XXXVII: Griffins



Servitors: Isagas, Trapis, Parelit, Liriol, Asorega, Alogil, Ragaras, Sigis, Pliroki, Laralos, Gesegas, Tolet, Igarag, Ekalak, Ilekel, Aril, Lagasas, Kilik, Elzegar, Alpas

The word at the edge of the Square, GIRIPES, comes from the Hebrew גריפין (giripin) meaning ‘griffin.’ The name in the Central Cross is not traceable to a specific spirit, but closely resembles a mixture of the names Gesegas, Isagas and Igarag. Also notable is the appearance of the word ELOGAPI, which appears to be a derivation of the Grimorium Verum spirit Elelogap and the Lesser Key of Solomon spirit Gaap.

The Vision

I saw a black sky, twilit at its edges, from which a great star fell and ripped the heavens asunder. Beneath the fabric of the torn skies lay another sky, all of which was of the same twilit red and blue as the edges of the sky before it was. Then this sky was torn apart to reveal a brilliant blue dome. This tearing away continued until all that was left was the bare dark of a world of nothingness.

Then a single flame appeared and I saw that I was in a wood at night and the fire was my light and warmth. The Moon glinted white between a gap in the trees and a new world was formed from its light. In this world I found myself sat in a hollow with leaves all about me, beneath which lay a wooden trap door, which opened as soon as I became aware of it and plummeted me down into a musty storage room that laid buried in the earth. In the rooms were many cages housing lifeless sphinxes and harpies which were guarded by a motionless leopard that was sat in the corner of the room.

I noted that these creatures were all chimeras of some form and was prompted to choose one of them to set free. In a gap between the cages I saw the head of an eagle and touched its head. A glyph marked the spot on its head where I touched it which was like a broken square intersected by a triangular arrowhead. The creature came to life at my touch and flew up to the ground where it revealed itself to be a griffin. Behind it dangled a chain that I hauled myself up to the surface with, then used to control the griffin like a hawk is controlled by its handler’s tether. I pulled myself close to it and saw that its right eye was a Moon and its left eye a Sun. Then the Moon went through its phases until it was New and faded to black. In its place another Sun appeared so that both of its eyes shone with a great light that caused the darkened world to become awash with sunlight.

Seeing this, I let the griffin free of its leash and it flew into the skies before descending to a sandy beach where it wrote the word MARIM in the sand in the form of a Cross. Then the sea came in and washed over the letters, but only the letter ‘R’ was removed by the spume, leaving the word MAIM written twice.


As the ‘R’ disappeared, so too did the griffin fade over the distant ocean which glittered with a sparkling golden light as it reflected the Sun’s rays.


The ‘R’ that was washed away by the sea I understood to be a representation of the Hebrew letter Resh, which symbolises the Sun in Hermetic magic, while the word ‘Maim,’ means ‘Water.’ The word left by the griffin in the sand also had the Hebrew ארי (Ari) meaning ‘Lion’ at its heart. The Lion, as well as being a Solar symbol, is the creature that the Griffin’s body is composed of. The word ‘Marim’ also bears a certain similarity to the Latin ‘maris’ meaning ‘sea.’

The new spirits to feature in this square are Parelit and Elzegar. The name of Parelit may have its origins in the Hebrew words פער (pa’ar) – ‘opening,’ ‘gap,’ ‘gulf’ and הליט (halit), ‘cover,’ giving the name the meaning ‘to cover a gulf.’ Mathers suggests the meaning of the name Elzegar is to be found in the Hebrew for ‘turning aside.’

The Square was constructed with the Moon at 28º Cancer and performed with the Moon at 6º Leo.

XXVIII: Peacocks

Golden Idol


Servitors: Ilekel, Manties, Losimon, Asmiel, Lomiol, Katsin, Apolion, Pakid, Adon, Pattid, Kosem, Milon, Iparkas, Izozon, Nasi, Tolet, Ekalak, Kilik, Kokolon, Alpas, Ipakol, Soterion, Nolom, Amillis.

The word at the outer edge of the square derives from the Greek μυδεικών (mydeikon), meaning ‘mystical,’ while the name forming the central cross refers to the spirit Ilekel, whose name possibly derives from the Hebrew לחלל (lechalel) meaning ‘to desecrate,’ ‘violate’ or ‘defile.’ The lower case letters represent those altered by me to correct the errors that are evident in it in the original text.

The Vision

A long, thick baton made of plant matter and covered with needle-sharp spines appeared. Each of the baton’s spines had a tiny, lidless eye at its end, each of which turned to look at me at the same time, then started shifting around in a way that was quite unsettling to look upon. As I looked at the baton, a peacock came running towards me telling me I shouldn’t be holding it and instructed me to put it down. Entranced, I kept looking at it, and found it opening out into a blue fan that, with its eyes now spread all over its surface, resembled the tail of a peacock. As I noticed this, the peacock standing before me opened his tail in response then proceeded to run past me, telling me to put the fan down and run with him as something was coming. I folded it back up so it resembled the spiked baton again and ran with him.

Then it was apparent that we were in a thinly-wooded forest. Between, or rather above, the trees came a huge giant, crushing everything it trod on beneath its feet. Then, as the giant came to the baton I left on the floor, the eye-spines that ran up its length pierced the flesh of its feet and turned the giant to stone. Then, after a few moments, the stone giant crumbled to dust and revealed a golden statue of a man, somewhat like Michelangelo’s David, but carrying an axe over its shoulder. The Peacock and I approached the statue and the Peacock joyfully declared the freedom of the idol that had been encased within the giant’s great body. Then the arm holding the axe dropped down to its side for a moment then moved again to strike the ground with it, causing a small crack to appear in the earth. As the earth opened, I saw a pool of very blue water in which hundreds of frogs eggs had been laid. This, I realised, was the point where the spiked baton had been crushed into the ground by the giant’s foot, and had now changed from being a baton/tail/fan into a blue pool full of eggs. On inspection, each of the eggs contained tiny, swimming embryos.

