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: Apr 19, 2025

. . . through caution to the wind . . .

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

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2025

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.

 

[credo99]

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.