Dean Hildebrandt
Introduction:
My understanding of the Enochian watchtower hierarchy differs in a number of respects from the Golden Dawn's approach as well as various others that have been proposed. This is most evident in terms of the relationship between the god-names and the angels. Most people assume that, as in Kaballistic and other such practices, the god-names are called to invoke the God's authority thus allowing one to command the angels. In the Enochian system, by contrast, one assumes the authority of Iad Balt, who is the God's minion responsible for coordinating the angels actions, either through the use of the first call or implicitly. The god-names seem to invoke an aspect of the God's power rather than his authority, having a brawn relationship to the angels' brain. It thus seems most natural to me to consider the seniors as directing the power of the king-names and the kerubic angels the power of the 6-letter names, rather than these god-names as commanding the respective angels. I also believe that the various members of each subquarter form a functional group, in contrast to the view that the kerubic and serviant angels work seperately. My understanding of the subquarters draws in part on Benjamin Rowe's work, to which the reader may wish to refer.
For convenience, the four tablets will be referred to by their three-letter banner names. Dee received two versions of the Great Tablet which featured the tablets in the orders (clockwise from top left) ORO-MOR-MPH-OIP and ORO-MPH-OIP-MOR. These are sometimes referred to as the original and reformed versions respectively. I have been told that any arrangement of the tablets in the Great Tablet is allowed provided that the ORO and MOR tablets are adjacent. In order for the four tablets to be bound together, it is necessary to rotate three of them so that corresponding subquarters are in the center of the Great Tablet. The arrangement of the names on the Black Cross is correct if the lower right subquarters are in the center; otherwise they need to be rotated one step for each counterclockwise rotation of the tablets. This gives the following names to be used with the various subquarters in forming kerubic god-names and cacodemon names:
LR LL UL UR
Top half of UL and LR tables EXARP PRAXE MOTIB HCOMA
Lower half of UL and LR tables HCOMA MOTIB ATNAN NANTA
Top half of UR and LL tables MOTIB HCOMA EXARP PRAXE
Lower half of UR and LL tables ATNAN NANTA HCOMA MOTIB
The subtablets in the center have a root-like quality for each arrangement, whereas the rest are more manifesting. This gives a total of 32 possible arrangements, 2 places for ORO relative to the Black Cross * 2 places for MOR adjacent to ORO * 2 arrangements of MPH and OIP * 4 rotations. The squares of the tablets come in a number of types: those of the Black Cross, those of the Spiritu Sancti lines, those of the remaining postions of the Great Crosses, those of the Kerubic names, those of the 6-letter names, the remaining letters of the subquarter crosses, and those of the serviant names. Of these, the subquarter crosses and serviant squares seem to correspond to energies or spirits of their own much more than the others do. The tablets as a whole serve as an interface through which the angels and others may be contacted and through which they act.
The tablets are not primarily elemental, and there are a number of elemental and directional attributions in use. The best characterization of the tablets that I have been able to come up with is ORO-celestial yang, OIP-earthly yang, MPH-celestial yin, MOR-earthly yin. The tablets also seem to have a natural order ORO-OIP-MPH-MOR. It seems natural to assign earth to the MOR tablet and whichever of fire and air is deemed more spiritual or less dense to ORO. One may then assign water to MPH and the other of fire and air to OIP on the other yin with other yin and other yang with other yang theory. Some people instead assign ORO-fire, OIP-water, MPH-air, MOR-earth, which perhaps makes sense if one's understanding of the elements is heavily influenced by the IHVH formula.