Then, from the water, a large, shark-like monster leaped, its maw raised to the heavens, which peeled back lay by layer to reveal a bald-headed figure garbed in a robe of the same blue as the pool and tail feather had been. Its eyes, however, had skin growing over them which opened by the skin being split open into vertical slits with no visible eyeballs within them. As it gazed upon me, it said ‘speak what you wish, or rather, chant it.’ Doing so, I demanded, in a chant, to be shown the true visions of the square. It told me I was already seeing them, but then explained that none of what I was seeing was real, for nothing around us was actually there. The wood around me and everything in it was an illusion fabricated from the matter of my mind, it said, and this illusion could come in the form of castles, buildings, towns, banquets or anything else one could imagine.

The entity then told me that the mechanics by which spirits worked was through influencing the physical matter of the mind to produce symbolic communications. But, he asked me, how could I truly distinguish what was the work of my own mind and what was the work of the spirits communicating with me. As he spoke, I noticed that his feet became those of an ostrich that dug into the ground and that he appeared to be wearing a pink tutu around his waist. On noting my incredulity about such a ridiculous image, it laughed a bellowing laugh. It explained that they could encourage the mind to see anything they wished it to by the power of suggestion, it said and produced random images of foods like pineapples and carrots appeared for no discernible reason. The point of doing this, it told me, was that I had the mind couldn’t control the formation of these images once they had been suggested to it. This being the case, how could one truly determine whether the images impressed by the mind was the product of one’s own communications with the unconscious or some other extraneous entity. It prompted me then to form whatever images I wished in my own mind. On doing this, I noticed that everything I thought of came easily enough but that the things I was deciding to form images of now also seemed to be influenced by something that may or not be of my own mind.

The entity reiterated again that this was how spirits worked. They could manipulate any matter that they wished to by such power, and did so by working at the subatomic level, as they could range in their sizes from that of a particle, to a microbe or to a great giant. In such forms they could alter the forms and movements of anything physical in unseen, invisible ways, being able to effect the actions of viruses and bacteria, the movements of animals, storms, seas and buildings. Even, it seems, the synapses of the brain that produce various thoughts, images, predilections or emotional responses could be manipulated by them. The veils between the unconscious influence of the mind and the activities of spirits, it seems by such explanations, is thin and indistinguishable. To test this, I asked whether I could be made to see things I had never physically seen if this was the case, and the answer was affirmative. I asked it, for some reason, for it to show me a vision of Byzantium, and it proceeded to show me an image of a city with small white houses and red-brown sloping rooves surrounded by larger buildings with great golden domes. I stated to it that this place could be anywhere, and there was no proof that this illusion was Byzantium at all. That, it said, was my dilemma. How could I ever know if any of the things shown to me were ‘real’ in an objective sense if I couldn’t prove it either way. Ultimately, there is no way to tell if one is being deceived or not by the actions of mind, be it due to the actions of one’s own brain or by spirits who, in this vision, claimed that they worked by manipulating it.

Leaving me to consider such things, I sensed its impending departure and asked it to give me its name before it left. In response, the image of a highly intricate red and yellow banner appeared before me with various heraldic images such as lions and dragons stitched into it. In this centre, around a crest of some kind, two flowing ribbons had two letters stitched into them in red, AF on the left side and AS on the right, spelling out the name AFAS. With this, the vision ended.


The Square in question appears to have been corrupted in the original text and so was amended by myself to make its proportions even. The original, uncorrected Square appears as follows.


New Spirits apparent in this square are: Izozon, Katsin, Manties, Pakid, Pattid. Possible origins for these names are:

Izozon – יזוז (izoz), ‘move,’ ‘stir,’ ‘go away.’
Katsin – חצי (chatzi), ‘middle’ or ‘half,’ though the most interesting possibility is ‘moiety,’ which refers to something a single thing being split into two halves.
Manties – possibly from the term -mancy, related to divination, which ultimately comes from the Greek μαντεία (manteia).
Pakid – from Hebrew פחד (pechad), ‘fear,’ ‘dread,’ ‘terror.’
Pattid – possibly from Hebrew יפעת (ipat), ‘splendour,’ ‘brilliance.’

The bottom line of the square reveals a backward expression of the word MIDIKON to give the word NOKIDIM – נגידים – ‘Governors,’ which is suggestive of the influence of the Four Kings, Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon and Ariton, but may refer to any entity in a position of authority over others. NOKIDIM also represents the principle of averse mysticism due to the word it derives from mydeikon, meaning ‘mystical,’ and the aura of averse mysticism evident in the square, with its explanations on how spirits interfere with the laws of cause and effect in invisible ways in the physical world, appeared to confirm this. about it.

The nature of the communications in it had a degree of what a psychiatrist would probably call examples of schizotypal or psychotic thinking, due to the postulated statement that external entities may have an effect on thoughts. Such explanations are not entirely inaccurate, as when uncontrolled through the veils of mental illness and a lack of mystical or magical intent this can certainly be the case. However, most human experiences that can be called religious or spiritual, including visions, shamanic experiences, kundalini or other ecstatic states can quite easily be attributed to forms of temporary psychosis. The key here is the ability to acknowledge that mystical experiences are wilful experiments with the fabric of one’s psychic substance that can be used to tap into alternative states of consciousness by communicating with one’s deep and unconscious self. As the entity, Afas, in the vision stated however, there is a quandary involved in this in that one can no longer truly tell what is the product of one’s unconscious, which has been given free reign to act as it wills for a short time, and what is the product of the encouragement or manipulation of forces that exist beyond it.

The true key to understanding whether what we experience in such states is down to us or something extraneous to us lies in receiving proofs that point to something beyond the self. In these experiments this has happened rather consistently with the reception of words that I have had no prior knowledge off in ancient languages that I only have passing familiarity with. In this vision, this happened too, as the name given, Afas, appears to correlate with the Hebrew word אפש (afas), which means ‘wish’ or ‘desire,’ which is objectively relevant due to the entity informing me I could ‘speak what I wished for’ when it first appeared. It’s nature, then, was the granting of wishes or desires in the way that is mythically expressed in the persons of the djinn that emerge from magical lamps in Arabian lore. Another alternative explanation for this sort of phenomena is that the self has the ability to tap into an objective pool of information that lies beyond it, such as that represented by the Collective Unconscious postulated by the eminent sage Carl Jung. This possibility, however, is no less magical in its postulations than the idea of spirits or daemons having an element of influence over us, but I personally believe that the human mind cannot access information beyond its own experiences, but can be prompted and communicated with by preternatural entities that are extraneous to it.

