by Benjamin Rowe
The purpose of this ritual exercise is to invoke the transcendental power of the Enochian god, to transform it in turn through all the macrocosmic powers within the Elemental Tablets, and to organize them into a balanced form. At the same time, these powers are conditioned so that they express a particular view of the creation of which they are a part. As the final step, these energies are directed so that they energize the magician himself.
The magickal records covering the results of the first use of this exercise are available separately.
I have received several complaints about my published rituals recently. Some complain that they are too elaborate, others that they are too simple, and some question whether they really qualify as magickal rituals in the traditional sense.
The complaints of over-elaborateness stem from the fact that it is impossible to perform any significant part of the works in a single session. This is perfectly correct, and is done deliberately. My experience has been that the rewards given to the magician by the "angels" of the Enochian system are very precisely gauged to the amount of care and effort the magician puts into the work. Works that are planned, rehearsed, and carried out over a period of weeks or months are much more likely to produce significant initiations than any number of single-session efforts. The present work was designed to be performed in stages, with the expectation that each stage will be performed until the powers invoked achieve a self-sustaining presence in the magician’s temple before he passes on to the next stage. It can be expected that the rewards will be commensurate with the effort involved.
Complaints of excessive simplicity derive from lack of the pompous verbiage typically found in formal rituals, and the dearth of advice concerning symbols, implements, and materiel that would help to fire the imagination of the magician. There is a decidedly bare-bones feel to the descriptions. This is perhaps an expression of my own character as a magician; I find that complex pomp and ceremony put me off rather than enhancing the work. I have complete faith that every magician’s imagination and intuition will provide him with enhancements appropriate to his or her own character and style, and so see no need to provide more than the minimum schema necessary to accomplish the work successfully.
The differences between these rituals and more traditional forms derives from the nature of Enochian magick. In most systems, the primary difficulty is in producing a flow of the desired power. The major portions of the rituals are dedicated to simply getting the power to appear. Once it does appear, its direction to the desired end is a relatively simple matter.
In contrast, the Angelic Calls and Names provide a means by which even a beginning magician can easily call up a strong flow of force. But the forces involved are much more ambiguous than in other systems. Each appears to have many different natures depending on the level and orientation from which they are viewed; their manifestations seem to be potentially infinite. The primary work of a ritual must accordingly be to focus, direct, and condition them, through the use of the imagination, so that they manifest in a clear and manageable way. This work conforms to that necessity.
Additionally, the specific form used makes this work something resembling an inverse path-working exercise, going top-down rather than bottom-upwards. And as Frater Azoth has pointed out, there are resemblances to the mandala-workings and chakra-visualizations used in Tibetan Buddhism. They are certainly very similar in intent, though the similarity of form was unintentional.
The work may be done in either a physical or an astral workplace. The magician may find astral working preferable due to the size of the magickal circle, and also because the area can not be used for any other purpose while this work is proceeding.
The magickal circle is actually four concentric circles having specific relative proportions. The "units" referred to may be of any convenient size, provided that the innermost circle is large enough to stand or sit in comfortably.
The inner circle has a radius of four units. The next circle has a radius of eleven units, and thus produces a band 7 units thick around the inner circle. The third circle has a radius of 12 units, making a band one unit thick around the second circle. The outer circle has a radius of 13 units, making another band one unit thick.
All four circles are divided into quarters by lines going from the center to the circumference in the cardinal directions. Each quarter of the second circle is further divided into six pie-sections fifteen degrees wide. Each quarter of the outer circle is divided into three pie-sections thirty degrees wide.
The innermost circle should be colored some dark neutral color, such as a dark gray. The two outermost circles in each quarter should be colored in the King-scale elemental color of the corresponding element, thus:
| Quarter | Element | Color |
| Northwest | Air | Bright pale yellow |
| Northeast | Water | Deep blue |
| Southeast | Fire | Glowing orange-scarlet |
| Southwest | Earth | Warm velvet black |
The second circle should be in some light neutral color, such as a slightly grayish white. Alternately, each sector of this circle could be outlined in the elemental color of the quarter with a fill in one of the planetary colors, following one of the schemes described further on. But this alternative may be too burdensome for an astral working.
The structure of this magickal circle mirrors the medieval concept of the heavens. In that cosmology, the planetary and heavenly realms are viewed as a series of concentric circles surrounding the Earth, each circle going outwards representing an increasingly more "divine" power. The planets each take a circle in their cabalistic order. The sphere of the zodiac is outermost, representing an outer "shell" around creation; beyond it is the Empyrean, the unknown, invisible realm of God.
The scheme has been slightly modified here to fit the actual natures of the Enochian powers involved. It is recommended that the magician make a diagram of the circle and completely familiarize himself with the meaning of the various parts before beginning work. If this is done, the actual work becomes a much simpler prospect.
