moon mansions discussed

Working with the Angels of the Mansions of the Moon:

Having recently completed my studies of the Angels of the hours according to the Hygromanteia, I am now moving on to the angels of the mansions of the Moon and will be doing this hopefully for the next couple of months. The Mansions of the Moon are usually given as 28 or 27, spaced around the zodiac the Moon travels. Each of the mansions have virtue, whether it is for good or for bad and these virtues pass on through the Moon when it is in those mansions. They are recorded in a few places, most well known by Agrippa and Barret and earlier in Arabic texts. The angels are not always given with them however there are certainly angels given in places for each of the mansions historically. I have summoned these before and they are generally quiet and good spirits of small size.

Of course, as with most ceremonial magic there are problems when you try to make sense of the system and practice the theory. There are numerous systems for the mansions of the moon, from 27 mansions, to star lords, to 28 mansions, from sidereal, to tropical, to constellation and these are just the ones I am willing to entertain. I could write an entire book just covering all of the ways they have been worked out in the past. In the Celestial Intelligencer which is Barret's copy of Agrippa, it's clear they are positioned by virtue of the stars they cover. That is to say that they start at Alnath (ill cover this in a moment) and the first mansion is called Alnath with its virtue. However the method it gives disagrees with its opening statement that Abraham states the mansions are equally divided across the sky. Instead as it goes on with how to work out where the mansions are, it deals not with Tropical or Sidereal zodiac degrees, but from positions of stars that begin and end a mansion that are not equal apart. Apparently it would seem, the person who put this together disagreed with Abraham. :D

There is also some confusion in names of stars for example the first mansion begins in Aries with the star Alnath which is the horns of Aries and means "to butt with" however that star name is actually given to a star in Taurus horns. This would then work backwards to Aldabaran (which begins the fourth) then forward again. It's likely then it actually just means the horn of Aries and we should ignore the name given for its star, as it is either wrong, or has been changed over time. Nonetheless, when the method described is based on star names it is not helpful when the star names are inaccurate by todays astromomy.

Debating systems:

Now the problem with sidereal of course is that firstly there is no such original system. The constellations aren't equal and neither were divided equally, as that was a purely tropical thing, so if you correct for constellation drift you cant include equal signs as sidereal does. it is a fictional system created in the East which lost contact with how the original worked in the first place. Essentially, Aries sidereal has almost 10' before the constellation begins as its a small constellation and doesn't fit in to their neat 30' division.

Tropical could make sense as the first star was around the beginning of the summer solstice. For the moon mansions start to be based around a sun position is likely, as the 28 mansions comes from the time span of the lunar month, for the moon to complete one circle around the zodiac and back to the Sun (more of less).

The relevance of stars and it being star influenced is also a possibility, tho they may simply have been used as visual dividers at the time to aid with finding where they were. As stars have drifted they may no longer be correct.

Essentially the three main systems of tropical 28, sidereal 28 and sidereal 27 give you three mansions any one mansion position could be. However, the sidereal systems which do not focus on stars are dismissible.

Possible systems:

So where do the Mansions of the Moon really begin. Well as Sidereal must be incorrect, we are down to star divisions or tropical. The star given as Alnath which Barret/Agrippa list as beginning, will be referring to the star we now call Al Sharatan or Beta Ari. This can be concluded by the star being one of the horns of Aries, and according to Agrippa from where Barret gets his information, it is stated that out of the horns Al Sharatan is the first. Thus the beginning of the Moon Mansions given by star divisions would definitely be Al Sharatan as the start is given as the first horn or Aries just under a different name. That is placed then at 4.08' Taurus (tropical zodiac) or 10.06' Aries sidereal. Now if you were to simply set it to sidereal of course that would almost be the start of the second mansion, but that's irrelevant anyway as can be dismissed off the bat. With Tropical astrology its much simpler. The first mansion simply begins at the star closest to 1' Aries tropical which is probably Kerb or Deneb Kaitos but essentially about 2' Aries.

Conclusion:

So take your pick when they begin. It depends on your system, its either 2'Aries (tropical) or 5' Taurus (also tropical). As we dont know whether it was originally tropical or stellar we cant tell which one, it simply becomes a matter of trial and error, but we can at least conclude it isn't based at all on the start of the sidereal zodiac. Either way, it is better to then equally divide them by 12.51.26 degrees. 28 mansions is also much more likely than 27 and 27 does not include angels anyway so another system worth dropping.

