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Messages - Khepri

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General Discussion / Seiðr, Norse Magick

« on: April 24, 2015, 05:47:13 pm »

Seiðr

A depiction of Oðinn riding on his horse Sleipnir from the Tjängvide image stone. Within Norse paganism, Oðinn was the deity primarily associated with Seiðr.
Seiðr (sometimes anglicized as seidhr, seidh, seidr, seithr or seith) is an Old Norse term for a type of sorcery which was practiced in Norse society during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age. Connected with Norse religion, its origins are largely unknown, although it gradually eroded following the Christianization of Scandinavia. Accounts of seiðr later made it into sagas and other literary sources, while further evidence has been unearthed by archaeologists. Various scholars have debated the nature of seiðr, some arguing that it was shamanic in context, involving visionary journeys by its practitioners.

Seiðr practitioners were of both genders, although females are more widely attested, with such sorceresses being variously known as vǫlur, seiðkonur and vísendakona. There were also accounts of male practitioners, known as seiðmenn, but in practising magic they brought a social taboo, known as ergi, on to themselves, and were sometimes persecuted as a result. In many cases these magical practitioners would have had assistants to aid them in their rituals.

Within pre-Christian Norse mythology, seiðr was associated with both the god Oðinn, a deity who was simultaneously responsible for war, poetry and sorcery, as well as the goddess Freyja, a member of the Vanir who was believed to have taught the practice to the Æsir.[1]

In the 20th century, adherents of various modern pagan new religious movements adopted forms of magico-religious practice that include seiðr. The practices of these contemporary seiðr-workers have since been investigated by various academic researchers operating in the field of pagan studies.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Discussion / Re: Café Stardust, Mixed Room, French Press

« on: April 22, 2015, 07:08:08 am »

Birds

Hi Sir. Wadjet

I like birds more, they can be as clever, as a 7 years old child.

Regards

Khepri

General Discussion / Louisiana Voodoo

« on: April 22, 2015, 01:37:49 am »

Louisiana Voodoo

"New Orleans Voodoo" redirects here. For US Arena Football League team, see New Orleans VooDoo.
Not to be confused with Hoodoo (folk magic) or Haitian Vodou.
Louisiana Voodoo, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, describes a set of spiritual folkways that originated from the traditions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Afro-American religions developed by enslaved West Africans and the French, Spanish, and Creole populations of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Voodoo is one of many incarnations of African-based spiritual folkways rooted in West African Dahomeyan Vodun. Its liturgical language is Louisiana Creole French, the language of the Louisiana Creole people.

Voodoo became syncretized with the Catholic and Francophone culture of south Louisiana as a result of creolization in the region resulting from the Atlantic slave trade. Louisiana Voodoo is often confused with—but is not completely separable from—Haitian Vodou and southern American Hoodoo. It differs from Vodou in its emphasis upon gris-gris, Voodoo queens, use of Hoodoo paraphernalia, and Li Grand Zombi. It was through Louisiana Voodoo that such terms as gris-gris (a Wolof term) and Voodoo dolls were introduced into the American lexicon.

Gris-gris by Charles Gandolfo

Voodoo was brought to French Louisiana during the colonial period by workers and slaves from West Africa and then by slaves and free people of color who were among the refugees from the Haitian revolution. From 1719 to 1731, the majority of African captives brought as slaves to Louisiana were Fon people from what is now Benin; they brought their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and ancestor worship. Their knowledge of herbs, poisons, and the ritual creation of charms and amulets, intended to protect oneself or harm others, became key elements of Louisiana Voodoo.[1] Many Fon were also taken as slaves to the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean Sea.[2]

The enslaved community quickly outnumbered white colonists. The French colony was not a stable society when the enslaved Africans arrived, and the newly arrived Africans dominated the slave community. According to a census of 1731-1732, the ratio of enslaved Africans to European settlers was more than two to one.[3] As a relatively small number of colonists were planters and slaveholders, the Africans were held in large groups, which enabled their preservation of African practices and culture.[4] Unlike in the Upper South, where different groups were brought together and slave families were frequently divided among different plantations, in southern Louisiana families, cultures and languages were kept more intact.[5]

