XXXIV: Unicorns

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Stag and Unicorn

XXXIV REEM

Servitors: Elmis (Helmis).

Dehn’s notes state that the Word REEM denotes ‘“Unicorns” and also beasts of the beeve kind, Buffaloes, etc.’, though the technical translation of the Hebrew ראם (rem) is ‘oryx,’ being a type of antelope, as well as ‘buffalo.’  ELZE in the second row resembles the Hebrew אלץ (eltz), ‘to force,’ ‘compel’ or ‘restrain,’ while its reversal EZLE, may derive from אצילי (etzili), meaning ‘noble.’ EILE in the third row resembles the Hebrew איל (eil), meaning ‘deer,’ ‘stag’ or ‘hart,’ concurs with the line of symbolism featuring horned beasts of both a natural and mystical nature evident in the Square’s primary word.

There is no Central Cross in this Square, though with the only spirit whose name approximately fits into it being Elmis (LBA) or Helmis (LBW), it is he who influences this Square. This name likely comes from the Ancient Greek ‘ελμις, meaning ‘worm.’

The Vision

A great white unicorn rushed from the East, bounding speedily over plains of grass to enter the forest from the previous vision. I was still merged in essence with the flame at the top of the great white column, which I now realised to be symbolic of the white horn of the Unicorn, for this was its dwelling and place of power. It rushed back there on becoming aware of the mingling of the Sun and Moon which was occurring there. Rushing in from the West came a Stag, great in stature, but lesser than the Unicorn. On their arrival, the flame I burned in was extinguished and I fell to the ground from the top of the tower, landing on my back. As the world faded to a narrowing tunnel of darkness, I saw the eaves of the trees and a pale white sky above me, and as I died I saw the Unicorn and the Stag looming over me, each one of them licking my face with their rough tongues.

Then I became detached from the world and hovered up over it until I rested in a great black void. I watched on as the Stag and Unicorn reared up at each other and locked horns. Although the Stag’s antlers were greater, it began to diminish in its size as the Unicorn grew larger, until, defeated, the stag departed the grove and headed back into the West.

Then I saw that the darkness before me had become a great sea that I was hovering over in the form of a crow. I swooped down and saw myself in a previous incarnation rowing a small boat over the water, but passed myself by without any communication. Then I landed at the Western shore of the ocean and was greeted by the Unicorn on its sands. Her colour was now entirely silver and she told me that she was my sister, the Moon, and we had culminated our journey together in the western lands but must now venture under the waters and cross the ocean again. I saw that this journey between the East and West was an endless cycle and asked her if it would ever cease. She answered that its end would only come when Nothing Else Is. Then I climbed up onto her back and rode beneath the sea as an embodiment of the Sun, our light mingling into one. Beneath the waters we saw great venomous fish about us, then came up on the opposite shore far to the East. There, she told me we must depart again, for she must go ahead of me, but soon we would come together again for a short time.

Then, suddenly, I was back at the top of the tower of the white horn and watched the Unicorn and Stag meet in the grove at its base once again. I fell from its top, as I did before, but landed on the back of the Stag this time, who bore me away into the woods. Riding it, I was made incarnate again, and became a great hunter, and all of the dark spirits that haunted the woods retreated from the sound of the great horn that I blew. The stag was violent, strong and wild in nature, and was silent and uncommunicative. When he set me down at the edge of the forest, the vision ended.

Notes

The theme of the North and South and Sun and Moon mingling as opposites in the last vision was continued here with my coming together with a female unicorn which represented the Moon while I shone with a Solar light. The passage across the Sea, which had been attempted and failed in previous visions, was now completed following the process of death, with the Unicorn acting as the means of resurrection, as it does in legend. The passage from the shores of the underworld to those of the physical world after a brief sojourn there represented the cycle of reincarnation as well as that of the solar and lunar revolutions and cycles. The mingling together of male and female or Sun and Moon was relevant to the timing of the scrying as the Square was constructed with the Moon at 6º Libra and performed with the Moon at 23º Libra, 7º away from the Sun, with the New Moon having occurred this day at 04:46 London time at 15º 48’ Libra. On this occasion, the Square was constructed during the planetary day and hour of the Moon after performing the Ritual of the Hexagram invoking Luna.

On being reincarnated back into a physical form, the ‘death cycle’ of the visions appeared to come to an end, with the stag representing the incarnated soul, as it does in alchemy, whereas the Unicorn represented pure spirit. The Earthy, masculine nature of the Stag seemed to concur with this, with my reborn self taking on qualities of renewed power and vigour in the material world, with my form being feeling somewhat akin to that of Cernunnos or Herne on my return, which also paralleled the mythos of the Wild Hunt that has been apparent in visions such as that of A Hunting Party and Paddocks and Fields.

XXXIII: Dragons

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william_blake_-_the_great_red_dragon_and_the_woman_clothed_in_sun_1805-1810_40x32_5cm_national_gallery_of_art_dc.800x0

XXXIII TANIN

Servitors: Negen, Sigis, Gesegas, Nasi, Lagasas, Isagas.

The primary word on the Square’s outer edges, TANIN, comes from the Hebrew תנין‎ (Tannin), meaning ‘dragon,’ ‘serpent,’ ‘a monster’ or ‘a sea monster,’ though its ultimate root is תן (tan), denoting a jackal or any other fell land animal. The secondary on word on the outer edge NINAL may expand the watery connotations associated with the tannin, in its possible expression of NIN as the Hebrew letter nun, נן—which derives from a Phoenician pictogram that represented a fish or water serpent—and the divine suffix AL to represent a ‘fish god’ or divinity of the waters such as Dagon or Atargatis. The spirit name in the central cross is that of Negen, whose name comes from the word נגן which denotes ‘a musician.’ The word in the second column and row is also of importance as it comes from אשף (asep), meaning ‘a wizard,’ ‘a magician’ or ‘a sorcerer.’ In the original Square, the second row actually featured the word ASEPIN, which is the pluralised form of this word, but the ‘N’ at the end was removed as it would not fit in the Square and is also accounted for by the appearance of the letter ‘N’ both above and below the final ‘I’ of ASEPI.