Another version of sidereal is also possible, and a system I used to follow 2009-2010. It is the same as sidereal however does not make the signs equal dealing instead with the actual constellations. this is essentially an astronomical system originally used by the Babylonians. I used this version for a while but found it faulty so dropped it. Nonetheless it would still just follow the stellar (star based) position given above at 5' Taurus tropical so gives us no more options.


For the first manifestation of these spirits see previous posts about Adriel. Thank you for reading.

For the mansions names and their virtues please follow this link to Sacredtexts Celestial Intelligencer. http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/magus/ma155.htm

Physical Manifestation in part.

I haven't updated this blog in a while, as my work life has left any serious magic non existent. Although I have had small success here and there, it has largely been a year without physical spirits. Last night I decided to physically manifest a moon angel, may God bless him. It was an interesting experience, as for no real reason I decided to buy some stuff for a moon ritual in the day (Saturday), when I got home I realised I had bought it all on the hour of the Moon. I took this as a good sign. Regarding past experiences with Moon angels and a Grimoire and astrology tie in between Glass and the Moon I focused on glass objects for the altar. It was a small ritual for the manifestation of an angel of the mansion of the Moon. I was expecting him to appear hours later like usual when they actually manifest, or not at all as I am ignored a fair amount to, but the result was partial but immediate. Having manifested similar I expected him to look much as a ball of cloud about 1-2 feet in diameter thick and possibly with colour as this how most moon mansion angels appear. Instead, I simply saw smoke appear in the west, it moved within itself giving it a set radius of about a foot, but was thin smoke and not a thick ball as expected of which are usually too thick to see behind. I believe this was a partial manifestation. It stayed stationary for about 20seconds while it listened to me, swirling in itself, then left. Nonetheless it was an actual physical manifestation of a spirit, and an angel of the Mansion of the Moon I had not already seen. The moon was near new, and I think that caused problems with the ritual. I would like to try again next month. The angel was Adriel.

astrology

Astrology is a fairly important piece of ceremonial magic, in fact without it you aren't really performing ceremonial magic, (see previous post.)
However, there are many versions of astrology which makes is hard to decide which to follow. Firstly I'll just make it simple and let you know what I follow as I have had a lot of success with it.

Astrology and the zodiac:

In Western Astrology the reason for the zodiac and placement of planets was incorrectly ascribed by Ptolemy which lead to a lot of stupid assumptions by modern "traditional astrologers" and this has lead to ties between the aspects and the zodiac rulerships which have no real relationship. Because of Ptolemy's waffle most people trying to study astrology don't believe in all the aspects as it goes against his assumption of why things worked. The first part then is to explain how things actually were done in Western Astrology.

The signs were ascribed to the zodiac in the usual planetary order which was based on the apparent speed of the planets. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and our Moon. The planetary order is important and repeats throughout the day in planetary hours as well. It was seen that things that move further away from you move slower so speed made sense to give the order . Hence the order is basically the actual order of the planets. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury, the difference being the Earth in place for the Sun as we orbit it and it doesn't orbit us. Please don't do away or disregard with the planetary order as mumbo jumbo, it's fairly accurate by what we know today.

The planets then we're laid over the zodiac from the winter solstice, (longest night, we see stars in the dark) which at the time was between Capricorn and Aquarius. If you count rulerships in any direction from the old winter solstice it follows the planetary order. The only difference is that the Sun was moved to the summer solstice as it only appears in the day, which at the time was Leo. If you were led to believe it was because of coldness or wetness or any other bollocks just ignore that.

Now the aspects were entirely separate things. The aspects  were distances or angles between planets from our point of view. The traditional aspects were the Sextile, Trime, Square and Opposition oh and of course the conjunction. The Quincunx is also mentioned sporadically which is 5 signs distance as is the semi sextile which is one sign distance.

