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considerable expertise in evocation has been achieved.
To return to the form of ceremony, Aleister Crowley (4) has recommended that the magician first
address the God of the sphere or Sephirah under whose auspices he wishes to work. By prayer and
supplication he appeals for the god's benediction, that He may deign to send the appropriate
Archangel. He then proceeds to beseech the Archangel to send the Angel of that sphere to his aid: He
conjures this Angel to deliver the Intelligence in question, and in turn he conjures this Intelligence
with authority to compel the appearance, obedience and manifestation of the Spirit, to whom he issues
commands. Implicit in these commands addressed via a chain of authority is both the separateness of
the magician and the spirit, and the strict hierarchy of the non-physical worlds. This detailed sub-
division of entities ranging from the most high God to the lowliest elemental spirit is characteristic of
qabalistic magic, to which Crowley was no stranger. (5) The medieval grimoires settled for one or two
stages of this process, usually just calling on the Prince or King directly in charge of the spirit to be
evoked.
As far as equipment is concerned the magician uses in all evocations a circle and a triangle, the latter
being the figure painted or drawn on the floor and appropriately consecrated which contains and limits
the spirit, whilst the magician and his assistants occupy the circle. (6) The temple furnishings thereby
reflect the nature of the operation: asserting the duality of the operation and the recognition that the
spirit being much 'less divine' than a god, is not to be accepted into the consciousness of the magician
unconditionally but must manifest, be examined, questioned and bound before being licensed to
depart again to its own place.
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[
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4] Aleister Crowley. Magick in Theory and Practice. Castle Books, New York, nd Chapter II.
5] These hierarchies from Godname through Archangel, Angel and Spirit to Intelligence are listed for
the seven planetary spheres in the table in Chapter Eight.
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6] See the diagram.
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