The Vision

After invoking the Four Kings, the Dragon I visualised Egin sitting upon swooped down from behind me in the North and took me to the South over many fields and old castles before setting me down me to a thick forest. I climbed down from its back and stood at the eaves of the wood from which the sound of drums and wooden percussion instruments could be heard. I was reticent to enter the forest, which was filled with tall, straight trees that were planted in neat lines very close to each other, thinking that the dragon would incinerate the trees with its breath as soon as I set foot in it. On detecting this thought, it brought its enormous maw up close to me and told me that it could tear me apart easily enough if it meant to destroy me and urged me on. I raised myself up to look over the thick growth of orderly trees and saw that their heights were all also perfectly even. In their centre, in a grove, stood a tall white column, as sharp as a spike. I knew that this was where I must head.

I made my way through the woods and found it very difficult to walk through, and also found the vision, difficult to keep my concentration on as I attempted to walk through the trees, as though the whole vision would end any moment. I persevered and after travelling into the woods a little more, saw bloody human heads, from which all of the flesh had been gnawed upon the forest floor. The sound of the drums, which had not ceased since my entering the wood, now suggested the presence of cannibals. Then I came to a trough where all of the trees had been knocked flat to the floor by some great monster. Here I saw that the trees had fallen to form the shape of a great ribcage. I followed the direction of the carcass of this strange creature that was at once tree and bone, that was set at a crossroads that ran from west to east. Turning to my right, I headed east and came to the forest’s edge. The trees thinned there, and I recognised that part of the woods to be where the eagle had set me down in the previous vision. I saw the cliff line running away to the direction of the village where dragon meat disguised as that of buffaloes was sold and saw the sea before me where the buffaloes had dived down into the water.

Realising that my coming here had diverted from my goal, I re-entered the wood, came back to the wooden rib cage at the crossroads and ventured south again. I came to the tall white tower and saw that it was fastened to the earth by four white clamps, each of which ran in each cardinal direction. The tower tapered to a point, at the top of which a candle flame burned. I entered the tower and was elevated straight to the top where I found my essence merging with that of its flame. From that vantage point, I looked out in all four directions. To the South, before me, I saw the great watery dragon, Baltharin, in the waters, and also the island where the pig demons roamed far in the distance. Around to the West, I saw the great ranges of mountains with the chanting witches who lived in the thick forests at their feet. To the North, I saw the dragon who had set me at the forest’s edge and beyond him, the great plains, rivers and meadows, where I had seen the Lawn, the Beautiful Garden and the Bridges, Steers and Farm Buildings. And to the East, I perceived the forests and trees bordered by the rough wastelands and waterfalls where I had seen the Grape Plant, Vineyard and the Rose Garden. Here, in the centre of all of these things, where neither dragon could go, I connected with both of them, acting as an intermediary between them, and merged both of their essences as one in my fiery body.

As I gazed upon Baltharin in the seas to the South, I saw his body in the colours of blue and white, as I had seen them before, and upon his breast the number 6 was formed. Then, as I gazed upon the northern dragon, I perceived that his names was Larandros and that his black body and yellow breast were marked by the number 9. I understood that they represented the Sun and the Moon from this, and in me the forces of the two were combined and their spirits soared into the air and danced around one another in a wheeling dance taking the shapes of the number six and nine. I understood their names were deeply connected with one another in a way that I needed to figure out if I was to uncover the mystery behind each of their beings.  Then, above me, in the central point between these two forces, I saw that the Sun was directly over my head, as it would be if I stood at the Equator, and upon it was marked the glyph of the Zodiacal sign of Aries. Once the mingling of the essence of the dragons was complete, I became one with the beams of sunlight that came down from the scorching sun above and realised that everything in this world of visions was born of my own psyche and that I, as the essence of its Sun, had dominion over it. Yet all the creatures that lay within, although given flesh by the processes of my own mind and imagination, came from the great darkness beyond the spheres of that world, as, ultimately, did I.

The vision ended with the sight of a brown apple core and empty corn husk being tossed into the earth while the rays of my light shone on them. Then, almost instantly, the patch they were buried in yielded fresh produce in great abundance.

Notes

The vision was set about by a feeling of completion, as if it represented the coming together of all of the aspects of these visions so far, yet there are still six more visions to be seen. As the thirty-third vision, there may have been a mathematical relationship to the numbers six and nine that were revealed, with three plus three equalling six, and three multiplied by three equalling nine.

My place in the central point of the crossroads between the two oppositional forces was represented by my position on that worlds equator, which represents the position of 0º Latitude, mid-way between the tropics of Cancer in the North and Capricorn in the South. The appearance of the glyph of Aries upon the Sun also represented the point of 0º on the East-West ecliptic, where the Sun lies precisely between its Southern and Northern solstitial points. As the point of balance between these Solar and Lunar forces, I was a vessel for their coming together as male and female conjoined into one. Strangely, however, their positions were reversed, with the Northern Dragon representing the element of Earth and the Moon, and the Southern Dragon representing the Element of Water and the Sun. My understanding of these principles is good enough to know this wasn’t my own error, so why this anomaly occurred cannot be explained other than it showing the interchangeability of their essences.

The name Baltharin was previously assessed to mean Lord of the Razor, or similar, though an alternative possibility is that its suffix was not –tharin, as I interpreted it to be, but –thanin or —tannin, which would make it the Lord of the Dragons. The name Larandros represents a Latin or Greek linguistic expression, with Lar– possibly relating to the Lares, who were tutelary spirits of the home and the crossroads. The word Lares has an etymological origin in the Etruscan 𐌋𐌀𐌓, also meaning ‘Lord,’ while –andros either represents a masculine quality or a truncation of the Latin andron or andronis, which relates to a corridor, passageway or hallway. Given the great deal of imagery relating to crossroads in this vision, this seems of potential relevance, but there is also the possibility that the name Larandros means ‘Lord of Men’ in contrast to the ‘Lord of Dragons’ expressed in the name Balthanin.

The Square was constructed with the Moon at 1º Leo and scried with the Moon at 8º Leo.

