Exploring The Arbatel Options

Has anybody worked with the Arbatel de magia veterum? I've been reading it and liked the way its a much 'barer' system than Goetia/Enochian. I think it divides the practice of magick into separate schools and links them to mythical founders (even Homer..who is linked with cacoedemons). Dee doesn't say much about it, though the book is contemporary and Dee references cacoedemons. He probably shared the Arbatel's ideal of a magician as "divinorum cultor & interpres". I think it sits closer to the Enochian rather than Goetic tradition... maybe it's an example of late Renaissance magick (the astrology is there)... I don't know enough about either.

Any experiences or ideas?

You mentioned using the Aphor. 14 prayer, notice the language used in that prayer. Such as:

"Grant me therefore one of thy spirits, who may teach me those things which thou wouldest have me to know and learn...
Give me also an apt and teachable heart, that I may easily understand those things which thou shalt teach me, and may hide them in my understanding, that I may bring them forth as out of thy inexhaustible treasures, to all necessary uses. And give me grace, that I may use such thy gifts humbly"

Notice you will find similar language in the Greater Key.
Such as:
"Grant, O Lord, that we may become responsive unto Thy Grace, so that through it we may have a full confidence in and knowledge of Thee, and that the Spirits may discover themselves here in our presence, and that those which are gentle and peaceable may come unto us, so that they may be obedient unto Thy commands..."
or,
"grant unto me Thy Grace I beseech Thee, so that what I conceive in my mind I may accomplish in my work, through Thee, O God..."

The compare these to some of the prayers of Paracelsus such the wording paraphrased, Show me what I cannot see, teach me what I do not know, give me what I do not have that I might accomplish the great work...

You will see that they all approached the work from the same prospective. The differences might jump out at you at a first reading but once you study the text you will notice they are very very similar in the manner of which they work. The Arbatel does the best job of pointing out how to use these texts.