Enochian “Book of Silvered Leaves”: Week 1 Update and Effects

It has been one week since I finished making the Book of Silvered Leaves, spoken of by the angel Mapsama to John Dee and Edward Kelley (Aaron Leitch first references this encounter in The Enochian Saga: Exploring the Angelic Journals of Dr. John Dee on page 130, and Stephen Skinner’s edition of Dee’s diaries give a similar accounting on page 319). I wanted to take this time to discuss what the book is, how I went about making it, and the effects I’ve noticed mid-consecration.

The angel Mapsama, whose name means dic illis in Latin–“tell them” in English–appeared on May 24, 1584 (Julian calendar) and instructed Dee and Kelley to bind together “48 leaves [of paper], whose skin shall bear silver: Whose Perimeter shall be 30 inches, in length 8, in breadth 7.” When finished, the book is to be placed in a room with the door closed (presumably locked) for two weeks. Dee is told to invite the angels of the Lord, and also that humanity “is not worthy to write that shall be written: neither shall there be found many worthy to open that book.” He was then to place the book on a table-cloth (presumably the same cloth which was to go over the Holy Table of Practice) and invite the angels. Dee gets little more information about the book upon further questioning, though does ask to be allowed to do less work than this(!).

No record of Dee or Kelley making such a book exists, yet this book, I should add, is considerably simpler, in theory, than the book of Liber Loagaeth. No 49×49 tables, no binding in silk, and the like. Instead, this seems like a straightforward creation of a book with silvered leaves, and, given the lack of guidance, it seems that all that is required is that each leaf have some amount of silver added to it, and then the book is consecrated by remaining out of sight.

The particular use of silver on a page struck me, reminding me of the Abramelin operation, at the end of which, when the Holy Guardian Angel manifests, the supplicant is to look upon silver and copy down the sigil seen therein. My own experience with this was that I saw it as if I had seen bright neon sign flash against darkness–in other words, I saw the after-image of that kind of glare–but only when looking at the silver. So here we have silver, like the moon with which silver has almost unfailingly corresponded throughout the millennia, creating a reflection of light (as it does with sunlight), and what is seen is to be copied on paper. My guess is that the Book of Silvered Leaves would operate similarly, and so far the angels have not given me an intuitive sense that I am wrong. For although I am not worthy to write in the book, the consecration may either rectify me with the Divine to do so, or at least allow me to copy that which is seen in silver into the book itself–not technically writing so much as capturing that which is written. For all I know, the method may be that I’ll walk into the room next week and find a completely written book! But the angels have indicated that my intuition is correct, and that moreover I will receive 19 symbols which are to be linked to the 21 letters of the Enochian alphabet, with B (in Enochian, the name for this letter is “Pa“) and C/K (“Veh“) being linked with the first symbol, S (“Fam“) and T (“Gisg“) with the last, and the remaining symbols each being linked with one letter each.

The main reason I’m writing this, however, is to establish how I went about making the book and to confirm its lunar effects. I took guidance from the book of Amzes Naghezes Hardeh (also known as Liber Loagaeth)–to use paper with no writing on it, cutting it down to 8 inches by 7 inches, and I simply glued silver leaf squares to an upper corner of each of the 48 leaves (front and back). I also bought an 8×8 scrapbook because the pages would be bound in the sense of “not going anywhere” to that scrapbook, and then put those leaves in the plastic sleeves (I couldn’t find an 8″x7″ scrapbook, so I taped off the extra inch on each of the 48 plastic sheets). Finding myself with one silver leaf remaining, I taped it to the front of the book. Finally, I had to adjust the width of the back slightly by adding in some cardboard. In all, this this took me about a week, and I was told by the angels that the astrological election for completing the work (which I counted as putting in the last page and then inviting the angels) would be obvious, and given my natal chart, it definitely was. When I finished the book, I activated the furniture, placed Liber Loagaeth above the Sigillum Dei Aemeth (which as usual was on the table), put the “flashing red and green,” tabasco-silk cloth atop the table so that everything was covered up. Atop that cloth I placed the Book of Silvered Leaves. As far as inviting the angels, I read lines 21 through 26 of table 1a of Amzes Naghezes Hardeh (Liber Loagaeth), read calls 1 and 2, and finally recited the first section of Dee’s invocation to the good angels (Fundamentalis ad DEVM Supplicatio, et Obtestatio pro Angelorum Bonorum, benigno, habendo Ministerio; in Latin and English). It has been one week since this, so this is about halfway through the consecration period.

The effects of this have been as follows: first, daily, I have sensed the energy coming from the room, and it grows every day. My sense is that it will ultimately encompass the entire home. Second, it has been an especially emotional time at home, which is quite in line with lunar effects. Next, I have noticed that other lunar effects, mainly dreams, have been strongly activated. I rarely remember my dreams, but I have been recalling them often. Finally, I have a sense that there is some angelic “resolution” associated with incorporating this lunar energy. Amzes Naghezes Hardeh/Liber Loagaeth indeed brought the wisdom of the cosmos, but some more “down-to-earth” revelation seems indicated by the Book of Silvered Leaves. It’s quite the oversimplification to call Amzes Naghezes Hardeh/Liber Loagaeth “solar” (though the solar angelic prince Bornogo is featured prominently in Leaf 9) but if one incorporates the idea of the path of the sun as pulling in all of the cosmos, then it makes sense that it can open the gates of Wisdom/Chokmah. My sense is that there will be quite complementary solar and lunar energies from using both books in tandem, and I wouldn’t be surprised by a lunar wisdom (or perhaps a foundation/Yesod for such Wisdom) coming from the Book of Silvered Leaves.

I will, of course, give an update to this when I have finished the consecration of the book and have more to report.

Gebofal, Day 27

Sunrise: Call to Aethyr of PAZ. Call to King Baligon.

I relax and concentrate on the lotus-rose. The angels note that this is an incremental step as I approach the event horizon of the portal to the world of Adam Qadmon, which appears to me as a black hole.

Continuing to concentrate on the lotus-rose, the angels show it becoming circular, like an ouroboros, spinning around. “This is how the the flower emerged from your heart, is it not?” the angels ask. I agree, in the sense that the stem of flower emerged from the blossom of the preceding flower, repeatedly. The angels say that there will be this circulation within the lotus-rose itself. There will be suffering leading to transcendence, which will lead to suffering and then further transcendence.

Yet the suffering itself, they’re saying, is something that can be relatively avoided in the mundane realm just by continuously giving yourself “oomph” to follow rules and behave appropriately such that suffering can be transcended (such as seen in the symbolism of the white cube). I note difficulty concentrating, but the angels remind me to simply focus on this lotus-rose of my heart, and the distraction will go away.

I see this lotus-rose now being like unto a torus, simplifying now into a jewel about the lotus-rose (note the parallel to the famous Buddhist mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum). The angels say that once you get this, that it’s all sort of “one thing…you’ve been making this distinction between the thorny stem and the blossom. But it is One Thing: it is a Beautiful, sometimes Wonderful, sometimes Heart-Aching sort of thing, and the Heart Aching indicates the Heart, and that It is Alive.” So the Heart Aching as such is–and here I recall the death of my late mother-in-law–the Heart Aching is…and I’m trying to come to terms with something really big here.

“The Heart Aching,” the angels are saying, “is the Condition of the Heart. Though the armor about it is Empty, this pain is normal, this pain is okay. And the condition of Reality leading up to the heart being like This, is okay. And all of this can be concentrated into this Divine Bloom of the flower itself, the Okayness of It All, the Divinity of It All, and the Transcendent Nature that allows it to happen such as This. All of it is okay, all of it can be concentrated.”

So even though it seems as if “the Jewel is in the Heart of the Lotus,” truly, the jewel itself is the lotus, is what the angels are saying, and it’s part of Understanding the depth of Adam Qadmon, which is a journey you shall take and fulfill and complete. That is the Beauty of the Journey. So that’s it: the angels note that I’m a little bit closer in my orbit to the portal; this Realm is a little big closer. All of this is the sphere [spherical consciousness], the angels are just keeping me a little bit off, keeping me at bay. They really want everything to attune, so this is something that I need to reflect on. I thank the angels, and they have nothing further.