The Square was created with the Moon at 12º Sagittarius and performed with the Moon at 25º Sagittarius.

XXIV: Owls


Servitors: Igarag, Mara, Liriol, Lomiol, Asorega, Asmiel, Alogil, Ragaras, Ismerek, Sarasim, Sigis, Girmil, Laralos, Gesegas, Kosem, Iparkas, Erimites, Tolet, Ramoras, Ekalak, Oroia, Romages, Geloma, Ilekel, Aril, Lagasas, Kilik, Isagas, Ipakol, Amillis.

The word KIKIMIS on the outer edges of the square comes from the Ancient Greek κικυμίς (kikumis) meaning ‘a screech owl.’ The name in the central square is that of the spirit Igarag, whose name means ‘frost,’ ‘ice’ or ‘cold.’

The Vision

A small, brown owl appeared sitting alone in a dead tree in a brightly lit but desolate landscape. Sitting in the daylight was painful to it, and caused it to muster its rage at the light, making the outer shell of the sun split into two to reveal a smaller, darker sun that was concealed inside of it. Then this sun split in half too, revealing a black neutron star it which cast no light at all,. With the coming of darkness, the landscape changed to that of a graveyard set in the midst of a circular grove of thirteen dead trees, and on each of these trees perched an owl similar to the one which darkened the sun. Then a voice came from one of the owls declaring that theirs was the time in which the dead would rise to walk the earth, and then, from each of the graves rose a foul revenant. Then, beams of light emanated from each of the owls, connecting them together to form a thirteen-sided star. In its centre stood a black, vertical column with the black star sitting at its pinnacle. I panned out of this scene to see the graveyard become a circular platform which the rising column stood in the centre of giving the landscape the appearance of a spinning top or kaleidoscope. As I noticed this similarity, it began to rotate, then spun faster and faster until the individual owls and trees became an invisible blur and combined their collective image into the vision of a single owl bearing a golden crown which was flying towards me. On its arrival at the edge of the blurred, spinning world it proceeded to try to tear at my eyes and face with its beak, but could not make physical contact due to its being contained within a world that I stood beyond.

Then, the scene changed entirely and I saw the entrance to a cave lying beyond a green marsh. I sensed that there was a bear or other wild animal inside, but on getting further inside I discovered a ruined old hermit in a blue robe wearing a gold crown who was weeping inconsolably. No words came from his mouth, and it couldn’t be determined why he was so mournful. As I approached him he cast himself into a hole in the stone which formed the gullet that lay between the mouth of the cave and a belly-like cavern below. I followed him into the cave’s gut and found him lying in a pile of crowns with sharp prongs that cut into his skin causing his pain to grow worse, though in the midst of his agony he stopped for a second to adjust his crown which sat askew on his head, as if to maintain his pride. Then, as he resumed his wailing, a slew of crowns came rushing down through the stone sphincter of the gullet above us and buried him beneath them, their sharpened prongs piercing his body with a thousand more wounds.

Then the scene changed again. It was night, and all was still and calm with a fresh, sweet-scented breeze. Atop a distant hill stood a windmill, its sails gliding gently through the air, and in a window at its top sat another owl, or perhaps the same one as before. I entered through the window and saw that the owl had moved inside to sit upon a wooden beam that spanned the top of a bare room with a wooden floor. Then the owl transformed its shape into that of a golden-haired woman wearing a blue dress. She climbed down from the beam and moved to a wooden crank-handle, which she turned to cause the sails of the windmill spin with a great speed, birthing a new wind in the air which travelled at speed across the land to the graveyard encircled by trees. All was peaceful there before the wind arrived, with no signs of the risen dead, and the owls slept upon their perches. But when the wind arrived, it disturbed them from their sleep and they woke as one and seemed to grow wrathful again. And this is where the vision ended.


The Screech Owl cited in the word KIKIMIS is one of the wilderness demons of the Hebrew tradition and an alternative Hebrew name for an owl is a ‘Lilith’ or a ‘night spirit.’ Their desire for darkness and apocalypse reflects their averse nature and their reverting to the form of a single owl after being separated into thirteen separate ones may reflect the numeration of the Hebrew word אחד (achad) – ‘unity.’

The name Erimities present in the square comes from the Greek ἐρημίτης (eremites), meaning ‘hermit.’ This appeared to relate to the appearance of the weeping old man who dwelt within the cave. His blue robe and gold crown are consistent with the colour scheme I’ve noted in previous spirit-work, which also manifested again in the female entity who appeared in the windmill with her blue dress and golden hair.

The servitor Iparkas might be related to the Livre des Esperitz spirit Parcas, known as Partas in the Book of Offices and Foras or Forcase in the Lemegeton. This spirit comes in the form of a fierce bear, a creature I thought I detected the presence of in the cave. He also reveals the location of hidden treasures which may account for the cavern full of golden crowns.

The square was constructed with the Moon at 16º Libra with the sound of owls filling the midnight air, and was performed with the Moon at 17º Scorpio.

XIX: A Village



Servitors: Ipakol, Parek, Mara, Ragaras, Ramoras, Sarasim, Sigis, Girmil, Gesegas, Kosem, Ilekel, Aril, Kilik, Isagas, Alpas, Amillis.

The word MIGIRAS on the outer edges of the square relates to the Hebrew (migrash) meaning ‘open space,’ ‘plot,’ ‘pasture, ‘yard’ or ‘site.’ The spirit name present in the central cross is that of Ipakol, which may be derived from the combination of the Hebrew words יפה (yapah) meaning ‘fair,’ ‘beautiful,’ ‘picturesque’ and קול (qol), ‘sound,’ ‘voice.’

The Vision

This vision was drastically different to any other. Before beginning, I performed an invocation of the Elemental King Egin, who rules the element of Water and resides in the North. Being midnight, the sun was in its diurnal position in the North, and with the sun being in Cancer, it was also in its northernmost position in the ecliptic. With these elective qualities and other honours and sacrifices being made to him, this square was activated by calling upon he alone of the Cardinal Kings.

