Luce

Opus Magicum:

The “Words of Power” and the Characters of Beings

Those who have been involved in magic, whether out of simple curiosity or due to an earnest desire to know, or in order to acquire the fabled powers, have been dumbfounded when, in the course of rituals, they have come across formulas containing either words that look totally unintelligible, or geometrical and nongeometrical signs called “characters” or “seals” of “spirits,” the use of which is suggested without an apparent reason being given.

I have already mentioned this briefly elsewhere, when writing about magical herbs, giving some significant elements.⁴⁴

It is opportune to note that almost all the words of the rituals are nomina barbara (barbaric names)—i.e., words from other languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, Egyptian), badly transcribed, and then further distorted by ignorant scribes and even authors.⁴⁵ Thus, in order to recover their exact meaning, it would suffice to transcribe them back into their original language, which almost always reveals particular attributes of the supreme being. For instance, the common rendering Eye Seraye would be better transcribed as Eièh ascèr Eièh, which is one of the “divine names” found in Exodus 3:14, where God himself answers Moses from the burning bush, revealing his name:

A.H.I.H. À.SC.R. A.H.I.H.

According to one of the many interpretations, these words mean: “I Am He Who Is.”

In other cases it is opportune, as Trithemius suggests, to transcribe the words in Chaldean characters, since they sometimes have a meaning in the Chaldean language that was employed by the priests of a people who belong among the first and main founders of the Mediterranean Tradition. Moreover, in the texts we find words that cannot be reduced to a particular meaning, either because they consist only of vowels or only of consonants, or of combinations of vowels and consonants that do not lend themselves to any possible interpretation or philological derivation. These are the real “words of power.”

The words of power—as they were called in Egypt—had various names among different peoples and schools or orders that employed them. The Greeks called them ἄσημα ὀνόματα.. The first term may indicate not only that such names are unintelligible and obscure, but also that they are unknown and misunderstood by the profane. The expression may also mean that they are names without a sign, in other words, names the profound sound of which can be uttered or perceived only in a sudden illumination of the spirit freed from any physical bond. Their existence, however, is attested in various forms of the Tradition. They have been transmitted as magical sounds, nomina arcana (secret names); in particular, the combinations and permutations of vowels were called voces misticae (secret sounds) or mystical syllables. The Greeks called them λόγοι σπερματικοί, or “causal words”; in the Hindu tradition they were known as “mantra,” or natural names, meaning that these words belong to the original and perfect language, in the correspondence between the term containing the essence of the thing and the thing being signified.

Despite the fact that realization of the words of power unfolds on an eminently practical plane where it is preferable to remain free from any theory or presupposition, I will now briefly discuss the doctrinal aspects that refer to them.

In the highest potency, the Word realizes itself fully and perfectly because it contains in itself the principle of every manifestation, actualizing itself in it with a linear correspondence between the realizing will and the realized being.

The word is the means of realization and may also be made humanly perceptible, by bringing it to an octave that humans can hear.

That the word is such a means is indicated by the analogical law, observing how every manifestation originates from a center of power that acts by transmitting its energy in particularly wide and frequent waves. These waves may be perceived as sounds.

By analogy it is possible to intuit the law of formation of the characters of beings, recalling the hieroglyphics that Lissajous obtained through tuning forks, and the bizarre figures that Chladni obtained by vibrating thin plates covered with very fine sand.

The word, therefore, is not only a sound, but also a form. Thus for every being there is a corresponding name and character, or signature, which is proper to it alone and not to any other.

The traditional elements of this doctrine are preserved in the Sepher Jetzirah, the most famous Kabbalist text, in which the resonant concept is turned into a luminous concept, and the nomina arcana and the signatura rerum (the characters of things) are called names of light or letters of light.

Descend into “Silence” (see chapter I) and, having realized it, try to experience your own body and especially your imaginative faculties as functions of the self, detached from the deep reality of being, though not free, but rather as completely dominated.

This act of the spirit should reach such a perfection that when it is actualized, it should not even slightly affect the state of “silence”; thus this act should not cause the spirit to regress to a more normal and more material level of consciousness.

In this first phase you need to proceed gradually, investing first your body, as physical; then the mind, as thought; then the imagination, which is the highest and least-known faculty of creating images, so extremely important in magical practice.

It is obvious that what I am saying cannot and should not be attempted without first being absolutely perfect in the ritual I have described above. This is for two reasons: first of all no result would be obtained, except wasting time and possibly experiencing some psychic shock. Second, because in the still formless previous operation some elements would prevail that would compromise the accomplishment of the earlier ones. It is necessary to be among those perfect ones before attempting the first phase of this ritual, which, again, requires much perseverance before being mastered.

In the second phase, as you are able to live your own imagination as a pliable instrument, create the image of any being, grasp it, and plunge it into the spirit. Then you will hear a sound that no mortal ear is allowed to hear, which is the secret name of the thing. At the same time, without physical eyes, you will “see” a slight luminous trace where the being has been placed, designating its character.

Having done this, dissolve the image and emerge from the “silence.”

This can be done for the whole infinity of things.

In the operations of Ceremonial Magic the same results can be achieved by adequately “coagulating” the form being projected and by invoking the supreme intelligences with the proper formulas. Thus, the occult name will vibrate so intensely as to be heard even by those present; the character will reveal itself by tracing great fiery lines.