Pentagram Rituals (Notes and Translations): Lesser, Greater, and Supreme

The bulk of the Pentagram Rituals are in English. Only the Qabalistic Cross and God names are in Hebrew. The Supreme variant adds Enochian. This Enochian is spoken while tracing the pentagrams, otherwise it is identical to the Greater Ritual.

The Thelemic variants do nothing more than add “Aiwass” to the Qabalistic Cross. Aiwass should be taken as representing the Holy Guardian Angel. As with the Thelemic Hexagram Ritual, the change is minor, but significant.

The text for the Greater and Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram can be found in Liber O. The Greater Ritual is performed by tracing the proper spirit pentagram prior to elemental pentagram. The active elements, Fire and Air, get the Active Spirit pentagram, and the passive elements, Water and Earth, get the Passive Spirit pentagram. E.g., trace Active Spirit pentagram, vibrate EHIH, trace Air pentagram, vibrate YHWH, proceed to next quarter. The Supreme ritual is done by vibrating the Enochian for each quarter while tracing the appropriate pentagrams. E.g. trace Active Spirit pentagram while vibrating EXARP, vibrate EHIH, trace Air pentagram while vibrating ORO IBAH AOZPI, vibrate YHWH, proceed to next quarter.

The original phrase for the Qabalistic Cross is “Ateh Malkuth Ve-Geburah Ve-Gedulah Le-Olahm, Amen” Which translates to “Unto thee, the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory to the ages, amen”. The Thelemic version, “Ateh Aiwass Malkuth Ve-Geburah Ve-Gedulah Le-Olahm, Amen” translates to “Unto thee, Aiwass, the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory to the ages, amen”. This changes the focus from the tribal desert totem of the early Hebrews to the personal Holy Guardian Angel.

The God names used in these rituals are: EHIH, AGLA, YHWH, ALHIM, EL, ADNI (not all are used in the lesser variant). These names of god mean (in order): I am, Atah Gibor Le-olam Adonai (Notariqon), Tetragrammaton, Gods/Goddesses, God, and My Lords. The Notariqon of “Atah Gibor Le-olam Adonai” translates to “You, O Lord, are mighty forever”. I should also note that in Thelemic parlance, Adonai is a title referring to the Holy Guardian Angel, so this could be "You, my Holy Guardian Angel, are mighty forever".

The Supreme variant uses Enochian. They will be given in order of use, with the Enochian followed by the translation. For Air, EXARP (”Air of Spirit”) and ORO IBAH AOZPI (”He who cries aloud in the place of desolation”). Fire is BITOM (”Fire of Spirit”) and OIP TEAA PDOCE (”He whose name is unchanged from what it was”). Next is Water with HCOMA (”Water of Spirit”) and MPH ARSL GAIOL (”He who is the 1st true creator,the horned one”). Finally, Earth is NANTA (”Earth of Spirit”) and MOR DIAL HCTGA (”He who burns up iniquity without equal”).

For reference, I am summarizing all of this into tables:

Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram
Name	Translation	Quarter / Planet (Element)
YHWH	Tetragrammaton	East / Sol (Air)
ADNI	My Lord(s) / HGA	South / Mercury (Fire)
AHIH	I am	West / Luna (Water)
AGLA	You, O Lord / my HGA, are mighty forever	North / Venus (Earth)

Greater Ritual of the Pentagram
Name	Translation	Quarter / Sign (Element)
AHIH	I am	East & South / (Active Spirit)
AGLA	You, O Lord / my HGA, are mighty forever	West & North / (Passive Spirit)
YHWH	Tetragrammaton	East / Aquarius (Air)
ALHIM	Gods/Goddesses	South / Leo (Fire)
El/AL	God	West / Scorpio (Eagle, Water)
ADNI	My Lord(s) / HGA	North / Taurus (Earth)

Enochian Additions to Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram
Name	Translation	Quarter / Element
EXARP	Air of Spirit	East / Air
ORO IBAH AOZPI	He who cries aloud in the place of desolation	East / Air
BITOM	Fire of Spirit	South / Fire
OIP TEAA PDOCE	He whose name is unchanged from what it was	South / Fire
HCOMA	Water of Spirit	West / Water
MPH ARSL GAIOL	He who is the 1st true creator, the horned one	West / Water
NANTA	Earth of Spirit	North / Earth
MOR DIAL HCTGA	He who burns up iniquity without equal	North / Earth

