Sturgeon’s law (or Sturgeon’s revelation) is an adage stating “ninety percent of everything is crap”. It was coined by Theodore Sturgeon, an American science fiction author and critic, and was inspired by his observation that, while science fiction was often derided for its low quality by critics, most work in other fields was low-quality too, and so science fiction was no different.[1]
Modern Magick, Donald Kraig Reference and Elaboration
Sturgeon’s Law. This law states that 90 percent of everything is crap. It is named in honor of science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who used it (originally calling it “Sturgeon’s Revelation”) because he was tired of defending science fiction to various literary critics in the 1950s. Supposedly, after being asked if he didn’t agree that 90 percent of science fiction was crap, his response was that 90 percent of everything was crap.
For the discussion here, I’m simply using this law to point out that of those thousands of books, much is repetitive, and much more is useless guessing by people who haven’t even tried the simplest ritual. That is, much of it really is crap. This course will leave you with the best of thousands of books, plus over twenty-five years of personal research and practice.
Leo’s Take On It Relating to the Esoteric Internet
The internet has so much data but is not organized for the seeker or learning mystic nor is it rated on quality of the information. The reality is “people just make shit up”.
The ritual of the pentagram has had so many different versions and interpretations, over many centuries, by so many different people and groups of practitioners.
What is correct? Remember magick starts in your mind and heart!
First, whether or not you are moving or drawing paths clockwise (deosil) or counterclockwise (widdershins), or upright versus inverted, intent and will are much more important than directions or having specific implements. For that matter, what archetypes or words of power you use are also not as relevant as intent.
There are also the so-called lesser and greater versions of the Ritual of the Pentagram. The lesser is version is very simplified. I have found this version to work very well for the quick setups and it works very well for the beginners (because it is less distracting from the mission), as well as the experienced (because the will and intent are usually very clear), and thus it returns back to what the practitioner is thinking, feeling, visualizing and where their intent and focus are.
I have used invoking and banishing, clockwise and counterclockwise, elements rearranged, upright and inverted for over 35 years. All of them work if your mind, heart, will and intent are in the right place.
What is most important is what you visualize, know, see and feel.
O.T.O./Thelema Greater Ritual of the Pentagram
Golden Dawn Ritual of the Pentagram
A great description of why the Golden Dawn chose the method they use, which is not consistent with the other GD practices (see GD Hexagram Ritual), is excepted below from LBRP Theory – Q&A – Hermeticulture, Nicholas Chapel.
Q: Why are the pentagrams traced clockwise in the LBRP, rather than counterclockwise? Shouldn’t banishing be performed widdershins?
In order to understand why the LBRP’s pentagrams are traced clockwise, you have to gain some understanding of the larger Adept-level Pentagram Ritual within the Golden Dawn tradition. The four elements crowned by Spirit are arrayed around the figure of the Pentagram as follows:
While there is some problematic history here regarding the Pentagrammaton, I will not go into it here: for further information on that front, watch the video, in which I briefly digress into the history of the Pentagrammaton and the ordering of the letters around the Pentagram. Suffice it to say that this diagram did not originate with the Golden Dawn, but represents the key to understanding the Pentagram Ritual.
While we are used to the trope of “invoking = deosil/clockwise” and “banishing = widdershins/counterclockwise” in modern occulture, this isn’t how it’s done in the Pentagram Ritual. Here, it isn’t whether you’re moving clockwise or counterclockwise that determines whether you’re invoking or banishing; it’s whether you’re moving towards or away from the element you’re working with.
In the LBRP, you start and finish with the Earth vertex of the Pentagram. Earth is used here as a substitute or stand-in for a general banishing, as it is the heaviest and densest element. You can see this same logic behind the use of the Saturn Hexagram as a general banishing figure within the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.
So far, so good. Things get complicated, however, by the fact that the lower “X” of the Pentagram—the paths joining Fire/Air and Water/Earth—are reserved for the element of Spirit or Quintessence, as those two paths connect and unite the active and passive elements respectively. Consequently, these two paths are unavailable for use in drawing an Earth banishing pentagram. In the LBRP, you start at the Earth vertex and move away from it to banish. Because you can’t use the path of Spirit Passive to do this, however, you use the path between Earth and Spirit instead, tracing the figure the only way you can—which is clockwise.
Now, note however that when you perform the LBRP, you are NOT banishing the element of Earth! The LBRP is a general banishing ritual that works on the microcosmic level—that is to say, the elemental and terrestrial realm. Remember that Earth here is just used as a shorthand or signature for the overall operation, and is used as a stand-in because it’s the heaviest and densest element. But again, it’s not an Earth banishing or even a specifically elemental ritual when you’re talking about the LBRP.
Because of the symbolism of the pentagram and its connection to Gevurah (or Geburah), it may be more accurate to say that the LBRP is a Gevuric ritual than an elemental one, insofar as it operates in the same manner that tracing a protective magic circle on the ground with a sword does in the grimoiric tradition—especially when the LBRP is performed using the Sword of the Hiereus or the Magic Sword of an Adept.
The pentagram, also called the five-point star, pentacle, pentalpha, or pentangle, is the star polygon.
It is a pagan religious symbol that is one of the oldest symbols on Earth and is known to have been used as early as 4000 years B.C. It represents the “sacred feminine” or “divine goddess” (Brown 2003, pp. 35-37). However, in modern American pop culture, it more commonly represents devil worship. In the novel The Da Vinci Code, dying Louvre museum curator Jacque Saunière draws a pentagram on his abdomen with his own blood as a clue to identify his murderer (Brown 2003, p. 35).
In the above figure, let the length from one tip to another connected tip be unity, the length from a tip to an adjacent dimple be , the edge lengths of the inner pentagon be , the inradius of the inner pentagon be , the circumradius of the inner pentagon be , the circumradius of the pentagram be , and the additional horizontal and vertical distances be and as labeled. Then the indicated lengths are given by simultaneously solving the system of seven equations
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
to obtain
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
This gives the ratio
(15)
where is the golden ratio (Wells 1986, p. 36; Brown 2003, p. 96). The tips of the pentagram are therefore golden triangles.
The area of the filled pentagram with unit tip-to-tip edge length (as above) is given by
(16)
(17)
while the area of the tips only (corresponding to the even-odd winding rule) is given by
(18)
A series of embedded pentagrams can be constructed to form a larger pentagram, as illustrated above (Williams 1979, p. 53). If the central pentagram has center (0, 0) and circumradius 1, then the subsequent pentagrams have radii
For the Ancient Egyptian, the 42 Ideals of Ma’at represented the concept of balance and order; everything had its place in the world including culture, society, the seasons, and of course the Gods and Goddesses. Ma’at was the one that kept the stars in motion, the seasons changing and maintained the order of Heaven and Earth. The opposing force of this balance was known in ancient terms as “isfet” or chaos. Ancient Egyptians considered the desert beyond the Nile River to be chaotic; while the area close to the Nile was considered orderly. Together, these two forces brought balance to the world in which they lived and was an important part of everyday Egyptian life.
Ma’at is the Goddess of truth, justice, divine order, cosmic order and balance. She is depicted with wings of a vulture, her special animal, and the feather of truth in her headdress. She also carries an Ankh, the key of life, and sometimes a scepter. Ma’at can be traced as far back as the Old Kingdom (circa 3200 BCE). She is the daughter of Ra, sometimes referred to as the “eye of Ra.” Her equivalent and husband is Thoth, and her opposite is her brother Set. The Goddess Ma’at was most cherished by the rulers of ancient Egypt, and most were referred to as “Beloved of Ma’at.” Pharaohs would carry an effigy of Ma’at seated as a sign that he represented her regime of truth. She was the personification of the cosmic order and a representation of the stability of the universe.
Ma’at is almost always shown wearing the feather of truth on top of her head. The feather came to be the hieroglyph “Shu” meaning truth. According to the Papyrus of Ani and The Book of Coming Forth (Book of the Dead) every person would be judged before Ma’at to determine whether they were truly good and able to move on to the afterlife. The feather was weighed against their soul while they stated the 42 Negative Confessions.
The following are the 42 Ideals of Ma’at as the 42 Negative Confessions translated by E. A. Wallis Budge:
1. I have not committed sin. 2. I have not committed robbery with violence. 3. I have not stolen. 4. I have not slain men or women. 5. I have not stolen food. 6. I have not swindled offerings. 7. I have not stolen from God/Goddess. 8. I have not told lies. 9. I have not carried away food. 10. I have not cursed. 11. I have not closed my ears to truth. 12. I have not committed adultery. 13. I have not made anyone cry. 14. I have not felt sorrow without reason. 15. I have not assaulted anyone. 16. I am not deceitful. 17. I have not stolen anyone’s land. 18. I have not been an eavesdropper. 19. I have not falsely accused anyone. 20. I have not been angry without reason. 21. I have not seduced anyone’s wife. 22. I have not polluted myself. 23. I have not terrorized anyone. 24. I have not disobeyed the Law. 25. I have not been exclusively angry. 26. I have not cursed God/Goddess. 27. I have not behaved with violence. 28. I have not caused disruption of peace. 29. I have not acted hastily or without thought. 30. I have not overstepped my boundaries of concern. 31. I have not exaggerated my words when speaking. 32. I have not worked evil. 33. I have not used evil thoughts, words or deeds. 34. I have not polluted the water. 35. I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly. 36. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds. 37. I have not placed myself on a pedestal. 38. I have not stolen what belongs to God/Goddess. 39. I have not stolen from or disrespected the deceased. 40. I have not taken food from a child. 41. I have not acted with insolence. 42. I have not destroyed property belonging to God/Goddess
In recent years, a list of 42 Positive Ideals were written by a group of priestesses as a parallel or balance to the Negative Confessions.
As a follower of Aset, and Ma’at as an aspect of Aset, it is beneficial to repeat these 42 ideals in the morning and evening, as way to encourage these ideals in oneself.
“The Heavenly Golden Rod of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Seventy-two Praises”
In 1978 while researching for my book on the Magical Calendar, I came across another large engraving which bore a certain superficial resemblance to the de Bry plate, (indeed the Frenchman F. De Mely who edited an edition of this work in 1922 seems to have thought them both part of the same book.) This was the Virga Aurea of James Bonaventure Hepburn published at Rome in 1616. The Virga Aurea, or to give the full title, “The Heavenly Golden Rod of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Seventy-two Praises” consists of a list of seventy two alphabets (actually seventy, plus Latin and Hebrew which are the two languages of the text of the plate). Some of these alphabets are those of known ancient languages, for example, Greek, Hibernian, Germanic, Phoenician, etc., while others are magical alphabets, Angelic, Coelestial, Seraphic, Solomonic, etc., and the whole plate is thus an encyclopaedia of alphabetic symbolism.
James Bonaventure Hepburn (1573 – 1620) was a Scot born in East Lothian near Edinburgh. He became an able and respected scholar, and being Catholic and a member of the austere order of St. Francis de Paul, he rose to the high position of Keeper of the Oriental Books and Manuscripts at the Vatican. He had a great knowledge of Eastern languages and, in particular, Hebrew. In 1591 he published his Arabic Grammar, and he was later to translate a Kabbalistic book from Hebrew into Latin, the ‘Kettar Maleuth’ of Rabbi Solomon, however I have not been able to locate a copy of this work.
The Virga Aurea was published as a large engraving (approx 20″ by 32″) at Rome in 1616, though it seems from internal evidence that Hepburn originally produced an illuminated manuscript bearing the essentials of the work done in various colours and possibly using gold. The engraving consists of a listing in four columns of the seventy alphabets, each letter of which is shown transliterated into Latin script, together with a small emblem and short text from the Bible. These lists are headed by a picture centred upon the figure of the Virgin Mary, standing below the Trinity of Father, on the right side, the Son, on the left, and the Holy Spirit completing the triangle, and shown as a dove descending. The Virgin stands on the crescent Moon within a brilliant egg of light centred on the Sun. Within the space of the egg are the other five planets, and the Virgin bears a halo of the twelve stars. On her left side a winged female Venus figure in flowing robes, stands upon a dragon, her right hand pointing heavenwards, her left holding a lily. On the Virgin’s right side, a winged Mars figure, attired with a helmet sword, and tunic, holds in his right hand a long spear and in his left a set of scales, and he stands upon an eagle. Flanking this scene are a number of Saints, including St. Peter, St. Bonaventure, and possibly St. Andrew.
The work is dedicated to Pope Paul V (Pope from 1605-21), who was particularly interested in books, greatly extending the Vatican Library during his Pontificate, and beginning a collection of Antiquities. He would, of course, be entirely sympathetic to, and probably encouraged, the scholarly pursuits of Hepburn. His more open approach to scholarship, allowed Hepburn the freedom even to consider publishing his translation of the Kabbalistic piece, even although a decade or so before, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome as a heretic for pursuing similar interests.
This document is an invaluable collection of alphabets providing a wide survey of many different alphabet symbols both of contrived magical alphabets and those of extant languages. A complex pun is enshrined in the word ‘Virga’ of the title in Latin – Virga, ‘a rod’ being in one sense used for the alphabetic symbols, which are sometimes described as the ‘rods’ of a language, the other sense of the word ‘rod’ is mentioned in the text as the Rod of Moses and the Papal Rod or Staff of power; and finally ‘Virga’, the Virgin.
In order to bring all this mass of material together, Hepburn must have had a wide range of source material to study, and it seems most likely that this material was available in the Vatican Library itself. As to what Hepburn’s motives were for publishing such a collection of alphabets, we can only speculate. He certainly produced these in a form which gave it scholarly respectability and also by heading it with the figure of the Virgin Mary, using the pun ‘Virga’ Rod-Virgin, gave it credibility in terms of the Church. The timing of the publication, 1616, right at the centre of the Rosicrucian/hermetic publishing period, suggests that Hepburn in his own way may have been responding to that impulse. Under the guise of the Virgin Mary heading the plate, Hepburn was able to publicly reveal the symbolism of many alphabets, and in particular, magical alphabets. If we further take into account Hepburn’s interest in the Kabbalah, and his translation and publication of a Solomonic occult text, I think we are justified in assuming that Hepburn may have, in some small way, contributed to the public revelation at that time of the esoteric wisdom of the past. At the very least one can suggest that he was inspired by this movement into producing the Virga Aurea. As librarian at the Vatican, he certainly would have received early copies of the Rosicrucian publications. The Virga Aurea, although a single large engraving contains such a mass of detail that an exhaustive analysis will be left till later.
[Section below the figure of the Virgin translated by Patricia Tahil]
To Our Most Blessed Father And Lord, Pope Paul The Fifth, In Eternal Happiness Led astray by the deceits and deceptions of the Evil Spirit, antiquity held its peace from assisting seekers of the Laurel Bough; the darkness of error having been dispelled from the Gentiles by the rising of the Sun of Justice, may it now be allowed to seekers to prefer salvation, safety, and the Rod of Jesse, our golden branch, namely the Virgin Mary. So, 0 Most Blessed of Princes, sketched by my pencil from the sacred page, in colours that were to hand, arranged in a garland of seventy-two praises, surrounded by flowers and various pleasant numerical symbols, or adorned with ribbons, I most humbly place and fasten this votive picture at the feet of the Most Blessed Virgin. After much midnight striving, may I make pledge of my soul, yearning and striving long years after the Blessed Virgin, to the success of the Rule in which we are blessed, and to its long and eternal fruitfulness, so that it may please Omnipotent God to be kind to His Church, which you most deservedly lead, and most wisely rule. And whom may I not compel, armed with the Blessed Rod? That which God made as the Staff of Moses, famous and venerable in power, Moses was by this the greater and more heavenly, since he was ruler of a part, the severed bough, and may, by the Good Rod, be ruler of the whole world. With the aid of the Blessed Rod, but also by bloody sacrifice, the one (i.e. Moses) was Head of the Synagogue, the other (i.e. the Pope), by the blessing of the bloodless Rod is Great Pontiff of the Catholic Church. The one knew the appearance of truth, by the blessing of the Rod, and was the predecessor of Christ; the other, by the blessing of the Rod, is his successor, endowed with the twin, or extensive, royal and priestly Rod. For Moses subdued serpents with his Rod, parted the Sea, and drew water from the rock. By his blessed staff, the Pope makes the Rock (or Body of Christ) from bread, and His Precious Blood from Wine, crosses Hell, and bars or opens Heaven; he kills the old serpent, and recent heretical serpents.
One type of the Blessed Rod is that of Moses, famous for signs and true miracles, the other, more expressive of the Most Blessed Maiden, is of the character of Jesse’s Rod.
Deign therefore, 0 Most Blessed of Princes, to accept this tiny little gift of devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin, and to look kindly on my theory of the Holy Rod, and to embrace and cherish me in kindness, as you are accustomed to do with all the smallest sons of the Church.
Father James Bonaventure Hepburn, Scot.
Order of St Francis de Paul.
The 72 Alphabets, or “the seventy-two praises”, connect with the 72 lettered Name of God in the Hebrew tradition, the Shemhamphorash. This was contained in the three verses of Exodus XIV : 19, 20, and 21, each containing 72 letters in Hebrew, which when written down using the Kabbalistic system of boustrophedon, gives 72 Names of God. Interestingly enough the text of Exodus XIV, 21 describes Moses stretching out his hand over the Red Sea and parting the waters, which is referred to in the text of the Virga Aurea.
A generation later, the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602 – 1680), another scholar working within the Catholic Church, was much concerned with languages. Kircher published his version of the Shemhamphorash, the 72 Names of God in the different languages, in the form of an engraved plate in his book Oedipus Aegypticus (Rome 1652-4), which is shown opposite, and he probably had knowledge of Hepburn’s work when compiling this plate.
The Latin text on Kircher’s version of the Tree of the Sephiroth is almost impossible to make out, even in the original print. Fortunately, the Freemason Manly P. Hall published Kircher’s Tree with English translations in place of the Latin.
Notice that Kircher appears to have intended that the horizontal channel between the seventh Sephirah, Hod, and the eighth Sephirah, Netzach, be numbered fifteen, and that the vertical channel between the sixth Sephirah, Tiphareth, and the ninth Sephirah, Yesod, be numbered seventeen. This is not absolutely clear, but seems most probable since on Kircher’s original diagram we see the Latin text 15 Canalis reciprocus Victoriae et Honoris on the channel between Netzach and Hod, then upside down in the same channel the Latin text Canalis: 17. Because this second caption is inverted on Kircher’s diagram (but not on Hall’s translation), it was probably intended to be placed on the vertical channel between Tiphareth and Yesod.
This is the opposite of the Golden Dawn practice, where the horizontal channel between Netzach and Hod is numbered seventeenth in order from the top, and the vertical channel between Tiphareth and Yesod is numbered fifteenth (the actual Golden Dawn numbering of these channels is twenty-seven and twenty-five, because it was the Order practice to begin numbering the paths with eleven, rather than one). The Golden Dawn numbering of these two channels is more sensible than Kircher’s numbering, based on the overall numbering on the Tree, but in my opinion is still not correct.
In my book New Millennium Magic I’ve given what I think is the correct numbering of the paths. I believe the Golden Dawn made a mistake in their numbering of the lower paths of Tiphareth (based purely on a logical analysis of the structure of the paths). Mathers numbered the vertical path between Tiphareth and Yesod fifteenth in sequence, and the diagonal path between Tiphareth and Hod sixteenth. In my view these numbers should be reversed. In all other respects the Golden Dawn numbering of the pathways is correct, for this particular pattern of the Tree (it is not the only possible pattern).
Kircher’s assigned the seven traditional planets of astrology differently than their Golden Dawn assignment. From a Golden Dawn point of view, all of Kircher’s planets are incorrectly place with the exception of the Sun in Tiphareth. However, Kircher’s assignment does make a lot of good sense. In the Kabbalah, Malkuth is the bride of the son (Messiah) in Tiphareth, so it is not unreasonable to give it the Moon. Mercury is a balanced planet, so it makes sense to put it on the middle pillar of the Tree. Kircher put the two male planets Mars and Jupiter on the masculine right pillar of the Tree, and their female opposites, respectively Venus and Saturn, on the feminine left pillar of the Tree.
It may be argued that Saturn is male, not female. However from the esoteric perspective Saturn exhibits many feminine qualities. It is common in alchemy to make a sexual pairing between Mars and Venus, and also between Jupiter and Saturn.
.
, the edge lengths of the inner pentagon be 
, the inradius of the inner pentagon be 
, the circumradius of the inner pentagon be 
, the circumradius of the pentagram be 
, and the additional horizontal and vertical distances be 
and 
as labeled. Then the indicated lengths are given by simultaneously solving the system of seven equations
is the 
, where 
is the 
