Cryptoconsecratio: Reflections on the Magical Consecration by Mass in the Solomonic Grimoires

By Adam J. Pearson

The Marginalized Method: Introduction to the Magical Consecration by Mass

Consecration is one of the fundamental methods, not only of the traditional priestly art of the exoteric priest, but also of the traditional Medieval and Renaissance Magician. As Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (2000) reveals in his Third Books of Occult Philosophy, priests and Magicians alike have long used a variety of different methods to consecrate magical and sacred objects, methods which range from the use of sacred bells to the casting of exorcised salt and sanctified Holy Water:

“Bells by consecration and benediction receive virtue that they drive away and restrain lightnings, and tempests, that they hurt not in those places where their sounds are heard; in like manner Salt and Water, by their benedictions and exorcisms, receive power to chase and drive away evil spirits” (Agrippa, 2000).

The exorcisms and benedictions by consecrated Water and Salt of Art to which Agrippa alludes here are well-known to Solomonic Magicians; indeed instructions for both are presented in Chapters 5 and 11 of Book II of Peterson’s (2004) Clavicula Salomonis or Key of Solomon. Elsewhere, Agrippa (2000) alludes to the use of Fire and Incense in exorcisms, consecrations, and blessings of magical tools, as in the suffumigations we find within the Key (Peterson, 2004).

However, the commensurate power of bells themselves to exorcise and bless sacred spaces within the Solomonic tradition is often neglected; for this reason, I undertook a detailed and comprehensive study of the use of Bells and Trumpets of Art in the Solomonic grimoires. However, both the great Agrippa himself and contemporary magicians like myself who humbly stand on his shoulders have long omitted one additional method of consecration that is employed in the Medieval and Renaissance grimoires. Indeed, this marginalized method remains as oft-neglected, understudied, or dismissed as the consecrational use of Bells.

This mysterious method is none other than the method of consecration by Mass, which I will define for the purposes of this article as:

The process of spiritually empowering or sanctifying either Magicians or magical objects through their presence in the formal performance of liturgical or votive Christian Masses.

In this article, I will analyze a series of key instances of this oft-neglected formula in three Solomonic grimoires, namely, Juratus Honorii or the The Sworne Booke of Honorius, Sloane 3847 – The Clavicle of Solomon Revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian, and the Heptameron or Magical Elements. After thus establishing a theoretical and historical grounding for the method, I will then proceed to share some practical suggestions for how contemporary Magicians can apply this magical technique in order to optimally benefit from its powers and most closely follow the protocols outlined by the grimoiric systems.

In History and Manuscripts: Consecration by Mass in the Solomonic Grimoire Tradition

The method of consecration by Mass occurs in multiple grimoires, perhaps because the power of the Mass as a magico-spiritual ceremony was vividly apparent to the clerical authors who penned the Late Medieval and Renaissance texts (Leitch, 2009). In order to illustrate some examples of both how the method was traditionally applied as well as the contexts in which it was used, I will briefly consider three grimoiric examples here, namely, those of Juratus Honorii or the The Sworne Booke of Honorius, Sloane 3847 – The Clavicle of Solomon Revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian, and the Heptameron or Magical Elements.

1. Magical Consecration by Mass in The Sworne Booke of Honorius

First, Liber Juratus Honorii or the The Sworne Booke of Honorius has the distinction of being one of the earliest extant Medieval grimoires available to contemporary practitioners and scholars; indeed the most reliable and complete manuscript of the text, Sloane 3854, art. 9, fol 117-144, seems to date to the 14th century (Peterson, 2009). In this fascinating text, the method of consecration by Mass is interestingly employed, not to purify, bless, and empower magical objects, but to enact the same sacred transformation on the Magician. As Joseph H. Peterson’s (2009) edition of the text lays bare, Liber Juratus requires the Magician to enlist the help of a “wary and faithful” priest who is willing to work with and purify him–in keeping with its historical context and Medieval gender biases, the text assumes a male practitioner–for his [sic] Operations with the spirits. As the text explains,

Let [the Magician] have a wary and a faithful priest which may say unto him … a Mass of the Holy Ghost, and in his introit let him say the 13th prayer, and after the offertory the 9th prayer. Then take frankincense and incense and cense the altar saying the first prayer, and because the holy fathers did trust in the saints that were there named, therefore they did so, and if he that shall work have more devotion to any other saints, then be there named, let him change name for name, for faith doth always work, as I said before.

Then let the 2nd prayer be said immediately and after te igiter in the Mass; let be said the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th prayers in consecrating of the Body of Christ, let the priest pray for him that shall work that through the grace of God he may obtain the effect of his petition. And so must the priest do in all his prayers that he shall say for him that shall work, but add nothing else to them. Also after the Communion, the priest shall say the 26th prayer, and after mass he that shall work shall receive the sacrament saying the 19th and 20th prayer.