Again with the Star Ruby (Translation and Notes)

Language is important. Magicians use “barbarous”, “dead” and other strange languages as an aid in bringing about magical consciousness. Some Hebrew, a bit of Enochian, and some Latin force one to enter a state of altered consciousness, if for no other reason, simply because it is something unusual. Still, there is no excuse for not knowing what you are saying. As Abraham von Worms points out, the spirits are not impressed by false erudition. To recite a bunch of syllables is ultimately meaningless, those syllables must have meaning. To this end, I am providing some preliminary notes and translations of the various rituals that I use regularly. The first of these is the Star Ruby, also known as Liber XXV. The primary language of the Star Ruby is Greek.

The first spoken line is “Apo pantos kakadaimonos”. This translates (roughly) to “Flee in terror malevolent (shit) spirits”.

Next is the Qabalistic cross: “Soi” (head), “O phalle” (phallus), “ischuros” (right), and “eukaristos” (left). This can be translated as “Unto thee o phallus, strength and thanksgiving”.

Finally, we have the invocation of the quarters, which goes “Pro mou Junges” (”Before me, Junges”), “Opiso mou Teletarchai” (”Behind me, Teletarchai”), “Epi deksia Synoches” (”On my right hand, Synoches”), and “Eparistera Daimonos”(”On my left hand, Daimonos”). This is wrapped up with “Flegei gar peri mou o aster ton pente. Kai en tee stelle o aster ton hex esteeke” which can be translated as “About me flames the pentagrams. In the column shines the six rayed star”.

The only thing left is to explain what you are calling in the four quarters.

Junges
This class of beings are the children of the Father, the bearers of the primordial fire which gives rise to magick and concepts which give rise to motion. This fire & passion is delivered to the Synoches.

Teletarchai
These beings represent the guiding forces of initiation, of progress. They are the children of Junges and Synoches. They are responsible for shaping our Will so that we progress forward toward accomplishing that Will.

Synoches
These beings are the containers of the fire, the mothers which birth creation. The Will, originating from the Junges, is formed by the Synoches and manifested by the Teletarchai. That which we strive to be determines our experiences which result in our current path, the expression of our Will in the current physio-temporal frame.

Daimonos
These are the saints, those who have achieved their will and whose blood fills the Cup of Babalon. They inspire and motivate us, they are our support and our emancipation.

I’ll admit that I am still working on internalizing and expanding my understanding of the beings evoked by the Star Ruby. These descriptions are meant as a starting point.

I find the basic purposes of the attributions correlative with those of the Standard Pentagram rituals. In the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, we have Sol/Raphiel, Luna/Gabriel, Mercury/Michael, and Venus/Uriel. Sol resides in Tiphareth to which is associated the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Luna resides in Yesod which is commonly equated with prophecy, Magick, and Initiation. Mercury is the manifestation of the Will, and Venus is easily the support and benediction of the community.

Crowley viewed this ritual as a Thelemic equivalent to the Greater Pentagram Ritual. However, there are notable changes to the attributions of the pentagrams (though not so much the symbolism of the archangels, as noted in the previous paragraph). While not mentioned explicitly in the text, the attributions are obvious by virtue of the calling of the god-names. Therion is roared like a lion (Leo), Nuit is spoken as a human (Aquarius), Babalon is hissed like a snake (one of the forms of Scorpio), and finally, Hadit is bellowed like a bull (Taurus). Since this is said to be a replacement for the Greater Pentagram Ritual, the sigil of Scorpio should probably be that of an eagle, though one could easily argue that it should be a snake (an eagle would be “cry”).

Errata: Yet another addendum to the TLRP

Found out that my elemental attributions for the LRP were off. A friend of mine explains them using Enochian. The reason why the LRP is mapped to the tree in such a weird way (standing on the back) is that the angels are in those places (i.e, the Enochian planetary attributions for the angels put them there). There is a rough correlation with the Powers of the Sphinx as well.

• Raphiel: Yahweh: East: Sun/Tiphareth/Air
• Michael: Adonai: South: Mercury / Hod / Fire
• Gabriel: Ehieh: West: Luna / Yesod / Water
• Uriel: AGLA: North: Venus / Netzach / Earth

Another Addendum/Errata on the TLRP [77 Words]

I originally visualized an Artemis image for AHIH, but she was unclear, perhaps because I view the Judaic names as patriarchal. I tried to visualize a young bowman. That failed. The only image I could consistently visualize, and to which the other forms morphed, was a bearded viking with a bow (no helmet, but braided hair). Key is to visualize images that are meaningful and symbolize the quarter. Avoid forcing an image to fit a preconceived notion.

