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Ambelain's vague horror anecdotes, brief as I remember them, on the sigils got me thinking he might have been haunted by the ghost of Eugene Vintras - or at leat the echo of the trend. But the flavor of danger he injects does add a bit of spice to things.
I'm kind of reminded of P.F. Case claiming a friend of his went barking mad from practicing Enochian. Plenty of people have worked Enochian without going barking mad, and plenty of people have worked with the sigils used by Ambelain without dying untimely deaths. Also, those sigils go back to at least around 1800, and may be based on the works of Dr. Rudd in the 17th Century, so if they really were evil you would think someone else would have noticed before Ambelain.
I also think that the fear of invoking "evil" versions of the angels to be based on the actual intention of the operator. That is, in the sense of "yetzer ha-ra", which probably is one of the reasons guys like Vital warn heavily against "practical Kabbalah". It sneaks in, you can help but be deluded, and one is also tempting God.
I agree that intent matters. If I intend to call upon the good aspect of a Shem angel, that's what I expect to get. If I intend to call upon the evil aspect, then I expect to get the evil aspect.
I'm not trying to attack your beliefs here, but speaking of Jacobus Swart, he once posted on the internet that he has used practical Kabbalah to live a very good life. He said he has never experienced any form of backlash. I view worrying about backlash and ideas such as 'tempting God' as other people's limiting beliefs and I reject them. The whole point of magick, IMO, is to improve our lives. That doesn't mean through caution to the wind, it depends on what kind of spirits one is dealing with. But when it comes to angels and archangels, I am very trusting. And whenever working practical magick, of course, one needs to constrain the monkey's paw appropriately to insure there isn't backlash - hence the importance of a well-crafted statement of intent.
One of my own experiences with a Shem angel was that of being uplifted when I was down and directed to seek out the Books of Jeu. From the early and even modern Xian standpoint these are utterly heretical, even blasphemous, yet I consider it a worthy quest and an inspirational read. The Psalm verse of this angel makes me feel strong and connected when I read it with the sigil, and I never bothered to question it. Was I lured by an evil one?
Well that's quite a result, but in this case you had better define 'evil', at least within the context of your belief system. I get the feeling it is in the Christo-Gnostic realm. But is it evil to be uplifted when you are down? If so, then sign me up to work with the evil ones. If I understand correctly, you're worried about being led astray, but the classic religious texts, IMO, are too narrow-minded and narrowly focused. (They certainly have their magickal uses, though.)
Well, I had to get through the Pistis Sophia first to do Jeu justice- that was trying, especially as they were both Brill, but I was never told to dip my feet in freezing water or roll around in thorn bushes for repentance, . . .
so I feel okay about what I do. And I know better than to tempt God, at least I think-hope-pray I do.
But I caution myself I have yet to go deeper into the Hekaloth literature, though I feel archontic style hostility represents a heroic challenge, I will not assume this of the Shem.
Unsure if it's been mentioned but I just got Jareth Tempest's Raziel Pathworkings Vol 1 which is all about the 72 Shem angels. I've tried this method and it's legit.
OK guys, thanks for the comments and the ideas exchange, sorry for missing out for a couple of weeks, in the meantime since I am also a spanish speaker a took a (very) deep dive in the Kabaleb / Eduardo Madirolas / Tristan Llop and other spanish passd and living kaballists, read at the speed of light their books amd even contacted some of them regarding this topic and the answer was pretty simple & clear from them: The psalms depend on the school that teaches the Shem Ha-mephorash, Hebrew or Hermetic (I didn't explore further which hermetic school). On Eduardo Madirolas's site there are some pretty interesting and free materials on all the Shem angels and for almost each of the angels he gives two psalms, the hebrew-tradition and the hermetic-tradition. The hermetic sometimes is complicating even more the issue since it depends on which latin bible it comes from (index number different among them). What is most important though that in Eduardo's description there is a extremely scientific and thorough description of the gematria and the letter meaning and root of each angel three-letters, it's similar words (based on gematria similarity) and other information that is 100% pure hebrew-school derived approach (like for example the Cordovero and Abulafia vocalizations of each God's names which are almost always different from the angel name). It's somehow as "academic" as Swart's tons of specific kaballistic info in his books. So, at least for the moment I am somehow "relieved" of the burden of digging further in this topic and I only wish that sometimes in the future somebody would translate in English his brilliant materials. He also has some nice seals for the angels and IMHO his work is as interesting and valuable as the GOM books, free and not cursed against piracy like the GOM books are since they are free-wiilingly given ). Talking about the "awakening the evil side of the angels" by using innapropriate psalms / seals / rituals, there is some trus in it and the Kabaleb school explains it quite clear and also provides the methoads for avoiding it. According to them all the angelic energy that is evoked during a ritual and remains unused after the ritual if it "contained" somehow it goes to the "underwold" qualities of the specific angel so you will get the opposite of what you invoke, you ask for health and you get illness (the negative side of the angel is "fed" by the exceding, uncontained energy that comes from the "above" version of the angel) since the angels each of them have also a "mirror" side and this topic of opposite energies is found in almost every book about the 72 names of God. So, this must be some sort of the "evil side" that can be mistakenly evoked mentioned by Ambelain.
