Greetings, Angel-workers!
As many of you know, I believe John Dee was given the Angelical alphabet for more than just writing the perfected Holy Book of Loagaeth. As the angels revealed the mysterious characters in the shewstone, they stated that the alphabet was “preferred before that which you call Hebrew.” I strongly doubt the Angels wanted Dee to get all Jewish people of the world to begin speaking fluent Angelical! Dee himself likely knew enough Hebrew to read untranslated Jewish texts (or at least get the gist of them), but he wouldn’t have had any use for Angelical in such tasks. He did, however, make use of the Hebrew alphabet in his occultism – much of it drawn directly from Agrippa’s ‘Occult Philsoophy.’ You can read for yourself what Dee was studying: It begins in Book III, chapter 24 and continues until chapter 28.
It seems obvious to me that Dee’s angels wanted him to use Angelical in place of the Hebrew alphabet in all of Agrippa’s tables, charts and methods of encrypting/decrypting Divine Names. This is perfectly in line with Agrippa himself, who asserts that his methods can be used with any alphabet.
I’m sure many of you have already read my essay on this subject: The Angelical Alphabet. (Read it now at the link, or you can find it in ‘The Angelical Language’, Vol I.) Over the years since I published it, I have been contacted by several students who wish to make use of the techniques, but need further illustration of the process. The Tables of Ziruph, especially, can be confusing until you get the hang of their proper useage.
So, I am making this blog as an example of how to use the information outlined in ‘The Angelical Alphabet.’ Though I will make reference to Agrippa’s work along the way, I will be using the Angelical Alphabet in place of Hebrew. (There will be only one exception to this – and I will make it clear when I am discussing traditional Hebrew Angels.)
Also note: In this blog, I will use the English-letter equivalents of the Angelical , so we do not have to worry about Enochian fonts. Where necessary, I will mention the letter by its Angelical name. If you want to see a chart of the alphabet and the names of its letters, refer to the Angelical Alphabet essay linked above.
Finding the Name of an Angel from a Horoscope (an Example)
In my essay, I describe this technique in a section entitled ‘Of Finding Out the Names of Spirits and Geniuses from the Disposition of Celestial Bodies.’ This has various uses. If you decode the name from your own natal chart, you have discovered the hidden name of your Nativity Angel. This is one of your Guardian Angels (not the same as Abramelin’s ‘Holy Guardian Angel’), who can speak or assist you with any part of your life covered by your natal chart.
On the other hand, you can also draw up a horoscope for magickal timing – finding a place and time where the stars are fortunate toward your goal or sympathetic toward the Angel(s) you wish to contact. If you then decode a name from this chart, you will have an Angel who is set specifically over your magickal goal. It is then possible to use other standard magickal arts to create a sigil for the Angel, a Talismanic Image, summon it or work with it however you choose.
Let us assume you wish to work with the planet Mars (the planet of agression, strength, protection, etc.). Therefore, you will naturally try to find a time when Mars is strong and well-aspected with the other planets. It is best if Mars himself is above the horizon, and even better if one can find such a time that falls upon a day and hour of Mars. For our purposes, we shall pretend we drew a chart with the following dignities and aspects:
Ascendant: For our purposes here, we will suppose the Ascendant was at 1 degrees Aries.
Luna: 1st House, 17 degrees Aries, with no dignity (meaning neither good or bad). Luna attempts to help the Detrimental Mercury with a Trine aspect, though Mercury is the stronger of the pair. Luna does gain some power for residing in a sign ruled by Mars.
Jupiter: 3rd House, 8 degrees Gemini, in Detriment. Inconjunct with Saturn so that Fate and Fortune are mis-aligned. It is also in opposition to Venus (Fortune and Passion are oppossed here) – which means it is hindering Venus’ attempt to aid Saturn. This maelific Jupiter seems more powerful than Saturn or Venus, if you consider a Detriment to be more powerful than no dignity at all.
Saturn: 8th House, 8 degrees Scorpio, with no dignity. It is inconjunct with Jupiter (Fate and Fortune are not working well together), but Venus is attempting to lend some Passionate support in a Semi-Sextile. It gains some power for being in a sign ruled by Mars (our planet of focus).
Venus: 9th House, 6 degrees Sagittarius, with no dignity. As stated above, Venus is in opposition to Jupiter and Semi-Sextile with Saturn. Both Saturn and Venus are relatively weak, and they are overpowered by the Detrimental Jupiter.
Mercury: 9th House, 15 degrees Sagittarius, in Detriment. This is generally bad news for magick or communication. It is in Trine with Luna, which alleviates some of the negativity – but sadly Luna has no dignity and is therefore weaker than the Detrimental Mercury.