Once Egin’s assistance had been requested, the vision began with the image of an old book in an ancient library or study. It flicked open to a random page and a black, detached hand pointed a finger at a word. A deep voice commanded me to read the word and tell him what it was, and I replied with the answer ‘Eridanus.’ In response to that came a short rhyme:

Eridanus is where I dwell. Remember this and do ye well.

Following my memorisation of this rhyme, he became suddenly enraged, accusing me of trying to undermine and insult him by some action I had done. He threatened to cause me great pain if I did such a thing again, but I had no idea exactly what this thing was. I guessed at first that the issue came from including the name of my HGA in my invocation to him, but as this is always done with the four kings and generally provokes equilibrium rather than hatred, I discounted this. Another possibility came from the fact that a sudden change in the scent of the fumigatory offering announced that some remnants of Lignum Aloes that had been left in the brazier had gotten underneath the charcoal, changing the scent of the offerings that had been made. To know for sure what the problem was, I asked the spirit to confirm his name to me, which he gave as ‘Aridon’ (not Ariton). I apologised for any offence caused to him, explaining that I didn’t know what I had done to irritate him, but he remained angry.

Despite this unappeased anger, he proceeded to show me some visions of the square’s contents, though the tone of them was hurried and violent, as if his anger was being expressed through them.

The visions directly related to the squares began with the image of the village that had been devastated by the tidal wave in the last vision, though I now perceived it from the viewpoint of one who lived there. The tidal wave, it seems, had been a blessing, for a great fire was in the process of destroying the village when it came and its arrival quenched its flames. From the extinguished fire, a loud hissing noise came and plumes of steam rose up into the sky to form large, billowing clouds.

Then the presiding spirit, ‘Aridon,’ ordered me to drill a hole in the earth with a great augur that looked like a large hand drill that was operated by a hand-crank attached to its side. As I did this, the dragon from the visions of A Big Lake and A Vineyard appeared and slotted its tail into the hole I had drilled. Sitting in such a position, the dragon laid an egg, which dropped down into a watery canyon below, where black figures attended to collect it and nurture it. I realised that this egg was of the same sort as that which had been destroyed by the black woman in the church in the vision of Farm Buildings. Then my attention returned to the dragon, who confirmed that I had carried out most of the instructions to do honour to Egin correctly, but had not obtained the chalice I was supposed to have gotten hold of.

After hearing this, I returned to the scene unfolding in the canyon below the village. In it, a subterranean temple had been constructed and at its heart was an altar with a skull with teeth that had been sharpened to dagger-like points. The skull was affixed to a wooden stake which had a large python entwining it. After showing me this, Aridon revealed his form to me and it was terrible. He had the stature of a giant topped by a horned head and his features were those of a skull which was alight with a flame that was constantly being put out by water before being reignited again. Each watery victory caused vaporous, hissing steams to emanate from the spirit’s charred flesh just as the flames of the village fire—which I learned had been started by Egin’s dragon—had been extinguished by the crashing wave of sea waters.

This vision of extinguished and rekindled flames kept appearing until I got the gist of what they were trying to tell me and extinguished the flame on the brazier and all of the candles present in the room with water from the brass bowl that adorns my altar. It was the presence of fire, it seems, that had angered Aridon, and on extinguishing it—which brought the room around me into a very deep darkness—the intensity of the communication with the King of Elemental Water grew; for he comes at the moment when water extinguishes flame to produce a steam which lets forth the hissing of serpents as it rises into the air.

With his appeasement, I was shown the vision of a great bastion within the canyons below the Earth. It looked misshapen, with fiery windows that gave it the same skull-like appearance that Aridon bore, and the mouth of that skull was a portcullis with many furnaces burning behind it. I was invited in and on my entry I was granted a vision of his seal, the form of which I committed to memory. After it faded, the face of a brown horse appeared, and there was an intense darkness in its eyes. In that darkness I saw visions of furnaces driving metallic, red machinery by the power of steam, and the sound of malign laughter filled the air. Then I saw a series of cells that were also wheels in which walked red-brown horses which were emaciated and very close to death. They walked those metal wheels endlessly, the rotation of their movements providing the motion of the cogs that drove the great engines of hell. All this infernal action and power ultimately went to ‘fuel’ the people that populated the village on the clifftop above, all of whom were clockwork figures living their mundane lives while affixed to tracks or runners that kept them bound to an existence of thoughtless mechanical action.

With this vision came the understanding that the man without will is entirely at the whims of empty, mechanical forces. The bodies of the villagers were two-dimensional and their faces stuck in fixed expressions as their feet rolled along the tracks with no volition of movement. Yet none of them could see the extent to which they lacked control over their destinies because their drives and motives were entirely animalistic with no knowledge or insight into the predicament of their slavery to the Archons. I too had been in this state of slavery until I was awoken to the nature of the machinery of the world below by those who operated it; for such daemons are not intolerant of those who awaken. In their hearts they are rebellious against those who constructed the machinery and their infernal labours grow easier with each pair of eyes that open to the true nature of the World. With each awakening they gain hope of their own liberation, and this being so, all those who come to Gnosis and the knowledge of their own Will they recognise as allies and grant them boons to assist them to bring down the great machinery we have all been bound to. On being shown how the great Archonic system of the World works by one who was himself a vassal to their whims, I smiled and laughed in a state of mild ecstasy, for I knew that what I had been shown was true.

The vision ended with an emphasis that obtaining the correct type of chalice was very important for future works with Egin; and I also saw something which resembled part of a goat’s skull carved into the shape of a jagged knife. Then I saw an image of myself smoking a cigarette and wearing a red t shirt while my eyes shone with pinpricks of red light.


The events in this vision appear to be a culmination of the rite the dragon that appeared in the vision of A Big Lake informed me I should perform. With the absence of a suitable chalice, this work has still not been performed in full, yet I learned something important about the extinguishing of the fires present in the temple in order to evoke Egin properly. The unintended invasion of the wrong incense may also have played some role in his temporary disdain, as the incense associated with the sign of Cancer is Onycha, due to it being formed from the opercula or ‘trap door’ of the shell of a sea mollusc. Attempts to find an incense containing this ingredient had proved successful, and the importance of ‘white wine’ (see A Big Lake and A Grape or Grape Plant for this reference) also became apparent on researching this incense, as it should be treated with a strong white wine in order to sweeten its somewhat piscine aroma. That this scent was replaced by Lignum Aloes, a sweet but fiery scent associated with Sagittarius, may have been as much an affront to Egin as the flames that outstayed their welcome in the Temple had.

