the ritual of phul

On Monday, 22nd of November 2010, a night of full moon and

during the first hour of the moon I performed the first ritual of
the Arbatel series. The ritual of the Olympic Spirit of the Moon
whose governor is Phul.

A close friend and I had been working since the beginning of

the year, with multiple interruptions of our day jobs, to bring
together the full Arbatel ritual structure as well as all necessary
paraphernalia. Both of us are practicing magicians since many
years and so we had the usual stock of ritual equipment. As I
am living on the countryside we also had the luxury of a
spacious temple, fitted into an old saddle factory barn next to
my house.

The following document is my personal report on the

preparation, completion an conclusions of the evocation of the
Olympic Spirit of Phul. Everything expressed is an accurate and
honest account of the preparation and work done between
December 2009 and November 2010. Everything stated is also
nothing but my personal experience and opinion. Still, I hope it
will serve others in their practical work and can contribute to
further maintain both of pillars of our craft - science and art.

1) preparation
Our journey started from Joseph Peterson's critical edition of
the Arbatel - the magic of the Ancients from 2009. This
beautiful book provides the full Arbatel text in Latin and
English translation. Moreover, the Arbatel rites had been
performed multiple times before and several magicians had
kindly shared their experiences online.
What was rather obscure, however, was the actual ritual
structure that is supposed to frame the Arbatel prayers. As it
wasnt given in the Second or Third Septenary andthe main
corpus of the Arbatel was lost or never even published, we had
to fill in these blank spots ourselves.

On first reading of the Arbatel aphorisms it becomes obvious

that there are no clear instructions included on how to call the
Olympic Spirits. It might seem ambiguous for example wether
the prayer in the Second Septenary, Aphorism 14 is meant to
be integrated into a larger ritual structure or simply recited in
front of an altar, with the sigil of the Olympic Spirit underneath
a holy cross.

The author, however, hints at several points in the text to the

fact that the spirits are to be summoned or evoked rather than
prayed to under the protection of God alone. The most obvious
hint is the fact that the author deliberately offers his
knowledge to the true and divine Magician and not to a
scholar, mystic or monk. Secondly, the language in the quote
below invokes the impression of a master-servant relationship
which is so typical for many Grimoires. This type of relationship
is hard to establish in a mystical prayer without any protection
of a magical circle or other consecrated paraphernalia that
extend the might of the magician beyond his individual
persona:

The true and divine Magician may use all the creatures of
God, and offices of the Governours of the world, at his own
will, for that the Governours of the world are obedient unto
them, and come when they are called, and do execute their
commands (...)
(Third Septenary, Aphorism 17)

These indications led us to believe that the author actually

meant evocation when he wrote prayer in the following two
quotes.

Magically the Princes of the seven Governments are called

simply, in that time, day and hour wherein they rule visibly or
invisibly, by their Names and Offices which God hath given
unto them; and by proposing their Character which they have
given or confirmed.
(Third Septenary, Aphorism 17)

When you would call any of the Olympick Spirits, observe the
rising of the Sun that day, and of what nature the Spirit is
which you desire; and saying the prayer following, your desires
shall be perfected.
(Third Septenary, Aphorism 21)

Finally, at the end of the evocation that follows the quote

above the magician gives a license to depart to the spirit. This
ritual element together with stated gratitude of the magician
for the appearance and obedience of the spirit are clear
testaments that the Third Septenary of the Arbatel is meant to
provide instructions on how to actually summon the Olympic
Spirits in a ritual setting rather than purely praying for their
appearance.

Having clarified the basic approach to the evocation of the

Arbatel spirits, we were still left with a lot of blanks in the
actual ritual structure. Especially the frame rituals for
establishing a banned, consecrated space and heightening the
mind and trance of the magician had to be decided.

We settled on the principle to try the most simple approach

first - and alter it as we continue to perform all seven Olympic
Spirit rituals in case the desired effects werent achieved with
the initial structure. Therefore we chose the Lesser Banishing
Ritual of the Pentagram together with a slightly adjusted
version of the Ritual of the Hexagram as frame rituals. The
adjustment in the hexagram ritual was to replace the symbol
within the Hexagram with the sigil of the spirit in question. I.e.
for Phul we would draw hexagrams of water in all quarters of
the earth and one additional hexagram above the altar facing
west. Yet we would use the sigil of Phul in the centre as
opposed to the traditional head of an eagle.

This allowed us to come up with the following basic ritual

structure:

1. Kabbalistic Cross

2. Lesser Banishing ritual of the Pentagram

3. Welcoming of God in the four quarters of the circle

4. Adjusted Hexagram ritual of the Moon

5. Gesture of the opening of the veil

6. Arbatel prayer for protection of God and consecration of

Table of Practice (from Second Septenary, Aphorism 14)

7. Arbatel evocation of Phul (from Third Septenary,

Aphorism 21)

8. Communion with Phul

9. Gesture of the closing of the veil

 10. Lesser Banishing ritual of the Pentagram

11. Ritual license to depart

Finally, we had to decide on the locus of evocation, the place

for the spirit to manifest or concentrate its influence in. We
settled on Trithemius famous Table of Practice as the
appropriate place to bind the spirit forces in. The creation of
this device took almost six months and I have shared the
related report in this article.

Having clarified our structural approach to the rite let me

briefly talk about my personal attitude and intention for the
acts(s). It was important to me that the successful communion
with the respective Olympic Spirit should be the only goal of
the rites. Rather than performing the rituals for reasons of
personal material gain or spiritual support, my focus should be
entirely on understanding the nature of the Olympic Spirits
themselves. The series of rituals therefore was conceived as an
exploration into the nature of the Olympic Spirits through
evocation and spirit communication.

With this brief introduction to our general approach, let me

share the description of my personal experience of the Arbatel
ritual of the Olympic Spirit of Phul. I have tried to keep this
description as true and faithful as possible to what happened
on this morning. Therefore the report might come with some
obvious statements for experienced magicians but hopefully
provide many personal details I had hoped to hear about
during the early years of my own magical journey.

2) ritual description
All things are possible to them that believe them, and are
willing to receive them;
but to the incredulous and unwilling, all things are unpossible
(...).
(Third Septenary, Aphorism 20)

2a) opening

I entered the temple an hour before the first hour of the Moon
on Monday, 22nd of November. It was very cold in the
unheated, large room and I moved through the darkness as I
prepared the circle candles, altar and paraphernalia for the
ritual. My hands were numb by the time I settled into my
meditation position under a warm black cloak and brought my
mind to rest. I meditated my standard opening: long breaths of
Pranayama followed by a journey to a wooden platform high
above the forests where I swept the floor and met my holy
guardian angel (HGA). I felt calm and focussed, yet excited and
tense at the same time as always before such a ritual I had
prepared for several months.

Then I put on my sacred robe and paraphernalia. The belt for

taming my desires, the crown for taming my mind, the moon
stone ring for directing the energies released from my right,
the Lamen to protect my heart and to put it under the
protection of the operating spirit, Phul.