Agrippa and the Magic Squares
(First published in Howlings, 2008, Scarlet Imprint, sigil illustrations and extra comments added from Claves Intelligentarium, 2024, Hadean Press)
A sigil could be described as a pictographic representation of a name or specific intent. The sigil representing a spiritual creature can act as a gateway for the energy of that creature to manifest, a technique which finds its most dramatic modern expression perhaps in the vevers of Voodoo, although it is appropriate too for the Planetary Intelligences and Spirits detailed by Agrippa.
Although the creation of sigils on the kameas is, as far as we know, first documented in Agrippa,[1] the kameas by themselves were being used for magick prior to this and were not created by Agrippa as has been suggested. The kameas were inscribed on planetary amulets and talismans made of thin sheets of the planetary metals and used for a wide variety of purposes. A manuscript entitled “The Book of Angels, Rings, Characters & Images of the Planets: attributed to Osbern Bokenham”, dating to the period 1441-45 on planetary magick makes specific reference to use of the kameas in talismanic magick in this manner. This MSS is contained in Cambridge MS Dd.xi.45, between herbal and medical texts, and all written in the same hand.[2]
Novotny attributes Agrippa’s source for use of the kameas to the short piece “A treatise on magic squares” possibly written by Manuel Moschopolos,[3] which was bound in with a fifteenth century copy of the Picatrix in Cracow.[4] Agrippa’s exposure to the kameas was probably through his teacher Abbot Johannes Trithemius, who we know possessed a copy of the Picatrix as well as an extremely impressive array of grimoires.[5]
However we must not discount the Kabbalistic use of magick squares as the possible source for Trithemius and Agrippa. The famous Kabbalist Rabbi Joseph Tzayach (1505-1573) documents their use in a number of his works,[6] continuing a Kabbalistic tradition which goes back some centuries. Significantly Tzayach lists the kameas for the classical planets as used by Agrippa, in the 3-9 range, but also adds the 10-20 range (omitting 15) for the Sephiroth from Kether to Malkuth. It may have been Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (1090-1167), a Jewish philosopher who translated many Arab works into Hebrew, and who had a fascination for magick squares and numbers, who spread their use in his travels across Europe from Spain to Italy.
The earliest known magick square was the Chinese Lo Shu, a 3x3 square better known to us as the Saturn kamea, which can be dated to the 1st century CE. The idea of magick squares may have been transmitted from China through India to the Arab world. The Rasa’il (Encylopaedia), composed around 990 CE by a group of Arab scholars lists the magic squares from 3x3 through to 9x9 (i.e. the classical seven). At this stage we must still speculate on routes of transmission, though it is clear magick squares had been used for many centuries by several traditions prior to Agrippa. As was often the case, the Renaissance magicians described how the kameas worked in a somewhat romanticized manner:
“The Magi of old framed certain Tables distributed to the seven planets. They called them sacred containing great virtues of heavenly numbers, by the Ideas of a divine soul, by a reason impressed on the Soul of the World in heavenly things, and the sweet harmony of those heavenly things, according to the proportion of the effigies, signifying together the Intelligences more than mundane, which cannot otherwise be expressed than by the notes of numbers and characters. For material numbers and figures can do nothing in the mysteries of hidden things unless represented by numbers and formal figures as they are governed and informed by the Intelligences and Divine numerations, which unite the extremes of matter and spirit, to the will of the soul elevated by a great affection of the operator in celestial virtue, receiving power from God, by the Soul of the Universe, and the observations of celestial constellations, unto a matter applied to a form convenient, by disposed mediums in the skill and science magical.”[7]
Returning to Agrippa, and the technique he used, the Hebrew names of beings such as the Planetary Intelligences and Planetary Spirits were transcribed onto the kameas, the sigil being formed by drawing lines joining the squares corresponding to the numerical values of the letters in sequence. The numbers attributed to the letters were used according to the range of numbers within the kamea. If the letter had a higher number attributed to it than existed in the kamea, the number was dropped to the highest number available in the Aiq Beker table. As the largest kamea is that of the Moon, which has the number range 1-81, any letter with a numerical value over 80 would always be reduced.
The Aiq Beker table is also known as the Qabalah of Nine Chambers. The name Aiq Beker comes from the attribution of the letters to the first two chambers, hence AIQ (Aleph, Yod, Qoph) BKR (Beth, Kaph, Resh).