Thus ends the vision.

Noon: Similar procedure. I called on King Baligon twice.

I concentrate on the lotus-rose as an Ouroboros, as well as a jewel, as described in the previous Aethyr. I steady myself.

I see two square pyramids, connected by a tube, and all of them appear to be be made out of dough; the tube is already tied into a knot. “Consider the force which ties this knot. This is the force of Ain, and the duality, you’ve seen this already, when you scried your own rainbow body using the call of the Aethyrs.” This knot, they say, can be considered like unto sphericity (of LIL), or the double-sphere arising out of the torus.

“Yet, there’s something nice and squishy about this, isn’t there? So that only if you were rather skilled could you even see that this was caused by a single force which created the illusion of duality, then united it, and then unfolded it throughout separate sephiroth.” So I’m wondering about the nature of these two pyramid-like, or tetrahedron-like (and here they tell me that they are tetrahedra). Here we have, once again, an ogdoad (two tetrahedra times four faces per tetrahedron), becoming an ennead (via the connecting tube), which perhaps could be considered a decad (due to the new shape created by the knot). So you have this reflection of the ten sephiroth, even in the world of Adam Qadmon.

I’m curious as to what this means. If everything is squishy, there’s an infinity with this. I try hard to understand this deeply. I let my heart work on this problem. The angels say, “Note that what you’re seeing as an ouroboros: this is the same kind of thing. It’s a symbol of continuity, much like a Möbius strip, or a Klein bottle (which may be a better explanation). It’s this twisting about itself. The reason you’re seeing it as seemingly separate forces is because you’ve already seen it as such (when I scried my rainbow body previously, I saw two jewels which mirrored each other), but also,” and here they bid me pause for a moment, “Think about this. This is three dimensions about three dimensions, coming upon itself. This is like unto the present state/earth on the left, the goal state/heaven on the right, and the transformation in the middle, so time is locked in as well. But it’s all one thing.

“It’s all one thing, and it’s a multiplicity of things.” And I feel like I’m very close to grokking this and they chuckle, “not just yet, but this is very important. This is a very potent symbol for you, because you’re very excited by this, and you want to know what it is, and that’s okay. That’s good.”

I take a look at the symbol, and I see it extending down, and now it seems like a bunch of pencils tied together with a rubber band in the middle, the other end of which is dangling from the ceiling. This point at which the rubber band meets the ceiling is the portal into the world of Adam Qadmon. “If you just take this heart of compassion and aim it directly at this symbol, you’ll see that this is the same thing. On the one hand if you twist it together, it’s the jewel, on the other hand if you were to take it apart, you could see one end being like unto the thorny end of the lotus-rose, and the other end like unto the bloom thereof. It’s all the same thing: all is one, all is one, all is one.”

The angels leave me with all of this to contemplate. I ask whether there’s anything else, and the angels bid me pause and to consider this dough-symbol floating in water–not dissolving, just floating.

The vision ends.

Sunset: Similar procedure.

I’m feeling fairly high right now. The angels tell me to relax and to speed up the entire process going from the previous symbolism to the lotus-rose to the jewel. I feel the gem now in its fullness; at first it seems to have an amber or reddish-orange tinge, but now I see green flashing in it, and the angels suggest that I add indigo and blues, and I see now: the jewel is a rainbow jewel. The angels remind me that the lights can come from the realm of Adam Qadmon in their fullness, but that they can be seen in Chokmah, and indeed, this is the final Aethyr of this sephirah. At its most developed they shine through to me now, they say. One need not have completely entered the realm of Adam Qadmon to see them this way, but having an opening into it is important in order to shine in your fullness (suggestive of a complete opening into Chokmah and a necessary step to develop the rainbow body).

Now I’m feeling a lot of energy coming off of the leaf, and it’s trying to tell me something, so I listen. I feel my crown chakra being pulled upward, an uncharacteristically strong energetic feeling for this Aethyr. It’s like this is the initiation, the re-initiation into Kether (the angels remind me that a prior sigil of mine with the intent of “I reinitiate into Kether” was, in fact, still active). The angels say, “Be prepared, be ready, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of Earth! This be the final vision of Chokmah unto you. Know this: that the different elements and the different spacings [of (space-time) points], that one may find as one abideth in the realm of Adam Qadmon: these can always shift and change! It is important to be fully immersed in the Understanding in order to be fully immersed in the Wisdom.

“Behold, this vision (from noon, of the dough shape), which you have seen in its tetrahedral format: this steeping of it in the water can be considered like unto the fullness of Ain and Ain Soph. For within the Ain is the Ain Soph, and that fullness containeth within it the Infinite Light, which you see before you, twisted into this shape, twisted into this Present-Future state, which is always, always, always bound both by time, but, indeed, by the supernals as a whole. And so, know this, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of Earth: the richness of this symbol will continue to unfold itself to you. For now, it seemeth like dough: tomorrow it shall not seem quite so. It shall take on a greater significance and a new symbolic meaning. Rest now easy, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of Earth! No more can be said unto you directly, but all of these things shall be open unto you in the very few weeks left remaining.

“Much love upon thee: go now in peace. Serve the Lord.”

With this, the vision ends.

Gebofal, Day 15

Sunrise: Call to Aethyr of LEA (lee-ay). Call to King BOBOGEL, as with previous entries.

I see some darkness, and I see black square which is rotated about into a black sphere. It’s like the angels are showing a candle within the black sphere, and are saying that there’s a tendency within previous conditioning from life to turn into a dark attitude and identifying with the ego. The importance here is to remember that force (Ain) which allows such to be contextualized into a black sphere, such that the white cube can be placed about it.

The tendency of these seven Aethyrs are to try to do everything in its power to undo the black sphere, which, again, is the metaphor for a contextualization of suffering in the mind back into egotistical thinking, back into egotistical thinking. My mind alights back to the three sephiroth in the World of Creation on the Tree of Life: Tiphareth, Geburah, and Chesed. The problem is that these Aethyrs are like unto the planets without the sephiroth, the angels advise. Imagine someone with strong, willful energy of the ego: Jupiter, Mars, and the sun, but without any contextualization within the sephiroth of mercy, power (which is aligned with the universe), and beauty (the beauty by which the ego can properly expand and be aligned with the universe).

I vibrate the names of Governors Sochial, Cucarpt, and Lavacon, and of King Bobogel. I see the top of a white cube, and the angels are saying that I have to work hard during this week to maintain those habits which allow the proper contextualization of the ego. For example, they point out the Noble Eightfold Path.

I feel some energy about my head. It seems to me like unto a psychic surgery to the minor chakras as well as to my sahasrara chakra.

The vision ends.

Noon: The angels are showing the black sphere, which is cut vertically and rotated around to show a white sphere about it. They’re trying to show it, partly like a coin, but also like the white sphere of compassion within it. The angels are quite particular here: there is compassion to be had, which can unfold from suffering–the reaction to suffering, when done intelligently and with great Wisdom, such as that provided by the Most High (indeed, whence all wisdom comes) leads one to the path of this transparent sphere of compassion.

The angels show this up/down and front-back twisting and whipping around of halves of a sphere, connected by a central point. The angels say that this is what is going on right now. The black sphere is trying very hard, and it’s like this compassion which I’m bringing back is very foreign to it. It’s not happy about it, but I’m also trying to not get caught up in it’s game. I call on the governors and king again. I ask for any assistance to gather a higher lesson from this.

The angels show me the black cube with a white cube set about it. The white cube overlays the black cube, they show me: instead of being caught in a structure which guarantees our suffering, we instead overlay a structure of wisdom and understanding–all of which is driven and reflected by the light of Ain, which is overlaid on top of the suffering wherein we find ourselves. This structure (i.e., a method) allows us to contextualize it and to grow, such as I’m experiencing now. So this is overlaid atop the suffering.

