Conj njuri uring ng S pi rits ri ts i nt nto o Crys Crysta tall
by b y Neres Wane Wan e
— cop co p y rig rig h t 201 2015 —
Introduction
The subject tonight is drawing spirits into crys tals, in accordance with the method outlined by the illus trious magician, alchemists , philos opher and cryptographer, Johannes Trithemius . His book The art of drawing spirits into (or within) crystals is a fairly short work as far as the occult lore of Europe is concerned. And it is an peculiarly practical work, without pretense and quite beautifully written. However, the method given reflects the prejudices of the day—or, rather, the neces sary encipherment of occult lore, considering the attitude of the prevailing religious order. In this small commentary, I hope to dispel some of these unneces sary parts , outlining only what is useful for re-des cribing the method in a practical and modern way. Of course, anyone is free to us e the traditional methods if they s o wish, though it is quite costly to do so. I would advocate any who might have the funds available to try the traditional methods and compare them with the more simplified methods which I give. If what I say is true, the s ame general effects will be noticed whether the ritual is done in a cos tly, traditional manner or if
it is simplified. If I'm wrong, this will be borne out in practice. o one need take anything I have said on faith.
Proces s - the First Part
Johannes Trithemius first recommends that one acquire a crys tal ball, roughly as large as an orange. It ought to be entirely clear or otherwise it won't work. At this point we ought to pause and understand exactly why a crys tal ball is recommended. There is nothing inherently beneficial or of occult s ignificance within a crys tal ball its elf. Rather, the magical benefit lies within what occurs to the mind when it gazes into perfectly clear crys tal. Something about the act seems to naturally caus e the imagination of the magician to slide into a state of mys tical hyperactivity, producing various images and s cenarios , all of which are woven from pure imagination. Now, some perceive thes e scenarios and images upon the actual surface of the crystal ball—or, rather, within it—but it is more often the cas e that these images will appear in the mind's eye alone. The crys tal ball serves as an instigator of such thoughts, but because the mind is in a suggestive and visionary s tate—quite in tune with its own uncons cious contents —the images can be quite prescient or insightful—more s o than ordinary imaginative reveries. I will leave it to psychologists and scientists to ferret out exactly why this is, but the same process can be observed while
staring at a perfectly blank wall, the endless blue of the midday s ky, the darkness of one's eyelids , a pitch black room, the tip of one's thumb-nail or into a mirror which has been painted entirely black. Thes e all can serve as catalysts for an occult reverie which places the magician into contact with paranormal forces. Some of these forces are objective to the magician, existing in a s trange twilight state in between mind and body—the physical and spiritual universes—and some of thes e forces are entirely subjective, welling up from within the magician's own miasmatic psyche. Johannes Trithemius then ins tructs the reader to place the crys tal ball upon a gold plate, and to then rest the plate upon a pedestal of ebony or ivory. The crys tal is to s it at dead center. A special circle is drawn around with Then the holy tetragrammaton (YH V H) is to be written, as well as the names of the angels Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel and Michael—angels whom Johannes Trithemius attributes to the Moon, Mercury, Venus and the Sun, respectively. ow, let us stop here: what is neces sary in these instructions and what is unnecessary? First, though the crystal ball its elf is a wonderfully us eful idea, the gold plate and pedestal are not important. It is true that the crys tal should be rested upon s omething of significance, but the significance can be ascribed to it by the magician's own
sense of things, and need not rely on any outward symbolism. If the crys tal is treated with a modicum of respect and reverence on part of the magician, it will serve its function quite well. Second, Johannes Trithemius recommends that the names of all of the s even traditional planet of Western as trology be written around it—Uranus, Pluto and Neptune not having been discovered yet— alongs ide their ruling angels and etchings of their magical seals. He outlined some other ins tructions in this regard such as where they are to be written in terms of the circle and placed in relation to the crystal, but these ins tructions are all rather unnecessary. The names of the planets , their angels and seals, however, are indispensable tools in this proces s. They form the direct link neces sary to conjuring the desired spiritual power. The mind, beholding them through the three factors of 1) a phys ical image, 2) a mental concept (the astrological values ascribed to them, which any magician would s urely be educated in) and 3) a distinct name, is then able to make the requisite contact. Thes e three factors—image, concept and distinct name—form the Trinity of what is necessary for a conjuration to take place. The crys tal ball itself can even be dispensed with—though the particular form of ritual which Johannes Trithemius des cribes is specifically oriented towards us e of a crystal—but one cannot do away with some direct link to the desired spirit. To do so would court failure. The difference between
