72 Shem Hamephorash sigils/psalms/powers - which is correct?

[Lurker]

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, . . .

Very picturesque!

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.

You sound like you're on a quest, and I look forward to reading about your magickal adventures.

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 12:38 AM

. . . through caution to the wind . . .

That should be "throw", not "through".

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 4:29 PM

Also, I had to do an internet search for every name you mentioned, so I learned something.

 

[Magicat]

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.