XXXII: Wild Pigs

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Pigs

XXXII Wild Pigs

Servitors: Geloma, Nudeton, Manties, Mara, Liriol, Losimon, Lomiol, Irminon, Sarasim, Iuar, Adon, Girmil, Asturel, Alagas, Gorilon, Laralos, Gesegas, Milon, Erimites, Nasi, Tolet, Morilon, Ugesor, Ramoras, Igarag, Romages, Aril, Lagasas, Isagas, Romoron, Soterion, Negen, Nolom, Nagar, Amillis.

The word in the first row and column, CADASIN and CADESIR, possibly derive from the Hebrew root קדש (qadesh) – ‘holy,’ with the extension קדושין (kidushin) meaning ‘sanctification,’ ‘betrothal’ or ‘marriage,’ while the addition of שיר (sir) in the first column perhaps represents the addition of the word for ‘a chant’ or ‘a song.’ The words in the seventh row and column, RISEDAR and NISEDAR may come from the Hebrew שדר (sedar), ‘message.’ The spirit name in the central Square is an anagrammed representation of that of Geloma, which takes its meaning from the Hebrew גלם (gelom), meaning ‘to embody’ or ‘personify.’ While there is little to directly connect these words to the Wild Pigs this Square brings visions of, the appearance of the word DIMONAS in the third column and row makes it apparent that this is a square relating to demonic power, and what is therefore figured to be ‘holy’ to such beings is that which is unclean, taboo or forbidden which, in the Hebrew tradition, the pig was perhaps the ultimate ‘embodiment’ of.

In the original text of the LBW, the words in the sixth row and column were shortened to IAGUA and ITAGUA respectively and have therefore been amended to ITAGUTA to make an even square. Read backwards, the word IAGUA, becomes AUGAI, which may refer to the Greek nymph Αυγή (Auge, also written Augai), whose name means ‘dawn’ and also the word Αυγό (augo), meaning ‘egg.’ The concept of ‘dawn’ and ‘eggs’ are connected in the concept of the Augoeides which is made up of a combination of either αυγό or αυγή and the term είδηση (eidese), meaning ‘word,’ ‘message’ or ‘intelligence.’ This concept is related to the myth of Phanes, the light bringer, bursting forth from the Cosmic Egg after the coils of the great serpent crack it open and release his light into the nascent cosmos.

The Vision

A rainbow appeared which I followed the downwards arc of from the sky to a patch of yellow grass at its base. On arriving at the grass patch I smoothed it and patted it down with my hands and revealed the end of a pipe with a circular, metal-barred vent over it through which great waves of air protruded, which I perceived came from a great engine under the Earth. I discovered, however, that it came from the sea cutting away into great caves beneath the Earth as it crashed into them which produced billows of air that spouted up through the land. I pulled the vent free from the end of the pipe and squeezed myself headfirst into the narrow, tube-like shaft. The pipe sucked me through it very quickly so that I soon shot free from its other end, which protruded from the cliff face, and flew—like a ball shot from a cannon—far from the cliffs and into the water.

Bobbing in the ocean, I beheld blue waters and skies and yachts with sails of brilliant white in the distance. One of these headed towards me and I saw that it was being steered by a being that was half pig and half human and wearing a blue sailor’s outfit. As he reached me, I climbed aboard and saw his face to have a dirty, unclean look about it, yet its voice was cultured and intelligent as it hauled me aboard. Once I was inside I noticed that dead, naked human bodies littered the deck giving off a smell that was like that of a butcher’s shop. ‘Don’t worry, you’re quite, quite safe,’ the sailor-pig commented, though I felt a silent unease coming over me. During the voyage I could feel myself transforming into a pig-human hybrid, but when I checked down at my immaterial body I could see no changes in it. Then I noticed that the human bodies on the ship had various porcine elements to them, as though they had boarded the ship and transformed into such things in the same way that I perceived myself to be changing my form.

We sailed for a short time then came to an island where other yachts were coming ashore. With me following close behind, the sailor-pig announced to his fellows that he had ‘caught another one trying to cross the sea.’ He continued that I hadn’t got very far at all and the others mocked me for only getting such a short distance into the waters before getting caught. Coming inland I saw that while the island was rather idyllic, the desiccated skins of several human beings hung out to dry on a horizontal cord about twenty feet off the ground. Their bodies were long, faceless and brown in colour as though they had been left out in the sun to be dried or cured.

On turning to the pig who had captured me, he told me not to be concerned as this fate could not come to me as I had no corporeal body and could not be harmed by them. ‘See, look down at yourself,’ it said to reassure me. On doing this, I saw that my body was my own, robed as it was in the chamber in which I performed the experiment, yet it was also partially ethereal in its substance. Despite me having no solid body, the pig then asked me if he and his fellows could feast on my essence in some way, requesting that I give them something from my astral body for them to feed off. I refused and noticed them gathering closely, with threatening vampiric features. With my eyes closed, back in the real world, I perceived movement around me in the chamber during this part, as though shadows darker than the blackness generated by my eyelids were passing from behind me to in front of me in a circular motion. Here, my body felt very tight and rigid and I felt a strong trance begin to descend over me.

Back in the vision, I seemed to have no way out of this predicament when suddenly the lead pig cried out ‘Daimon, what are you doing here?’ On hearing these words I noted that a great, solar eagle was descending from the skies and swooped down to rescue me. As it flew off, I conversed with it a little, but found my real-world trance state a little too heavy to keep my concentration strong enough to make out his words. I gleaned, however, that the island was set close to the same western sea I had been somehow forbidden to cross—or had seen the souls of the dead crossing—in previous visions. I asked the eagle to lay me down in a wood on the shore of the land that I came from, and he warned me that the demonic creatures I had encountered were likely still abroad in these parts of the lands, but I informed him that this didn’t trouble me, so he set me down. The vision began to take on a looser form at this stage with various random flashes of faces and images that didn’t seem related to anything relevant, so I drew the session to a close.

Notes

The image of unclean animals on boats harks back to the vision of A Big Lake, which began with a similar projection of an object into water over a great distance, in that case being a golf ball being hit into the lake. Of potential relevance to this is the appearance of the word ATILATI in the second column and row, which has a possible origin in the Hebrew טלטלה (tilatileh), meaning ‘to hurl,’ ‘project’ or ‘shake.’  Both visions also featured a small island in their respective bodies of water that contained some kind of threat and the feeling of being encircled or watched.