imagination and reality is always found in some palpable and material fact. This is why every culture utilizes some external and phys ical point of reference when conjuring up a disembodied entity. If that point of reference is not present, all that arises is mere fancy, imagination and daydream. No, a direct link must always be there. There is no exception to this rule. After giving these ins tructions, Johannes Trithemius then states that the angel or spirit desired mus t be called on its exact and precise planetary hour. At the end of the tract, he lists what spirits rule what hours, allowing the magician to choose what is mos t appropriate for any time of day. Now, I say this being one who has spent a great deal of my own magical path observing planetary hours quite meticulously: lanetary hours are not necessary, either . If the spirit does indeed correspond to a particular astrological force, then the only thing necessary is to obs erve that astrological day— Solar for Sunday, Lunar for Monday, Martial for Tuesday, Mercurial for Wednesday, Jovial for Thursday, Venusian for Friday and Saturnian for Saturday. If it the spirit is more precise and corres ponds to one of the 28 phas es of the Moon, you mus t also observe that day—the same is true of the 36 Deccanates —but this is all. It is doubtful even that the planetary hours could have ever been s o accurate during the medieval ages, and if you make a study of the magic of other cultures you will find that they make little to no us e of
them or, if they do, the details are quite different. Johannes Trithemius was either a subscriber to the prevailing worldview of his day which viewed magic purely through the lens of Judeo-Christian mythology and secondhand Greco-Babylonian lore, or he was cons ciously making the proces s more difficult than it needed to be, for the sake of safety and to keep the ins incere away. This is not s o much a trouble nowadays, for we are living in a far freer time, obviously, but it was not s o in those days. Yet if one is a relative neophyte to magic, putting a rule to them such as observing a precise planetary hour can force their mind to treat the ritual with more reverence and, ins odoing, increase its capacity to bring forth results. This is one of the secrets of getting unstuck from one of those dry periods when it seems rituals routinely go nowhere: ins tead of doing the same old thing, elaborate on your rituals, adding to the antendant details. An elaborate ritual has the tried-and-true effect of mitigating whatever lethargy, drowsiness or laxity the magician may have. The mind has a humorous way of being quite stunned into a receptive or perceptive state of cons ciousness the moment high theater begins to take hold of it. Johannes Trithemius then writes out for us a typical JudeoChristian prayer that is often recorded in s uch grimoires. As is cus tomary, the magician grovels and begs before the magnificence of the twin deities Jesus and Jehovah,
pleading that they might let the des ired spirit appear, keeping all demons at bay. The magician prays for clarity, wishing the spirit to appear visibly in the crystal, giving all that the magician might want and doing so in the name of the risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. Such prayers are quite a delicious specimen of unintentional humor—or, perhaps, the humor is quite intentional. Obvious ly the entire gos pel message is doubted by the magician, for the good and sweet Savior recommended no such s trange practices as are described in a grimoire. With characteristic lack of depth, he s imply said that he would do anything so long as it was asked in his name. And theologians have wisely added to this "if it be his will." Why anyone would ask Jesus to do his will is beyond me—it is like as king a dog to have fur. If the dog already has fur, asking it to have fur would be quite s uperfluous . And if the poor beast lacks fur, no amount of as king will allow him to sprout it. Magic at least prescribes definite methods by which such things may be accomplished—though, I doubt magic can be us ed for purposes of re-furring a dog. Perhaps it can. After the prayer is given, the magician is to take their already existing ring and pentacle, placing the ring upon the smallest finger of their right hand, with the pentacle adorning the neck. The eminently practical Johannes Trithemius then tells the reader that s uch a pentacle might be composed through
