Weapon of Earth - Pentacle, How to construct the earth pentacle Options

I'm building an earth pentacle to use in my rituals, but i have some doubts on its creation.

I'm building it around 6 inches, out of some wood boards i glued together.

I read in "Modern Magick" by "Kraig" that it is better to be concave, because this would direct the energy directly back to the one who sent it, in case of an attack.

I really don't agree to that, as i don't see how anything reflects back to its origin on something concave differently from something flat. I also don't understand why it has to be used against attacks, as it is obviously meant as a defensive weapon, or a shield. And a shield is definitely not concave, more the opposite.
It just doesn't add up, Kraig's theory, and it leaves me confused...

Could anyone give me some advise on this.
Also, the origin of the god names that are meant to go around it are not given in Kraig's book, I would like to know them to. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

You are right to doubt Kraig's shape. I am not sure if he did that as a blind or if it is some sort of invention of his own. He does have intended blinds within the book. I believe he even poses the question why the elemental disk has a hexagram on it instead of a pentagram. He knows good well why. Maybe he was trying to get others to think? who knows...

But I am rambling, yes the disk should be flat. The god names and angel sigils etc correspond to the sphere of Malkuth. Try looking in that direction and it should answear your questions. If not we can discuss more later. I went to the doctor this morning and am a little drugged up right now.

For the pentacle I would recommend that if concave doesn't seem right to you, no matter how many folks say concave don't do it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I am not completely sure why some people use the concave version.
The concave bit is just one theory. The earth pentacle has many uses besides the obvious, (banishing a being from a possesed person being one of it's many uses), however a flat ones seems to work just as well. I have used both a flath one and a concave eath pentacle, and I couldn't really tell the difference.
Some schools of thought beleive that one should use a pentagram in the outer order for your pentacle, and a hexagram when you remake your tools in the inner order. Seems silly to me to remake it, so I just started with a hexagram.
Btw, Kraig did not intentionally put any blinds in his book. (I have heard the Modern magick is full of blinds theory quite a bit though) Well unless you count leaving off the letter on the air dagger (I think it was) then mention it later so that the student would pay more attention. Aside from that there are not any blinds. Some things in Kraig's book are a little different from other books, and here is the reason why. He has taught magick for many years, and before Modern Magick actually came out in book form it was a course he was teaching. He taught a lot of people with this course, and always asked them what worked for them and refined several things when he found that something worked better for the majority of his students.
Now there is also the odd chance he could have screwed up here and there while writing or editing the book, it does happen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Modern Magick was the first book on magick that I picked up, and fortunatly as well, there were a lot of very lame books around at that time as well from what I hear lol.
Athena
www.nightshademagic.com

so i should use a hexagram too, instead of a pentagram. okey, nice info.

Your help is much appreciated.

I can't find an explanation for the god names in my books.
Uriel make sense, but the others i can't find a reason for, i have searched in a garden of pomegranates, but didn't find it, i still have some other books i could search, but i wouldn't know where to start.

These are the ones i can't find:

Adonai Ha-aretz
Phorlakh
Phrat
Aretz
Kerub
Tzaphon

93

so i should use a hexagram too, instead of a pentagram. okey, nice info.

There is something to be said for understanding the pentagram before the hexagram. Having said that, I utilise a disk with the pentagram on one side, and hexagram on the other - multi-purpose tool - when performing outer order stuff the pentagram side is obverse, inner order the hexagram is obverse.

Now - let's see how the old memory goes......

Adonai Ha-aretz - Hebrew God Name associated with Malkuth (Lord God of Earth)
Phorlakh - Angel associated with Earth (element)
Phrat - Refers to the Euphrates, a river associated with the element Earth (i.e. a river of Eden)
Aretz - Hebrew for Earth
Kerub - Both the ruler of the Earth element, and an entity representative of the powers of the Tetragrammaton (i.e. part of the Kerubim). The Kerubim of Earth is the Bull or Ox (Taurus).
Tzaphon - Hebrew for North (the cardinal point of Earth)

Hope this helps.

93 93/93

Todd

That is good info fiat_lux_777, now i know the meaning of all the names, and can paint them with the proper respect.

I'm still waiting for the glue on the back to dry, so i can sand it and paint it completely.

I"ll be asking about the air dagger in a few months.
But first i need to feel i have an excellent connection to element earth.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif)

I do have one issue with your terms:

Kerub - Both the ruler of the Earth element, and an entity representative of the powers of the Tetragrammaton (i.e. part of the Kerubim).  The Kerubim of Earth is the Bull or Ox (Taurus).

