#table of practice

As long as I am in the swing of sharing my wood crafting, this is my DSIC Table of practice. I finished the Seven spheres a couple of months ago, so I decided to get into the classic more deeply. 

Made of wood, pyrographed, edges are bronzed. 

I have to say, I am enjoying making the tools almost as much as using them. 

Think what you will about me, I know you can make do with drawings on paper, even printed paper, I like things of substance, I like decorating the tools so I guess the two hobbies, magic and the need to make stuff go hand in hand:)

This is my Table of Practice and Trithemius Wand. As mentioned in an earlier post, the purpose of these tools is to evoke the angels of the various planets for purposes of theurgy (initiation into or learning about) or thaumaturgy (asking them to help you accomplish something you desire).

The Table is pine. The Wand is Gabon Ebony.

They were made according to basic instructions found in Rufus Opus’ Seven Spheres, in Barrett’s 1801 translation of Johannes Trithemius’ The Art of Drawing Spirits Into Crystals, and a review of photos on the internet.

I chose the Hebrew Alphabet for the lettering on the Table of Practice because I like it better, and because I had better stencils. I traced the letters in pencil and then filled them in with black acrylic paint, then covered the whole thing with several coats of clear gloss lacquer. 

The wand was also coated with clear gloss lacquer. 

Why gloss? Personal preference. You do need a protective coat of lacquer, though. Otherwise the letters, particularly on ritual tools, will smear.

I will admit right from the start, that I am new to this whole DSIC thing and Rufus Opus May not be the right place to start with it, but what can I do, it is done already. 

When describing his table and set up, he is starting with Gabriel on the north:

Which does not coincide with the diagrams in Trithemius’ work (Michael on top), nor with the traditional way of placing Uriel to the North and Michael to the south etc., like in the LBRP and also does not really correlate to the version using demon kings.

He fails to explain this and i have not been able to find any other sources. Does anyone know, why this is and what the correct version is? 

For my work with the Seven Spheres, I also made an alternate version of the table of practice, which makes more sense to me, placing Uriel to the north and going according to the normal cardinal placement of the angels to test. I finished the work with that table and I am quite happy.

From now on though, I will be proceeding with the version of the Table of Practice with the four demon kings with Egyn to the north, as that seems to be the consensus.