The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) · 122 of 175 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Page 62 (part 5)
Having read so far, if he come not, write his seal on parchment; put it in a black box, with brimstone, assafœtida and other stinking perfumes; bind the said box with iron wire, hang it on the point of your sword, hold it over the fire of charcoal, which shall have been placed towards that quarter whence the spirit will Come, and say first unto the Fire:-- I conjure thee, O Fire, by Him Who made thee, and all other creatures in the world, to torment, burn, and consume this Spirit N.
everlastingly .
TO THE SPIRIT Because thou art disobedient, and obeyst not my commandments nor the precepts of the Lord thy God, now I, who am the servant of the Most High and Imperial Lord God of Hosts, JEHOVAH , having His celestial power and permission, for this thine averseness and contempt, thy great disobedience and rebellion, will excommunicate thee, will destroy thy name and seal, which I have in this box, will burn them with unquenchable fire and bury them in unending oblivion, unless thou comest immediately, visibly and affably, here before this circle, within this triangle, assuming a fair and comely form, without doing harm unto myself or any creature whatsoever, but giving, reasonable answer to m requests and performing, my desire in all things .
If he appear not at this point, say as follows:-- Thou art still pernicious and disobedient, willing not to appear and inform me upon that which I desire to know; now therefore, in the Name and by the power and dignity of the [paragraph continues] Omnipotent and Immortal Lord God of Hosts, JEHOVAH TETRAGRAMMATON , sole Creator of Heaven, Earth and Hell, with all contained therein, the marvellous Disposer of all things visible and invisible, I do hereby curse and deprive thee of all thine office, power and place; I bind thee in the depth of the Bottomless Pit, there to remain unto the Day of judgment, in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, prepared for the rebellious Spirits.
May all the Company of Heaven curse thee; may the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Light of the Hosts of Heaven, curse thee into fire unquenchable, into torments unspeakable; and even as thy name and seal are bound up in this box, to be choked with sulphureous and stinking substances and to burn in this material fire, so, in the Name of JEHOVAH , and by the power and dignity of the three Names, TETRAGRAMMATON, ANEXHEXETON, PRIMEMATUM , may all these drive thee, O thou disobedient Spirit N., into the Lake of Fire, prepared for the damned and accursed Spirits, there to remain until the Day of Doom, remembered no more before the face of that God Who shall come to judge the quick and the dead, with the whole world, by fire .
Set the box in the flame, whereupon he will appear; when he comes, quench the fire, make sweet perfumes, give him good entertainment, shewing him the pentacle on the hem of your vestment covered with a linen cloth, and saying:-- Behold thy confusion, if thou be disobedient.
Behold the Pentacle of Solomon which I have brought into thy presence.
Behold the person of the Exorcist, who is called OCTINIMOES , in the midst of the Exorcism, armed by God and fearless, potently invoking and calling.
A binding agreement or relationship between the divine and a people or individual, establishing mutual obligations.
The relationship between the exorcist and God is framed as a servant-master dynamic ('servant of the Most High... having His celestial power and permission').
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 text assumes God actively disposes of all things visible and invisible and grants specific permission for the operation.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The text threatens the spirit with the 'Day of judgment' and the 'Lake of Fire and Brimstone' prepared for rebellious spirits.
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 exorcist asserts dominance through command and will ('I conjure thee', 'I do hereby curse'), expecting the spirit to obey based on this authority.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
The spirit is commanded to assume a 'fair and comely form' upon appearance, implying a capacity for form-change.
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 is a detailed ritual instruction for commanding a spirit to appear using seals, circles, divine names, and threats of punishment.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The efficacy of the ritual depends on spoken conjurations and curses that directly alter reality by compelling the spirit's appearance or threatening its destruction.