Rufus Opus

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  • 3.0 – The Glyph

    I went through a bad time over the summer while I was unemployed. Shit rose to the surface, and needed to be burned away. It was a good thing to have happen, it’s cleansed a lot of crap away. The house wasn’t the only thing that burned.

    It’s all part of the Work, and I’m grateful. Nothing less than this would have changed my heart about things like taking care of what I spend so much money and time on. Family are a given, but I didn’t appreciate the house and stuff in my life, not really.

    There is a value to material posessions that brings security. It’s not spiritual peace, and it’s not of eternal value, but we’re flesh as well as soul, this side of the grave. The body needs food, shelter and clothing. It feels better when it has it. A happy, healthy, secure Guf is every bit as important as a happy, healthy Ruach in tune with the Divine Source.

    It’s a tapestry of stories, this “catastrophic event” thing. It’s a crystal with lots of facets, and each gives a different view of the interior of the crystal, a different perspective. With all the different views, you get a more-complete understanding. Not only that, each facet changes what you’re looking at through the facets. Each facet is like a lens, changing how the experiences viewed through it appear, giving you a completely different depth of meaning that you could never have had without the lens.

    Having good insurance helps a lot.

  • The NP Basics Series to Date

    If anyone wants to see the whole NP Basics series from start to the latest post, click the little green NP Basics link beneath the post. You'll have to scroll down to get to the beginning, and then go up. Or you can click this link, and it will take you there too:

    http://headforred.blogspot.com/search/label/NP%20Basics

  • 3.0 – The Glyph

    Long ago, and far away, I began this series on the Neo-Platonic system. It began because I wanted to share the background that had lead up to the satori experience I had while studying Agrippa’s table on the Scale of the Number 4 (Book 2, Chapter 7 ). Everything I had been studying all came together in that moment, and the result was a compelling urge to map out what I was seeing on paper. Working into the wee hours of the morning with a compass and some folded paper to serve as a straight edge (the kids had broken my ruler), I ended up with a Glyph. This Glyph embodies the Great Work of the Magician, the realms of the spirits we work with in the material realm, the spirits of the seven planetary realms, and the role of the magician balanced in between the Above and the Below.

    Pretty neat, in my opinion. Not long after receiving it, I posted the information everywhere I could. I thought that just looking at the Glyph would bring instant Illumination to everyone who saw it. When people looked at it and said, yeah, ok, neat, and went on with their lives and Work, I thought they just didn’t have the background to see the awesome impact this Glyph can have on Ceremonial Magicians. Taking what it represents, taking the keys that are summarized in its concentric circles and the perspective of the layout, and putting it into practical use results in complete and total control of all things material and spiritual, from an enlightened and beneficent place of authority in the cosmos.

    So I labored on the different sections of this work with the goal of bringing everyone this power, illumination, and understanding of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

    Since the time that I got this Glyph, I’ve been using it to great effect in my Work. It really does do everything I thought it would do. But I’ve realized that it’s not going to be for everyone.

    Understanding now that this is a personal revelation, I’ve been putting off wrapping up the series. I intended it to be a climactic culmination that brought everything else together and sparked a mass enlightenment experience that spread like wildfire through my audience that has grown to a global scale. I no longer expect that to happen, but nevertheless, I hope this serves to at least inspire some of you on to your own Glyphs, your own empowerment, and your own harmony.

  • The Genius and Evil Daimon Spreadsheets…

    Quite a few people share Anuksunamun’s sentiments about wanting to see the spreadsheet, the fruit of many months of research and study. So I’ve made it available, but I’m charging for it.

    Some people think I shouldn’t charge for this, but I’m a capitalist. If you want it for free, go to Agrippa’s Book 3, chapter xxvi, and Google can fill in the blanks he doesn’t provide.

    The quicker and easier way is here:

    http://www.rufusopus.com/products_and_services.htm

    You get a blank Lamen, everything you need to do the conjuration, and the conjuration ritual for the Genius. You also get detailed steps to come up with the Genius name, including an example. And the Tables with the corresponding signs, degrees and letters of both the Genius and the Evil Daimon that everyone wants the most.

    Enjoy!