But let him take heed that he receive not the Body of Christ for an evil purpose, for that were death unto him, wherefore some men have entitled this book calling it The Death of the Soul, and that is true to them that work for an evil intent and purpose, and not to have some science or some good thing; for the Lord sayeth “Ask, and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall finde,” and in another place he sayeth “where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them and everything that they shall ask the father in my name and he will fulfill and do it.”

The Magician of Liber Juratus is held to a very high standard of moral purity, a spiritual and ritual state that is here magnified by the priest’s consecration of “he that shall work”–the text’s term for the Magician or Exorcist–by the power of the Mass and Holy Communion (Peterson, 2009).

Two additional things are worth noting about this interesting passage. First, the particular Mass that the grimoire recommends is a special ‘votive’ or devotional mass called the “Mass of the Holy Ghost,” now called the “Mass of the Holy Spirit,” which was used in the 14th century to invoke the Holy Spirit and ask for guidance and wisdom; the invocation of Divine power and wisdom is, of course, very relevant to the work of a Christian Magician.

Second, the Mass is here given in a modified version in which the specific numbered prayers given in the grimoire are inserted into it and the priest prays for the success of the Magician’s operation at the most auspicious of moments, namely, during the “consecration of the Body of Christ,” in which the wafer was believed by Catholics to be transubstantiated from an ordinary wafer into Christ’s body itself. The net effect of making these changes to the standard script of the Mass is to produce a kind of grimoiric Mass that is an explicitly magical ritual in itself through its connection to the Liber Juratus procedures.

Later in the text, the Magician is instructed to conduct a prolonged series of fasts, prayers, and purifications, and once again, is instructed to attend the Mass. Here, however, “he that shall work” is instructed to say specific prayers, which are given in the text, while receiving the Holy Communion or the Body and Blood of Christ in the Church (Peterson, 2009). As Liber Juratus explains:

If therefore anybody wishes to operate with those spirits, we must first warn him strictly that he must be thoroughly purified, as we have said in the preceding, until he comes to the fourteenth day, on which day he must begin his fast. Then when the Mass of the Holy Spirit is being said or celebrated, when the operator is receiving the Body of Christ (eucharist), he should say prayers 19 and 20 (LXXVII-LXXIX), as we have said, when the priest is holding up the Body of Christ (i.e. wafer), to reveal it to the congregation, he should pray on behalf of the Operation.

This passage is noteworthy because it lays bear the notion that for the author of Liber Juratus, the exoteric Mass and the esoteric work of the conjurer were not seen as two separate things, as some contemporary theorists who postulate a rigid divide between the techniques of “magic” and “religion” may suggest. Instead, the work of the Mass was part of the magic and supplied part of its spiritual empowerment; in the Liber Juratus‘s system, the preparatory purifying Rites and the later callings of the spirits are part of a single magico-religious continuum. Indeed, without the consecration by Mass, the Magician was held to be unfit and insufficiently purified to proceed with the Operations with spirits (Peterson, 2009).

2. Magical Consecration by Mass in Sloane 3847 – The Clavicle of Solomon Revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian

Second, the same principle that the Christian Mass itself has the power to consecrate both practitioners and tools of the Art is applied in another grimoiric text, namely, Sloane 3847 – The Clavicle of Solomon Revealed by Ptolomy the Grecian. This text is one of the earliest available manuscripts of the Key of Solomon and seems to date to 1572, the only earlier one I’m aware of being BNF or Bibliothèque Nationale de France Ital 1524, which dates to 1446 (Peterson, 1999).  In Sloane 3847, the method of consecration by Mass is applied not only in the consecration of the Tools of the Art, but also in the consecration of the Pentacles. As will be seen, the process given for consecrating the Pentacles is considerably more involved and demanding in this manuscript than in later manuscripts of the Clavicula Salomonis, which may suggest that later writers may have abrogated the text to simplify the method.

In Sloane 3847, the Magician is required to have not one, but multiple Masses said over the Planetary Pentacle to consecrate and empower it, as the text explains:

The Pentacles be made upon

day, and in the hour of Mercury,(…). Have a house or secret chamber clean and goodly wherein shall none inhabit, but the cheefe coniurer and his fellowes, and make a fumigation there and sprinckle it with y^ewater, as it is said (…) and have your paper or better, virgin paper and begin that hour to write the foresayde pentacle of noble collour as is emabrium or celestem coniured and exorsized as it is sayd.

