Magick is an art that has transformed the lives of people from the common man to the most educated. Wonders of this craft produce results based on the effort you place into it (on a practical level and metaphysical level.) Culturally in terms of speaking, each system varies from nation to nation. There were two particular forms of magick around the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea introduced based on the sun 2,000 years ago. Each of these systems has a practical esoteric application and esoteric literal view. Once you learn this ancient duality of Helios these concepts could completely make your magical and mundane life a far deeper experience. However I will be focusing solely on solar magick in this blog post.
The Sun on a practical level was seen to the laymen as the benevolent self-sufficient father that gave life to man. He was the procreative masculine force that was born, died, and reborn. But keep in mind this the most basic of his meaning of Sol. Humans at that period were extremely lucky to live past the age of forty. Essentially, humans saw this cyclic process as reflective upon their own lives. Another practical meaning of the sun was the ability to calculate times and formulate a calendar. It is easy to forget that ancient peoples of two millennia ago and beyond used astrology more for calendar uses than horoscopes, unlike today, where astrology is more personalized for individual psychology. So the Sun was a clock. When we read The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation with Demotic Spells, a book written in Hellenized Egypt, we find the sun had 12 hours during the day and 12 hours during the night, rather than ceremonial magick planetary hours. The sun was the primary focus. The solar timing could determine when the Nile River was going to flood seasonally and acted as a clock based on angle in the sky. Following the patterns of our solar star was seen as the giver of light, as man only had oil lamps to see during the night. Thus, that light was worshiped and was a metaphor for enlightenment or knowledge. This is why philosophers like Pythagoras, Socrates and Iamblichus avidly gave praise to Apollo.
Esoterically and magically, the sun was the benevolent father who defined the journey of the hero. Samson, the man whose strength came from his hair, translates to the “Sun Man” as Manly Palmer Hall states in his astrotheology lecture given in philosophy. Pythagoras was associated to the sun god, Apollo, in Croton according to Iamblichus. Pytha literally translates to Apollo. Therefore many people believed Pythagoras’ wisdom in mathematics, politics, science, music therapy, creating a just legal system, and egalitarian way of life was linked to him being an incarnation of Apollo. It was from Pythagoras that the seed of western civilization had begun to influence latter philosophers such as Plato. The sun was seen as the source of knowledge in the esoteric sense with the application of self-knowledge and scientific knowledge. It was because hidden secrets were being revealed, it was shedding light on darkness. This later played a role in Christianity as the Christ figure with the credit going to Platonism. Most generally, the sun represented the intellect of man.
Practically and esoterically we find the sun’s role in magick when we observe PGM III. 494-611 in this 2,000 year old text called “To Establish a Relationship with Helios”. It is obvious this was written for a mystery school initiation of sorts:
A procedure for every rite, for all things, for whatever you want, invoke this way:
"Come, come to me 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 prayer completely, because I know your signs, symbols and forms, who you are each hour and what your name is.
In the first hour you have the form and character of a young monkey; the tree you produce is the silver fir; the stone the aphanos; the bird... your name is PHROUER.
In the second hour you have the form of a unicorn; the tree you produce is the Persea; the stone, the pottery stone; the bird, halouchakon; on land, the ichneumon; your name is BAZETOPHOTH.
In the third hour, you have the form of a cat; the tree you produce is the fig tree; the stone, samouchos; the bird the parrot; on land, the frog; your name is AKRAMMACHAMAREI.
In the fourth hour you have the form of a bull; the tree you produce...the stone, the amethyst; the bird, the turtledove, on land, the bull; your name is DAMNAMENEUS.
In the fifth hour you have the form of a lion; the tree you produce is the prickly shrub; the stone, the magnet; the bird...on land, the crocodile; your name is PHOKENGEPSEUARETATHOUMISONKTAIKT.
In the sixth hour you have the form of a donkey; the tree you produce is the thorn tree; the stone, lapis lazuli; in the sea, the jellyfish; on land, the white-faced cow; your name is EIAU AKRI LYX...
In the sevent hour you have the form of a crayfish; the tree you produce... you produce...; the stone, sun opal; the bird...on land, the cat; your name is...
In the eighth hour you have the form...the tree you produce...the stone... the bird..; on land, the hippopotamus; your name is...
In the ninth hour you have the form of an ibis; the tree you produce... the stone...; on land, the chameleon; your name...
In the tenth you have the form...; the tree you produce...the stone; one the color of a falcon's neck; the bird...
In the twelfth hour you have the form..your name is ADONAI...
... GABRIEL ALLOEA... OUREEDYDIE THARABRACHIRIGX IARBATHACHRAMNEPHIBAOCHNYMEO KAMPYKRIL... ELAMMARE
I have spoken your signs and symbols. Therefore, lord, do the NN deed by necessity, lest I shake heaven. Do the NN deed for me; you are the image, the whole of the universe, you who, after being selected, guarded the holy place of the great great king. Do the NN deed for me, the one who keeps the keys the triangular paradise of earth, which is the kingdom. Do the NN deed for for me, the fatherless child of an honored widow, BOIATHYRITH, lest they take away from me the lord's fatherland and so that all good things happen by command, PHNOUNKENGEPSEUARETATHOUMISONKTAIKT MASKELLI MASKELLO PHNKETABAO ARIO ZAGRA RESICHTHON HIPPOCHTHON PYROSPARIPEGANYX KAILAM IALMIO LILIMOULEALABAELABAENEREDEMOU.