The U.S. Embargo Act of 1808 ended all importation of African slaves to Louisiana.[2] Under the French code and the influence of Catholicism, officials nominally recognized family groups, prohibiting the sale of slave children away from their families if younger than age fourteen. They promoted the man-made legend of wake tuko[clarification needed] of the enslaved population.[6] The high mortality of the slave trade brought its survivors together with a sense of solidarity and initiation. The absence of fragmentation in the enslaved community, along with the kinship system produced by the bond created by the difficulties of slavery, resulted in a “coherent, functional, well integrated, autonomous, and self confident enslaved community.”[7]

The practice of making and wearing charms and amulets for protection, healing, or the harm of others was a key aspect to early Louisiana Voodoo.[8] The Ouanga, a charm used to poison an enemy, contained the toxic roots of the figuier maudit tree, brought from Africa and preserved in the Caribbean. The ground-up root was combined with other elements, such as bones, nails, roots, holy water, holy candles, holy incense, holy bread, or crucifixes. The administrator of the ritual frequently evoked protection from Jehovah and Jesus Christ. This openness of African belief allowed for the adoption of Catholic practices into Louisiana Voodoo.[9]

Another component of Louisiana Voodoo brought from West Africa was the veneration of ancestors and the subsequent emphasis on respect for elders. For this reason, the rate of survival among elderly enslaved peoples was high, further "Africanizing Louisiana Creole culture."[10]

Voodoo queens

During the 19th century, Voodoo queens became central figures to Voodoo in the United States. Voodoo queens presided over many of the ceremonial meetings and ritual dances. They also earned an income by administering charms, amulets, and magical powders guaranteed to cure ailments, grant desires, and confound or destroy one's enemies.[11]

Most noted for her achievements as the Voodoo queen of New Orleans in the 1830s was Marie Laveau, a mulatto woman. Once the news of her powers spread, she overthrew the other Voodoo leaders of New Orleans. Also a Catholic, Laveau encouraged her followers to attend Catholic Mass as a strategic way to protect their true beliefs. The influence of her Catholic strategy facilitated the adoption of Catholic practices into the Voodoo belief system.[12] Marie Laveau is remembered for her skill and compassion for the less fortunate, and her spirit is considered one of the central figures of Louisiana Voodoo, but not the only one.[2]

Tomb of Marie Laveau
Across the street from the cemetery where Laveau is buried, offerings of pound cake are left to the statue of Saint Expedite; these offerings are believed to expedite the favors asked of the Voodoo queen. Saint Expedite represents the spirit standing between life and death. The chapel where the statue stands was once used only for holding funerals.[2] Marie Laveau continues to be a central figure of Louisiana Voodoo and of New Orleans culture. ****rs shout her name when throwing dice, and multiple tales of sightings of the Voodoo queen have been told.[2]

Voodoo kings

Doctor John, also known as Bayou John and Prince John, was one of the most prominent Voodoo kings in New Orleans. He was the student of Sanite Dede, a spiritual leader in the city prior to the period of refugee immigration from the Haitian revolution. He was said to be the mentor, instructor, and, as some say, "power behind the throne" of Marie Laveau herself.

Frank Staten was born in 1937 to a family of Haitian descent and lived his entire life in the city of New Orleans. He called himself Prince Ke'eyama. His success as a Voodoo prince gained him fame in New Orleans. He was practically worshipped as a powerful Voodoo priest until his death in December 1998. His ashes were donated to the Voodoo Spiritual Temple.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Discussion / Ceremonial Magic/Ritual Magic

« on: April 22, 2015, 01:34:52 am »

Ceremonial Magic/Ritual Magic

Ceremonial magic or ritual magic, also referred to as high magic and as learned magic in some cases,[1] is a broad term used in the context of Hermeticism or Western esotericism to encompass a wide variety of long, elaborate, and complex rituals of magic. It is named as such because the works included are characterized by ceremony and myriad necessary accessories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an extension of ritual magic, and in most cases synonymous with it. Popularized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it draws on such schools of philosophical and occult thought as Hermetic Qabalah, Enochian magic, Thelema, and the magic of various grimoires.

