Sunday, January 4, 2009

More Enochiana

I left something out of my post on Enochian. I realized today that I actually do still use it to work with the elements. I have a whole system of elemental training that incorporates pore breathing and focusing techniques that I learned from Bardon, winds and channels techniques from Tantra, Zernga and thogyal techniques from Dzogchen, and certain words from Enochian magick relating to the elements, mostly from the Tablet of Union and the three holy names from center row of the watchtowers. These tend not to invoke beings as such, but open up gates to those powers. After that I can handle it on my own.

I have wondered whether the Enochian Angels are actually beings as we normally think of them at all. One of the reasons that I called them Angles instead of Angels in the last post is that when I was doing Enochian a decade ago I started to get the impression that rather than be evoked by their names, they were created by them on the spot. Each letter represents a certain angle of existence and the names represent equations that result in the creation of beings that represent those powers for as long as the rite lasts. You can almost look at it like a cosmic lego set. Each letter is a piece which can be combined in various ways than disassembled. This may account for the "hollowness" that R.O. describes feeling, which is a good term for some of my impressions as well.

I think perhaps another reason that i eventually abandoned the system is that I have no great love of codes and cryptography. Clearly Dee did, and he received a magickal system that catered to that. It has not escaped me how much of the Hekate material that I have received over the last 9 years has catered to my interests and proclivities.

Anyway, just some further speculation based on experiments made a decade ago.

4 comments:

Rufus Opus said...

That makes sense. The hollowness could be a reflection of their lack of history.

Patrick Dunn postulated that they were servitors created by Dee and Kelley, and that we're dealing with them now. Of course, in my Spirit Model, I don't believe in servitors. I think spirits reveal whatever aspects about themselves they want to manifest to unsuspecting chaos magicians, and then inhabit the thought forms the magi create. Over time, the spirits' true form overpowers the image created for them by the magician, and that's when the inevitable stories of servitors gone wrong arise, and why most magicians that continue to use Thralls and Servitors over time eventually learn to use them and get rid of them instead of keeping them around.

That's my Spirit Model take on things, anyway. :)

However, EHNB and the Four Spirits that make up his name do seem to be different in some way. I dunno. I'll work with them more later and see what happens.

Jason Miller, said...

I basically agree on the servitors being spirits beyond just what the magician put into it. Taking that into account however just makes the tech cooler IMO.

Just like all the shit you add to a Nganga or your spirit pot, the form you give to the servitor empowers it for certain work. BTW, for the record I have three permenant servitors that I have worked with for over 10 years, and another thar we created and "let free" rather than destroy. That last one is still active in Philadelphia and comes whenever its called. Friendly as anything...

corvusbrachyrhynchos said...

I thought the Angles/Angels thing was a typographical slip...

For the record, I am highly skeptical when it comes to spirits; that being said, I have unintentionally encountered my share.

I often wonder if the "names" of spirits are something of a "hey you" that call to a general aspect or trait.

As a completely random made-up example, let us suppose that in my just invented system. I call on a spirit that helps with... lactose intolerance. I reduce the intent down to lactoseinr and decide that this will be the name. (not that far fetched in most chaos thinking, actually) so I put out what might be the spiritual equivalent of a google search for "lactoseinr"+"stomach"+"dairy", and hit the (I'm feeling lucky) button. Something will get called... just not exactly what you thought. The kicker is that you might not even know it.

An extension of this pet theory of mine is that Lactoseinr might be something of a vague work-for-hire posting that anything might show up for. I might not realize that this worker has no previous experience at this, and hire it anyway. The spirits of older tomes, might be something akin to professional titles or vocations, rather than one specific being that gets called up over and over and over again...
The Malphas that worked itself into my workings might have been something of an intern trying to build up a work history, and eagerly popped up at a possible job. A more experienced Malphas would want a to work somewhere more prestigious.

One of my first attempts a servitor resulted in a spirit that seemed uncomfortable in its work uniform. It seemed to want to do different things than what it was requested for. Needless to say, I had to let it go.

Persephone said...

I just love it when you guys get all geeky and technical! It's like watching computer geeks program!

But Jay... I think one of your servitors ate some of my fries the other night when I was eating a cheeseburger at the corner bar. If you're going to set these dudes free, can you teach them some manners? Like have a fry, but ask nicely!

P