  • The Genius and Evil Daimon Spreadsheets…

    Quite a few people share Anuksunamun’s sentiments about wanting to see the spreadsheet, the fruit of many months of research and study. So I’ve made it available, but I’m charging for it.

    Some people think I shouldn’t charge for this, but I’m a capitalist. If you want it for free, go to Agrippa’s Book 3, chapter xxvi, and Google can fill in the blanks he doesn’t provide.

    The quicker and easier way is here:

    http://www.rufusopus.com/products_and_services.htm

    You get a blank Lamen, everything you need to do the conjuration, and the conjuration ritual for the Genius. You also get detailed steps to come up with the Genius name, including an example. And the Tables with the corresponding signs, degrees and letters of both the Genius and the Evil Daimon that everyone wants the most.

    Enjoy!

  • 1.5 – While we’re here: The Great Work in Action

    Ok, so we’ve established what the Great Work “is” within the neo-platonic context in the previous installment of the NP Basics series. This post is about how it all unfolds in the life of your average Magician practicing the Great Work using the NP system.

    1.5.1 – The HGA, Your Emissary from God

    Ok, so there’s a boat-load of talk about the HGA, what it is, and what it does on various message boards and web pages across the Internet. There’s lots of talk in modern published magical books, too. Most of what you read is speculation, because people with opinions and writing talents haven’t attained K&CHGA (Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian angel), but they don’t bother to let that stop them from saying their piece.

    Now, the phrase itself comes from the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. It was popularized by Crowley, predominantly, in the modern Western Mystery Tradition. The author of the Sacred Magic wrote the book to his second son because he could not pass on the mysteries of the QBL to him. The QBL had to go to the first-born son. He wanted his second son to have a mystical heritage as well, so he gave him the mysteries of the Sacred Magic. He states that the Sacred Magic can be derived from the QBL, but the QBL cannot be derived from the Sacred Magic.

    In the NP magical system, we’ve seen that the basic premise is that of emanation. God unfolded itself throughout existence in hierarchical stages, each getting closer to the realm of Matter. The QBL is another manifestation of this type of philosophy. I’ve argued that the NP emanationist philosophy is the source of the QBL, that the Jews adopted the concepts and dressed them up in their own cultural symbols. There’s evidence that can be found to support this view, or the view that the NP system was derived from the QBL, or that they developed from at the same time concurrently, in the same environment, drawing from the same sources. While various interpretations of the evidence can support different views, I personally believe the NP system is the source of the QBL, or at least the primary influence. There’s just an awful lot of “coincidental” domination of the Jews by Greek influence at every major growth-point of the QBL.

    So that’s how the HGA, a symbol from a QBList, ties into the NP system I’m presenting. I’ve staid away from the QBL in this series of posts so far, but practically speaking, the HGA is the best-known representative from God in the modern Western Mystery Traditions. There’s an Agathadaimon in more traditional Hellenistic writings that may correspond to the HGA, but I worked with my HGA before even knowing about the Agathadaimon, so anything I would say about that entity would be tainted speculation. I’ve got to stick with what I know.

    The first thing you should do as a practicing magician using the NP system is make contact with your HGA. This entity is assigned to you at birth, and is responsible for all the spiritual initiations, authority, and Gnosis you achieve in life. It is your personal emissary from the Good, the One, the Source, God itself. Through K&CHGA, you get the attunement of your sphere to the point where you can work with the spirits from your position of authority as a representative of God in the material realm. It’s “like” a new age spirit guide, in some ways, but the new age spirit guide model doesn’t present the meat of the entity’s interaction with you the way the HGA model does. Spirit guides in the New Age take on forms of animals and such, indicating they are “lower” in the neo-platonic hierarchical system than the angels. However, that being said, my HGA revealed it had taken on the form of a spirit guide earlier in my magickal practices to get me to the point where I could attain K&CHGA.

    To attain K&CHGA, I used the ritual Liber Samekh as presented in Lon Milo DuQuette’s The Magick of Aleister Crowley. Some people say it isn’t the same thing at all, but they’re honestly mistaken. The evidence to prove this is found in the Abramelin rite itself. You have to perform Samekh successfully to find the proof, but it’s there.