The Aiq Beker “Qabalah of Nine Chambers”
1Aleph (A: 1)Yod (I, Y: 10)Qoph (Q: 100) | 2Beth (B: 2)Kaph (K: 20)Resh (R: 200) | 3Gimel (G: 3)Lamed (L: 30)Shin (Sh: 300) |
4Daleth (D: 4)Mem (M: 40)Tav (Th: 400) | 5He (H, E: 5)Nun (N: 50)Final Kaph (K: 500) | 6Vav (V, O, U: 6)Samekh (S: 60)Final Mem (M: 600) |
7Zain (Z: 7)Ayin (Aa, O, Ngh: 70)Final Nun (N: 700) | 8Cheth (Ch: 8)Peh (P, Ph: 80)Final Peh (P, Ph: 800) | 9Teth (T: 9)Tzaddi (Tz: 90)Final Tzaddi (Tz: 900) |
Examples are the best way to illustrate how this principle works when applied correctly. The Planetary Intelligence of Saturn is Agiel. When this name is attributed numerically the sequence is 1(A), 3(G), 1(I), 1(A), 3(L). Because the name is drawn on the planetary kamea for Saturn, which only contains the number range of 1-9, I with a numerical value of 10 is reduced to 1, and L with a numerical value of 30 is reduced to 3.
However if we now take the Planetary Intelligence of Venus, Kedemel, this is drawn on the Venus kamea with a number range of 1-49. Kedemel has the numerical attributions of 100(Q), 4(D), 40(M), 1(A), 30(L). The 100 is dropped to 10 because the number 100 is not found in the kamea, but the 40 and 30 are not reduced because they exist in the kamea.
Where the number attributed to the first letter is placed in the kamea is marked with a small circle in the centre of the number square. From this circle a straight line is drawn to the centre of the square for the second number, and so on until the last number is reached. This final end point is marked by either a small perpendicular bar or another circle.
If a word begins with two letters with the same numerical value, a bifurcation like a curvy m may be used, with the line to the next square drawn from the centre of the bifurcation. When two consecutive letters within the word have the same numerical value, a small loop is drawn, with additional loops for each additional repetition of the same numerical value.
When a word begins and ends in the same square of the kamea, the sigil is sometimes connected so there is no apparent beginning or end.
Confusingly, in the first source for this technique, Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa himself does not seem to always stick to these principles in the construction of the sigils for the Planetary Intelligences and Spirits. For instance where a word contains the letters IA together, which is common in names of spiritual creatures, the numerical values of the letters, I=10 and A=1, are often added to make 11, instead of using the squares for 10 and 1. Likewise he sometimes combines other letters with no apparent reason, and does not always reduce a number to the highest value, e.g. reducing 200 to 2 instead of 20 when there is a 20 in the kamea.
Since Agrippa’s work, the tendency has been to reproduce his sigils without any explanation. For this reason I will give all the Intelligence sigils which demonstrate inconsistencies, for the reader to consider for themselves.
By the 17th century the sigils drawn off the kameas were already well established, as can be seen by the following quote from Sloane MSS 3821.
“There are Seven Intelligences or Spirits, of light, who are Celestially Dignified, by nature, Angelical & Benevolent, whose names are to be Collected, & Characters Drawn from the forementioned tables [i.e. the kameas]; with the names of God, Governing them, by the force, Influence, Virtue, & Mystical, & Secret, Efficacy, whereof, them good demons, are powerfully moved, & to be Called forth, to Visible Appearance, whose Names are as followeth.”[8]
In looking at Agrippa’s influence, we should also remember that many other magicians have worked with different types of sigils since then (remembering that Agrippa describes reduction sigilisation in his Three Books as well). A fine example of this prevalence is to be found in the 18th century Sloane MSS 3822, which contains the following prayer (reproduced verbatim):
A Prayer before the putting of any Sigil[9]
By Sir Thomas Myddleton
“O Almighty Lord and everlasting God, by whose power both the heavens and the Earth with all things therein contained were made, by whose providence all things both in heaven & Earth are governed Who givest virtue to every Creature, that thou hast made as to plants, stones, herbs, & all for the use of man (who in thee doth live, move, & hath his being) yea & to words, prayers, signs & sigils dost give especial virtues, & especially to thy own great Names, for expelling of evil spirits & healing diseases, give thy special blessing unto these sigils which in thy Name we do apply unto this thy Servant, let those virtues equal the virtue of Gideon’s Sword that vanquished the Philistines, of Judith that cut off the Babylonian’s head, the strength of Sampson’s arms, the strength of David; let his prayers that made them (who bear a place in the Celestial Choir) be now heard in remembrance, & let our weak prayers, have access unto thy throne of Grace, & so for prayer with thy Sacred Majesty that these Sigils may receive that virtue from thee, that was humbly supplicated at the making of them, and Let this thy Servant find & feel the effectual workings of them, to the Recovering of health both of body & mind, & preserving from the Like or any other evil, both of body & mind hereafter, & grant this O merciful father for Jesus Christ his Sake in whose blessed Name we do humbly & heartily beg it, of thee, in that prayer which he hath taught us.
Take a good time agreeable to the Sigil you will put on.”
Melancolia, Albrecht Durer, 1514, incorporating the Jupiter kamea
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