Renaissance magic

Main article: Renaissance magic
The term originates in 16th-century Renaissance magic, referring to practices described in various Medieval and Renaissance grimoires and in collections such as that of Johannes Hartlieb. Georg Pictor uses the term synonymously with goetia.

James Sanford in his 1569 translation of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's 1526 De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum has "The partes of ceremoniall Magicke be Geocie, and Theurgie". For Agrippa, ceremonial magic was in opposition to natural magic. While he had his misgivings about natural magic, which included astrology, alchemy, and also what we would today consider fields of natural science, such as botany, he was nevertheless prepared to accept it as "the highest peak of natural philosophy". Ceremonial magic, on the other hand, which included all sorts of communication with spirits, including necromancy and witchcraft, he denounced in its entirety as impious disobedience towards God.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Discussion / Magick, Stregheria

« on: April 21, 2015, 11:11:31 pm »

Magick, Stregheria

Stregheria is a form of Italian American witchcraft. Stregheria is sometimes referred to as La Vecchia Religione ("the Old Religion").[1] The word stregheria is an archaic Italian word for "witchcraft", the most used and modern Italian word being stregoneria.[2]

Author Raven Grimassi has written on the topic. Grimassi taught what he called the Aridian tradition from 1980. He mixed elements of Gardnerian Wicca with ideas inspired by Charles G. Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899). The name "Aradia" is due to Leland, who claimed that Erodiade (the Italian name of Herodias) was the object of a "witch-cult" in medieval Tuscany. Since 1998, Grimassi has been advocating what he calls the Arician tradition, described as an "initiate level" variant of the religion, involving an initiation ceremony.

Stregheria has both similarities and differences with Wicca, and in some ways resembles reconstructionist Neopaganism focussed on a specific nation or culture (in this case the folk religion of ancient and medieval Italy). Stregheria honors a pantheon centered on a Moon Goddess and a Horned God regarded as central, paralleling Wiccan views of divinity.

The modern movement originates in the 1970s with Italian-American Leo Martello. Martello claimed to belong to a "family tradition" of religious witchcraft in his 1970s book Witchcraft: The Old Religion. Martello does not use the word "Stregheria" when referring to his personal practice, but refers to it as "the Strega tradition".

Raven Grimassi began teaching the "Aridian Tradition", a modernized public system presented in his published works, in 1980 in the San Diego, California area. Grimassi published two books related to the topic (Italian Witchcraft and Hereditary Witchcraft) between 1981 and 2009.

Revival of the name Stregheria first occurs in Grimassi's Ways of the Strega (1994). In using an archaic Italian term, Grimassi follows Gerald Gardner (1954), who used the Old English form wicca to refer to the adherents of his alleged "witch cult". The word is earlier found in a book titled Apologia della Congresso Notturno Delle Lamie by Girolamo Tartarotti (1751), who uses stregheria to describe Italian witchcraft as the cult of the goddess Diana. Although the validity of this view has been disputed by American scholars, Italian ethnohistorian Paolo Portone has demonstrated reference to the cult of Diana in the records of the earliest witch trials, including in the Canon Episcopi.[3] Moreover, by contrasting the trials held before the Inquisitor of Milan in 1384 and 1390 of Sybil de Laria and Pierina de Bugatis, Portone has demonstrated how Inquisitors constructed beliefs surrounding "evil witches" directly from the Pagan worship of Diana.[4] Grimassi founded the "Arician Tradition" in 1998, described as an initiate level variant of Stregheria.[5]

Raven Grimassi

Raven Grimassi is the pen name of an Italian-American author, born in 1951 as the son of an Italian immigrant who was born and raised in the area of Naples, Italy. He became involved with a coven presenting itself as Gardnerian Wicca in 1969 in San Diego.[6] He is the founder of the Aridian and Arician traditions of Italian-based witchcraft. He stepped down as the directing elder of Arician Witchcraft in 2004. Grimassi currently (as of 2009) lives in Massachusetts and is the directing elder of the Ash, Birch and Willow tradition, and co-director of the Fellowship of the Pentacle. He was formerly co-director of the College of the Crossroads.[7]

Grimassi is reportedly descended from an Italian witch named Calenda Tavani, who lived in Naples several generations ago. Grimassi states that his early training was a mixture of Italian witchcraft and folk magic.