The suffering which can happen to a heart, when acted upon foolishly or out of ignorance, can cause a warping of the heart, and takes it first out of the transparent state (which is to say, the ability to meet a being from a place which can meet them as they are). Then it can take them out of the spherical state as the heart becomes defined by suffering, coming to believe that suffering has a rigid structure which it cannot break out of, such as learned helplessness.

This view is false.

These are extraordinary lessons. The angels show me the taijitu. The Western approach (generally speaking) of squaring is partly correct, and the taijitu is also partly correct. “Now,” they say, “you’re seeing a means for right moral living.”

I see the twisting once more, which they contextualize with the twisting of the snake about me from earlier visions, which was work on my energetic subtle body. Now they ask me to speak at a deeper level to that which I’ve learned so far. Here I do a standard thing, which is to speak directly with the rules which have caused this state of affairs. A lot of voices begin speaking to me at once, at which point I organize them and say, “There’s got to be some underlying rule here,” at which point I hear, “This is the nature of dimensionality.”

Here my bodily awareness cannot be ignored. I’ve felt a slight pinprick pressure on the back of my neck which cannot be explained by my clothes. It’s just to the right, so I speak directly to this part of my subtle body. “What’s going on? What do you have to say? What is going on here? I feel like you’ve had something to say for a while.” I ask my holy guardian angel (HGA) in particular to help mediate this discussion for me.

My HGA says that this is kind of difficult: it’s going to be a huge download all at once. I assent and ask for a three-count before it happens: at “three,” I see before me the golden Borg cube again (if the Borg are the shadow, then this is the light version of them). There’s a big unfolding; the angels say that the Borg is a massive fractal concept; we’re all kind of linked in with each other. The thing that made it a nightmare was the loss of identity, but in this version there’s merely hyperintimacy (note that humanity has been making this decision collectively via technological advancement and surveillance).

Within the cube, I see a checkerboard: “Think of this both in a binary sense, as well as a board game. If you think of a chessboard or a Go board, there’s all of these ones and zeroes: occupied vs. not occupied, white or black, etc.” There are also all of these transitional states determining whether a given piece is (or ever can be occupied) in this manner.

There’s something really deep here that someone (I’m not speaking the angels here, including my HGA) does not want me to see. It’s like I’m seeing a big wave come at me within this cube, a swirling wave like one sees a surfer ride. It reminds of approaching the fixed stars, and the motion thereof, except now the fixed stars themselves are coming at me and trying to reach. I see three to five of them. This water comes in: it’s very pure. Part of me wants to bump out of me when the water hits me, but I’m holding fast within the cube, and merely having that force give me an expansive and inclusive view of whatever’s most helpful of the advancing of all beings towards understanding and ending collective suffering.

Recall that all of this is from the vision of me trying to understand this pressure at a point on my neck. Now this poking, itching energy moves down to between my right shoulder blade and my spine. I see this light coming in, like unto the Borg’s scanning or tractor beam light; it’s like there’s an incision at this point on my body, and there’s this faucet handle coming up out of it, giving me a level of control as to how much of the vision of the water to see. I let a drop out into a glass, and it’s intelligent and moving along to say, “I am but one portion of the ocean. There is much more to show to you. This much must wait until you are past the Abyss, and then the flood will come at you again, and it will be grander than this preview.”

That’s it, the vision wraps up really quickly. King Bobogel says that a week from now, it will be much clearer. I express my gratitude to the governors and king as the vision ends.

Sunset: Similar procedure: Reading the titles of Leaf 35, then the call to King Bobogel, then the call to the Aethyr of LEA.

I’m getting more energy than usual off of the leaf. I think about the drop of water from the previous vision and the faucet, and I turn the faucet up to give myself half a glass. It comes up energetically, trying to scare me; I get the sense that this is the general sense of the veil being unhappy with being pierced. But now it’s wrapping around me in a spiral, stretching me out, like the snake did in a previous vision.

I’m seeing myself like the character of Rick from Rick and Morty, which suggests I’m perhaps a little too bold and impatient, and this is probably true. Now I’m seeing myself like a character in a TV show who is going through an ordeal while standing: they throw their chest forward in agony, and I get the sense that this is the level of what’s going on with my subtle body as I’m working with the water. I have faith that I’ll be okay, and the angels do, also, and it’s as if the angels are suggesting this is the proper way to proceed, now that I’ve chosen this path.

I put my body in this posture. It’s like there’s this energy entering through my ajna chakra (third eye), which is circulating through me. When what is in me is to be cleansed is rinsed out in this process, it becomes part of this water. Now this water is filling up the golden cube, which is now about an eighth full. I get the sense that the amount of water it takes to fill up the cube is on a logarithmic scale.

Nonetheless, I decide to crank up the amount of water (9th house, malefic-out-of-sect-and-above-the-horizon Mars in Aries for the win). Now it’s like all of my subtle bodies are suffused with this water. Having done this, now I see Babalon sort of peeking from behind a seam in the sky. She’s waving and now I see why I wasn’t really to have taken on all of this water. It’s a little premature and the water was to have been taken on in ZAX and ZIP, but nonetheless I’m in LEA and so closing in on that Aethyr.

As my subtle body walks around, it’s like there’s this heaviness; I’m burdened with the weight of this preview of Her, and it won’t dissipate until I see Her in Her fullness in ZIP. I see a wall pulled down from the side of a room which I’m on the other side of, and there’s a torrent of water. There’s a lot of weight and force to it. The metaphor, the angels say, is for the reason for the stepwise nature of these Aethyrs. The angels say I’m okay to do it because I’ve already scried all of the Aethyrs (I note that I need to check any ego-delusion) and on account of that experience and the development of my subtle bodies to go through this. The metaphor is like drinking too much before sleep and then having to pee at night. The angels say I’ll have to carry this burden until I cross the Abyss again.

The angels take me into the heavens once more, the seam in the sky and Victorival’s work. The beings are coming through the seam very quickly and taking refuge in the water of my subtle body. Whatever it is, this has a lot of implications. The angels say that as I develop, my subtle body vessel will be able to accommodate many more beings. It will behave both as a magnet and a holding station.

I see something like unto a multicolored plant; it seems to have some kind of intelligence. It’s kind of confused and trying to understand what’s going on with me. The angels say to hold off on interacting with this being, so I ask it to wait, and it agrees. I get the sense that the entity is like unto a Chokmah entity, and the angels hint that such is likely the case. The angels have nothing further, and the vision ends.

Gebofal, Day 12

Sunrise: Call to Aethyr of POP, call to King BYNEPOR. Leaf 38b.

I visualize the white sphere of compassion. I’m told to try to visualize this as a hypersphere, and I rely on my memory of the visualization video on hyperspheres. I see a tree emerge from the center of the hypersphere, and the angels ask me to try my best to imagine this as a 4D tree. This tree is atop the mountain from my previous vision, in which the mountain pointed to a star which created a cocoon around the earth.

The angels say that this reflects not only an effort in the mundane world to plant billions of trees in order to mitigate climate change, but it’s also the sense of the World Tree, the Tree of Life, longevity, a general celebration of life. I’m at the heart of the tree now with the assistance of the angels, and it seems like the tree is trying to send forth its compassion from this “heart.” It’s like a collective center.

The angels tell me that a wicked king would try to chop down the tree in order to ensure that no one else could live, but a just king would tend to and nourish the tree, act as a steward for its seeds, would justly distribute the fruits of the tree, etc. As I focus on the heart of compassion in order to broadcast this message, and circulate the energy of this compassion, it seems to me that the tree goes through the seasons of the year. Obviously this reflects King BYNEPOR & Jupiter: it’s a generative thing, and King BYNEPOR acknowledges that it is his domain. The earth does this, the angels say, but the main thing is to preserve this tree of wisdom, of knowledge of good and evil, of life–all wrapped into one. The tree itself, they say, is the crown, or Kether. Even a crown with its stalks is an attempt to emulate trees. The angels note that it may seem odd to speak of the heart of a tree, but if one were to take a vertical view of the center of the trunk of a tree, its cross-section would be circular (they bid me to ignore the hollowness of older trees–this tree is fully alive).