    After making contact with the HGA, your sphere is changed. You go through a Solar “initiation,” to put it in Golden Dawn terminology. The result is the beginning of the experiential knowledge of your Race and Value as expressed by Plotinus. From this knowledge-based-on-experience, the authority to “command” the spirits is attained.

    1.5.2 – Working with the Spirits

    After attaining K&CHGA, the magician is ready (and strongly urged by the HGA) to begin working with the spirits. Spirit conjuration is the primary methodology of any magician’s performance of the Great Work. I believe that every magickal act, whether ritual or contemplative, involves interacting with spirits in some way or another.

    I started with the ten Archangels of the Sephiroth, because I was coming out of a primarily-QBListic background. After Working with the spirits for a little while, I realized that the Archangels of the seven classical planets were sufficient for my initial stages of the Work. Through them, I learned an incredible amount of knowledge. Their influence on my sphere changed the way I am able to see the world. Nothing spectacular (no auras, second-sight, remote viewing, psychic flashes per se), but totally and completely life-changing. The procedures for working with the spirits of the planets can be found in the Modern Angelic Grimore I wrote. It’s remarkably easy.

    In addition to the spirits of the planets, the spirits of the elements are also worked with in performing the Great Work. These spirits rule over the physical manifestations of the rays of the higher spheres. A fire elemental might be put in charge of manifesting a Jupiter ray into someone’s life, resulting in an unexpected and tumultuous promotion at work. For mundane operations, I’m learning these are the best spirits to work with in the overall hierarchy of spirits.

    The spirits of various grimoires are also worked with in the Great Work. The spirits of the Goetia in the Lemegetton, for example, can be considered to be “earth-bound” spirits, that is, residing closer to the material realms than to the heavenly realms. These entities have been documented and worked with by many magicians, and the methods of contacting them are recorded and pretty clear. Their attributes are documented, and once contacted, their abilities and limitations can be discovered simply by asking the spirit itself.

    1.5.3 – The Goal of the Great Work in the NP System

    You’ve no doubt noticed that the Work consists of both the spirits of the higher realms and the spirits of the lower realms. If the Great Work were all about transcending the material realm, there would be no reason to work with the lower spirits. The fact is, however, that we aren’t born in the flesh to transcend it. We are here to learn our role, and then to exercise our authority to meet our obligations.

    Humanity is the nexus point between the material realm and the spiritual realm. We are the stewards of the manifest realms. In the NP system, we stand at the gateway between the realms, seeking union with the divine in order to fulfill our assigned tasks while we appear to be separated from God, and directing the forces that manifest as reality according to the Will of God. We learn this Will by going up through the hierarchies and learning our place in existence, and then we implement the plans through the direction of the spirits. The higher up you go, the more responsibility you get, and the more Work in the physical realm you’ll have to accomplish.

    The Goal of the great Work is not to leave the flesh and material realms behind. We do that when we die anyway. The Goal is to find your place in the scheme of things, your reason for being, and in finding that, you gain the ability and authority to accomplish it. The accomplishment of the purpose is the practical manifestation of the Great Work.

  • The Genius and Evil Daimon Spreadsheets…

    Quite a few people share Anuksunamun’s sentiments about wanting to see the spreadsheet, the fruit of many months of research and study. So I’ve made it available, but I’m charging for it.

  • 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

    The Genius and the Evil Daimon are entities with a long history in the Western Mystery Tradition. The idea of the good and evil spirits assigned to people is so ingrained in the American culture that I grew up watching cartoons that frequently showed a character with a little angel with a harp on one shoulder and a little red devil with horns and a tail on the other, each giving the person advice. More often than not, the character would listen to the devil. How typical of mankind.

    2.7.1 – The Genius

    The term “Genius” as I’m using it in this post loosely comes from Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter xxii. Technically, “Genius” is supposed to refer only to one part of the three-fold good Daimon that preserves the person it’s assigned to. The three parts are the Holy part, which is roughly speaking the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) of the Abramelin ritual, the Genius or “Nativity Angel,” a Spirit whose nature is determined by the placement of the stars at birth, and the Daimon of your Profession, who influences how successful we are at our chosen line of work. Agrippa refers to all three parts singularly in the title of the chapter, “That there is a threefold keeper of man.” Since it’s a singular entity, and he only gives instructions on deducing the name of a Genius, and not the HGA or Professional Demon, I’m referring to all three parts of this one entity as the Genius.

