CHAPTER ONE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Teach me (O creator of all things) to have correct knowledge and understanding, for your wisdom is all that I desire. Speak your word in my ear (O creator of all things) and set your wisdom in my heart.

John Dee

It’s 3:43 AM. I’ve been up for about a half an hour bathing, dressing, and preparing myself to operate. Constance is asleep in the bedroom and I’m trying to be as quiet as I can. In just a few minutes I will turn off the computer here in my office, take up my almond wand and go into the darkened living room. There I will quietly perform a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, light two tapered candles, and sit down before the Holy Table.

Once comfortably seated I will close my eyes and pray:

Teach me (O creator of all things) to have correct knowledge and understanding, for your wisdom is all that I desire. Speak your word in my ear (O creator of all things) and set your wisdom in my heart. Amen.

I will then open my eyes, take the golden Ring and quietly recite the Prayer of the Ring:

Behold the Ring. Lo, this it is. This is it, wherewith all miracles, and divine works and wonders were wrought by Solomon: this is it, which the Archangel Michael has revealed to me. This is it, which Philosophy dreameth of. This is it, which the Angels scarce know. This is it, and blessed be his name: yea, his Name be blessed forever. Without this I shall do nothing. Blessed be his name, that encompasses all things: Wonders are in him, and his name is WONDERFUL: PELE. His Name works wonders from generation to generation. Amen.

I will put on the ring and then take up the golden Lamen that is attached to a black ribbon. Before putting it around my neck I will again pray:

Behold the Lamen. As the Holy Table conciliates Heaven and Earth, let this Lamen which I place over my heart conciliate me to the Holy Table. Amen.

I will then take up my almond wand and reach across the Holy Table and tap the upper right-hand corner and begin to chant. As I do so I will move the tip of the wand from right-to-left along the far edge of the table while I chant;

Pa Med Fam Med Drux Fam Fam Ur Ged Graph Drux Med Graph Graph Med Med Or Med Gal Ged Ged Drux.

Then, moving the tip of the wand down the left edge of the table I will continue to chant:

Pa Drux Un Tal Fam Don Ur Graph Don Or Gisg Gon Med Un Ged Med Graph Van Ur Don Don Un.

then from left-to-right along the bottom edge;

Pa Drux Ur Ur Don Ur Drux Un Med Graph Graph Med Med Graph Ceph Ged Ged Ur Mals Mals Fam Un.

then up the right-hand edge to finish where I started.

Pa Gon Med Un Graph Fam Mals Tal Ur Pa Pa Drux Un Un Van Un Med Un Gon Drux Drux Ur.

I will repeat this entire procedure six more times, each time increasing the intensity of my focus on the words and movements. When I’ve completed the seventh round of chanting, I will hold the wand over center of the table and chant seven rounds of the following:

Med Gon Gisg, Don Ur Van, Ur Don Ur, Med Med Graph.

Med Don Ur Med, Gon Ur Don Med, Gisg Van Ur Graph.

Then I will trace a circle over the center of the table and say:

Seven, rest in Seven: and the Seven, live by Seven: The Seven, govern the Seven: And by Seven all Government is.

Galas Gethog Thaoth Horlwn Innon Aaoth Galethog,

Zaphkiel Zedekiel Cumael Raphael Haniel Michael Gabriel,

E (l) Me Ese Iana Akele Azdobon Stimcul,

I Ih Ilr Dmal Heeoa Beigia Stimcul,

S Ab Ath Izad Ekiei Madimi Esemeli,

E An Ave Liba Rocle Hagonel Ilemes,

Sabathiel Zadkiel Madimiel Semeliel Nogahel Corabiel Lavanael,

Finally, I will place the tip of my wand upon the center of my forehead and whisper:

luah lang sach urch

Iad moz zir - iad bab zna - iad sor gru - iad ser osf

The chanting will take about eighteen minutes. By then I will have chanted myself into an altered state of consciousness. In fact, I’ll be high as a kite and struggling to avoid drifting into a directionless rapture. I will no longer be the overweight knot of worries and vices that haunts the daylight world of bills and phone calls and deadlines – vampires of time. I will be a magician, a key player in the business of creation, a spiritual being occupying my own indispensable rung on a hierarchical ladder of spiritual beings; of gods, and archangels, and angels, and spirits, and demons; spiritual entities who personify in metaphoric Technicolor every natural force, every monad of energy, every atom of matter, every concept and principle, potentiality and tendency in the visible and invisible cosmos.

My living room will disappear, and in its place will tower the Temple of the Universe; holy ground demarcated by a consecrated carpet of red silk upon which rests the Holy Table; the center of the universe; the Holy of Holies where heaven touches earth.

The table is completely veiled by a red silk cloth with gold tassels that hang from each corner. The cloth conceals an elaborately painted and engraved tabletop the perimeter of which is carved with eighty-four squares containing letters from a sacred angelic alphabet; letters whose names I chanted in the angelic tongue during my seven rounds of chanting. A large carved hexagram spans the entire inner surface of the tabletop; and in the center of the hexagram broods a large rectangle made up of twelve squares, each containing an oversized angelic letter artfully carved into the surface of the tablet; the same I letters whose names I chanted during the second round of chanting.

Seven talismans, Ensigns of Creation, are arrayed around the central rectangle. They are made of purified tin and are peculiarly lettered in the angelic script.

The centerpiece of the Holy Table is the Sigillum dei Ameth, a wax disk approximately nine inches in diameter and one and one-half inches thick bearing the carved image of a complex diagram consisting of an interlocked heptagram, two heptagons, a pentagram, and an array of numbers and letters which when decoded spell the names of seven sets of seven divine beings; Seven who rest in seven, and seven who live by seven – the seven who govern the seven – and seven by whom all Government is. Four smaller waxed versions of this Sigillum (wrapped in red silk bags) rest under the legs of the Holy Table, insulating it from distracting geo-currents.

The chanting completed, I will unveil a circular black mirror made of highly polished obsidian that I have placed in a stand directly upon the covered Sigillum dei Ameth. I will carefully angle the mirror so I see my dimly-lit face reflected in its pool of deep blackness. After only a few moments the reflection of my face will disappear and I will see with magick eyes, and hear with magick ears.

Now, the vision magick begins.

In the middle of the night I will call upon the angels.

I will call upon the angels; and they will answer.