His later interest in Neo-paganism began in 1969, and he was initiated into a system claiming to be Gardnerian Wicca in San Diego though the tradition's claim eventually proved to be false. Ten years later, Grimassi began teaching the "Aridian Tradition"[1], which he describes as a "modern system"[1] of Italian Witchcraft or Stregheria, that he created for non-initiates. Grimassi also studied Kabbalah and other traditions of Wicca such as Brittic and the Pictish-Gaelic system in which he received third degree initiation in 1983 according to the Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft.[8] Grimassi also received third degree initiation into Traditionalist Celtic Wicca in 2001 at the First Wiccan Church of Escondido, California.

Views on a historical "religion of witchcraft"

Further information: Benandanti and Witch-cult hypothesis
Grimassi shares in common, in his books, the general "Witch-cult hypothesis" that appears in the writings of Charles G. Leland (Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, 1899), a theory to the effect that European witchcraft was the continuation of an ancient pre-Christian form.

Grimassi describes the roots of Stregheria as a syncretic offshoot of Etruscan religion that later blended with "Tuscan peasant religion", medieval Christian heresy, and veneration of saints.[9]

Grimassi views Leland's book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches as a "Christianized and distorted version" of the original story of Aradia, whom he believes to be a mortal woman named Aradia di Toscano.[9] However, Grimassi does endorse a number of elements from Leland's Aradia material, such as the inclusion of a full moon ritual and a sacred meal at the Tregenda, or Sabbat, along with the pantheon of a goddess and god figure.

Grimassi writes that Aradia di Toscano passed on a religion of witchcraft, based on ancient Etruscan paganism, to her followers (whom Grimassi calls "The Triad Clans"). The Triad Clans are referred to as "an alliance of three related Witch Clans known as the Tanarra, Janarra, and Fanarra".[9]

Folklorist Sabina Magliocco points out that "Grimassi never claims to be reproducing exactly what was practiced by Italian immigrants to North America; he admits Italian-American immigrants "have adapted a few Wiccan elements into their ways".[10]

Claims of family tradition

Reports that Grimassi claims to belong to a "family tradition" of religious witchcraft has attracted criticism.[11] Grimassi responds by saying that, although he wrote about such a family tradition, he intentionally never specifically mentions his own family in his books, but that Llewellyn's marketing department designed text depicting him as being raised in a family tradition .[12] Grimassi does not deny being the bearer of a family lineage but chooses to protect the privacy of his family by not mentioning or referencing specific members (hence his use of a pseudonym).

Sabina Magliocco, who has criticized some of Grimassi's claims, does point out that "Grimassi never claims to be reproducing exactly what was practiced by Italian immigrants to North America; he admits Italian-American immigrants "have adapted a few Wiccan elements into their ways".[13] After personally meeting Grimassi, Magliocco writes in her letter to the Pomegranate Reader's Forum:

I had the pleasure of meeting Raven Grimassi during the summer of 2001, unfortunately after the final draft of my article had already been submitted to The Pom. He was very gracious and helpful to me. From information he revealed during our interview, I can say with reasonable certainty that I believe him to have been initiated into a domestic tradition of folk magic and healing such as I describe in my article.[14]

Practices

Drawing of a pentagram ring from Crotone, Italy, taken from IMAGINI DEGLI DEI ANTICHI (Vincenzo Cartari, 1647)
Grimassi's tradition centers around a duotheistic pair of deities that are regarded as divine lovers, and they may go by many different names, including: Uni and Tagni, Tana and Tanus, Diana and Dianus, Jana and Janus, and more.[15] Practices include the celebration of seasonal holidays, ritual magic, and reverence for gods, ancestors and tradition-specific spirits. Stregheria itself has variant traditions, and individual practices may vary considerably.