    The earliest reference to the Genius that I’ve found so far is in the Corpus Hermeticum, written in Hellenized Egypt. In The Divine Pymander, it says:

    54. I (the LOGOS, Pymander, shepherd of Men) … come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection and natural Love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their Works and Operations.

    This is the Logos talking about how he works with those who are pious. While it might look like a bit of a stretch, the Logos and the HGA are of the same Spirit. In Agrippa’s record written roughly 1200 years later, this corresponds to the Holy part of the Genius. Agrippa frames it thus:

    The holy Demon is one, according to the Doctrine of the Egyptians, assigned to the rationall soul, not from the Stars or Planets, but from a supernaturall cause, from God himself, the president of Demons, being universall, above nature: This doth direct the life of the soul, & doth alwaies put good thoughts into the minde, being alwaies active in illuminating us, although we do not alwaies take notice of it; but when we are purified, and live peaceably, then it is perceived by us, then it doth as it were speak with us, and communicates its voyce [voice] to us, being before silent, and studyeth daily to bring us to a sacred perfection. Also by the ayd [aid] of this Demon we may avoid the malignity of a Fate…

    Agrippa says of the Genius specifically:

    …when the soul is coming down into the body, it doth out of the quire of the Demons naturally choose a preserver to it self, nor only choose this guide to it self, but hath that willing to defend it. This being the executor, and keeper of the life, doth help it to the body, and takes care of it, being Communicated to the body, and helps a man to that very office, to which the Celestials have deputed him, being born.

    In other words, the Genius is what can guide you to the roles and responsibilities you are incarnated to accomplish.

    In addition, being the only part of the threefold keeper of human beings that you can get the name of from your horoscope, the Genius can also be used to establish conversation with the rest of the threefold keeper, including the HGA and the Daimon of your Profession. By “used,” I mean you can converse with it through conjurations and establish a relationship, discovering the things that are needed to be done in your life to prepare you for the next step in your Work.

    As you Work with your Genius, a momentum builds up. You don’t have to choose to be a decent, pious person always choosing to do good and be kind to small furry animals, or help old ladies across the street. You don’t have to choose to be offended by injustice when you see it. You don’t have to try to find wisdom or insight in your studies. And you don’t have to make yourself seek your Race and Value in God.

    Instead, you find yourself naturally doing these things. You find character flaws revealed, and the means to change them. You find yourself naturally pursuing Virtue over Vice. You stop sabotaging your progress towards your goals, and you find yourself knowing and understanding things intuitively about yourself and others around you. Glimpses of the future come in sureties felt in evaluating potential outcomes of situations. Mysteries unravel before your very eyes.

    This spirit’s influence on your life can be enhanced through practical exaltation of the spirits name, which I’ll discuss below.

    2.7.2 – The Evil Daimon

    Heading back to The Divine Pymander, it goes on to say:

    56. But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving place to the revenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensible, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment.

    57. And such an one never ceaseth, having unfulfiled desires, and unsatisfiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness; for the Demon always afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more.

    Here is the Evil Daimon, sent by God to punish the wicked with insatiable desires. My experience with this entity leads me to believe that this Demon drives you to the point where you have to turn to God to find relief from your passions, or die of despair or overdose. If you refuse to do so, when you die you return as a more brutish man, or an animal, or even a plant according to Plotinus. The further from God you turn in your life, the further from God you result in your next, each incarnation resulting in less and less opportunity to turn from God until you are a plant with no choice but to turn to the Sun to live.

    People always have some degree of a relationship with this spirit. Like the cartoon characters listening to the little red demon on their shoulder, we have spent our lives listening to and following the advice of the evil daimon. A momentum builds up with the Evil Daimon just like with the Genius, and soon you find yourself surrounded by chaos and madness, if you give too much into the temptations this spirit whispers to you.

    Like the demons discussed in Section 2.6, The effects of the Evil Daimon can be curbed.