Now I agree 100% with the rest of your definitions but I do not agree with this one. Yes Kerub is the ruler of elmental earth within Malkuth, BUT I do not believe he is the same Kerubim of elemental earth, i.e. Shor the Bull. Shor technically resides in Yesod and potrols the path of Tau but I think he more be in lined with residing over the entire middle pillar for elemental earth.

So to sum up, Kerub may be a form of Shor, but I tend to treat them as seperate.

Another question, where can one learn these correspondences. they are in none of my books...

I would like to study them for myself, so i don't have to go asking for them whenever i need them.

Bear in mind there are a lot of different systems of correspondences out there. What I use is Golden Dawn standard, which has influenced most of the other ones so I guess that is the one you are interested in.

Check Regardie's Golden Dawn and I know they are in the Cicero Self-Initiation book but are organized by grade instead all in one place. So if you wanted the ones for air look in the 2=9 grade material and they are in list form. The same goes for Regardie's Golden Dawn.

I have regardie's garden of pomegranates and regardie's the tree of life, but not regardie's golden dawn...

Guess I'll have to buy yet another book, CM is expensive, its starting to look like a big amazon cult (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

any other book recommendations tha would fit my study?

Yes actually that is not a bad idea. I will come up with a recommended reading list and post it. I will include a bare necessary one. Which I would recommend The Golden Dawn over Tree of Life for pure necessary reasons. The shear amount of information... BUT Tree of Life is an excellent read for theory and understanding...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif)

I do have one issue with your terms:

Kerub - Both the ruler of the Earth element, and an entity representative of the powers of the Tetragrammaton (i.e. part of the Kerubim).  The Kerubim of Earth is the Bull or Ox (Taurus).

Now I agree 100% with the rest of your definitions but I do not agree with this one. Yes Kerub is the ruler of elmental earth within Malkuth, BUT I do not believe he is the same Kerubim of elemental earth, i.e. Shor the Bull. Shor technically resides in Yesod and potrols the path of Tau but I think he more be in lined with residing over the entire middle pillar for elemental earth.

So to sum up, Kerub may be a form of Shor, but I tend to treat them as seperate.

93

Dear Fr. NERO,

You raise a good point....according to Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopaedia Shor is equivalent with the Ox or Bull (Taurus). The entry for Kerub states -

"1.Ruler of the element of Earth
2. One of the Kerubim"

The entry for Kerubim states -

"1. Angelic choir associated with Yesod......(snipped)
2. The four tetramorphs....the Living Powers of the Tetragrammaton on the material plane and the presidents of the four elements. They operate through the fixed or Kerubic Signs of the Zodiac and are thus symbolised and attributed:
Kerub of Air - man - Aquarius
Kerub of Fire - Lion - Leo
Kerub of Earth - Bull - Taurus
Kerub of Water - Eagle - Scorpio"

The way I had always seen it (progressing in a linear fashion) is that Kerub is one of the Kerubim, and the Kerubim are the tetramorphs of YHVH, ergo Kerub is equivalent with Shor, the Kerubim of Earth..... perhaps my logic is flawed. It's not a subject I know a great deal about, so it's quite possible that I am incorrect.

93 93/93

Todd

anyway, thanks for the advise. i finished coloring it today, next time i will thin the paint down a little, because the brush strokes are to thick and the citrine has added up to a thicker layer than the russet.
I had a hard time doing the Hebrew so i ended up using a permanent marker for that.

The pentacle is 2 cm thick.

I took a picture:
(IMG:http://users.skynet.be/fa081780/pentacle-web.jpg)

edit:
Oh, it was rather dark in my room, and the flash of my camera didn't work, so the colors all came out a bit too dark, the white is shiny white normally.

This post has been edited by A_Smoking_Fox: Mar 31 2005, 09:33 AM

All thats left now is to add your name, nice work dude, looking good

BrotherM

93!

would it make sense to use a unicursal hexagram?

as for the name.. would a sigil form of your name / magickal name work?

any ideas on what to definitely avoid?

93! 93/93.

Seb

I guess the concave shape follows "Bowl Logic" where negative energy rushes and right back out like if you dumped alot of water into a bowl, it rushes right back out.

93!

would it make sense to use a unicursal hexagram?

as for the name.. would a sigil form of your name / magickal name work?

any ideas on what to definitely avoid?

93! 93/93.

Seb

I would like to bump this issue if anyone has anything to say about it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/13.gif)

anyway, thanks for the advise. i finished coloring it today, next time i will thin the paint down a little, because the brush strokes are to thick and the citrine has added up to a thicker layer than the russet.
I had a hard time doing the Hebrew so i ended up using a permanent marker for that.

The pentacle is 2 cm thick.

