This is all fine and dandy, but what happens if Jupiter happens to be in bad dignity? Jupiter is now debilitated in Capricorn and will be so until later in the year. Venus is a few days away from exiting her sign of detriment, Aries, where she spends around three weeks. What if you cannot wait for the planets to become more powerful in the heavens and you just have to solve your problem there and then? What happens if they also happen to be involved in hard aspects with the likes of Saturn (Mars, or the outer planets - I do not care if some people do not consider them as well!), especially when they're transiting a sign in which they are weaker? What happens if the spirits of the Goetia only provide you with just a teaser, so to speak, and instead of getting the amount of money you desperately need to pay your rent, you only get enough to buy a pack of smokes? Because they can do that, because reasons...
Well... you just have to look for help elsewhere, and for that you need to widen your perspective on the spiritual world. The Western Magical traditions employ the use of a wide variety of spirits, be they celestial or chthonic, and sticking to but a few will only get you so far in your endeavors. There's the angels of the zodiac signs, zodiac houses, the Shem angels, and the spirits of the four elements (who's kings are <as per the Golden Dawn> Djinn, Niksa, Paralda, and Ghob). There are also spirits mentioned in particular classic grimoires and magical systems found in the grimoires. For instance, the Enochian King of Friday can be employed for operations having to do with air, which can prove to be a great asset when you want to perform weather magick.
Let's say you and your romantic partner are going through some rough times and you want to improve that by making use of magick, but Venus has just entered Aries, Scorpio, or Virgo. What do you do? You can call on the angel of the seventh astrological house, for instance. The seventh house deals covers relationships and partnerships, among other things, and it also happens to be the house of Venus. I am not going to go into detail about how to benefit from the forces of the seventh house to a greater extent using astrological elections, but you can call on its angel for assistance and help with your issue regardless of Venus' placement and aspects. You can also call on the elemental king of Water for that. Another good example: you are a researcher in a lab, and you want to take your work to the next level, but Mercury happens to be in its sign of both detriment and debility, and retrograde, just as it happens to be while I'm writing these words. You can call on the angel of Aquarius, the elemental king of Air, a few Shem angels, and a few spirits of the Goetia, to name but a few options.
There is the case where spirits also have the power to take away that which they can provide. Spirits of Venus can bring love between people, but they can also take it away, and sow hatred, envy, and jealousy instead. Spirits of Jupiter can help someone obtain a promotion, but they can also demote them. And the list goes on... And there is also the case where certain forces can help you with things that apparently are not in their power. There is a Saturn talisman in the 6th and 7th Book of Moses which can help someone win at gambling, and if I'm not mistaking, the Picatrix also talks about Saturn being able to provide one with money and wealth. So yeah... people just have to become aware of more possibilities when it comes to working with spirits, in my opinion.
If someone were to ask me how they can come across the best spirits that will help them in certain situations, I would tell them to look for themselves, because a spirit will not work exactly the same with two different people. There can be many similarities, but each human-spirit magical operation is unique in my opinion, for reasons I am not going to go into here. I would recommend, though, that the person call on Hecate and ask her for direction towards spirits that can provide with the best help possible based on his or her problems.
I don't even know why I've written this, but it's done now.
Hate on, dum-dums!
The Great Gazoo
I would like to know about your experience with the 4 Elemental Kings/Queens. Firstly, are they same as the 4 Demon kings Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon, Egyn as the solomonists claim? The kings hold dominion over the entire planet's ecosystem, so for e.g a crow familiar can be had from Paralda for finding any and all opportunities in the city and a cow familiar from Ghob on how to remain patient. I know of no one besides lodge magicians working with these beings, that too sparingly but I have worked with Djin before and the result was powerful.
ReplyDeleteI have been pathworking to Ghob for the past two days and I might ask for initiation into her sphere of Earth so that my spells with her can achieve their full potential. As always I doubt anything I receive in my pathworkings but I'm confident that the experience will get stronger and doubts will be dealt with.
I for one do not equate the elemental kings to the demon kings like some grimoirists do. From what I remember being told by a Golden Dawn person, the elemental kings would be placed in Yetzirah, albeit at the lower end of that world. The demon kings would be in Assiah. But then again the grimoirists don't use the Qabalistic model so their assumptions and associations are meaningless to me.
ReplyDeleteEven by seeing through the lenses of their cosmological model I would argue the demon kings are far lower than the elemental kings. The demon kings would have to be much more powerful in evil, so to speak, in order to command legions of evil spirits. And growing more powerful in evil means turning further away from God. This means they'd be much lower than the elemental realms close to our physical one. So equating them to the elemental kings would be silly.
Yes, I've been told the same by every GD practioner that the elemental kings are the terrestrial kings and the demon kings are the infernal kings. Even Jake Stratton Kent agrees they're different. And I've read others who have said that they're benevolent spirits just like angels so I think the hierarchies in 777 are accurate and they're kings too. Very powerful.
ReplyDeleteIt occurred to me recently that the Golden Dawn gives us two methods of working with zodiacal forces using traditional astrology. One by the Greater Invoking Hexagram ritual when the ruling planet is in a stronger position. The other by the GIRP or SIRP of the sign using the elemental triplicity when the element is in the stronger position or do both methods depend on the planet’s strength? I think the latter gives us more leeway when the ruling planet is afflicted. For e.g, Scorpio and Pisces rituals can be done this month of Cancer using the GIRP of the sign.
ReplyDeleteThe Golden Dawn method of working with the signs has always been the SRP of the element based on the signs' triplicities. The GRH of the ruling planet is Crowley's method.
ReplyDeleteElections involving the signs have nothing to do with planets. We've discussed that in Asteria.
When you're calling the archangels, intelligences and daemons of the planets, do you use the conjuration for the planet in the Heptameron or do you just say something like, 'In the name of Eloh (godname of Sun), come to me Michael, archangel of the Sun and manifest in this table of art' and chant the angel's name for as long as needed? So far I've been using Scott's conjuration because that is what he still uses to this day but I've been wondering whether I've been shortcutting the magick this way.
ReplyDeleteMost spirits don't even have a conjuration set in for them in the grimoires but the planetary ones do. The DSIC itself contains the shortest call to the angels which makes me reconsider that I might not be doing anything wrong.
I've used both and more with the same success, i.e. the spirits showing up.
ReplyDeleteHow long does it take for them to show up after the conjuration? Also, how do you know besides divination that the spirit is present? Pathworking after the conjuration is the only way I can know that they are there.
ReplyDeleteImo they should show up as soon as the conjuration recitation is over. The problem is whether you perceive their presence in any way, or not. In my case I feel their presence and "hear"their voices to a degree.
ReplyDeleteThen isn't it better one use simpler and shorter conjurations like those of Scott's? Before asking you, I was thinking of editing the Heptameron conjuration of a planet to adjust for a zodiac sign it rules but now I see this is unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am learning geomancy these days which you are familiar with. For asking simple yes/no question such as 'Is the spirit here?', do you recommend casting a full geomantic chart or just one mother figure which answers depending on whether the figure has more even or odd number of dots?
It's better to use any properly constructed conjuration.
ReplyDeleteYou can use just the shield or a single geome for that kind of inquiry.