My Research On The Names In The Circle Of Solomon, A list of the Hebrew words and their significance Options

Hello everyone, I'm new here and I don't want to be another anonymous lurker asking annoying questions... So I want to contribute what I've come up with this week in my research on the path to learning and studying the Lemegeton.

I'm working with Peterson's edition and there wasn't really a proper list of the names with hebrew so I had to go ahunting to create this list (I didn't want to just take from Crowley's as I want to practice as close to the tradition as I can... inspired by Imperial Arts and his success with this attitude).

Please forgive the english names as the spellings are far from perfect (and there aren't exact transliterations anyway, hebrew being slippery as it is). I've tried to find the purest spellings in Hebrew, however.

By studying these names and their significance, I discovered the pattern to each segment... usually a sacred God name, then a kabbalistic sphere (the sephiroth), a class of angelic beings, a specific powerful angel and a planet name. I have a feeling they aren't perfectly linked by correspondences (from what I know) but as Imperial Arts has said several times, the Lemegeton is its own asymmetrical system.

Okay, on with the names and what I've discovered about them in my research.



אהיה eheie -- "I am" or "I will be" ; Ehyeh asher ehyeh was the "I am that I am" response that Moses received when he asked God his name.
כתר kether -- First sephirah, meaning "Crown" ; Divine Plan / Creator / Infinite Light (Supreme / Total Consciousness)
היות haioth -- "living creatures"; I believe these are a class of created beings around God's throne
חקדש hqedesh -- "holy" ; describing the haioth as an adjective
מטטרון metatron -- supposedly the highest of all angels, and the celestial scribe that writes the deeds of Israel, according to Rabbinic tradition - Zohar claims he lead them out of egypt
ראשית reshith -- means "beginning, germ, outset, source, start" ; the 'Primum' of 'Primum Mobile'
הגלגלים hagalgalim -- I think it means "wheels" from what I can find. Suggests a link to the vision of the throne in Ezekiel, and the close proximity to God of these names.
S.P.M (Sphere of the Primum Mobile) -- This indicates this grouping of names as the most powerful.


יה yah -- shorted form of the tetragrammaton YHVH, a simpler name of God
חכמה chokmah -- The second sephirah, "wisdom" ; Divine Reality / Revelation / Yesh me-ayin - being from nothingness (Power of Wisdom)
יופיאל jophiel / רזיאל raziel -- I have a dilemma here. The picture of the Circle in Sloane 2731 and the prayers has Jophiel in English, in Crowley's he has put in Raziel. Raziel is a member of the Ophanim class of beings, Jophiel is not. If this is a Crowley correction, it makes sense to do this, but I wonder if Jophiel is there for a reason. Jophiel is a companion to Metatron and a powerful chief of the Cherubim. If anyone can clear this up for me, I'd appreciate it. At any rate, I've included both names here.
עופנים ophanim -- class of beings that carry the throne of God.
מזלות masloth -- means "zodiac"
S. Z. -- Sphere of the Zodiac

יהוה jehovah -- the Tetragrammon, YHVH, sacred name of God, means LORD
אלהים elohim -- plural of Eloah, a divine name of God, possibly showing a plural nature, or class of beings, even.
בינה binah -- third sephirah ; Understanding / Repentance / Reason (Power of Love)
צפקיאל zaphkiel -- powerful angel ruling over Saturn
אראלים aralim -- "active ones", Thrones - a class of celestial beings
שבתאי sabathai -- "Saturn"
S. ♄ -- Sphere of Saturn

אל el -- name of God, "power"
חסד chesed -- fourth sephirah ; Mercy / Grace / Love of (intention to emulate) God (Power of Vision)
צדקיאל zadkiel -- angel of freedom, benevolence, mercy. Chief of the hasmalim class.
חשמלים hasmalim -- "brilliant ones"
צדק tzedek -- "Jupiter"
K: S. ♃ -- Sphere of Jupiter (I don't understand the K, though.)


