Teachings: A Ritual of the Heptagram

by Benjamin Rowe

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A Ritual of the Heptagram

1: The magickal circle has the Heptagram inscribed, with its points touching
the circle. Topmost point directed east. Glyphs of the planets or other
appropriate sigillia should be drawn within the angles of the Heptagram.
For invocations, the lotus wand or a planetary wand should be used. Either
wand or the sword may be used for banishings.

2: Circumambulate the magickal circle with the magickal weapon directed
outwards.

Make the sign of Osiris Risen. Recite:

I, R, N, I

Yod, Resh, Nun, Yod

Isis, Horus, Set, Thoth

The linking of the Earth with the Stars!

Isis - Nature, the Fullness of Earth! Horus - Warrior, the Triumph of Sol!
Set - Apostate, Seed of Rebellion! Thoth - Perfection, Uniting them all!

Go to first point of Heptagram, draw the Heptagram of Saturn, invoking:
ShBThAI, unmoving, horizon of perception, by IHVH ALHIM I invoke you!. Go
clockwise following the lines of the Heptagram, drawing the Heptagrams of
the planets and invoking the divine names & planets in this order:

4th point:

ShMSh, thou Sun, by IHVH ALVH VDOTh I invoke you!

7th point:

LBNH, whiteness in night, ShDI AL ChI enlivens you!

3rd point:

MADIM, ruler of forces, by ALHIM GBVR I invoke you!

6th point:

KVKB, fleet star, ALHIM TzBAVTh moves you!

2nd point:

TzDQ, righteous one, by AL I invoke you!

5th point:

NVGH, brightness of morning, IHVH TzBAVTh is your god! Complete the
hexagram by returning to the first point. 4:

Return to the center of the circle, face east. Recite:

Isis - Nature, the Fullness of Earth!

Horus - Warrior, the Triumph of Sol! Set - Nay-Sayer, Seed of Rebellion!
Thoth - Perfection, Uniting them All!

Make the sign of Osiris Risen.
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Symbolism and Visualizations.

1: This brief ritual was designed as a general planetary invocation and
banishing, to be used when invoking the Heptarchic Royalty and the angels
of the Table of the 49 Good Angels. The symbolism of these divine beings is
based on the number seven rather than six, with Sol being treated as one
among equals, instead of being given a place of primacy. The ritual can
also be used as a substitute for the Hexagram Ritual in other,
non-Heptarchic workings.

The preferred form of the Heptagram is the G.D. version. Going clockwise
from the topmost point, the planets are attributed to the points in the
order of their apparent rate of motion, from slowest to fastest. This is
identical with the order of their corresponding sephiroth in the Tree of
Life. I use this ordering because when the Heptagram is drawn, the planets'
points are touched in the order of the days of the week. Thus this version
of the Heptagram embodies both macrocosmic and microcosmic aspects of the
planetary powers.

The orientation of Heptagram inscribed in the magickal circle is arbitrary.
One can make valid arguments for several different orientations, and the
magician should use the orientation that fits his own preferences.

To draw the invoking heptagram of a planet, start at the point attributed
to the planet and move clockwise. The banishing Heptagram is drawn by
starting at the same point and going counter-clockwise. The glyph of the
planet is drawn in the center of the completed Heptagram.

2: Points 2 and 3 of this ritual describe a complete cycle. Point 2
represents the raising of the Earth to the stars by expansion of the
elementally-based formula of INRI/IRNI to include the entire Tree of Life.
Point 3 represents the response of the macrocosmos being fixed in matter.

The spoken portion of point 2 is a revision of the G.D. Hexagram ritual and
the keyword INRI to conform with an initiatory system shown to me by the
Enochian spirits. This system is described in the chapbook Enochian Temples
and the related papers in the Archives. Readers interested in the fine
details of the system should consult those documents. Briefly, this system
divides the Tree of Life into four sections instead of the three major
divisions of the G.D. system, and views initiation as a more dynamic
process than the G.D. does. The four stages are:

Isis - Lunar-planetary stage. Corresponds to the Outer Order of the G.D.
system. Elemental Earth, astrological Virgo.

Horus - Solar-planetary stage. Corresponds to the transitional grades
between the Outer Order and the Order of the Rose Cross, the grade of
Adeptus Minor, and the paths between that grade and the full Adept grades.
Elemental fire, astrologically Sol/Aries.

Set - Solar-systemic stage. Corresponds to the full Adept grades, and the
paths connecting these grades with the grades of Magister Templi and Magus.
Elemental water, astrologically Scorpio.

Thoth or Nepthys - Cosmic stage. Corresponds to the "Secret Chiefs" of the
G.D., or the Order of the A.A. in Crowley's system. Normally Thoth is
attributed to the last I of IRNI as ruler of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars.
In this ritual Nepthys, in her aspect as a goddess of perfection, is
substituted to maintain a balance between the masculine and feminine
forces. Elemental Air, astrologically Mercury / Aquarius (Thoth) or Libra
(Nepthys).

Thelemic magicians might want to consider the correspondence between these
four gods and the thelemic quadruplicity of Babalon, Horus, Hadit, and
Nuit. There is also a strong correspondence between the IRNI formula and
the fixed zodiacal signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius.

The ritual begins with the sign of Osiris because it is Osiris, humanity,
that passes through these four stages of initiation. The sign of Osiris
Risen is used instead of Osiris Slain because Man must have conquered the
worlds of the elements and become the Pentagram before he can enter into
the purely planetary realms. The magician affirms that he has accomplished
this task by giving the sign.

