APOTELESTIKON

The Perfective Rites of Theurgic Magic

By Monte Plaisance

[draft]

PGM 1. 1 – 42 – Original Spell

TO ACQUIRE A SPIRIT FAMILIAR

The Rite: A daemon comes as an assistant who will reveal everything to you clearly and will be your
companion and will eat and sleep with you.

Take together, therefore, two of your own fingernails and all the hairs from your head and take a
Circaean falcon and deify it in the milk of a black cow after you have mixed Attic honey with the milk.
And once you have deified it, wrap it with an undyed piece of cloth and place beside it your fingernails
along with your hairs; and take a piece of choice papyrus, and inscribe in myrrh the following, and set it
in the same manner along with the hairs and fingernails, and plaster it with uncut frankincense and old
wine.
A W W W W W W W
E E U U U U U U
H H H OO O O O
I I I I I I I I
OO O O O H H H
U U U U U U E E
W W W W W W W A

And take the milk with the honey and drink it before the rising of the sun, and there will be something
divine in your heart. And take the falcon and set it up as a statue in a shrine made of juniper wood. And
after you have crowned the shrine itself, make an offering of non-animal foods and have on hand some
old wine. And before you recline, speak directly to the bird itself after you have made sacrifice to it, as
you usually do, and say the prescribed spell:

A EE HHH IIII OOOOO UUUUUU WWWWWWW, Come to me, O AGAQOGEWRGOS,

AGAQODAIMON, 'ARPON KNOUFI BRINTANTHN SIFRI BRISKULMA AROUAZAR
BAMESEN KRIFI NIPOUMICOUMAWF. Come to me, O Holy Orion, you who lie in the North,
who cause the currents of the Nile to roll down and mingle with the sea, transforming them
with life as it does man’s seed in sexual intercourse, you who have established the world on an
indestructible foundation, who are young in the morning and old in the evening, who journey
through the subterranean sphere and rise, breathing fire, you who have parted the seas in the
first month, who ejaculate seeds into the sacred fig tree of Heliopolis continually. This is your
authoritative name: ARBAQ ABAWQ BAKXABRH.
But when you are dismissed, go without shoes and walk backwards and set yourself to the
enjoyment of the food and dinner and the prescribed food offering, coming face to face as
companion to the god. This rite requires complete purity. Conceal, conceal the procedure and
for 7 days refrain from having intercourse with a woman.

PGM 1. 1 – 42 – Modified Spell

INTERPRETATION OF THE SPELL AND RITE

The first thing that captured me with this particular spell was the reference to ‘deifying’ the falcon using
milk and honey. The act of ‘deifying’ means that the falcon is to be drowned within the milk and honey.
I have used milk and honey as an offering to the gods for many years, but the idea that drowning causes
deification is attested in ancient Egyptian custom by Herodotus in Book 2. 90 – “Anyone, Egyptian or
foreigner, known to have been carried off by a crocodile or drowned by the river itself, must by all means
be embalmed and wrapped as attractively as possible and buried in a sacred coffin by the people of the
place where he is cast ashore; none of his relatives or friends may touch him, but his body is considered
something more than human, and is handled and buried by the priests of the Nile themselves.” The
magical reasoning behind this is that water is unique in its generation and remarkable in its composition.
It is a universal absorbent of Pneuma or Life, Soul, Spirit energy. Water is a combination of Hydrogen
and Oxygen molecules, both of which are flammable gases; yet water quenches flame. This is a perfect
symbiosis of opposing forces, which gives water a unique quality. It can absorb and emit pneuma in
massive quantities. Milk can be seen as an immensely powerful form of water (liquid) as it is a life-giving
substance filled with pneuma and honey is also extremely potent with pneuma. The act of drowning the
falcon/hawk within this potent combination of liquid pneuma, the soul of the creature is seen to be
absorbed into it and thus by drinking it, the magician takes the soul of the animal into their own essence
and effectively becoming divine as well.

