Angelic Ritual of Conjuration
Below is a ritual of conjuration based on Johannes Trithemius’ “Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals” and the “Clavicula Solomonis”, both available at the Esoteric Archives. I’ve modernized the language and format and style, but the ritual itself is simple: a series of prayers that consecrates the tools and area, a conjuration of the spirit into the area, a chat with the spirit, and then the leave to depart. It’s a simple ritual and can be adapted or abbreviated in many ways. Trithemius supposedly developed the ritual as an implementation of the guidelines and suggestions present in Cornelius Agrippa’s “Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy”.
The following tools are the minimum required. An example conjuration altar is shown below using my own materia and setup.
- Table of Practice
- Wand
- Crystal ball or other scrying medium
- Lamen with the spirit’s name and seal, drawn or printed on virgin parchment (clean paper) in an appropriate planetary day and hour (if applicable)
- Incense appropriate to the spirit (if applicable)
- Candle (white or in an appropriate color to the spirit being conjured)
A notebook and pen are helpful for having with you as well to record the ritual or take notes from the spirit, and a candle snuffer is nice if you don’t want to blow out the candle. Trithemius also suggests a physical magic circle with names of God and the seal of the spirit, a Solomonic ring to be worn with the lamen, and a partner to conjure the spirit with as a kind of magical spotter or medium.
Since Trithemius (the attributed author of the ritual) was a Christian abbot, and since most magic performed in medieval and Renaissance Europe was propagated and performed by Christian priests, the original ritual is replete with invocations to Jesus Christ. Although not a Christian, I’ve used the same prayers to good success, but I can understand why it might be distasteful in the mouths of others. I’ve altered the prayers based on the Keys of Solomon, Heptameron, and other sources to make the ritual less Christian and more Qabbalistic or Jewish, but either works. I haven’t experimented with Gnostic or pagan godnames, but I don’t see what would prevent one from working with those in this ritual.
Perform the ritual in a day and hour appropriate to the spirit you’re conjuring or under otherwise favorable conditions. Purify yourself before the ritual as you find necessary (ablutions, fasting, meditation, contemplation, prayer etc.). Lay out the tools on a clean and cleansed area, positioning the candle to the east, or another direction as necessary.
Light the candle.
I conjure you, o creature of fire, by him who created all things both in heaven and earth and in the sea and in every other place whatsoever, that you cast away every phantasm from you, so that no hurt whatsoever shall be done in any thing. Bless, o Lord, this creature of fire, and sanctify it that it may be blessed, and that it may burn for your honor and glory, so neither the enemy nor any false imagination may enter into it. Amen.1
If you have one, put on the ring; pray as you will for guidance, protection, and wisdom. Put on the lamen, charging or intoning the names written on it if desired. Begin the ritual of conjuration.
O God, author of all good things, I beseech you, strengthen me, your poor servant, that I may stand fast without fear through this dealing and work. Enlighten me in my dark understanding, o Lord, so that my spiritual eye may be opened to see and know your angelic spirits descending here into this crystal2.
Lay your hand on the crystal.
O inanimate creature of God, be sanctified, consecrated, and blessed, so that no evil phantasy may appear in you, and that all spirits within you speak intelligibly, truly, and without the least ambiguity. Amen.
And as I stand before you, o Lord, grant me the power of scrying those celestial spirits or intelligences that may appear in this crystal, and enable me, by your wisdom and mercy, to use whatever good gifts you may be pleased to bestow on me to the honor of your holy name. You, who live and reign, world without end. Amen.
Wear the lamen around your neck. Take up the wand and trace a circle around your area of conjuration.
In the name of the thrice-holy Tetragrammaton Elohim Tzabaoth, I consecrate this piece of ground for my defense, so that no evil spirit may have power to break these bounds prescribed here. Amen.
Light the incense. Point the wand at the incense.
I conjure you, o creature of fire, by him who created all things both in heaven and earth and in the sea and in every other place whatever, that you cast away every phantasm from you, so that no hurt whatsoever shall be done in any thing. Bless, o Lord, this creature of fire, and sanctify it that it may be blessed, and that it may fill up this place with the power and virtue of its odors, so neither the enemy nor any false imagination may enter into here. Amen.