Our goal in this work is to take the invisible power of the divine, bring it into the realm of creation, and then bring it downward through a series of transformations to energize and consecrate the Earth and ourselves. Thus we will be working from the outer circles towards the center.
Functionally, the three Names of God in each Tablet act to gather the invisible power of the divine and transform it so that it is accessible to the lower powers of their Tablet. As such they act as the interface between the Empyrean and the realm of creation, in a way similar to that of the zodiac. The outermost band of our magickal circle will embody this principle.
Each of the twelve Names of God will have dual attributes. The first, which we will call the "outer" attribute, represents the energy the Name takes in from the divine, as symbolized by one of the zodiac signs. (See The Zodiacal Round.) The second "inner" attribute represents the energy as it has been transformed by the Name into a form compatible with its Tablet. This latter attribute also uses the zodiac signs, but after another fashion.
The cross that divides the circle into quarters represents the solstices and equinoxes, and at the same time the "Black Cross" that binds the four Elemental Tablets together into the Great Table. The western arm of the cross is the spring equinox and the eastern arm the autumnal equinox. The northern arm is the winter solstice, and the southern arm the summer solstice. The three Names of god are assigned to their quarter's three sectors of the circle's outer band in clockwise order. The relevant attributes of these names are as shown in the following table.
| Name | Element | Quarter | Outer Attribute | Inner Attribute |
| ORO | Air | Winter | Pisces | Gemini |
| IBAH | Aquarius | Aquarius | ||
| AOZPI | Capricorn | Libra | ||
| MPH | Water | Fall | Sagittarius | Pisces |
| ARSL | Scorpio | Scorpio | ||
| GAIOL | Libra | Cancer | ||
| OIP | Fire | Summer | Virgo | Sagittarius |
| TEAA | Leo | Leo | ||
| PDOCE | Cancer | Aries | ||
| MOR | Earth | Spring | Gemini | Virgo |
| DIAL | Taurus | Taurus | ||
| HCTGA | Aries | Capricorn |
Thus in their outer attributes, the Names collect a complete round of the divine energies as passed inwards through the zodiac. In their inner attributes, the Names pass inwards the power of their element, in its alchemically mercurial, salt, and sulphuric forms.
The function of the Elemental King of each Tablet is to take the power passed inward by the Names of God, concentrate that power, transform it and distribute it to the Seniors and the powers of the Lesser Angles. In this work we will only be concerned with his transformation of the power into the six-fold constellation of the Seniors.
The Seniors represent the planetary powers, but in a way not entirely compatible with the medieval cosmology. The medieval system, like the cabala, sees the planets as ranked hierarchically, some being more divine than others. In contrast, the six Seniors in each Tablet are in every way equals; none is higher than the others.
In this work we will consider them as each being a vertically-oriented power; each represents a flow of power that is colored by a particular planet's nature, but which passes downwards through all the planetary circles of the medieval scheme. Each letter of a Senior's name will represent his power as it manifests in one of those circles. As an example, the "A" of ACZINOR will be a Jovian power acting in the sphere of Saturn; the "C" of that name will be a Jovian power acting in the sphere of Jupiter, and so on.
Following this scheme, the Senior's names are assigned one to each pie-section of the second band within our magickal circle. They go from the outside towards the center, as do the powers represented by those names.
The innermost circle represents the Earth as the center of the medieval cosmology. Additionally, this circle holds all of the Lesser Angles of the Tablets. There is a more elaborate version of the structure used here, in which the Lesser Angle powers also have their spheres surrounding the Earth; but for current purposes all the microcosmic spheres have been lumped into one.
Preparatory and Concluding Actions
Actions in this section should be practiced daily until they have become familiar and the feelings and attitudes necessary can be held without effort. With practice, they should become easy enough that they can be done smoothly in a couple of minutes. These actions should be performed in every ceremony, before going on to one of the stages.
1. Use a plain white robe for a costume, with no decorations or regalia of any kind. A black over-robe, again without decoration, should be worn over with white robe at the beginning of the ceremony. This second robe should be such that it can be easily and rapidly thrown off. A plain white wand, unconsecrated to any other purpose, may be used, or figures may be drawn with the hand.
2. Perform a preliminary purification and consecration of the Temple with Fire, Water, and Air. Use frankincense or some other solar incense for the censing, rather than any specifically elemental incense. DO NOT perform any preliminary banishings or invocations; the G.D. pentagram and hexagram rituals are specifically to be avoided, as are any other rituals that describe a protective circle around the place of working.
