"I will be what I will to be." - Exodus 3:14
An Enochian Greater Ritual of the Heptagram
Here's a chance to engage in some cutting-edge magical research. Over the years my magical working group has done some work with John Dee and Edward Kelley's Enochian system. In one of those operations we received names in the Angelic language for the five classical planets that are not named in Dee and Kelley's Calls. The two that are named are the Sun (ROR) and the Moon (GRAA). I did the scrying for this session, and while I am not normally all that great a scryer this particular operation seemed to go smoothly. When I asked the spirit for the names of the planets I was immediately struck by the image that the first letter of each planet's name corresponded with the sound of the appropriate Hebrew letter according to the Golden Dawn arrangement. Prior to that, I had never noticed that ROR begins with the same sound as Resh, the Hebrew letter corresponding to the Sun, and that GRAA begins with the same sound as Gimel, the letter corresponding to the Moon.
Here are all seven classical planet names, including the five that we received.
1. Venus - DMUZ 2. Sun - ROR 3. Mars - PAROTH 4. Jupiter - KYLMA 5. Mercury - BANRO 6. Saturn - TUR 7. Moon - GRAA
Knowing these names makes it possible to construct a ritual akin to the Golden Dawn Greater Ritual of the Hexagram for the Enochian system. Rather than using the figure of the hexagram, the figure of the heptagram seems more appropriate to Enochian work given the significance of the number seven throughout the system. The seven Ensigns of Creation, one for each planet, are place on the Holy Table in the shape of a heptagram. For the purposes of this ritual, I have associated the seven planets with the points of the heptagram in the order of the seven Ensigns. This is the order in which the names appear on the list above, beginning with the top point of the heptagram and moving clockwise. As with the Golden Dawn Greater Ritual of the Hexagram, to invoke a planet you start at the appropriate point and trace clockwise, while to banish a planet you trace counter-clockwise instead.
Since this ritual follows the Golden Dawn structure, the last word that is required is some Angelic equivalent of ARARITA. This is a Notariquon or acronym for "One is his beginning; one is his individuality; his permutation is one” and in addition is a formula of seven letters, also alluding to the planets. As it turns out, the Calls contain a pretty good match: GE-IAD-I-L, meaning "Our Lord and Master is All One." Not only is the meaning very similar, it also consists of seven Angelic letters. I pronounce this phrase in the Calls as geh-ee-AHD EE LAH, though it could also be run together as geh-ee-ahd-EEL, which has four syllables like ARARITA. I plan on starting my testing of the ritual using the standard pronunciation, since in some ways five syllables is really more appropriate than four. As I see it, this ritual conjoins the planetary and elemental spheres, and five represents the pentagram, whereas four represents the cross of the elements and could be said to exclude Spirit.
For visualization of lineal figures, I use the Golden Dawn flashing color method. I visualize the lineal figure itself in the color associated with the planet and then visualize the figure in the center appearing in its compliment. This helps to make the visualization more intense and is also easy to practice - just build the figures you will be tracing out of construction paper or paint them onto a piece of paper in the proper colors and meditate on them. The contrast makes for a strong and lasting memory impression.
The proper colors depend on whether you are working along active or receptive lines. The Golden Dawn system actually has four color scales attributed to the four Qabalistic worlds, called the King, Queen, Prince, and Princess scales. The four worlds correspond to the four letters of YHVH and represnt the realms through which potentiality manifests as physical reality. For normal use, you should only need the King and Queen scales. The former is used when working active magick, whereas the latter is used when working receptive magick. In terms of the Tree of Life, paths correspond to the King scale whereas spheres correspond to the Queen scale. The paths represent magical powers of various sorts, whereas the spheres represent mystical realizations. You can consult column XLV: Magical Powers [Western Mysticism] of Liber 777 for a complete list.
The colors for the planets are as follows:
Venus - King scale emerald green, compliment scarlet. Queen scale green, compliment red. Sun - King scale orange, compliment blue. Queen scale yellow, compliment purple. Mars - King scale scarlet, compliment emerald green. Queen scale red, compliment green. Jupiter - King scale violet, compliment yellow. Queen scale blue, compliment orange. Mercury - King scale yellow, compliment purple. Queen scale orange, compliment blue. Saturn - King scale indigo, compliment pale yellow. Queen scale black, compliment white. Moon - King scale blue, compliment orange. Queen scale violet, compliment yellow.
So this gives the basic structure of the ritual. The heptagrams are traced to the four quarters just like Golden Dawn hexagrams - you start at the point with which you are working and trace clockwise to invoke and counter-clockwise to banish. You start in the east and trace the appropriate heptagram to each direction moving clockwise. The heptagram should be traced with a single point up, just like the Ensigns are arranged on the Holy Table. You vibrate GE-IAD-I-L when tracing the figure in the color of the planet and vibrate the planet name while tracing the astrological symbol of the planet in the center in the flashing color.
This ritual has not been tested yet, but my hypothesis is that it should make Enochian planetary workings more effective. This is because it uses the Angelic language and not the "intermediary" language of Hebrew. It is not that Hebrew works poorly with the Enochian system - actually in my experience it is the only language besides Angelic itself that works well and it is found in John Dee's diaries. Notably, Dee and Edward Kelly contacted the traditional four Archangels and addressed them by their Hebrew names. As with any magical working posted to this site, I invite you to try it out and post your results. This ritual should follow the Golden Dawn "Lesser" rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram or their equivalent.