    2.7.3 – Working With the Genius and the Evil Daimon

    To Work with these entities, the first thing you’ll need is their name. These are discovered through your horoscope, as discussed in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, at the end of chapter xxvi:

    There are also the Arabians, and many others, and some Hebrews, who finde out the name of a Genius by the places of the five Hylegians, and making projection alwayes from the beginning of Aries, and the letters being found out according to the order of Hylegians with the Astrologers, being reduced into a known order, and being joyned together, make the name of a good Genius: but they draw the name of an evil Genius from the opposite Hylegian places, projection being made from the last degree of Pisces against the order of signs.

    Ok, did you catch all that? No? Well, fortunately I’ve got a spreadsheet I use to make the process a little easier. I don’t know how the renaissance magicians managed without the power of modern technology.

    I’ve got all the Hebrew letters associated with the degrees for the Good Genius and the Evil Daimon lined up with their appropriate degrees. To determine the name, you get a horoscope of the your birth, and write down the degrees of the sun, moon, ascendant, and part of fortune. Then you find the syzygy, and that’s the fifth letter of the name. The syzygy is the location of the moon at the closest full or new moon to the date you’re charting. To find this, you get another horoscope of the time of the nearest full or new moon, and write down the degree the moon is in. Pretty simple, eh?

    No, not really. It’s a bit of a pain in the hindquarters, honestly. But this is worth it.

    Once you’ve got their names, you can conjure and commune with your Genius by creating a Lamen of the spirit. Spell out its name in Hebrew in a circle with the names of God written around the perimeter. I use the Celestial Script from Agrippa, and the Lamen looks like this (That’s YHVH in the script, you’d need to change the name to use it):


    Poke a little hole in the top, and you wear it during the ritual. Conjure the spirit in a crystal or other scrying medium and you’re all set.

    On the flip side, you’ve got the Evil Daimon’s name. I intend to bind mine in a lead-lined spirit pot.

    In fact, I’ve got this idea for a multi-purpose talisman. I’ve got a log that I’m carving to serve as a means to exalt the Genius and bind the Evil Daimon at the same time. I’ll be burning incense and candles in the top where the Genius name is inscribed in gold leaf, and the Evil Daimon will be bound in the hollowed-out, lead-lined base.

    It should look something like this when I’m done:

  • 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

    The Genius and the Evil Daimon are entities with a long history in the Western Mystery Tradition. The idea of the good and evil spirits assigned to people is so ingrained in the American culture that I grew up watching cartoons that frequently showed a character with a little angel with a harp on one shoulder and a little red devil with horns and a tail on the other, each giving the person advice. More often than not, the character would listen to the devil. How typical of mankind.

    2.7.1 – The Genius

    The term “Genius” as I’m using it in this post loosely comes from Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter xxii. Technically, “Genius” is supposed to refer only to one part of the three-fold good Daimon that preserves the person it’s assigned to. The three parts are the Holy part, which is roughly speaking the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) of the Abramelin ritual, the Genius or “Nativity Angel,” a Spirit whose nature is determined by the placement of the stars at birth, and the Daimon of your Profession, who influences how successful we are at our chosen line of work. Agrippa refers to all three parts singularly in the title of the chapter, “That there is a threefold keeper of man.” Since it’s a singular entity, and he only gives instructions on deducing the name of a Genius, and not the HGA or Professional Demon, I’m referring to all three parts of this one entity as the Genius.

    The earliest reference to the Genius that I’ve found so far is in the Corpus Hermeticum, written in Hellenized Egypt. In The Divine Pymander, it says:

    54. I (the LOGOS, Pymander, shepherd of Men) … come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection and natural Love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their Works and Operations.

    This is the Logos talking about how he works with those who are pious. While it might look like a bit of a stretch, the Logos and the HGA are of the same Spirit. In Agrippa’s record written roughly 1200 years later, this corresponds to the Holy part of the Genius. Agrippa frames it thus:

    The holy Demon is one, according to the Doctrine of the Egyptians, assigned to the rationall soul, not from the Stars or Planets, but from a supernaturall cause, from God himself, the president of Demons, being universall, above nature: This doth direct the life of the soul, & doth alwaies put good thoughts into the minde, being alwaies active in illuminating us, although we do not alwaies take notice of it; but when we are purified, and live peaceably, then it is perceived by us, then it doth as it were speak with us, and communicates its voyce [voice] to us, being before silent, and studyeth daily to bring us to a sacred perfection. Also by the ayd [aid] of this Demon we may avoid the malignity of a Fate…

    Agrippa says of the Genius specifically:

    …when the soul is coming down into the body, it doth out of the quire of the Demons naturally choose a preserver to it self, nor only choose this guide to it self, but hath that willing to defend it. This being the executor, and keeper of the life, doth help it to the body, and takes care of it, being Communicated to the body, and helps a man to that very office, to which the Celestials have deputed him, being born.

