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The Holy Guardian Angel The Holy Guardian Angel: Exploring the Sacred M agick of Abram elin the M age By Aaron Leitch Converted to Adobe form at by w w w .sacred-m agick. com Behold, I send an Angel before you, to kee p you in the w ay and to bring you into the place w hich I have prepared. Bew are of H im , and obey H is voice; provoke H im not, for H e w ill not pardon thy transgressions; for M y N am e is in. H im . But, if thou shalt indeed obey H is voice, and do all that I speak, then I w ill be an enem y unto your enem ies, and an adversary unto your adversaries. [Exodus 23: 20-23] Today w e shall meet the H oly G uardian Angel. M any teachers from various spiritual paths stress the importance of this mysterious being, w hile each of them tend to mean something different by the term. In many cases, folks are just referring to a kind of Angelic bodyguard that keeps one (especially children) out of harm’s w ay. In other instances, it is treated as a kind of metaphorical construct for deeper spiritual truths- an embodiment of all that is good about a person. Students of modern W estern occultism might be most familiar w ith the equation of the H oly G uardian Angel and one’s ow n H igher Self. It is my hope that this essay w ill help make some sense of the w hole confusing matter. In particular, w e are going to explore an obscure m agickal text from the late 1600s entitled The Book of the Sacred M agic of Abram elin the M age (here inafter called the Book of Abram elin). This small booklet- available in any bookstore or online (Dov er Publishing ISBN 0-486-2311-5.)- reveals a ritual procedure by w hich a spiritual aspirant might prep are for, invoke, and bond w ith his H oly G uardian Angel. S.L. M athers translated the book from a Frenc h copy in the late 19th century, and since then the H oly G uardian Angel has disseminated into many areas of modern W estern mysticism. W hile some aspirants have eschew ed the Judeo-Christian spirit ual philosophy w ithin the text, the concept of the H oly G uardian Angel and the vital importance of gaining contact w ith this entity have had a tremendous influence upon H ermeticism, Rosicrucia nism, and even N eopaganism. Establishing contact w ith the G uardian Angel is s upposed to be a hazardous undertaking, for the aspirant is attempting to invoke the very Voice of G od into his or her life. Yet, on top of this, the book further promises that- having gained the cooperat ion of the H oly G uardian Angel- the aspirant can continue onw ard to establish control over all the spi rits of nature and hell. N eedless to say, the Book of Abram elin has been the stuff of Lovecraftian-st yle fable, and urban legends are easy to find surrounding the text. To attempt the magick and fail (and thus go insane) is only one of the most famous pitfalls. The talismans in the back of the boo k, they say, tend to w ork of their ow n accord. Just ow ning a copy of the text, w e are told, can attra ct spiritual unrest or even hostile demons to your household! Thankfully, few of these dark legends about ow ning, studying, or using the book turned out to be true. Therefore, w e are free to explore the subject of Abramelin and the H oly G uardian Angel (or “H G A”) from several different perspectives. First, w e w ill take a look into the Book of Abram elin- its history, contents, and a brief analysis of the Abramelin Rite itself. Then, w e’re going to step backw ard in time to explore the concept of the G uardian- from the most ancient spirit teachers and Patron G ods to the G enius or Daemon of Platonic philosophy. This w ill lead us into some discussion about classical G nostic philosophy and how it bears upon the concept of the H oly G uardian Angel. Finally, I w ill offer another brief analysis of the H G A concept- this time using the Q abalah most familiar to my fellow students of W estern mysticism. A Collection of Sacred Magick | The Esoteric Library | www.sacred-magick.com The Book of Abram elin The history of the Book of Abram elin is both fascinating and mysterious. In 1898, occultist and translator S.L. M athers stumbled across the manuscript in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris, France. It w as in French, but claimed to have been translated from a H ebrew original that dated back to 1458. M athers places the French translation at the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth centuries. M odern scholarship has yet to solve the mysteries of the book’s true origins. First of all, the French manuscript cited by M athers in his edition has vanished from the Library of the Arsenal. (English translations, how ever, do remain.) Some have reported that the Library claims no such manuscript ever existed- leading many to label M athers a fraud w ho “translated” his book from a copy already in English! H ow ever, this theory is highly doubtful. M ore recently, researchers have reported from the Library that the manuscript is merely lost or stolen. In fact, many such manuscripts w ere lost in a fire that broke out there early last century. Even more mystery surrounds the contents of the book, and w hat they have to say about w hen and by w hom the book w as created. The supposed name of the author is “Abraham of W orms” or “Abraham the Jew ” (likely a pseudonym w ith symbolic relation to the father of Judaism). H e w as a physician, Q abalist, magus, and political advisor to such men as Emperor Sigismond of G ermany (1368-1437 CE). H ow ever, for the last century, literary scholars have doubted the book could have been w ritten in the late 1400s. For instance, one might note the similarities betw een Abraham’s autobiography (given in the first part of the Book of Abram elin) and the Fam a Fraternatis published in 1614. If M athers’ French translation w ere actually the original, even it w as only dated to the late 1600s. Equally dubious w ere “Abraham’s” claims of being Jew ish. There are many inconsistencies in the text that point to a Christian author. For instance, the numbering from the Vulgate Bible is given for Psalms, and there are references to the Apostles, St. John, and several Catholic prayers. The Christian holy day of Easter is mentioned (rather than the Jew ish Passover), and the Talismans given in the book include such names as “Lucifer” and other demons from Christian mysticism. N ot only this, but the Book of Abram elin resembles no know n Jew ish mystical text - such as the Zohar or Sepher Yetzirah. (N or has there ever been a H ebrew version of the manuscript found.) Instead, it resembles (in parts) the Christian grimoires and exorcism handbooks of the medieval period. The mythology presented in the rhetoric of the book (including Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven, etc) also strikes me as more Christian than Judaic. This w ould all seem to make perfect sense. After all, it w as common for Christian grimoires (such as the Key of Solom on and the G oetia) to claim both Jew ish authorship and false antiquity. Since M athers released his edition into the W est, Abram elin has been considered just another example of the same. Yet, somew hat recently, the plot has thickened! A researcher by the name of G eorg Dehn discovered yet another version of the text- this one older than the French!- w ritten in G erman. The French/English translation of Abram elin bears some striking differences from the older G erman. First of all, the French translator systematically reduced the length of the magickal Rite- from one and a half years to merely six months. The French version is also described as much less elaborate, is missing an entire portion of the original text, and a large number of its Talismans are incomplete. M ore importantly to our discussion here, at least some of the Christian references I mentioned above are not found in the G erman. (I.e.- the reference to “Easter” in the French w as originally to “Passover” in the G erman.) W hile this does not prove that Abraham w as Jew ish, it throw s some very reasonable doubt upon the theories surrounding the French version. N ow , it is just as likely that Abraham w as indeed a Jew , and the Christian bias of the text imparted by the unknow n French translator. At this point w e cannot be certain. r. Dehn’s research has led him to believe the au thor of the Book of Abram elin is exactly w hat he claims. This is likely because he found a historical personage w ho fits the description of Abraham the Jew - Rabbi Jacob ben M oses M olln (ca 1365-1427) . H e lived in approximately the same time period claimed by Abram elin’s author, had a similar educa tion and career, and even a “missing period” in his life that w ould match the period described in Abr aham’s autobiography.
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