There Must Be An Angel...

My route into angel magic was via grimoire magic. In particular through the Runesoup premium member's course on grimoiric magic. Grimoires appear to be experiencing a revival at the moment going by the number of blogs on the experiences of magicians using this form of magic.

Part of the 'plugging it into the wall' tech involves regular planetary prayers to the angels of the day. Gordon White suggested those from the Hygromanteia; but I opted in the end for those given in The Goetia of Dr Rudd which ritually enact the 7 day creation myth from Genesis.

The angels associated with the days are as follows:

1st day Sunday - Michael
2nd day Monday - Gabriel
3rd day Tuesday - Samael
4th day Wednesday - Raphael
5th day Thursday - Sachiel
6th day Friday Friday - Anael
7th day Saturday - Cassiel/Caphriel

As I also use these daily angelic conjurations for my sigil magic which is planetary based, and following on from something I saw in the RS forums decided to go full-on angel magic for a while.

The obvious choice was to stick with the Dr Thomas Rudd angelic magicians group whose working manuscripts have been published a couple of times, the one I use is by Stephen Skinner & David Rankine as part of the Golden Hoard series of Keys to Ceremonial magic.

The angelic launch sequence couldn't be simpler. There is no circle, wand, ring, etc. What we have are a series of prayers and conjurations, one primary and one to recite as follow up. However do not be deceived! It's important to remember that these manuals were used by working magicians who would already have a basic launch tech so it would not necessarily be included in the instructions.  An indication of this are the angelic seals, of which there are two given for each angel from two different manuscripts, so presumably only one is used (either, or). No instructions are given as to how these seals form part of the working so one's own experience has to dictate. From the grimoire tradition spirit seals are generally placed in the triangle of art where the spirit is to appear. If scrying then the crystal is placed on top of the seal. So this is the method I use for this work.

There is a prayer to be said before any angelic conjuration. This gives the basic cosmology, which is the Cabalistic Tree of Life.  We have nine angelic keys and one for the angelic choir. This latter one is associated with Malkuth. Thus we also have the seven planets taking us up to Binah (Saturn), the last two are without planetary association (pre-Herschel) which takes us up to the angel 'Methraton' for Kether.

Dr Thomas Rudd and his group were also experimenting with Dr John Dee's system of angelic magic, now referred to as 'Enochian'. I think they based these planetary angel workings on Dee's method of calling.

I use one of the angel seals that uses material that I'm familiar with from Adam McLean's 'Magical Calendar' book. These have the familiar hermetic seals for each angel that are used in several grimoires of that period.

Basically, this is a scrying working, to summon the angel or one of his minions to appear in a crystal or stone. I place my scrying stone on the seal, either burn frankincense or anoint myself with its essential oil. My preliminary work is a recitation of the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' and calling on St Cyprian of Antioch to oversee the working. Then as follows:

• The general prayer is recited to set up the angelic hierarchy.  
• The first long conjuration of the angel is recited.
• First 10 minute scrying session (I use entrainment .mp3 soundtrack).
• 1st recitation of the shorter conjuration.
• Second 10 minute scrying session.
• 2nd recitation of the shorter conjuration.
• Third scrying session.

The whole of the above takes about one hour. 

The long conjuration alone takes about 20 minutes. I find it more effective to chant this in a sing-song voice rather than just to recite it. The punctuation is all commas and no full stops. capitalised letters are used mid-sentence but add to the punctuation for breathing. All this gives a rhythm to it which is just as well because it is very repetitive. By the end of 20 minutes I'm experiencing a light trance, which is just what is needed for the scrying. The entrainment track also helps deepen the ASC.

I generally experience various sequences of visual images that appear in quick succession, but usually one becomes settled. I'm not a great scryer and my active imaginations are 'piss-poor' to be blunt. However there is a certain quality to scrying images which marks them out from the usual mental chatter.

My experiences tend to be visual rather than aural though I have had voices speak before. 

So far I have used this to call for four angelic visions, and would recommend this work for those who want to try scrying because it is so simple to perform from the comfort of your armchair.

Unlike grimoiric workings there is no particular request to make for these workings. The conjurations tend to just ask for wisdom and 'sapience' for the magician. My experience is that the results come in the form of altered perceptions (angelic perceptions?). The symbolism given tends to lead to a desire to research and make connections to create a narrative that then gives the lines or threads that weave together to form the angel. At least this is how I'm perceiving my own experiences so far. 

I'll post up some extracts from my magical journal and also the researched elements that interweave to form the narrative 'body' of the angel in my own understanding.

So what's all this for?

Essentially a deepening relationship, as GW likes to put it "getting their attention". As stated above I use angelic forms for sigil magic and could also use it for prayer work generally. So it isn't that I'm asking to win the lottery when the angel appears rather to establish a place in the spirit ecology network, I'm sort of handing out my business card and asking for theirs too.