Saturday 6 February 2016

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.

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