Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Planetary Magic

Hagiel

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Origin 1533: planetary tables published in Three Books of Occult Philosophy

The Kamea of Venus, a seven by seven magic square whose rows, columns and diagonals each sum to one hundred and seventy five, is presented in Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533) with its ruling intelligence, Hagiel, and opposing spirit, Kedemel. Hagith, Venus's Olympic spirit, comes from the separate, anonymous Arbatel of Magic (1575) rather than from Agrippa's own kamea tradition. Venus's square and its figures are traditionally associated with love, beauty and reconciliation, matching the planet's broader character in astrology.

Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
1533: planetary tables published in Three Books of Occult Philosophy 1Tradition: Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Origin Period
1575: the Olympic Spirit is not from Agrippa 2Tradition: Arbatel of Magic (1575)
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
Included the Intelligence and Spirit names 1Tradition: Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Origin Period
Name comes from the later, separate Arbatel of Magic 2Tradition: Arbatel of Magic (1575)
Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own account
Cologne, where the Three Books of Occult Philosophy were printed in 1533 1
Attributed Author / CompilerSourced to the subject's own account
For the magic square and the Intelligence and Spirit names 1
Attributed Author / CompilerSourced to the subject's own account
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) 1
Attributed Author / Compiler
None, for the Olympic Spirit: the Arbatel of Magic is anonymous 2
Origin of the NameSourced to the subject's own account
Hebrew letters given number values summing to the square's numbers 1
Origin of the NameSourced to the subject's own account
Names are constructed, not received 1
LanguageSourced to the subject's own account
Latin 1
LanguageSourced to the subject's own account
Medieval Hebrew 1
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The Planetary Magic of Venus

The planetary magic of Venus gathers the names, seals and number-square attached to that planet in the Western magical tradition. Its magic square, or kamea, is of order 7, a grid of 7 by 7 cells holding the numbers 1 to 49 so that every row, column and diagonal sums to 175.

Square, intelligence and spirit

From that square are derived, by gematria, the names of the planet's two governing powers: the Intelligence Hagiel, the ordering and benevolent aspect, and the Spirit Kedemel, the raw and unmediated force. This apparatus was set out by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in the Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533), drawing on earlier Hebrew and Arabic number-magic. To the same planet is also joined an Olympic Spirit, here Hagith, one of the seven planetary governors named in the Arbatel of Magic (1575).

These names, squares and hierarchies are described here as an element of the documented tradition of Renaissance ceremonial magic, studied historically; the spirits are not reified.

Reading the Kamea of Venus

The Venus table is a seven by seven square of the numbers one to forty nine, adding to one hundred and seventy five in each row, column and diagonal, and to one thousand two hundred and twenty five in total. Being odd ordered, it is one of the stable tables: the standard construction rule produces it directly, and copies across the manuscript tradition agree closely.

Agrippa gives Venus the intelligence Hagiel, the spirit Kedemel, and a name for the order of spirits of the planet, and as with the rest of the set the Hebrew letter values of these names return numbers belonging to the square. Venus is a good place to notice that the scheme has four numbers available to work with, not one: the order of the square, the count of its cells, the row sum and the grand total. Different names in the same planetary set draw on different ones of the four, which is why they do not all come to the same figure.

The metal, the day and the hour matter as much as the square in the practical literature. A Venus table was to be engraved on copper, on a Friday, in a planetary hour of Venus, and the completed object was a talisman rather than a diagram. The atlas records the instruction as documented practice and takes no position on the result.

None of the seven tables originates with Agrippa. They circulate in Arabic and Latin manuscripts before him, and his contribution was to print them together with a consistent scheme of names.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Named as the Olympic spirit of this planetary sphere.

Disciplines That Use This

The planetary intelligences and spirits addressed in planetary work.

Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Originates in Language

Latin, Languages
Source Three Books of Occult PhilosophyHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Sources
1. Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Llewellyn, 1533Book II, on the tables of the planetsView the Source
2. Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
Owen Davies, Oxford University Press, 2009Davies, Grimoires: Renaissance ceremonial magic, incl. Agrippa and the Arbatel (1575) with its seven Olympic Spirits (here Hagith of Venus).View the Source
De occulta philosophia libri tres
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa; V. Perrone Compagni (ed.), Brill, 1992Agrippa, De occulta philosophia, Book II: Venus's magic square (kamea) of order 7, constant 175, and the derived Intelligence Hagiel and Spirit Kedemel.View the Source
The Language of Demons and Angels: Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy
Christopher I. Lehrich, Brill, 2003Lehrich's study of Agrippa's occult philosophy: the planetary number-squares and their derived Intelligences and Spirits (here Venus).View the Source
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