I’m told to keep this metaphor in mind, as it will come up again. “Seven cycles have the trees, and so thus seven cycles” will I have to go through, wherein each of the seven planets (or sephiroth) I become properly reconciled with. It is a sevenfold reconciliation process with the seven planets, but they are out of order for me. Also, they note, that these are the seven planets in extension, thus Kether, Chokmah, and the world of Adam Qadmon are included in this reconciliation.

The angels say that “Like unto the Counting of the Omer” (which this ritual follows), “not only is there each [astrological] planet within all of the planets, or each sephira within all sephiroth,” but also the angels tell me to look at triplicities of each of these: God the Parent, God the Issue, and God the Holy Spirit. This will be a reconciliation across these aspects. I don’t completely understand, but the angels say I don’t need to.

I express my gratitude. The angels tell me to be ready for an unfolding. The vision ends.

Noon (I should’ve made a note that this is always “solar noon,” which is around 1:30 local time): Preceding this, an ad hoc ritual to Red Tara of magnetization. Also, a discussion with CodyP about the hyperfocus on the circumference of a given situation, which is needed for some kinds of compassion. Otherwise, a similar procedure. Face of the PELE ring is on the Table, as is the front of my hand.

The angels note the preceding ritual, which, they say, saved them a lot of work. They leave such decisions to my judgment.

I see whirling, which I had seen this morning. I see this whirling as a spiral in three dimensions but seeming to rotate about an unseen fourth dimension. They encourage me to do my best to see it in five dimensions. It’s tough, but I make a go of it. It’s chaotic.

The angels show me that the white sphere of compassion has become transparent as a result of described in the preceding notes: there’s a point at the center of the white sphere which unlocked multiple dimensions, by which it has become transparent. These dimensions are like unto specific layers within a situation by which the compassionate act is to be measured. I’m seeing various Buddhist deities, which may be an aftereffect of the aforementioned ritual. I regenerate compassion according to the highest version of Platinum Rule.

There’s a lot of energy coming off of Leaf 38a. The heart is becoming more crystalline in quality. Again, the heart turns from white to a more transparent look. I see it subdivided into orange-slice-like segments, and I see the heart being like this to individuals, the compassion reflecting the needs within individuals in its transparency.

The angels have little else to say. They reiterate that the preceding Red Tara ritual did much of this work for them. I see white dimensional lines as indicators, like a map, extending from the center. “Get ready for a multidimensional map,” the angels advise me.

The vision ends.

Sunset: Similar procedure; I hold Leaf 38 in the prayer position.

The angels tell me to be ready for a wild ride. The angels take me deep into the heart of generalized compassion, which is to say according to a perfected Platinum Rule. They say it’s like a compass which, in and of itself, with which to find–one can try to navigate the fixed stars (of direction) for oneself using it (and also use this metaphor to try to help someone else) to find their True Will, for example. Here, we come with this perfected heart, or the heart of generalized compassion, what is like unto a gyroscope.

The idea here is that one is able to see better trends, and better able to align oneself with the many things that can come at them. A better intuition or “White Tincture” is there, but is better aligned with others’ White Tinctures–in general, it’s like a gyroscopic instrument, relying on several methods of measurement at once. If one “magnetizes” according to this (rather than just generic compassion) and circulates thereof, certain things will come into one’s orbit more readily which will be better attuned to the All.

I’m getting flashes of the Buddha right now. The idea here is that by not being overly attached to any one idea (whether it’s that something or someone should or must change or that one is living up to whatever ideal here), one will begin moving in grander circles. These circles will actually do a better job of ending suffering and maintaining compassion and basically just doing the right thing in the best way possible. The person with such a heart and mindset will generally avoid stupid pitfalls or getting caught up in narratives that are limited in their usefulness, instead working on higher aspects of usefulness in terms of one’s actions.

A lot of stuff is coming at me very fast (and I’m losing my ability to keep up with words). I’m seated and I see a very large, towering Golden Buddha in front of me, perhaps like the Empire State Building high. He scoops me up in His hand, and places me in the Pure Land. There is a distinct shift to a contemplative pace.

I am told to sit in this land, so I do. I note in passing the influence of the Red Tara. I continue to generate this compassion. The Buddhas are here and are assessing me, trying to figure out the vibration on which my heart operates. Amitabha and Gautama Buddha are both here, and Amitabha wordlessly reaches forward with his right hand, and touches my chest. It opens painlessly and without issue. There’s this golden speck within my heart. He asks if he may fix the defect therein.

I deliberately muster as much dignity and respect for Him as I may muster, and say, “Yes, please: if it please you, please do.” There’s a knowing smile that it’s not about pleasing–well, it is and it isn’t. My personal heart is aligning better now to this gyroscope/compass. This will align me to better and higher-quality narratives. They remind me that I am free to return here any time.

They call me a colleague, and I see in my vision thousands of Buddhists, living and deceased here. There’s much that they want to show me, but they’re going to keep this simple: I see that much of what is operating on Earth is a lot of collective energy from this Pure Land, which these monks have tried, via a variety of techniques (it’s like this laboratory of magic), and I can see a massive shawl of fabric (mainly red and yellow, but also some blues and purples–they note interest in the law I declared a year and a half ago) descending from this plane to Earth. They’re doing a lot, and a lot’s going on. They show me that this is weaving in with a lot of the compassion–much like unto the weaving in of the compassion that I saw in my vision of myself as an infant. They say that much of what they have been doing is starting to reach a culmination point.

“OK,” I say matter-of-factly, playfully, and clearly hiding my awe, and there’s a gentle laugh they send back. I ask what I can do to help, and there’s an answer even as the question forms in my mind: “Everything you are doing now is exactly what you should be doing to help. But, as you go along, more ideas will be introduced to you, and you will also get a chance to spread your ideas.” And they mention a local Buddhist center which is predestined for me to get in contact with. I ask what else I may learn. They say, “Starting tonight, expect better dreams, clearer dreams, more psychic outreach.” They mention that I should really get to that center and laugh at why I haven’t gone there yet: maybe June or July, and they suggest that when the Moon is in Leo and the sun in Cancer would be a good time.

They’re appreciative of the work to this date and say that it will be received warmly. There’s a sense that what will happen will continue. They say that a large angelic presence will soon manifest, perhaps 2-3 days, weeks, or months. I ask whether there’s anything else I need to do to continue this work. They say, “Stay aware. Pay attention,” and the angels say the same thing. I express utter gratitude, and they say to continue to pay it forward.

Gebofal, Day 10

Sunrise: Call to Aethyr of ASP. Call to King BABALEL via the Stenwick method, but not using Enochian Keys. I vibrate the title of Leaf 40b. Once again, allergies are pretty bad.

I feel King BABALEL’s energy come up through the seal and into my foot, and up through my right hand, which is on Leaf 40b. I reflect on having watered the front and back yards, and it feels as if this energy is bubbling up into my subtle, like a spring, and this energy is mainly that of King BABALEL, whose power is in the waters. Even though this ritual is being done with a lot of Aries energy (with five planets in this sign now), this is nonetheless a watery energy today, just with more spread, as one would expect with Aries.

I try to focus and relax. This energy is now coming up through my neck and head and is alleviating my allergies. It’s this energy is the equivalent of heavy water pressure through a flexible tube, opening it up and clearing it out. I’m encouraged to focus on the white sphere of compassion, and I’m told to always focus on the heart of compassion when I call the Aethyrs from here on out. As I focus on it, a lot of things seem to open up; it’s like parting the Red Sea; the excellence of this point will be made to clear to me as I go along, they tell me.