3. Move to the center of the circle and kneel or sit comfortably, facing the direction of the spring equinox.
4. Imagine that the innermost circle is the microcosmic world, and the entire Earth and all of the purely elemental magickal worlds are contained therein, as well as your body. Feel all these things being gathered into the sphere and being immovably fixed there. Spend as long as necessary to get a strong feeling that this has been accomplished.
5. Imagine that the black robe is a shell, an outer mundane body concealing the essentially divine essence of your being. Imagine that all the mundane parts of your being, and every other thing that distinguishes you from the divine, is part of that shell. Feel these things moving into the robe and becoming fixed there, leaving nothing but the divine essence, enclosed in the white robe, contained within it. Again, spend as long as necessary to feel this has been accomplished.
6. Undo the black robe so that when you stand it will fall away and be left lying behind within the inner circle.
7. Stand up and simultaneously cast off the black robe. As you do so, feel that everything of your personal identity is being left behind with it. Even the physical or astral body your consciousness inhabits should be felt to be nothing more than a projection, an illusion without substance or influence. All that remains is a divine essence, free of its envelope. This essence expands itself into the God of Justice, IAD BALT, who reigns over the Enochian universe.
From this point on in the work, all actions are to be done as if you were this god. The region enclosed by the circles is the realm of your creation, and you can stand within it or outside it without being in any way influenced by it. You should make an effort to feel a total freedom from any conditions or limitations of the created world.
8. Still looking towards the spring equinox point, survey your creation and review its structure. In the center is the World, and the realms of the elements. Next outwards is the realm of the planets, enclosed by the realm of the Sun. Beyond the Sun the remainder of the manifest universe is compressed into realm of the zodiac. And beyond the zodiac is the Empyrean, your true home and state of being, a higher-dimensional universe in which your creation is embedded. See each of these realms as separated from the next by a thin membrane or interface, not so much a barrier as an area where their influences balance and cancel out.
Meditate on your creation and that which encloses it as long as you like.
9. Concluding actions. After completing these preliminary exercises, or (if you have passed to one of the later stages) at the end of the ceremony, return to the center circle. Take up the black robe and put it on. At the same time, consciously re-absorb everything that you have previously fixed in it. Take on your personal identity again in all its aspects. Then sit in silence and seek to absorb any forces generated by the ceremony. As you proceed through the stages you may note significant changes in awareness, new insights, revelations, etc. during this time. Take as much time as you feel necessary to absorb and integrate them into your being.
Finally, declare the work to be completed, and return to your mundane activities.
Stage One
10. Following step 8, walk to the outside of the circles along the line of the spring equinox. Imagine at the same time that you are passing through the realms of your creation back to the Empyrean.
11. Still outside the circle, turn and circumambulate it in a clockwise direction, drawing a glowing line in the air above outer edge of the outer band as you go. Imagine that by doing so you are temporarily sealing off your creation from the higher dimensions in which it is embedded, so that there is no transfer of information or energy from one to the other.
12. Upon returning to your starting point, turn to face inwards along the equinoctial line. Vibrate the First Call. As you do so, imagine that it is causing the gathering of the limitless energy of the Empyrean, and causing that energy to press inwards on the boundary you have drawn around the realms of your creation. Vibrate the Call several more times, each time producing an increase in the energy present, and in the pressure it exerts upon the boundary. Seek to create as high a state of tension as you can, with the energy pressing irresistibly, and the boundary resisting immovably.
Stage Two
13. Move clockwise until you are outside the center of the outer band sector assigned to the name ORO. Face the center of the circle, and visualize that name floating in the air above its sector, just inside the barrier.
14. Vibrate the name ORO several times. Simultaneously draw the hexagram of Pisces on the face of the barrier and draw the glyph of the sign inside the hexagram. Next draw a circle around the hexagram just touching its points. While doing so, imagine that you are etching the circle in the barrier in the same way you would etch glass with a glass cutter.
15. Strike the center of the circle forcibly with your fist or the wand, punching out a hole in the barrier. (The hexagram remains suspended within the hole, its lines glowing.) Immediately you withdraw your fist, the Empyrean energy pressing on the barrier pushes through the hexagram, through the hole, and fills up the ORO sector of the outer band. As the energy passes through the hexagram it takes on the color of the sign Pisces, and remains this color as it fills the column.
16. Repeat steps 13-15 for the other sectors, going in order clockwise around the circle. Use the appropriate colors and hexagrams for the sector's outer attribute in each case. If necessary, take time to renew the pressure of the Empyrean energy between sectors.
Stage Three
This stage may be done one quarter at a time on separate days. If so, do not repeat the work on a given quarter in consecutive sessions; instead continue with the succeeding quarters and repeat the entire cycle of quarters as many times as necessary to get the energies firmly established.
17. Again move clockwise until you are opposite the center of the ORO sector in the outer band. Face the center of the circle and visualize the Name floating above the center of the sector.
