This ritual consecration is to be used with an astral Temple built according to the plan described in the chapbook Enochian Temples and the supplemental paper titled The Lower Temple. Readers unfamiliar with the Temple system and its symbolism should obtain and study those documents before making use of the ritual presented here.
This current ritual is divided into five parts, the first including a general invocation of the aspect of God ruling the Enochian system, a general invocation of the element of Fire, and an invocation and consecration of those parts of the Temple derived from the Great Cross of the Fire Tablet. This is followed by four sections for consecration of the parts of the Temple built from the Lesser Angles. Once the Temple has been built and fully charged, each section can be used independently for invocation of the forces it refers to. Further details will be mentioned in the "Symbols and Visualizations" section.
In any ritual of this length, ninety percent of its effectiveness is in the preparation beforehand. At the least, the magician should be thoroughly familiar with the design of the Temple, and able to maintain an unwavering image of it in his astral vision throughout the work. The power of the work will increase greatly if the magician takes the time to memorize the Keys and the other words, gestures, and visualizations and rehearses them several times before using the ritual with full invocatory intent. One can not expect the Enochian entities to appreciate a poorly-rehearsed ritual; no more than actors can expect an audience to appreciate a play if they must continually stop to look up their lines.
Since the work makes use of the powerful Enochian names, it is to be expected that some response may be produced even during rehearsals. These effects should be neither rejected nor encouraged, but simply disregarded until the practice session is concluded.
0. The place of the working is astral. The area should be seen as a flat, empty plain, on which are inscribed four tangent circles, representing the four elements in the quarters, with a fifth circle in the middle intersecting the centers of all the others. From a height, these five circles can be seen to be within the central circle of a huge Enochian sigil of Fire, enscribed on the plain in the appropriate colors. The sky is vermilion, the plain itself of a deeper red with flashing streaks of orange-red and gold.
1. Banish using the pentagram and hexagram rituals, or the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram alone.
2. Take the cup of purifying water, and sprinkle it to the four quarters, beginning with the south, saying, "From the waters of Nuit did all things arise. In the waters of Nuit do all things live and have their being. To the waters of Nuit shall all things return." The magician shall lastly sprinkle himself with the waters.
3. Take the flame of consecrating fire, and cast it towards the four quarters, saying, "The fires of Had did stir the waters, raising all things to appearance. The fires of Had move all things in their courses. In the fires of Had is the universe destroyed." Lastly the magician shall gesture towards himself with the flame.
4. Move to the center of the circle of working, and face the south, saying, "As Heru-Ra-Ha do I stand in the midst of their union."
5. Face the east, and perform the exordium:
"O, Most Just God, who has made the tablets to appear for the eyes of men! Blessed be ye in the eyes of those greater creators who see us both together. Ye who have taken the world, and divided it into its several parts, and given each a name and number. Blessed be ye in the eyes of all creators!
"Your art surpasses the stars in beauty, and fills my heart with comfort and gladness. The light of your creation blinds me, yet withall do my eyes see a beauty greater yet beyond your forms and structures.
"Give to all of your light, Iad Balt. Give to all of your light, so that men may walk with their brothers the gods.
"Come ye, o creator-god, bless this one who in his own creations is your Will incarnate. Be unto me as the light in the soul. Be unto me as the comfort of earth. Be unto me as the gods of livingness and breath within me.
"Come ye, come ye, come ye, o creator-god, and bless and aid this man who is your disciple in the arts!"
6. Vibrate the first Enochian Key, invoking the God-name BITOM from the Tablet of Union.
7. Perform a preliminary invocation of the element Fire. The G.D. "Opening of the Temple in the Grade of 4=7" keeps the appropriate mood:
Sign of Thoum-aesh-neith.
Knock 333-1-333.
Say: "Let us adore the Lord and King of Fire!"
"IHVH TzBAOTh! Blessed by thou! The Leader of Armies is Thy Name!"
Invoking pentagram of Spirit.
"AHIH, AGLA, BITOM!"
Invoking pentagram of Fire.
"ALHIM, IHVH TzBAOTh!"
Sign of Leo with the Fire wand.
"In the name of MIKAL, archangel of Fire, Spirits of Fire, adore your creator!
Sign of the equal-armed cross.
"In the Names and the Letters of the Great Southern Quadrangle, Spirits of Fire, adore your creator!"