Hold the wand out towards the crystal. Now we get to the actual conjuration.
In the name of the blessed Tetragrammaton3, I call upon you, you strong and mighty angel Michael4, if it be the divine will of the most holy God that you take the shape that best shows your celestial5 nature, and appear to me visibly here in this crystal, and answer my demands in as far as I shall not transgress the bounds of divine mercy by requesting unlawful knowledge, and that you graciously show me what things are most profitable for me to know and do, to the glory and honor of his divine majesty, who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.
Lord, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Make clean my heart within me, and take not your holy spirit from me.
O Lord, by your name I have called Michael; suffer him to administer unto me, and that all things may work together for your honor and glory, and that to you be ascribed all might, majesty, and dominion. Amen.
O Lord, I thank you for the hearing of my prayer, and I thank you for having permitted your spirit to appear unto me. Amen.
At this point, the spirit should be present. Ask whether there’s someone present, and if so, ask the spirit its name and verify that it is the spirit you conjured in a way you see appropriate. If it answers correctly and truly, go ahead and have a polite chat with it. The spirit may give you inklings of thought or images in your mind or actual eyes, you may hear whispers, or you may just sense words forming out of nowhere; it’s up to the spirit and how they’re used to communicating, or how adept you are at sensing these things. You can lay down the wand if you want at this point and enjoy the conversation, unless you feel a need to be commanding or intimidating.
If a spirit is present and is not the one you called, it’s up to you how to handle the situation. You can see if it’s a representative of the one you called (common in the case of angels or powerful spirits with legions behind them), you can try to talk with it anyway and see what it’s up to or what it wanted, or just dismiss it outright using whatever names of power or curses you find handy at the moment. After dismissing the spirit, if you still want to try and conjure the original spirit desired, start the conjuration over from “In the name of the blessed and Tetragrammaton…” above.
If no spirit is present or sensible to you, you might want to move onto the dismissal below or try to continue the ritual. Try the conjuration above again until you obtain success, or continue on and ask for different ways for the spirit to be seen or heard by you, or just continue on as normal with your requests.
When you’re done, take up the wand again and give the spirit leave to depart.
O great and mighty spirit Michael, I thank you for your presence. You have come as I have called, and aided me as I have asked. As you came in peace and in the name of the ever-blessed and righteous Tetragrammaton, so in this same name you may depart, and return to me when I call you in his name to whom every knee bows down. Farewell, Michael; let peace be between us, here and everywhere, now and always, by and for the sake of the Almighty. Amen.
To God the father, the eternal spirit, the fountain of light, the creator of all creation, and the sustainer of all life be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
Snuff the candle and take off the lamen and ring with any concluding prayers or rituals you find necessary. The ritual is finished.
- This and the consecration of the incense seem to be taken verbatim from the Heptameron.
- Or whatever scrying medium you prefer to use (mirror, bowl of water, etc.).
- Or whatever the name is of the spirit you’re summoning.
- Or whatever names of God or deities you feel appropriate for the ritual, e.g. Elohim Tzabaoth to conjure a spirit from the sephirah of Hod, or Adonai ha Aretz or Adonai Melech for a sublunar spirit; Iaō or the expanded Aeēiouō work as well.
- Or whatever nature the spirit has (elemental, natural, chthonic, etc.).
have u consecrated the wand , lamen and the practice table , or it s not needed.
The text never mentions a consecration ritual for the things, so I assume one isn’t needed. However, I thought it was appropriate to consecrate the wand, Table of Practice, and crystal by sprinkling them with holy water, suffumigating them in frankincense, and asking the Almighty to consecrate the tools. I based the consecration off of the Key of Solomon consecration of the burin (http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/ksol2.htm#chap19). I reconsecrate them every so often to keep them cleansed, but I only do the KoS consecration for the first time; after that, it’s a much shorter process.
As for the lamen, drawing/printing them out at the proper time is sufficient. I intone each of the names of power and the spirit’s name three times (once for the name written outside the hexagram, once for the name written inside the hexagram, and once for the seal inside the hexagram) as I put the lamen on before a conjuration. I feel like this sorta “charges” the lamen, but that’s just something I do.