The horse whose eye I looked into to see the infernal machinery appeared to be another manifestation of Egin, while the dragon in the world above appeared to be his worldly servant, hatching eggs to give birth to more servants which the shadowy underworld servants nurture in his temple which others, such as the black woman in the Temple—a servant of his foes—wish to see destroyed underfoot.

As well as being similar to the name Ariton,  ‘Aridon’ resembles the word ARIDO that appeared in the previous square. As well as meaning ‘dry,’ this word also means ‘gaunt,’ which may explain the emaciated appearance of the horses.

Other spirit names relevant to the vision received in this square are:

Amillis – ‘worker,’ ‘labourer,’ ‘toil.’
Kosem – from the Hebrew קסם (qosem), meaning ‘magic,’ ‘enchantment’ or ‘divination.’
Isagas – ‘roar,’ ‘yell’ or ‘shout.’
Mara – ‘cave’ or ‘grotto’.
Sarasim – ‘deep roots.’

The position of the Moon during the construction of the square was 9º Aquarius, where it was in close conjunction with a retrograde Mars.

XVIII: A Running Spring

Ocean Waves


Servitors: Kilik, Aril, Mara, Liriol, Lomiol.

The name at the outer edges of the square, MAKOR, possibly derives from the Hebrew מקור (maqor), meaning ‘wellspring’ or ‘source,’ while the spirit name in the central cross is that of Kilik, whose name relates to the concepts of power, strength, bastions, armies and wealth.

The Vision

A trickle of water ran from a patch of boggy grass at the top of a mound and travelled to the edge of a sharp drop where it ran down a cliff face and onto the ground below. The course of the water continued at the bottom and wound a short distance to another cliff, this one overlooking the sea, before collecting in a small pool on the rocks below. Then, looking back at the shoreline from the sea, I saw that the entire land was swollen with water and the place where the water had ran between the first cliff and the second looked like it was about to burst open and cover the land with a deluge. Then, with the appearance of a pale-blue and white bird, the deluge came and all turned to night. The sky was of a strange, deep blue, while the moon, which was visible above the sea, accepted this watery offering as a sacrifice and released a large, bat-like creature with a body as black as void and filled with stars, as though it were forged from the essence of night.

The creature hovered over the flooded earth and released a thin, pale-bodied lunatic from a crow cage that sat on the beach. On escaping, the madman ran towards the swollen ocean and raised a fist at it as if he meant to fight it. The sea surged in response, and a large, tentacled monster appeared to be thrashing beneath its surface. Surprisingly, the wild man made good progress against the sea, glowing white with moonlight as he forced it to retreat before him. He kept running through the wedge he carved into the water until he came to the opposite shore in the near distance, where a small beach resort with what was either a lighthouse or a helter-skelter lay. As the madman came to shore, the sea, rushing in fear before him, crashed into the land as a tidal wave, engulfing the resort and its structures entirely. Then, in the aftermath, he hopped back into a crow cage that was identical to the one he had been released from, which then locked itself shut behind him.

Daylight resumed as the sea retracted back to normality and the rest of the town, which was of a Mediterranean appearance, now appeared to have migrated onto a clifftop, with the space where it once lay being carved away by the storm to leave a bare beach in its place. The ground on the clifftop was left soaked by the spray of the tidal wave and dripped, as the previous wellspring did, into a crevice in the cliff face. On the beach below, I noticed the stick in the sand from the last vision and realised that this was the same location as that vision only many years later as no trace of human civilisation had been present there before. I saw the cave where the spirit had sung in the pool, but it had been sealed shut, with nothing but a narrow crack marking the place she lived.

From inside, I heard weeping and a plea for her to be left alone. I didn’t attempt to speak to her any further, but saw in my mind that she was now much older than before and perching on the rocks of a dark, dried-up cave with no water left to submerge herself in. Water dripped in from a gap above her, but it was not enough to sustain her. As she wept, a stream of tears poured out through the narrow crack onto the beach. Then, from the darkness that surrounded her, a large dog appeared and sniffed at the blue robe she wore before nuzzling into her arms and going to sleep. Just as the dog settled, the woman’s tears reached a climax and she dissolved entirely into water leaving nothing but her robe behind, which the dog rested its head on to continue with its sleep. Then, outside her abode, another bird appeared and flew back towards the pale moon that thinly illuminated the light blue sky.


The square was constructed with Luna at 12º Capricorn, where it is in its detriment. The ragged appearance of the lunatic may have been influenced by this, with his long beard and loincloth being those of a prisoner released by a particularly capricious aspect of Water’s detrimental relationship with Earth as well as possibly representing the dual nature of Saturn, Capricorn’s ruling planet, and Luna. By his ‘lunatic’ nature and his influence over tidal movement, the white clad madman appeared to be a lunar spirit, perhaps a representation of Kilik due to that spirit’s associations with power and strength. The crow cage he was in (and the crow is a bird of a Saturnian nature) was similar in appearance to the torture cages that appeared in the dungeon in the vision of A Rose Garden.

The continuation of previous themes was apparent in the appearance of the beach from the last vision—which was identifiable by the stick I had left in the sand still being in place—only with a modern Mediterranean town now being in place there, though the tidal wave devastated the ‘tourist’ part of it.

The name of the spirit Mara relates to ‘cave,’ ‘cavern,’ ‘grotto’ and ‘den’ which once again appeared in this vision, though it was now sealed shut. The fate of the spirit’s cave may have been related to the presence of the Latin word arido, meaning ‘dry,’ in the square. The spirit ultimately lost her physical form to become a stream of running water which may suggest that her prophecy about crossing the sea leading to dissolution may have been referring to her own fate, though I had the sense that the essential life force in the spirit was not dissolved, just its humanoid appearance. The dog being left alone with her clothing in the cave was a scene of sadness and melancholy, which may be another sign of the Saturnian influence of Capricorn in the vision.