A spirit revealed in this Square for the first time in the course of this experiment was Nudeton, whose name may derive from the Hebrew root נוד (nud), used to denote the wandering of an outcast or fugitive or the shaking of the head in grief.

The concepts of pigs, demons, being projected into the sea and the ‘outcast’ nature of the spirit Nudeton reveal references to Christs outcasting of Legion into a herd of swine that leap off a cliff and into the sea in Mark 5:1-20.

The manifestation of the Eagle as a Solar Daimon may bear some relation to the inclusion of the words IAGUA and AUGAI mentioned above, which may have acted as a prompt for the manifestation of a being of the same nature as the Augoeides, whose purpose was to guide and protect me from the threat of the demonic entities on the island in the midst of the great sea of death.

The Square was created with the Moon at 2º Cancer and the scrying performed with the Moon at 12º Cancer.

XXXI: Buffaloes

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Ocean Waves

BUFALOS

Servitors: Mara, Asorega, Fasma, Fosfora, Laralos, Ramoras, Moreh (Morel).

This Square appears to have been highly corrupted, with the bottom line originally being missing, but here reconstructed, and the top line initially reading FUFALOS. With ‘Buffalo’ being a word of Latin origin, it is perfectly acceptable to have this word as that at the outer edges of the Square. The central cross is also corrupted, with the vertical beam probably relating to Asorega, and the horizontal beam probably relating to Ramoras. The names of the spirits have been altered, it seems, in order to make the Square symmetrical, though in previous Squares the symmetry has been sacrificed in favour of the spirit names, which is in accordance with the overall consistent pattern. Were it reconstructed more entirely, the Square would instead look like this.

XXXI Asorega

Note that the fifth column may also be altered to read LEMORAS to give it a demonic suffix, which is feasible due to common scribal errors that were common with the letters ‘s’ and ‘f,’ as suggested in the fifth column. This has been kept intact due to the appearance of the Livre des Esperitz spirit Bulfas (also known as Pruflas and Suffales) in the Square, who may be pertinent to the operation.

Lower case letters represent my own reconstructions. The original Square from the Dehn edition can be found in the Notes.

To avoid too much, and possibly incorrect, interferences from myself, the first Square on this page was that worked with, though the others are worthy of experimentation. As it stands, the palindromic words ASER and AMOR in the original relate to the words אסר (aser), meaning ‘prohibition’ or ‘banned,’ and אמר (amor), meaning ‘command,’ ‘pronouncement,’ ‘word’ or ‘speech,’ suggesting a tabooed or blasphemous instruction or intention.

The Vision

A spinning pentagram appeared the revolutions of which gained in speed until its form was projected onto the sky leading the heavens to tear asunder where its form was cast. A great hole appeared through which many black shapes, like buffaloes – but also like large, black goats – rampaged over the grassy plains. They weaved their way through the land until they came to a high cliff ledge and cast themselves into the sea below. I went down into the sea with them and struck my head on a rock leading me to struggle to control myself in the waters while the buffaloes were washed away into the sea. Just in time, for the clouds above were now becoming violent and stormy, I spotted a ladder made of a dull-gold rope which I climbed in order to ascend to the grassy clifftops above.

I followed the high coastline to a town some miles away to the west and found a Middle- Eastern marketplace, though the surroundings were more European. For sale was Buffalo meat that had been fished from the sea which was for sale as a delicacy in the with a price of £19.70 per kg, with the price of the packet I was buying being £17.56. I bought a packet of the meat and ate it raw to find cold, icy-blue crystals inside. It wasn’t pleasant meat and was more akin to fish in its texture and flavour.

With little else happening in the town I found myself transported back to the cliffs where a strange sword with an ankh for a handle and a curved crosspiece was protruding from the land. I pulled it free and cast a circle with it that expanded to the horizons all around me in a circle of flame. In response to this vast circle being cast, a great dragon, blue in colour and covered in sharp, icy scales rose up from the waters. It communicated that in return for the buffaloes being sent into the sea to feed it, it allowed fishermen to collect its discarded scales and sell them for food at a good price. I realised that the food I had bought at the market was in fact dragon scales rather than buffalo meat as I had first been led to believe. Then, the dragon silently mouthed the word Baltharin to me then sunk back beneath the waters causing the earth to rumble as he swam away. With this the vision ended.

Notes

The original Square in Book IV appears as follows and features a clear omission of the seventh row, rendering it unusable.

FUFALOS

The amount of meat I was buying was 1.97 per gram. Therefore, £17.56 represented 891 grams of this meat. This enumerates to the name of Ephraim (אפרים), whose sons were killed by raiders who came to rob them of their cattle, but is only otherwise valuable because of its return to nine (8 + 9 + 1 = 18, 1 + 8 = 9).

The word Baltharin was of interest as it appeared to be derived from the Hebrew words בעל (Ba’al), ‘lord’ and תער (tha’ar) ‘razor,’ ‘sheath,’ ‘scabbard,’ which may account for both the dragon’s sharp scales and the strange sword that was sheathed in the earth.

The new spirits apparent in this Square are names Fasma, deriving from the Greek φασμα (phasma), meaning ‘vision’ and ‘spectre’ and Fosfora, which is from the Greek Φωσφόρος (phosphorus), denoting a ‘light-bearer’ or Lucifer. The spirit Moreh here appears in the form found in the LBA version of the manuscript, Morel, which bears a similarity to the name of the spirit Morail in the Grimorium Verum, who grants invisbility and comes under the power of Duke Syrach. This name appears to come from the Hebrew מורא (mora), meaning ‘fear,’ ‘awe’ or ‘reverence.’

The Square was constructed with the Moon at 4º 57’ Sagittarius and performed with the Moon at 7º Aries.

XXX: Bears

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Herne

XXX DOBIH

Servitors: Balabos, Badad, Holop.

The word at the outer edge of the Square, DOBIH, derives from the Hebrew דוב (dob), ‘bear.’ The spirit name apparent in the central cross relates is that of Balabos, which comes from the Hebrew term בעל הבית‎ (ba’al ha-beth), meaning ‘Master of the House.’