Over time there were various forms of astrology which dealt with aspects and Orbs. Orbs  are the amount of degrees from the exact aspect that's allowed to maintain an aspect. For example a square is 90* separation but the orb allows it a few degrees out. Over the course of Western astrology systems have had different rules for orbs, but in Greek astrology all orbs were 3 degrees. Also if a planet was outside of the sign aspect then the planets weren't aspect. For example a planet 30* Capricorn and a planet 1* Taurus are square as they 92* apart. However the signs are not square so despite it being in the orb range it was not considered still an aspect. Later western astrology did away with this thinking and so have I but I'm just putting it in here to show "western astrology" isn't as uniform as people think.

I do however stick to the Greek thinking of set orbs depending on the aspect. All traditional aspects I use have a 3 degree orb and all Keplan have a 2 degree orb. I add two for conjunction with the sun or the moon and aspects between the two luminaries themselves are larger too.

I honestly believe that there is no truth for terms or decans. These were smaller break ups of the zodiac with their own planetary rulerships, but I think were how people got confused not using all the aspects.

Now this takes me to the aspects which many consider modern despite being older than Lilly which many people consider traditional, go figure. Keplar notes similarities between planetary aspects and music harmonies, and based on this looked for an observed extra aspects. I swear by these. If you dont think they exist you haven't monitored for them. The aspects I use in total then including Keplan aspects are:

Conjunction: Orb depends on planet.
Semi Sextile: 2* orb
Semi Quintile: 2* orb
Sextile: 3* orb
Quintile: 2* orb
Square: 3* orb
Sentagon 2* orb
Biquintile 2* orb
Trine 3* orb
Sesqui Quintile 2* orb
Quincunx 2* orb
Opposition 3-4* orb.

Reception:
example: The Sun is in Cancer the Moons sign. The Sun is receiving from the Moon as it is in the Moons sign. This is good. The better condition the Moon is in the better it can help the Sun. If the Moon is in bad condition then the reception is pointless as it can't help the Sun anyway.


Mutual Reception: Two planets are in each others rulerships. They can help each other. This is very good.

Negative Reception: A planet is in another signs detriment or fall degree.

Please note a lot of people don't count reception of any kind unless they are aspect too. I am one of those people.

Reception is whether a planet can help another, but whether a planet "wants to" is based on the aspect between planets.

This is a very basic understanding of astrology to get you started, but I will go into it's uses specifically for magic at a later date. Please also follow my astrology weather page OccultAstrology type that in Facebook search as it's a Facebook page. There will be updates for each week on it. It's blank at the moment.

astrology

hhSo as many of you know I am an occultist. If you've just stumbled upon this blog and wonder who the hell I am, my name is Tolka. I've been practicing Ceremonial Magic from the grimoires since about 2001? I'm not entirely sure when I started anymore tbh. I became fairly well known about 2009 and mostly disapeared from the occult scene about 2011. Perhaps one of the things that I was well known for other than magic was arguing and particularly challenging the views of self appointed adepts, usually forum kings (you know the type.) I don't believe in modern systems like the Golden Dawn etc. I don't think Crowley was a great magician and I don't think the OTO are the answer to occult salvation, but you know what, I don't think they'll limit you either. If people want to do that stuff I leave them to it. Most forms of lodge magic encompass enough original stuff to make it work all the same. If they want to waste their time with the LBRP first that's up to them. I'm sure they'll still get some over all result.

Of course, when I first hit the blogging scene (this is my 2nd blog) I was not quite of the same opinion and openly more critical of them. I do in fact recall saying that with the GD system they couldn't pull a rabbit out of a hat at a magic show, let alone summon a spirit. As time as gone on, I have become more laid back and open to peoples paradigms. In fact I rarely challenge anything anymore and I've learnt more because of it. The more open you are to paradigms the more connections you can make before types and increase understanding. I do also generally try to be less of an arsehole these days. However, today I must speak up once more return to myself, and in my style of not pulling punches and arrogant confidence I may put some noses out of joint. Tighten your britches bitches.