    In other words, the Genius is what can guide you to the roles and responsibilities you are incarnated to accomplish.

    In addition, being the only part of the threefold keeper of human beings that you can get the name of from your horoscope, the Genius can also be used to establish conversation with the rest of the threefold keeper, including the HGA and the Daimon of your Profession. By “used,” I mean you can converse with it through conjurations and establish a relationship, discovering the things that are needed to be done in your life to prepare you for the next step in your Work.

    As you Work with your Genius, a momentum builds up. You don’t have to choose to be a decent, pious person always choosing to do good and be kind to small furry animals, or help old ladies across the street. You don’t have to choose to be offended by injustice when you see it. You don’t have to try to find wisdom or insight in your studies. And you don’t have to make yourself seek your Race and Value in God.

    Instead, you find yourself naturally doing these things. You find character flaws revealed, and the means to change them. You find yourself naturally pursuing Virtue over Vice. You stop sabotaging your progress towards your goals, and you find yourself knowing and understanding things intuitively about yourself and others around you. Glimpses of the future come in sureties felt in evaluating potential outcomes of situations. Mysteries unravel before your very eyes.

    This spirit’s influence on your life can be enhanced through practical exaltation of the spirits name, which I’ll discuss below.

    2.7.2 – The Evil Daimon

    Heading back to The Divine Pymander, it goes on to say:

    56. But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving place to the revenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensible, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment.

    57. And such an one never ceaseth, having unfulfiled desires, and unsatisfiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness; for the Demon always afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more.

    Here is the Evil Daimon, sent by God to punish the wicked with insatiable desires. My experience with this entity leads me to believe that this Demon drives you to the point where you have to turn to God to find relief from your passions, or die of despair or overdose. If you refuse to do so, when you die you return as a more brutish man, or an animal, or even a plant according to Plotinus. The further from God you turn in your life, the further from God you result in your next, each incarnation resulting in less and less opportunity to turn from God until you are a plant with no choice but to turn to the Sun to live.

    People always have some degree of a relationship with this spirit. Like the cartoon characters listening to the little red demon on their shoulder, we have spent our lives listening to and following the advice of the evil daimon. A momentum builds up with the Evil Daimon just like with the Genius, and soon you find yourself surrounded by chaos and madness, if you give too much into the temptations this spirit whispers to you.

    Like the demons discussed in Section 2.6, The effects of the Evil Daimon can be curbed.

    2.7.3 – Working With the Genius and the Evil Daimon

    To Work with these entities, the first thing you’ll need is their name. These are discovered through your horoscope, as discussed in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, at the end of chapter xxvi:

    There are also the Arabians, and many others, and some Hebrews, who finde out the name of a Genius by the places of the five Hylegians, and making projection alwayes from the beginning of Aries, and the letters being found out according to the order of Hylegians with the Astrologers, being reduced into a known order, and being joyned together, make the name of a good Genius: but they draw the name of an evil Genius from the opposite Hylegian places, projection being made from the last degree of Pisces against the order of signs.

    Ok, did you catch all that? No? Well, fortunately I’ve got a spreadsheet I use to make the process a little easier. I don’t know how the renaissance magicians managed without the power of modern technology.

    I’ve got all the Hebrew letters associated with the degrees for the Good Genius and the Evil Daimon lined up with their appropriate degrees. To determine the name, you get a horoscope of the your birth, and write down the degrees of the sun, moon, ascendant, and part of fortune. Then you find the syzygy, and that’s the fifth letter of the name. The syzygy is the location of the moon at the closest full or new moon to the date you’re charting. To find this, you get another horoscope of the time of the nearest full or new moon, and write down the degree the moon is in. Pretty simple, eh?