I took a picture:
(IMG:http://users.skynet.be/fa081780/pentacle-web.jpg)

edit:
Oh, it was rather dark in my room, and the flash of my camera didn't work, so the colors all came out a bit too dark, the white is shiny white normally.

I absolutely love that ^^

Very nice earth pentacle. I've always thought that they were supposed to be flat as well.

IT is an wonderfull pentacle...
but not many know that the original way to represent the earth in the golden Dawn was not a pentacle...but a skull!
Yes,indeed...the skull must be hall and this is the representation of element earth...the replacing of the skull with an pentacle is late and is caused by the fact that it was strange and difficile to get one...
But the ones who have a skull should consider themseves happy because this object has in it more stability(element earth) because it is all that is left of a men when all is gone...

IT is an wonderfull pentacle...
but not many know that the original way to represent the earth in the golden Dawn was not a pentacle...but a skull!
Yes,indeed...the skull must be hall and this is the representation of element earth...the replacing of the skull with an pentacle is late and is caused by the fact that it was strange and difficile to get one...
But the ones who have a skull should consider themseves happy because this object has in it more stability(element earth) because it is all that is left of a men when all is gone...

Where are you getting that information from? This is the first I've heard of it.

LVX
TMPC

well the way that i got my information is quiet long....long story...
the idea is that a stupid anticques sales men sold me some manuscripts from a golden dawn temple...with drawings...wery interesting stuff... from some notes on them it appeared to belong to a very known Golden dawn initiate...i will not mention his name...
I compared the writing of the manuscripts with some other writings of Him wich I found on the net...they match perfectly...so I am convinced of the autenticity...

Smoking Fox,

First of all, nice work on the pentacle. I like the color and the brush work on the lettering. Very cool.
When I first got involved in CM Donald Kraigs book was my first read as well. I spent about six months following his instructions to the letter before I started searching the net and getting in touch with all the other sources out there(this was when the net was pretty new and didn't go beyond a 28.8bp conection)loll
. Kraig is cool and all, but I'd say he's best used as a primer course for the serious CM worker. That's just my opinion though.
I feel that no single author can truly sum up and present a good course in Cm in one book. Kraig is cool like I said, but I'd suggest using him as a jumping off point. For me, there is a core library of CM books that are most important.
Regardie's Tree of Life.
Gershom Sholem's Kabalah translation,
Scott Cunningham's Incense Oil and Brews (yes this is low magick, but I like it because he gives a clear explanation of natural energies. I started also with Cunn. so I'm biased. Sue me.lol
Denning and Philips Mysteria Magica book 3
Crowleys 777

The last of that list isn't really instructional in the traditional sense, but it has just about every correspondance you could think of though. lol
But yah, it can get a bit expensive learning CM. I will say though, it is worth it. I've since moved on from traditional CM to the Simonicon and Sumerology, but my roots will always be in this area of the occult and therefor my first love.
I think my best advice though would be, Don't take the rules too seriously. Do what you think is best for you. As a Sorcerer would say, 'The power is in you, not the tools.'
Throughout the history of CM it has seemed to me(again,my opinion) that far too many formulas and rules and strictures have been placed on the CM magician. At least in the sense of making these things unbreakable. As long as you follow the energies of a working, or spirit, the ritual should come out fine. Use what you wish of the CM literature, but don't be afraid to experiment. In the end, just follow your gut. If something seems wrong to you, don't do it. Do what seems cool with you. But that's just my opinion and experience on things. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blablabla.gif) lol

I do not much agree with Serafim...
Well let's say that we are not in need for tools....
I want to see Serafim an evocation to the material plane without the sword,smoke,cercle,triangle just you naked in a forest and then i believe it!

I do not much agree with Serafim...
Well let's say that we are not in need for tools....
I want to see Serafim an evocation to the material plane without the sword,smoke,cercle,triangle just you naked in a forest and then i believe it!

Hmm..the circle isn't a 'tool' though. Besides, getting to the point where you don't 'need' tools is the whole point. The tools are just physical representations, they aren't magick itself. Heheh..actually, many practices DO involve people getting naked in the forest without any tools and calling forth entites to the material plane.

i kindly thank you for apreciating my handy work.

It is true that the goal is to work without tools. But the making of the tools is an important project. The time you spend gathering the utils, researching the pentacle. And eventually pouring your creativity into it while making it, are the most rewarding. Trough it the tool is given a lot of power to.

I would never buy a tool, for these reasons. The journey is something you miss when buying a tool. Unless you are on a journey while buying it.

I made a fire wand too, went into the woods in the dark to gather the wood for that. It was a good experience, out there in the dark, realy magical.