Today I challenge a growing trend in magic, that is the use of ceremonial magic without astrology. And not just that, but the notion that astrology does not work in magic, meant for it, or is simply not real. Just recently I've seen a few posts from magicians about this subject, some that I highly respect, and I find it disappointing they are holding themselves back, but also others. Firstly, I'm most known for ceremonial magic, it's something I've done for a lot longer than anything else, but am I the best at it? No. Far from it. If Michael compiled a list of the 100 top magicians that have physically manifested him, I doubt I'd be on it. In fact I doubt anyone that blogs or you've heard of would. Those guys are either dead or keeping quiet about magic altogether. However one thing I am painfully less known for is Astrology, and if Michael compiled a list of the 100 best astrologers in the world today, quite frankly I would be on that list. I haven't studied astrology for the past 10 years, I've lived it. I record every time something happens to me, my friends, people on facebook, I record the astrology, the place, their birth date and natal transits. Hell if I've known you for a few years i probably have at least 100 files on you and the astrology. (Yes it's creepy, but you're often my lovely little lab rats)
This is real astrology. This is noting events and the astrology connected with it. This is literally how the astrology from the books was discovered and you know what, my data agrees with the books. That's not my parroting opinion from books, like 99% of God damned Lillyites, that's me saying, yeah I've lived. this shit too and its right. Let me make it clear, Astrology affects you. I know it does. I've seen it. I've recorded it. I've seen the reasons. Astrology is a huge part of your life. That time you got dumped, that time you had that really good day that everyone thought you looked awesome, that time you had that really big black spider in your home, yep, that was astrology influence. Now let me make it clear that it is influence, it doesn't control you, it influences things, the likelihoods if you like. Nonetheless it is undeniable to anyone who has ever taken astrology observation seriously that it works. Now the people whose opinions have annoyed me... They have a different view. They think it affects you if you believe in it. And this is a pretty dangerous opinion. This is why today I'm writing this blog post. Astrology Is like a current in a river. You're all in that river, if you believe in astrology it's like walking into the centre, that current is going to hit you harder. There's an old adage that if astrology affected the clients as much as the astrologer all astrologers would be millionaires. It really does affect you more the more you believe and entertain it, but sorry lads, it will always affect you anyway regardless to a small amount. It influences where you go, when you buy, how much money you spend, it is a huge impact on you.

Now I'd like to address the issue of astrology in the grimoires an that it's missing. Main point here, it isn't. I find if people don't understand something their eyes just gloss over that part. Especially in the older grimoires like the Sepher Raziel, Picatrix, Hygromanteia, etc. It was very prominent. It's also in the Key of Solomon, mentioned in the Arbatel, the Books of Occult Philosopy. I'd have a hard time finding a grimoire that it wasn't mentioned in that had any tradition to it. But of course, the most relevant part is that Ceremonial Magic predominantly deals with PLANETARY spirits. The days and the hour combinations are astrological combinations of planets, the powers of the spirits of a planet, even the appearance are astrological descriptions. If you are using Ceremonial Magic because some one has told you it's ok, it is not. In fact, you are right at the baseline of NEWB. The saddest part some of these guys have been practicing longer than I have.

News flash, the Intelligences come from a 3rd century astrologer who reasoned why the planets behaved better in certain signs, when Agrippa says about the planet being in the right condition he means in it's sign, because that's when the Intelligence has power over it. That's not to say they don't do other things at other times. Some of the Intelligences are also angels of the hours from the Hygro' for example, but their Intelligence powers begins and ends in the signs. Now when you are looking at day and hour combinations, again the description of those combinations is an astrological description of the planets aspect, but you know what, you need to understand astrology first. If you're using the day of Mercury for a Moon spell in the hour the Moon when Mercury and the Moon are square you aren't going to get anywhere. The hours are perfect general combinations, but you have to take in to account the actual aspects to know whether they are usable. If Jupiter is in the sign of Venus, and well aspected with reception that Jupiter hour on Friday is going to be very good. If its in Scorpio, probably give it a miss.

For the past few years people have asled me how I get the results I do. But as soon as I mention astrology, or anything that isn't Lilly approved they don't want to know. Astrology is the answer. I've been telling you it repeatedly for the past few years but the truth is most people don't want to know. The grimoires are largely planetary, the grimoires are filled with astrology advice or simply say to refer to astrology books, yet I see people saying that it isn't necessary. You know the idea that astrology is mystical energy isn't how they believed it in western medieval astrology at all. All astrology aspects were carried out by spirits, that is the baseline of the planetary spirits in the grimoires, it is literally who they are. You need to learn it to know who you can call and who what you can call can do, also what they are willing to do. Take note of Reception, take note of aspects, all of them. The quincunx and semi sextile both have links to Babylonian astrology. The bi-quintile, the sesqui-quadrate, they all work. Fuck they're recorded before Lilly but people only count him as traditional?? Cultural ignorance at its finest. I've observed them working like clock work. Listen because I am an actual astrologer, not a book parroter. These things you need to take into account. I'm going to write up actual astrology on here soon so you guys know what to learn, but astrology is a necessity in Ceremonial Magic and if you haven't learnt it yet, you're flapping a wand in the dark. Get with the times, stop excusing yourself from hard work, and become a Ceremonial Magician.