For the Pen and the Inke, let them be writt and other thinges to be exorsized, and when they be written perfectly, that hour if they be not completed, doe not cease untill they be fullfilled when ye may. Then take some noble cloth of silke wherin ye may hold the foresayd pentacles, and have there an earthen pot great, and full of coales, and let there be of ligno mastico masculo & ligno aloe, coniured, and let y^e coniurer be cleare [24v] as it is meete, and have there prepared Arthanum nupatum [the Quill knife] in the juice of pimpernell and the blood of a goose made and completed upon Mercuries day in the augementinge [waxing] of the moone where upon let 3 Masses be songe with gospells and fumigate it with fumigations of y^e knife, that ye must cut and make maicum Isopi [hyssop], with your whole minde and humble deuotion, sayinge these Psalmes with y^eoration followinge…

Nor is that all. The Magician is then required to complete a series of prayers over the next three days, and “cause” an additional series of Masses to be said over the Pentacle to activate it and en-spirit it with magical force:

Say this 3 dayes continuall upon the foresayed pentacles and cause 3 Masses to be sayed of y^e Holy Ghost, and one of Our Lady, and afterward put the foresaid signes, in a silke cloth with goodly sauours, and put them up in a cleane place.

And when it is neede, ye may worke as it is said of the artes magicall, of thy cloth were decked with gold it were of more efficacye, and when they be put in a cleane place, fumigate them and sprincle them with water and Isope [hyssop] and soe let them alone. They have immumerable vertues as it is contained heareafter.

Nor is the formula of consecration by Mass only applied for Pentacles. The Clavicle also requires it for the consecration of “the Conjurer’s” tools, such as the Knife, Wand, and Needle:

With such a knife as the circles should be made with, if it be greevous for you to make such a knife, finde some knife of the foresaid fashion, with a haft all white or all blacke, and write upon manicumor haft the foresaid wordes, after the mañer aforesaid of that knife, and upon the plate begiñinge from the poynt, write with encausto conjured, Alpha et omega, agla, Ja, el, ou, premeumaton, syrnel, afrnel, and cause to be sayd over this knife 3 masses, one of the holy ghost and 2 of our Lady and fumigate him, with the fumigations followinge, and blesse him with water as followeth, conjuring sayinge, in nomine patris filii et S. Sancti Amen, and put him in a silke cloth, of such as followeth, until ye will worke, and of that knife let the circles of artes be made, and with that knife, let things necessary to the artes or experiments be cut, likewise let Artanus be made, but they neede not to be put in any operation. Let other Instruments of Iron, or staves, or rodds excersised in artes or experiments be consecrated, on that mañer, if they be Instrum^ts Let them be made on

dayes and his Hour as it is said of y^e knife, and Arthano [the quill knife], and let these that followeth be written upon them…

This passage is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, it seems to suggest that a single knife can be used, not both a black-handled knife and a white-handled knife as in later manuscripts, but a knife “with a haft [handle] all white or all black” (Peterson, 1999). This small, but significant difference places this manuscript more closely in line with the Hygromanteia, which only features a single knife (Marathakis, 2011). As Dr. Stephen Skinner explains in his detailed analysis within the same edition of the text, in the Hygromanteia,

The blade of the knife must be from an older sword or knife that has brought death, but the handle must be made from the horn of a black he-goat. P has she-goat instead and G does not refer to the handle at all. According to A, B, G and B3 certain nomina barbara have to be written on the knife, and it must be constructed on the day and the hour of Mars.

Except for this section and the subsequent mentions of the black handled knife in the making of the pen, the parchment and the circle, the manuscripts mention the knife in relation to a number of independent divinatory operations that will be treated of below. The oldest reference to the black-handled knife, brought to my attention by David Rankine, comes from Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki), the famous 11th century commentator of the Talmud. Rashi, commenting on a Talmudic passage, says:

“He who is particular about the vessel (by means of which he divines), that he cannot do anything without the vessel that is required for that thing, as, for instance, the “princes of the thumb”, for which they require a knife, the handle of which is black, or the “princes of the cup”, that they require a cup of glass.” (…)

Another early reference to the black handled knife can be found in the Recension C of the Testament of Solomon, which, according to McCown may belong to the 12th or 13th century. In this text, Beelzeboul says:

“Take fifty one in number black unborn kids, bring me a new knife with a handle made from black horn and attached by three rivets, and skin the kids [baby goats].”

It is additionally worth noting the explicit Christianity of this passage from the Clavicle, which not only requires “3 Masses, one of the Holy Ghost and 2 of our Lady [the Virgin Mary]” to be said over the Knife of Art, but also conjures the Knife by means of the Trinity, “in nomine patris filii et S. Sancti Amen” (Peterson, 1999). This stands in contrast to later manuscripts of the Key of Solomon, which eliminate all Christian references in an attempt to make the text appear entirely Jewish, and thus, more in line with the religion of its pseudepigraphic author, King Solomon.

In the interests of brevity, I will not quote all of the passages concerning consecrations by Mass in the Clavicle, for there are many, but it may suffice to say in summary that Masses are also required to be recited over the “Virgin Wax or Earth” (“three Masses”), the Needle of Art (“three Masses”), the Virgin Parchment (“three Masses”), and the Silk Cloth for wrapping implements of the Art (a staggering “9 Masses!) (Peterson, 1999).