The first three spoken lines are an abstract analysis of the keyword, along
the same lines as the G.D. Hexagram Ritual. The next line celebrates both
action of the IRNI formula and the purpose of the ritual. IRNI links the
Earth with the stars by encompassing the Tree. The ceremony links the Earth
with the stars because the sephiroth with planetary attributes lie between
Malkuth and Chokmah, sphere of the fixed stars. The line also links the
abstract preceding three lines with the concrete and qualitative
descriptions of the following four lines, to make the holy seven that is
the basis of the ritual.

The final four lines describe the attributes of the four initiatory stages
and the corresponding parts of the Tree through commemoration of the
relevant characteristics of the gods. As these lines are recited, the gods
should be visualized at the four quarters, in backgrounds suggestive of the
qualities mentioned. For instance, Isis could be seen standing amidst lush
vegetation, Horus standing above a battlefield strewn with the bodies of
his enemies, etc.

3: In invoking the planets, the lines of the Heptagram are followed in
order to tie the planetary powers to the Earth. Invoking each point in
order clockwise does not seem to produce as stable a manifestation. The
large Heptagram within the circle can be viewed as the Heptagram of Earth,
and the invoked powers as its sub-aspects. The magickal image of the planet
or its sephira should be visualized standing beyond each Heptagram after it
is drawn.

The invocation of the planets uses the Hebrew planet names and god-names.
The English following each planet's name is a loose translation of the
Hebrew inserted purely for emphasis. The variations in phrasing in the
invocations of Luna, Mercury, and Venus ("enlivens you", "moves you", "is
your god") are a cabalistic pun on the old Theosophical phrase concerning
the worlds in which the uninitiated man "Lives, and moves, and has his
being". The sephiroth corresponding to these planets are the cabalistic
equivalents of the Theosophical worlds.

The planet names are used first, to emphasize that the planets are not
merely points of light in the sky expressing the Assiatic aspect of cosmic
forces, but the bodies of beings expressing themselves in all four worlds;
beings whose power and nature qualifies them as gods in their own right.

Our magickal conception of the universe should always conform to the known
facts of physical reality. Prior to the advent of space travel, our
subjective experience of the planets as moving points of light was more or
less in conformance with the limited objective view. But telecommunications
and space probes have now provided us with a clearer perspective on their
true nature. The subjective experience is now shown to be only a product of
our relative locations in space.

But while the new objective view invalidates the naive subjective view of
the planets, it actually enhances the magickal view of their natures. Each
of the known planets has at least one outstanding physical characteristic
that is a perfect correspondence to the traditional magickal view of its
nature and powers. For instance, Saturn's rings are a graphic symbol of its
restrictive and limiting nature. Mars' surface is covered with iron, the
traditional metal of the planet. Mars also has the largest volcano in the
solar system, an order of magnitude larger than any on Earth, confirming
the traditional violence of its nature.

A similar alteration must be made in our view of the Earth. She is still
the sphere of the Elements - nowhere else in the solar system are they as
active as here. Her place as the life-holder is also still secure. But the
traditional magickal view of the Earth as the material pole of the
matter-spirit duality has to be modified.

Our space explorations have shown that matter is much the same elsewhere in
the solar system as it is here. There is no reason to think that this
sameness can not be extended to the rest of the universe. The Earth is in
no way more "material" than any other place. Our perception of the Earth as
different in some way from the rest of the universe is purely subjective,
and completely relative.

Further, matter itself has proven to be much different from the naive
subjective view. Beneath its seeming palpability is another world of
sub-atomic particles; and the further scientists delve into that smaller
world, the more it seems that there might be an even smaller world, and
smaller worlds yet beyond that one.

The same is true in the physical macrocosm. We have pushed our conception
of the universe to the theoretical limits of direct knowledge, but our
knowledge and the very structure of our conception is beginning to demand
that we conceive that universe as being but a limited, relatively local
phenomenon, a bubble in some meta-universal stream of activity.

So our view of the physical universe is proving to be only a slice, a range
of phenomena in a continuum whose true limits are beyond our perception,
perhaps beyond our ability to conceive. Following the law of
correspondences the subjective spirit-matter duality described by the Tree
of Life must also be seen as a section of a larger continuum; beyond the
horizon of our perception in both the spiritual and material directions
must exist other realms as yet unperceived. Neither Malkuth nor Kether is
an absolute limit to existence, but both are merely the horizon beyond
which we can not presently see. Malkuth may be seen as the Kether of some
sub-microcosmic Tree, and Kether the Malkuth of a larger Tree.

Under this conception, we must abandon the idea of the Earth being
irrevocably tied to Malkuth. Viewed from the spatial perspective she
actually encloses the elements, and the life she holds, within herself.
Therefore she is properly placed in Binah. Under this same conception
Saturn, representing limitation, the "horizon" beyond which we can not see
but only speculate, can be taken out of Binah and more properly placed in
Malkuth.

The astrological characters of the two planets have always supported such a
move -- a fact that has been indirectly recognized by many writers as early
as the Golden Dawn era. There is no obvious reason why the change has not
been proposed formally before now. Perhaps it is the fact that the Hebrew
divine names are the only truly effective means of evocation that has been
available, and the Hebrew system is based entirely on the naive, subjective
view in which the Earth was an infinite expanse of stone totally separated
from the ethereal realms above. The only system of comparable
effectiveness, the Enochian system, as yet lacks a framework for invoking
the powers of the planets themselves, though the Heptarchy provides an
avenue to those powers through angelic intermediaries.
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