Raise the censer.
"In the Three Secret Names of God, OIP TEAA PDOCE, Spirits of Fire, adore your creator!"
Lower and raise the censer.
"In the Name of EDLPRNAA, Great King of the South, Spirits of Fire, adore your creator!"
"In the Name of IHVH TzBAOTh, I declare that the Spirits of Fire have been duly invoked!"
Knock 333-1-333.
8. Follow the "Opening of the Temple" with the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram for the element of Fire. At the end of the ritual, continue by saying:
"From the light have I called you down into darkness, o you Gods of Flame. Let that greater Light come with you, and bless this Temple of Fire that I build here. By the sacred Name BITOM do I call the Spirit of Fire to come in attendance on the consecration of this Temple."
9. Vibrate the sixth Enochian Key.
10. Move to the South side of the circle, and stand in the Sign of the Enterer.
"OIP TEAA PDOCE, banner on the heights of the Temple! Sphere of Nuit mirrored in the element of Fire! In whom the Archer, the Lion, and the Ram keep their triune truce! Let the light flow in from above, and let it illuminate the King's abode in all its brilliance and flashing glory!"
Perform the sign of Harpocrates.
11. Move to the north of the circle, and stand facing south. Draw the hexagram of Sol at the center of the circle.
"EDLPRNAA, thou mighty King of the Tablet of Fire! Show before men that shower of brilliance, that leaping changeful light that is yours! At the peak of the temple do thou stand, lighting the Temple both within and without! Thou art a Burning Sun to the wicked, and a Flame of Hope to the Righteous. Come thou, EDLPRNAA, burn in the heart of the temple as the soul burns in the heart of man."
12. "Seniors of Fire, I invoke you! You, who are the cross become the star become the wheel! You, who are the comfort of man and the directors of Fire within man's realm! You, who support the roof of the Temple, and sit upon your seats within the upper hall, changing the heat of the sun into the Waters of Life for man to drink! Your waters hide the core of the Temple, yet they reveal its truths in their flowing, rippling passage."
"Hear me, and come unto this temple in your power, you Seniors of Fire! Be as a sweet wine for the mouths of the priests and worshipers!"
Go to the north-northwest edge of the circle, and draw the hexagram of Jupiter before invoking ADOEOET. Move from there clockwise around the circle in 60- degree intervals, and draw the appropriate hexagram for each Senior as "he" or "she" is invoked.
"Hear me, ADOEOET, Fire of Jove, Lesser King who binds all together!
"Hear me, ALNDVOD, coolly flaming mother, brilliance of night!
"Hear me, AAPDOCE, priestess burning with the Fires of Love!
"Hear me, ARINNAP, you who strain at your limits!
"Hear me, ANODOIN, gay, flashing, childlike in your quickness!
"Hear me, AAETPIO, consummate warrior, Spear of the Gods!
"Come all ye, and visit this Temple! Make for it a sturdy roof, and dwell therein as the Waters of the Gods, Life extended and given Form."
13. Move to the center of the circle.
"The Hall of the Gods within the Temple of Fire has been duly consecrated, and the Lives of the Gods dwell therein. Let them ever give to the man in the lower Temple that Light which is theirs, that he might come to know himself as one of them."
14. The magician should stand in the center of the Temple, and should expand his astral body to the extent that his top-of-the-head chakra is contiguous with the sphere of the Three Names, and his spinal column with the beam emanating downwards from the sphere. Face the southeast.
15. Vibrate the Sixth Enochian Key again.
16. "Let there be light, o you Flames of Glory that shine in the Lesser Angle of Fire!
"Purified, rarified, doubling upon yourselves in your movement, you flash about the Temple in a moment.
"The Life of Sol is your source!
"The Life of Man is your guide!
"Flashing, flaming, bursting the bonds of matter!
"None can say whence you go, if they know your power!
"None can know your power if they know whence you go!
"Beginning of all, and end of all!
"Mediators of all action!"
17. "By the powers of RZIONR, minister of the greater gods, do I call you forth!
"By the powers of NRZFM, minister of those lesser gods that are the souls of men, do I bind you to my purpose!
"Come forth, you powers of Fire, from the heart of Fire, and fill this Temple with light!"