I think the best way is to find out which tarot card corresponds to the same decan on the astrology wheel and look up the specifics of the card and match it to the two na names assigned to that decan
Some angels in the list arent really correct, out of the 72 a few are listed in error (dont exist). Do not compare with psalms.
The harder the angel is to contact the more reliable they are. I work with an angel not listed and another thats hard to contact too. Both of them are power types but are reliable and always grant my requests quickly as well.
One of the ways to check an angel is to ask them to perform a purification. Its a much better option than the lbrp and sbrp and can forn a basis to be used with other methods to do something.
Not all the angels will work with you on choice. Ive had issues with raphael but aphiel was a much better more reliable alternative to perform the same tasks differently and more
Religion erroneously claims angels so do not use religion as a manner of checking or comparison or for summoning. Out of the angels religions claim, only azrael acted on my criticism since he was one of the most faked angels with many pretenders.
OK guys, thanks for the comments and the ideas exchange, sorry for missing out for a couple of weeks, in the meantime since I am also a spanish speaker a took a (very) deep dive in the Kabaleb / Eduardo Madirolas / Tristan Llop and other spanish passd and living kaballists, read at the speed of light their books amd even contacted some of them regarding this topic and the answer was pretty simple & clear from them: The psalms depend on the school that teaches the Shem Ha-mephorash, Hebrew or Hermetic (I didn't explore further which hermetic school). On Eduardo Madirolas's site there are some pretty interesting and free materials on all the Shem angels and for almost each of the angels he gives two psalms, the hebrew-tradition and the hermetic-tradition. The hermetic sometimes is complicating even more the issue since it depends on which latin bible it comes from (index number different among them). What is most important though that in Eduardo's description there is a extremely scientific and thorough description of the gematria and the letter meaning and root of each angel three-letters, it's similar words (based on gematria similarity) and other information that is 100% pure hebrew-school derived approach (like for example the Cordovero and Abulafia vocalizations of each God's names which are almost always different from the angel name). It's somehow as "academic" as Swart's tons of specific kaballistic info in his books. So, at least for the moment I am somehow "relieved" of the burden of digging further in this topic and I only wish that sometimes in the future somebody would translate in English his brilliant materials. He also has some nice seals for the angels and IMHO his work is as interesting and valuable as the GOM books, free and not cursed against piracy like the GOM books are since they are free-wiilingly given ). Talking about the "awakening the evil side of the angels" by using innapropriate psalms / seals / rituals, there is some trus in it and the Kabaleb school explains it quite clear and also provides the methoads for avoiding it. According to them all the angelic energy that is evoked during a ritual and remains unused after the ritual if it "contained" somehow it goes to the "underwold" qualities of the specific angel so you will get the opposite of what you invoke, you ask for health and you get illness (the negative side of the angel is "fed" by the exceding, uncontained energy that comes from the "above" version of the angel) since the angels each of them have also a "mirror" side and this topic of opposite energies is found in almost every book about the 72 names of God. So, this must be some sort of the "evil side" that can be mistakenly evoked mentioned by Ambelain.
They dont have a mirror or opposite side but they have pretenders who would ruin you. With angels the biggest danger are pretenders. With devils they maintain by violence so have fewer pretenders. Sometimes benign spirits pretend to be both.