Come to me in your holy circuit of
The Holy Spirit, founder of the world,
O god of gods, lord of the world, who have
Divided by your own divine spirit
The universal first from the firstborn you
Appeared, created carefully, from water
That's turbulent, who founded all the world:
Abyss, earth, fire, water, air, and in turn
Ether of roaring rivers, red-faced moon,
Heaven's stars, morning stars, and whirling planets.
Tis by your counsels they attend all things.
You who summon... AMOCHL... PHODOPH... M... ARPHTHO... IBK/PSOUPHIS TOM... OIOTH OPHROUER CHMEIB HARPONKNOUPHI BRINTATENOPHRI BRISKYLMA BAROUAR ZARBAMESEG KRIPHI NIGTHOU MICHMOUMAOPH IAOLI PRIN ASTRAPTES AI CHEAOKRITABAOZAALE ASRISKI...OU BRITHEI STOMA, master. Come to me, lord, you who sometimes raise the light, sometimes lower the darkness with your own power. Hear me, lord, me, NN, graciously, gladly, and for a blessing, from every element from every wind, today, with your happy face, in the present hour, because I invoke your holy name from the right of the axis: IAO AOI OAI OYA OOOOOO AAAAAA IY...OAI, but from the left of the axis; IAO AYO IOAI PIPI OOO OO III AYO.. OA OAI. Come to me with a happy face to a bed of your choice, giving to me, NN, sustenance, health, health safety, wealth, the blessing of children, knowledge, a ready hearing, goodwill, sound judgment, honor, memory, grace, shapeliness, beauty to all who see me; you who hear me in everything whatsoever, give me persuasiveness with words, great god, to the EYAEO IO IAO OAI OIO EAYI TAS ERCHIS AUXACHOCH HARSAMOSI. I beg, master, accept my entreaty, the offering to you which you commanded. In order that you might now illuminate me with knowledge of things beloved by you even after the kind restoration of my material body, I pray, lord, accept this my request, the entreaty, the preliminary spell, the offering of my eloquent spirit. Let it also come to you, ruler of all, in order that you fulfill all the petitions of my prayer, you who originated from gods. We give you thanks with every soul and heart stretched out to you, unutterable name honored with the appellation of god and blessed with the appellation of father, for to everyone and to everything you have shown fatherly goodwill, affection, friendship and sweetest power, granting us intellect, speech, and knowledge; intellect so that we might understand you, speech so that we might call upon you, knowledge so that we might know you. We rejoice because you showed yourself to us; we rejoice because while we are still in bodies you deified us by knowledge of who you are. The thanks of man to you is one: to come to know you, O womb of all knowledge. We have come to know, O womb pregnant through the father's begetting. We have come to know, O eternal continuation of the pregnant father. After bowing thus before your goodness, we ask no favor except this: will that we be maintained in knowledge of you; and one protection that we not fall away from a life such as this...
In conclusion, this spell clearly demonstrates the practical and esoteric metaphysical practices the sun symbolized the world of man internally and externally. Therefore, I wrote this invocation below in my own way for further purposes of understanding.
AN INVOCATION OF HELIOS:
IAO, SABAOTH, APOLLO, HELIOS, RA, OSIRUS, HORUS
I invoke the Holy, Solar One.
The one who is victorious over Seth.
Thee, Thee I invoke.
The God of man yesterday, today, and in the future.
Hawk-headed you are and laurel is sacred to you.
Thee, Thee I invoke.
Each hour of the day is yours and yours only,
You carry the golden orb across the sky.
Thee, Thee I invoke.
I am he, the benevolent father who gives life,
Also he who the malevolent warrior who acts with every word.
From the East I am born and resurrected,
And in the west my last breath takes me into a journey in the underworld,
The fumigation of Frankincense is my offering in the day,
I am the Lord of Light of the watch tower from the height of heaven.
In the ecstasy of my pleasure I give thou the waters of the sacred Nile,
The abode of prophets and kings is my initiation.
Air-Traversing God of fire and man I am,
He who gives life on the impoverished and aristocratic alike.
For I am King by day and a wayfarer by night,
One half of the day I am in my palace of Gold,
The other half on a conquest with no possessions in darkness.
Behold, my words to be splendor the soul with every sound,
Each thought is carried to my azure, my beloved widow.
My hawk-headed son is heart full of passion,
Fighting in my name to conquer the storm-bearer, Seth.
Behold, as I am the chariot rider bringing light to darkness,
Philosophers hold my bounteous name for eternity.
I will rise for ever and ever without chains or restraints,
Slaying creatures and keeping the world’s vitality in my fortitude.
Helios and I are now one together,
In union through body, mind and spirit for the Great Work!
For we give light to the dreary and dispirited,
We give the heart of a lion for every conquest.
Every spirit and elemental conjured in my name,
Here thy voice! The voice of fire and thunder.
The crown on my head exhibits my reign and power,
It is my mind inflamed continuously burning with knowledge!
My right hand wields the sword and the left, the wand,
One is my thought and the other is my action!
Humbled, yet stern I stand before thee,
Consoled through the journey of the dead.
My end is your end,
My beginning is your beginning!
I am Ra, Osiris, Horus, Apollo, Helios, and Hyperion!
My throne is thine even when appearing vacant,
Round this whirling circle I go to keep the circular earth in order.
Surviving the chaos of the ferryman and the daemons,
They grasp after my garment and I am still here!
Hearken to thy power in silence,
And forever shall we live a life such as this.
I guest blogged this at https://samhainmoon.blogspot.com/