Do you ever wonder what I read day to day ? Herbs - Healing - Spiritual from a friend & scholar Jake S.K. Invoking Angels. Edited by Clair Fanger Pennsylvania State University 2012 ISBN 978-0-271-05142-0 An excellent academic text, Invoking Angels (Editor Clair Fanger), in many of its parts adheres to what we might expect from the title. The Ars notoria, Liber Raziel and Liber Juratus predominate in parts 1 to 5, crossovers between Jewish and Christian ideas in magic and Kabbalah are emphasised in parts 7 & 8 respectively. In parts 6 & 9 however, such expectations give way to other matters; close to, even identical with Goetia, although the ‘angelic’ title is nevertheless justified for various reasons. Part Nine is Ritual Invocation and Early Modern Science: the Skrying Experiments of Humphrey Gilbert, by Frank Klaassen. An examination of a sixteenth century ‘magical record’, interesting in several respects: it is necromantic in the true sense of evoking the dead; Humphrey Gilbert, the operator, and adapter of processes, was neither Catholic nor a cleric but a thoroughly secular Protestant; among the spirits he deals with are Azazel, who he enlists to assist him evoke Adam, Job, Solomon, Roger Bacon and Cornelius Agrippa. The conjuration of dead magicians reprises various themes in my own work, not least identifying ‘demons’ with deceased initiates and teachers. Subsequent to this Gilbert records a summoning of the Four Kings under the names of ‘Oriens, Amaimon, Paymon and Ægin’, which as Klaassen remarks is common in Solomonic manuscripts, and frequently involves skrying (itself associated from ancient times with necromancy proper, of course). General purpose invocations follow, as might be expected. Interesting as this paper is, it is to Part Six that our investigation must pay most attention. Part Six elucidates Antonio da Montolmo’s intriguing work De occultis et manifestis or Liber Intelligentiarum. Antonio is an interesting figure in his own right, although it would require too much space to speak overmuch of him here. The author of the study in Invoking Angels is Nicolas Weill-Parot, aided substantially by Julian Veronèse, an expert on Solomonic manuscripts. It comes in two parts, the first a well annotated analytical introduction, the second a bilingual Latin English critical edition of the text itself. This is of enormous interest, its value heightened by the notes, as outlined here. Antonio’s work essentially combines elements from one Hermetic and three Solomonic sources. These are an interesting selection and deserve listing: the Hermetic Book of the 15 ‘Behenian’ Stars, their stones, herbs and images. This has been an important source in my own researches. Although Invoking Angels arrived late in the composition of this book, the connections between Antonio’s work and my own, in this and previous volumes, are striking. the Art Almadel or Almandal. This is the principal Solomonic text in Antonio’s synthesis, providing the spirit catalogue and cosmological details to the KoS. Its angels are not cosmic planetary forces but elementals of the sublunary world. This amalgamation anticipates Lansdowne MS 1202 and the True Grimoire. The Clavicle or Key of Solomon provides such practical ritual elements as consecrating & working with wax &c; the ‘liturgical’ backdrop to the cosmology of the above combination. De anglica fictione (sic) is the most elusive of the titles. ‘Fictione’ may refer less to fictus – false, and more to fictilis - clay, earthern, jar, clay figure; and to fictor - sculptor, maker. Especially as Cecco had ascribed a De angelica factione/factura (‘the angel maker’) not to Solomon but to Apollonius. Ch.I.1 of Liber Intelligentiarum distinguishes four directions allocated to the four cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra & Capricorn, heads of the elemental Triplicities in the zodiac. I.2 identifies four kinds of intelligences or spirits, specifies their sphere of operation as the lower, not the celestial world whence their types and energies are derived. Oriens is named as an Intelligence of the East and fire, distinct from spirits of other directions and elements. The various types are proper to this or that science or operation, rather than another. I.3 specifies this fourfold astrological pattern, with the Four Kings implied, as the reason for performing magic at the crossroads. This sets the tone for the entire text, and has considerable bearing on the matter of the Four Kings in Solomonic magic. He places an interesting emphasis on the first decan of Cancer, giving it the title ‘heart of the North’ and attributing great importance to it in the lore of magicians. This likely originates in his understanding of Hermetic literature concerning the decans, particularly Sothis. He is aware that Cancer rather than Aries can be equivalent to ‘the horoscope’; that is, the prototypic Ascendant (IA.9.225.259). Antonio draws on Cecco d’Ascoli, without naming him, wisely since this magician, who also mentions our Four Kings, was destroyed by the Inquisition. They resemble each other in their understanding of magic, and in striving to remain within Christian theology. Thus both portray the ‘angels’ available to magicians in the same way; as sublunar spirits, whose nature is determined by higher astrological forces (superlunary angels), while they are ‘aerial spirits’. Christian though this is, we may easily see echoes of Neoplatonist ideas as expressed by Plutarch and others in late antiquity (see my comment on the Vision of Er in Geo.II. &c). For Christian theology the higher angels, following Aquinas, were identified with the angelic order of Virtues. The lower ones, involved in the actual magic, were Powers, a class identified by Saint Paul as ‘fallen’ or devilish. Antonio appears to identify them more with the ‘thwarting