Were do you put the candle in the ritual? Konstantinos says that the candle must be behind you if is a crystal ball, but that can be difficult without other table, were do you put your candle in order to have a good scrying result?
I have the candle positioned to the east, on the other side of the Table of Practice from me. I like the effect of the ball kinda glowing from it. The original Trithemius rite says to use two candles, but it’s not stated where to place them; I assume, as has Fr. Ashen who’s done a lot of good work with this ritual in a much more complex way, that you’d put one candle on each side of the Table of Practice.
I don’t understand why you’d have a candle behind you if you’re trying to look into something; generally, light is something desired to have shine on you, not away from you, especially if you want the Infinite Light of the Almighty involved (generally, in this line or Work, you do). I haven’t read Konstantinos’ work nad for some reason I have the impression he’s not one of the better sources to work off from, but I could be horribly wrong and he might be fantastic.
That said, the most important thing with any of this is one rule: try it! See if you get better results with the candle positioned to the east, in front of you, beside the crystal, behind you, or no candle at all. In my practice, I always use a consecrated candle to represent the Ain Soph Aur, and always try to have it positioned to the east or at least in front of me, depending on the needs, but this may not be the case for everyone.
IIRC the reason Konstantinos gives for putting the candles behind you is a practical one–the candles reflecting in the mirror or crystal sphere can distract people and screw up the visions they get. This way, he says, the visions will be clearer and you won’t strain your eyes.
HIs first book, Summoning Spirits, was actually pretty good. His later ones have good techniques in them, esp. for beginners, but you’ve got to wade through hip-deep ‘I’m so Gothic my dog barks Bauhaus’ crap. :/ I take all of his stuff with a shaker of salt for that reason. He’s writing (at least it seems to me) to high school kids that want to scare the hell out of their parents. At least he’s teaching them something–and likely laughing all the way to the bank the whole time.
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thanks polyphanes for this post but what if i do not get the appropriate essence for a certain angel,can i still evoke him
What do you mean by essence? If you mean incense, well, incense of some kind is generally useful for any ritual, conjuration or no. Frankincense is a good all-around incense, being generally heavenly stuff, but you want to make the atmosphere and ritual space as comfortable and aligned with the spirit to be conjured as possible. Use of an appropriately-colored altarcloth and candles, appropriately-scented incense, waiting for a particular time, and so on all help.
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how actually can a novist practise conjuration? the teachings are not staight foward it must be explained step by step,one item after before the other how can one bath? how is it done? can one do it without a master? I thinnk thr process must be taught systematically. how is the circle drawn on a table or on the ground? where should the operator stand? please Ihave problem to start so bigin step by step.
Actually, the whole page above is meant for novices and beginners, and is explained step by step. You don’t need to do a bath, though it helps, and there are guides and other resources across the internet to do that (even on this blog, if you look for it). You don’t need a master, since the ritual above is intended for a solitary practitioner. You only need to trace the circle out on the ground with a wand or a finger, you don’t need something like the Solomonic Circle of Art. All that is extra, you don’t need it, but it helps, and you can find lots of resources here and elsewhere.
Try reading the ritual above again and, well, figure it out. I don’t mean to sound mean, but the ritual above is about as clear as I can get without holding your hand through the whole thing, which I try to not do. After all, the ritual might change or incorporate different elements depending on what exactly you’re trying to do, so once you learn the basic framework and see how it’s done in its simplest form, you can augment it or alter it according to your needs.
In doing some online research on how to commune with the ancients, i stumbled across this blog and I am so glad that I did! There is wonderful guidance on here and I love that basic rituals such as this can be customized. I am a solitary practicioner and herbalist that comes from a christian upbringing, so I tend to be a managerie of different things when it comes to my faith. I just wanted to leave a note of bright blessings and thanks for the wonderful information that you so freely and graciously share on here to help others navigate some of these waters a bit easier. I am able to better able to engage with my faith and prayers now because of it! so, thank you!
Thank you for the kind words! This is a pretty standard Christian magic ritual at heart, and the original ritual is attributed to a Christian abbot and based on earlier Judeo-Christian styles of magic. Still, you can see that it’s all really just prayer with a few tools, since the real magic is in the ability to talk with spirits. I’m glad it helps in your work, and I hope some of the other stuff around here helps, too!