I see all sorts of things about me as I do this. The angels tell me this is like automatically magnetizing myself back to the center. This allows for the unfolding of yourself; yesterday, with the vision of myself like a spring stretched out and ultimately flooded out to the circumference. This sort of “magnetizing-the-heart-via-compassion” back to this psychic center. It’s like one starts out in the Red Sea, sort of drowning in the vicissitudes of dukkha and random, jumbled thoughts and such, but charging the heart is like using the staff (or, referred to earlier, the torch) will part the seas and allow one to measure the diameter of the sphere. King BABALEL agrees, noting his white and black sleeves, both ways that the sea can appear. The whiteness is the white sphere of compassion which can penetrate out through the mind, and can take oneself to the extent of the sea along the surface of the sphere, always using that light as the guide to traverse the waters.

King BABALEL is showing me a large fish, perhaps four feet in length, that he’s pulling from the Red Sea and gutting, and he reminds me of Raphael from the Book of Tobit, who used the innards of a fish to rout a demon into Egypt, and bind it there. King BABALEL tells me that Egypt is the circumference of the black sphere itself (for those who are imbalanced, this may appear instead as a black cube). King BABALEL says, “This is you; it is the tendency of people to become caught up in the waters” of the mind/emotions. It’s wonderful to be able to banish this to the circumference, he says, but if one identifies with the circumstances that one finds oneself in, or stories, then one will continue to swim around in the darkness, forever lost. But by lighting up the heart of compassion within this darkness, one can at least get one’s bearings, and one knows that this light will help one to do that. The killing of the fish is important to in order “paint the outside” (i.e., the surface of the sphere, the extent of oneself), using the measure of the heart of compassion to do so (i.e., to find the opposing side of the recently painted part of the sphere).

It’s also important to find lines of intersection with the white cube, King BABALEL notes, and one does this by using the small white sphere to light up the extent of the black sphere, and when one finds something lighting up more than one would expect, then one knows one is near the intersection with the ordering white cube. Again, the white cube represents an ideal way to reduce suffering via mundane means. The white cube will rotate and sometimes suddenly, as one finds a more efficient tool to accomplish a task or finds better ways to accomplish the ending of suffering.

Another object appears above me. It’s a single point which is above the four corners of the top square, which allows for the emergence of a square pyramid. The ascent of this pyramid can be thought of as approaching the common/collective center, across other people’s spheres, for the top point of this pyramid is also the top of other pyramids of varying sizes which are rotated in some manner. The correct orientation towards these four-ish points.

How does one distinguish these four points? These will be the points or contaminates which seem to cause the rotation of the sphere. I ask quickly about the fish, and I’m told not to worry as much about the Book of Tobit, but instead to focus on the inability of ancient Egypt to uphold itself over additional millenia than it managed. The collective black sphere wasn’t tended to enough, but despite that, we are now here, at this threshold point among sentient beings, to be able to rectify this.

I express gratitude, and the vision of ASP ends; I know this got pretty symbolic, but, hey: that’s Enochian!

Noon: Call to ASP, call to BABALEL, hand on page 40a.

I extend forward with my heart of compassion and now instead merely seeing the Red Sea part, I now divisions of the sea in three dimensions, as if I were in the middle of the sphere and rings extending from the origin of a 3D grid along the x/y, x/z, and y/z planes, out to the edges of the sphere. I see this extension with the heart causing a circulation of light out to these rings and returning to the heart. I’m told that this is like unto the Middle Pillar Ritual.

I now see a lily which is merged with a monarch butterfly. It’s as if they are one organism. The lily is beautiful; now comes the interpretation. I call on the angels of this scrying session: Governors Chirspa, Toantom, Vixpalg, & King BABALEL. The angels seem awfully coy as to what this is, yet it strikes me as Kether fused with the remaining sephiroth–the living reality creating seeds as it goes, yet fused with that which it creates seeds by. This is sufficient, they tell me. I try to extend this scene by the same principle of the compassionate heart, and this causes a rotation in the vision; first, I see this natural scene rotate, with the field churning about a torus; this yields a wooden crown with several, perhaps 12 or more, stalks. The twisting action then yields into a golden crown, which twists into an etheric crown, which itself rotates into a “crown of all possible rotations.” Finally, I see a collective rotation across that which has manifested within all of the possible rotations. It’s all very beautiful “Doctor Strange, eat your heart out,” I quip.

The angels say that this rotation and twisting is key. All of this is the rotation of the collective heart as it moves through. It’s beautiful to watch, it’s awe-inspiring, a literal circle of life. The angels are saying that we’re getting pretty close to this level of collectivity.

My heart is trying to speed this rotation up to the level that it feels like a vibration out of this, and this creates quantum shift, the light side of a flatline, if you will. Once again, see a white square. I briefly think of the True Will, but decide to set that aside.

I return to the angelic governors and king. They create a tetrahedron about me, and once again remind me that this could be a five-cell instead. The angels show themselves approaching with the same heart (note: typing this up, the importance at this stage is the angels themselves approaching with this same heart, but “the training wheels will come off,” I’m told). This creates a spinning tetrahedron with psychedelic colors. It’s like the law of light-bridges, but a continuous churning of form and light. “Behold His Wonders, behold His Wonders, churning and turning and churning again, in and through all. Nothing need you fear, Son of Man, Son of God, Son of Earth.” It’s like something out of 2001, or what I’ve been told about DMT trips.

It’s beautiful. I can feel my whole energy body taking this in; it’s transcendent and reminiscent of the higher Aethyrs, those beyond the Abyss. I’m coming in with the advantage of having already scried the Aethyrs. The key is to approach with this compassionate heart. “This is part of the process of fusing the heavenly and earthly rainbow bodies at once.” This is the reaching of the next octave. I’m at a loss for words. The angels say that I should try to keep this energy going throughout the day, and it will manifest as an overlay to the reality I’m seeing. They were not kidding around when they said that this would happen. The angels say they aren’t ending the vision but rather closing their active participation in the vision and encouraging me to enjoy the experience.

Sunset: Similar procedures.

I feel a pleasant energy from Leaf 40. Once again, the governors & king extend the compassion towards me, creating the psychedelic visuals. There’s too much to describe. I see a door in outer space, and as I walk through frame, I see different versions of myself following me. It’s like my motion is pulling through the door has a wicking effect on these alternate versions, like xylem in a plant.

I turn my gaze to the left of the door I am looking back on. I see a large star. I’m beckoned to it, and it’s yellow like our sun. I see a chair in the middle of it and am offered it. I sit and I see a dragon, maroon and pink, with light blue tinges at the edges of the wings. It turns into a seahorse. King BABALEL agrees with what I’m thinking: this is my reconciliation with astrological Mars. He bids me hold the seahorse, which I do, and he fits in my palms. It transforms into a newborn.

I’ve never held a newborn.

And now I see that it is me.

All the compassion that I would have for myself at this moment: this is what I need to have for the entire universe. King BABALEL notes that with Mars as my malefic out of sect, above the horizon, and in its domicile–the only thing missing is Mars being angular–but with such a strong and itchy Mars, one could tend to pick fights, or feel like everyone is against oneself. Still, I recall the Robert Anton Wilson phrase, “There is no enemy anywhere.” Instead, I need to direct this Martial energy with the principle of it needing to move in such a way as to reduce suffering.

“Really care for that as you would an infant.”

I am utterly touched by this. The vision ends.

Gebofal, Day 6

Sunrise: Call to Aethyr of UTI. Call to King BALIGON. I repeat the title of Leaf 44b seven times.

I see a vertical spiral, facing me like a circular saw and spinning in the same manner. The angels point out that, though I have been through the Aethyrs before, this process of breaking down what existed before will continue as it did during that initiation. King BALIGON is showing me a train (this switches back and forth between a modern train and a “train” of carriages) of seven cars/carriages. Now I’m seeing two horses split apart in order avoid an obstacle, and the carriages split into halves to avoid the obstacle and then come together (note the suggestion of Gemini). The train ascends above the earth and I’m looking above the earth from the sky. I receive the word “Pleiades” (possibly connected with the 1st Book of Enoch aka the Book of Watchers). The frontmost car left the Pleiadean system left the “train” and came to earth. The four wheels came off this engine/front car and landed on earth (suggestive of elements).

