The Book of Magick Power

by Jason Augustus Newcomb

  I personally suggest that in your work you focus on contacting the spirits whose names I will provide in this chapter, rather than using the often sloppy techniques of channeling and mediumship in which you simply open yourself up to “whatever comes along.” I also recommend that you call upon Angels, Spirits and other non-human intelligences with their names spelled in the usual way. Of course, you can always do what you want in the end, but there is often significance in the way that a spirit’s name is spelled based on the numerology of the Qabala. I am not going to spend a great deal of time on this subject, but it is worthy of further study. There are several Qabalistic works in the bibliography and you could find a lot of useful information there. In this chapter we will discuss several methods of communicating with a number of different kinds of intelligence, who preside over the forces of the planets and the elements.

  There are a number of good reasons for attempting to communicate with non-human intelligences. All gods, angels and spirits are essentially personifications of the natural forces that surround us. This was true in ancient times, and it is still true today. If you invoke Zeus or the airy archangel Raphael, you are invoking the majesty of the clouds and sky, which give forth rains to make the earth fruitful, and threaten us with lightning. By giving this force a name, you have a way of conceptualizing and connecting with it. By connecting with it, you can gain greater understanding of the force, and also gain some measure of that force in your own life. In The New Hermetics, I provided a simple method of connecting with the seven major Greco-Roman planetary deities for the purpose of personal empowerment, so I will not focus on that here. Rather, I will focus on communicating with the angels, spirits and elementals for the purpose of gathering information, and influencing events from their unique perspective. Communicating with non-human entities can be very valuable, educational and helpful in manifesting your desires. Probably the most powerful group of entities you can contact is the “Enochian” angels that were revealed to Dr. John Dee. However, this subject is complex enough to warrant a book of its own.

  The following is a rather exhaustive list of entities, all of which can be contacted to understand the various aspects of the energies to which they are associated. Generally speaking, the Archangels represent the energy from a very exalted spiritual plane, the angels represent the energies on the Astral, while the Intelligences and Spirits represent the energies on the ethereal or sub-physical planes, and can most directly influence the physical world. The Spirits are generally considered to be somewhat nasty; they are often referred to as ‘evil,’ while the Archangels may be a bit too exalted for practical magick. By contacting the Archangels, you may gain some transcendental experience related to their particular domain. The Olympic Planetary Spirits and the Elemental Kings are leaders of large numbers of lesser spirits, and can be contacted for knowledge as well as to influence the world with their unique energy. These lists of entities represent a fairly complete set of beings to contact for a long time in your magick. Once you are quite experienced with these beings, you may decide to explore other beings such as the spirits of the Goetia or the Enochian Angels.

  Olympic Planetary Spirits

  Saturn – Arathor

  Jupiter – Bethor

  Mars – Phalegh

  Sun – Och

  Venus – Hagith

  Mercury – Ophiel

  Moon – Phul

  See Appendix D for the sigils of the Olympic Planetary Spirits

  Kings of Elementals

  Fire – Djin, king of the salamanders

  Water – Nichsa, queen of the undines

  Air – Paralda, king of the sylphs

  Earth – Ghob, king of the gnomes

  Magical entities are perfectly real, with a strong emphasis on perfect. They are the undiluted essence of the idea they represent on different planes. Therefore, Bartzabel, the spirit of Mars, is a perfect personification of the martial concept on the lower astral plane. He is the fierceness of justice, strength, force, and violence. That he exists, “only in your mind” is perfectly obvious and does not in any way negate his existence. He is of the realm of ideas, and can only express himself on the purely material plane in a limited way.

  It has been stated by many modern authorities on the subject of magick that “spirits,” ”angels,” “elementals” and the like are simply aspects of the human unconscious mind that are transcendent or unbalanced in one way or another as the case may be. This seems like a fair assertion as long as we remember that the human mind encompasses everything in the sphere of sensation, so that rocks, friends, Thursday, green and so on are all equally no more than a part of the human mind. Drawing boundary lines in these matters is impossible and futile. As Aleister Crowley put it, “Thus, when we say that Nakhiel is the 'Intelligence' of the Sun, we do not mean that he lives on the Sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although we can invoke him, we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same sense of the word in which our butcher exists.”[1] He then goes on to say, “When we 'conjure Nakhiel to visible appearance,' it may be that our process resembles creation- or, rather, imagination- more nearly than it does calling forth. The aura of man is called the 'magical mirror of the universe'; and so far as anyone can tell, nothing exists outside of this mirror.”[2] But this should not lead you to think that these entities are just imaginary nothings. They are in fact, powerful aspects of the consciousness of the universe. They are illusions to be sure in a certain sense, but so is everything.