Hygromanteia conjuration order continued

People tend to believe that the only thing you can build pentacles on are the metals of the planet. This becomes complicated when you consider that the metals tend to be confused, for example copper is traditionally the metal of Mercury, but due to its affiliation with the island Cyprus where Venus was born became Venus orientated in grimoires. In fact you can make images and pentacles out of pretty much everything. Wax *Art Pauline, parchment *Key of Solomon, clay *Hygromanteia and wood *Key of Knowledge are all mentioned in the grimoires. This particular piece I will list comes from Harleianus 5596 and refers to clay.


"I conjure you, Earth, by your creator, who put you in your place, sealed you with seven seals, and fashioned the man from you; keep your virtue within this clay that I took in my hand, in order to serve me truly and effectively in everything I will make from it. I conjure you, Earth, to obey me truly, sincerely and firmly, as you are firm. Angel Raphael come to my help."

Notes: This is a particularly rich example as it gives further pointers to the order of conjurations to be employed which is confused in later adaptions. Where you see here as I stated was likely in previous posts, that the planet first is to be spoken to and the angel second. You could take Earth to be earth as in mud of course, but as it says "keep your virtue within this clay" you can see that this is actually a planetary prayer. There are very few planetary prayers towards the Earth outside of the extended Juratus, so it is a good find. The manuscript Harleianus 5596 Ioannis believes stems from the 1400's making it one of the oldest forms. Of course the treatise itself clearly dates much older between the 3rd and 8th century.

Evocation in the Hygromanteia

So a while ago I promised an account of evocation using the Hygromanteia. I was lucky enough to get a physical manifestation, which I shall write about here. This was different, as evocations which I have practiced so far with this grimoire, at least concerning the hourly angels, have not been physical but visions. You can vet a vision pretty well to know whether it is genuine or imagination, for example you can ask it where to find something, on what page of what grimoire etc. But there's nothing quite as satisfying, rare and terrifying as an angelic manifestation. For this reason I decided to move to the angels of the planets instead as I have manifested them in the past. For those of you who know my old blog I particularly worked with planetary angels for years, this hourly angel obsession has been more recent as I have moved into studies of the Hygromanteia (which in many respects is a prototype of the Key of Solomon.) Besides the hourly angels, the Hygro' also gives planetary angels some of which are entirely new to me. This particular evocation was of one of the Mercurial angels . I am uncertain how friendly this angel is and how accurate the Hygro is on angels. For reference sake the angels of Mercury according to the Hygromantiea are Madadoel, Pertikeel and Apodokiel. As they dislike being named I will leave you to guess which one I called.




Concerning the summoning, I first used the conjurations for the angel of the day, then the conjuration for the angel I was attempting to evoke. After that I called for the angel of the hour to aid me. I continued for a few days in the hour of Mercury changing aid to whichever hourly angel was relevant at the time, but always with evoking the same planetary angel. I stayed in the traditional Key of Solomon circle for this ceremony and even slept in it for a few days in case he came while I slept.


 When he did come I was awake and contemplating some random crap as I totally given up on him coming. He appeared unusually in the South West, rather than the North West. I was awestruck by a frequency that made my head feel like it was about to explode, followed by his sudden appearance. He appeared unreasonably close to the circle, within a foot or so, and his power was immense and unbearable. His form was about three feet high by two feet wide which is small as they are usually human size. I feel sometimes the size is relative to how big they want to be rather than are. He was as light, white, which came out in shards, the light was thick and bright but not solid as some are. His centre was too bright to see. He instructed me, but did not specifically answer what questions I had for him. I feel he was annoyed with me calling him when he turned up, and his visit was like scratching an itch that had been bugging him. Nonetheless, he did come, he did manifest and he did speak to me. I can't recall now if he spoke in my mind or physically, sometimes they do one, sometimes the other, but the manifestation was as physical as they ever are. He stayed for no longer than 30 seconds and then left. I don't think I could have been in his presence longer as he was just too close.