In comparing Stregheria to Wicca, Grimassi notes both similarities between the two and differences.[9] He has defended his material as being significantly different from Wicca[16] at the roots level, and asserts that many of the foundational concepts in Gerald Gardner's Wicca can be found earlier in works on Italian Witchcraft and ancient Mediterranean mystery sects.[17][18]

Grimassi called his specific teachings on Stregheria the "Aridian Tradition" from 1980, after Aradia of Tuscany, an alleged messianic figure known as the "goddess of the witches", viewed within the "Arician Tradition" as a witch who revived the Old Religion. While the "Aridian" tradition was based on "self-dedication" alone, the "Arician" tradition involves a rite of initiation.[5]

Some systems within Stregheria use a pentagram as an important symbol. The pentagram is often worn in the form of ring or necklace piece. Some traditions of Stregheria use the ritual tools of cup, wand, pentacle and blade, which are seen in the suits of occult or divinatory tarot cards and amongst many systems of Western occultism.[19] Some Stregheria rituals take place in a circle, with an altar facing North. Ritual actions include prayer, and the blessing of food.[20]

Some adherents of Stregheria celebrate the eight holidays of the neopagan Wheel of the Year, called "Treguendas", while others celebrate the Roman Catholic or the ancient Roman holidays. One unified practice among Streghe is "ancestor reverence through spirits known as Lares".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Discussion / Enochian magick

« on: April 21, 2015, 11:07:30 pm »

Enochian magick

Enochian magic is a system of ceremonial magic based on the invocation and commanding of various spirits. It is based on the 16th-century writings of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley, who claimed that their information, including the revealed Enochian language, was delivered to them directly by various angels. Dee's journals contained the Enochian script, and the tables of correspondences that accompany it. Dee and Kelley believed their visions gave them access to secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

Origins and manuscript sources[edit]
The Enochian system of magic as practiced today is primarily the product of researches and workings by four men: John Dee, Edward Kelley, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley. In addition, the researches of Dr Thomas Rudd, Elias Ashmole, Dr William Wynn Westcott and Israel Regardie were integral to its development.[1]

The raw material for the Enochian magical system was "dictated" through a series of Angelic communications which lasted from 1582-1589. Dee and Kelley claimed they received these instructions from angels. While Kelly conducted the psychic operations known as scrying, Dee kept meticulous written records of everything that occurred. Kelly would look deeply into a crystal "shewstone" and describe aloud whatever he saw.

This account of the Angelic communications is taken at face value by most Enochian occultists. However, some of them have pointed out remarkable similarities to earlier grimoiric texts such as the Heptameron known to Dee.[2] Such magical texts as The Book of Soyga (of which Dee owned a copy), the Pauline Art (Ars Paulina)(see Lesser Key of Solomon) and others including the magical works of Agrippa and Reuchlin probably also had an influence on the Angelical magical workings of Dee and Kelley. The system claims to relate to secrets contained within the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

Liber Logaeth - The Sixth and Sacred Book of the Mysteries

The Liber Logaeth (Book of the Speech of God)(aka The Book of Enoch aka Liber Mysteriorum, Sextus et Sanctus -The Sixth (and Sacred/Holy) Book of the Mysteries)(1583); is preserved in the British Museum as Sloane ms 3189. The correct spelling is Loagaeth but it has been so frequently printed as Logaeth that this spelling is in common use. Written up by Edward Kelley, it is composed of 65 folios containing 101 exceedingly complex magical grids of letters, 96 of which are 49×49 grids (preceded by one "table" composed of 49 rows of text – the first row of which is actually the 49th row of the first table, not in this MS.), plus 5 grids of 36 x 72 cells. It is from Liber Logaeth that Dee and Kelley derived the 48 Calls or Keys (see below), and in which are concealed the keys to the Mystical Heptarchy, a related magical work by Dee. Liber Logaeth has never yet been published in book form but is available online at: [1]. Dee himself left little information on his Sixth Holy Book apart from saying that it contained 'The Mysterie of our Creation, The Age of many years, and the conclusion of the World' and that the first page in the book signified Chaos. Note that the title The Book of Enoch attributed to the text of Liber Logaeth is not to be confused with the aprocryphal Biblical The Book of Enoch. (There are three versions of the latter; a facsimile reprint of the Ethiopian version is Laurence, (1995))[3] Nor should it be confused with Crowley's rescension Liber Chanokh (The Book of Enoch) although all these texts are related. See the limited edition on subject by author Stephen Skinner.