18. Vibrate the name ORO several times. Draw the hexagram of Gemini on the interface between the outer and third bands while continuing to vibrate the name. Put the glyph of Gemini inside the hexagram. Draw the glyph of alchemical mercury above the hexagram, and the Enochian glyph of Air below it. Draw a circle around the hexagram as in step 14, as if etching the outline of a punch-out on a piece of glass.
19. Strike the circle with your fist and punch out a hole. See the force accumulated in the ORO sector pushing inwards into the third band, backed up by the pressure of the Empyrean energy pushing into the sector from outside. As the energy passes through the hexagram, its Piscean quality is transformed into the quality of Mercury of Air.
20. Move to the outside of the IBAH sector, and repeat steps 17-19. Except use the hexagram of Aquarius, with the alchemical glyph of Salt above it and the Enochian glyph of Air below it. See the energy being transformed into Salt of Air as it passes through the Hexagram.
21. Move to the outside of the AOZPI sector, and repeat steps 17-19. Use the hexagram of Libra, with the glyph of alchemical Sulphur above and the Enochian glyph of Air below. See the energy being transformed into Sulphur of Air as it passes inwards through the hexagram.
22. Move inwards and stand in the middle of the third band sector assigned to BATAIVAH, facing outwards. Vibrate BATAIVAH and continue to do so. See the power of the King's name gathering in the forces flowing through the three holes from the fourth band, and concentrating those forces into a point.
Inside the point of concentrated force, the mercurial, salt, and sulphuric aspects of Air combine to form pure elemental Airy energy, and this energy explodes outwards from the point to fill the entire sector.
23. Repeat steps 17-22 for the other three quarters in clockwise order around the circle.
Stage Four
The Seniors are assigned to the sectors of the second band either in cabalistic order (starting with Saturn and ending with Luna) or in clockwise order beginning with the upper arm of the Linea Patris. Here the cabalistic order is used. As noted earlier, the names are written in the sector from the outside in, and each letter represents the passage of the Senior's power through one of the Planetary Spheres of the medieval cosmology.
24. Perform the gathering and combination of the alchemical Airs as in step 22. Try to increase the pressure and volume of elemental Air within the sector to the maximum.
25. Turn to face inwards and vibrate the Elemental King’s name again. Continue to vibrate it, and feel its power gathering in the elemental Air from the sector, and forming it into a ball centered on the previously-created concentration point so that the ongoing conversion of alchemical Air feeds it. As the amount of elemental Air in the ball increases, it suddenly ignites and forms a self-sustaining Sun.
26. Staying in the third band, move opposite the first sector in the second band. Draw the hexagram of Saturn on the interface between the bands, and vibrate the name of the Senior of Saturn, HIPOTGA.
27. Turn to the sun and draw out of it a line of power. Attach that line to the center of the hexagram. (This line of power should actually be something like a narrow hose, within which energies flow out of the solar sphere and into the Senior’s realm. But nothing flows as yet, as a hole has not yet been punched between the bands.)
28. Repeat steps 26-27 for the remaining sectors in the quarter, drawing the appropriate hexagrams and invoking the appropriate Seniors.
29. Move into the second band and stand facing the hexagram of Saturn. Draw the hexagram again on this side of the interface, invoking the Senior. Next visualize the letters of the Senior’s name written in the sector from the outside towards the center.
30. Draw a circle around the hexagram, etching the surface of the interface, and strike to punch it out. Energy begins to flow through the "pipe" from the Elemental King, and as it passes through the hexagram it takes on the nature of the Senior.
31. Vibrate the name of the Senior slowly and with each letter of the name distinct. As you pronounce each letter, see the inflowing energy filling up the region just above that letter in the sector. At the same time confirm mentally or by visualization that the letter embodies the power of the Senior in the planetary sphere associated with it in cabalistic order. Continue to back down the sector towards the center, doing the same for each letter in turn.
32. When the entire pie-shaped sector has been filled with energy, you should now be standing in the first, central circle representing the Earth. On the barrier between the first and second circles, draw the astrological symbol of Earth, a circle crossed by two lines at right angles to each other. See the outer circle of this symbol etched on the barrier as before, and strike to punch it out, allowing the energy to flow into the central circle.
Visualize the energy spreading outwards from this point to cover the entire inner circle, as water from a hose spreads out to cover a tile floor. As it spreads, the energy also soaks into the black robe, which still lies upon the circle. The energy also fills the entire circle until it is above the level of your head. When the circle is filled, in your imagination trace the path of the energy back through all the preceding stages to its origin in the Empyrean.
33. Repeat steps 29-32 for the other sectors in the second band.
34. Repeat steps 24-33 for the other three quarters in the circle. This completes the exercise.
Copyright © 1995, Benjamin Rowe