So, I evoked Malphas today. I used a mix of scents which I though my accord to the spirit’s astrological nature(s), though this was more due to a lack of what I thought should be the proper incense in the desired form. I offered Malphas my copy of
The Tao of Spycraft: Intelligence Theory and Practice in Traditional China by Ralph D. Sawyer. It is a book I figured would also be in accord with the descriptions of the spirit in Rudd and Mathers. The spirit's reception of this book was very
odd. In the ensuing game-like confusing, contentious and somewhat comical conversation, I totally forgot to ask about Harut and Marut. At this point I remain satisfied with Halphas’ answer. Judging by
character of Malphas as I perceive it, I don’t think the spirit much cared about such a question anyway.
One thing:
Do Harut and Halphas have much in common
For me,
NO! However, the footnote from Skinner’s Dr. Rudd says:
There is some similarity between both the name and the description of the previous' spirit Halphas. It is possible that in some earlier recension these two spirits were one and the same.
This reminds me of some things Richard Kieckhefer said in his book
Forbidden Rites said about some grimoires/manuals where spirits may be conflated or confused. It's been a while since I read it, but he claimed that sometimes their names are even spelled differently in the same book. This could be due in part to the literacy/memory of the author or just that standardized spelling wasn’t considered important when the ink was set to parchment. English before the mid to late 18th century is a good example. Or it could be games.
There are ample examples in ancient pagan religions of this as well, if anyone is into name games.
Some time after the experiment I decided to work the numerology of Harut and Marut. Turns out Skinner provides the Arabic values easily, though they are pretty much the same as Hebrew.
HARUT = 612
Godwin gives this as equivalent of the numbers of the Goetia spirits Berith and Bune. It also equals the 70th root name of the Shem, “Yebem”, which points to the angel Yebemiah, whose name can mean "Producing by his words". It is interesting to note that the associated Biblical verse of this angel is Genesis 1:1, which begins in Hebrew as
“Berashith…”
This temps my mind down some Gnostic paths.
MARUT = 647
The only listing I could find was in Godwin, which is
“Ha-Tanninim Ha-Gedholim”, which means “Great Whales.”
This makes me ponder the trial of Jonah, who was devoured by a whale.
Taking both names in total with
“wa”(and), the numerical value of HARUT WA-MARUT = 1912, of which I can find no listed values in either Godwin or Sepher Sephiroth.
Of course, one could reduce/divide/multiply/mess with and hair-split these numbers down or work out the deeper patterns, but I will leave that aside for now.