The next thing is the hair and fingernails. These are commonly known in magical circles as tag-locks,
which are essentially a link to the individual to whom they belong. Again, here we see in the spell that
these are taken and placed with the body of the falcon/hawk as a sort of offering. The offering of hair
was common in ancient Greece for funerary rites and as a sign or mourning, so this act may serve a
double purpose in that it links the magician to the falcon/hawk via tag-lock and it may also serve as an
offering of respect and mourning for the animal’s life-force which was sacrificed and now ingested by
the magician to help with their magical progress. The body of the falcon/hawk is wrapped in the fashion
of a mummy, using undyed cloth and a plaster made of powdered Frankincense and old wine and set
within a shrine made of juniper wood. Juniper has a long history of being used in funerary rites and the
berries are often burned to remove evil spirits and to facilitate contact with the underworld.

In this instance, I believe the magical concept is that the soul/spirit of the bird will become the attending
spirit of the magician. By saying that the spirit will eat and sleep with the magician is in the context that
the magician has taken to soul of the animal into their self and now the spirit resides with them
permanently as an assistant or attendant spirit, known as a paredroj or a ‘sharer of the throne’.

In the original spell, this calls for a Circaean Falcon. The Greek word kirkoj, which translates as a hawk
or falcon. The adjective kirkaioj, according to the footnote in the PGM is said to be unattested to
anywhere else. It is my belief that the term kirkaioj is in reference to Mount Tanagra, which was
known in ancient times as Kerukiuj. It was on this mountain that an ancient tomb of Orion was to be
found. Considering the spell mentions Orion directly, it would suffice to say that a hawk or falcon
captured at Orion’s tomb would hold a special significance and connection to Him. Most hero cults
required the soma or body of the hero to be present to receive offerings. In this way, by using a
falcon/hawk from the location of the tomb of Orion, it would be a tag-lock connecting the magician to
that location.

The meal that is to be shared with the spirit is to consist of non-animal foods, which is quite obviously
the funerary meal celebrated among the ancients on the holy day attributed to the hero being
worshipped and remembered.

The words of power used in the incantation/spell are the barbarous onomata spoken of by Iamblichus
and the power in them resides in their proper pronunciation rather than in an understanding of their
meaning. For this reason, I choose not to interpret their meaning, but only to experiment with their
energies and powers.

PERFORMANCE:

While determining how I was going to perform this particular spell, I was hindered by the idea that the
hero Orion permeates this particular spell, and the success of the original spell seems to hinge on some
connection to the body or tomb of the Hero. I was forced to re-think this spell. If the format of this spell
works according to divine laws and principles, then I should be able to substitute Orion for some other
divine being.

I chose Helios as my benefactor because the spell states that the drinking of the milk/honey should be
done before the rising of the sun. Taking this turn of phrase to mean at the sun’s rising, Helios seems to
be appropriate. In order to keep the euqugammia (alignment) of the spell correct I also changed the
barbarous onomata, which are given in the original to be attached to Orion. I replaced them with a
word formula associated with Helios known as the ABERAMENTHO FORMULA, which is a long
palindrome (the same forwards and backwards) that is used throughout the PGM for both Helios and
Apollo the only other changes were to substitute the falcon/hawk for a rooster which is associated with
Helios and the format of the prayer to speak of Helios rather than Orion. I did not have access to
Juniper wood, so I substituted with Cypress wood, which is abundantly available for me. Living in a very
rural area, the acquisition of a rooster was easy at the local farmer’s market.
PREPARATIONS: The preparations for this spell began on August 20th and the spell was performed on
August 28th, 2006.
Cleansings: purification baths twice per day (upon waking and before going to sleep) using
natron as the cleansing ingredient. No sexual activity at all.
Dietary: Intermediate fasting, limited meat intake, no beans or root foods. Lots of fruits,
especially oranges, juices, and golden apples; lots of eggs.
Location: Walker, Louisiana – Temenos grounds

Items used:
Two fingernails undyed strips of linen
A lock of my hair papyrus
Canned Milk Myrrh Ink (see pg. for directions to make this ink)
Honey Frankincense (powdered)
A rooster wine