Sol: 10th House, 1 degrees Capricon (thus cusped with Sagittarius), with no dignity in either sign. He has no aspect with any other planet, however he does happen to reside in the sign of Mars’ exaltation. Not particularly strong in the chart, but Mars should lend him some power.
Mars: 11th House, 26 degrees Capricorn, in Exaltation. Without a doubt Mars is the most powerful and fortunate planet in this chart. Not only is he Exalted, he forms no negative aspects with other planets. He is also above the horizon, which is always a plus.
Once you have found this magickal time and drawn the horoscope, it is time to decode the name of your Angel. As Agrippa teaches, one must first assign letters to all 360 degrees of the chart. Beginning with Pa (B) in House 1, degree 1 and moving counterclockwise (that is, with the natural order of the signs), assign one letter of the Angelical Alphabet to each degree, repeating the alphabet (From Pa to Gisg) over and over until you run out of degrees. In my essay I have done this work for you, and provided easy reference tables to find the letter of any degree in a horoscope.
Next, consider the aspects of the chart – specifically the strongest and most fortunate aspects that will aid you in your work. Unfortunate and weak aspects can be ignored. The planets fall in the following order upon our example chart, starting from the First House and moving counterclockwise:
Luna, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Sol, Mars
The fortunate and/or strong aspects we wish to keep are:
Luna, Saturn, Sol, Mars
That is, the two planets that reside in the signs ruled by Mars, the Sun residing in the sign of Mars’ Exaltation, and Mars itself. The Angelical letters associated with their degrees on the chart are as follows:
Luna: 1st House, 17 degrees = R (Don)
Saturn: 8th House, 8 degrees = M (Tal)
Sol: 10th House, 1 degrees = U/V (Van)
Mars: 11th House, 26 degrees = L (Ur)
To compile the name, you have a couple of choices. One is simpler and, in my opinion, less powerful – and that is to simply take the letters as they fall counterclockwise around the chart, starting with the First House and moving to the Twelfth. In our example, this gives us:
RMUL
Agrippa suggests we add “El”, “Yah”, “On” or “Yod” to the end of the name. However, since we are using Angelical rather than Hebrew, I feel we can dispense with that convention. Thus, the resulting name above could be pronounced Remul, Ramul or even Ramvel, Ramuel, etc. When spelled in Angelical characters, it would only have the four letters Don (R), Tal (M), Van (U/V) and Ur (L).
The other, more powerful, option is to organize the letters according to their strength in the chart – strongest letter first, weakest letter last. If you have done your work correctly, that should place the letter of the planet you are working with first in the name. In our example, the aspects fall into this order of power:
1) Mars: In Exaltation, no negative aspects.
2) Sol: No dignity, no aspects, in sign of Mars’ exaltation.
3) Luna: No dignity, trine with Mercury, in a sign ruled by Mars.
4) Saturn: No dignity, inconjunct with Jupiter, semi-sextile with Venus, in a sign ruled by Mars.
The above results in the following:
LURM
In this case, our angel’s name would be Lurem. Technically speaking, both Lurem and Remuel should be different aspects of the same angel, but Lurem will be the more powerful of the two.
If you have reason to search for the demon or “negative angel” from the same horoscope, you follow a similar – yet inverted – process. First, you must have the name of the good angel. Then, you need to write the alphabet into all 360 degrees of the chart as before, except this time you place the first letter into the descendant – or the 1st degree of the seventh House – running clockwise around the chart. (Again, I have done this work for you in my essay.)
Now, you need only look at the degrees of the letters of the angel’s name. For each degree, take the letter from the spot 180 degrees opposite of (that is, in opposition to) the angel’s letter. In our example, we have:
L: 11th House, 26 degrees. Opp: 5th House, 26 degrees = X (Pal)
U: 10th House, 1 degrees. Opp: 4th House, 1 degrees = E (Graph)
R: 1st House, 17 degrees. Opp: 7th House, 17 degrees = I/Y (Gon)
M: 8th House, 8 degrees. Opp: 2nd House, 8 degrees = Z (Ceph)
Thus, the name of the demon is XEYZ – which we might pronounce Zayz or Zay-zod.
Using the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ (More Examples)
In my Angelical Alphabet essay, I also explain the uses of Agrippa’s ‘Tables of Ziruph’ – as found in his ‘Occult Philosophy’ Chapter 27. You will find the section in my essay entitled ”Of the Calculating Art of Such Names by the Tradition of Cabalists’ – though I have again replaced the Hebrew in Agrippa’s charts with Angelical.
Simply put, the Tables of Ziruph allow you to find more angels (or demons) in the same hierarchy as the original name. This is based on the nine-choir cosmology of Dionysus, which groups the angelic hierarchies into three groups of three. From highest to lowest they are: Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, Dominations, Powers and Virtues and Principalities, Archangels and Angels.