    No, not really. It’s a bit of a pain in the hindquarters, honestly. But this is worth it.

    Once you’ve got their names, you can conjure and commune with your Genius by creating a Lamen of the spirit. Spell out its name in Hebrew in a circle with the names of God written around the perimeter. I use the Celestial Script from Agrippa, and the Lamen looks like this (That’s YHVH in the script, you’d need to change the name to use it):


    Poke a little hole in the top, and you wear it during the ritual. Conjure the spirit in a crystal or other scrying medium and you’re all set.

    On the flip side, you’ve got the Evil Daimon’s name. I intend to bind mine in a lead-lined spirit pot.

    In fact, I’ve got this idea for a multi-purpose talisman. I’ve got a log that I’m carving to serve as a means to exalt the Genius and bind the Evil Daimon at the same time. I’ll be burning incense and candles in the top where the Genius name is inscribed in gold leaf, and the Evil Daimon will be bound in the hollowed-out, lead-lined base.

    It should look something like this when I’m done:

  • A Quick Note on “Dishonoring” the Th

    The Genius and the Evil Daimon are entities with a long history in the Western Mystery Tradition. The idea of the good and evil spirits assigned to people is so ingrained in the American culture that I grew up watching cartoons that frequently showed a character with a little angel with a harp on one shoulder and a little red devil with horns and a tail on the other, each giving the person advice. More often than not, the character would listen to the devil. How typical of mankind.

    2.7.1 – The Genius

    The term “Genius” as I’m using it in this post loosely comes from Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter xxii. Technically, “Genius” is supposed to refer only to one part of the three-fold good Daimon that preserves the person it’s assigned to. The three parts are the Holy part, which is roughly speaking the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) of the Abramelin ritual, the Genius or “Nativity Angel,” a Spirit whose nature is determined by the placement of the stars at birth, and the Daimon of your Profession, who influences how successful we are at our chosen line of work. Agrippa refers to all three parts singularly in the title of the chapter, “That there is a threefold keeper of man.” Since it’s a singular entity, and he only gives instructions on deducing the name of a Genius, and not the HGA or Professional Demon, I’m referring to all three parts of this one entity as the Genius.

    The earliest reference to the Genius that I’ve found so far is in the Corpus Hermeticum, written in Hellenized Egypt. In The Divine Pymander, it says:

    54. I (the LOGOS, Pymander, shepherd of Men) … come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection and natural Love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their Works and Operations.

    This is the Logos talking about how he works with those who are pious. While it might look like a bit of a stretch, the Logos and the HGA are of the same Spirit. In Agrippa’s record written roughly 1200 years later, this corresponds to the Holy part of the Genius. Agrippa frames it thus:

    The holy Demon is one, according to the Doctrine of the Egyptians, assigned to the rationall soul, not from the Stars or Planets, but from a supernaturall cause, from God himself, the president of Demons, being universall, above nature: This doth direct the life of the soul, & doth alwaies put good thoughts into the minde, being alwaies active in illuminating us, although we do not alwaies take notice of it; but when we are purified, and live peaceably, then it is perceived by us, then it doth as it were speak with us, and communicates its voyce [voice] to us, being before silent, and studyeth daily to bring us to a sacred perfection. Also by the ayd [aid] of this Demon we may avoid the malignity of a Fate…

    Agrippa says of the Genius specifically:

    …when the soul is coming down into the body, it doth out of the quire of the Demons naturally choose a preserver to it self, nor only choose this guide to it self, but hath that willing to defend it. This being the executor, and keeper of the life, doth help it to the body, and takes care of it, being Communicated to the body, and helps a man to that very office, to which the Celestials have deputed him, being born.

    In other words, the Genius is what can guide you to the roles and responsibilities you are incarnated to accomplish.

    In addition, being the only part of the threefold keeper of human beings that you can get the name of from your horoscope, the Genius can also be used to establish conversation with the rest of the threefold keeper, including the HGA and the Daimon of your Profession. By “used,” I mean you can converse with it through conjurations and establish a relationship, discovering the things that are needed to be done in your life to prepare you for the next step in your Work.

