Ch.9 The Mighty Ones (WMB 9.f)

Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr.

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The calling of the Lords of the Watchtowers is sometimes known as “Calling the Quarters”. This expression may well have been drawn from the grimoire tendency to draw two lines in the magick circle dividing them into quarters, or influenced by the use of the term in the Key of Solomon:

“Let the Magus of the Art …. Lead them into the Circle of Art and station them therein towards the Four Quarters of the Universe.”

The Grimoire of Honorius also has an interesting reference to conjurations of the Kings of the Directions which are made after the circle has been created, though the sequence is not the one used commonly elsewhere in ceremonial magick. In the section entitled “General Conjuration of Spirits”, it says:

“After this general conjuration you must make the four specific conjurations which follow; first to the King of the East, 2nd to the King of the West, 3rd to the King of the North and 4th to the King of the South.”

This sequence of East, West, North, and South is one seen in the positioning of the Enochian Tables when they are combined, and in the invocations of Enochian angels found in the seventeenth century magickal work which continued Dee’s practices.[1]

Interestingly the term “Kings” for the rulers of the Watchtowers does appear in some of the writings of Wiccan Elders. The ‘kings of the directions’ referred to in the late seventeenth century Grimoire of Honorius may have appeared in the writings of Patricia Crowther as the ‘kings of the elements’. As previously mentioned, it was also Crowther who recorded the use of the term ‘black book’ for the Book of Shadows, a term previously used for the Grimoire of Honorius. Crowther, who was one of Gerald Gardner’s initiates and High Priestesses, wrote in her book Lid off the Cauldron that:

“In the Craft, the intelligences behind the elements are called the ‘Lords of the Outer Spaces’, or the ‘Kings of the Elements’”

Although they used the term ruler interchangeably with king, the Golden Dawn gave these beings names, calling them:

Element King of the Element

Air Paralda

Fire Djin

Water Niksa

Earth Ghob

Furthermore, these names are also previously found in Levi’s Transcendental Magic with prayers to the elementals and consecrations of salt and water so they undoubtedly have a long history of use, predating that of the Golden Dawn.

The origins of these names are fragmentary. We do not know for certain where the names Ghob and Paralda originate, though we can trace Djin and Niksa to diverse sources. Djin comes from the Arabic name for a type of fiery spirit, popularised in the West as genie. Niksa is derived from nixie, a type of shapeshifting water spirit found in German mythology and folklore. Ghob, as an earthy name, may be taken from the name of the mountainous region between Hirat and Ghazni in Afghanistan.

[1] The Practical Angel Magic of Dr John Dee’s Enochian Tables, Skinner & Rankine, 2004

Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr. Shared here with the intention to inspire and inform the now and future generations interested in Wicca and other Pagan traditions inspired by it.