As these passages reveal, consecration by Mass was considered by the author of the Clavicle, that is, Pseudo-Ptolemy the Grecian in Sloane 3847, to be a fundamental and essential magical technique for consecrating all of the Tools of the Art as well as the Pentacles produced using the Clavicular method (Peterson, 1999).  As such, the absence of consecration by Mass in later manuscripts of the Key, arguably a product of attempts to streamline and facilitate the Solomonic method, is remarkably conspicuous.

3. Magical Consecration by Mass in The Heptameron or Magical Elements Pseudepigraphically attributed to Peter de Abano

Third, consecration by Mass also figures strongly in the Heptameron or Magical Elements, in two key respects, namely, the consecrations of the Pentacle and Garment and the Sword of Art. As the text, in Peterson’s (2018) edition, explains:

The Operator ought to be clean and purified by the space of nine daies before the beginning of the work, and to be confessed, and receive the holy Communion. Let him have ready the perfume appropriated to the day wherein he would perform the work. He ought also to have holy water from a Priest, and a new earthen vessel with fire, a Vesture and a Pentacle; and let all these things be rightly and duly consecrated and prepared. Let one of the servants carry the earthen vessel full of fire, and the perfumes, and let another bear the book, another the Garment and Pentacle, and let the master carry the Sword; over which there must be said one mass of the Holy Ghost.”

Similarly, a later passage clarifies that the consecration by Mass must not only be performed for the Sword, but also for the Pentacle:

Let it be a Priest’s Garment, if it can be had, let it be of linen, and clean. Then take this Pentacle made in the day and hour of Mercury, the Moon increasing, written in parchment made of a kids skin [goat skin]. But first let there be said over it the Mass of the holy Ghost, and let it be sprinkled with water of baptism

As these passages reveal, the Pseudo-Peter de Abano of the Heptameron also saw the consecration by Mass to be a crucially important method for imbuing the Sword and Pentacle with their magical power.

To bring these three analyses together, the magical theoretic logic at play behind both Juratus’ consecration of the Magician by Mass and the Clavicle and Heptameron’s consecrations of the Tools and Pentacles by Mass seems to be largely the same. In both cases, proximity to or immersion in the Holy Mass brings the Magician and the Tools into sympathetic resonance with the holy forces that they are intended to help conjure and direct to magical ends.

To the Catholic Magicians who penned these three grimoires, it was only natural to draw upon the most powerful ceremony of which they were aware, in which the Body and Blood of their Saviour were symbolically ingested in the Mystery of Eucharist, to empower their instruments, a logic Agrippa explains in his analyses of sympathetic “occult vertue” (Agrippa, 2000). Indeed, the fact that the method of consecration by Mass recurs in so many influential and early texts only makes its glaring omission by most modern Magicians all the more striking. By omitting it, contemporary practitioners risk leaving out a key component of the magical method and theory enshrined in these pivotal texts.

Resurrecting the Consecration by Mass: Practical Suggestions for the Contemporary Practitioner

In light of the method’s powerful historical legacy in the grimoires and in the interests of faithfulness to the source texts, what are contemporary practitioners to do if they wish to implement the consecration by Mass into their own 21st-century work?

Three main options remain open to contemporary Magicians:

1) They can follow Liber Juratus and try to find a “faithful and wary” ordained priest who is willing to help in performing Masses over them or their magical implements. This is possible in some cases, but priests willing to cooperate in occult enterprises can be few and far between. This unfortunate state of affairs is predominantly due to the continued stigmatization of esotericism as necessarily and intrinsically demonic that reigns within the contemporary Church. With that said, Reverend Aaron Leitch does offer a service of consecration by Mass for those who would like to enlist his services.

2) They can become ordained as priests and perform the Masses over their own implements ourselves. To aid and support those who are interested in doing this, I have included a full Latin text of the “Mass of the Holy Ghost” called for in the aforementioned grimoires in Appendix I of this article. The journey to authentic ordination is a long one requiring great devotion and commitment, but this second option is often still easier than the first, and indeed, I know several individuals who have taken this approach.

3) The third and final method is the approach I affectionately refer to as cryptoconsecratio, that is, the clandestine consecration of objects performed in public. In this case, cryptoconsecratio entails bringing magical items to Church and praying over and consecrating them secretly during the Mass itself.

One challenge posed by this latter approach, however, is that, as we have already seen, the “Mass of the Holy Spirit” prescribed above is not the standard Sunday liturgical Mass, but rather a votive or devotional Mass that is rarely performed by most Churches today at all if not once or a few times per year (Rex, 2014). Thankfully, practical experimentation has revealed that the standard Mass, while not as optimally aligned with the grimoiric specifications as the Mass of the Holy Spirit, works nearly as well for our purposes.