[TLRP]
[Errata/Addendum 1]

Errata on the TLBRP [93 Words]

[While I really loved the symbolism of Venus being Adonai, it is wrong. I have corrected the attributions 2015 09 02.]

I noticed that I had forgotten to include the god name for the Northern pentagram. It is AGLA. AGLA stands for “Atah Gibor Le-olam Adonai” which is translated as “You are mighty forever, my lord.” However, as we noticed with the South, Adonai is attributed to Venus, which is the Morning Star. The Morning Star is a biblical name of Lucifer, so one can also read it as “You are mighty forever, Lucifer.” The Morning Star and the Evening Star are both Venus, and can refer, biblically, to either Lucifer or Jesus.


[TLBRP Post]

The Lesser Pentagram Ritual [1111 Words (Catch up for May 19)]

I covered the Star Ruby, so let us move to the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. I must admit that I avoided this ritual when I first started ceremonial magick. A sticking point was the use of Hebrew/Christian gods and angels. In my youth, I was exposed to fundamentalist/charismatic Christianity and was rabidly anti-Christian. (I have since mellowed so that I only see it as yet another weak and oppressive form of herd morality.) Due to this aversion, I threw myself whole heartedly into the Star Ruby. It’s use of Thelemic deities, Greek language, and Chaldean entities made it a perfectly valid alternative to the hated Christian ritual.

Unfortunately, the Star Ruby is a banishing ritual. To my knowledge, there is no invoking form. This was not a problem at first since we only did banishings anyway (Keith418 has written extensively on this problem). However, the time came when I was actually ready to do magick and I needed an invoking pentagram ritual. I could only see two options. The first was to eschew proper ritual format and allow Christianity to control my life through my aversion. The alternative was to overcome these barriers and master the ritual.

I went through many mental games on my way. The first was to create an arbitrary division between the tetragrammaton and Yahweh. In the east, I would intone each letter, telling myself that this was the true god and that Yahweh was the demi-urge. My sense of aesthetics broke this one, since it is imbalanced to spell YHVH, but not ADNI, EHIH, and AGLA. Especially, AGLA since it is an acronym. Today, I realize that I am not going to let some bloodthirsty, desert totem of genocide mar my spiritual practices. I hope this digression has been of help to anyone dealing with similar issues.

The lesser ritual of the pentagram has two forms, the banishing and the invoking. They are commonly abbreviated as LBRP and LIRP. I indicate the Thelemic variant by prefacing a ‘T’ to the previous acronyms. The difference between the “classical” and Thelemic variants lie in the Qabalistic Cross. In the “classical” version, one makes an equal armed cross. In the Thelemic, one makes a Calvary Cross and inserts the name of one’s Holy Guardian Angel, if known, or “Aiwass,” who can be seen as the archetypal HGA. The lesser pentagram ritual is a building block and component of all Western ceremonial magick. Its importance, and mastery, cannot be understated.

The ritual is actually very simple. It is composed of four parts (the Star Ruby has six). These parts are: (1) The Qabalistic Cross, (2) The Charging of the Quarters, (3) The Invocation of the Archangels, and (4) repeat The Qabalistic Cross. For reference, the Star Ruby’s parts are: (1) The Casting Out of Demons, (2) The Cross Qabalistic, (3) The Charging of the Quarters, (4) The Paean and -Godforms, (5) The invocation of the Chaldean entities, and (6) The Cross Qabalistic.

You begin the Qabalistic Cross by standing in the Sign of Silence while facing East and holding the dagger (note, Liber O says “usually the wand,” but I have always seen it performed with the dagger). Inhale, and with the hand that is holding the weapon, one touches one’s forehead and vibrates “ATEH.” Bringing the hand down to the heart, one vibrates “AIWASS.” Next, one brings one’s hand to the groin (Svadisthana Chakra) and vibrates “MALKUTH.” I do this as one breath. This can be roughly translated as “Unto thee, my HGA, is the Kingdom.” Next is the crossbar. Inhale and touch the right shoulder while vibrating “VE-GEBURAH.” Bring the hand across to the left shoulder and vibrate “VE-GEDULAH.” This is also completed in one breath. This is commonly translated as “and the Power and the Glory.” Finally, inhale and bring the hands together while saying “LE-OLAHM AMEN.” One should end in a posture similar to that of prayer, though as magicians and Thelemites, that is not the mental attitude. This can be thought to mean “To the Ages, AMEN.” Then return to the Sign of Silence.