Relevant information: He came in an hour of the Sun, so a long time after I had called him, hours after. He did not give his name and I did not recognise him like for example I did with the manifestation of Michael, but that isn't rare in itself. Most angels I have evoked to appearance I have not known. I also think there is a tendency to assume success in the magical community, of course it may have been another sent in his place.

The Hygromanteia process

The prayers of the planets are sometimes to be said before the prayers of the angels. One version explains that they should be said for three days before the ceremony. Others tend to insert them, so that you say the prayer of the planet then the prayer of the angels of the planet, then you invoke the planet through it's names. Others the angels prayers are to be said beforehand. It is difficult to ascertain the correct order of conjuration. In the Heptaneron we are dealing with angels of days who are under the angel of the planet. In this respect one assumes that the angels of the planet have superiority over the angels of the days and hours but we have no clearer understanding on planet or planet angels superior standing. The angels of the planets seem to do the things of the planets though so one would assume the planets have command under God. I suspect then that the invocation of the planet prior to the angels is the correct one. Also the prayer to the planet starts with a prayer to God, whereas the angels prayers do not. Generally if we are looking at order with God at top over the planets, again then it would seem that the planets are higher than the angels thereof. Another thing to note is that the planets are not the Roman or Greek gods, neither are their names familiar. Their virtues do not fit the Greek or Roman gods either. In fact their purposes match the astrological essence of the planet, again noted by Marathakis too. We then see that as traditionally it was seen that the angels carried out the good aspects in astrology and the demons carried out the bad aspects in astrology, that we are first calling to the astrological essence of the planet and asking its angels to manifest its good will as they naturally do.

Talismans of the hours construction.- Hygro.

The evocation of the hourly angels are strictly to be concerned with giving virtue to the talismans in which you make in their hours. The talismans themselves are never shown, however there is some description to it which varies by the grimoire. Essentially you write what you want which is according to the virtue of the planetary hour, then you fold the parchment/paper once and draw the seal on the front. Although it sounds simple, complications arise when you try and go too far into the practice.


Firstly let just talk about the talismans themselves. The name of the angel varies from version to version and as discussed I will be going over some translations to clear this up, but whether the name ever goes on the talisman or just in the evocation remains unclear. Then of course there are the characters and seals which appear on the talismans. The seal of the planet (not of an angel) is to be written on the front of the talisman, once it is folded over, whereas the characters are written inside along with what you want. Three versions of these seals and characters exist in Ioannis publication, one in Harleianus and twos version in Atheniensis 1265 for no explained reason. Further characters are given in Monacensis which seems to leave the seals absent altogether. The seals are not alike. You simple would have to pick one in practice and hope it's the correct one or use both and hope it doesn't confuse things. I would hazard a guess that the scribe of Atheniensis 1265 was copying from more than one manuscript and they already had two different versions which is why he included both.
There is also the case of the magical alphabet. The alphabet itself is a stylised Greek (the grimoire mostly being written or rewritten by a Greek hand.) It is as Greek as Celestial is Hebrew or Theban is pre-Iranian ie. It's the same just a bit more fanciful. Saturn and Mars use one Alphabet, Venus and the Moon another and Mercury and the Sun another. Jupiter has its own for seemingly no apparent reason. Whatever the case, you are supposed to write the request (and spirits name?) on the talisman in the correct alphabet. Seeing this and the seal the angel will grant you his virtue to the talisman. Atheniensis 1265, Atheniensis 115, Petropolitanus 646 and Bernardaceus all include alphabets, but sadly Ioannis Marathakis publication only includes one version from Atheniensis 1265 and a partial from 115 so I am unable to compare them. Regarding the two given they match fairly well however.


There are also specific inks and incense which are to be made for the individual planets. These vary and you may as well just use inks or planetary incenses given in other grimoires.

Hygromanteia Jupiter Angel translations and discussion

The first 6 angels of the day of Jupiter.


1. Healer of God.
Raphael


2. Edge of God.
Periphrel


3. Instrument/tool of God
Khaliel


4. "Untranslatable"
????