angels’, while simultaneously blurring distinctions from the spirits under the Four Kings in a wholly understandable way. Cecco and Antonio are linked too in their connection of astrological magic with spirit magic, a combination that – angelic or no - flouts Albertus Magnus denunciations in Speculum Astronomiae. Antonio asserts too that the chiefs among these lower Intelligences are identical with the pagan gods. Here too there are echoes of Neoplatonism, which distinguished between ‘daimones’ and divine figures for whom they were supposedly mistaken by earlier ‘poets’. That is, since the later idealised philosophical conception of Zeus would never transform himself into a beast, it had to be a daimonic subordinate who had done so. In Plutarch’s Mysteries of Isis & Osiris such ideas are taken further, the eponymous deities had originally been daimones, but evolved into deities. For a more pragmatic, less ‘theologically paranoid’ magician, it is simple common sense that a spirit who assists him in a day to day matter is not the chief angel guiding this or that planetary sphere in its orbit, or this or that element in its most cosmic operations. The expectation would be a lesser spirit of the same hierarchy but much closer to home. Whether angelic or daimonic depends on who happens to be defining ‘aerial spirits’ at the time, or who may be listening. In any case, the ‘angels’ most concerned in magic are plainly close to humanity, operating in the sublunar sphere, and thus one with the ‘mediatores’ of Theurgic eschatology etc. My understanding of Liber Intelligentiarum differs from Weill-Parot’s insofar as – in my opinion - he downplays the existing astrological elements in Solomonic magic overmuch. The ‘Exhortation’ to Rehoboam in the KoS MSS is a potent corrective: Pay attention, my very dear son Rehoboam, to the exactness of this art of mine… to the procedures, in which the whole matter of [Hygromanteia or spirit conjuration] lies, because it is necessary before anything… to master the observations of the planets and of the signs of the Zodiac… In fact Solomon had been represented as an expert astrologer from at least the C2nd AD. The decan spirits of the Testament, prototypes which underpin the spirits of the Almadel among others, represent a potent astrological element indigenous to the Solomonic corpus from the beginning. Moreover, as shown in part two, the ToS describes Hermetic images of the Fixed Stars. Finally, Albertus Magnus certainly recognised Solomonic magic as involving one of three classes of astrological image, with which Antonio himself is here concerned. So, Solomonic and Hermetic magic were not strangers to each other in the earlier, formative period. A magician such as Antonio, even with his nods towards Christian orthodoxy, was quite capable of recognising the commonalities of the genres. This aside, as Weill-Parot notes, Antonio appreciated that Solomonic is more outwardly ‘Christian’ than its Hermetic stable mate. So too he is involving astrology to a greater degree than the typical Solomonic text, which rarely involves aspects and houses so much as lunar tides and planetary days and hours &c. He likely saw this as more of a restoration than an innovation. Ch.I.6 speculates concerning the disturbances caused when magicians call spirits from the four parts of the world. One line of inquiry is that being of opposed types and powers, they are liable to fight. Another is that they are displeased at constraint by divine power, a matter he discusses with conspicuously less enthusiastic orthodoxy in a later chapter. Also he advises against concurrent invoking of the Chiefs (Oriens, Amaymon, Paimon and Egyn); as the disturbances they are capable of, especially in elemental opposition, are greater than those of their subordinates. Elemental antipathy is explicit here, as implicit in the line of thinking is elemental sympathy, towards which astrological ideas are geared in his other chapters. Ch.I.7 reiterates the widespread conception of the spirits of the East as nobler than and superior to the others. Concerning their operations he speaks cryptically of appropriate or ideal magical timing (celestial points, hours & moments). In the way the Eastern, fiery spirits are perceived & the consciously Solomonic context in which they appear, are presentiments of the True Grimoire. Ch.2.1 reintroduces a familiar subject, the primacy of the Sun among the Elemental Kings and spirits. He is the candle of such stars, the principal among them and Time is his attribute. He is involved in all operations of the Eastern Intelligences, in the day, before noon, with Aries or Leo ascending. Operations of Kings require Leo, lords Aries, nobles Sagittarius; the three fire signs. Concerning tyrants, Aries rising in the day and hour of Mars, positions of Sun & Mars should be good, preferably with the Sun in a fire sign. Such material dominates this section; thereafter he speaks briefly of the Moon, waxing by day or night, and of conditions regarding other Intelligences &c. The emphasis on fiery spirits is very notable, and accords with the emphasis in the True Grimoire. Chapter 3 clarifies the context the magician is thinking and writing in, reference to the Art Almadel of Solomon are explicit. ‘Altitudes’ of elemental and directional angels, the ‘Powers’, are mentioned. Astrological and elemental considerations involving Altitudes & Intelligences occupy most of the chapters. The last part concerns Intelligences corresponding to the Altitude of the Ascending Sign at the time of birth. One of these is dispatched to each child by the prince of the Altitude. While this spirit is apparently seen as opposing the ‘good angel’ – the so called Guardian Angel of Abramelin et al - it is difficult not to see the Hermetic concept of a ‘nativity angel’ therein. Envisioning Antonio’s magic