XVII: Bridges



Servitors: Ekalak, Liriol, Nabhi, Laralos, Badad, Helel, Nasi, Aril, Kilik, Kokolon, Balabos

The word DOBERAH at the outer edges of the square comes from the Hebrew root דִבר (dabar), meaning ‘to speak’ or ‘pronounce,’ and is related to the variations דבור – ‘speech,’ ‘word,’ ‘saying,’ ‘commandment;’ דברה – ‘cause,’ ‘reason,’ ‘manner;’ and דבורה – ‘bee,’ which also relates to the name of the Biblical prophet and judge Deborah. The name of the spirit in the central square is that of Ekalak, whose name may originate in the Hebrew חלק (khelaq), meaning ‘portion,’ ‘part,’ ‘lot,’ ‘share,’ ‘fragment.’

The Vision

It was night and I came to a stop on a rusting suspension bridge spanning a river after running some distance on an asphalt road. I climbed on the metal railings that ran along its side and seemed to have the choice to either climb to its top or jump over the edge into the river below. I paused unsure of which of the two I should do before realising that the bridge acted as a crossroads with the river below and led to another world. Looking up and down the river to my left and right I saw that many other bridges had been constructed. Above me, I saw a waning gibbous moon and realised that I should be crossing the bridge not ascending it or jumping from it. I stood upon the road again and had the impression that a car was coming down the road with its headlights on.

As soon as I got to the other side of the bridge it became day and I stood in the midst of a landscape which looked very Greek. Around me was yellow grass, like that of a savannah or otherwise arid landscape, and at the crest of a small hill in front of me appeared a baby elephant that seemed to be happy to see me. I thought about approaching it but got the sense that its mother or father would be nearby and would trample me if I came anywhere near it. Instead, I waited a moment to see what would happen next, then trudged carefully through a track in the grass while being careful to maintain my distance from the calf. As I neared the top of the slope, the Land Rover from the vision of Farm Buildings appeared and drove over the grass, as it also had in that vision, and pulled to a halt near the elephant. As it approached, the elephant changed into a woman of middle-years wearing a velvet, burgundy dress and with long brown hair with slight curls in it which was bedecked by a crown of laurel leaves. As her form changed, the driver of the Land Rover exited his vehicle. He was a man of late middle age with sharp features and was wearing clothes that were typical of a British farmer, being a green wax jacket, green trousers and hat, and he had a shotgun with its barrel popped open resting over the crook of his right arm. On seeing the woman, he placed his gun on the floor and it flew off into the distance behind him as they both disrobed and his Land Rover also vanished.

The couple then began to have sex in front of me, which made me feel rather uncomfortable, so I scanned the surrounding environment while they got on with it and saw many eyes, like pinpricks of yellow light, were watching both me and they from a great distance. When the two had finished their act of lust, I saw the co-mingled deposit of their union left on the floor where they had lain, pink in colour and in the shape of a Vesica. From it, an enormous rose grew, as quickly and as tall as the beanstalk in the tale of Jack the Giant Killer, and a great vine twisted around its stem. When it finished growing, it stood high in the sky, penetrating the clouds. I felt the same temptation to ascend then as I had at the bridge, but once again paused before doing so. As I lingered, I sensed the surrounding watchers coming closer. Then, confirming my suspicions, a vicious black wolf stepped out from the forest close to where the Land Rover had been parked. Knowing this was the time to ascend, I climbed.

On my ascent, I noticed that the stem between the huge thorns was covered in sticky sap which made the ascent easier as it was so tacky I knew I had no chance of falling back to earth. By the time I reached the base of the flower’s head, which was as far as I could travel, I was high above the clouds and saw the sun and the moon on either side of the petals above me, the sun to the left of it and the moon to the right. Beyond them, I could see the forms of a few scattered, distant mountains rising above the soft cloud-line. As I pondered what I should do next, a beam of rainbow light appeared in the distance, beaming its rays from some unknown point in the blue sky above to break through the clouds below projecting to an unseen location on the Earth. I understood that this to be a signal of where I should now head, and transported myself there by taking one of the huge vines that twisted around the rose’s stem and projecting its end to the base of the rainbow before sliding down it in a dizzying descent that felt realistic enough to give me a touch of vertigo.

At the base of the vine, where it met the rainbow and mingled with its rays, was a sandy beach and a great sea set in a bay of cliffs, coves and caves. Written in the wet sand was the word DOBERAH, which then extended to form the rest of the square in its entirety. Behind me, in a cave, I could hear the sound of ethereal female voices singing, which I followed to find a pool of dark sea water. I sat on a rock and let my feet dangle into the pool, but got a sense of dark, shadowy entities swimming under its surface, so removed them and rose to my feet again. As I stood there listening to the song, the light of the setting sun flooded into the cave bring the music to a stop. In the water, I could see a female spirit guarding its eyes from the light of the sun. She asked me if I could block the light of the sun with my body as he found the light intolerable. I adhered to her request and asked if she had any messages she wished to deliver to me. In response, she gave the following words:

“The seal has been broken. You stand on the edge of All, at the twilight shore of Time. Cross the Sea and be No More.”

After receiving this message, I returned to the beach and watched the sea come in with the tide to wash the words of the square away from the sand. I placed a stick into the area where the word had been in order to mark its place, and with that act the sun vanished and was replaced by the moon, which then set into the sea to leave me in total darkness. From the cave, I heard the sounds of the spirits’ echoing song beginning again. In the blind darkness that was left in my mind I saw a gravestone wrapped in ivy that I recognised from a graveyard close to where I live in the ‘real’ world. Instead of the name that usually appeared on it however was an inscription which read ‘Here Lies No More.’ After noting this, I walked away from the grave and up the hill to the path that leads to my home. This marked the end of the vision.


There was lots of polarity between dark and night, moon and sun and female and male in this vision, as well as lots of aspects of liminality, such as the twilight, the shore, bridges, a crossroad and a river. The appearance of a rainbow acting as a guiding light to show me where to head next when I had ascended the heights of the rose was akin to the Chinvat Bridge of Zoroastrianism which, like Bïfrost which separated the realms of Midgard and Asgard in Norse mythology, marked the realm between the worlds of the living and dead.