18. "Terrible is the Guardian of the Fiery Lesser Angle, a pillar of flame to strike fear into the hearts of the unknowing, and to call them to Judgement! Yet to the knowing is he a pillar of righteousness, his feet upon the Earth, and his head supporting the heavens within the Angle.
"I call him by his four names!
"ZIZA!
"IZAZ!
"ZAZI!
"AZIZ!
"Come forth, o Kerub of Fire of Fire, in your might, and support and guard this Temple of Fire!"
"Yet this pillar of terrible force is leavened by the spirit, and made also to be a teacher of men, awakening them from the dream of matter to knowledge of their souls. Hear the names of your spirit, o Kerub, and cloak yourself in the light of the gods!
"BZIZA!
"BIZAZ!
"BZAZI!
"BAZIZ!
19. "Grails of living light are the angels of the Fiery Lesser Angle, vessels of purity uncovered before the eyes of men, that they might be drawn to the glory of God. Many are they who have drunk unknowing of these vessels, seeking only power over matter or their fellow men. Yet having partaken of these vessels are they tied to God, will they or not. And all their actions after come to naught, save only those that bring them closer to the hidden heart of the Temple.
"Come, o Vessels of God, and take your place within the Angle of Fire as I call upon your names:
"You who are ADRE openly, and ADIRE in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
"You who are SISP openly, and SIOSP in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
"You who are PALI openly, and PANLI in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
"You who are ACAR openly, and ACRAR in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
20. "By the power of the God Most High, by his three names OIP TEAA PDOCE, I declare that the Lesser Angle of Fire has been established in the Temple of Fire."
21. Follow point 14, except face northeast.
22. Vibrate the Seventeenth Enochian Key.
23. "Let creation flow forth, o you Flames that spill about the Lesser Angle of Water!
"Action sustained, force squared and extended!
"Waves upon the face of the void!
"Fire reflected upon itself to become concentrated force!
"Essence of connection and relationship!"
24. "By the powers of VADALI, minister of the greater gods, do I call you forth!
"By the powers of OBAVA, minister of the lesser gods that are the souls of men, I bind you to my purpose!
"Come forth, you powers of Water within the heart of Fire, and fill this Temple with light!"
25. "Terrible is the Guardian of the Watery Lesser Angle, a pillar of flame to strike fear into the hearts of the unknowing, and to call them to Judgement! Yet to the knowing is he a pillar of righteousness, his feet upon the Earth, and his head supporting the heavens within the Angle.
"I call him by his four names!
"ANAA!
"NAAA!
"AAAN!
"AANA!
"Come forth, o Kerub of Water of Fire, in your might, and support and guard this Temple of Fire!"
"Yet this pillar of terrible force is leavened by the spirit, and made also to be a teacher of men, awakening them from the dream of matter to knowledge of their souls. Hear the names of your spirit, o Kerub, and cloak yourself in the light of the gods!
"BANAA!
"BNAAA!
"BAAAN!
"BAANA!
26. "Grails of saving blood are the angels of the Watery Lesser Angle, vessels of purity uncovered before the eyes of men, that they might be drawn to the glory of God. Many are they who have drunk unknowing of these vessels, seeking only power over matter or their fellow men. Yet having partaken of these vessels are they tied to God, will they or not. And all their actions after come to naught, save only those that bring them closer to the hidden heart of the Temple.
"Come, o Vessels of God, and take your place within the Angle of Fire as I call upon your names:
"You who are GMNM openly, and GMDNM in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
"You who are ECOP openly, and ECAOP in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
"You who are AMOX openly, and AMLOX in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
"You who are BRAP openly, and BRIAP in the secret heart of God, enter this Temple and stand with your brothers."
27. "By the power of the God Most High, by his three names OIP TEAA PDOCE, I declare that the Lesser Angle of Water has been established in the Temple of Fire."
28. Follow point 14, except face northwest.
29. Vibrate the Sixteenth Enochian Key.
30. "Let the Fires take form, o you Flames that leap and turn in the Lesser Angle of Air!
"You whose god is a sword of conquest, whose house is a place of justice in action!
"Who know the parts of the world, cleaving them in twain, and causing them to cleave to each other.
"Swift messengers, linking Will with Thought, and Thought with Action!
31. Invoke the God-names of the Lesser Angle as in points 17 and 24, but using the names NOALMR and OLOAG.
32. Invoke the Kerubic Angel(s) as in point 18, but replacing the first set of names with DOPA, OPAD, PADO, ADOP. Replace the second set of names with BDOPA, BOPAD, BPADO, BADOP.