simple ink on paper, or engraved on a s ilver plate. Either way, it mus t adorn the neck, resting on the magician's ches t. The magician also ought to have a black wand with special characters written upon it. A circle is then traced with the wand as a prayer of consecration is given—again in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord—with the intention that no evil spirits should enter into the circle. This constitutes a banishing rite and is a quite common practice in magic both old and new. The basis for such rites also has a quite sound psychological intent: by affirming that no wicked s pirits are to enter the circle, the magician is purifying the area in which the magical rite is being performed, as well as psychologically attuning themselves to a delicate state of concentration, allowing no foreign element to intrude (such as a wicked spirit, for ins tance). The magician knows not to direct their focus upon anything save for the immediate task at hand and to pay no attention to any spirit—whether imagined or otherwise—save for the one that they are intent on conjuring. While I see no reason why the precise method or prayer given by Johannes Trithemius ought to be used, I do agree that this is a beneficial practice in its elf, and even though it may only have symbolic significance, its effect upon the mind of the magician ought not to be underestimated. If you wish to prove to yourself the benefit of such a method, you may simply perform a conjuration without this s mall banishing rite then compared its effects to
a conjuration that includes the banishing rite. Banishing rites are not s et in stone, however. The magician is free to invent one or make use of an existing one. It is very rare in these modern, enlightened times for any magician to seriously consider the existence of the biblical sky gods , and thus to perform a banishing rite in the name of such sky gods seems rather absurd. Yet perhaps the magician believes there is some inherent efficacy in this old way, in which case you can certainly experiment and see on your own. As with mos t things in magic, experimentation is half the fun and no magician who refuses to experiment will get very far. Always experiment— a lways. Life is, after all, an experiment in staving off death. Perhaps the entire cos mos is an experiment, in fact. Why s hould the magician—a microcosmic symbol of the creator God—be any different? Also, there is merit to the idea that "barbarous words" have a magical efficacy in themselves. The names for God in the Hebrew Bible were originally Sumerian, Babylonian, Canaanite and Egyptian names. El was the Canaanite El, Yah the Sumerian Ea or Ia, Adonai the Egyptian Aten. The list continues. . .
Proces s - the Second Part
ow having banished the circle in the area of the magical working, Johannes Trithemius informs the reader on how to properly call or conjure the desired spirit. The first order of busines s is to burn the incense, causing a light smoke to fill the area. Then the magician is to call upon the spirit directly —in the name of Jesus Christ, naturally—in a firm but sincere voice. The s pirit is called by the magician a "fiery creature", even if it is not necessarily as sociated with the element of fire, but perhaps this has more to do with the nature of a spirit's existence as pure light than it does to any elemental correspondence. The magician reiterates that no evil spirits or phantasm's should appear, either, ins isting that only the desired spirit make its presence known. The incens e is referred to, again filling and purifying the air, hopefully enticing the spirit to manifest. As it s o happens , the biblical Jehovah was also quite fond of the s mell of incense when he was not bus y s melling roasted animals or the freshly spilled blood of Canaanites , Philistines and whoever else happened to be on Israeli land. The unbiased researcher would conclude that disembodied
beings have an unusually potent sense of smell and are specifically attracted to different scents. Is this true? Perhaps it is, but there is a psychological explanation of greater merit: the sense of smell in human beings is intimately connected to areas of memory, nostalgia and mys tic perception. The olfactory sens e is wedded to our sens e of spiritual presences , also. Therefore, the repeated us e of certain specific scents would indeed affect the mind in a favorable way from a magical point of view, just as it does for any spiritual experience. It is not s o much the spirit which des ires to smell the delicious incense Johannes Trithemius has made for him, but rather the mind of Johannes Trithemius which needs the incense to guide him gently to that frame of mind wherein the spirit may be actually perceived. One may practically glean from this that the use of special scents and fragrances within the context of magic is always a helpful addition, if not indispens able for some. This is not to s ay that one cannot perform a magical ritual without incense, as one mos t certainly can, but it is especially good for beginners to make hefty use of incenses —special ones , used for no other purposes . What about s moke? Does it have a use, in this case? Some have said that s pirits make their visible appearance through the medium of smoke. I admit to having seen strange things in the behavior of smoke during conjurations, but I've never seen a spirit make a visible appearance via smoke. It would
appear that Johannes Trithemius is not concerned with this and, ins tead, is content to have the spirit make its appearance in the crystal ball its elf. Smoke magic is another topic—one in which I am not qualified to s peak, at present. Still, observe the smoke if there is smoke present, for you may be quite s urprised. After the s pirit has been called, it's seal is to be written upon clear, white paper alongs ide its name and office. Johannes Trithemius 's recommendation here is somewhat uncommon, as mos t grimoires or books of magical ins truction in those days never seem to worry over writing any details down about the spirit as part of the actual conjuring—aside from its seal, that is. It's office applies to its hierarchical rank. In European magical thought, spirits had a sys tem of classes and gradated authority parallel to our own, with some spirits being kings, princes, earls, dukes , commanders, generals, majors, presidents, prime ministers, ins pector generals, etc. This is all a lot of nonsens e, of course. Perhaps it had an aesthetic meaning at the time but it is rather ridiculous now. There are indeed hierarchies to be observed in the spirit world, jus t as there are degrees of intensity in lieu of the manner and form by which a s pirit manifests , but the notion that these hierarchies are anywhere near similar to thos e constructed by human society is imbecilic. We will not fault the grimoire writers and occultists of now dead Europe for this, however. Time and time we see again how they were
fruits of their times, in these times were not especially bright. Perhaps such sys tems were there merely to denote astrological correspondences in an ugly way. Still, these are the ins tructions given by Johannes Trithemius and there may be merit to them for thos e who wish to repeat his experiments . I simply disagree that it is neces sary. Johannes Trithemius then proceeds to throw out another patent falsehood: he states that two s orcerers must be present at the conjuration—or, at leas t, two men. The reason he states this is that one of these men may be able to see the spirit in the crystal whereas the other may not. No less than the illustrious magician, alchemists , astrologer, philosopher, spy and British adviser John Dee also had s uch an arrangement with his co-agitator, Edward Kelly. Kelly would be the one to perceive the spirits whereas Dee would be the one to as k questions and make sens e of what they claimed. This, too, is not necessary. One person is all that is needed. It is assumed by Trithemius at this point that the s pirit has made its appearance. Even a modestly s uccessful magician should now be able to both s ense the presence of the spirit and visibly s ee or mentally perceive some form of phenomena in the crystal itself. Thus far, the conjuring is now a success, and the next s tep is to interrogate the spirit, making sure it is indeed the one wished for by the magician.
The first and most obvious question is what is your true name? Though Trithemius writes his account with the assumption that the angel Michael is the spirit being conjured, he is clearly implying that the spirit in question will always provide his actual name. This also assumes that spirits have actual names and are not in the habit of regularly lying about them. If the spirit answers correctly— that is, if it gives the name of the same spirit that the magician s et out to conjure—it is then asked about its office, its character or seal, and at what times it is mos t favorably conjured. It is asked to swear in the name of Jesus Christ that its ans wer are true, and if it does not do s o, the magician can be fairly certain that it is an impostor and devil. Johannes Trithemius does not seem to say what to do if this occurs—at least not in this present work—but perhaps such would be quite unlikely to happen if all the strictures and rules that Trithemius recommends are assiduously and rigorously applied. When all this has been established, the magician may then question the spirit at will, writing down its respons es carefully.
Part 3 - Discussion and Closing
The part which requires the mos t degree of analys is is the appearance of the spirit and the nature of the ans wers it gives once ques tioned. The atmos phere of medieval Europe in regards to these grimoires is one of an overt fairy-tale, depicting the spirit as if they always showed forth visibly, spoke in clear, audible tones and obeyed a set of arbitrary laws to the letter. The Judeo-Christian paradigm defines every inch of this scenario, with the godly Trinity at the beginning of all things, the Dionysian angelic hierarchies having a true and undeniable existence exactly as stated by St. Dionys ius and the forces of Lucifer being much how they are described in traditional Christian mythology. There is very little room for uncertainty, ambiguity or the unknown in any of this, and because of this the grimoires provide little to no ps ychological preparation for the would-be magician. Very little of the phenomena described in these grimoires actually occurs in the s ame way it is des cribed, though there are parallels in actual experience. The method outlined by Johannes Trithemius is a very good one, albeit containing much that is unnecessary, but like almos t all the occult writers of this day, he does not give a valid account of what
will occur when you practice magic. Some might s ay that these magicians of old were indeed being hones t about what occurred to them, and that we moderns are simply unable to attain their level of perception and intuitive depth. But this can only be false, for we know with absolute certainty that the Judeo-Christian paradigm in which these magicians worked has not the slightest shred of truth to it, and therefore the idea that the spirit world s omehow obeys the laws of such a false and idiotic sys tem is laughable, at best. If there are spirits —and I believe there are—they do not feel a need to restrict themselves to the laws of a dying and false religion. If these medieval sorcerers were able to successfully s ummon spirits in the context of such a abs urd belief system, it is not because of the belief system but rather in spite of it that they were succes sful. Even a moderate degree of armchair scholarship can es tablish the falsehood of both the Old and New Testaments in terms of their general claims, and with them dies the entirety of medieval mythology as it was expressed in old Europe. The same is true of Islamic mythology or any number of other religious mythologies. If spirits are real, then they can only truly be intellectually understood outside of religion, and if there is to be any investigation of them, it mus t be done so in the brighter context of science. Perhaps you are already well aware of this, however. I do not need to write about it any further—I've made my point. Still,
there is a question of what spirits actually feel like, look like and do. Having read this method, am certain you will soon try it. If you have never conjured before, in a few months you will be able to successfully do it, provided you attempt such with regularity. A degree of preparation is therefore in order. I have done what I could to simplify the method of Johannes Trithemius —though you should by all means acquire a copy of the original work in English trans lation and study it yourself—but now I wish to express to you what you will likely encounter in your successful conjurations , and how it will differ dramatically from what Johannes Trithemius describes. Firstly, you will feel the spirit's presence before seeing it. Spirits make themselves known through their presence first, then images and, lastly, sounds . Even then, these images and s ounds are often internal, and that which you see or hear externally will be nowhere as clear and distinct as the medieval books make them out to be. They will be quite powerful, definite and beyond doubt, but they will not be as palpable or vivid as your waking experience of material reality. Eventually you may slip into subtle dream states and reveries which make the spirit world s eem just as alive as this "real-world" we inhabit, but this is only after many years of practice—for mos t people, that is. Therefore do not be discouraged if things do not occur exactly as they are des cribed by these old dead men: things are still happening
—things which are quite wonderful, mysterious and s urreal. Secondly, you need never interrogate a spirit. If you performed a banishing succes sfully, used the proper seal and did everything else correctly, then the proper spirit will make its appearance—as suming it appears. The difficult task of the magician is to get a spirit to appear at all, not to get the right spirit to appear. The s illy notion that there are untold thous ands of devils jus t waiting to fool the magician is a laughable and easily disproven medieval superstition. Though the natural world may be attempting to des troy us at every turn, it is not the cas e with the spiritual realm: whatever spirits are, they are generally better and more well behaved than any s ort of human or animal. The horror genre of literature and cinema as ide, supernatural creatures are precisely in their position they are in because they are not as bes tial and wicked as earthen creatures. Though this is not to say there entirely wholesome at all times, they bear no resemblance to the villains and criminals of our world, and one need not confront them with fear and trembling. The interrogation is nothing but foolishness: once the spirit is present, you may immediately begin asking it any ques tions you have or making requests of it, without needing it to show you it's "badge" (so to speak). Third, careful attention ought to be placed upon exactly what sens ations do arise in the context of such a magical
work. The potential sens ations are quite numerous, though a magician will normally only experience a small cluster of them, us ually occurring in continuous succes sion from one to the other (though at times they may also arise simultaneously). The s ens ations are often purely mental, but physical sensations are not uncommon. The possible mental sens ations are as varied as human emotion and imagination, subjecting the magician to flashes of joy and fear, sorrow and bliss, confus ion and clarity, etc. These will be accompanied by scenes and visions—usually fragmentary and symbolic, though the symbolism is not es pecially easy to divine—as well as thoughts which occur as fully s poken sentences, words or word fragments. While gazing at the crystal ball, subtle visual images will also appear: outlines, flashing shapes, spiraling designs, kaleidoscope-like figures, geometries, faces, rapidly moving animals, strange circular forms, spiritual seals, letters of alphabets both known and unknown, etc. These, in turn, may be accompanied by such physical sensations as tingling in different parts of the body, waves of heat or cold, itching, pleasant or painful tension and even nausea. Strange odors may also make themselves known, and in the darkness the magician may perceive flashes of light, similar to the echoes of lightning or fireflies. There also may occur a sens e of fluctuation in s pace and time—either by way of contraction or expansion. Time may slow, space may feel far vas ter, or the oppos ite may occur.
This last phenomena is perhaps evidence of the s ubtle changes that occur when the spirit draws nigh, I believe, for the spirits undoubtedly inhabit a far stranger realm than our own and when the two worlds meet, such fluctuations are inevitable. one of these are central to the actual experience, however: though they are marks of success, perhaps , the real purpose of conjuration is not to experience a plethora of strange physical and mental phenomena, but rather to contact a spirit, receive answers from it and have it perform desired tas ks. Once the spirit is clearly present, you may ask it questions mentally as you wish, having a notepad nearby upon which to write its ans wers. If you have s omething you wish the spirit to do, you can either make a reques t or demand of it. A demand, however, is not generally a good idea unless some form of sacrifices offered to the s pirit. In antiquity, spirits were almos t never summoned without some form of sacrifice. I am not advocating any higher animals be harmed, of course—an offering of herbs is fine, as are one's own blood or the fluids exuded through the joys of romance. It is advisable that these offerings be either burned or spread over the s pirit's s eal itself—such is the mos t powerful method. If you have any doubts about this, try a set of conjurations without offerings can then perform a set inclus ive of offerings. See which achieves the results quicker. As with everything I say, you need take nothing on
faith, for you have the entire world at your fingertips in terms of information and if you are patient and diligent, you will arrive at the same conclus ions I have—or perhaps I am mistaken, and I will eventually arrive at far different conclus ions. Even though much of what I say may s eem fairly categorical, this is a literary technique, and should not be taken as true dogmatism. Sometimes I qualify my statement and other times I don't, but everything should be read as quite tentative and open to change. In fact, let all experience be that way: let us never find our conclus ions too easily and let us never ins ist that our beliefs or perceptions are real for one and all. It is a far more fruitful way to live if one lives accepting mys tery and the unknown. Perhaps not all secrets are meant to be revealed, jus t as all dead things are not meant to be raised and not all doors are meant to be opened. On that note, I think it is time to end this book— but, before I depart, let me express my eternal gratitude to Johannes Trithemius , for he is one of the greatest of the European magicians and I hope someday the entirety of his works will be trans lated into English and other modern languages so that the entire world can benefit from his deep and wonderful knowledge. Though I may disagree with him at times, understand that this is not a disagreement with the man, but with the times, and I am quite willing to accept that Johannes Trithemius wrote much of what he did merely to fulfill the genre expectations of his times, to throw off
snooty Church officials and to keep the ignorant from dabbling where they ought not. But make no mistake: if ever there is a pantheon of remarkable human sorcerers, it would be incomplete without Johannes Trithemius. To even behold his words in incomprehens ible Latin is to feel something of his power—a power which still shines forth to us from beyond the grave. I dedicate this small book to him and I hope that all who read it come to admire him and the work of magic, freeing themselves from mental slavery and assumption, entering into the bright, strange world of the spirits —where all is not pos sible, perhaps , but far more is possible than we first imagined.