5. Language of God
Glossas


6. Near/With God. / Memory of God.
Imeel / Mnimeel


Notes:
Concerning the differences between manuscripts the supposed oldest seems to be the most likely, with some of the latter versions seeming not to be words at all. I hypothesise it may not always be corruption but coding the names. Whatever the case the names seem to travel between Greek and Hebrew. Harleianus itself leaves some hours blank so it may be that not all of the hours had angels or where too corrupt to follow from whatever the scribe was copying it from. In other places it is clear that the scribe has simply put angels in with his own language. This begs the question whether the manuscript was Greek and turned Hebrew or Hebrew and turned Greek. I would imagine it was originally Hebrew and this part at least not of Greek origin.
Because of the variations between names there are some puzzling hour purpose changes too. As I had said before those who have names and hours are Harleianus, Gennadianus and Monacensis as opposed to Atheniensis 1265 and Bernardaceus who have no hours purposes and differ on name translations because of it.
One such puzzling angel is that of the 6th hour of the day of Jupiter. His name is Imeel which seems Jewish and translates roughly as Near/Besides God. The hour is for reconcilling with enemies at noon. (noon because it just happens to be the sixth hour) In an unlikely turn of events for once Gennadianus and Monacensis don't agree with Harleianus and instead, along with Atheniensis 1265 and Bernadaceus give versions of an angel in the Greek language. The angel is Mnimi-el. Mnimi in greek translates as Memory so Memory of God. It is strange that all manuscripts listed have abandoned the idea of Imeel although Ime could have been expanded to Mnimi for some reason. The hour's purpose then is also listed differently from Harleianus's reconciling and instead is given as changing residence. Why they have changed the angels name to Memory of God, and changed the purpose but to something that doesn't match the new name I have no idea. Perhaps this is an error in my translation of Mnimiel?




References: The Magical Treatise of Solomon by Ioannis Marathakis - Golden Hoard Press.

The use of crystals in magic

Taking a break from the Hygro before I've written much on it, I know, I know, but I like the photo.

Adding some crystals to the incense is quite handy for sending of a specific charge into the air. It depends on the ceremony what you would add but Quartz goes well with most. Amethyst or Rose Quartz with Venus orientated ceremonies, Obsidian for banishing bad energies, Citrine for Saturn, Moonstone for the Moon, Bloodstone for Mars etc.You get the idea. Make sure you don't put much in with them though because they can crack which isn't good.

Hygromanteia

I've recently took it upon myself to attempt to better my understanding of the Hygromanteia's angelic and demonic names disputes. The Hygromanteia is a grimoire, usually hidden amongst others, that is said to predate works as the Liber Juratus and probably the source for the Key of Solomon. I'm not sure this is true. In fact I doubt it and find it more likely a Greek version of the Key of Solomon, but it is an important text nonetheless and one I have found much use of.


Generally included in the Hygromanteia are a list of angels and demons of each planetary hour and their purposes, these are included in Harleianus, Atheniensis 1265, Gennadianus, Monacensis and Barnardaceus. As a rule of thumb Gennadianus and Monacensis both tend to agree with Harleianus whereas Atheniensis and Bernardaceus usually mirror. I would say there is a fairly good reason for this, as the angels names tend to reflect the hours purpose. For example ion is the angel of the 24th hour of the day of the Sun (before Monday sunrise) and literally comes from the Hebrew word meditate or rest. I believe the word meditate is more suited and rest is a mistranslation although it means both, as the hours are supposed to have purposes and rest makes no sense as a purpose. Anyway, you see Atheniensis 1265 and Bernadaceus are both missing the purpose of the hours. Due to the oddity of an angel being referred to as rest and without the aid of the purpose of the hours Bernadaceus concludes it was a corruption of Ionioniel (Union of God.)


The lack of the hours causes much trouble for the translations of these two texts however Bernadaceus is not to be completely ignored. The manuscript actually aids in many translations as from Harleianus the angels names were already corrupt and got worse. On many respects although the absence of hours is a problem for their translations I have found Bernardaceus and Atheniensis to be mostly the most accurate. Over the next few weeks I shall upload some names of angels and their probable correct titles, including the use of the angels in the Hygromanteia which is talisman based.