The angels say that the buzzsaw is about working through some of the previous knowledge that I had: the angels explicitly identify themselves with Pleiadeans. The angels marvel that it took centuries before an approximation of gebofal took off again, and are glad to see a recording of the experience so that people get ideas about how they may want to do it themselves.

The governors, Mirzind, Obvaors, and Ranglam, are pulling me in three directions: I’m a tetrahedron being pulled so far that I lose height and become flattened into a triangle; the process is a little uneven so I become seven isosceles triangles of a heptagon. They’re saying there’s a 21-ness to what is happening (cf. the number of cells in each table on Leaf 49 of Amzes Naghezes Hardeh, also known as Liber Loagaeth).

At this point I’m distracted by possible futures which may be overly flattering. They say that the 21-ness will become more apparent as I go. The indication of going from a tetrahedron to a triangle is that I will become enfolded into the world, and that this will specifically be enfolded into an organization. The angels caution that I’m doing too much, and to cut back, so I make some plans to. The triangles in this formation indicate a reconciliation, today with Venus yet with all other planets, especially those afflicted astrologically. They encourage me to try to maintain a sense of balance and that the ritual will take a while.

The vision ends.

Noon: Similar procedure, using Leaf 44a.

The seven dots seen before are revolving in front of me in circles, each parallel with the y- & z-axes. A single dot moves from group to the other, so there’s always a 4/3 split.

Now I see a German-style village; it’s beautiful and on a beautiful sunny day, and as I look at it, I see a mountain in the distance. I see the following symbol floating above the mountaintop:

A square at a 45-degree angle, with the sides slightly bent in towards the center. A circle with a taijitu-style division is in the center, and four spokes from the four corners come to the circumference of the circle. At the circle’s center is a cross.

The symbol rotates across the x- & z-axes (from above, the rotation is seen to be counter-clockwise). The angels advise that I use this as part of my personal symbol.

When I take the perspective from this symbol, I can see the village below me, and the sun above me, the shadow of the mountain behind me, and now there’s an animal, a fox. I concentrate on it and it shows me that other mountains have this same symbol atop them. The fox turns into King BALIGON; I quickly verify his identity.

From this symbol over all of these mountains, they are able to call down a change in circumstances, a massive black portal, hundreds of miles in diameter. Emerging from this is a golden cube, which is reminiscent of the Borg cube, but the light side of it. Many machines, reminiscent of droidekas from the Star Wars universe, emerge, land, and drill into the earth and pull some up. It’s as if they are creating trees directly from the earth itself. The trees sit there, and I see silk growing among them, and this silk forms a trampoline across the vast distances among the trees.

A blonde girl in her teens with a red t-shirt and blue jeans, kind of an anime figure, jumps on the silk trampoline, high into the air. This, I’m told, is a Pleiadean emissary or hybrid, and her hair gets longer and longer, and becomes enmeshed into the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s like a reverse alien Rapunzel. It’s sort of swirling in the curve of the taijitu symbol, and people in the village below open their mouths and either swallow or inhale her hair. I’m told it’s like how her teachings will open up many hearts in humanity and enable transformation. They are saying that there’s more literal going on about her existence than I would expect.

I see an orb such as held by a monarch, and someone is eating it, and it’s like a golden apple being eaten by someone. I’m told that this is like the universe eating of the earth (specifically its new consciousness) after this transformation. Note the parallel to Heracles/Hercules and his final labor.

The vision ends.

Note: I’m noticing some astrological influence with some of these visions. For example, the vision of the cube unfolding into squares across the globe with an organization impetus: this clearly reflects Mars (will or raw energy) conjunct the North Node (the hungry mouth of the dragon) in the 11th house (the house of organizations) in Gemini (twinning itself). This identification of astrological influence is a useful exercise, one which James Eshelman did on Aleister Crowley’s Enochian scrying in the former’s book, Visions and Voices. Doing this in real time is helpful in contextualizing what is going on.

Sunset: Similar procedure. I was having difficulty with a memory of an embarrassing night several years ago.

I see the seven points once again, this time shown as points on a sphere. The angels note that with this seven-ness, any number of stars could be seen in a group of seven, responding to the astrological influence I noted above. They reflect that the astrological nature of the vision last night can reflect a set of fixed stars which are of a given planetary nature.

The angels point out the hummingbird which I saw today, a gorgeous bright emerald green creature (if ever a symbol for Venus existed, this is it!) which I saw only for a moment. This was a sign of King BALIGON & Venus, they tell me, if only for a brief moment. The angels say that this is a sign of how Venus shows up in my chart: as the ruler of both of my luminaries, it can’t be ignored, but it’s like beauty is very transitory. A beautiful peak moment (see: Abraham Maslow), they tell me, can indeed be very fleeting: they remind me of a time in Minnesota All-State Choir (represent! RIP Paul Oakley: I still love you, brother) which was like this. I should nonetheless still be happy and grateful for its arrival, and that one’s life can be changed by such a thing.

The angels are focusing on this final reconciliation of myself with Venus. The topic of pleasure and attraction arises. The angels mention that people are, of course, attracted to things, situations, people, or events which bring us pleasure. The angels have me linger on the sefira of Netzach, which means “Victory,” and how I tend to interpret Venus ruling Netzach as “taking pleasure in victory” or in accomplishment.

This would be similar to, say, taking pleasure in a triumph, such as that which I saw in a vision earlier in this ritual. The angels say, “Look: if you are not satisfied, and do not take pleasure in victory, then it is hollow. If you do not take pleasure in the accomplishment of spiritual achievements such as rainbow body realization or even full enlightenment, that negates the accomplishment to a degree. ‘Nothing satisfies like satisfaction,'” they quote, and note that a fire trine of Jupiter to an Aries Venus, while it brings luck to the native, tends to focus more on further expansion rather than pleasure. An inability to take pleasure (cf. anhedonia), then it’s difficult to emotionally distinguish one thing from another. Without pleasure it becomes difficult to truly live out one’s values, for without pleasure (which includes aesthetic appreciation of forms and intellectual elegance), why would one value one thing over another?

The last part of the vision is a reminder about the letter Gon, which I was told to reflect on and didn’t do the best job of doing. So, what happens if you take the name BALIGON and do word play with it?

Suppose the “B” is pronounced as a /p/: PAL-I-GON can be pronounced as “polygon” (“Geometry in Enochian? Who knew?”).

Also, Pa as the Enochian name for the letter pronounced /b/ and Gon as the Enochian name for the letter pronounced /ai/ = “B”+ L + I + “I” = “bligh,” an Old English word meaning “bliss.” You can even get this without resorting to substituting the first letter, simply “Bah-ligh” and then shortening it as one can.

Further, Pal is the Enochian name for the letter pronounced /x/, giving us X + I + I or, pronounced together, gives us the Greek letter Xi but also the Roman numeral XII, indicating the number of signs of the zodiac.

Finally, if you are liberal with pronunciation, you could assume it’s actually XLI, which is 41, but read in reverse (as one does with Enochian) is ILX, or Ilex, the Latin name for holly, which represents truth and also Christ’s death (the sharpness of holly leaves being like thorns and the redness of holly berries being like the color of His blood), but also the joys of Christmas.

Simple Shortcut When Ascending the Tree of Life

There are shortcuts to things in life, though shortcuts are not always the best or cleanest way to get things done. Yet when you’re starting from a low point and want to get to a higher point, rather than practicing the same old techniques in drudgery until the slow accretion of effort pays off years later with achievement, or its opposite of a shortcut to the trophy that is devoid of mastery, it’s probably better to use both practice and the occasional shortcut to make your empowerment work faster.

