THOF: 05/06/2018 – 11. Ritual Evocation.
THE DESIGN
For Thee Hand ov Fate exercise this month I used the random number generator off Random.org and got 11 – Ritual Evocation.
At first I took the term at face value and assumed I was going to have to do a grimoire evocation of some sort. It occurred to me after reading the relevant sections of Liber KKK carefully that I didn’t actually have to do anything vaguely grimoiric; ritual evocation could also refer to evocation, i.e. creation of a servitor or thoughtform, through ritual, which involves the magician ‘[bringing] together the use of tools from the Sorcery level with the subconscious powers liberated on the Shamanic levels and combines their use in a disciplined and controlled fashion’.
So, I decided, why not create a servitor using the ritual methods that I’m familiar with through my main practice, i.e. Thelema?
I started thinking about what kind of servitor I wanted to begin with, what with this being the first servitor I’ve ever created. Should I create one to find me money opportunities? Or perhaps one to draw poetic and creative inspiration towards me? Eventually I settled on something a little more relevant to magical work: I decided to construct and programme a servitor that would function as a psychic and spiritual antenna for me.
It would work like a tuner, boosting and cleaning up psychic signals so that any impressions or visions I receive are clear and not interfered with by my own thoughts. They would also be filtered accordingly and the servitor would warn me if anything was coming through that was designed to mislead or deceive me. I would name it ANNETENAEL – ‘antenna’ backwards, with a vowel inserted between the ‘n’ and the ‘t’ in the manner of Enochian pronunciation, and adding on -EL, as per Kabbalistic and ceremonial tradition. And also because it would allow me to call this triangle-shaped servitor a triangel. I’m not sorry.
Anyway, with all of that laid out in a statement of intent, I also designed a seal that would be tied to the existence of the servitor, and that would encompass its functions. Its triangle frame borrows from the Triangle of the Art, unsurprisingly.
With the servitor decided on and designed, I built the rest of the ritual. As a professional Thelemite there was really no better way of starting for me than by employing the Star Ruby and the Star Sapphire as the opening banishing and invocation rituals, in a manner that Scott M. Stenwick describes as the operant field.
I began to think about what kind of correspondences and energies I wanted to employ to empower this rite. At its core, I think this is quite a Mercurial purpose, but I also didn’t want to be bound by the planetary hour or day, nor did I want to limit the kind of communications the servitor could engage with. Liber Israfel turned out to be the perfect preliminary invocation as it invokes the power of not just the Hermes–Thoth continuum but also Ra and Isis, before reiterating a key section of the Headless Rite to establish the magician’s sovereignty over the spirits. I massively enjoy elaborate spoken rituals, in any case, and the combination of that with the theology involved felt powerful enough for invoking the energy needed to create the servitor I had in my mind.
I found that the most workable hour for performing THOF today would be the hour of the Sun, which is appropriate for Liber Israfel as the speaker assumes the power of Ra at one point. In Egyptian myth, only Ra has the power to name and create new forms of life – coincidentally, the subject of a myth I’ve been learning to tell – and so I considered it suitable to perform an act of creation in the hour of the Sun.
Following the preliminary invocation, and after the statement of intent, I would employ a series of actions and a spoken spell that can be used by anyone to activate Annetenael for their own benefit. The spell itself is constructed around the idea that the servitor would synthesise the energies of Khonsu, the Moon (which harmonises with the sublunary nature and imaginal, visionary power of spirits) and Thoth, Mercury (the communicator of wisdom but also the psychopomp), welded together by the magic of Isis.
THE ACT
After copying the seal as carefully as I could manage onto an orange piece of card (for Mercury) and cutting around it so that the triangular seal was nested in a circle, I proceeded to put on my robe and perform the ritual.
On my working table I placed a selenite candle holder, my incense holder with a stick of frankincense and myrrh in it and the seal of Annetenael. The rite went largely smoothly, though because I’m still recovering from a cold there were points at which I had to cough (the incense didn’t help; no, was responsible). For once, though, I did find myself really putting the effort into the visualisation work, and allowing the spoken invocations and spell to guide my imaginary faculties. When Annetenael was formed from the energy I breathed onto the seal, it even took on a colour of its own accord, without my conscious direction – I perceived it as being a murky red speckled with hints of blue.
I concluded the rite and actually felt a little drained. Part of me was pleased to recognise that I’d actually really put some effort into this one.
I imagine we’ll see how well this servitor will function over the next few days – this isn’t one whose effects will be immediately perceived, I don’t think. I guess we’ll find out!
The script for the ritual can be found here.
@ov23