However a purification is a very taxing task to do so its a good way to check if its an angel by asking
OK guys, thanks for the comments and the ideas exchange, sorry for missing out for a couple of weeks, in the meantime since I am also a spanish speaker a took a (very) deep dive in the Kabaleb / Eduardo Madirolas / Tristan Llop and other spanish passd and living kaballists, read at the speed of light their books amd even contacted some of them regarding this topic and the answer was pretty simple & clear from them: The psalms depend on the school that teaches the Shem Ha-mephorash, Hebrew or Hermetic (I didn't explore further which hermetic school). On Eduardo Madirolas's site there are some pretty interesting and free materials on all the Shem angels and for almost each of the angels he gives two psalms, the hebrew-tradition and the hermetic-tradition. The hermetic sometimes is complicating even more the issue since it depends on which latin bible it comes from (index number different among them). What is most important though that in Eduardo's description there is a extremely scientific and thorough description of the gematria and the letter meaning and root of each angel three-letters, it's similar words (based on gematria similarity) and other information that is 100% pure hebrew-school derived approach (like for example the Cordovero and Abulafia vocalizations of each God's names which are almost always different from the angel name). It's somehow as "academic" as Swart's tons of specific kaballistic info in his books. So, at least for the moment I am somehow "relieved" of the burden of digging further in this topic and I only wish that sometimes in the future somebody would translate in English his brilliant materials. He also has some nice seals for the angels and IMHO his work is as interesting and valuable as the GOM books, free and not cursed against piracy like the GOM books are since they are free-wiilingly given ). Talking about the "awakening the evil side of the angels" by using innapropriate psalms / seals / rituals, there is some trus in it and the Kabaleb school explains it quite clear and also provides the methoads for avoiding it. According to them all the angelic energy that is evoked during a ritual and remains unused after the ritual if it "contained" somehow it goes to the "underwold" qualities of the specific angel so you will get the opposite of what you invoke, you ask for health and you get illness (the negative side of the angel is "fed" by the exceding, uncontained energy that comes from the "above" version of the angel) since the angels each of them have also a "mirror" side and this topic of opposite energies is found in almost every book about the 72 names of God. So, this must be some sort of the "evil side" that can be mistakenly evoked mentioned by Ambelain.
They dont have a mirror or opposite side but they have pretenders who would ruin you. With angels the biggest danger are pretenders. With devils they maintain by violence so have fewer pretenders. Sometimes benign spirits pretend to be both.
However a purification is a very taxing task to do so its a good way to check if its an angel by asking
For those accustomed with these 72 angels I wonder if any of you has ever questioned the true (original?) source of their attributes and powers. After reviewing many older and current sources and authors I must admit I was left quite baffled. Let's take for example the angel no. 20, PeHeLa'yah (Pahaliah). Almost half of the sources (inluding the Gallery of Magick authors) asign to this angel Psalm 119:108 and the power of balance another half (including Baal Kadmon on his intro page in this video
) assign to him psalm 116:4 and the power of spiritual elevation/protection. GOM assign psalm 116:4 to other Shem angel and also the other authors do the same with 119:108. I am wondering why these differences between angels attributes and which one is more "reliable"? Since the psalms are usually embedded in the seals and verbally used in most of the meditations / visualizations I assume these differences are not so trivial when considering the potential effectiveness / non-effectiveness of the invocation rituals. Thank you.
Cheers
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PS: And to make the things even more complicated, it seems there is even a third interpretation of the psalm corresponding to Pahaliah in the vision of the Rosicrucians, if you read this document
i see you found the issue with the 72 shem angels. A few in the entries arent legit (for example mikael vs michael). Its important to note angels dont like their arabic name references (due to the true nature of islam and that it was pretenders not real angels). Also angels shouldnt be listed twice and mikael does not translate.
Angel names typically translate from hebrew and their translation does relate to what they do but they do other things. I Would not use psalms either as angels are not monopolised by any particular religion especially not christianity. Its annoying hearing people say "you have to pray to christ/jesus" or "you cant be gay to work with angels" and such. The reason you shouldnt attribute it is because angels did not bring religion and religion falsely claims on angels. Humans brought religion, angels only guided.
Its not as easy to understand angels because angels dont typically talk about themselves or share much about themselves for example what class of angel they are, their specialisation for example. Local angels fall into 4 classifications each with differing powers and natures, even base forms which is very rarely seen.
This is one of the reasons i never reference a single writing about angels, you run into inaccuracies and other problems and why association with religion is a bad idea. The fact that angels translate from hebrew is a sign that it has nothing to do with christianity and that you shouldn't use the psalms for it.
For example Uriel is a power type angel, basically an angel who specialises in power, though in translation and whats written hes related to guidance, secrets but no where does it talk about his power or what type of angel he is. He is a seraphim or class 3 but on the upper end of class 3 power level. You wouldnt be able to know this from writings and angels dont really share much about themselves because they dont really care that they are angels so they dont really talk about themselves. Its very easy to mistake uriel as an ophanim or class 4 given what he can do. Media do a worse job at depicting uriel even though he is INTJ.
There are many local angels, more than thousands, something jesus was inaccurate about in the verse where he mentions the number of angels in his army (proof he is not what he claims and the jews were actually right about him) but many do not want to relate or work with humans in general. This is why you cant use the psalms in angel work and the use of religion increases the chance of getting a pretender (very common with azrael).
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edit: repost but i clarified further since it wouldnt let me edit
Try this for a change...it comes from the traditional roots of the 72 names...the jewish kabbalistic scholars. I think it goes much deeper than the Golden Dawn or other interpretations (Kircher, etc...).
I can attach it here). It is IMHO the most concise document with both jewish, transliteration (mostly recommnended instead of using the english version) and english