אלהים elohim -- as above
גבור gibor -- with elohim, means "almighty / strong / warrior or hero God"
גבורה geburah -- fifth sephirah ; Judgment / Strength / Determination (Power of Intention)
שרפים seraphim -- sixed winged angels attending the throne of God. Described in Isaiah 6. Supposedly highest rank of angels.
כמאל camael -- archangel that lead forces which drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden.
מאדים madim -- "Mars"
S. ♂ -- Sphere of Mars

אלוה eloah -- "a god", similar to 'allah'. Singular of Elohim. A strong divine being / god.
ודעצ va-daath -- daath is "knowledge", the sephirah that is not a sephirah. Eloah va-daath is "God of knowledge", a name associated with tiphareth.
תפארת tiphareth -- sixth sepirah ; Symmetry / Balance / Compassion (Creative Power)
רפאל raphael -- shares the root word 'raophe' meaning doctor of medicine. An archangel of healing.
מלכים malakhim -- plural of "angels".
שמש shemesh -- "Sun"
S. ☉ -- Sphere of the Sun

יהוה jehovah -- as above
צבאות tzabaoth -- "hosts", as in army. With jehovah, "LORD of hosts".
נצח netzach -- seventh sephirah ; Contemplation / Initiative / Persistence (Power of the Eternal Now)
האניאל haniel -- from "joy" or "pleasure". An (arch?)angel associated with netzach and Venus.
אלהים elohim -- as above
נוגה nogah -- "Venus"
S. ♀ -- Sphere of Venus

אלהים elohim -- as above
צבאות tzabaoth -- as above. Together, "God of Hosts"
הוד hod -- eighth sephirah ; Surrender / Sincerity / Steadfastness ( Intellectual / Observational Power)
מיכאל michael -- warrior archangel, field commander / captain for the army / hosts of God.
בניאלהים beni-elohim -- the "Sons of God / the gods" in Genesis who took daughters of men as wives.
כוכב cochab -- "Mercury"
S. ☿-- Sphere of Mercury

שדיאלחי shadai-el-chai -- root word shadad, "to overpower / destroy" - God as destroyer. "El chai" is living God. Almighty Living God.
יסוד yesod -- ninth sephirah ; Foundation/ wholly remembering/ coherent knowledge (Power of Manifesting)
גבריאל gabriel -- a messenger archangel, also announcer. Possibly angel of death.
כרובים cherubim -- winged class of beings. Ezekiel describes the cherubim as a tetrad of living creatures, each having four faces: lion, ox, eagle, man.
לבנה levanah -- "Moon"
S. ☽. - Sphere of the Moon




And that's it... It was a lot of hard research to get these words (I had to use the system tools character map to individually construct each hebrew word) but it was worth the effort. I've learned a lot about the names and now hopefully can command them with greater authority.

I for one find it interesting that Malkuth is not listed / associated with a sphere. But this would appeal more to my occult sense of correspondences / completion than anything else. As said before, Goetia is an asymmetrical system that doesn't necessarily equate with other systems of occult correspondence.


If anyone has anything to add, or would like to discuss, please do.


This post has been edited by lithargoel: May 7 2009, 07:36 PM

I'd like to express my admiration. This is excellent; it's rare to find someone put such effort and scholarship into it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I have some materials which may or may not be helpful, which I will upload.

I hope Loki, Theodore Voland, and/or Imperial Arts will have something useful to add - they are all fairly experienced in "Goetiac" work, I believe.

Thank you. It's definitely not exhaustive... I definitely could expand and perfect this list more (especially where the english spellings are concerned). But I think it's a good spring board for further research. There was a lot of interesting tidbits that I didn't include for brevity's sake.

Malkhut is not mentioned in the circle itself because it is in the center, the magician is malkhut.

The idea behind the circle/spiral and the placement of the names is to center the world of creation onto the magician himself/herself. By then invoking the spheres, the Magician represents and manifests the principle "Kether is in Malkhut is in Kether", becoming the governing consciousness of creation.

Good work!

peace

Thank you Dreamer, that was very enlightening and I am now slapping myself in the forehead for not realising that to be the case! (I'm just starting out in Qabalah also, which I adore.)

Thanks again. I appreciate it. Maybe this extra piece of understanding will help strengthen my position when I begin to practise.