The ascension of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is the purpose of many magickal orders. While I have no grand techniques for preparation for initiation, and initiation itself (the LBRP or the Abramelin Operation still work as they should!), I have an “all-of-the-above” approach to magick, and believe that cross-pollination has interaction effects. Hence, the shortcut: sigils.

Sure, you may already know about sigils, but why not create a sigil to enable old-fashioned initiation? Sometimes we don’t think to put “new wine into old wineskins,” but we do it all the time, we just don’t think of it that way. Meditation is used in concert with being a good person, magick is used in concert with meditation, and sigil magick can be used in concert with Tree-of-Life magick.

The technique itself is rather simple: create a sigil with the intent along the lines of “I initiate into [name of sephirah, e.g., Yesod].” Charge it, don’t obsess about it, then continue going about your normal efforts to initiate into that same sephirah. What you should find (as I did) is that new techniques to initiate into a sephirah appear, or that your current efforts accelerate. I myself used sigils to assist with initiation into Binah, Chokmah, & Kether.

Get creative and clear with your intent, and don’t be afraid to iterate: “I deepen my initiation into [name of sephirah]” and “I complete my initiation into [name of sephirah]” are wise additional sigils to fire off after you surmise that you have succeeded in your initiation into a given sephirah. You must still do the hard work, but the hard work should pay off more quickly.

Enjoy!

How I make my planetary talismans

A talisman, strictly speaking, a visual seal (sigil) of magical intent that is energetically charged to bring wanted things toward you; it has typically been contrasted with amulets which repel unwanted things. In Western traditions nowadays, this line is a little blurry, so this post refers to both, but only those related to astrological talismans. Any time is possible to do magick. Elemental magick is always available, no matter the circumstances. Astrological magick is also always available, and can be tweaked via planetary banishing and invoking, but it’s a bit more like playing a game of cards, in which you can discard some cards and draw others.

I start my planetary talisman process based on the desired astrological energy. To do this, you need to have familiarity with basic astrology and what makes a planet’s energy strong as well as harmonious with other planets. Once the dominant planetary energy is selected, I pick the time and the base metal. Paper is fine but not as durable energywise as metal. Classically each astrological planet has its own metal; of the seven planets, only four have metals that are realistic to use nowadays: Saturn’s and Mercury’s metals (lead & mercury, respectively) are toxic, and the sun’s metal, gold, is toxic to your bank account! I substitute silver, the moon’s metal, for these three planets, because the moon is “closest” to the earth in the medieval tradition.

Once I have the metal picked, I begin the design; there’s not much imagination on my part in designing talismans. If a planetary talisman, I begin by looking up the magic square for that planet. This will be the center of the overall design, and also tells me the number of elements to incorporate into the talisman, including the numbers of the square itself (but not the grid). I usually go with the sum of a given row or column.

Once I have the number of elements, I incorporate the names of the selected deities and/or archangels associated with the planet & its sephira. In the Hermetic tradition, these can be found by looking them up ina correspondence resource such as 777, 776_1/2, or Thelemapedia (in the case of a Mars talisman, for example, I use row 27, and perhaps also row 5 for the sephira it rules, Geburah); these are all based on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (which itself is largely based on Agrippa: see below); I have yet to explore other similar orders’ materials such as Aurum Solis but this is forthcoming, I’m sure. I then start counting the letters in the deity names and try to use some combination of them that adds up the the planetary square total (in the case of the Mars talisman, 65). Also, I do one final check for the planetary seal from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 1, Chapter 33. My standard approach is to have the names parallel to each of the four sides of the square (placed according to the Four Worlds associations in the Kabbalah and/or stacked as necessary according to the hierarchy in which they fit; the planetary seal I break into four parts which go at the corners, in a rounded formation of long enough).

Once the design is complete, it comes to a method of charging the talisman. Here you’re asking the deity or angel to do you a solid and please charge your talisman. Angels work in the capacity of their deity, so appeal to that connection, and deities like it when you approach via the things they are connected to (such as the incenses or plants in a correspondence book like 777–the more the better, but there is diminishing returns, so don’t dip into your savings! If money is an issue, cultivate sincerity and it will make up for it). Use a picture of the appropriate animal, a small clipping of the appropriate plant, light the appropriate incense, etc. Next, perform the planetary invoking ritual (I use the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram) to call forth the energy associated with your astrological election. Then I usually will either do an invocation for the deity to temporarily inhabit my body (choose your deity wisely!) and provide a charge to the object, or a call to the angel by appealing to its deity. I will usually modify Liber Israfel for the former; for the latter, it depends on the system. Enochian has specific methods to call upon its angels; similarly, the Shem-Hamphorasch has its own 72 angels and various authors have books on contacting them. Once those methods are done you make your request to the angel(s) that you have called to charge the talisman for you.

One alternative to the entity method is energy work, such as Chi or Reiki (though the latter still accesses divine entities). Reiki is probably better since it explicitly calls on the energy of the heavens (which, you know, where the stars and planets are), but Chi could probably also be used, if you set a strong intention to only use the more terrestrial energy that fully reflects the celestial.

Here we come to a point not to be overlooked: timing is essential. Unlike other astrologers, my view of an event is to look at the definitive “birthing” portion. Just as astrologers typically use a birth time and not a conception time, events or even ideas have to be birthed and not just stirred or conceived. A seed doesn’t count as a new plant just because it’s been planted, or watered, or the like. The seed emerge from its shell and touch the air and light as well as put down its first root. I dwell on this point because, well, you have to time your actions to culminate as closely to the time you’ve elected.

That’s it: you now have a charged talisman!

Practical Chokmah ritual work

One of the great efforts put forth in recent years is Scott Stenwick’s initiation system into all sephiroth and veils of the Tree of Life. It represents an excellent structure for initiation, and nicely complements his planetary work series on astrological magick. One of the things that a fellow magick.me student’s question (about Lon DuQuette’s Chicken Qabalah) inspired in me is whether or not a practical ritual could be done at the sephirothic level.

The answer is yes. Sephiroth are ruled by planets, after all, but this is not to say that they are ruled in the astrological sense of planetary domicile (wherein the planet is stronger due to zodiacal sign placement), but rather of the sephiroth brought to completeness. Hence, the pleasure or joy of Victory is symbolized by Venus ruling Netzach, and the Understanding of the nature of reality is brought to completeness by acceding to its limitations (i.e., its nature), symbolized by Saturn ruling Binah.

What exactly is accomplished by this? I believe that on some level, the magician is attempting to “correct” the current sephiroth-energetic balance of the universe. Attempts to bring sephiric energy have been done before; Jason Louv, in John Dee and the Empire of Angels, goes into detail about Jack Parsons’ attempt to instill this supernal feminine energy into the world via his Babalon Working. My guess is that for most hermetic magicians who would be interested in a sephiric working, the goal of such working would be to bring Tiphareth energy into the world, in accord with Crowley’s law of Thelema. Crowley himself also elaborated a ritual to bring about the energy of the Aeon of Horus, Liber V vel Reguli (which may have been an attempt to bring in the energy of Geburah, but this seems too broad of an oversimplification). I haven’t worked this ritual because I haven’t fully committed to Thelema, though I recognize it as a viable and important Law: I just prefer my own.

I think one could construct rituals for all of the sephiroth below Kether (I’m not yet sure how one would go about this sephira, but I’m open to suggestions!); Stenwick lays out the components of both planetary and sephirothic invocations; I would simply combine his sephirothic hexagrams, god names, and archangel names with the planetary intelligence and spirit of the planet that rules this sephiroth.