  Quite simply, in terms of our four-part model of consciousness, The Archangels approximately represent the consciousness of their associated energies in the realm of the super-conscious mind (and above), the Angels in the conscious mind (and above), and the Intelligences and Spirits in the subconscious mind (and below). The Intelligences will represent the positive aspects of their energies, while the Spirits will represent more the negative side. The Olympic Planetary Spirits fall somewhere in the middle of this scheme. The Elemental Kings and Rulers are perhaps somewhere near the Angels but really in the subconscious plane and with greater practical influence. The Old Gods such as Zeus, Odin or Astarte basically occupy the same space as the Archangels. This is of course just a metaphor.

  Being perfect expressions of the “qualities,” “feelings,” or “ideas” that these entities embody on different planes, it is theoretically quite easy to establish contact with them. You must simply fill your senses with those things that put you in sympathy with the idea you wish to connect with. You can use number, symbol, incense, color and may other things to create the right “mood,” but the easiest way to do this is simply to create a conducive magical atmosphere using the techniques you’ve already learned. In the traditional medieval scheme of magick it is necessary to conjure these entities in a hierarchical manner. If you wanted Kedemel, the spirit of Venus, to cause someone to fall in love with you, you would first need to invoke the proper name of God, in this case YHVH Tzabaoth, then invoke the Archangel Haniel, the Angel Hanael, the Intelligence Hagiel, and then finally Kedemel to do your bidding. While this might be effective, it is probably not entirely necessary for practical purposes. Simply creating the correct magical atmosphere, then using the telesmatic imaging technique that you will use in a few moments, you will find it quite easy to establish “contact,” with these beings.

  Nonetheless, for the sake of completeness, here are the appropriate divine names:

  To create the magical atmospheres for contacting these beings, the colors previously presented will work quite well, but with the planetary energies you might wish to try the following colors for specific entities. These are from the color scales of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

  Planet

  Divine Mind

  The Archangels

  Superconscious

  The Angels

  Conscious

  The Spirits

  Subconscious

  Saturn

  Crimson

  Bl
ack

  Dark brown

  Grey flecked

  Pink

  Jupiter

  Deep violet

  Blue

  Deep purple

  Deep azure

  Flecked yellow

  Mars

  Orange

  Scarlet red

  Bright scarlet

  Red flecked

  Black

  Sun

  Clear pink rose

  Yellow (gold)

  Rich salmon

  Gold amber

  Venus

  Amber

  Emerald

  Yellow green

  Olive flecked

  Gold

  Mercury

  Violet purple

  Orange

  Red-russet

  Yellow-brown

  Flecked white

  Moon

  Indigo

  Violet

  Very dark

  Purple

  Citrine flecked

  Azure

  As you can probably see, the colors suggested before basically correspond to the Archangels. In a hierarchical sense this is appropriate, since by contacting the higher form of the energy, it is certainly possible to connect with its lower form. However, it might be useful to experiment. Honestly, I have not done this much in my own practice. For entities that occupy a more vague space in the planes, such as the Olympic Planetary Spirits, I would recommend using the usual colors. For the beings associated with the four elements, the usual colors should be fine.

  When Encountering an Astral Being, be cautious and respectful. They are capable of a great deal, including changing your life or providing you with unique information and knowledge. If you consider them imaginary and useless, that will be true. If you consider them to be real and powerful, that will be so. You are as powerful as any astral being, much more so in fact, but they are in their element on the astral, while it is just a visiting place for you. This makes it quite easy for them to manipulate and confuse you. Always remain in control of every encounter.

  TELESMATIC IMAGING

  In order to enter into useful communication with an astral being, it is easiest to build up a form in the “astral light” for the being to occupy, using the imagination, and then allowing the entity to occupy it and communicate or commune with you. This can be done simply by building up a form from the colorful energy you invoke in creating the magical atmosphere, or you could use the technique of telesmatic imaging. Although the former can be used quite effectively, in many ways the latter is superior since it gives you the opportunity to really think about the entity in terms of its name in the original Hebrew, and this will connect you with the entity in a very intimate and magical way from the beginning.

  Telesmatic imaging is based on the esoteric associations of the Hebrew letters from the ancient magical text the Sepher Yetzirah. The letters are associated with the planets, the elements and the signs of the zodiac, and from these correspondences are also the esoteric keys to the twenty two major arcana of the Tarot. These correspondences then create pictorial suggestions for each letter. You will build up an image of the being you’ll communicate with using these magical correspondences. By building up an image in this way, you are directly connecting with the subtle currents of magical energy that form this being, and your connection with the being is nearly automatic. Of this technique, the adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn have this to say, “And know thou that this is not to be done lightly for thine amusement or experiment, seeing that the Forces of Nature were not created to be thy plaything or toy. Unless thou doest thy practical magical works with solemnity, ceremony and reverence, thou shalt be like an infant playing with fire, and thou shalt bring destruction upon thyself.”[1]

  In terms of color, you could use the various color scales as above, with different colors depending upon the nature of the entity. I have not provided the complete color scale, but for simplicity’s sake, I will only give the usual color attributions here, which are actually from the highest scale, associated with the divine mind. This should be more than sufficient for your regular use.