Practical Tips for Cryptoconsecrating Magical Objects by Mass

Those who would like to attempt the cryptoconsecratio method of consecration by Mass, can facilitate their task by placing magical items in an unsuspicious bag such as a backpack, purse or satchel, which they bring with them into the Church. Ideally, the objects to be consecrated would be placed as close to the Altar as possible; indeed, the grimoires’ authors envisioned the items being placed on the Altar itself. However, as per Agrippan occult philosophical logic, the items can remain in the pews if necessary; since the Mass technically unfolds throughout the entire Church, its “occult vertue” and sympathetic empowerment can still be transferred to any location within the Church during the Mass provided appropriate and effective prayers are used to direct the process (Agrippa, 2000).

The closer to the Altar, the better, however. The boldest Magicians can sit in the front row and thereby be as close to the Altar as they can possibly be without being the officiating priests themselves. If practitioners are performing the clandestine cryptoconsecratio from their pews with the items in a bag beside them, then during the Mass, they can simply and discretely place a hand over the items to be consecrated and pray over them to complete the consecration.

Praying over the items multiple times throughout the Mass seems to be most effective approach, as practical experimentation has revealed. However, the most crucial moment to perform such clandestine prayers is when the priest is initiating the transubstantiation or the mystic transformation of the bread and wine into the Blood and Body of Christ (Peterson, 2009). Liber Juratus makes the esoteric potency of this moment abundantly clear in the aforementioned passage regarding the prayers to be recited by “he that shall work” (Peterson, 2009). Following Agrippa once again, the magical rationale is clear; since the priest is performing a sacred transformation, the moment is pregnant with the ‘occult vertue’ of that sacred transformative power–quite like an auspicious and benefic astrological election–thus facilitating the consecration of the targeted magical objects by the Mass (Agrippa, 2000).

At this point, I anticipate that my intelligent and practically-minded readers will likely pose a very understandable question: what about the Sword — surely it’s not so easy to cryptoconsecrate as small objects?

Admittedly, the Sword of Art’s size does seem to pose a problem. Thankfully, however, it is one easily solved. Since the Sword does not fit in most bags, it can instead be placed in the case of a musical instrument — a guitar case, for instance, works remarkably well. Once again, as in the case of the bags, clandestine practitioners need only place a hand over the Sword as it lies hidden in its case and pray over it to consecrate it during the Mass. Exorcisms of the items to be consecrated can be done in the Magician’s private Temple prior to going to Church for the Mass and final suffumigations and Holy Water sprinklings of the items can be done upon returning home.

In short, whether through a priestly ally, through becoming priests, or through discrete cryptoconsecratio performed during Masses officiated by others, the method of consecration by Mass remains accessible to this day.

A Mystic Legacy with Enduring Value: Concluding Words on an Ongoing Practice

In conclusion, the method of consecration by Mass has a respectable grimoiric pedigree and remains accessible today through methods such as the three approaches suggested in this article. Grimoiric traditionalists and Christian Magicians may find particular value in the method. Non-Christian practitioners with an open-mind and a curiosity about magical methods from other cultures, however, may still find that the method offers a fertile magical technology under-girded by hundreds of years of esoteric history as well as a fascinating avenue for exploration.

Appendix I – The Latin text of the ‘Mass of the Holy Ghost/Spirit,’ shared here from the Public Domain (for the English text, see this List of Resources from BJ Swayne):

Missa de Spiritu Sancto

Introitus. Sap. l, 7.

Spíritus Dómini replévit orbem terrárum: et hoc, quod cóntinet ómnia, sciéntiam habet vocis.

(T.P. Allelúja, allelúja.)

Ps. 67,2.

Exsúrgat Deus, et dissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant, qui odérunt eum, a fácie ejus.

℣. Glória Patri.

Oratio.

Deus, qui corda fidélium Sancti Spíritus illustratióne docuísti: da nobis in eódem Spíritu recta sápere; et de ejus semper consolatióne gaudére. Per Dóminum . . . in unitáte ejúsdem Spíritus Sancti.

Léctio Actuum Apostólorum.

Act. 8, 14-17.

In diébus illis: Cum audíssent Apóstoli, qui erant Jerosólymis, quod recepísset Samaría verbum Dei, misérunt ad eos Petrum et Joánnem. Qui cum veníssent, oravérunt pro ipsis, ut accíperent Spíritum Sanctum: nondum enim in quemquam illórum vénerat, sed baptizáti tantum erant in nómine Dómini Jesu. Tunc imponébant manus super illos, et accipiébant Spíritum Sanctum

Graduale.

Ps. 32, 12 et 6.

Beáta gens, cujus est Dóminus Deus eórum: pópulus, quem elégit Dóminus in hereditátem sibi.

℣. Verbo Dómini coeli firmáti sunt: et Spíritu oris ejus omnis virtus eórum.

Allelúja, allelúja. (Hic genuflectitur)

℣. Veni, Sancte Spíritus, reple tuórum corda fidélium: et tui amóris in eis ignem accénde. Allelúja.