The Rite and the Results:

I woke at 3:00 a.m. to begin the spell. Everything was gathered and ready. After my
cleansing bath, I put on my white robe and sandals. I anointed myself with sunflower oil and
went outside. I had already erected the altar in the center of the property so as to catch the
first light of the sun when it rises. I poured the canned milk at room temperature and honey
into the khernibion and prepared myself for what I needed to do. Just as the first light of the
day started to break, I went to the cage to get the rooster. It took me a little longer to catch
than I expected, but once I had it I returned to the altar. I held it close to me and began to
chant the vowels which had an immediate calming effect on it. I took firm hold of the rooster’s
body under my left arm and grabbed hold of its head with my right. Continuously chanting, I
pushed its head into the bowl. The process happened faster than I imagined it would and
within a few minutes the rooster went limp. I placed the body on the altar and immediately
began to prepare it as instructed. I mixed the wine and powdered frankincense in a separate
bowl until it formed a sticky mush. I dipped the linen strips into this ‘plaster’ and wrapped the
rooster’s body with it as best I could. When it was completely covered with the strips of linen, I
coated the entire body with the remainder of the plaster and set my nails, hair and the
inscribed papyrus next to it. This whole process took quite a while, and the sun was already
above the horizon when I was finished. When I was done, I took up the khernibion and turned
my eyes to the sun’s orb sitting above the trees. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, felt the
heat of the sun on my face and drank from the bowl. It was sweet to the taste. Not sure if the
psychology of the situation caused this reaction, but I did feel an intense rush of energy course
through me, almost like taking a big shot of strong whiskey. My body began to shake and the
hairs on my body stood on end. I now took up the wrapped bird and my nails, hair and
parchment and carried them into the telesterion, where I had built the small cypress shrine to
house it. I placed everything in the shrine and made the offering of fruits and wine. Then I
recited the following prayer:
I vibrated the vowel formula A, E, H, I, O, U, W for a Lesser Cycle (7 times) and then said:
Come, come to me, O Helios, from the four winds of the world, air-traversing, great god. Hear
me in every ritual which I perform, and grant all the petitions of my prayers completely,
because I take your divine spirit into my soul. You who have established the world on an
indestructible foundation, who are young in the morning and old in the evening, who journey
through the subterranean sphere and rise, breathing fire, light and giving life-giving energy to
all. This is your sacred name: ABERAMENQWOUQLERQEXANAXEQRELQUOWQNEMAREBA. I
repeated the ABERAMENTHO formula for a Full Cycle (i.e. 49 times). During the recitation of
this formula, I was overcome with intense energy. The woods around me appeared glowing
with a golden light and I could see orbs of light darting around through the trees. When I was
done, I gave thanks to Helios and the spirit of the shrine, walked backwards from the area and
went inside. I took another natron cleansing bath and went back to bed.
The pronunciation of the ABERAMENTHO formulas is:
[ABERAMENQW] [OUQLER] [QEXANAX] EQRELQUOWQ NEMAREBA
[ah-vehr-ah-MEN-thoh] [ooth-lehr] [THEX-anax] [eth-rel-THEE-oth] [Neh-mah-REV-ah]

The after-effects: It has been 15 years since I performed this ritual, and it has remained an
important part of my magical background. It was a powerful purifying presence in my life for
nearly eight years after completing this ritual, at which time the paredros left because I had
progressed far enough in my spirituality that it was no longer needed. I attribute quite a lot of
changes to the taking in of this paredros. Not long after this ritual was performed, there was a
sort of awakening in my psyche that opened me up to the lessons presented here. I was able to
see much clearer the energies of others, to see past the façade and into their true motives,
which eventually led me to remove toxic people from my life more easily. This spirit also
protected me from several dangers - in one instance, I was involved in a terrible car accident
which could (and possibly should) have ended me, but I distinctly recall feeling a set of wings
surround me keeping me from major harm.