One of the most striking parts of this vision was the act of sex magick between the male and female spirits that appeared. The rose they produced symbolised that of the Rosy Cross formula, while the sun and moon that flanked each side of its head represented the culmination of male and female energies into alchemical gold. The place where I came to rest in my ascent of the rose’s thorny stem was akin to the veil of Paroketh, while the rainbow that appeared in the distance represented the paths of Qoph, Shin and Tau that emanate from the Sephirah of Netzach, Yesod and Hod which come together (pun somewhat intended) to form the word Qesheth, meaning ‘bow.’ The product of this bow is the upward flying arrow of the path of Samekh, which is associated with the sign of Sagittarius and, in the Thoth Tarot, the comingled energies of The Lovers becoming united as one in Art.

What the astrological association of this formula may point to is a connection between the position of the moon when I had constructed the square, due to it being in Sagittarius at that time. This is not the first time this has occurred, as when I constructed the square pertaining to Flowers, the moon was in Scorpio and that vision featured imagery relating to Scorpion Grass and an eagle, both of which symbolise the influence of that sign. This suggests that in future I should note where in the Zodiac the Moon is when I create these squares, just to see if this hypothesis bears any fruit.

Also of interest was the female spirit who sang in the dark, watery cave. Her message related the notion of crossing the sea in order to be No More. This relates to the great Sea of Binah with the connotations of crossing it relating to the traversing the Abyss into the realms where the personal ego is disintegrated.

While I have good knowledge of the Qaballistic system of Magic I would not primarily identify myself as a Qaballist, so these are not associations I am actively looking for in working with the Squares. What it does suggest, however, is that the Squares themselves are very much a Qabalistic expression and therefore their forms very much relate to such modes of communication. This does not mean that the spirits that appear rely on such forms to exist, hey merely use the Qaballah as the ‘language’ through which they communicate, as it was in this language that the squares they swore their oaths upon were created.

Of the spirits present, Badad is of note due to the connected ways the letters ‘B’ and ‘A’ interconnect with each other in a perpendicular fashion in this square, while the two ‘D’s present in the top left and bottom right corners mirror each other and the letters B and A in a fashion that suggests a sigil of that spirit’s name could be easily formed from this square. The meaning of this name finds its origin in the Hebrew word בדד (badad), meaning ‘alone,’ ‘apart’ or ‘solitary.’

Mathers’ translation of the name Aril to ‘thorny’ appears accurate here considering the thorns that appeared on the giant rose.

Kokolon may be relevant due to its name relating to the word ‘shame,’ as I felt a degree of embarrassment while watching the two spirits in congress.

The feminine qualities in the spirits present, the first being she who first appeared as the baby elephant and the second being the underwater spirit singing in the cave, may be connected to the presence of the spirit Nasi, whose name means ‘feminine.’ This is only the sixth square this spirit has appeared in so far, but the overall tone of most of the squares has been biased far more towards feminine entities than masculine ones. This leads me to believe that the qualities of this kind of magical work is definitely one in which the feminine entities act as the dominant initiators.

Confirming this in this particular square is the name of the spirit Nabhi, which Mathers states comes from the Hebrew root נבא (naba), ‘to prophesy.’ What he failed to notice however is the fact that the feminine noun of this word נביאה (nabiah), is much closer to the mark. More precisely, this word means ‘prophetess’ or ‘sibyl,’ and is therefore pertinent to the name of the prophet Deborah that the square was constructed from as well as the presence of the female spirit in the cave who delivered a spoken prophecy. The presence of this prophetic spirit also fits well the root word דבר from which this square was constructed which, meaning ‘to speak’ or ‘pronounce,’ verifies its sibylline nature. The relevance of this root also correlates with the presence of another name found in this square, Barak, who was the ancient ruler of Israel whose victory in war the prophet Deborah was the key to. Barak’s name translates to ‘lightning,’ and is also formed of the same root as the name of the Watcher Baraqiel in the Book of Enoch.

Also present is the word שיר (shir), meaning ‘sing.’ This may relate to the singing that was heard coming from the cave, but also has a relevance to the biblical verse of Judges 5:1: ‘Then sang Deborah and Barak.’ Considering the male-female polarity present in this square, the appearance of the combined actions of this ancient pairing—in which the feminine force was the key to victory—might be seen as further confirmation of the spiritual superiority of the female powers associated with the squares.

XV: A Mountain

four kings


Servitors: Asorega, Mara, Liriol, Losimon, Lomiol, Alogil, Ragaras, Irminon, Sarasim, Ogologon, Igilon, Sigis, Gorilon, Laralos, Gesegas, Kosem, Milon, Nasi, Morilon, Ramoras, Igarag, Ekalak, Geloma, Aril, Ilekel, Lagasas, Kilik, Kokolon, Isagas, Romoron, Negen, Nolom, Nagar.

KEKASIM appears to come from Hebrew קסם (qesem), ‘magic’ at the top and right, while in MISAGER there lies the possibility of the reversal of the Hebrew רגש (regas), meaning ‘tumult,’ ‘commotion,’ ‘noise,’ ‘emotion,’ making the word REGASIM when affixed with the collectivised suffix –im. The spirit name in the central cross is that of Asorega, coming from סריג (soreg) relating to the ‘boundary wall’ that came in the form of a fence of reticulated or weaved sticks that closed the inner Temple of the Hebrews off from Gentiles or the ritually impure. The meaning of this word is the same as that of the Hebrew for ‘grid,’ ‘grill’ or ‘grate,’ which may account for the ‘grid’ pattern evident in the squares. ELISONI resembles the Greek ἐλέησον (eleison), which denotes the quality of ‘mercy.’

The Vision

The mountain revealed itself as the same high, snowy peak I saw in the vision of A Snow. What was left of my old body lay contained by the clothes I was wearing. From one of the pockets, I pulled a golden talisman that resembled an Ankh, the strap of which was like the wings of an angel, while the face of a cherub or female angel lay in the cross’s interection. I pushed the remains of the body into a narrow hole it had been lying over, sending it plummeting down a narrow shaft into the roots of the mountain. Looking down, I could see a deep, blue, light glowing far below and considered exploring it, but decided against it because of how narrow it was. Looking around the vista, I could see the bluish mountains that the previous vision of A Castle on a Mountain was set in far away to the south, and beyond it was the Lake. Looking around at the landscape I asked what the name of this strange land was and received an answer from a disembodied voice which gave an answer that sounded like Kariouna. After hearing this name, I flew into a pall of clouds that lay before me in the west and rose above them before coming to rest on a much higher peak. Only a small portion of this peak was visible above the clouds, but all was cloudless and blue in that highest place.