The Five Books of Mystery

Another crucial manuscript, (Sloan ms. 3188, also available in a fair copy by Elias Ashmole, MS Sloane 3677. Available online at: [2]). It is an account of the 'actions' or workings undertaken in the Liber Logaeth, titled the Mysteriorum Libri Quinque (Five Books of Mystery (or Mystical Exercises). The Mysteriorum Libri Quinque is the diary for 22 December 1581 – 23 May 1583 inclusive: the first five Books of the Mysteries (and Appendix), ending where Causubon's A True and Faithful Relation begins. It describes the furniture of the temple; the Seal of God (Sigillum Dei); the Tables of Light; the Great Circle and corresponding Collected Table of 49 Good Angels; the Mystic Heptarchy and the Tables of Creation; the Angelic Alphabet (Dee's copies) and the beginning of Loagaeth (i.e., the first few folios of MS. Sloane 3189). There are two transcripts of this manuscript available today: Joseph Peterson[4] and C. L. Whitby.[5] Versions of the first three of the five Books of Mystical Exercises can be found online at : [3]

Other Enochian manuscripts

Yet another central manuscript is Sloane 3191 (available online at: [4] ) which comprises: 48 Angelic Keys; The Book of Earthly Science, Aid and Victory; On the Mystic Heptarchy; and Invocations of the Good Angels.

Two further Manuscripts from Dee and Kelley's workings are important to Enochian magic:

1) MS. Cotton Appendix XLVI Part I (available online at: [5] is the diary for 28 May 1583 – 15 August 1584 inclusive: The Sixth (and Sacred) Parallel Book of the Mysteries (not to be confused with "The Sixth and Sacred Book of the Mysteries", which is part of Liber Logaeth - see above) and "The Seventh Book of the Mysteries" (Kraków), beginning where A True and Faithful Relation begins. It includes the arrival of Prince Adalbert Laski, the journey to Kraków and the dictation of the 48 Calls or Keys (including descriptions of the 91 Parts of the Earth), as well as the Vision of the Four Watchtowers and also the Great Table.
2) MS. Cotton Appendix XLVI Part II (available online at: [6]) is the diary for 15 August 1584 – 23 May 1587 (and 20 March – 7 September 1607) inclusive: The Book of Praha, The Royal Stephanic Mysteries, The Puccian Action, The Book of Resurrection, The Third Action of Trebon and the remaining Spirit Actions at Mortlake in 1607, ending where A True and Faithful Relation ends. (It may be seen that Casaubon's A True and Faithful Relation is equivalent to the MS Cotton Appendix in toto, i.e. Dee and Kelley's diaries from 28 May 1585-23 Sept 1607).
Meric Casaubon's 1659 edition of part of these diaries (Cotton Appendix MS. XLVI), entitled A True & Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits contains notorious transcription errors which in some cases were transmitted through many subsequent republications of the Dee/Kelly material; Casaubon's edition was intended to discredit Dee and Kelly by accusing them of dealing with the Christian Devil. An expanded facsimile edition of Casaubon was published by Magickal Childe in 1992[6]

Dee and Kelley's surviving manuscripts later came into the possession of Elias Ashmole, who preserved them, and made fair copies of some, along with annotations.

Rediscovery by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

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Dee and Kelly never referred to their magic as 'Enochian' but rather called it 'Angelic'. However in modern occultism it is commonly known as Enochian. It is not quite clear how much of Enochian magic was put to use by Dee and Kelley. Indeed, whether Dee and Kelly ever practiced Enochian is still up for debate. The angels told them not to work Enochian, and there are no diary records of works being done except for one healing talisman that they were instructed by the angels to make. Dee and Kelley's journals are essentially notebooks which record the elements of the system, rather than records of workings they performed using the system.

