The Shem Tradition by Nenad Djordevic-Talerman

Names of God and Angels

Different groups of people have their favorite ways of naming God. For example, the ancient Gnostics preferred to say Good God, Merciful God, or Aeon of Aeons, while modern Christians use names of God from the Bible, such as Living God or Lord God. Muslims have 99 beautiful names of God. The Masonic focus on space and architecture is also expressed through their vision of God as God of the Universe, Great Architect of the Universe, or Chief Architect of the Created Universe. Magicians use many names of God for various purposes, favoring the importance of Adonai for protection, Ararita for planetary magic, or AGLA for evocations. Some names of God are used in informal speech or in exclamation of surprise or annoyance, like Gosh. Another of the informal examples, Golly, was first written in 1775 in Gilbert White’s journal, where it is referred to it as “a sort of jolly kind of oath…”

Many historical and legendary figures were said to perform miracles with the names of God. God’s name Delazhat enabled Joshua to make the Sun stand still. Astas was what Moses said when his staff changed into a serpent. Pantheon made the prophet David escape the hands of Goliath with victory. Joseph invoked El Adonai Tzabaoth and was found worthy to escape from his brothers. Leazyns was one of many names of God that Adam used in the beginning of each of his undertaking.

The names of God rule over different nations, planets, sephirot, and even cosmic paths. For example, God’s names for Chesed are El and Yehova, El Gibor rules Mars, Iah the Moon, and Tehod is God’s name of the 9th path from Chesed to Geburah. HHA rules the Greeks and HKM the French. 

Perhaps because the names of God are omnipresent and countless, in magical and mystical literature there is a tendency to single out the most important ones and limit them to specific number. Thus, for example, there are 70 names written on God’s heart (Merkavah Rabba) and 24 letters written upon God’s crown (The Sword of Moses). The Sworn Book of Honorius lists 100 names of God. There are 12 explained names of God in The Book of Bahir. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses mentions about 100 names of God delivered to Adam and about 100 names of God delivered to Moses

Since the 5^th century, 72 names of God have been most commonly used. The Third Book of Enoch, a Biblical apocryphal book from the 5^th century, was perhaps among the first to announce that there are 72 names written on God’s heart. Some of the names are correctly transcribed from Hebrew to English, for example QQQ, WWW, PPP, HH, and NN. Others are poorly transcribed, for example, ROKeB, Both, ‘aRa, and DGUL. In the later Hekhalot literature many names of God, such as ŠWWH, SWT, and SWRYSTWN, are almost impossible to interpret. 

The classical cabalistic work Sefer ha-Bahir (The Book of Bahir or The Book of Brilliance), written in Provence in 1174, is the earliest known text that documents a reconstruction of the 72 God’s names derived from the 72 triads of Biblical verses (Exodus 14:19-21). According to this book, the 72 names of God were first given to the angel Mesamariah, who “stands before the Curtain”. This book tells that Mesamariah passed on the 72 names of God to Elijah on the Mount Carmel, and “that Elijah ascended with them and did not taste death”. Unlike previous mystical literature, all names of God in The Book of Bahir are standardized and appear in three letters, such as VHU, YLY, SIT, ELM, LLH, and KHT.

The idea that God has 72 most important names was further advanced by The Zohar (The Book of Splendour), 1270. Because this was the most influential early text on cabala, consequently, all of the important Cabalists accepted the standardized 72 three-letter names of God. 

The 72 names of God found their way from Cabala to Western magical literature as early as in the 13^th century. However, Westerners had a hard time pronouncing those names because they were originally written in Hebrew. This problem was so significant that it made the great English philosopher Roger Bacon (1219/20-1292) complain about how badly they were transcribed from Hebrew into Latin. 

The Western Magi also found their own unique ways of calling the 72 names of God in Latin or their native languages. In Ganell’s Summa Sacre Magice, a huge 13^th century encyclopedia of diverse magical materials, the names of God are a mixture of Christian, Greek and Jewish traditions, such as Ysiston, Asmamyas, and Abracaleus. Liber Juratus (The Sworn Book Honorius), an authentic grimoire from the 13th century, gives the 72 names of God only one respective letter, such as A, B, C, or D. In the 13th-century booklet, 72 Names of God, most of God’s names were written in the Old Slavonic language, although some also appeared in Greek and Latin.