The Vision

The vision began with a focus on the word DOBIH which then became further focussed on the letter B (for ‘Bear,’ I sensed) in its centre. Then a cave appeared with a large bear wearing a crown standing on its hind legs guarding its entrance. The bear approached me, making me fear it would maul me, but it only wished to sniff out the Square that I held in my hand. It turned away from me peaceably when I allowed it to inspect what I held, then it departed into the cave. I followed it inside and was greeted by the stench of rotting meat. Around me were the cadavers of many dead animals, with the most prominent being the skull of a horse.

I descended into the cave, where a soft, chiming, echoing choir of voices could be heard in the distance below. I came to a gentle blue river with a milky white sheen to its surface in that deep place and entered the water. I became aware that this was a reflection of the Milky Way and was washed along on its flow until it came to a waterfall. Instead of plunging to the ground far below, however, I remained breathless and bodiless in silent space and glided at will to the ground below.

Awaiting me was an old man driving a rickety wooden cart. He was quite old and wore a ruined top hat, and donned a wispy beard without a moustache, had ruddy red cheeks and had squinting, watery eyes. We were in a dark, rocky landscape quite unsuitable for driving a wagon over, and above me in the sky was a full moon and the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, with the latter clearly orbiting the Pole Star. He offered me a ride in his cart and we headed North with Polaris before us. I noticed that the horses that pulled it, one of which was brown and the other black, were very thin and gave off the cold aura of death. He chided me for accepting a ride in such a land, as it was a place I knew nothing about. I asked him what sort of place it was and once again the word DOBIH appeared in my mind’s eye. From this, I accepted that this was the astral landscape unlocked by the Square.

As we trundled on, I became aware that we were being followed by bears, but the wagon driver informed me that I was quite safe as long as I remained in his vehicle. Then we came to a ford which was set down a bank that was too steep and rocky for the wagon to descend. He let the horses off their leashes and asked if I would assist him in pushing the cart down the bank, which I did, noticing that it was strangely light. Then the driver reattached it to the horses so that they could pull it across the shallow waters of the river, but on the other side, he asked once again if I would help him pull it back up the other bank. Doing this was somewhat harder than leading it down the bank, and led to me receiving wounds to my right hand from the splinters of the wood of its pull-handle. Looking at the wound after we got the cart up the opposite bank, I saw that the splinters had caused seven wounds which formed the shape of the Hebrew letter Zayin. The driver instructed me to mix the blood with the waters of the river we had just passed, and on doing this, the sky lightened to that of dawn. In the sky, the Sun lit the sky and Mercury and Venus could both be seen rising with it. Heading towards them, we continued eastward over the rocky land.

After a short distance I noticed a large, primitive-looking, large-toothed skull on the horizon that looked like a fortress at first, but as we approached it, it seemed to reduce in size to that of a small house and it had the appearance of the skull of a crow or raven rather than the fanged, hominid shape I had first seen. When we reached the skull, the driver informed me to leave the cart and go and take refuge inside the skull. I did this and sat inside waiting for something to come. Shortly afterwards, the seven trailing bears appeared and formed a circle outside the skull. Inside, on the floor I spotted a large rock which I picked up and inspected. On it was engraved the symbol for alchemical Sulphur.

After a brief period, the eighth figure appeared outside the skull-house, coming in the form of a man with the skeletal, antlered head of a stag. The figure came to the entrance of the skull-house and drew a sword. With it, he drew the sign of Alchemical Salt in the Earth and then thrust his sword into the centre of it. On doing this, all of the Earth around the skull-house disappeared into a void of nothingness. I stepped from my refuge into the stillness, where the stag-headed figure informed me that it was this state of Nothingness that I should be aiming for in my Work, and that the visions of the Squares were all guides in same way of how to achieve this state. On hearing this, I found myself on a cold shore, over which the sun set. Facing West, I saw a rickety boat, similar in its state of disrepair as the wagon I had earlier travelled. I thought about heading out towards the boat but was told that this was not the time to do such a thing, as the boat and the sea represented the journey to the lands beyond life. I sat patiently at the shore waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. After a few more moments, an Eagle flew towards me from over the sea and told me that there was nothing else to see in this vision. Accepting that, I ended the session.

Notes

The wound I received in the shape of the letter Zayin represents the number seven and has the meaning ‘Sword,’ both of which are relevant to this vision. Zayin is also related to Gemini in the Tarot, so this may also be a signal to pay attention to something relating to Gemini. See the visions pertaining to A Lion and A Wild Cat for specific references to Gemini, though the relevance may relate to a future rather than past vision.

Alchemical Sulphur represents the active male principle, being concordant with Fire and the Sun.

The appearance of the Sun with Mercury and Venus after I mixed my blood with the waters of the river may represent the feminine principle, with Alchemical Mercury representing the passive female element, as does the planet Venus.

Alchemical Salt represents the element of Earth that becomes purified through the interaction of Sulphur and Mercury. The striking of the Earth by the sword in the centre of the symbol for Salt represents the purification of matter in such a way, with the Sword being used to do so being reflected in the letter Zayin appearing in the wounds on my hand. Seven also relates to Venus in Qabalistic Magic, the number of stars in Ursa Minor as well as the number of stars in the Big Dipper asterism of Ursa Major.

The boat on the sea was similar to the one seen in the vision of Trees, in which the spirit in the form of an old man departed over the sea.

The names of the two ‘new’ spirits seen in this vision are Badad – בדד (badad), whose name means ‘alone’ or ‘solitary’ and Holop – חלוף (cholop), whose name means ‘transitory’ or ‘ephemeral.’

The Square was constructed with the Moon at 3º Taurus and scried with the Moon at 22º Scorpio. Venus was transiting the sign of Scorpio at the time of the scrying, where she is in her Detriment, as was the other benefic, Jupiter, Together they represent the male and female benefics resident in a Marsian, malefic sign, though the general energies of Scorpio, being the sign that Mars rules ‘at night’ are those of his passive, ‘inner’ qualities.

XXIX: Eagles

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les-harpies-a
XXIX NESIKER

Servitors: Igarag, Manties, Mara, Katsin, Irminon, Ismerik, Sigis, Gesegas, Kosem, Erimites, Nasi, Ramoras, Izozon, Isagas, Romoron, Soterion, Negen, Nagar.