Post Septuagesimam, omissis Allelúja et
Versu sequenti, dicitur:

Tractus. Ps. 103, 30.

Emítte Spíritum tuum, et creabúntur: et renovábis fáciem terræ.

℣. O quam bonus et suávis est, Dómine, Spíritus tuus in nobis! (Hic genuflectitur)

℣. Veni, Sancte Spíritus, reple tuórum corda fidélium: et tui amóris in eis ignem accénde.

Tempore autem Paschali omittitur Graduale,
et ejus loco dicitur:

Allelúja, allelúja.

℣. Ps. 103, 30.

Emítte Spíritum tuum, et creabúntur: et renovábis fáciem terræ. Allelúja. (Hic genuflectitur)

℣. Veni, Sancte Spíritus, reple tuórum corda fidélium: et tui amóris in eis ignem accénde. Allelúja.

✠ Sequéntia sancti Evangélii secúndum Joánnem.

Joann. 14, 23-31.

In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis: Si quis diligit me, sermónem meum servábit, et Pater meus díliget eum, et ad eum veniémus, et mansiónem apud eum faciémus: qui non díligit me, sermónes meos non servat Et sermónem quem audístis, non est meus: sed ejus, qui misit me, Patris. Hæc locútus sum vobis, apud vos manens. Paráclitus autem Spíritus Sanctus, quem mittet Pater in nómine meo, ille vos docébit ómnia et súggeret vobis ómnia, quæcúmque díxero vobis.

Pacem relínquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis: non quómodo mundus dat, ego do vobis. Non turbátur cor vestrum neque fórmidet. Audístis, quia ego dixi vobis: Vado et vénio ad vos. Si diligerétis me, gauderétis útique, quia vado ad Patrem; quia Pater major me est. Et nunc dixi vobis, priúsquam fiat: ut, cum factum fúerit, credátis. Jam non multa loquar vobíscum. Venit enim princeps mundi hujus, et in me non habet quidquam. Sed ut cognóscat mundus, quia díligo Patrem, et sicut mandátum dedit mihi Pater, sic fácio.

Offertorium. Ps. 67, 29-30.

Confírma hoc, Deus, quod operátus es in nobis: a templo tuo, quod est in Jerúsalem, tibi ófferent reges múnera. (T.P. Allelúja.)

Secreta.

Múnera, quǽsumus, Dómine, obláta sanctífica: et corda nostra Sancti Spíritus illustratióne emúnda. Per Dóminum . . in unitáte ejusdem Spíritus Sancti.

Præfatio de Spiritu Sancto.

Communio. Act. 2, 2 et 4.

Factus est repénte de cælo sonus tamquam adveniéntis spíritus veheméntis, ubi erant sedéntes: et repléti sunt omnes Spíritu Sancto, loquéntes magnália Dei.
(T.P.Allelúja.)

Postcommunio.

Sancti Spíritus, Dómine, corda nostra mundet infúsio: et sui roris íntima aspersióne fecúndet. Per Dóminum . . . in unitáte ejúsdem Spíritus Sancti (Zardetti, 1888).

References

Agrippa, H. C. (2000). Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Ed. Joseph H. Peterson. [online eBook]. Esoteric Archives. Based on a transcription from Moule: London, 1651. Available at http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm[Accessed 01 October 2018].

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

Marathakis, I. (2011). The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia. Singapore: Goldon Hoard Press.

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Michaelmas 2018: An Invocation of Archangel Michael and the Archangel’s Exhortation to Humanity

By Frater S. C. F. V.

Happy Michaelmas, Amici! Michaelmas, which is also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels is celebrated by the Catholic and Anglican churches today, September 29, 2018.

It’s worth noting, however, that although the Serbian Orthodox Church observes the feast, most Eastern Orthodox Churches. Moreover, the Greek and Romanian Orthodox honour the Archangels as well on their equivalent of the Western Michaelmas, but they also include the Cherubim and Seraphim and celebrate the Feast on November 8th instead.

For my celebration, I began by performing a ritual bath as well as some preliminary worship. Thereafter, I cleaned the Altar, applied a fresh red altar cloth for Archangel Michael, and cleaned all offerings vessels. I arranged the Altar, and prepared the offerings for Michael and the other Angels. These included incense, a red candle fixed with chili peppers, Solomonic Holy Oil, and cloves, and a glass of wine. I also offered the Angels fresh orange slices spiked with three cloves to symbolize the Trinity of Divine images in the Christian “symbolic theology,” to quote Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, that is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three clove “nails” qll suggest the three Nails in the Holy Cross, three Supernal Sephirot, 3 Pillars of the Tree of Life, and the G.D. Neophyte Triangle or Triad of Manifestation (“two contending forces and one eternally uniting them”).