Perhaps, Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), a German humanist, cabalist and magician, first came up with the idea of ​​connecting angels with the corresponding 72 three-letter names of God, for example, VHU with Vehuiah, YLY with Jeliel, SIT with Sitale, ELM with Elemiah, LLH with Lelahel, and KHT with Kehatel. Thus, by inserting the words “El” or “Yah”, he received the 72 names of Shemhamphorash angels. As the first Christian thinker to present cabala as a philosophy to be applied to the benefit of European civilization, his De arte caballistica (1517) is the earliest printed Latin text with the names of Shemhamphorash angels. J. Reuchlin wrote that 72 ”inexpressible” names of God correspond to the numerical value of 72 for the divine name IHVH. Speaking about the 72 names of God, Reuchlin also wrote, ”These hallowed signs are in the present days stored in memories and by these symbols the angels are summoned and bring help to men to the praise and glory of the ineffable God…” According to Reuchlin, the names of the angels are products of the will of God. They are based on the Tetragrammaton, and through this connection they illumine and enhance man’s spiritual return to God.

Sixteen years after the publishing of Reuchlin’s De arte caballistica, the famous magician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) mentioned Shemhamphorash angels in his Third Book on Occult Philosophy, Chapters 25-27, (1533). Agrippa’s focus was on how to use Tables of Ziruph in order to find and evoke angels or demons and how to identify an angelic name based on one’s natal chart. Agrippa tells that Shemhamphorash angels are set up over: 72 Celestial quinaries, 72 nations, 72 languages, 72 joints of the human body, 72 seniors of the Synagogue, and 72 disciples of Christ. Speaking of angels in general, Agrippa said that “Yah” should be used only for good angels and “El” for both good angels and “evil spirits.”

The number of magi who became acquainted with the Shem angels expanded after Agrippa. One of them, Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596), the French diplomat, alchemist, translator, and cryptologist wrote The Table of 72 Angels. This book includes lists of the names, characters, sigils, and Psalm verses in Latin attributed to the 72 Shem angels, as well as the days over which they preside. There are no instructions on evocations, and the functions of only 11 angels are given. The contemporary magician Gibril, a collector of old grimoires, discovered two other 18^th-century copies and one early 19^th-century English translation of The Table of 72 Angels. Gibril detected that they contained basically the same text, but none of them mentioned Vigenère as the authors. A unique method described in those three manuscripts is to call up the Shem angels to provide the answers to questions through dreams. 

Vigenère’s work also shows that evocations of Shem angels became a part of magical practices in the 16^th century.  Several more books about the Shem angels were written in the 17^th century. Sir Simonds d’Ewes (1602 –1650), an English politician, parliament member, and antiquary, had a large collection of manuscripts, including a book allegedly written by the mysterious magician Dr. Rudd. Titled Liber Malorum Spirituum seu Goetia, it was an interesting version of Lemegaton, a magical grimoire dedicated to Goetic magic. Today, this work by Dr. Rudd is kept in the British Harley Library and archived under the titles “Harley 6482” and “Harley 6843”. 

“Harley 6482” includes: sections on the Schemhamphorash angels, hierarchies of fallen angels, images of the Moon mansions, nature spirits, John Dee’s Enochian system of angelic conjurations, and Dr. Rudd’s Treatise on the Nine Hierarchies of Angels. “Harley 6483” consists of a version of Heptameron and some other magical tracts, but most importantly begins with Dr. Rudd’s Lemegaton, in which he has included the seals of the 72 Shem angels, along with the seals of the 72 spirits of Goetia. This book does not describe the Shem angels, but it does connect their names and seals with related Psalm verses. Both the Shemhamphorash and Goetic seals are drawn in circles, and although none are labeled “front” or “back”, it is reasonable to assume that they were intended to form the same lamen, but the manuscript does not actually say anything about this. 