33. Invoke the servient angels as in point 19, substituting "Grails of liberating Will" at the beginning of the section, and replacing each pair of names with these:
OPMN OPAMN APST APLST SCIO SCMIO VASG VARSG
34. Repeat all of point 20, changing the name of the Lesser Angle.
35. Follow point 14, except face southwest.
36. Vibrate the Eighteenth Enochian Key.
37. "Let the Fire become manifest, o you Flames that glow in the Lesser Angle of Earth!
"You whose god is unmeasurable joy brought into matter!
"Who are a window into the heavens, a gate of return for those who have traveled the outward path!
"Fire rising from the center of the world, a comforting heat to maintain the life upon her!"
38. Invoke the God-names of the Lesser Angle as in point 17, but using the names VOLXDO and SIODA.
39. Invoke the Kerubic Angel(s) as in point 18, replacing the first set of names with PSAC, SACP, ACPS, CPSA. Replace the second set of names with BPSAC, BSACP, BACPS, BCPSA.
40. Invoke the servient angels as in point 19, substituting "Grails of God's fulfillment" at the beginning of the section, and replacing each pair of names with these:
DATT DALTT DIOM DIXOM OOPZ OODPZ RGAN RGOAN
41. Repeat point 20, changing the name of the Lesser Angle.
0. The four circles should be placed to follow the placement of the elements in the Great Tablet that combines the four elemental tablets. That is, fire = southeast, earth = southwest, air = northwest, water = northeast. The fifth central circle is spirit. The actual circle of working encompasses all these and is tangent to the four outer circles. The interior area of the circle of working is colored red, in contrast to the bright green of the immediate exterior, which is the color of the central circle of the large Fire Sigil.
An idea of the appropriate colors for the land and sky can be achieved by study of the photographs sent back from Mars by the NASA space probe.
The Temple is composed of all the elements, though in the present case the forces of the element of Fire are dominant. So the material out of which it is made, represented by the ground on which it is built, must contain all the elements. The five circles affirm that this is the case. The red color of the circle of working shows that the magician is here concerned with the element and sub- elements of Fire.
The magician may find that he lacks the time to perform a consecration of all four Lesser Angles of the Temple in a single ceremony. The Lesser Angles may be consecrated in separate rituals, but if this is done, this present section of the ritual should be performed in each of those rituals. This section can also be used as a stand-alone ritual for the invocation of the forces of the macrocosm within the element of Fire.
The course of this ritual is hierarchical, going from the extremely general to the extremely specific. The magician is attempting to bring the force of the whole universe into the building of the Temple.
2-4. In the preliminary purification and blessing of the area of work, the magician seeks to unite himself with the two extremes of being, Nuit and Hadit. He affirms their pervasive presence, both internal and external, in his gestures of Water and Fire.
In point 2, Nuit is visualized as Infinite Space, the Ain Soph, filled with potential energy ready to be directed by the Will. The darkness of space is not because of its emptiness, but because its energy is at a rate of vibration beyond the visible range. It surrounds the area of working in all directions.
Nuit is also that which the phenomenologists have framed in the word "horizon". No matter how far we can see, there is always something beyond the range of our vision. No matter how well we know an object, it is still capable of giving us an infinite number of new sense impressions. No matter how much we experience, there is always more to experience. No matter how much we know, there is always more to be known. No matter how big we are, we are always within a space that is larger than ourselves. Nuit is that infinity of possibilities out of which comes the events that we actually experience.
The potential energy of Nuit is stirred into activity by the action of Hadit. Being a dimensionless point, he is without observable characteristics and thus is an expression of the AIN, nothing. He is "not extended", or "not, extended".
Yet at the same time, he says "I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is knowledge of me the knowledge of death." And he continues in the next verse of Liber AL: "I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel and the cube in the circle. 'Come unto me' is a foolish word: for it is I that go."
While nothing in himself, it is his existence that stirs all things into activity, and determines the types of activity expressed by any given thing or person. It is his withdrawal that causes existence to cease; not only on the human level of existence, the mesocosm, but in the microcosm of sub-atomic phenomena and the macrocosm of stellar phenomena as well.
