Elemental "rulers" vs "angels"

[Dalehodgkinson]

Can anybody shed any light on why Stephen Skinner (in his Magician's Tables and in Techniques of High Magic) lists the Elemental orders of spirits (for Fire, for example) as: The Ruler as Seraph, and The Angel as Aral, whereas Steve Savedow in Goetic Evocation (new addition) reverses this allocation - and indeed all others in the Elemental category - whilst bizarrely acknowledging Skinner and Rankine's invaluable contribution to the field. The dichotomy is perplexing.... who is "correct"... and does it even matter? Can they be called upon as "angels" and or "rulers" (angelic rulers I might guess) interchangeably and without offense or "loss of hierarchical working" method? Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

Seraph in Hebrew is a word that means "to burn" and is the singular form for a species of Angels. The species "Seraphim" is the addition of -im (Hebrew plural or feminine form) meaning "Firey Ones". In historical Goetia the conjurer would call upon the Species of Angel before the associated Sephirah, and then finally the name of the angel in the species, the idea being you are outlining a spiritual taxonomy to access the direct being. Now I think Skinner is sticking to this formula and so either Rankine is unaware of the meanings, has intentionally obfuscated the material, OR is using the word Seraph to literally evoke the process of burning.

I Conjure thee...

Seraph = Bear
Seraphim = Bears
Seraph Aral = The Bear named Aral

Hope that helps.

 

[Dalehodgkinson]

Thank you very much for your knowledgeable reply.
To my reading both Stephen Skinner and David Rankine seem to concur with their categorisation of Elemental spirits - but Steve Savedow reverses them. (I have no idea if this is even important but it perplexes me, as Savedow does this not just for the element of Fire - the possibilities of his reasoning you have eruditely explained - but he does so for ALL the Elemental designations of "Angels" and "Rulers".) So my query is: does this apparent hierarchical anomaly matter in practice? If so, which entity is called upon first - nowhere, in either Skinner, Regardie or Savedow can I find a stated hierarchy for these entities.... and neither can I find a consistency in their designation. It may very well not matter, but my "OCD" to have things "correct"..... or at least ways as "correct" as better knowledge than mine would indicate, is anguishing. Any further insights? Thank you in advance.

 

[Yazata]

I am not in the club of famous authors (but my real initials are SS like Skinner ans Savedow so maybe that justifies the following..)

This is something I wrote on the topic:

on the 7th pentacle of the Sun the Names of the Angels and Rulers of the
Elements are given

Angels
of the Elements

Chasan – spelled as ChSN
Angel of Air

ChSN (to be strong / binding together / to possess / wealth)

value of 118

if the same is spelled as
ChShN (to be fair / ornament / breastplate of the High Priest)

value of 358

but
ChZVN (divine vision / revelation / oracle)

value of 71

while
ChZN (superintendent / officer / governor)

value of 65

Arel – spelled as ARAL
Angel of Fire

ARAL (angel / messenger) compare with Aralim for Thrones

value of 232

what if the Name is really completely different?

AR is a contracted form of AVR (light)

HLL (to be bright / shine / praise / boast)

value of 65

Phorlakh – spelled as PVRLAK
Angel of Earth

PVR / PVRA (piece / division / fruit) + LCh (moist / fresh /
secretion)

value of 324

ZK (pure) value of 27
note how the translation of ZK (pure) resembles the PVR of Phorlakh

ZKLCh (pure + fresh)
value of 27 + 38 = 65

Taliahad – spelled as TLIHD
Angel of Water

TLI / TLIA (lift up / cover / tender / young man / servant) + HD
(joy) or AHD / AHVD (to be joined together)

TLIAHVD has the value of 65

A suggested correction for the Angels of the Elements then is

HLL (Helel)

TLIAHVD (Teliahud)

ChZN (Chezan)

ZKLCh (Zaklach)

as these Names all have a Gematria of 65 (like Adonai - ADNI)

Rulers
of the Elements

Ariel – spelled as ARIAL
ruler of Air

ARI (lion) + AL
value of 242

there's not really a reason to doubt the spelling, though you could
wonder why the other 3 Rulers clearly are named after Angelic
choirs that somewhat relate to the element they rule: Seraph as the
fire serpent from the Seraphim attributed to Mars, Tharsis from
the Tharshishim (Tharshish = “breaking” / “subjection” but might
even come from ThRTzH “pleasantness”) which are assigned to
Venus, and Kerub from the Cherubim as the Choir of the Moon.

ARV (Lo! Behold!)
ARVEL value of 238

Seraph – spelled as ShRP
ruler of Fire

ShRP (burning serpent)
value of 580

Tharsis – spelled as ThRShIS
ruler of Water
spelled like this the value is 970 but
ThRShISh (breaking / subjection)
value of 1210

Cherub – spelled as KRVB
ruler of Earth

KRVB (childlike)

KRVBA (round / measured / marked off / cabbage)

value of 228 / 229

if the numerical values of the original spellings is added up it
comes to 2260

4 x 65 = 260

But,
if the Name of ARIAL is spelled as ARVAL
then the following sum can be made:

HLL 65 + ARVAL 238 = 303 = 6

ZKLCh 65 + ShRP 580 = 645 = 6

ChZN 65 + ThRShISh 1210 = 1275 = 6

TLIAHVD 65 + KRVBA 229 = 294 = 6

the total of all these 8 Names as they were originally spelled gives

2765

if from this is subtracted the value of

MIKAL 101

the result is 2664

which is 4 X 666

 

[Dalehodgkinson]

That is brilliant information! Thank you very much!