The question of Dr. Rudd’s authenticity is unresolved. Some writers, like Skinner and Rankine, have identified him with Thomas Rudd (1583?–1656), an English military engineer and mathematician. The objection has been raised that there is little evidence that Thomas and Doctor Rudd are the same person. Some experts say that that there are a number of grimoires attributed to Dr. Rudd, so they think that either Rudd didn’t exist, was merely a copyist, or was a cover name for a group of people engaged in the same work. 

A contemporary of Sir Simonds d’Ewes’ was Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), a German Jesuit scholar, the “Master of a Hundred Arts”, and “the last man who knew everything”. A. Kircher wrote between 1652 and 1654, three tomes of Oedipus Aegyptiacus, famed as a great work of egyptology, which parts also include his observations on 72 God’s names and relevant Shemhamphorash angels. 

Kircher’s diagram, called “Mirror of the Mystical cabala”, appeared in the second volume of this trilogy (page 281). It has a form of the sunflower-like mandala bearing the names of God of which all are linked to 72 angels and 72 nations that make up the humanity. Kircher also gives a verse from the Book of Psalms for each Shem angel, except for the 70^th, whom the first verse from Genesis is given. As A. Kircher was a Catholic priest, in the spirit of his time, he formally condemned Shem amulets and rejected the magical practicing of cabala, even though his Shem diagram is a master-piece of magic. 

Shem angels are also mentioned in early pamphlet-versions of The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses from the late 18^th century. A Shemhamphorash talisman appears in the second book with the 36 angels on the front side and the equal number of angels on the back side. If the angel’s name intended to be evoked is on the front side, the magician should use its front side, but if it appears on the back side, he should use the back side. The influence of The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses was limited until it was printed in Germany in 1849. Thereafter it spread rapidly through Germany and Northern Europe and soon became popular among African Americans in the US, the Caribbean, and West Africa.                     

Before The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses gained popularity, Athanasius Kircher had already inspired several generations of magicians to incorporate evocations of Shem angels into their magical practices. Foremost among them, Martinez de Pasqually (1727?–1774), a theurgist and theosophist, was the founder of the Order of the Elus Cohens (1761) and a few other masonic and magical orders in France. His followers, Martinists engaged in contact with the 72 names of God, invoked “the Angels of the Elohim”, and obtained personal contacts with their Holy Guardian Angels along their upward path of the Tree of Life. At the highest of the three degrees of the Order of the Elus-Cohen, the evocation of the entities belonging to the Divine Plane was also carried out.

The French magician Lazare Lenain partially revealed the secrets of Martinist magical rituals in his book La Science Cabalistique, 1823. This book was certainly influenced by Athanasius Kircher and The Table of 72 Angels, ascribed to Blaise de Vigenère, and possibly also by some other manuscripts of unknown origin. It gives a comprehensive description of all the Shemhamphorash angels, including their associated psalms, days, and even “bad angels”. L. Lenain did not reveal the names of the “bad angels”, but he mentioned the misdeeds they were capable of doing. He also omitted to give the angels’ seals. His book was influential among Martinists and French-speaking magicians.

The original Order of the Elus-Cohens ceased to exist in the late 18^th or early 19^th century. It was revived by Papus in 1884 and again after the Second World War by Robert Ambelain. 

 Franz Buchmann-Naga, inspired by Papus and possibly some other authors, wrote in 1925 a book Key to the 72 Names of God of the Kabbalah, in which he claimed that Shem angels were actually Mercurial spirits. Franz Buchmann-Naga was experimenting with his partner from September 1916 till January 1917, 450 kilometers apart from each other. In their evocations, Vehuiah appeared in different occasions clothed with a gown as common in the middle ages, a foggy structure with “lovely but loud sound of a bell”, or with the number of ball-lightnings, making the impression of “fiery eyes”. Mumiah, called for the protection in the astral sphere, appeared in a “gentle bell sound”. Damabiah, evoked in order to cause levitation, emerged with the strange cracking sounds coming from south, upholding three fingers in a swearing gesture, after which Naga’s partner fell asleep dreaming about floating in the sky and flying. The next time they evoked Damabiah, his partner had the impression that he became weightless and lifted a little bit. Franz Buchmann-Naga and his partner used special Shem talismans containing associating Psalm verses (in Latin) and names of God (from Kircher’s diagram). The reversed side of their talismans contained the name of Divine attribute written in Latin (in the case Vehuiah his attribute is “Deus Exaltator”). Franz Buchmann-Naga left a fascinating material, but he also honestly admitted that during his experiments he had not had the proper training to work effectively with the available information. 