as like the Art Almadel but with more sophisticated astrological rules and a deeper background reckons without Chapter 4. This forms a spectacular contrast to pure ceremonialism as Solomonic magic is often understood. It concerns the making of magical ‘Images and Phylacteries, and similar things’ and although not the last chapter may be understood as climactic; the chapter is intensely practical. He discusses the images of the ancients, the different types and influences concerned, in general terms. He clarifies that images, rings, phylacteries and other things made are all involved in the same discussion. There are astrological ones, magical ones, and those that combine the two; this echoes Albertus in Speculum Astronomiae, but endorses all three rather than denouncing two. The making of magical Images is explicitly linked to the Elemental Intelligences, and in the most significant terms. So too is the use of wax, not in order to make a pentacle or candle as in the Art Almadel, but a magical image as in the Key (KoS.I.X. & II.XVIII. where Asmodal in invoked). The use of virgin wax, as prescribed therein for images, is also specifically mentioned. This is magic of a different kind than the collective summoning conjurations. The operator makes an image appropriate to their purpose, as described in Hermetic works quoted by Agrippa for example. The names of Intelligences are written upon it (or equivalent magical ‘Charakteres’) with burning of perfumes, honouring of the Intelligences and ‘kindly and benevolently’ invoking them, without compelling them by the divine power. Here again we are probably seeing originally pagan Hermetic ideas segued into the Solomonic format. Thus Antonio speaks of characters revealed by the spirits, rather than by God or his angels, with which Weill-Parot – who assumes Solomon is followed here - takes issue unnecessarily. Given the solar emphasis and other compatible matters present a useful rite for these purposes may be found in the ‘Consecration for all purposes’ (PGM.IV. 1596-1715). I have remarked elsewhere how this rite has similarities with the True Grimoire general purpose consecration (TG. The Third Part. The Knife). The PGM rite is specifically designed for images, rings and phylacteries; precisely what Antonio is discussing. Chapter 5 deals with ‘reasons for choosing the places where the operation is performed’. He clarifies here, if it were needed, that planetary attributions to these spirits do not imply connection with the Intelligences of the planetary orbs; rather, Intelligences bestowing or inflicting energies under that planet. He identifies the lower Intelligences with the gods of the ancients, and states his opinion that this explains planetary operations in the grimoires. His identification of ‘good’ energies on this level is with the ‘Powers’, but the overlap with ‘evil spirits’ is apparent, and not reliant on his interpretation. He discusses also the matter of appropriate weather, in terms scarcely distinguishable from the GoS, or indeed the Book of Saint Cyprian. In all this he is likely commenting on works of the C13th. Chapter 6 concerns ‘Reasons for Exorcisms, Circles, Characters, Pentacles, Suffumigations and Similar Things’. This is a commentary on the rites of Solomonic magic, and fairly brief. While it deals with matters of Protection without diminishing its importance in appropriate circumstances, there are some important instructions dealing with exceptions. So too he distinguishes between characters given by God, and characters given by the ‘evil spirits’. Weill-Parot objects in the notes that Solomonic characters (pentacles, inscriptions etc) are all God given, so the distinction must originate with Antonio. However it is present in later Goetic tradition, while Solomonic magic has its own debts to earlier traditions where characters were revealed to ‘Chaldean theurgists’, as likely to goetes. Those given by the spirits ‘are the signs [employed by] those [magicians] who want the creatures to operate in their honour’. In these circumstances, already mentioned in respect of image making, the use of appropriate perfume, ink and paper, with a ‘benevolent prayer addressed to them’ the spirits are pleased at the honour done them and work hard to achieve the purpose of the phylactery or what not. These ‘images & phylacteries’ he thoroughly distinguishes from pentacles and other devices familiar from Solomonic magic, the rites of the bath and of the circle etc included. He emphasises here, as elsewhere, that the most efficacious rites are those performed by a Catholic cleric. However, there is a ‘But’, under which he includes the suffumigations and other items such as paper and ink, employed in ‘sacrifice’ to the spirits. These items must be ‘exorcised in their own names with benevolence and a prayer addressed to them’. This is a most ambivalent prescription an instant after insisting on the superior efficacy of Catholic rites. The next two sections, the climactic part of the entire text, reiterate further. Operations performed ‘through placation and power of the spirits’ employ benevolent prayers addressed to them. Otherwise ‘the exorcist would absolutely not succeed. This is clear and there is no doubt about it’. Further, when seeking a boon from the spirits, the operator behaves purely and chastely without reciting the divine prayers, having bathed in unblessed water from a spring or river whose waters are clear. The applicability of virginity and of clear substances to this kind of spirit reprise earlier chapters. The interest of this document, and its relevance to working with the Four Kings in various ritual contexts should be apparent, and recommendation enough for further reading.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 08:18:32 +0000
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