Notes on the Magickal Alphabets Section of "Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard"

I mentioned Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard in a previous post. I have mixed feelings about the book. First off, I love the idea of a general magical text book for young readers. BUT, I see many things in the book that I would do differently. I also see many errors in the text. Although I could just move on and never write anything about the errors, I am bored. So, here's another post.

Being bored tonight, I opened the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard and thumbed through. The table titled "Ancient & Magickal Alphabets" (page 145) really stuck out. I like the look of it. So I started reading the text.

Hermetic Alphabets: Chaldean; Malachim

Often called sacred or hermetic alphabets, these are used almost exclusively by Ceremonial Magicians, though occasionally you may find an individual Witch or Wizard using them on a talisman. The best-known scripts are: Passing the River, Celestial, and Malachim. Celestial is also known as Angelic or Enochian, and it is still used in the higher degrees of Masonry. It came from Dr. John Dee's work with Edward Kelly, who in 1581 produced a set of 21 symbols which he claimed had been revealed to him as the true alphabet of the angels, used to compose the names of the heavenly hosts. These symbols became the foundation of Dee and Kelly's Enochian system, used to invoke angels and demons. The figures of Malachim are said to be derived from the constellations--though which ones, it is impossible to say. Malachim is sometimes confused with the "Writing of the Magi."

Theban

The Theban script is also called Honorian in honor of its creator, Honorius III (Pope 1216-1227)."

This all sounds fine if you haven't done any reading, but breaks down on the slightest effort to check the facts.

If we open Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, we see several of the scripts mentioned by the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard. Reading the text we see it is the Celestial script that is supposedly from the stars (thus the name), but is obviously based on Hebrew letters. It is the Malachim that is the writing of Angels.

The publication date of Agrippa's third book is 1533. What are the chances that Agrippa was referencing the work produced by John Dee in 1581?

The Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard credits Pope Honorius III with the creation of the Theban script. As I wrote about previously, this script was created by a man named Honorius who is from Thebes. Pope Honorius III was from Rome.

Grimoire For The Apprentice Wizard: Elemental Shields

One of the books I am currently reading is Grimoire For The Apprentice Wizard by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart. I'm not ready to give a full review of the book, but I thought I should mention a little something about the book's elemental and cardinal correspondences.

On page 120 of the book we are instructed to place four indicators in the cardinal directions. There are four small illustrations given as suggestion. They are four shields with astrological signs and the four alchemical symbols for the elements. When I first saw these I smiled because I was already making similar shields.

After looking over Oberon's shields I was confused. He placed Water in the West and has yellow for the color of Air. Oberon has, of course, used the four colors of the four houses of Hogwarts, so some license must be allowed for the use of color. And since modern people think of green as an Earth color, it makes sense that Oberon would assign it to the element Earth.

Oberon's Shields

	East
North		South
	West

But now, WHAT IF we were to try and make the four given colors, four elements, and twelve signs conform to the more ancient forms of Western Magic? This is the exercise at hand.

First we must note the attribution of the elements to the four cardinal directions that most people use today. The assignment of the elements to the quarters as used by the Golden Dawn, Oberon, and many Wiccans, can be traced to Eliphaz Levi's Transcendental Magic.

Since Eliphas Levi is not a real ancient source, maybe we should see what our GoTo man, Agrippa, has to say.

Agrippa's Shields

	East
North		South
	West

As you can see, Agrippa has Fire in the East, Water in the North, Air in the West and Earth to the South. I have to say I didn't see that coming. As for the colors, I have assigned the Hogwarts colors that I thought Agrippa would approve.

Looking at Agrippa's shields I wonder what he was thinking. Was his young brain just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information he was exposed to? Did he just make a simple error? The world may never know.

How about those Rosicrucians and Alchemists (those guys that came before the Golden Dawn)? Should we make some shields representing their school of thought? Why not!

George Ripley's key as reprinted in Elias Ashmole's "Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum" looks like this:

As you can see, Ripley has assigned the elements and astrological signs to the four cardinal directions. All we have to do is assign the colors of the Houses of Hogwarts. And here they are...

Ripley's Shields

	East
North		South
	West

Of the three sets of shields produced so far, these shields probably conform most to the ancient arts of magic and alchemy. To make the shields more accurate, they should probably be red, yellow, black, and white. But then we wouldn't be sticking to the Harry Potter theme.

The assigning of green to Air is supported by the majority of sources that are more than 500 years old. If this assignment confuses you, just stop and imagine each shield represents a season. Moving clockwise from the spring Air in the East to the heat of summer in the South and then on through the dryness of autumn and wetness of winter. Also note the symmetry of the elemental symbols.

With this I conclude the exercise.

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Resources:
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum 
 Transcendental Magic
Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Wikipedia Entry about Hogwarts
Oberon's Grey School

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