with consecrated markers.

As a useful Tip for fellow Circle-crafters, I discovered that the easiest way to write the Hebrew words is to first outline them and then fill them in, as shown in this image. I recommend practicing drawing the outlines of the letters on some scrap paper first until you feel more comfortable to write them on the Circle as they can’t be erased, only painted over! I took the same approach with the calligraphy, of first outlining the letters, and then filling them in:

I staggered painting in the gold parts of the hexagrams and area around the Circles with working on the Hebrew letters. I found that the easiest way to draw the Hebrew letters was to lie on my stomach on the ground and rotate my body around so that I was always facing the letters, which made them easier to write. As the letters neared their completion, the Circle looked like this:

I then painted in the central diamond or square in red and finished the letters, with the following result:

The next step was to paint the insides of the Hexagrams, or rather the central hexagons with the Greek letter Tau’s within them. I did this in blue, as shown below:

With this done, I was able to focus on painting the gold around the serpent in the rest of the outer Circle. Once complete, and after writing “MAGISTER,” Latin for “Master,” in Renaissance calligraphy as well as the Hebrew letters Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh in the central red diamond, the result was the following:

All that remained at this point was to draw the four Pentagrams in the corners surrounding the Circle. This posed a challenge since I was working in a very small space. What I decided to do was to bunch up the circle part of the sheet and use weights to stretch out the corners of the sheet in which I would draw the Pentagrams. It is key for the surface on which we are writing or painting to be taut to make the process of inscribing the symbols as easy as possible. This bunching up technique gave the following result once I had drawn the Pentagrams and crosses at their vertices free-hand and painted in the central pentagons in red:

I then filled in the points of the Pentagrams in gold to match the Hexagrams:

Once dry, I painted the “TETRAGRAMMATON” text in calligraphy in each Star using this image I crafted on the computer as a guide:

I drew the letters into the corners of the Pentagrams using the original manuscripts as a guide for which letters to put in which. Having added the calligraphy, all that remained was to paint the outer crosses blue as per my own design. It should be noticed that no such crosses are present in the original manuscripts or in the Crowley-Mathers edition, but I believe they add to the overall aesthetic impact as well as additional talismanic and protective power through the cross emblems themselves.

With the Pentagrams done,  the Circle was complete. The end result had taken me countless hours over the span of a full three weeks. But once I saw the finished product, I was filled with awe and it all felt worthwhile. Here are some detailed pictures of the final result to show some of the lettering more closely as well as the final appearance with the completed Hexagrams:

Finished Circle:

Close-up on the central Hexagrams, calligraphy, and diamond/square:

Close-up on the “OMEGA” calligraphy:

Close-up on the “PHA” part of “ALPHA” in the calligraphy:

Close-up on the Eastern Quarter of the inner circle (“AGYEL – Agiel – Intelligence of Saturn, Tau cross, symbol from the Pentagram of Solomon, and miniature Pentagrams and Hexagrams of Solomon). Please note that my friend Andy Foster would want me to point out here that there is a great deal of debate in the Solomonic community over whether this name was meant to be “Agiel,” “Aniel,” “Anael” or some other variant since the original manuscripts are unclear. I stuck with the most commonly agreed-upon use–Agiel, the beneficent Intelligence of Saturn–with the rationale that his name is used to protect from malefic Saturnian influences, facilitate the ‘binding’ or ‘constriction’ of Planetary energies into the Planetary Pentacles:

Close-up on the Southern Quarter of the inner circle (“TzBAVT” – Tzabaoth, with miniature Hexagrams and Pentagrams of Solomon):

Close-up on the Western Quarter of the inner circle (“YHVH” and miniature Pentagrams and Hexagrams of Solomon):

Close-up on the Northern Quarter of the Circle (“ADNI” – Adonai and miniature Hexagrams and Pentagrams of Solomon):

Lessons Learned from Creating the Circle

I learned a great deal by working on this Circle. For those considering this work, here are some of my take-home lessons from completing this massive project:

• The process of crafting a magical tool is not an act of preparing for magic, but an act of magic in itself. As such, it is best approached with ritual purity, consecrated incense, a devotional attitude, and a great deal of care, patience, and focus. The love, devotion, and energy poured into the work during the crafting of the tool–or in this case, Circle–strengthens our personal and spiritual connection to it. It also classically conditions us to feel a sense of that love, devotion, and power each time we use the tool, or step into the Circle.
• If you don’t feel very comfortable writing Hebrew letters by the time you start writing the Names in the Goetia Circle, you certainly will by the end! This project forces you to write very, very carefully–since mistakes cannot be erased–and to put a great deal of loving and concentrated attention into each line of every letter. This process is very conducive to improving our Hebrew writing ability.
• As mentioned before, the easiest way to write the Hebrew letters and calligraphy on this scale is to first outline them and then fill each outline in. I learned this trick from my friend Curtis Estes who draws his Hebrew letters by outlining them first as well (thank you, Curtis!).
• The Circle is a microcosmic image of the macrocosmic universe; in this sense, it is exactly like a Tibetan Buddhist Mandala. When the Master stands in the center of the Circle, s/he places him/herself at the symbolic center of the universe, surrounded by all of the Angelic Choirs, Archangels, Sephirotic Names, and Divine Names. The result is both a powerful sense of protection and as if one were standing in a giant talisman that draws power to itself. When I stand in the middle of the completed Circle, I can almost feel it humming with power and feel completely safe.
• Time spent checking original manuscripts can allow us to catch mistakes so that we don’t replicate them and provide a much deeper understanding of the structure of the tool and the magical formulae by which it works. All of this research pays tremendous dividends in our practice and magical growth. I learned a great deal about Hebrew, calligraphy, Agrippa, the roots and structure of the Grimoires, painting and drawing techniques, how to use various artistic materials, and many other topics while working on this project. For instance, keeping a sheet unwrinkled and taut is no easy task! A canvas would be a much easier drawing surface.
• Although a large project like this can seem intimidating when considered as a whole, in reality, all it ever involves is drawing a single line or doing a single brush stroke at a time. And if approached in that way, with the mindfulness of a Zen monk sweeping a path in a monastery, what seems impossible quickly becomes possible. Although it seems hard at the outset, since all you are ever doing is one brush stroke or drawing one line, in practice, it becomes amazingly easy.
• Because I ended up spending so many hours in prayer and worship while working on this, my heart ended up feeling like it ‘cracked open’ at one point and the sense of Divine Love and Presence grew incredibly stronger. That feeling lingers to this day and ended up moving me to do more prayers and add more worship into my daily practices.
• An optimal time to consecrate a Circle of this nature is during a waxing Moon on the Day and Hour of Mercury when the Moon is in Cancer. Thank you to my friend Frater YShY for this fine pearl of occult wisdom.
• When I work with Angels and Archangels, I have found it appropriate to invoke them into a consecrated Crystal placed on an Altar at the center of a consecrated Circle. I would not, however, use that method for Jinn, Elementals or chthonic spirits more generally. Those, I would evoke into a spiritus loci placed outside the Circle. As I see it, the Circle is at once a protective barrier, a set-apart sacred space (much like the Garden of Eden symbolically, a walled sacred space, also analogous to the Tent of Meeting), a beacon to attract the spirits, a liminal space that offers a kind of nexus/interface for interaction between us and our distinct ‘worlds’ so-to-speak, and a kind of giant talisman in which the Magician stands to concentrate the forces with which we work.This is particularly true for the Circle from the Lemegeton’s Goetia described in this article. Although it is usually used to evoke chthonic entities outside of the Circle, its outer ring of Names is entirely composed of Divine, Angelic, and Archangelic Names. As a result, I have found that it works just as well for invoking Angelic and Archangelic entities into the Circle. This makes sense given some careful reflection. If such a Circle can protect the Magician through ensconcing us in a concentrated ‘bubble’ of Angelic, Archangelic and Divine energy, then it also stands to reason that it provides a highly consecrated and purified Divine/Angelic environment in which these celestial entities can manifest. This can be justified under Agrippan grounds since such a space is in sympathetic harmony with the natures or ‘occult vertues’ of the Angels themselves.

  This fertile space in sympathetic harmony with the nature of the Angels can be further augmented through other ceremonial means: through the invocations and conjurations themselves, through ringing a consecrated Bell of Art within the Circle (as I explained in my Solomonic Bells Article), through tracing over the Circle with a consecrated Sword or Knife to demarcate the sacred space as Dr. Skinner recommends, through using incenses appropriate to their nature, through using candles offered to them in appropriate colours, through playing music in harmony with their nature or Psalm recitations in the background, and many other means.

• Finally, this project can be a great deal of fun and if you feel called to it, you can do it! Simply deciding to go forward with it, and give it your absolute best effort, however long it ends up taking, makes the whole process easier. Pray for guidance and you will receive it. Numerous times along the way, I was nudged forward by insight and guidance from beyond myself. If you open yourself to inspiration, it will come. Believe in yourself and go for it. You are way more powerful and capable than you know!