Hail, Hermes!

I don't usually talk to gods, much less to Greek gods. I feel they're far too distant and alien to me.

But the more I learned about Hermes, the more I feel a sense of familiar comfort with him. Basically, he governs most of those things that I do and love: travel, languages, magic, athletics, the Internet...even my job as a software developer. I've also always had some sort of affinity with child-like trickster gods being a goofball myself.

Last year, Aldrin and Kaye invited me over to celebrate Hermaia Eriounia, the feast day of Hermes as the luck bringer. Being a sucker for luck and pagan rites, I joined, of course, bringing with me four votive offerings I made in the form of animals sacred to Hermes. Each offering is for each quarter of the coming year, to ask for blessings and such.

Aldrin's Graeco-Roman rituals have always been beautiful and eloquent, with the right balance of reverence and mirth. Hermes just loves sweet things, so the feast consisted of food with alarmingly high glycemic index, which I immensely partook of nonetheless.

There is nothing like holding a feast in the middle of a lush, grassy farm.

My votive offering of a bee in a tetradrachm of Ephesos, and four foreign coins from my travels.

Even as a magician, I'm not the type who would readily ascribe seemingly synchronistic incidents to divine and supernatural forces. But early this year, a series of events led me to attend a Forex seminar - one of the last things I would find myself going to. Later, I realized: trading foreign currencies - how very Hermes is that?

Surprisingly I found the talk to be quite interesting and it has led me to discover stuff like stocks and investments. I've always thought I was pretty good at handling my money until then. A few weeks later on, I was able to transform my savings account into a diverse portfolio of stocks, mutual funds and trust funds. Finances have always bored me, but I'm glad I found the heart to be smarter with my money now. I wish I've learned this before.

The second quarter just began with the very Hermes April Fool's day. I know it's wrong to expect gifts, but I couldn't help wondering what blessing he has for me this time.

Khaire Herme!

Turtle

Dog

Cock

Read more »

Enochian Journal 2: Seven Ensigns and Five Sigillums

The Ensigns of Creation

The Ensigns of Creation should be the easiest to produce since I have just decided to print them out. The hardest part actually is deciding where to print them on. I went to the nearest National Bookstore branch and asked around for something like a cardboard with a metallic color - to represent tin, the material which the ensigns were originally made of. All three salesladies I asked said they had no such thing, so I settled for a white, high-quality, Italy-made, 270gms board paper. I was already going to pay at the counter when I decided to go back and check again. And voila, they do have metallic cardboards - and they were just on the opposite shelf. Darn these salesladies. I chose the one with the light silver tint, but I really like the white board paper too so I decided to get them both.

I found that the right size for the ensigns for my 8"x8" Tabula Sancta should be an inch and a half, giving space for the Sigillum in the middle and not obscuring the letters around the table.

I don't have a printer at home so I had to use the printer at the office, which is a shared printer and is miles away from my cubicle, so printing the ensigns was very tricky. I really don't want the ensigns to end up in somebody's monthly reports, or someone's vacation leave form being printed on my high-quality board papers. Thankfully, none didn't happen and my two sets of ensigns, white and metallic, turned out looking pretty.

I also found that the metallic board paper was heavily scented. Now my ensigns smell like wedding invitation cards.

I have quite a number of copies printed, actually.

 As I place them in sequence on the Holy Table, I try to remember and recite the names of the Kings and Princes of the Tabula Bonorum associated with each ensigns.

The Sigillum Dei Aemeth

I looked around in the internet for a template of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth (SDA). Thankfully there is one, and so I had this printed and xeroxed in 50 copies (you can't have too many). I also had copies reduced to half of it's size for the actual SDA's I will be using.

For writing the names in the Sigillum I used a Dong-A gel pen, but I would have chosen something with a thinner tip as it was challenging to use for drawing some of the characters in the very small SDA. The first Sigillum took me almost 30 minutes, but the rest were progressively easier to make. I was all tensed up as I was writing the characters so I ended up very exhausted. I was tensed because I was very careful not to screw up or else I would have to start all over again. I finished tracing the five Sigillums after about 3 hours, 2 donuts and a large cup of coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts joint. All that was left to do was paste them on a board, cut them out, and draw another sigil on their backsides.

Filling up the Sigillum template is actually a fun activity.

The five small Sigillums fit just quite right on a 10"x15" illustration board.

 Drawing the AGLA sigil on the back of the Sigillums. 
Thank goodness I still remember my geometry lessons.

Front and back of the five SDAs. One to be placed on the table and four under each of the table's legs.

The table and its "accessories" are now complete. I finally have an Enochian temple that fits in a shoe box. Now to begin with the Lamen and the ring.


Enochian Temple Kit

• Table or Practice (done)
• 7 Ensigns of Creation (done)
• 5 Sigillvm Dei Aemeth (done)
• Lamen
• PELE ring
• Optional Stuff:
• Tablet of Nalvage (optional)
• 4 Watchtowers (already made them years ago)

Read more »