Some writers assert that Thomas Rudd was the centre of a group of angel magicians who may have used Dee and Kelly's material. The Angelical material of Dee and Kelley also had a considerable influence on the magic of Rosicrucianism. However, little else became of Dee's work until late in the nineteenth century, when it was incorporated and adopted by a mysterious and highly secret brother-hood of adepts in England, who called themselves the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The rediscovery of Enochian magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1880s led to Mathers hammering the material into a comprehensive and workable system of ceremonial Magick.[neutrality is disputed] They invoked the Enochian deities whose names were written on the tablets. They also traveled in what they called their Body of Light (a poetic term for the aura) into these subtle regions and recorded their psychic experiences in a scientific manner.[neutrality is disputed] The two major branches of the system were then grafted on to the Adeptus Minor curriculum of the Golden Dawn.

Enochian as an operative system is difficult to reconstruct based upon original manuscripts like the collection of Sir Hans Sloane in the British Museum, but contemporary occult organizations have attempted to make it usable. The Golden Dawn was the first, but their knowledge was based upon only one of Dee's diaries and their planetary, elemental, or zodiacal attributions have no foundation in the original sources.

The Golden Dawn also invented the game of Enochian chess, so that aspects of the Enochian Tablets can be used for divination. The four chessboards do not have any symbols on them, just sets of squares colored in certain ways. Each board is associated with one of the four elements of magick. Pat Zalewski's book (1994) on the subject is definitive.[7]

The papers of the Sphere Group, a sub-group of the Golden Dawn founded by Florence Farr which experimented with Enochian magic, have been edited and published in Kuntz, (1996).[8]

Aleister Crowley and Enochian Magic

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2012)
Aleister Crowley, who worked with, and wrote about, Enochian magic extensively, has contributed much to its comparatively widespread use today. Crowley published the Golden Dawn Enochian material as "A Brief Abstract of the Symbolic Representation of the Universe Derived by Doctor John Dee Through the Skrying of Sir Edward Kelly." (Initially published in Crowley's Journal The Equinox Nos VII and VIII, this work was subsequently renamed Liber LXXXIV vel Chanokh, or The Book of Enoch - Chanokh being an older Hebrew form of the name Enoch. Crowley numbered the book as 84 since that number is the Qabalistic numeration for Chanokh. (In some printings the number 89 is mistakenly assigned to the book).

Crowley's most famous work with Enochian focused upon the Calls of the Aethyrs. His visions from these Calls, which he experienced while working with Victor Neuberg in Algeria, formed a document called The Vision and the Voice, also known as Liber 418 (or to give it its full title, Liber CCCCXVIII: Liber XXX Ærum Vel Saeculi, Being of the Angels of the Thirty Aethyrs the Vision and the Voice - see Holy Books of Thelema). The book was written with highly symbolic imagery and is integral to Crowley's explication of his Law of Thelema. Recordings of Crowley reading the First and Second Calls of the Aethyrs (in both English and Enochian) exist; they were recorded as part of a series of wax cylinder recordings made by Crowley in 1922, and can be found on various compilations of these recordings onto CD which are widely available today.

The system

The two pillars of modern Enochian Magick, as outlined in Liber Chanokh are the Elemental Watchtowers (including the Tablet of Union) and the "World" of the 30 Aethyrs. The Aethyrs are the "heavens" or Aires of the system. Starting with the 30th Aethyr and working to the first, the magician explores only as far as his level of initiation will permit.[9][neutrality is disputed]

The Calls or 'Keys' and the "World" of the 30 Aethyrs[edit]
The essence of the Enochian system depends on the utilisation of Eighteen Calls or Keys in the Enochian language (a series of rhetorical exhortations which function as evocations), and a Nineteenth key known as the Call or Key of the 30 Aethyrs. The calls are used to enter the various Aethyrs, in visionary states. The Aethyrs are conceived of as forming a map of the entire universe in the form of concentric rings which expand outward from the innermost to the outermost Aethyr.