The second section is the charging of the quarters. For the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, one uses the pentagram of Earth for all four quarters. The invoking pentagram is drawn from the uppermost point (attributed to Spirit) to the lower left point (attributed to Earth). The banishing pentagram is done in reverse, starting with the lower left and moving upward. Note that these describe the first line of the pentagram and one should draw the remaining lines sequentially (i.e., invoking: Spirit, Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit). Since the magician is standing at the intersection of Pe & Samekh (Tower & Art), my imagery is related to the Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

[While I really loved the symbolism of Venus being Adonai, it is wrong. I have corrected the attributions 2015 09 02.]

To the East (Tiphareth) visualize the symbol of the sun and trace a golden pentagram about it. Make the Sign of the Enterer and vibrate “YHVH” (yahweh) while visualizing a anthropomorphic solar burst. Return to the Sign of Silence. Turn to the South (Netzach) and visualize the sign of Venus. Trace a green pentagram, make the Sign of the Enterer, vibrate “ADNI” (adonai) while visualizing a beautiful youth (the Morning Star, Lucifer), and return to the Sign of Silence. Turn to the West (Yesod). Visualize the Lunar symbol. Trace a Violet pentagram. Make the Sign of the Enterer, vibrate “AHIH” while visualizing a Warrior with a bow, and return to the Sign of Silence. Finally, Turn to the North (Hod). Repeat as before, but the sign is Mercury, the color orange, and the image should be that of Atu I, the Magus, of the Thoth Tarot deck. Turn back to the East.

For the Invocation, Make sign of Osiris Slain while standing in the center and visualize each angel as you vibrate their name. “Before me Raphael, Behind me Gabriel, On my right hand Michael, On my left hand Auriel.” Next say “For about me flames the Pentagram.” Make the Sign of Osiris Risen and finish with “And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star,” followed by the Sign of Silence.
To end, one repeats the Qabalistic Cross. By finishing in the Sign of Silence, one is ready for the next ritual. In the case of one’s morning adorations, this would be Resh.

While writing this, I found that I had made an error with the colors for Yesod/AHIH. All of the other quarters use the Queen scale of colors, which coincide with the planetary colors. However, Yesod is violet, but the Moon is silver, so I was drawing a silver pentagram. I will change this for future practice.

[Errata]

Some comments on De Cultu, Resh, and the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram

Note: This is part of a project where I am attempting to write something every day. I roll a die and get a word count from a list of twelve entries. Those dealing with topics relevant to this blog will be posted here. This piece is 333 words in length.

De Cultu gives instructions for the practices of the Thelemite. It is found in Liber Aleph (chapter 16). First, we are told to practice as instructed in the Holy Books. At the very least, this should be interpreted as an injunction to study the Holy Books (aka Class A material). Next, we are told to perform Liber Resh, the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, and to assume the posture of Hoor-pa-Kraat (aka the Sign of Silence). Next, we are told to perform either the Mass of the Phoenix or the Gnostic Mass daily. Finally, we are told to perform the Mass of the Holy Ghost, travel the Astral Planes, and practice all eight forms of Yoga.

Of the second injunction, I combine them into a daily ritual. On arising in the morning, I start with a performance of the Star Ruby. This is followed by the Thelemic Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. The Thelemic variant is identical to the standard form except that it adds “Aiwass” on the downward motion and extends the lower arm to the Svadisthana chakra. That is, touch the forehead saying “Ateh,” then the heart saying “Aiwass,” and then the groin and say “Malkuth.”

Following the pentagram rituals, I perform Resh as follows. Stand straight and make the sign of the enterer saying “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” I then make one of the signs of NOX, depending on the time of day: Vir-Ra, Mulier-Ahathoor, Puer-Tum, and Puella-Kephra. I then bring my feet together at a right angle (think of it as a reversed ‘L’) and say Resh. For the Adoration, I pivot my left foot so they are parallel (an ‘I’), then I pivot my right foot to form another ‘L.’ I then face the next quarter and sing “aka dua…” from Liber XV. I make the sign of NOX for that quarter and say “Love is the law; love under will,” followed by the Sign of Silence.