Thereafter, I entered the Temple, placed the Offerings on the Altar, and formally opened the Temple with the initial Offerings to the Godhead. Thereafter, I picked up my Solomonic Bell, sounded it three times before entering the Circle as per the Hygromanteia and then, from within it, sounded the Bell thrice to each of the Quarters, greeting the Spirits of the East, South, West, and North with great love, respect, and blessings of Adonai.

Next, I proceeded to give Offerings to Saint Cyprian and began to pray and recite Psalms while holding my Solomonic Wand of Art. Saint Cyprian received his own fresh glass of Spring Water, a candle dressed with San Cipriano oil, Sage, Cinnamon, and All-spice, and Church wafers.

I opened with some prayers to God offering worship, an announcement of my intention to celebrate the Archangels with gratitude and gifts, and a prayer to Saint Cyprian asking him to assist me in the invocation of Michael.

I then used the prayer from the Heptameron to ask for God’s help in calling Spirits and proceeded to a formal Invocation of Archangel Michael.  After prolonged additional conjurations and vibrating Michael’s name while gazing into the crystal with his candle burning behind it–a method I call pyrocrystallomancy, or fire-crystal-divination as shown to me by Archangel Raphael–I felt the Archangel’s presence begin to build in the Temple.

I found it noteworthy that the last time I had invoked the great Michael, his arrival in the Temple was marked by a series of sparks erupting from his candle.  This time, his manifestation in the room was experienced in the expansion of his incense smoke and the omset of intense flickering of his Offering candle.

Much like in the last invocation, however, his presence felt strong, but kind, fiery, but composed, comforting, but unwavering, and above all courageous and ready to act immediately as needed.  Upon his arrival, I greeted him with great love and respect and Offerings of his fixed and dressed candle, the oranges and cloves, the glass of wine, and and Musk incense, sacred to the Sun as per Agrippa, as gifts of friendship.

At this time, I informed the Archangel that my intention was primarily to celebrate his Feast Day, but that I would also be grateful for any insights or wisdom he may wish to offer, not only to me, but to my fellow human beings who might read this ritual journal entry. As a side note, for the sake of respect and decorum, I always obtain a Spirit’s consent to share what they reveal to me, provided it is not explicitly secretive or deeply personal in nature, in which case I do not share it.  Michael has always granted the permission as he considers it a form of Offering to share wisdom for the purpose of edifying others.

I asked Michael to help me to optimally attune my consciousness and biopsychospiritual state in order to best me able to communicate with him and asked Saint Cyprian to help me to send and receive clear messages to the Angel.  This process of tuning in is, to me, like tuning a radio receiver to receive the clearest possible sound of a particular radio station’s broadcast.

Scrying into the Crystal as Michael’s candle burned behind it, I gave the Archangel permission to speak into my mind or into my body via sensations or emotions. I asked him questions as I gazed through the crystal and received his responses immediately in a deep, stern, but kind, and warm voice.

When asked if the traditional depictions of Michael are how he really appears, he said “no. These are appearances that I assume for you,” meaning human beings.

I then asked him if he could give me a closer impression of what he looks like without assuming the images he takes on so as not to frighten us. He asked if I was sure. I wondered if he had been asked this before only to have people be terrified by the result. I said that I was certain.

My eyes grew heavy and fell closed before a vivid vision began to reveal itself.

Before me, I first see a handsome and slightly androgynous male figure clad in red robes and armor and bearing a mighty sword. Behind him, two large white wings stand elegantly unfolded to each side of his armored frame.  As I watch, the image of his clothing, wings, and human-like features begins to stretch and distort. It grows and grows, beyond a height slightly taller than my 5’11 frame to grow larger and larger. Before I know it, the great Michael’s vast form is entirely filling the horizon in every direction. Wherever I look, his massive form is there.

The colours in his initial self-presentation gradually begin to fade out. Now, there is but a vaguely anthropomorphic being of golden light towering over the entire planet Earth… At last, even this last faint hint of a human-form distends into a totally incomprehensible and unrecognizable ‘mass’ of pure golden light, voiceless, and staggering in its incredible power…

The whole experience lasts only a few moments before the vast, cosmic figure shrinks back down and resumes the familiar human-esque form in red robes and Angelic wings.

I open my eyes and resume gazing at Michael’s candle’s flickering flame from through the Crystal.  I thank the great Archangel for this impressive vision, feeling humbled by the realization thay even this only really represents a fraction of what Michael is “really like.”

As this is a day of celebration of Michael and all other Angels as well as their primordial relationship with human beings, I ask the Archangel if he has any words of wisdom to guide humanity at this moment in our history. He begins to speak these words:

“Yes. Know that whatever you face, however alone you may feel, however desperate things may seem, there is always hope. Wherever you stand, you stand not alone. My Sword executes justice in accordance with Divine Will balanced with love and compassion. Many are the Angels who storm to your aid when you are in struggle, if only you knew. Be encouraged and take hope. In your darkest nights, our light shines brightly to join with yours.

