APOLOGIA
I have been under the weather so as an interlude before continuing our discussion about the Watchtowers I would like to introduce one of the a priori constructs. The Round Table of Nalvage. This is a revision of an early piece so some of the material may be familiar.
THE ROUND TABLE OF NALVAGE
“All things are in order. Thus saith the Messenger of him which is the God of Wisdom. Is your worthiness such, as you can merit so great a mercy? Or are your vessels cleansed, and made apt to receive and hold the sweet liquor, pure understanding itself?”
from the Spirit Action of Tuesday April 10, 15841
Figure 1. The Round Table of Nalvage
AGNITIO
The correction of the table from the Cotton Appendix was first brought to my attention by my G.H. frater N.G.
PART I. THE SUBSTANCE
“He standeth upon his round table of Crystal, or rather of Mother of Pearl: There appear an infinite number of letters on the same, as thick as one can stand by one another. The table is somewhat inclined on one side:”2
From this Table Nalvage4 ‘counteth and confereth places and letters together’ to form the actual form of the Table delivered to Dee and Kelly, and shown above:
Delivered to Dee and Kelly in Cracow Poland during the Spirit Action of Tuesday April 10, 1584, this Table precedes, almost directly, the beginning of the reception of the Calls5 and may be identified with the Key or Calling ‘not to be opened,’ as it completes the necessary sum of 49 mentioned with the introduction to the Calls in the next Spirit Action:
“I am therefore to instruct and inform you, according to your Doctrine delivered, which is contained in 49 Tables. In 49 voices, or callings: Which are the Natural Keys, to open those, not 49. but 48. (for One is not to be opened) Gates of Understanding, whereby you shall have knowledge to move every Gate, and to call out as many as you please, or shall be thought necessary, which can very well, righteously, and wisely, open unto you the secrets of their Cities, & make you understand perfectly the 6 contained in the Tables. Through which knowledge you shall easily be able to judge, not as the world doth, but perfectly of the world, and of all things contained within the compass of Nature, and of all things which are subject to an end.”7
from the Spirit Action of Thursday April 12, 15848
The Table itself consists of 4: 3 X 3 tablets named Continents.
The Continents are ordered from the upper left to the lower left to the upper right and ending with the lower right. So that the concourse of the forces through the inner square of the Table progresses in a path that would form an inverted capital letter ‘N.’
The 1st and 2nd Continents are said to be dignified. The 3rd not yet dignified, but to be dignified. And the 4th is described as being without glory or dignification. The Latin appellations assigned to each repeat and emphasize the same sentiments. The upper left quadrant is called the “Vita Suprema,” ‘the highest life.’ The lower left is simply “Vita,” ‘the life.’ The upper right is described as “Vita non dignificata, sed dignificanda,” that is ‘the life not dignified, but which shall be dignified.’ And of the lower right it is said, “Vita est etiam haec, sed quae peperit mors” meaning ‘Even this is life, but life which will be payed with death.’9
When combined the 4 Continents form an inner tablet of 36 squares.10
Attached to the sides of this inner tablet are 4 linear segments of 4 squares each, centered on the 4 sides of the inner tablet.
Making the total number of squares in the Table 52.11
- The Substance is attributed to God the Father.
- The first circular mover, the circumference, God the Son, The finger of the Father, and mover of all things.
- The order and knitting together of the parts in their due and perfect proportion, God the Holy Ghost. Lo the beginning and end of all things.”12
Notes
1 From the Spirit Action of Tuesday April 10, 1584, which begins the book MENSIS MYSTICUS SAOBATICUS. Vide pg. 73 Meric Casaubon’s A TRUE & FAITHFUL RELATION . . . . (w/ new material by Clay Holden). New York: Magickal Childe, 1992. (Hereafter T&FR)
2 Ibid.
3 Pg. 76 T&FR, Casaubon has
with an ‘s’ for ‘h’ in the leftmost column.
4 The first notable discussion of this Table in modern times took place in two articles published in the 1970s:
·Geoffrey James, “Enochian evocation: the true Calls”, Gnostica 47 (1978),pp. 12-20, 74-77 [no discussion but a short mention of the table of Nalvage on p.17; the article is part 4 of a series on evocation by James]
· Osborne Phillips, “Commentary: The true ‘True Calls’”, Gnostica 50 (1979),pp. 10-12 [with a reproduction of Sloane MS 3191 f.7v and the author’s portrait; he does not mention Nalvage table at all but criticises James for relying on Casaubon’s version of the calls, concluding that “the present writer personally assures everyone interested that the text of the Calls in _Book V_ [of _Magical Philosophy_ - then forthcoming] is the authentic, and therefore the definitive, version”.]
{notae R. Prinke, 1996 <http://www.hollyfeld.org/heaven/Email/enochian-l/9612/msg00080.phtml>}
5 Spirit Action for Friday April 13,1584; vide T&FR pp. 73-83
6 ‘that’ for ‘the’?
7 I have modernized the spelling throughout, but I will cease to do so henceforth to facilitate transcriptional comparison.
8 T&FR pg. 77 et passim.
9 I have given this passage its transferative meaning, a more literal rendering would be ‘. . . but the life that will be suspended by death.’
10 6 X 6 = 36, the number of places in the magikal square of the Sun, supporting B. Rowe’s supposition (THE TABLET OF GOD. <http://www.hollyfeld.org/Esoteric/Email/enochian-l/index>. Wed, 13 Nov 96 18:30 EST.) that the figure may be intended as a lamen. The shapes of the Table of Nalvage and the Lamen shown in Libri Quinti Appendici are essentially similar, though not identical. Vide Pat Zalewski GOLDEN DAWN ENOCHIAN MAGIC. St. Paul MN: Llewellyn, 1994. pg.132 & pg. 152 This relationship is similar to that between the Black Cross that divides the Great Table and the cross formed by the lines of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost that forms the crosses that separate the subquadrants in each of the terrestrial Tables.
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