No matter how far into ourselves we explore, we can never discover Hadit as something which can be observed. This is because it is him in us that is doing the exploring. That which sees can never see itself, but only its own outward projection. He remains as unknown as that which lies beyond the horizon of Nuit. Yet the latter can eventually be known, by expanding the radius of the horizon, while that which sees remains a perpetual mystery.
During the initial consecration with fire, Hadit should be seen as a dimensionless point residing within the heart, but projecting fiery force outwards in all directions. The magician should feel his aura to be filled to near-bursting with a golden- white light. Ideally, he should become unconscious of the physical body for a while, aware only of the spherical body of light. The 2nd formula of Clavis Rei Primae of the Aurum Solis cult can be used to charge the aura with force at this point in the ceremony.
Next, the force accumulated in the aura should be seen exploding outwards into the universe in all directions, while at the same time a spherical wave of more water-like energies should be seen coming inwards to the magician from infinity. The two wavefronts crash together in the middle distance, and their merger fills the universe with nova-bright flashing sparks of every imaginable color, each giving off a feeling of ecstatic triumph. Thus the Ain Soph Aur, the limitless light, which is Heru-Ra-Ha, is formed from the union of the two infinities, and the perceptible universe is created. The magician then draws in this light and forms it into the god-form of Heru-Ra-Ha around himself, positioning himself in the figure's heart. The god should be a gigantic figure, large enough to use planets and stars for stepping stones. As the magician speaks the words of point 4, he projects his consciousness into the god-form.
5. Between the infinities of Nuit and Hadit is an infinite cosmos, filled with creative beings. Man is the type of creative being closest to the microcosmic end of the scale. Going on in the macrocosmic direction we discover an unending multitude of other beings, whose spheres of creative action become more and more inclusive as we proceed. Here we invoke that creator who perfected the aspect of existence embodied in the Enochian system of magick. And we call upon that yet higher being who is God to this creator to bless him for his works.
The nature of his creation is then described, and praised for its beauty and perfection, while recognizing that there are other aspects of existence beyond those embodied in his creation. In an infinite universe, it is impossible to describe all aspects of existence within any particular system.
The magician then asserts that men are also creative gods, within their own spheres of activity. He calls upon the God of the Tablets to lend his force to the task of raising men to their rightful place in the hierarchy of creators.
Finally the magician asserts his own power as a creator, whose work is united with that of the God of the Tablets. He asks that god to bless his work in each of the five elemental modes.
The language of this section was provided to the author by some of the non- incarnate mages associated with the Enochian system, and reflects their own view of existence. It is intended as a general exordium to be performed before working with any of the Tablets, not just with the Tablet of Fire.
6. Having identified himself with the God of the Tablets, the magician now speaks as that god in reciting the First Key of the Enochian rituals, calling Spirit of Fire to fill the place of working and maintain the balance of the elements during the rest of the ritual. A white light tinged with orange-scarlet should be seen filling the circle at the end of the invocation.
7. Having set the stage, we now narrow our focus to include only the element of Fire. The use of the G.D. invocation in this point is a matter of convenience. The invocation is relatively short, and its language is consistent in style with the rest of the ceremony. The magician should feel free to substitute other language as genius dictates.
8. With this point, the preliminaries are over, and we begin the construction of the Temple. The magician should be familiar with the form and symbolism of the Temple, and able to maintain a visualization of it without effort. The structure of the Temple should be maintained in the astral vision throughout the rest of the ceremony. At first, it should appear just as a skeleton of itself. As each force of the Tablet is invoked, the corresponding part of the Temple should begin to glow with the appropriate color. The Temple should be large enough so that each pillar is positioned at the center of one of the outer four circles in the area of working. When the magician recites the sentence beginning "From the light...", the fire of the sky above the area of working should be visualized descending to the plain, leaving behind a starry night sky.
10. The Three Names of God and the Elemental King reflect Nuit and Hadit on a slightly smaller scale. The Names of God are connected with the signs of the Zodiac, which are the manifestation of Nuit in time and space. In this particular case, OIP = Sagittarius, TEAA = Leo, and PDOCE = Aries. The symbolic figures of the signs should be seen against the backdrop of the stars, at the points of an equilateral triangle around the work area. The magician should attempt to get a sense of vast distances between himself and these figures, so vast that the width of the Solar system is pinhead-sized by comparison.