The Enochian 'map' of the universe is depicted by Dee as a square (made up of the 4 Elemental Tablets/Watchtowers incorporating the Tablet of Union (Spirit)), surrounded by 30 concentric circles (the 30 Aethyrs or Airs). The 30 Aethyrs are numbered from 30 (TEX, the lowest and consequently the closest to the Watchtowers) to 1 (LIL, the highest, representing the Supreme Attainment). In a similar way to the methods used by magicians to scry upon the Qabalistic Tree of Life, which involves travelling astrally to each pathway and Sephira, magicians working the Enochian system record their impressions and visions within each of the successive Enochian Aethyrs. The systems are comparable but not equivalent; while Enochian has 30 Aethyrs, there are a total of 32 Sephira and paths upon the Tree of Life. Just as a magician may talk about exploring the Tree of Life from Malkuth to Kether, the Enochian magician would talk about exploring the Enochian Aethyrs from TEX to LIL.

Each of the 30 Aethyrs is populated by "Governors" (3 for each Aethyr, except TEX which has four, thus a total of 91 Governors). Each of the governors has a sigil which can be traced onto the Great Tablet of Earth.

In practical Enochian workings, the Nineteenth Call/Key of the 30 Aethyrs is the only call necessary for working with the Aethyrs. It is only necessary to vary appropriately the name of the Aethyr itself near the beginning of the call. Once the Call is recited, the names of the Governors are vibrated one at a time and a record of the visions is kept. The use of Calls 1-18 is rather complex and their usage should be made clear via one of the Enochian textbooks cited below.

The Great Table of Earth: The Elemental Watchtowers and their subdivisions

The angels of the four quarters are symbolized by the Elemental "Watchtowers" — four large magickal word-square Tables (collectively called the "Great Table of the Earth"). Most of the well-known Enochian angels are drawn from the Watchtowers of the Great Table.

Each of the four Watchtowers (representing the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water), is collectively "governed" by a hierarchy of spiritual entities which runs (as explained in Crowley's Liber Chanokh) as the Three Holy Names, the Great Elemental King, the Six Seniors (aka Elders) (these make a total of 24 Elders as seen in the Revelation of St. John), the Two Divine Names of the Calvary Cross, the Kerubim, and the Sixteen Lesser Anegls. Each Watchtower is further divided into four sub-quadrants (sometimes referred to as 'sub-angles') where we find the names of various Archangels and Angels who govern the quarters of the world. In this way, the entire universe, visible and invisible, is depicted as teeming with living intelligences. Each of the Elemental tablets is also divided into four sections by a figure known as the Great Central Cross. The Great Central cross consists of the two central vertical columns of the Elemental Tablet (the Linea Patris and Linea Filii) and the central horizontal line (known as the Linea Spiritus Sancti).

In addition to the four Elemental Watchtowers, a twenty-square cell known as the Tablet of Union (aka The Black Cross, representing Spirit) completes the representation of the five traditional elemental attributes used in magic - Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit. The Tablet of Union is derived from within the Great Central Cross of the Great Table.

The squares of the Elemental Watchtowers and those of the Tablet of Union are not simply squares, but in fact truncated pyramids, or pyramids with flat tops - thus, pyramids which have four sides and top, for a total of five 'sides'. Again, these represent the traditional five magical elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit) though in varying combinations. There are 20 Pyramids in the Tablet of Union and 156 in each of the four Elemental Tablets. Each pyramid houses an 'angel' with a one-letter name. The angel's attributes (that is, its powers and its nature) are 'read off' according to its position within the Tablet and proportions of the different Elements (whether Earth, Air, Fire, Water or Spirit) represented on its sides. When two Pyramids are combined they form an 'angel' with a two-letter name whose attributes are somewhat more complex. This gives rise to ever-more complex 'angels' depending on the number of pyramids under examination. The attribution of various Elements to the various pyramids is best depicted on a labelled and coloured version of the various Tablets; an Enochian texbook (e.g.[10] or[11] is most useful for this purpose.

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General Discussion / Re: Introduction, here you introduce yourself. The first thing, you do, Here :-)

« on: April 20, 2015, 07:02:48 am »

My Introduction.

Hi Lady/Sir.

I found this forum, via another forum, that i am member of. That forum, also have Magic, in one of their topics and Religion.
Egypt has always fascinated me, so i will try to, study the topics, there is i this forum and of cause Magic. I will be a silent
member, because i am shy by nature, so please don't PM. me. Maybe in some months, i will be more active, in this forum

Regards

Khepri

PS. My Passion is Music.