The Shemhamphorasch; 72 names of God
Well it all started with the Jewish mystics and the book of Exodus, however what I will be covering here is the more modern usage of the 72 names of God, the 72 angels and the Shemhamphoresch. The original 72 fold name consisted of 72 sets of THREE letters. Now how modern magicians came up with FIVE for each name is entirely beyond me, but hey, look what they did with Enochian.
Anyways, each of these sets of 3 letters of this super long name of God is apparently an angel. This is handy since one can work with these angels to bring about many things magically. Each of the names has a particular meaning such as "Roaming of God", "Vigor of God" and "Vision of God" just to name a few. Well you can see how the magical uses come in. Furthermore, each of these 72 names just so happens to be one of the astrological decans (according to many anyways). See the cool drawing by Kircher above for more information.
Well you can guess by this that one can come up with many many magical uses for each of these names of God and angels now knowing that they are apparently correlated with astrological decans. Take the set from your birth chart for example and work with them. Or if you want the affects of a particular astrological sign (decan specific even), well you can call one of these 72 angels up to help. In theory anyways. Or better yet, if you wish to go for a year long working, you can start with the first name and angel of the first decan of Leo (the 72 names start in Leo) and work through them all. You would end up either extremely balanced or extremely confused by the end of the year!
Well you know how magicians like numbers, and how we like to line everything up and try to correlate or correspond it to everything else right? I'm sure I don't even need to elaborate much further.... this one magician named Dr. Rudd (who made a terrible terrible mess of the Enochian system) saw that there so happened to be 72 names of Daemons in ONE (not all, just one) of the versions of the Goetia/Lemegeton MS. Boy did he have a field day with this! He came up with his version, which has the 72 seals of the Daemons, and beside them (perhaps he is suggesting it go on the reverse side) are the 72 Angel names from the Shemahmforesch. Inside each versicle (that circle around the seal, but in this case no seal) there is a latin phrase or bit of scripture. The manuscript in question is Harley 6483, and I have included a page that has the Goetia Daemon seals beside the Shemhamphoresh circles.
Perhaps Dr. Rudd was supposing that the particular Angel would rule over that particular Daemon. A great theory and all, but the ordering of the 72 Daemons is pretty much arbitrary. So the chance of that particular Angel ruling over the same number Daemon is small. However I'm pretty sure that many a magician has called both the Angel of the Shem and the Daemon of the Goetia in a working. For some reason most magicians seem to think that Daemons will obey them better if they call an Angel first. Apparently both the Angel and the Daemon haven't yet both gotten pissed off at the magician for calling them both at once into the same triangle yet... that we know of.
Now all that does make some correlary sense. However magicians took it further (I blame mathers with his tables of correspondances). They figured that if there are 72 names of God, and 72 Daemons in one particular manuscript of the Goetia, they *must* match up! Even further, if one is ruled by the first decan of Leo, then the other must be as well! So poor Bael, is now lumped into the attributes of the first decan of Leo. Well at least Bael does like the metal gold, and likes his seal made in gold, and any magicians with a few hundred dollars to spare would likely make a spirit supposedly ruled by Leo's seal in gold.. all is good. However once we get past Bael things don't work out nearly as well.
Just to confuse matters all the more... you might be comfortable thinking each Daemon is ruled by the astrological sign that they line up with on the handy Goetia/Shemahmphoresh table of correspondances... right up until you do some research. It is becoming more and more widely known that at least a few of the Daemons listed in the Lemegeton are in fact old Gods (or at the very least an aspect of a particular God). So if you look up the old God's lore and find out when their birthday is celebrated, you will find it does not match up with the decan listed in the above mentioned table of correspondances.
I have always wondered why there doesn't seem to be a set of Shemhamphoresch seals. Yes we have a set of versicles with phrases in them, but that is about it. However I was fortunate enough to find a set of the 72 seals, which I have included below.
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Copper: All Libra and Taurus Decans - $49.99
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Steel: All Aries and Scorpio Decans - $49.99
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Brass: All Leo Decans - $49.99
For a 2" Gold Disc: $449.99 (email for a more accurate quote).
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Silver: All Cancer Decans - $59.99
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Lead: All Aquarius and Capricorn Decans - $59.99
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Tin: All Sagittarius and Pisces Decans - $59.99
Engraved on a 2" or 3" disc of Zinc: All Gemini and Virgo Decans - 59.99
Number | Angels | Seal | Letters | Sign and Planet | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Vehu | VHV | Aries | ||
2 | Yeli | YLY | Aries | ||
3 | Sit | SIT | Aries | ||
4 | Aulem | OoLM | Aries | ||
5 | Mahash | MHSh | Aries | ||
6 | Lelah | LLH | Aries | ||
7 | Aka | AKA | Leo | ||
8 | Kahath | KHTh | Leo | ||
9 | Hezi | HZI | Leo | ||
10 | Elad | ALD | Leo | ||
11 | Lav | LAV | Leo | ||
12 | Hahau | HHO | Leo | ||
13 | Yezel | IZL | Sagittarius | ||
14 | Mebha | MBH | Sagittarius | ||
15 | Heri | HRI | Sagittarius | ||
16 | Haquem | HQM | Sagittarius | ||
17 | Lau | LAV | Sagittarius | ||
18 | Keli | KLI | Sagittarius | ||
19 | Levo | LVV | Cancer | ||
20 | Pahel | PHL | Cancer | ||
21 | Nelak | NLK | Cancer | ||
22 | Yiai | YYY | Cancer | ||
23 | Melah | MLH | Cancer | ||
24 | Chaho | ChHV | Cancer | ||
25 | Nethah | NThH | Scorpio | ||
26 | Haa | HAA | Scorpio | ||
27 | Yereth | YLTh | Scorpio | ||
28 | Shaah | ShAH | Scorpio | ||
29 | Riyi | RYY | Scorpio | ||
30 | Aum | AUM | Scorpio | ||
31 | Lekab | LKB | Pisces | ||
32 | Vesher | VShR | Pisces | ||
33 | Yecho | YChV | Pisces | ||
34 | Lehach | LHCh | Pisces | ||
35 | Kaveq | KVQ | Pisces | ||
36 | Menad | MND | Pisces | ||
37 | Ani | ANI | Libra | ||
38 | Chaum | ChOM | Libra | ||
39 | Rehau | RHO | Libra | ||
40 | Yeiz | YYZ | Libra | ||
41 | Hahah* | HHH | Libra | ||
42 | Mik | MIK | Libra | ||
43 | Veval | VVL | Aquarius | ||
44 | Yelah | YLH | Aquarius | ||
45 | Sael | SAL | Aquarius | ||
46 | Auri | ORI | Aquarius | ||
47 | Aushal | OShL | Aquarius | ||
48 | Milah | MIH | Aquarius | ||
49 | Vaho | VHV | Gemini | ||
50 | Doni | F | DNY | Gemini | |
51 | Hachash | HChSh | Gemini | ||
52 | Aumem | OMM | Gemini | ||
53 | Nena | NNA | Gemini | ||
54 | Neith | NITh | Gemini | ||
55 | Mabeth | MBH | Capricorn | ||
56 | Poi | PVI | Capricorn | ||
57 | Nemem | O | NMM | Capricorn | |
58 | Yeil | YYL | Capricorn | ||
59 | Harach | HRCh | Capricorn | ||
60 | Metzer | MTzR | Capricorn | ||
61 | Vamet | VMK | Taurus | ||
62 | Yehah* | IHH | Taurus | ||
63 | Aunu | ONV | Taurus | ||
64 | Machi | MChI | Taurus | ||
65 | Dameb | DMB | Taurus | ||
66 | Menak | MNQ | Taurus | ||
67 | Asau | AIO | Virgo | ||
68 | Chebo | ChBV | Virgo | ||
69 | Raah | RAH | Virgo | ||
70 | Yekem | IBM | Virgo | ||
71 | Haiai | HYY | Virgo | ||
72 | Moum | MVM | Virgo |