The word at the outer of the square, NESIKER, derives from the Hebrew נשר (Nesher), ‘Eagle,’ with the word forcibly split by the word IGARAGI in the central cross, which is a mirrored expression of the spirit name Igarag, which expresses concepts relating to coldness, ice, crystals and frosts.

The Vision

Bright pin heads of lights, like stars, appeared in a black sky accompanied by xylophone music before water poured out of the blackness, as though from a cup, into the earth below. Pouring into the domed vessel of the Earth, the water ran down a hillside to create a river that ran down to a pool in the basin of a valley. It was twilight in that place, which had the feel of a place in-between.

I walked to the edge of the pool and in its reflection saw the face of an eagle looking back at me. I looked around to see if it was above me, but there was nothing else visible in the growing blackness of the sky. I looked to the water again and saw the eagle, appearing more solid now, and then his reflection jumped out of the water and he flew onto my right shoulder. I turned to face him and looked into his eyes and received his communication. He explained, in a slow, deep voice, how he had descended from the highest pinnacles of the universe, but could only communicate through the reflections of things, such as in waters and reflective surfaces, in this place as the naked eye could not perceive him. I understood that the form of him that I looked upon was only visible as it had manifested via its reflection in the water, but was not truly him. I was aware at this point that other eagles were circling the black skies overhead, though when I looked up to try and see them, I found them to be completely invisible. The eagle then told me that its eyes were the reflective surface I could look into in order to receive a vision from him.

On doing that, I had a vision of two men sat at a table before a drawn curtain in a pub, inn or some other kind of public place. I recognised one of the men as a friend of mine who shares the same first name as I do, but on approaching the table, I realised that both men were actually me. I assumed the identity of one of these versions of myself and looked across to the other version who sat on the opposite side of the table. Looking at the table, I saw that me and my doppelganger were playing cards and the card I had just drawn was the Five of Diamonds. I looked to see what the other cards on the table were and saw that every card in my splayed-out deck was the same as that which I had just drawn.

Then the Eagle began to speak in its slow, low voice again. It asked me how I would really respond to myself if I were another person. How would I communicate with me? What would I think of me? How would I judge me as another would, and how would I deal with me when I was being difficult or confrontational? These questions, it said, were prompts to deal with myself in all of my reactions, opinions, behaviours and patterns as though I were an external entity watching and observing such things with detachment, as though I were outside of myself. The ‘other self’ I looked upon opposite me, it said, was the part of oneself that could only be viewed in the mirror, and was not the same aspect of self as the one who does the viewing.

Once this message had been delivered, the drawn curtains I had been sat next to were opened to reveal a strange, infernal scene unfolding in the world outside. The lands were grey and the skies were black and red there; and from the Earth long, white bones jutted into the air like jagged spears. Around the bones harpies and gorgons roamed, their bodies those of women with their arms entwined with serpents and their faces blank of features save for the inverted muzzles of wolves with their fangs bared protruding from their foreheads. Their shoulders were mounted by great, leathery bat’s wings and when they thrust their groins towards me and parted their bare legs, they birthed swarms of bats that bit into my flesh with tiny, metallic teeth that ripped small chunks away from my body with each bite. In the sky above them, an armoured man wearing a black helmet with long, metal bull-horns flew on the back of a great eagle watched on.

After the unfolding of this hellish vision, the eagle spoke again on the nature of hell, commenting that it represented the state that the human mind most easily fell into, as it was easier to descend a difficult slope or fall into a hole in the road than it was to ascend a steep hill or climb a tall ladder. Ultimately though, he informed me, none of what I had witnessed represented objective reality and hell was nothing but a trap that we force ourselves into, for the human mind finds it easier to imagine its torments than its delights. To demonstrate the reality of this, he instructed me to invert all I had seen in hell to a heavenly equivalent. This I did with ease, making the gorgons angelic and golden in their appearance, while the landscape glowed with sunlight over verdant meadows as soft clouds scuttled by on the wings of sweet breezes.

Yet something about this vision was far less real than that of hell, for my mind could not imagine anything of this perfect scenario not dying, souring or ending in some way. This demonstrated to me that the human psyche is far closer to hell than heaven, as with death as its permanent reminder and great terror, nothing good could ever be seen to be more than a brief reprieve. Hell and its torments, however, could never let us down in terms of their longevity and permanence. The lesson the Eagle sought to teach was that all such ideas were nought but illusion. Hell and Heaven are but mirrors of each other in the human state of being, it said, with each being just as transient as the other. What the mind should strive to do was establish the same lack of identification as that which was advised in the previous scenario where I had sat opposite my doppelganger and observed it without any sense of emotional identification.

With this said, the heavenly scenario faded and I stood next to the pool again where the skies were once more those of twilight. As a parting gift, the eagle gave me a burning torch, advising me to use its light to guide myself through this world’s permanent, semi-lit state, for with it I could see things that the naked eye could not. To test this, I held it to the ground and saw a cat that was as black as coal appear out of the night air where there had previously been nothing. Then I held the torch above my head and saw the circling eagles high above where I had previously seen nothing more than the swelling night.

Notes

The purpose of the Hebrew word Nesher being spelled with a ‘k’ as opposed to the ‘sh’ of the letter Shin can be found by studying its reversed expression REKISEM. This word derives from the Hebrew root רחש (rechesh) meaning ‘whisper’ which either expresses the pluralised form of this word as recheshim, ‘whispers,’ or combines with the Hebrew שם (shem), ‘name,’ with rechesh in order to produce the meaning ‘a whispered name.’ Other meaningful words that appear within the square lie in the lines that spell KOLAMAS, which is either derived from the Hebrew חלם (cholam), ‘dream’ or is a mangled representation of the Greek word κάλαμος (Kalamos), which relates to a type of reed found at the side of a pond or lake. When spelled Calamos, this is also the name of one of the servitors of Ariton. Also present in the Square is the word ERAGOZE – ארגז (eragoz), ‘box,’ or ‘chest.’ Despite these possibilities, none of these words appeared to have any practical relevance to the results of the work unless the association of KOLAMAS with Calamus was represented by my beginning this vision at the side of a pool of water.