Then I became aware of the presence of a spirit floating in the air before me in the east, its face skull-like with the remnants of its flesh flapping in the wind, while its strands of thin hair and its ragged black cloak billowed similarly. Then another three spirits identical in appearance to the first came from the other three cardinal directions. With me in the centre, they locked their hands together around me and flew me high into the sky with them. It was explained that these high airs were their dwelling place, and they were taking me up so that I can see all of the Earth below me, revolving as they flew. When they finished moving, they told me that they were intermediaries between that which was celestial and that which was not, and each of them ruled a portion of the world and governed the boundaries between the above and the below—microcosm and macrocosm—giving power over the elements in the material or external world while granting gnosis of the spiritual or internal world.

After they explained this, I saw one of them appear with the face of a lion, but the veils the others wore were not put aside in this way. The one with the lion face informed me that the golden, angel ankh I had been given was also a dagger and instructed me to pull it out, which I did to find a short, tapering, razor-sharp blade sliding free of its golden scabbard. Then I was told that this tool was the means to ‘unlock’ the four spirits as it was also a key which should be borne to obtain their favour and that of all of the spirits under their sway. With their consent, I inserted the dagger into each of their bodies and turned it, beginning with the one in the east, then the ones in the north, west and south.

Then I was back on the ground and the Four Great Spirits were gone. I went back to the spot lower down where I had pushed my old corpse into the heart of the mountain and decided to descend to see what was down there. Once I had reached the bottom I saw that the blue light I had seen emanating from its depths came from a beautiful lagoon lit by rays of bright sunlight burning down from above. On the shore of the underground pool lay a rowing boat which, having nowhere else to go, I boarded and began to row. As I approached the centre of the small lake, a maelstrom appeared and sucked my boat into it, casting me onto the wet floor of a cave far below where the boat was smashed to pieces but I somehow remained unhurt. Then I left the cave through a fissure in the rock to find a car waiting for me outside, which I entered and drove away in.


In this vision, the nexus of ‘above’ and ‘below’ could be thought of as the same kind of ‘boundary’ suggested in the name of the spirit Asorega. The mountain or high place as the terrestrial location where the boundaries between worlds are notoriously thin and permeable is long established, with connections between mountains and ‘peak-numinosity’ being well attested as the space where the celestial and earthly realms intersect across the spectrum of the world’s myths and religions. These are evident in the experiences of Moses on Mount Sinai, of Christ at the high place Satan showed him the vision of the four corners of the Earth (and later the Mount of Transfiguration and Golgotha), in the ascent made to high places such as Gorsedd Arberth in order to enter the Otherworld in the Mabinogion, in the depictions of Mount Olympus and Mount Zaphon as the abodes of the gods in Greek and Canaanite myth and in the figurative Mountain of the Adepts, Mount Abiegni, in the Thelemic and Rosicrucian traditions.

By virtue of their revelations and cardinal attributions, the four spirits I conversed with were probably the Four Kings—Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon and Egyn—whose presence has been hinted at in many of the previous visions, with the most overt being that of Oriens in the vision of Farm Buildings, though they were also represented by four beams of light in the vision of A Castle on a Mountain. In concurrence with that vision, only one of those spirits spoke and revealed more of itself, being the one in the East, Oriens.

The name Kariouna I received, which was that given to the world I was looking upon, may have its origins in the Ancient Greek κάρυον (karyon), meaning ‘head.’ This backs up a notion I had during the vision of Wild Animals where I had the sense, from the hemispheric nature of the amphitheatre, that I was in communication with some aspect of my brain. Together, these visions suggest that this astral world I have been exploring is a product of my mind and therefore of my brain. This is certainly the case to an extent with magical tools such as scrying and astral travel and is not something I would seek to dispute. What is interesting about such experiences however is the way that certain images, words and symbols take shape in the mind, suggesting that some kind of deep-level communication is taking place, either with extraneous spiritual entities or with some impersonal and unfathomable part of the psyche which possesses the same kind of preternatural that extraneous entities or daemons would. The argument about which of the two these and other magical phenomena can be attributed to is ultimately moot and will never be one that all practitioners agree upon, but my experience with such things leads me to believe that this sort of ‘astral’ work takes place on the threshold; the intersection of what is self and what is not-self. It is self-communication, yes, but it also takes place both at and beyond the borders of self, in a liminal area where other intelligences have influence over the contents of the unconscious mind which in turn comes to present awareness through the media of the personal psyche.

That the answer κάρυον, ‘head,’ I was given to my question about the nature of this world came in an ancient language I have no great knowledge of, while others have come in Hebrew and Latin or Kabbalistic, mythological or other symbolic correspondences, appears to provide proof that it is not just ourselves we are communicating with when we work with such things. Nor can it be some unexplainable process of depth-psychology that is being experienced unless such unaccountable knowledge can be said to be intrinsic to one’s psyche through theoretical constructs such as the collective unconscious or morphic fields. Ultimately then, I would postulate that the ‘liminal’ space such experiences take place in is that of the intersection between self and not-self and represents the same kind of boundary or veil between one ‘realm’ and another—one worldly and functional, the other invisible and mysterious—that the name Asorega and the Soreg stone of the ancient Jewish Temple represent.

Aside from the words and names already explored above, names with some relevance to this vision include: Sarasim, meaning ‘deep roots’ which relates to the deep cavern beneath the mountain; Mara, whose name relates to caves and grottoes and therefore ties in with the ‘deep roots’ of Sarasim; Nagar, meaning ‘fluid’ or ‘liquid,’ which relates to the lagoon in that grotto; Igarag, whose name pertains to the frost and cold associated with the upper reaches of the mountain; and Nolom, from the Hebrew נעלם (nolom) meaning ‘hidden’ or ‘concealed.’