The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 31 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 9 (part 5)
Click to view THE CHARACTER OF HAGITH The government of Venereal concerns is entrusted to HAGITH, and the person possessing his character is adorned with all beauty.
He converts copper into gold in a moment and gold instantaneously into copper; he also gives faithful serving spirits.
Click to view THE CHARACTER OF OPHIEL OPHIEL is the ruler of those things which are attributed to Mercury; he gives familiar spirits, teaches all arts, and enables the possessor of his character to change quicksilver immediately into the Philosopher's Stone.
Click to view THE CHARACTER OF PHUL Lunary concerns are under the government of PHUL, who truly transmutes all metals into silver, heals dropsy and provides Spirits of the Water, who serve men in a corporal and visible form; he also prolongs life to three hundred years.
Legions of inferior spirits are commanded by each of the Governors, who also have Kings, Princes, Presidents, Dukes and Ministers ruling under them.
Ceremonial Magic usually administers the hierarchies upon a colossal scale.
The invocation of the Governors is simple.
It is performed in the day and hour of the planet which is in correspondence with the Olympic Intelligence by means of the following:-- PRAYER O Eternal and Omnipotent God, Who hast ordained the whole creation for Thy praise and Thy glory, as also for the salvation of man, I beseech Thee to send Thy Spirit N., of the Solar Race, that he may instruct me concerning those things about which I design to ask him [or--that he may bring me medicine against the dropsy, &c.].
Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be dome, through Jesus Christ, Thine only begotten Son, Who is our Lord.
Amen.
Unless the Spirit, in the words of Robert Turner, be "familiarly addicted" to the operator, he should not be detained above one hour, and should in either case be "licensed to depart" as follows:-- THE DISCHARGE Forasmuch as thou camest in peace and quietness, having also answered unto my Petitions, I give thanks unto God, in Whose Name thou camest.
Now mayst thou depart in peace unto thine own order; but return unto me again, when I shall call thee by thy -name, or by thine order, or by thine office, which is granted from the Creator.
Amen.
[Then add:] Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou art upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
--Eccles.
v.
3, 4.
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The text explicitly mentions transmuting copper into gold and quicksilver into the Philosopher's Stone as powers granted by specific characters.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The invocation is performed in the day and hour of the planet which is in correspondence with the Olympic Intelligence.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The prayer acknowledges God as the one who ordained creation and asks Him to send a Spirit, implying divine ordering of affairs.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The text describes a structured hierarchy of spirits including Governors, Kings, Princes, Presidents, Dukes, and Ministers ruling under them.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The operator commands spirits and requests specific outcomes (medicine, instruction), implying the use of will within a ritual framework.
The grimoire-tradition practice of ceremonially commanding or binding a spirit through consecrated seals, circles, divine names, and prescribed instruments, compelling its appearance and obedience. Distinct from theurgy in the direction of the power relationship — theurgy is reverent engagement with the gods on the premise of the operator's own ascent, this is subordination of a lesser spirit to the operator's will — and from word_power_incantation and sacred_names, which name components (verbal force, name-power) this practice deploys rather than the ritual structure itself.
The passage details the invocation of spirits (Governors), their command, and the specific ritual for discharging them after service.