Olympic Spirits Of Arbatel, Following strictly only the text of the grimoire Options

I've been preparing for evocation of Ophiel for a while now and I'm faced with a dilemma.

Most of the ritual diaries that are available on the net seem to be using a ritual basis from the Goetia (triangle, circle etc) accompanied with GD rituals instead of the actual grimoire text which doesn't mention any of these. Instead, the Olympic spirits are described as angelic beings:

"There are seven governors or different offices of the Olympians, which God has established for administering the entire fabric of the Universe. And their visible stars are ARATRON, BETHOR, PHALEG, OCH, HAGITH, OPHIEL, PHUL, according to the Olympic speech. Each of these has under them a considerable heavenly militia."

Also, the only requirements according the grimoire for the evocations are faith, pious life and prayers to God (which are also included in the text) and the use of the name and offices of the spirit and it's seal.

For protection only faith in God is required if I'm reading the text correctly:

"...For neither evil daemon nor ill fate can harm one whose help rests in the Most High. Truly any of the Olympic spirits might teach or effect whatever is portended or appropriate to their star, however without divine permission nothing can be accomplished. Indeed it is GOD alone who enables them to accomplish it. All things obey God the creator, whether supercelestial, celestial, sublunary or infernal. Therefore strive for this that GOD LEADS you in all everything you undertake, and EVERYTHING WILL COME TO A HAPPY AND DESIRED OUTCOME, as the history of the world testifies, and daily experience shows. With the pious there is peace, but 'there is no PEACE for the wicked', the Lord says."

Also:

"The HUMAN SOUL is the SOLE producer of wonders, to the extent that it is joined with the chosen spirit; once joined it will reveal what you desire. Therefore you must proceed with CAUTIOUSLY in acts of MAGIC, lest we be cheated by sirens and monsters, who are also attracted to the HUMAN SOUL. Therefore always hide under the WINGS OF THE MOST HIGH, lest you offer yourself to be devoured by the roaring lion. For those who desire worldly things are hard pressed to escape the snares of SATAN."

"CARE must be taken not to mix experiments, but each one should be simple and by itself. For GOD and NATURE have ordered each towards a fixed and destined end.... ....In the same way are sayings, which when spoken, the visible creations and invisible creatures immediately show obedience, whether from our world, such as the aqueous, the aerial, or subterranean, as well as the Olympic, supercelestial, infernal and even the divine.

Strive therefore for the greatest simplicity, and strive to obtain from God knowledge of the simple things. The rest can only be acquired by experimenting."

So, if I'm to follow the instructions in the grimoire to the letter, no circle, triangle or any sort of altar is to be present in the evocation?

Feel free any mistakes I've made reading the text. :flamesuit on:

This post has been edited by ComaOfLoss: Sep 14 2009, 08:16 AM

THe requirements alone are very vague. Faith - who knows how much faith they have until it is tested, and even then against what do you measure it? - a Pious life - based on what religion, supposing there is only one God in truth, which version is the true one to measure Piousness against? - The prayers to God are the only constant that is available there.

Also elsewhere in the book it suggests that "Therefore it is most safe for the young practisers of Art, that they work by the offices of the Spirits alone, without their names; and if they are pre-ordained to attain the Art of Magick, the other parts of the Art will offer themselves unto them of their own accord. Pray therefore for a constant faith, and God will bring to pass all things in due season. "

That bold line suggests to me that this is one of those things where you either have it or you don't - there's no guaruntee that doing anything this book says to do will actually result in magical effect. If you weren't born a magician, then oh well. In most books that have conditions like this we are heavily cautioned that pursuing magic for material desires puts our immortal souls at risk. I believe that this may arise from a philosophy of bias against sorcery (Goetia), which can be practised by anyone and usually involves some material reward resulting from that practice. Who it was that decided there was such a steep cost to material gain is a matter of dispute although in fairness most 'enlightened masters' since the dawn of civilization have said something which supports the belief. P.S. Additionally there is some general opinion that those 'born magicians' would not have such material ends for magic, which is a circuitous reason why there were born to be magicians in the first place - being a magician makes you pious, and being pious makes you a magician. Hence many of these books are supposedly written with this particular kind of person in mind, while others are written for Sorcerers and not Magicians, a distinction which is made by different qualities at different times but generally amounts to a person who on the one hand uses natural laws and spirits to effect ends and on the other is granted some kind of divine grace whereby his will is done through divine providence and his word carries a sort of weight with God.

