ANGELS, ANGELS EVERYWHERE!: SOME ADVICE ON HOW TO PROCEED
A question that comes up regularly when doing readings where people want insight into their spiritual path is what sort of spirit they should work with. It’s a valid question and often an important one. Even in one tradition, such as Solomonic Magic, you can have multiple grimoires, spirit registers, and approaches to do the same thing. Sometimes, people also want to combine systems and create something they feel is more suited to them. This is where things can get wonky and, quite frankly, dangerous. Even in the same system, like grimoire magic, it can be tricky to merge two or more.
What, instead, is a better answer? Well, anyone who has been following me for any time will see my consistent message that spirit work is best done with a strong familiar, guardian angel or patron deity at your back. Can it be done without that? Sure. But why would you? If you have a choice between getting into a fight with your best friend at your side or going into the fray solo, it would not be very smart to choose the latter.
But I wanted to highlight a bit more than this. Let’s stick with Angels for the sake of this discussion. In the traditional ceremonial world of magic, the most important Angel in many ways is the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA). Attaining this Angel is grueling work, but the result is not only a lifelong spirit companion but dominion over hordes of demons—some of whom also choose to follow and assist the initiate. With this kind of spirit at your back, it is much easier to progress into other magical systems, especially ones with what I will call wild spirits. The Angel helps you put and keep those spirits in place, among many other things initiates have told me.
Then there are systems such as the Key of Solomon, which focus on the seven planetary Archangels as the patron spirits one conjures and bonds with. These angels do not go in you the same way the HGA does, nor do they impart authority the way the HGA does. But they ARE a way to establish a similar authority to command and conjure spirits of the Key system. I have not heard many Solomonic magicians speak to working with these Angels in the fashion one would work with the HGA to oversee spiritual development, but that certainly does not mean it would not be possible!
The third option that comes to mind is the Natal Angels. Aaron Leitch has a wonderful mini-course on these entities. The most laborious part of attaining them is gaining their name. Once you have that, you can build an entire practice with this Angel, much like the HGA. There is no specific Natal Angel system like the Key of Solomon or Abramelin. Still, one could easily jailbreak, for example, the Key of Solomon into a conjuration system that focuses on your Natal Angel’s planetary correspondences.
The last I will highlight is a system of angels I use and teach called the 72 Shemhamforash Angels. I have always seen these angels as close-to-earth entities who have an easier time manifesting things on our plane of existence than some higher-order angels. This implies no sense of less-than but rather a difference of purposes. If you read through the tables of 72, you quickly see they focus predominantly on this-worldly issues. They lend themselves greatly to the practical magical focus of Hoodoo and other folk systems, which is part of the reason I created my own course to just that effect. That and the Shem Angels did have a historical connection to Hoodoo through some famous grimoires in the Hoodoo system. This system also has the capacity for people to ascertain their birth Ruling Shem Angel, who can be worked with in ways similar to the angels I already mentioned. I will include a link to the course here, in case you’re curious: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/working-the-names/.
I am aware of a few more angel systems than these, but I made my point in these highlights. There are many ways to approach angel magic and spirituality. And yes, some of these systems can be functionally combined, even if one respects them as separate systems. By that, I could attain my HGA and then connect my practical work with my HGA to one of the Shem Angels systems being taught, giving me greater versatility in addressing practical and theurgical needs I might have. The HGA would be the guide and indicate which Shem Angel to work with for a particular issue. The path one chooses depends on your goals and aspirations for yourself and your practice. Such as whether you want to be a solo practitioner or an eventual public servant worker who provides spiritual services to the community. Or do you want to do this magic solely to develop and evolve yourself spiritually, or do you want to engage in a lot of practical magic?
Whatever you choose, know that there are people like myself who take what they teach seriously but also have a sense of joy in teaching what we do. May the Angels guide you and help you contemplate your bliss!