The name of the spirit Igarag appeared relevance due to its connection with the Hebrew word for ‘ice’ or ‘crystal,’ קרח (qarach), which in the case of the latter word has connections to the theme of reflection that pervaded this vision.Other pertinent Hebrew words that appear in the Square are ראי (rai), ‘mirror,’ ראים (raim), ‘visions’ and מער (ma’ar), ‘nakedness,’ which may provide an alternative etymology for the servient spirit Mara.

The theme of mirrors, crystals and reflective surfaces that pervaded this vision provide a link to Chapter IV of the Abramelin, which is also used to experience various visions, with the first Square of that chapter making things appear in mirrors, glass or crystals. Also apparent in this Square is a variation of the spirit name Erimites, who also appears in the Square relating to Eagles, as seen in the line which reads IRIIMITI.

IRIIMITI

An unsettling event occurred a short time after performing the scrying, when a sound that strongly resembled the sound of a rattlesnake’s tail came from the area of the room where I had performed the work. This was not the first time that extraneous sounds have been heard from the room before or after scrying these Squares, with the sound of chanting coming from behind me while scrying the Square that grants visions of Horses being the other example. This coincided with a feeling of unease and fear I felt right from the beginning of this vision. It is notable that the rattlesnake is of the same genus as the pit viper, with vipers being particularly related to the spirits communicated with during works of Goetia such as this, which in this case featured visions of gorgons with serpents wrapped around their arms.

The square was constructed with the Moon at 5º Capricorn and was scried with the Moon at 26º Aries.

The suit of Diamonds seen in the part of the visions in which cards were being played with equates to the suit of Pentacles, Disks or Coins in the Tarot. The Five of Diamonds therefore represents the Five of Disks which, in astrological terms, equates to the first decan of Taurus. This refers to the celestial occurrence of Mercury in Taurus and signifies ‘Worry’ in the Thoth deck. Of the energies present in this decan, Crowley stated:

“The Number Five, Geburah, in the suit of Earth, shows the disruption of the Elements, just as in the other suits. This is emphasized by the rule of Mercury in Taurus, types of energy which are opposed. It needs a very powerful Mercury to upset Taurus; so the natural meaning is Intelligence applied to Labour. The symbol represents five disks in the form of the inverted Pentagram, instability in the very foundations of Matter. The effect is that of an earthquake. They are, however, representative of the five Tatvas; these hold together, on a very low plane, an organism which would otherwise disrupt completely.”

Interestingly, with the scrying being performed with the Moon at 26º Aries, this decan represents the next decan the Moon would pass into approximately eight hours after the scrying had been performed. This seemed to be hinting towards some potential event, inner or outer, that is relevant to the timing of the Moon entering this decan. The ingress of the Moon into this position occurred at 2:29 am London time, on Friday 31st August, with Cancer’s position on the Ascendant signifying that the Moon or one’s emotional ideation of oneself was indeed the matter at hand. The first decan of Taurus is also that in which the Moon reaches its degree of exaltation, which at the moment is occupied by Uranus which brings sudden, revolutionary schemes to motivate, inspire or reinvigorate one’s emotional or reflective states. The Moon remained in this decan until 8:56 pm, making most of this day one in which the issues outlined above would be relevant in some way.

XXVIII: Peacocks

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Golden Idol

XXVIII MIDIKON

Servitors: Ilekel, Manties, Losimon, Asmiel, Lomiol, Katsin, Apolion, Pakid, Adon, Pattid, Kosem, Milon, Iparkas, Izozon, Nasi, Tolet, Ekalak, Kilik, Kokolon, Alpas, Ipakol, Soterion, Nolom, Amillis.

The word at the outer edge of the square derives from the Greek μυδεικών (mydeikon), meaning ‘mystical,’ while the name forming the central cross refers to the spirit Ilekel, whose name possibly derives from the Hebrew לחלל (lechalel) meaning ‘to desecrate,’ ‘violate’ or ‘defile.’ The lower case letters represent those altered by me to correct the errors that are evident in it in the original text.

The Vision

A long, thick baton made of plant matter and covered with needle-sharp spines appeared. Each of the baton’s spines had a tiny, lidless eye at its end, each of which turned to look at me at the same time, then started shifting around in a way that was quite unsettling to look upon. As I looked at the baton, a peacock came running towards me telling me I shouldn’t be holding it and instructed me to put it down. Entranced, I kept looking at it, and found it opening out into a blue fan that, with its eyes now spread all over its surface, resembled the tail of a peacock. As I noticed this, the peacock standing before me opened his tail in response then proceeded to run past me, telling me to put the fan down and run with him as something was coming. I folded it back up so it resembled the spiked baton again and ran with him.

Then it was apparent that we were in a thinly-wooded forest. Between, or rather above, the trees came a huge giant, crushing everything it trod on beneath its feet. Then, as the giant came to the baton I left on the floor, the eye-spines that ran up its length pierced the flesh of its feet and turned the giant to stone. Then, after a few moments, the stone giant crumbled to dust and revealed a golden statue of a man, somewhat like Michelangelo’s David, but carrying an axe over its shoulder. The Peacock and I approached the statue and the Peacock joyfully declared the freedom of the idol that had been encased within the giant’s great body. Then the arm holding the axe dropped down to its side for a moment then moved again to strike the ground with it, causing a small crack to appear in the earth. As the earth opened, I saw a pool of very blue water in which hundreds of frogs eggs had been laid. This, I realised, was the point where the spiked baton had been crushed into the ground by the giant’s foot, and had now changed from being a baton/tail/fan into a blue pool full of eggs. On inspection, each of the eggs contained tiny, swimming embryos.

Then, from the water, a large, shark-like monster leaped, its maw raised to the heavens, which peeled back lay by layer to reveal a bald-headed figure garbed in a robe of the same blue as the pool and tail feather had been. Its eyes, however, had skin growing over them which opened by the skin being split open into vertical slits with no visible eyeballs within them. As it gazed upon me, it said ‘speak what you wish, or rather, chant it.’ Doing so, I demanded, in a chant, to be shown the true visions of the square. It told me I was already seeing them, but then explained that none of what I was seeing was real, for nothing around us was actually there. The wood around me and everything in it was an illusion fabricated from the matter of my mind, it said, and this illusion could come in the form of castles, buildings, towns, banquets or anything else one could imagine.