As the sign of Harpocrates is performed, beams of light spear inward from these figures to strike the sphere of three rings at the peak of the Temple. Each ring should glow in the color of its corresponding sign, and there should be a sense of the forces spinning around the circumference of each ring. The rings kindle into flame, and the light of that flame flows outward again to the stars, and inward, filling the sphere with energy under great pressure.
11. The Elemental King is Hadit reflected in Sol. In his higher aspect, as the initiating Life of the Solar system, the "central spiritual sun", he is a point of intensely concentrated energy at the center of the Sphere of the Three Names. As the first three sentences of the paragraph are spoken, the energy within the sphere all collapses into the center, where it kindles a flaming point that immediately becomes self-sustaining, drawing further energy out of itself rather than from the continuing infall from the signs.
As the last two sentences are spoken, a spear of intensely radiating light bursts downward into the Temple to its floor, illuminating the entire area of work.
12. Where the King is Atziluthic, and therefore of a fiery nature, the Seniors are Briatic, and therefore Watery. As the planets, astrologically, embody aspects of the Sun's force, so the Seniors embody aspects of the King's power, and each relates to a particular planet.
"The cross become the star become the wheel" refers to the tranformation of the four-armed Central Cross of the two-dimensional Tablet into the six-spoked star of the three-dimensional Temple, and thence into the circular curtain around the Temple.
A telesmatic image for each of the Seniors should be devised under the guidance of magician's own genius, and visualized as each Senior is invoked. He should then see a flow of force from that image into the Senior's arm of the Temple roof. After all the Seniors have been invoked, a flow of vermillion liquid fire should be visualized flowing outward between the arms of the roof and falling in a circular curtain around the temple. The circle described by this curtain is identical with the central circle of the area of work.
13. The completion of this section of the consecration is confirmed with an appropriate speech.
14 - 15. In dealing with the lesser angles, the magician acts as the representative or minister of the higher powers embodied in the Great Central Cross of the Tablet. He shows his position by identifying his body with the visible symbols of these powers in the Temple.
16. The lesser angle of Fire represents the Element in its purest, most refined state. In the Enochian system, the element of Fire is "the secret life of all things". Thus it takes on some characteristics that are normally ascribed to Spirit. In the physical world, Fire is energy, and the purest form of energy is the photon, the only particle in which the quality of mass is completely absent. This section of the ritual is a celebration of Fire of Fire in terms of life and light. The first sentence recalls the biblical "Iehi Aur" or "Fiat Lux", the first action of God in creating the world. It also reminds us that in the creation-mythos fostered by modern physics, nothing except photons existed in the first few moments after the Big Bang. "Flames of Glory" echoes the Enochian word "Ialprg", which is also translated as "God-flame". Thus Fire of Fire is identified with the energy of the Creator in three different myth systems. The second sentence celebrates some of the characteristics of the lesser angle. "Purified" because there is no intermixture of other elements in this angle. "Rarified" because Fire is the subtlest of the elements. "Doubling upon yourselves" because both the primary and secondary attributes of the angle are Fiery. "Movement" is a primary quality of Fire. The third sentence reminds us that Sol is either directly or indirectly the source of all life and energy within the ecologic economy of the planet Earth. The only exception to this, the radioactive elements, are still the products of other stellar beings. The Life or Soul of man is the guide of light in several ways. Spiritually, because Man is the mesocosm, the mediator between spirit and matter, and thus directs the action of spiritual light in relation to the lower kingdoms of nature. Physically, because Man is the only embodied creature who is capable of willfully directing the use of energy. The final five sentences celebrate the characteristics of physical light in the quantum-mechanical view of the universe. "Bursting the bonds..." reflects the fact that photons are the means by which one physical element changes into another. The next two sentences recall the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. "Beginning of all..." reminds us that photons were the first particles to appear in the Big Bang mythos, and will be the only particles remaining in the Big Crunch with which the physicists claim the universe will end. Photons are mediators of action because all use of physical force is actually a transference of photons from the actor to the thing acted upon.
17. The energies of the lesser angle are called forth by the power of the god- names of six and five letters. The combination of these two names in the sephirotic cross of the angle represents the power of Tiphereth with respect to the lesser angle. When the magician is identified with the column of fire in the center of the Temple, the six Seniors radiate outwards at the level of the throat chakra, and the four sephirotic crosses surround him at the level of the heart chakra. As the god-names of the angle are vibrated, the cross should be visualized in its horizontal position over the lesser angle, and the summoned energies should project out from the magician's heart to strike the Kether square of the cross and fill the whole cross with force.