So here's my opinion about the book, having read over it a few times (I refreshed here for a moment, but I have agrippa's books and knew there was a reason I didn't particularly care for the arbatel): It is possible that this book is intended to be practiced by initiated magicians. By intiated, I do not mean arbitrary GD initiations, but genuine ordeal induced magical initiation. Basically you have to go through some kind of major ordeal and initiate by necessity. The general idea is that these things are predestined from birth, although whether or not you will accept initiation at that time is a matter of somewhat free will. I believe that is what is meant when he said "pre-ordained to attain the art of magic(k)" [K being post-crowley so question the origin of the book in the first place, yes?]

Now, that said there is discussion elsewhere in Agrippa's books about what constitutes piousness and faith, etc. This book may be specifically referencing those things, suggesting that these are not absolute qualities at all, but rather specific rituals to be carried out, according to the instructions of the book. I'm less sure about that, however, even than I am about the specific requirements laid down in the Arbatel itself - there is some evidence to suggest that the 'three books' of agrippa were not written together that all, or even by agrippa von whatever himself; that they were attributed to this person, written on separate occaisions by separate authors, and only later gathered together and presented as three interconnected texts.

I suppose the only way to know for sure, is to give it a try. If you are a born magician, then it will work, if that line is to be taken literally as read. If not, try following the instructions for being a proper magician laid out elsewhere in the books. If that doesn't work, try following the bible to the letter and being a good christian, after all you are to pray to Jesus Christ the only son of God in the prayers (so I'm guessing the God of Jesus is the one commanding the angels here).

So no, I don't personally think that anything beyond what the book states is necessary - just that what it states it does require is intentionally vague.

Peace

PPS.: Ah, alright, check out Aphorism 25, there are a list of qualifications and sayings, then: "If you draw these seven places of Scripture from the letter unto the Spirit, or into action, thou canst out erre, but shalt attain to the desired bound; thou shalt not erre from the mark, and God himself by his holy Spirit will teach thee true and profitable things: he will give also his ministring Angels unto thee, to be thy companions, helpers, and teachers of all the secrets of the world, and he will command every creature to be obedient unto thee, so that cheerfully rejoycing thou maist say with the Apostles, That the Spirits are obedient unto thee; so that at length thou shalt be certain of the greatest thing of all, That thy name is written in Heaven." - Which sounds to me like these may be the basic requirements of Faith and Piousness described above.

This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Sep 14 2009, 09:33 AM

...So no, I don't personally think that anything beyond what the book states is necessary - just that what it states it does require is intentionally vague.

Peace

PPS.: Ah, alright, check out Aphorism 25, there are a list of qualifications and sayings, then: "If you draw these seven places of Scripture from the letter unto the Spirit, or into action, thou canst out erre, but shalt attain to the desired bound; thou shalt not erre from the mark, and God himself by his holy Spirit will teach thee true and profitable things: he will give also his ministring Angels unto thee, to be thy companions, helpers, and teachers of all the secrets of the world, and he will command every creature to be obedient unto thee, so that cheerfully rejoycing thou maist say with the Apostles, That the Spirits are obedient unto thee; so that at length thou shalt be certain of the greatest thing of all, That thy name is written in Heaven." - Which sounds to me like these may be the basic requirements of Faith and Piousness described above.

Thanks for the well thought out answer. Although I was mostly referring to the physical ritual requirements, not the personal inner ones.

As for being vague, the ritual outline is pretty solid at least to me:

You're supposed to call on the spirits on the first hour of the day to the direction where the planet resides, by prayers to God that are included in the text and by displaying the seal of the spirit.

I'll re-check aph. 25, thanks for that.

E: Seems that the Peterson transl. which I have differs quite a lot from the text you're quoting, for example the last line goes like this:
"do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven".

In most books that have conditions like this we are heavily cautioned that pursuing magic for material desires puts our immortal souls at risk. I believe that this may arise from a philosophy of bias against sorcery (Goetia), which can be practised by anyone and usually involves some material reward resulting from that practice.

Which then would make me think even more that any ritual paraphernalia taken from the Goetia would not be needed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by ComaOfLoss: Sep 14 2009, 09:56 AM