The entity then told me that the mechanics by which spirits worked was through influencing the physical matter of the mind to produce symbolic communications. But, he asked me, how could I truly distinguish what was the work of my own mind and what was the work of the spirits communicating with me. As he spoke, I noticed that his feet became those of an ostrich that dug into the ground and that he appeared to be wearing a pink tutu around his waist. On noting my incredulity about such a ridiculous image, it laughed a bellowing laugh. It explained that they could encourage the mind to see anything they wished it to by the power of suggestion, it said and produced random images of foods like pineapples and carrots appeared for no discernible reason. The point of doing this, it told me, was that I had the mind couldn’t control the formation of these images once they had been suggested to it. This being the case, how could one truly determine whether the images impressed by the mind was the product of one’s own communications with the unconscious or some other extraneous entity. It prompted me then to form whatever images I wished in my own mind. On doing this, I noticed that everything I thought of came easily enough but that the things I was deciding to form images of now also seemed to be influenced by something that may or not be of my own mind.

The entity reiterated again that this was how spirits worked. They could manipulate any matter that they wished to by such power, and did so by working at the subatomic level, as they could range in their sizes from that of a particle, to a microbe or to a great giant. In such forms they could alter the forms and movements of anything physical in unseen, invisible ways, being able to effect the actions of viruses and bacteria, the movements of animals, storms, seas and buildings. Even, it seems, the synapses of the brain that produce various thoughts, images, predilections or emotional responses could be manipulated by them. The veils between the unconscious influence of the mind and the activities of spirits, it seems by such explanations, is thin and indistinguishable. To test this, I asked whether I could be made to see things I had never physically seen if this was the case, and the answer was affirmative. I asked it, for some reason, for it to show me a vision of Byzantium, and it proceeded to show me an image of a city with small white houses and red-brown sloping rooves surrounded by larger buildings with great golden domes. I stated to it that this place could be anywhere, and there was no proof that this illusion was Byzantium at all. That, it said, was my dilemma. How could I ever know if any of the things shown to me were ‘real’ in an objective sense if I couldn’t prove it either way. Ultimately, there is no way to tell if one is being deceived or not by the actions of mind, be it due to the actions of one’s own brain or by spirits who, in this vision, claimed that they worked by manipulating it.

Leaving me to consider such things, I sensed its impending departure and asked it to give me its name before it left. In response, the image of a highly intricate red and yellow banner appeared before me with various heraldic images such as lions and dragons stitched into it. In this centre, around a crest of some kind, two flowing ribbons had two letters stitched into them in red, AF on the left side and AS on the right, spelling out the name AFAS. With this, the vision ended.

Notes

The Square in question appears to have been corrupted in the original text and so was amended by myself to make its proportions even. The original, uncorrected Square appears as follows.

XXVIII CORRECTED

New Spirits apparent in this square are: Izozon, Katsin, Manties, Pakid, Pattid. Possible origins for these names are:

Izozon – יזוז (izoz), ‘move,’ ‘stir,’ ‘go away.’
Katsin – חצי (chatzi), ‘middle’ or ‘half,’ though the most interesting possibility is ‘moiety,’ which refers to something a single thing being split into two halves.
Manties – possibly from the term -mancy, related to divination, which ultimately comes from the Greek μαντεία (manteia).
Pakid – from Hebrew פחד (pechad), ‘fear,’ ‘dread,’ ‘terror.’
Pattid – possibly from Hebrew יפעת (ipat), ‘splendour,’ ‘brilliance.’

The bottom line of the square reveals a backward expression of the word MIDIKON to give the word NOKIDIM – נגידים – ‘Governors,’ which is suggestive of the influence of the Four Kings, Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon and Ariton, but may refer to any entity in a position of authority over others. NOKIDIM also represents the principle of averse mysticism due to the word it derives from mydeikon, meaning ‘mystical,’ and the aura of averse mysticism evident in the square, with its explanations on how spirits interfere with the laws of cause and effect in invisible ways in the physical world, appeared to confirm this. about it.

The nature of the communications in it had a degree of what a psychiatrist would probably call examples of schizotypal or psychotic thinking, due to the postulated statement that external entities may have an effect on thoughts. Such explanations are not entirely inaccurate, as when uncontrolled through the veils of mental illness and a lack of mystical or magical intent this can certainly be the case. However, most human experiences that can be called religious or spiritual, including visions, shamanic experiences, kundalini or other ecstatic states can quite easily be attributed to forms of temporary psychosis. The key here is the ability to acknowledge that mystical experiences are wilful experiments with the fabric of one’s psychic substance that can be used to tap into alternative states of consciousness by communicating with one’s deep and unconscious self. As the entity, Afas, in the vision stated however, there is a quandary involved in this in that one can no longer truly tell what is the product of one’s unconscious, which has been given free reign to act as it wills for a short time, and what is the product of the encouragement or manipulation of forces that exist beyond it.

The true key to understanding whether what we experience in such states is down to us or something extraneous to us lies in receiving proofs that point to something beyond the self. In these experiments this has happened rather consistently with the reception of words that I have had no prior knowledge off in ancient languages that I only have passing familiarity with. In this vision, this happened too, as the name given, Afas, appears to correlate with the Hebrew word אפש (afas), which means ‘wish’ or ‘desire,’ which is objectively relevant due to the entity informing me I could ‘speak what I wished for’ when it first appeared. It’s nature, then, was the granting of wishes or desires in the way that is mythically expressed in the persons of the djinn that emerge from magical lamps in Arabian lore. Another alternative explanation for this sort of phenomena is that the self has the ability to tap into an objective pool of information that lies beyond it, such as that represented by the Collective Unconscious postulated by the eminent sage Carl Jung. This possibility, however, is no less magical in its postulations than the idea of spirits or daemons having an element of influence over us, but I personally believe that the human mind cannot access information beyond its own experiences, but can be prompted and communicated with by preternatural entities that are extraneous to it.

The Square was created with the Moon at 12º Sagittarius and performed with the Moon at 25º Sagittarius.