    As you Work with your Genius, a momentum builds up. You don’t have to choose to be a decent, pious person always choosing to do good and be kind to small furry animals, or help old ladies across the street. You don’t have to choose to be offended by injustice when you see it. You don’t have to try to find wisdom or insight in your studies. And you don’t have to make yourself seek your Race and Value in God.

    Instead, you find yourself naturally doing these things. You find character flaws revealed, and the means to change them. You find yourself naturally pursuing Virtue over Vice. You stop sabotaging your progress towards your goals, and you find yourself knowing and understanding things intuitively about yourself and others around you. Glimpses of the future come in sureties felt in evaluating potential outcomes of situations. Mysteries unravel before your very eyes.

    This spirit’s influence on your life can be enhanced through practical exaltation of the spirits name, which I’ll discuss below.

    2.7.2 – The Evil Daimon

    Heading back to The Divine Pymander, it goes on to say:

    56. But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving place to the revenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensible, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment.

    57. And such an one never ceaseth, having unfulfiled desires, and unsatisfiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness; for the Demon always afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more.

    Here is the Evil Daimon, sent by God to punish the wicked with insatiable desires. My experience with this entity leads me to believe that this Demon drives you to the point where you have to turn to God to find relief from your passions, or die of despair or overdose. If you refuse to do so, when you die you return as a more brutish man, or an animal, or even a plant according to Plotinus. The further from God you turn in your life, the further from God you result in your next, each incarnation resulting in less and less opportunity to turn from God until you are a plant with no choice but to turn to the Sun to live.

    People always have some degree of a relationship with this spirit. Like the cartoon characters listening to the little red demon on their shoulder, we have spent our lives listening to and following the advice of the evil daimon. A momentum builds up with the Evil Daimon just like with the Genius, and soon you find yourself surrounded by chaos and madness, if you give too much into the temptations this spirit whispers to you.

    Like the demons discussed in Section 2.6, The effects of the Evil Daimon can be curbed.

    2.7.3 – Working With the Genius and the Evil Daimon

    To Work with these entities, the first thing you’ll need is their name. These are discovered through your horoscope, as discussed in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, at the end of chapter xxvi:

    There are also the Arabians, and many others, and some Hebrews, who finde out the name of a Genius by the places of the five Hylegians, and making projection alwayes from the beginning of Aries, and the letters being found out according to the order of Hylegians with the Astrologers, being reduced into a known order, and being joyned together, make the name of a good Genius: but they draw the name of an evil Genius from the opposite Hylegian places, projection being made from the last degree of Pisces against the order of signs.

    Ok, did you catch all that? No? Well, fortunately I’ve got a spreadsheet I use to make the process a little easier. I don’t know how the renaissance magicians managed without the power of modern technology.

    I’ve got all the Hebrew letters associated with the degrees for the Good Genius and the Evil Daimon lined up with their appropriate degrees. To determine the name, you get a horoscope of the your birth, and write down the degrees of the sun, moon, ascendant, and part of fortune. Then you find the syzygy, and that’s the fifth letter of the name. The syzygy is the location of the moon at the closest full or new moon to the date you’re charting. To find this, you get another horoscope of the time of the nearest full or new moon, and write down the degree the moon is in. Pretty simple, eh?

    No, not really. It’s a bit of a pain in the hindquarters, honestly. But this is worth it.

    Once you’ve got their names, you can conjure and commune with your Genius by creating a Lamen of the spirit. Spell out its name in Hebrew in a circle with the names of God written around the perimeter. I use the Celestial Script from Agrippa, and the Lamen looks like this (That’s YHVH in the script, you’d need to change the name to use it):


    Poke a little hole in the top, and you wear it during the ritual. Conjure the spirit in a crystal or other scrying medium and you’re all set.

    On the flip side, you’ve got the Evil Daimon’s name. I intend to bind mine in a lead-lined spirit pot.

    In fact, I’ve got this idea for a multi-purpose talisman. I’ve got a log that I’m carving to serve as a means to exalt the Genius and bind the Evil Daimon at the same time. I’ll be burning incense and candles in the top where the Genius name is inscribed in gold leaf, and the Evil Daimon will be bound in the hollowed-out, lead-lined base.

    It should look something like this when I’m done: