TALISMANS
The Formation of Talismans and Flashing Tablets
A talisman is a magical figure charged with the force which it is intended to represent. In the construction of a talisman, care should be taken to make it, as far as is possible, so to represent the universal forces that it should be in exact harmony with those you wish to attract, and the more exact the symbolism, the more easy it is to attract the force—other things coinciding, such as consecration at the right time, etc.
A symbol should also be correct in its symbolism, but it is not necessarily the same as a talisman.
A flashing tablet is one made in the complementary colours. A flashing colour, then, is the complementary colour which, if joined to the original, enables it to attract, to a certain extent, the Akasic current from the atmosphere, and to a certain extent from yourself, thus forming a vortex which can attract its flashing light from the atmosphere. Therefore, to make anything of this description which shall be really operative, so does it proportionately tire you.
The complementary colours are:
White
complementary to black and grey
Red
complementary to green
Blue
complementary to orange
Yellow
complementary to violet
Olive
complementary to red-orange
Blue-green
complementary to russet
Violet
complementary to citrine
Reddish orange
complementary to green-blue
Deep amber
complementary to indigo
Lemon yellow
complementary to red-violet
Yellow-green
complementary to crimson
The other complementaries of other mixed colours can easily be found from this scale.
Coming now to the nature and method of formation of the talisman, the first thing to be remembered is that it is not always a just and right thing to form a talisman with the idea of completely changing the current of another person’s karma. In any case, you could only do this in a certain sense. It will be remembered that the words of the Christ which preceded His cures were “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” which meant that the karmic action was exhausted. Only an adept who is of the nature of a god can have the power, even if he have the right, to take upon himself the karma of another. That is to say, that if you endeavour to change completely, (I am not now speaking of adapting and making the best of a person’s karma), the life current, you must be of so great a force that you can take this karma from them by right of the divine power to which you have attained—in which case you will only do it in so far as it does not hinder their spiritual development.
If, however, this is attempted on a lower plane, it will usually be found that what you are endeavouring to bring about is in direct opposition to the karma of the person concerned. It will not work the required effect and will probably bring a current of exhaustion and trouble on yourself. Without doing much good you will have attracted his own karma into your own atmosphere and, in fact, brought it on yourself.
These remarks only apply to an attempted radical change in the karma of another, which is a thing you have no right to do until you have attained the highest adeptship.
The formation or adaptation of talismans in ordinary matters should be employed with great discernment. What may assist in material things is often a hindrance spiritually, seeing that for a force to work, it must attract elemental forces of the proper description, which may thus, to an extent, endanger your spiritual nature.
Also, in making talismans for a person, you must endeavour to isolate yourself entirely from him. You must banish from your mind any feeling of love or hate, irritation, etc., for all these feelings operate against your power.
It is but rarely that a talisman for the love of a person is a right and justifiable thing to construct. Pure love links us to the nature of the gods. There is a perfect love between the angels and the gods because there is perfect harmony among them, but that is not the lower and earthly love. Thus a talisman made for terrestrial love would be sealed with the impress of your own weakness, and even if successful, would react on you in other ways. The only way in which real power can be gained, is by transcending the material plane and trying to link yourself to your divine and higher soul. That is why trouble is so great an initiator, because trouble brings you nearer spiritual things when material things fail.
Therefore, a talisman as a rule is better made for one in whom you have no interest. In the work of actual consecration, it is always a good thing to purify the room and use the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. All these are aids which the adept, when sufficiently advanced, will know when to use and when not to do so. It is better, if possible, to finish a talisman at one sitting, because it is begun under certain conditions and it may be difficult to put yourself in the same frame of mind at another time.
Another point that beginners are apt to run away with is that talismans can be made wholesale. Suppose a dozen talismans were made to do good to as many different people, a ray from yourself must charge each talisman. You have sent out a sort of spiral from your aura which goes on to the talisman and attracts a like force from the atmosphere—that is, if you have learned to excite the like force in yourself at the moment of consecration. So that, in the case supposed, you would have a dozen links connecting with you, like so many wires in a telegraph office, and whenever the force which any of these talismans was designed to combat becomes too strong for the force centred therein, there is an instantaneous communication with you—so that the loss of force to which you would be continually liable might be such as to deplete you of vitality and cause you to faint.
In cases where talismans and symbols have done their work, they should be carefully de-charged and then destroyed. If this is not done and you take a symbol, say of water, still charged and throw it into the fire to get rid of it, you are inflicting intense torment on the elemental you have attracted, and it will react on you sooner or later. Also, if you throw away a still charged talisman, thus desecrating it, it will become the property of other things, which, through it, will be enabled to get at you. It is for these reasons that the talisman should be de-charged with the pentagram and hexagram according as it partakes of the planetary or zodiacal nature—and these remarks apply equally to flashing tablets.
If a talisman is given to a person who goes away and does not return it, you can render it inoperative by invoking it astrally and then de-charging it with great care and force.
A flashing tablet should be carefully made, charged, and consecrated, and then each morning the Adeptus should sit before it and practise clairvoyance, endeavouring to go through it to the plane it represents, and then to invoke the power and ask for strength to accomplish the matter desired, which will be granted if it be a lawful and laudable operation.
Any flashing tablet of two colours should be as nearly balanced in proportion of the extent of colour as possible—the ground one colour and the charge another. There is also a mode in which three colours can be used in a planetary talisman. This is done by placing the seven colours on the heptagram and drawing two lines to the points exactly opposite, which will thus yield two flashing colours. This, properly drawn, will give the effect of a flashing light playing on the symbol, partly visible physically and partly clairvoyantly, i.e., if properly charged. An advanced adept should be able to charge his tablet to a certain extent as he constructs it.
The radical colour of the planet is symbolical. But a talisman for harmony of idea, say, could be well represented by the Tiphareth of Venus—a beautiful yellow-green, and so on.
The lion kerub of Venus would represent spiritual fire and thus symbolizes the inspiration of the poet—the colour being a soft and beautiful pearl grey, and the charges should be white. The watery part of Venus would represent the reflective faculty and answer to spiritual beauty, colour a bluish-green. The vaul
t contains a perfect scale of talismans of every description of planet, and shows how a planetary man will look at everything according to the colour of his aura, due to the planet under which he is born. The real adept comes forth from the sides to the centre. He is no longer under the dominion of the stars.
Having made a magical talisman, you should use some form of charging and consecrating it, which is suitable to the operation. There are certain words and letters which are to be invoked in the charging of a tablet, the letters governing the sign under which the operation falls, together with the planet associated therewith (if a planetary talisman). Thus in elemental operations, you take the letters of the appropriate zodiacal triplicity, adding AL thereto, thus forming an angelic name which is the expression of the force. Hebrew names, as a rule, represent the operation of certain general forces, while the names on the Enochian or angelical tablets represent a species of more particular ideas. Both classes of names should be used in these operations.
After preparing the room in the way laid down for the consecration of lesser magical implements, supposing this to be an elemental talisman, first formulate towards the four quarters the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram as taught. Then invoke the divine names, turning towards the quarter of the element.
Let the Adeptus then, being seated or standing before the tablet, and looking in the requisite direction of the force which he wishes to invoke, take several deep inspirations, close the eyes, and holding the breath, mentally pronounce the letters of the forces invoked. Let this be done several times, as if you breathed upon the tablet pronouncing them in the vibratory manner. Then, rising, make the sign of the Rose Cross over the tablet, and repeating the requisite formula, first describe round the talisman a circle, with the appropriate magical implement, and then make the invoking pentagrams five times over it, as if the pentagrams stood upright upon it, repeating the letters of the triplicity involved with AL added. Then solemnly read any invocation required, making the proper signs from the rose as you pronounce the names.
The first operation is to initiate a whorl from yourself. The second, to attract the force in the atmosphere into the vortex you have formed.
Then read the elemental prayer as in the rituals, and close with the signs of the circle and the cross (that is the Rose Cross) after performing the necessary banishing.
Be careful, however, not to banish over the newly consecrated talisman, as that would simply de-charge it again and render it useless. Before banishing, you should wrap the charged talisman in clean white silk or linen.
Sigils
In the opening ceremony of the grade of 5° = 6 Adeptus Minor, the complete symbol of the rose and cross is called the “key of sigils and of rituals,” and it is further said that it represents the forces of the twenty-two letters in nature, as divided into a three, a seven, and a twelve.41
The inner three petals of the rose symbolize the active elements of air, fire, and water, operating in the earth, which is as it were the recipient of them, their container and ground of operation. They are coloured, as are all the other petals, according to the hues of the rainbow in the masculine (positive) scale. The seven next petals answer to the letters of the seven planets, and the twelve outer to the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Now if thou wilt trace the sigil of any word or name either in the air or written upon paper, thou shalt commence with a circle at the point of the initial letter on the rose, and draw with thy magical weapon a line from this circle unto the place of the next letter of the name. Continue this, until thou hast finished the word which the letters compose. If two letters of the same sort, such as two Beths or Gimels, come together, thou shalt represent the same by a crook or wave in the line at that point.
And if there be a letter, as Resh in Metatron, through which the line passeth to another letter and which yet formeth part of the name, thou shalt make a noose in the line at that point thus: to mark the same. If thou art drawing the sigil thou mayest work it in the respective colours of the letters and add these together to form a synthesis of colour. Thus the sigil of Metatron shall be: blue, greenish-yellow, orange, red-orange, and greenish-blue: the synthesis will be a reddish-citron.42
Sigils of Metatron and Elohim
Now we will trace, for example, the sigils of the forces under Binah, the third Sephirah. Incidentally, the sigils for the plane of a Sephirah are always worked out on this system in this order:
First:
Sigil of the Sephirah—Binah.
Second:
Sigil of the divine name, representing the force of the Sephirah in the world of Atziluth. For Binah, YHVH Elohim.
Third:
The sigil of the archangel, representing the force of the Sephirah in Briah—Tzaphqiel.
Fourth:
Sigil of the choir of angels, representing the force of the Sephirah in Yetzirah—Aralim.
Fifth:
The sigil of the sphere of the planet representing the force of the Sephirah in Assiah—Shabbathai.
Finally:
The sigils of any other names whose numbers have some relation to the powers of the Sephirah or its planet.
Sigils of Metatron and Elohim
Sigils of Metatron and Elohim
Sigils of Binah
Sigils of Binah (cont.)
Yet these latter (the sigils of the intelligence and spirit) are more usually taken from the magical kamea or square of the planets according to a slightly different system as will be shown hereafter.
Telesmatic Figures
Now there is also a mode whereby, combining the letters, the colours, the attributions, and their synthesis, thou mayest build up a telesmatic image of a force. The sigil shall then serve thee for the tracing of a current which shall call into action a certain elemental force. And know thou that this is not to be done lightly for thine amusement or experiment, seeing that the forces of nature were not created to be thy plaything or toy. Unless thou doest thy practical magical works with solemnity, ceremony, and reverence, thou shalt be like an infant playing with fire, and thou shalt bring destruction upon thyself.
Know, then, that if thou essay in the imagination to form an astral image from the names, the first letter shall be the head of the figure or form, and the final letter shall be its feet. The other letters shall be, and represent in their order, its body and members.
Agiel, for example, shall give thee an angelic form of the following nature and appearance:
Aleph, air. The head winged and of a golden colour, with long floating golden hair.
Gimel, Luna. Crowned with bluish silver crescent, and with a face like that of a grave and beautiful woman, with a bluish halo.
Yod, Virgo. The body of a maiden clothed in grass green robe.
Aleph, air. Golden wings of a large size, partly covering the power part of the figure.
Lamed, Libra. Feet and limbs well-proportioned and, either in the hand of the figure or lying at its feet, the sword and scales of justice in bright green.
Playing round the figure will be a greenish light, the colour of its synthesis. The keys of the tarot may help thee in the form.
See well also that thou makest the image as pure and beautiful as possible, for the more impure or common the figure, the more dangerous is it unto thee. Write upon the breast its sigil, upon the girdle its name, and place clouds below the feet. And when thou hast done this with due solemnity and rigid correctness of symbolism, shunning as thou wouldst shun death any suggestion of coarseness or vulgarity in an angelic symbol, then hear what it shall say unto thee.
Seraphim will give thee an angelic figure like a warrioress with flame playing about her, and a countenance glorious like the sun, and beneath her feet the stormy sea and thunderclouds, and lightning about her, and a glow as of flame. She has a triangular helmet or headdress of flame like the symbol of fire.
Graphiel will give thee a great angel like a female warrior with a most glorious countenance, crowned with the crescent and flashing with light, and sur
rounded by flame and lightning and with four wings.
The termination EL always gives to angelic forms the wings and symbols of justice. The ending YAH will make the figures like enthroned kings or queens, and with flaming glory at their feet.
The Vibratory Mode of Pronouncing the Divine Names
In vibrating the divine names, the operator should first of all rise as high as possible towards the idea of the divine white brilliance in Kether—keeping the mind raised to the plane of loftiest aspiration. Unless this is done, it is dangerous to vibrate only with the astral forces, because the vibration attracts a certain force to the operator, and the nature of the force attracted rests largely on the condition of mind in which the operator is.
The ordinary mode of vibrating is as follows: Take a deep and full inspiration and concentrate your consciousness in your heart, which answers to Tiphareth. (Having first, as already said, ascended to your Kether, you should endeavour to bring down the white brilliance into your heart, prior to centreing your consciousness there.)
Then formulate the letters of the name required in your heart, in white, and feel them written there. Be sure to formulate the letters in brilliant white light, not merely in dull whiteness as the colour of the Apas tattwa. Then, emitting the breath, slowly pronounce the letters so that the sound vibrates within you, and imagine that the breath, while quitting the body, swells you so as to fill up space. Pronounce the name as if you were vibrating it through the whole universe, and as if it did not stop until it reached the further limits.
All practical occult work which is of any use tires the operator or withdraws some magnetism, and therefore, if you wish to do anything that is at all important, you must be in perfect magnetic and nervous condition, or else you will do evil instead of good.
The Golden Dawn Page 67