The Czech magician Franz Bardon accepted Buchmann-Naga’s opinion of the Shem angels as spirit from Mercury and identified them as the 72 genii of the Mercury Zone. In his youth, Franz Bardon was a member of the Horev Club, a group of Czech magicians, who worked together from the early to mid-20^th century, evoking different hierarchies of spirits, including the Shem angels. Not much of their material remains except for the work lodge diaries which also include photos of their instruments and of astral beings caught on camera. Franz Bardon argues in his book The Practice of Magical Evocation that the 72 genii of Mercury sphere express “quality” but not “quantity” of Shemhamphorash. Bardon explains that quantity was related to God’s name which was superior to quality which was represented by Mercury genii. According to Bardon’s system, God has 72 “quantity keys” which are explained to humans by 72 genii of Mercury through their “quality keys”. Bardon’s quantity keys are the same as God’s names from Kircher’s diagram. According to F. Bardon, he received from the Shem angels their true sigils. Following his instruction, the magician should draw them in yellow color during the first evocation. 

 Around the same time that Franz Bardon was writing his three famous books, Robert Ambelain, the French magician and the revivor of the Martinist movement, was completing his Practical Kabala (1951), another important work on magic. Ambelain’s book is basically a reproduction of Lenain’s book La Science Cabalistique from 1823. The entire text is the same in both books. The main difference is that is R. Amblain also published the seals of the 72 Shem angels from the 16^th-century book The Table of 72 Angel, attributed to Blaise de Vigenère, which Lenain had omitted to reveal. According to Ambelain, without those seals, Lenain’s book was unusable for evocations. Additionally, R. Ambelain gave (on page 70), an interesting glyph of the Tree of Life, though he failed to say whether it is his own or taken from other sources. In that glyph, all the sephiroth, except Malkuth, were represented by their own Trees of Life. Consequently, there are 72 inner sephiroth governed by relevant 72 Shem angels. 

Many modern magicians first heard of Shemhamphorash thanks to Geof Gray-Cobb’s book New Avatar Power (NAP), 1974. Several Shemhamphorash angels, like Mahasiah, Lelahel, Kevakiah, Menadel, Aniel, and Poiel, appear in that book, but with limited use to attack and defend spells.  Approaching the present time, Damon Brand’s Magickal Angels series of books inspired mostly a younger generation of magicians to explore the Shem angels. Brand’s system is made to yield results with little tools and may seem too simple for a seasoned ceremonial magician, but people generally find that it suits them well. The Shem Grimoire, written by Nick Farrell, is a well-researched book on Shemhamphorash evocation magic. Nick Farrell’s magic is strongly based on the Golden Dawn, which is not surprising as he is initiated into six different Golden Dawn derived systems. The American magician Carrol Poke Runyon performs Goetia evocations in conjunction with the Shem Angles. Runyon claims to have independently rediscovered a working synthesis of those two categories of spiritual entities within the Goetia system, independently of Dr. Rudd’s materials. Poke Runyon said that he had been working with those two classes of spirits together for decades. 

Following the Shem tradition, the contemporary Brazilian magician Gilberto Strapazon has recently written a book on Shem angels, which is full of lucid observations on ceremonial magic and helpful recommendations on evocations and conjurations. Finally, let’s mention the Perseus Arcane Academy, run by James and Tanya Robinson, because in its ranks several competent hermetic teachers teach courses on the evocation of the Shem Angels.