I can only promote these experiences to all!!!

for the ceremonialists is clear that the jurney to the great art is a jurney full of wonder...and if the jurney is not full of wonder the miracle will not happen...
I doubt that if tou did not practice Ceremonial magic(with the tools) and go to a forest without any tools ,naked, and say some conjurations you will make a spirit appear to material plane...lets be realistic...

If you really know a method Angalor,share it with us...cause everyone wants instant miracles...

for the ceremonialists is clear that the jurney to the great art is a jurney full of wonder...and if the jurney is not full of wonder the miracle will not happen...
I doubt that if tou did not practice Ceremonial magic(with the tools) and go to a forest without any tools ,naked, and say some conjurations you will make a spirit appear to material plane...lets be realistic...

If you really know a method Angalor,share it with us...cause everyone wants instant miracles...

Though I don't doubt that the whole journey is full of wonders but I think you're putting too much stock into tools and depending on them far too much. Many state that if you do not have an athame, substituting your index finger works just as well. I have done this with great results and often use only my index finger. Besides, if they were THAT important then we would be born with them instead of constructing them through trial and error.

And the last part of my comment was in jest. Pertaining to how practitioners of Witchcraft go into the woods and "draw down the moon" while skyclad (naked). Thus the "hehehe.." that preluded my statement. I'm sorry if you didn't get it, I'll try to be more specific next time when making jokes.

The thing is that is not a question of dependence ,but a question of the reality of the experiments....
In low magic you can substitute the athame for the index finger but in high magic you can not...why?
Because metals have this ability of cutting the astral bodies so in an evocation the metalic protection of the athame or of the sword of Solomon is REAL...
again the tools,after the COMPLETE consacration,charching,etc...have the power to work themselves without needing the concentration of the mage,but only his intent...

now,lets see: you tell me that without the tools you can give psichic energy for the materialisation of a spirit,in the same time sustain a cercle of protection,in the same time comunicate with the spirit! well?

The thing is that is not a question of dependence ,but a question of the reality of the experiments....
In low magic you can substitute the athame for the index finger but in high magic you can not...why?
Because metals have this ability of cutting the astral bodies so in an evocation the metalic protection of the athame or of the sword of Solomon is REAL...
again the tools,after the COMPLETE consacration,charching,etc...have the power to work themselves without needing the concentration of the mage,but only his intent...

now,lets see: you tell me that without the tools you can give psichic energy for the materialisation of a spirit,in the same time sustain a cercle of protection,in the same time comunicate with the spirit! well?

*sighs* Oh brother...

First off, you're assuming I'm doing one type of magick when I haven't even specified as to what I do! Please don't make assumptions, it tends to make people angry.

Second. Where in the hell did I specify that I was talking about evocation in general? If you go back and actually read my posts I said no such thing about evoking anything. I'm talking about magick in GENERAL.

Third. Why the hell not? Are you saying that people aren't able to do this? That they need the 'tools' in order to accomplish ANYTHING? That without them we can NOT work magick? That 'Higher' Magick is that much stronger than 'Low' Magick that it "needs" tools in order to do ANYTHING? Are you saying that YOU can't work without tools? You know..When Aleister was in the triangle of art and then attacked his apprentice, he was defeated with an 'astral' sword. His apprentice was able to keep up the circle AND use a sword made of pure energy...not an actual sword, now how about that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif).

Page 529 of Modern Magick.

"As a standard tool, such as the dagger used for the LBRP, you can use your index finger or both the index and middle finger....
Don't let the inaccessibility of magickal tools prevent you from doing rituals. Don't wait until you have that perfect Air Dagger to do a ritual. Use a butter knife or a fan *gasp*....If you don't have a water chalice made of glass, get one of pewter. Or stainless steel. Or silver plate. Or wood. Or use a large sea shell. Or use a paper styrofoam cup."

Or heck, why don't you just improvise! You know last months issue of llewellyn's they had an article about a Magician that got stranded on a deserted island with NO tools..you could win $150 in books if you wrote a ritual for him to get off the island, but remember..he had NO tools..*ahem*

Need I continue? Hmm..Me thinks I do..

"All magickal tools are helpers. The magick is not in them, it is in YOU. As I've written before, "Magick is not something you do, magick is something you ARE."

Fourth. I think we're getting a little off topic.

Smoking Fox..very good! I've made my own pentacle out of birch (though I have to admit, I'm not really all that good at the precise measurements). Might I ask, how did you go about getting it so ..precise? Mine has a tendency to come out a little...lopsided.

This post has been edited by Angalor: Aug 17 2006, 08:00 AM