When you use the above-illustrated method of finding an angel’s name from a horoscope, you are technically getting the name from the lowest choir of Angels. With the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ you can use that angel’s name to find the name of his Archangel.
The Angel and his Archangel should be all you need for practical purposes- however you can find the names of yet higher entities if you desire. Enter the name of the Archangel into the ‘Table of Ziruph’ and you will produce a Principality. Enter the Principality’s name into the Table and you will produce a Virtue. Continue this process and you can take it all the way to a Seraph at the Throne of God.
For our purposes, I will assume you only need to find the Archangel who governs our Angel of Mars named Lurem: Remember the angel’s name is spelled LURM (Ur, Van, Don, Tal), which was compiled from the planets Mars, Sol, Luna and Saturn in our horoscope.
Look at the ‘Ziruphic’ Table of Planets in my essay. Look for the first letter of our angel’s name in the line called the “Entrance of the Good Angels.” (Ur is the eleventh letter down that column.) Now, scan leftward along Ur’s row in the table until you reach the column of the letter’s planet Mars (three columns to the left). In that column we find the letter H (Na) – so that is the first letter of our Archangel’s name.
Now, find the second letter of our angel’s name – U (Van) – in the “Entrance of the Good Angels.” (It happens to be the 19th letter down.) Since this letter was associated with Sol, we need to scan leftward along that row until we reach the column of Sol (two columns over) – where we find the letter C/Ch/K (Veh). This is the second letter of our Archangel’s name.
Follow this same process for the remaining letters of the angel’s name. If we find R (Don) in the “Entrance of the Good Angels” and scan leftward to the column of Luna, we find that the third letter of the Archangel’s name is N (Drux). Finally, if we find M (Tal) in the “Entrance of the Good Angels” and scan leftward to the column of Saturn, we find that the last letter of the Archangel’s name is Q (Ger).
Putting these new letters together, we have: HCNQ. It seems like a bit of a tongue-twister, but we might pronounce it Hay-sen-ohk. (I note the similiarity of this name to the word Cnoqod, which means “servant.”)
If you wanted to find the next name up the hierarchy – in this case a Principality – you would use the exact same process to enter the Archangel’s name into the ‘Table of Ziruph.’
If you wished to find the Archdemon that governs the demon in your chart, you would simply follow the same process as above – except you would enter the letters of the demon’s name into the table from the “Line of the Evil Angels” instead.
One More Thing about the ‘Tables of Ziruph’
In the above examples, the method of using the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ depends on first finding the name of an angel or demon from a horoscope. This way, each letter in the name has a specific planet assigned to it. However, what about using the ‘Tables of Ziruph’ with the name of existing Angels – who do not come with planetary aspects assigned to each letter?
For this purpose, I will drop the Angelical and return to the Hebrew Agrippa used in his charts. So if you want to follow along, you will have to refer to Agrippa’s ‘Occult Philosophy’ Chapter 27 and his Ziruphic Table of the planets.
Let us begin by assuming you are working with a Hebrew Solar Angel -such as the Intelligence of the Sun Nakhiel (Nun, Kaph, Yod, Aleph, Lamed). Further, we will assume that Intelligences such as Nakhiel are “Angels” by the Dionysian hierarchy, and we will use his name to generate an Archangel.
First, prepare the name of Nakhiel by removing the “-el” suffix. If our Angel had a “-iah”, “-iod” or “-on” suffix we would remove that as well. (This is because we will be adding one of these Divine Names directly to the Arhcangelic name we generate. As stated previously, I do not follow this convention at all for Angelical names – but I do follow it for Hebrew names.) This leaves us with the letters Nun, Kaph and Yod.
Since we are dealing with an Angel entirely related to the Sun, we simply need to enter these letters into the “Entrance of the Good Angels” and scan leftward to the column of Sol (the very center column) for every letter:
N (Nun) = Z (Zain)
Kh (Kaph) = Ch (Cheth)
I (Yod) = A (Aleph)
This results in a name with the letters ZChA. And, since we are using Hebrew, I will add one of the Names of God “El”, “Yah” or “On” onto the end of the name. Agrippa suggests that “Yah” is used only for good angels and “El” can be used for angels or demons. (He does not mention the proper use of the Greek “On.”) Personally, I don’t find much support for this concept among the angel and demon names I have studied. Thus, I suggest simply adding the Name of God that fits best linguistically in the name. For “ZChA”, I think “El” fits the best – giving us the final result of: ZChAAL or Zachael, which we might pronounce Zak-ay-el.
Thus, Zachael is an Archangel who governs Nakhiel. You could further enter ZChA into the ‘Table of Ziruph’ – using the colum of Sol for all letters – to find a Solar Principality that governs Zachael.
I will bring this blog post to a close here. I hope the above illustrations have been useful to you in putting this material into practice.
LVX
Aaron
Ananael (The Secrets of Wisdom) 