18. A telesmatic image for the Kerubic angel should be devised that is appropriate to the magician's accustomed symbol-system. The angel's image should be seen standing within the pillar. As the names of the Kerub are invoked, there should be a sense that the pillar is being filled with a force that is unconquerable, a fierce strength which no power on earth or in heaven can move from its appointed place and duties. As the Archangelic names (those beginning with the letter "B" are invoked, this fierceness is softened, mitigated by a sun-like radiance, and a nimbus of etherial light begins to glow around the pillar.
19. The "servient" angels of the tablets are a trap for the unwary, a trap that can not be avoided if they are used at all. Their powers are oriented towards the Earth, towards manifest events, a promise of power displayed for those who seek power. Their surface appearance is "elemental" in the medieval use of that term -- natural powers having no connection to the spirit, no soul. But those powers are only the bait on the hook, encouraging the unaware person to bite so that he may be drawn up into the hands of the fishermen. Each servient angel has a secret nature, represented by the fifth letter added in the second forms of their names. This secret nature is the power of the macrocosm, represented in the Lesser Angle by the god-name of six letters, from which the additional letters come. This power operates constantly in the microcosm, even when it is unperceived. But by invoking the servient angels for mundane or non-spiritual uses, the magician opens a channel by which the macrocosmic forces can work on him in concentration rather than being hidden behind the elemental surface appearance of existence. The action of these forces twists the events of life in such a way that the person inevitably becomes committed to the path of initiation. Efforts in other directions become subject to inexplicable failures, interventions of "chance" events that frustrate the person's intentions, leaving only one path of successful action open. Those who are making the effort to build a Temple from one of the Tablets are most likely already committed to the Great Work, and so will not notice any particular effects of this trap in their lives.
20. The consecration of the Lesser Angle ends with a re-invocation of the highest forces of the Tablet, generating a return current for the flow of force into the Lesser Angle. Consecration of the other Lesser Angles The rituals for the remaining Lesser Angles are for the most part the same as the Fiery Lesser Angle. Only the Key used, and the introductory recitation of the powers of the angle changes significantly. The invocations of the God-names of six and five letters, the Kerubic Angels, and the Servient Angels contain only minor changes in words specific to each angle. Watery Lesser Angle
23. The first "Heh" of IHVH is associated both with Water and with the Briatic or Creative world, so the commemoration of the powers of the Lesser Angle begins "Let creation flow forth...". In our metaphor relating elemental fire to physical energy, this lesser angle represents the wave aspects of light. The quanta of the Fiery Lesser Angle were essentially one-dimensional, as close to a geometric point as exists in nature. In contrast, the wave aspect of light only appears when light is considered within a framework of several dimensions. The purest conception of the wave aspect needs only two dimensions for description. But as photons move through space they generate a rotating magnetic field around themselves, which forms a spiral in three dimensions. The description of the angle's energies as "force squared and extended" reflects this in a transformation to two dimensions through the process of squaring, then into three dimensions by movement at some angle to the plane. The fourth dimension of time is present in the phrase "Action sustained", which also commemorates the function of Water as a receiver and preserver of the fiery impulse. The line "Waves upon the face of the void", states the result of the processes of the previous line. It also reflects a conception common to both physics and some metaphysical systems, in which existence is considered as vibratory movement taking place on or in a substratum whose qualities are unknowable, and therefore "void". "Fire reflected upon itself...." refers to another quality of water, reflection or reversal. "...concentrated force" refers to the seventeenth Key, in which the god of the Lesser Angle is named "Vonpovnph" a contraction of "Vonpho-vonph" meaning "Wrath in wrath", its form and meaning suggesting concentration of force. Energy exchange is the means by which different objects in a system interact and affect one another. The "connectedness" or degree of relationship between such objects can to a certain extent be defined by the amount and types of energy that move between them. Hence the final line in this section.