Beware most of all the tendency towards self-absorption and self-centeredness, the gateway of all sin, that is, of all missing of the mark of excellence, virtue, and holiness. Temptations always come in the same forms: questioning your value, shaming you, tempting you into feeling entitled, and fanning the flames of greed and victimhood. All of these appeal to the baser constructs of human self-centeredness.

If you are absorbed in yourself, you become blind to value beyond value for you. You lose yourself in greed and hatred, entitlement and cruelty, attachment to illusions and arrogance. All the while, you hold your imaginary self up as an idol to be worshiped. What folly!

Human destruction always stems back to excessive self-centeredness. It is for it that you destroy the planet, that your people kill, rape, lie, deceive, and manipulate and glorify yourselves on your media, begging to be worshiped so that your artificial image of self can feel real. All of this is falsehood. Cut through it. Humility is the gateway to wisdom, not self-centeredness and arrogance. What room is there for growth in one who believes themselves already to be large and great? Turn back from illusions to Truth, from the imaginary to the Real, and humble yourself in relationship to That. For your greatness is only in your realization of always having been That, and not in the little “you” you pretend to be. Humble the “self” you’re not and embrace the Self beyond all concepts and images, the Eternal and the True.” 

When asked what humans could do to be more like the Angels, the Archangel’s reply was:

“Surrender illusions to Truth. Trust the Good, which is the same as the Will of God. Do it without hesitation out of Love for its nature. Surrender self-centeredness and dwell in the awareness of Divine presence. Live to serve and love the service. Find your meaning not in what you can get for yourself, but how you can strengthen and give to others. Serve the Whole you Are, not the part you take yourself to be. In truth, not even the Angels separately exist. The same is true for human beings; it is only your wrong thinking that makes you take yourselves to be cut off from one another. Nothing is cut off. Nothing is apart from God. We know this. Purify your mind of wrong notions and be open to learning from that Wisdom which is beyond your finite understanding.”

Finally, when asked if humans are missing anything important that we should be attending to, Michael replied:

“Yes. Frankly and boldly consider the impact of your actions as a relative human being. You are always influencing everyone around you, whether neutrally, for the worse, or for the Good. Own your part in the problems you blame on others. Own the impact of your actions. Minimize the harm you cause and maximize the Good. Wake up from the dream of self-absorption before your greed and ignorance destroy the Earth, your fellow human beings, and other creatures alike.  We Angels have watched your kind since you first emerged. We have seen you do great things, and great atrocities. Ultimately, all things that arise, pass away. But even an ant leaves footprints in the sand.

Contribute not to the collective self-destruction. Own your part to play in the Whole you are, go beyond worshiping yourself to serving your collective Self appearing as all beings, God, the Divine, beyond the One and the All forever, yet ever Present as all in all.

And yet, you appear as a human being living a human life, and while you do, I encourage you to be humbly mindful in your humanness that you always have the power to transform hateful, greedy, wrathful ways into ways that bless more than they curse and help more than they hinder. Those who surrender to this transformation not only help, but are helped; for as you do unto others, so it is done unto you.

In truth, there is neither “you” nor “others,” only That One beyond Oneness at play with itself. Therefore, give up the game of fighting yourself imagined as “other” and learn to Love the One in All, the All in One, and That beyond All and One alike. This is the Way of the Angels and the Way of God, if you would only understand…”

Humbled by this, I thought it best to end the session in humility, contemplating more than suggesting, listening more than speaking. What more could I say? I thanked the great and Ancient Michael for his presence and invited him to go in peace or to stay with me to pray and enjoy the Offerings given in the honour of him and all of the Angels and Archangels.

I sat in silence for what felt like a long time, silently reflecting and abiding in Michael’s presence. Relatively, we seem to be human beings communicating with Angels or living blissfully unaware of their existence. Absolutely, the only Reality there is, is beyond the dreams of unity and diversity alike, as the Angels have pointed out to me time and time again. Relatively, we seem to be a separate individual, member of a family, a society, a species, a planet.

But this too, is part of the dream. Nothing stands alone; nothing is cut off. While we continue to dream this dream of human consciousness, Michael seems to me to suggest, we may as well make it as happy as possible and live it as meaningfully as we can, which is to say, in greatest harmony with our highest ideals: harmony, kindness, strength, encouragement, wisdom, and love.

For if we harm others, we harm our Self in disguise, our Beloved, the Divine itself. Therefore, let us Love the dream of others, the wonder and miracle of God appearing in the form of the vast diversity of the universe, or multiverse, which we behold, in awe-struck wonder…

Magic is a game within the Divine play, God experiencing Itself as both Angels and human beings in conversation about Itself. What fun! And yet, how head-spinning to our finite human minds!

Ah! I’ve said too much already. It’s time to return to the infinite wonder of ever-open silence.

Before I do, two final words:

Happy Michaelmas!