In any event, the directional assignments of the tablets depend on which version of the Great Tablet one uses as well as whether one takes the tablets as facing up or down, or in other words having the writing on the top or bottom. Dee was told, in conjunction with the original tablet, that the ORO tablet is in the East, so this gives two natural directional assignments in conjunction with the original tablet. If it is facing up, we get Dee's assignment, ORO-East, OIP-North, MPH-West, MOR-South. If it is facing down, we get the GD's assignment, ORO-East, OIP-South, MPH-West, and MOR-North. If one assigns ORO-fire, OIP-air, MPH-water, MOR-earth, then the reformed tablet facing down will fit with a zodiacal directional attribution, with the actual directions depending on where one places the signs of the zodiac and whether one uses the cardinal, fixed, or mutable signs as one's reference. If one assigns ORO-air, OIP-fire, MPH-water, MOR-earth, then the reformed tablet facing up fits with a zodiacal attribution. A few years after the main material was received, Kelley had a vision of a round-house that included fire in the East, air in the South, water in the West, and Earth in the North, using symbolism similar to the seals which were given for the tablets. This would support an attribution ORO-East-fire, OIP-South-air, MPH-West-water, MOR-North-earth. I tend to view this as a default assignment, though I also use the reformed tablet with either of the attributions given above or, often, do not bother with such attributions at all. As a general comment on attributions, I think it is important to distinguish those things which are intrinsic to or closely related to a given system and those which are being joined together for particular uses. Many people like to settle on particular attributions, such as an assignment of the elements to the watchtowers. This has the advantage of building up the connection over time and the disadvantage of a loss of flexibility. Personally, I prefer flexibility. In any event, it is worth thinking about such things in a flexible way, however dogmatic one may be in terms of practice.
The banner names are useful for tuning in to the general space of the watchtowers and summoning energy in an amorphous form. They seem to fit quite well with the zodiac, though there are a variety of attributions floating around. All such attributions I am aware of place ORO opposite OIP and MPH opposite MOR, as in the reformed tablet, perhaps because the ORO and OIP tablets have a yang nature and the MPH and MOR ones a yin nature. The two attributions I use are ORO IBAH AOZPI MPH ... HCTGA paired with the signs running from Aries to Pisces and from Pisces to Aries. In the former case, the tablets take elemental and directional attributions from the cardinal signs, in the latter from the fixed signs. The angels have favored placing Taurus in the East in my experience, though this may be an artifact of the manner in which I have been working.
The seniors do not follow set formulas as the subquarter angels seem to but instead work as individuals or in groups as required in a given context. They are able to employ the energies of the planets, zodiac, etc., but are not properly identified with these. Each tablets' set of seniors has a structure:
The ORO tablet seniors have a hierarchical structure, with HABIORO being chief, AAOZAIF and HTMORDA jointly second, AHAOZPI third, and HIPOTGA and AVTOTAR jointly fourth.
The OIP tablet seniors are divided into two groups of three: AAETPIO, ALNDVOD, ARINNAQ and ADOEOET, AAPDOCE, ANODOIN, which seem to constitue opposite polarities.
The MPH tablet seniors form a directed circle, running LSRAHPM, SAIINOV, LAOAXRP, SLGAIOL, LIGDISA, SONIZNT.
The MOR tablet seniors form a set of axes given by rotating LZINOPO back and AHMLICV forward relative to their names' placements in the tablet.
There are various structures that can be used in conjunction with the seniors. An astrological one that I have been given is as follows: The ORO tablet seniors are paired with the pairs of opposite signs. These joinings of opposite signs may be interpretted as follows:
1-Pisces/Virgo The beginning of the creative process.
2-Aquarius/Leo Interaction of the individual and the group.
3-Capricorn/Cancer Established structures and the need for creativity.
4-Sagittarius/Gemini Ordering processes.
5-Scorpio/Taurus Cycles of growth and decay, life and death.
6-Libra/Aries Completion of projects.
There are 24 ways these can be paired with the seniors, the listings running clockwise from HABIORO:
1-2/5-3-4/6,1-2/6-4-3/5,1-3/4-2-5/6,1-3/4-5-2/6,1-3/5-6-2/4,1-3/6-2-4/5
In each case pair 1 represents the beginning of things, one of 2 and 3 gives the character of the arrangement with 4, 5, or 6 as a supplement, and one of the remaining three directs the implementation through the other two.
The OIP tablet seniors are paired with the planets, with Moon, Venus, and Jupiter going with one group of three and Mercury, Mars, and Saturn the other.
