Late in 2013, after my week-long ordeal of conjuring all the angels of the elements and planets, culminating in my conjuration of the angel of the fixed stars Iophiel, a good chunk of my Work took a distinctly Christian tone. This wasn’t intentional on my end, but signs kept appearing more and more that, hey, I should probably start investigating this Christ dude more. Not being raised Christian, but calling upon him much in my rituals and prayers, I suppose this was inevitable, especially as I got closer to the sphere of Heaven itself and working with my roots in a Christian Hermetic framework. This is just my experience; not everyone will have this happen to them, for what it’s worth. Still, it’s not like I’m suddenly going to church every week and forsaking magic. Quite the opposite! It’s only spurred me on to work more and more closely with the forces of divinity in a way that’s most culturally accessible to me, including with the Greek theoi, a few African spirits here and there, and the like. It’s all very Hermetic, in the classically-Hermetic confusingly eclectic way that I’m used to it being.
One of the big changes that’s happened since then is that I began a practice to the seven archangels of the Christian tradition, at the suggestion of my good colleague Michael Strojan. These are not the same as the seven planetary angels, and indeed, the seven archangels go higher and are a different type of entity; if they are the same entities as the seven planetary angels, then they’re much rarer, much holier, and wear scarier hats than their planetary counterparts. Working with the seven archangels has benefitted me in subtle ways, making my life better as a result, and it’s ended up with me having to dig deep and find out prayers for them, sometimes writing my own sets of prayers for their devotions.
Eventually, I got tired of having to use printouts of prayers I found online and compiled them into a single document for my own ends. As these things usually turn out for me, this ended up with me elaborating on practices one can develop with the seven archangels, which then resulted in a new ebook for sale: De Archangels, “On the Archangels”, available from my Etsy for only US$10.00!
Coming in at almost 100 pages, this ebook contains pretty much all you need for starting a practice with the seven archangels of the Orthodox Christian tradition with regular devotions, prayers, and offerings, as well as how to seek their aid and presence in your life:
- Information about the history, divine presence, and powers of each archangel
- How to set up an angelic shrine for one archangel or all seven at once
- How to make offerings to and requests of the archangels
- Litanies, chaplets, and novenas for each archangel
- A conjuration ritual to get in more intimate contact with each archangel, including original seals for each of them
This is one of my longer ebooks, and even though it’s a compilation of many Catholic, Orthodox, and general Christian prayers, there’s a lot in there from my own research and development in my own angelic practice. It’s a work I’m proud of, and given the importance of these spirits, I’m kinda surprised there’s not a lot of work being done with them by other occultists. Sure, it’s more churchy than conjure-y, but that doesn’t mean the archangels don’t have anything to offer you. Rather, they have plenty to offer, and are eager to help.
Still, this ebook is not for those who are solidly set against involving any kind of Christian activity in their own practice. This book is pretty much dedicated to Christian magicians or those Christians who have occult inclinations, so don’t expect attempts to link the archangels to the amesha spentas of Zoroastrianism or connections to ancient Mediterranean gods. If you’re set against calling on the name of Jesus Christ, then you may want to pass this book over. Someone on my Facebook asked me if there was anything for “non-monotheist non-Christians” to use when working with angels, and I had to reply that there wasn’t, because there isn’t. Angels exist because of God and for the sake of God; you can’t remove God from the angels. It’s similar to working with Saint Cyprian of Antioch, really, upon which Jason Miller has touched before:
At this time, as my reputation and the reputation of other saints is growing, there are many who invoke us, yet revile and reject the name of Christ. I understand this, as it comes from deep hurt and pain caused by those who act in the Lord’s name, but it is a mistake. Christ is not what you think. He does not care what religion you belong to. He does not care about your acceptance. But if you call upon a saint, have no illusions, you are calling upon the power of Christ. Invoking his name will empower your work. The spirits will respond to it whether you believe or not. The steeples of all the churches will resonate with your working. Taking holy communion will solidify your results. You should not call upon the saints and ignore Christ.
While I know there are people who work with the angels and deny Christ, I can’t say that that’s a smart move, because it denies the ultimate reason they exist in the first place. The angels, especially the seven archangels, are entities from the tradition of Christianity and serve Christ, only carrying out the will of Christ (who is God). If that’s distasteful to you, I don’t hold it against you, but I warn against working with the angels in that case. Otherwise, if you don’t mind calling on Christ or the names of God, or if you actually are Christian and do so with regularity, then you won’t have a problem working with the seven archangels, and highly suggest you do so.
Likewise, this book is intended for Christian occultists or occult-minded Christians, not necessarily for uber-gnostic super-magical Christianity. The prayers and the like in this book are pretty standard stuff you’d find in any Catholic manual of prayer, and doesn’t really have much in the way of making talismans, mojo bags, or candle rituals. Still, such acts can be greatly empowered by calling on the angels and working with them in a devotional form, and this text offers some guides on how to do just that without things seeming overtly ritualized or occult. It’d fit right in with a conjure-worker’s handbook as it would a liberal priest’s, as I plan for it to. If you’re interested in the more explicitly magical stuff you can do with the archangels, I suggest investigating things along the lines of Catholic folk magic or conjurework, or the excellent books from Hadean Press on working with the Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel.
So, if you’re willing to work with the archangels, then check out my ebook today on Etsy for US$10! This is especially good timing, given that we’re approaching the Christmas season and Advent Sunday was this past week in the Catholic calendar. Angels are in the minds of a lot of people, so why not tap into that current with the holiday season?