What inspired this post, however, was the question of what the planetary intelligence and spirit would be for Chokmah, and the answer seems to me to be to use the sephirothic invocation that Stenwick lays out, then to simply call on Archangel Ratziel, and rather than the next step of calling a planetary spirit and an intelligence, to instead call on all twelve of the zodiacal angels (see Col. CXLII in Liber 777 or Col. 412 in 776 1/2 (they differ in that Aries & Aquarius are reversed in 777, which Eshelman corrects). One could call each angel twice (to obtain the twoness of Chokmah), or the angel and its assistant (776 1/2, Cols. 412 & 413), or call on the Day & Night triplicity lords (776 1/2, Cols. 414). Further reading on Stenwick’s essay on evoking zodiacal angels is here.

I haven’t tried this but I may do so for my own law later this week and determine whether I see more effects of this law afterward: I will keep you posted.

Update: I did a ritual based on this and rather than try to evangelize, I simply made an Enochian prayer that those who are to hear my law would in fact do so in God’s time and measure. In other words, a prayer that God’s will be done, or put another way, a conscious moving with Universe rather than against It.

Enochian astrological assignments of the Ensigns of Creation

Pre-Update: This correspondence about the 0 degrees Aries/Libra line is known as contra-antiscia. Now you know!

Note two updates at bottom!

[The TL,DR: the placement of Enochian astrological ensigns of creation seem to fit the astrological system of exaltation, with adjustments for sect across the equinox line of 0 degrees Aries/Libra). Enochian does not seem to fit the Planetary Joys, which fits the nature of the mystical nature of the sephira into which Enochian guides the initiate: Binah (and its associated Vision of Sorrow). Following the Enochian astrological placements on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life makes intuitive sense if you hold that the ensign of Mercury is referring to Raphael as archangel of Tiphareth and the ensign of the Sun as is referring to Michael as archangel of Hod.]

Episode 255 of The Astrology Podcast featured a discussion with Chris Brennan and Benjamin Dykes about the exaltation of the planets, based on the latter’s translation of Abu Ma’shar. The episode itself is worth a listen as it gives additional rationale to what was already put forward about the exaltation of the planets. This spurred my thinking about the reasons for the assignments of the planets in Enochian, specifically the heptarchical system and the ensigns of creation; the latter is shown below:

Enochian assignments to the Ensigns of Creation on the Holy Table of Practice

In the Heptarchical system, each planet is ruled by an angelic king and its prince, but while the king is always called on the day (e.g., the king for the sun is called on Sunday–though, as Stenwick points out, the king seems to have authority over the sephiroth which the planet rules: Sunday for Tiphareth, Monday for Yesod, etc.) and hour, the Prince is called on the day of the planet but the hour of the planet which follows the heptarchical order above (i.e., the prince for Sunday is called on the hour of the moon). The order above,

Sun–>Venus–>Moon–>Saturn–>Mercury–>Jupiter–>Mars–>(Sun, etc.)

Does not follow the typical hours scheme, which my sources tell me goes back to the Chaldeans, of:

Sun–>Venus–>Mercury–>Moon–>Saturn–>Jupiter–>Mars–>(Sun, etc.).

This seems like a minor detail, but it is one that has bothered me. After all, Dee would request the angels’s views of existing magic and they were known to reply, paraphrasing Jason Louv, “That’s nice,” in the way a parent comments on a child’s drawing, and then provide a corrected version of it (consider the similarity of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth to the geometry shown on the cover of this translation of The Sworn Book of Honorius, for example!). So what is behind the change to the typical planetary hourly rotation?

I wondered whether the exaltations might have anything to do with this. Here is a chart of the exalted planets in their signs:

By Meredith Garstin – Meredith Garstin, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4464225

Things do seem out of order, don’t they? But then I pondered how these planets might look if I included sect rulership:

Exaltations with Sect

Finally, it occurred to me that with the start of the zodiac being at Aries, and with Venus being closest to this, I should mentally orient my zodiac about Venus and then add sect into the matter. A mental flipping of the Enochian about this equinox axis looks like this:

Note that the flipped Saturn precedes Mercury in Virgo because it has 21 degrees to shift vs Virgo’s 15 degrees which separate it from the equinox.

Dykes also mentions the interesting zig-zag pattern if you follow the planets according to decreasing brightness:

and here’s the same order with Enochian–interestingly, the same zig-zag pattern does not appear. However, following the luminosity pattern (below) does not follow any of the individual parts of the Enochian counterclockwise path (second figure below), plus, malefics and benefics are both separated by 2+ planets, and the most luminous planets all occupy the highest three positions of the heptagon:

Enochian order, path of decreasing luminosity

Enochian heptarchical order

I also wondered whether the Enochian order of the planets also relates to the planetary joys:

Planetary joys, taken from the Astrology Dictionary.

Note that the planetary joys are a house-based system, not a sign-based assignment of planets. Regardless, if we put Venus at the top of this pattern, this is the result:

Following the same order but using heptagonal spacing, we get:

Consolidated heptagonal view, planetary joys with Venus shown at top

If we flip this, once again about a vertical line, we get:

Flipped planetary joys, heptagonal pattern

This is now resembling the Enochian heptarchical assignments. A few things to note about the four “mis-placed” planets (according to the original Enochian system):

1. The bottom-right three planets are all the heaviest and day-chart rulers (a familiar issue, as seen above!).
2. Two of the planets, the Sun and Mercury, have archangels (Michael and Raphael, respectively) whose associations switch when considering the sephiroth they rule (Raphael is the archangel of Tiphareth, which is ruled by the Sun, while Michael is the archangel of Hod, which is ruled by Mercury). Thus, we’ve seen some flexibility in associations across these two sephiroth.
3. Saturn and Mars, both malefics, also rule sephiroth on the Pillar of Severity (“on your left”) on the Tree of Life in Kabbalah–as does Mercury.
4. The seven classical planets are slightly imbalanced towards the Pillar of Severity as it is; the Luminaries and Benefics together rule four sephiroth, two each on the Middle and Mildness Pillars (though the entire tree itself is balanced).

The Planetary Joys scheme as a means of understanding the Enochian astrological order seems to fall apart (though I’d appreciate any commentary to the contrary–I already tried changing according to sect as above ), but why? Trying to think about why this might be, my mind kept going back to the pillar of Severity–the topmost sephiroth of which is Binah, which is associated with the mystical Vision of Sorrow (as well as the Vision of Wonder). What does Sorrow have to do with Joy? The answer is nothing!

However, what would an initiation of Binah, (“Understanding,”) have to do with exaltation? Why, everything! The exaltation of the human(e) into the Divine, which of course has everything to do with Sorrow (for those who cannot Understand their own Divinity), but Wonder for those who can.

Let me return to the Tree of Life for a quick look at the path as suggested by the ensigns; I’ve removed the sephiroth names for simplicity and shown what happens if we follow the heptarchical path (the path of the sephiroth in order of their ruling planets):

It’s kind of a mess! There’s a jump from Yetzirah to Atziluth & back down again! Then I thought about changing the associations of Mercury to mean Raphael as ruler of Tiphareth, and the sun to mean Michael as ruler of Hod:

Revised Enochian path on the Tree of Life

This path seems faaar cleaner, and it makes more sense. A balanced person (Tiphareth) takes inventory of all the aspects of the surrounding sephiroth on the Tree of Life (much like the counting of the Omer), and then, having done all of this and found themselves with a solid foundation (Yesod), is initiated (via the Aethyrs) into Binah in Atziluth. After this, the initiate returns to this place of balance, but now with Divine awareness.

“If you’re not already solid in Tiphareth, you’re gonna have a baaad tiiiime.”

Just some thoughts!

UPDATE: I think I’ve come to realize the nature of why the nocturnal sect rulers stay where they are while the diurnal rulers flip. This related to Aleister Crowley’s N.O.X. formula, which focuses around the supernal sephiroth. The idea is that this supernal light is so vast and limitless, it is blinding and as such is “dark” like the night. Since the Aethyrs appear to be initiation into Binah, the system leaving in place the night rulers—but moving the day rulers “out of the way” of initiation into the supernals—makes sense.

Update 2: For reasons relating to septiles, I believe that Mercury should also flip and be treated as of the diurnal sect in this scheme.