The MPH tablet seniors are paired with the four intervals of the course of the planets through the sky and the visible and hidden poritions of the sky in the order: sunrise-noon, visible sky, noon-sunset, sunset-nadir, hidden sky, nadir-sunrise. Any of the six ways of pairing the circles is allowed.
The MOR tablet seniors are paired with the cardinal directions in any of the twenty-four ways consitent with the axes they form. Another possibility is to assign the seniors to the sephiroth of the Tree of Life.
Those of the ORO tablet may be assigned to Kether, the two groups from the OIP tablet to Chockmah and Binah, those of the MPH tablet to the Zar Apin taken in numerical order Chesed to Yesod, and those of the MOR tablet to Malkuth, perhaps with a directional attribution. This should be taken as the Tree in Yetzirah and involves viewing the Tree from top to bottom with a 1-2-6-1 structure, a view more common in rabinnic than hermetic Kaballah.
The king-names have a strong focusing effect. I believe this is most naturally employed by the seniors, though it is also possible to have the kings work directly from the energy given by the banner-names. I have seen the former in two ways. The banner names, seniors, and kings of a given direction can form a sphere, with the banner names at top and king at the bottom, out of which sparks of energy emerge. Alternatively, all of the banner names can be used to form a circle or square with the seniors forming a cup or pyramid shape and the kings combining to give the stem of the cup or pillar down from the point of the pyramid.
Dee was told that the squares from which the Kerubic names are drawn correspond to the letters of the formula INRI, and the Kerubic angels fit quite well with this formula, the first in each subquarter corresponding to the initial I, the next to the N, etc. In Christian terms, INRI can be read life-death-rebirth-life anew. It fits with the sequence of alchemical processes blackening-whitening-yellowing-reddening. Blackening consists of putrefying the material, though the corresponding kerubic angels have more of a gathering than putrefying quality. Whitening is a purifying process. Yellowing consists in introducing a higher light. Redding consists in reengaging with the manifest. The kerubic angels of a subquarter can be called in sequence following this pattern. They can also be called as a group, in which case they are able to cause a pattern to be manifested in the world by planting the corresponding cross in a suitable location and sending energy down the 6-letter name, thus activating the spirits of the sixteen serviant squares to do the work. This has been described to me as the best way of achieving material results using the system.
The 6-letter names open the realm of the subquarter. It is possible to send energy down them. Benjamin Rowe gives a description of this as alternate squares sending down a seed to the next square and growing these seeds into elaborate networks of roots, with the three pairs of squares assigned to the divine, human, and elemental realms. I am unable to comment on this except to confirm that the squares do seem to be in pairs. The 5-letter names have an attractive quality, drawing things upward by means of the serviant angels.
Dee was told that the serviant angels of the lower right subquarter of each tablet relate to elemental creatures in the order (from top) air-water-earth-fire. The angels seem to fit quite well with the alchemical elements, with water in the above sequence corresponding to mercury, earth to salt, and fire to sulphur in its lower or hidden form. Air in this context corresponds to a mixture of mercury and pure sulphur, this being the means by which the higher influence enters (See Julius Evola's The Hermetic Tradition). The 5-letter name and the action of the kerubic angels seem to correspond to the pure sulphur. It is interesting to note that the elemental attribution Benjamin Rowe got for the bottom three angels also fits with the alchemical elements given that he is using the GD's attribution sulphur-fire, salt-water, mercury-air. The angels are called from bottom to top and have a redemptive quality. The bottom angel ignites the sulphur, infusing energy into the object of the working. The next divides the salt, breaking up the fixities which prevent needed change. The next liberates the mercury, the mutable substance of which things are made. The next admits the light from above. It is quite natural to use the serviant and kerubic angels in conjunction. The serviant angels followed by the first kerubic angel would seem to give the blackening process, followed by the other kerubic angels and alchemical processes as above. It is also possible for the sixteen serviant square spirits to activate the serviant angels in the planting of the crosses process described above. They then serve to admit the pattern or energy that the kerubic angels are sending. No doubt, any number of other variants on how the angels may be employed would also prove effective.