  Most of these attributions are directly from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Some are physical descriptions while others are more evocative of the “feeling” of the image you will create. It is helpful to be aware of the astrological significance of these ideas, as well as a general familiarity with the Tarot. If you aren’t familiar with these correspondences, hopefully the following descriptions will be helpful.

  So, to use these ideas to build up your image, you will need to look at the Hebrew spelling of the being you are invoking. You can find these Hebrew spellings in the lists of names above. You must remember that Hebrew is read from right to left, so the first letter will begin on the right side, and be read in reverse direction from English.

  For longer names you will obviously need to use your creativity and common sense to divide up the portions of the image. You can imagine as an addition to this image that the angelic figure wearing a golden belt with the letters of their name engraved upon it. One of the best things you could do would be to enter the Alpha state, and use your creativity to make a rough sketch of such an image, as beautifully as you can. It is said that you should probably try not to sexualize the image, as this will attract lower forces than you want into your invocational magick, but this is subject to debate.

  You can also use this telesmatic imaging for an advanced version of creating artificial elementals. Let your own creativity guide you in this matter.

  You will notice that I have not given Hebrew letters for the Olympic Planetary Spirits or the Kings of the Elements. These beings are not of Hebrew origin, so this technique might not be the best for using them. You could transliterate the names fairly effectively, but it might just be best to use the simple technique of building up a regal, spiritual image directly out of the colors and energies you invoke initially.

  For the Olympic Planetary Spirits, you will want to trace with your imagination the symbol that I’ve provided in Appendix 4 on their chest. This will place you in contact with their forces effectively. There are actually sigils or symbols for all of these entities that can be traced using the rose-cross lamen of the Golden Dawn, or using the Planetary Kameas. I will not go into these matters in this book, as the simple telesmatic imaging we’ve just discussed should place you strongly in sympathy with these forces.

  Once you have developed a fairly strong image you are ready to begin your invocation.

  Exercise 89 – Invocation of the Angelic Beings

  Time Required: 30 to 60 minutes

  With this exercise you can establish communication with any of the above mentioned Angels or Archangels. However, you should not use it with the Intelligences or Spirits of the Planets, or the Elemental Kings or Rulers. These beings should be communicated with through the techniques of evocation which we will cover in the next section.

  This is a highly simplified invocational formula. You can of course expand upon it to include any ritual elements that you think important from your own experience. With the planetary energies, you may wish to invoke them on their appropriate days:

  Monday: Moon

  Tuesday: Mars

  Wednesday: Mercury

  Thursday: Jupiter

  Friday: Venus

  Saturday: Saturn

  Sunday: Sun

  There are also special appropriate hours for each of the planets throughout the day, but I have noticed little practical difference in any of these hours. I have generally found that night is the best time for this sort of work, but you may wish to work with Solar entities while the Sun is still visible. This is all really up to you, and will become clearer in your practical efforts.

  Allow yourself to be open as you experience these entities, and do not try to force them to conform to your conscious expectations. They may quickly transform from your telesmatic image into something else entirely, and this may actually be a good sign. The telesmati
c form is your projection, but once you have made contact this image may change to the way the being chooses to appear to you. However, the image should still be sympathetic with the energy you’ve invoked. If a Solar angel transforms into a black, watery dragon and you see images of storms, lightning and rotting corpses, something has gone wrong. In this case you should dismiss the Angel and banish the energies very completely, trying again another day.

  If you are unsure of the being, you should test it by tracing an invoking polygon (pentagram or hexagram) appropriate to the energy of the being you invoked, drawing more energy into the being. This will make your vision more strong if you have the correct being, and it will cause the being to dissipate if you have a usurper or faker. This is the best way to test beings while in the middle of an operation. You may also judge by the nature of your communion with them, or the nature of their appearance, but even this at times can be deceptive.

  Allow yourself to fully experience the personality of each of these beings as they come to you. These entities will have unique meaning for you in your magical universe, and if you give them the opportunity they can transform many aspects of your consciousness and life. These beings have real messages for you. Sometimes they may be irritable or weak and you should consider what this means about you and your relationships with these archetypal energies.