30. Air is Vav of IHVH, and the Yetziratic or Formative world. But "formative" might be better translated as "formulative". Air is Mind, Intelligence, and (on a lower level) Intellect, the quality in man and god that separates undifferentiated sense-impressions into perception of objects and actions, and further separates from these perceptions the abstract formulas "governing" the perceived events. Thus the call of the Lesser Angle gives the spirits of the angle the power to "know and separate all creatures". Conversely, Mind translates Will, through formulae, into a multitude of potential actions by which Will can accomplish its goals. In either case, the idea of separation is paramount, hence the attribution of the Knife as the magickal weapon of Air. The first line of the commemoration of the Lesser Angle celebrates the Yetziratic, formative aspect of Air, and gives an image of flames shifting about under the influence of the wind. The second line paraphrases the Key of the Lesser Angle in a manner that emphasizes its two elemental natures. In "sword of conquest", the "sword" is equivalent to the knife of Air, and "conquest" corresponds to the sign Aries, cardinal fire. This phrase echoes the "god of stretch-forth-and-conquer" of the Key. In "justice in action", justice is Libra, cardinal Air, and action reflects the qualitative nature of Fire. So the phrase as a whole connects elemental Fire and Air with their primary cosmic equivalents, the Aries-Libra zodiacal axis. The third line again echoes the Key of the Lesser Angle, paraphrasing to emphasize the two functions of mind mentioned above. That is, the mind drawing perceived events into a single formula or description, and the mind using a formula to produce a multitude of events. The sometimes paradoxical action of the mind is emphasized through the use of the verb "to cleave", one of the few words to possess two diametrically opposed meanings. The cleaver as an edged weapon again echoes the knife of Air. The final line conceives of Air of Fire as representing "information". In describing the symbolism of Water of Fire, it was mentioned that that sub-element represented the energy exchanges taking place within an organized system. Overlaying energy exchange is information exchange, which also takes place continually in any organized system. In fact a system can only be said to be "organized" to the extent that information is transferred between its parts. However, information transfer and energy transfer are not identical; all information is energy, but not all energy contains information. Thus the two exchanges are attributed to separate sub-elements.
37. Earth is Heh final of IHVH, associated with the Assiatic world, the world of matter, where the creation which has developed through the other three elements achieves a relative stability. Thus the first line of the commemoration calls for manifestation. But OShIH, Assiah, means "action" or "doing". It is not an inert and unchanging end-product that is referred to by elemental Earth, but rather patterned activity exhibited in matter, activity directed to reflect the intent of the creative impulse. Elemental Earth exhibits a dynamism equal to any of the other elements, paralleling exactly the intense patterned activity which is the hallmark of the planet Earth in which we live. Matter in itself is no less dynamic than the patterns Will imposes on it. The apparent inertness which has caused it to be traditionally associated with Saturn is purely superficial; beneath this surface inactivity is a realm of unimaginably intense activity. Saturn's influence limits our ability to perceive that world directly, but does not affect that world itself.
Perhaps the Enochian magickal system heralded this understanding, several hundred years before it became clear, in the fact that it places Fire after Earth in the progression of elements. But the Enochian progression also reflects the general positioning of the elements in the body of the planet Earth. The planet has a fiery core, containing most of the heat available on the planet. The solid land on which we live floats on this core, containing that heat and allowing it to escape only slowly. Water lies in the hollows of the solid shell, and air encloses them all.
The Key associated with this Lesser Angle of the Fire Tablet is the last of the Keys directly associated with the Elemental Tablets. As such, it represents an endpoint of the whole process. What was begun in the First Key achieves full manifestation. The Key confirms this, saying the powers of the angle "open the glory of God to the center of the Earth". The second line of the commemoration echoes the Key, affirming the nature of the god of the sub-elemental spirits. Since we are at the end of the process there is nowhere to go except back to the beginning; all elemental processes return to their origin for a new cycle to begin. The end-product of the elemental processes accurately reflects the original intent by which it was created, in the same way in which a sigil is an accurate reflection of the force it represents. All manifest things have such a sigil-like nature when examined from the proper viewpoint. Thus, by observation of the manifest we can come to an experience of its unmanifest source. The third line of the commemoration expresses this idea. The final line reflects the positioning of the elements in the Enochian scheme as mentioned above. It also reflects the fact that the heat coming from the Earth's core is neccessary to maintaining the conditions for life to exist on her surface. The heat of the Sun is inadequate to keep the climate within the proper range of temperatures for life.
Copyright 1988, 1992 by Benjamin Rowe
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