Watchtower (magic)

In the tradition of the 1880s Order of the Golden Dawn a watchtower or guardian in ceremonial and derived neopagan magical tradition is a tutelary spirit of one of the four cardinal points or quarters (north, east, south, and west). They are also variously associated in many traditions with each the four classical elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and stars (Fomalhaut, Aldebaran, Regulus, and Antares). In Christian-influenced magical traditions, they are understood to be the Archangels Uriel, Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. The watchtowers are invoked during the ritual of casting a magic circle.

Types

In archaic Roman religion, small towers were built at the crossroads, and an altar was set before them upon which offerings were given to nature spirits. Guardian spirits known as Lares were associated with these towers and with demarcation in general, as well as seasonal themes related to agriculture.[1] Here we may find a connection between the Lares and the Grigori of Italian Witchcraft. These towers may be the foundation of the watchtowers appearing in the ritual circles of Wiccans and other modern witches.

In Enochian tradition

In the Enochian system of magic, brought to public attention by Dr. John Dee and his scryer Edward Kelley in the 16th century, we find the inclusion of watchtowers as complex evocational designs. According to Dee’s diaries, the two men summoned an angel, which Kelley saw in an obsidian mirror; Dee recorded the revelations which Kelley narrated to him. Among the surviving records of the Angelic Operations is A Book of Supplications and Invocations which "deals with the Invocation of the Angels who preside over the Four Quarters of the Terrestrial sphere."[2]

Enochian magic was later developed into a working system of magic by S.L. MacGregor Mathers. At the core of the instructions was the Angelic Table: a grid of 25x27 squares, each square containing a letter. The Angelic Table is subdivided into four lesser grids for the four elements and the four directions, bound together by the cross-shaped Tablet of Union. They are used to call upon the aid of angels ruling over the four directions. The names of God and the angels to be used in the invocations are extracted from the tablets.[3] The four tablets are often called the Enochian Tablets because the letters may be written in the Enochian alphabet also revealed to Dee and Kelley by the angel.

Western Hermeticism

Dee’s work was revived and expounded upon by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, primarily through the work of S.L. MacGregor Mathers. In the Golden Dawn magical system, the four Angelic/Enochian Tablets became the four watchtowers.[4] Each watchtower was attributed to a direction and an element, by the Golden Dawn.

  • The Great Eastern Quadrangle of Air
  • The Great Western Quadrangle of Water
  • The Great Northern Quadrangle of Earth
  • The Great Southern Quadrangle of Fire

The Tablet of Union was rearranged to form a rectangle attributed to Spirit or Ether. The tablets were brightly colored; squares attributed to the elements were painted in the color of that element, with lettering in complementary colors.

  • Air - yellow with violet letters
  • Water - blue with orange letters
  • Earth - black with green letters
  • Fire - red with green letters

The use of complementary colors, called flashing colors in the Golden Dawn, means that the watchtowers belong to the class of talismans called flashing tablets. The flashing colors were supposed to draw energy from the atmosphere.[5] The painted tablets were placed on the walls of the temple during some rituals to symbolize the four quarters. A favorite ritual in the Golden Dawn was the Opening by Watchtower. This is actually a preliminary ritual to purify space and call upon the guardians of the four quarters, similar to casting the magic circle in Wicca. As part of the Opening by Watchtower, the practitioner uses the elemental weapons to summon the angels of the quarters. In the south, for instance, the practitioner uses the Fire Wand to trace an invoking Fire Pentagram, then summons the angels using the three names of God found in the Fire Tablet:

OIP TEAA PEDOCE
In the names and letters of the Great Southern Quadrangle, I invoke ye, ye Angels of the Watch-tower of the South.[6]

There is no evidence in Dee's original writings that either he, Kelley or the angels attributed these quadrangles of the Great Table, to the elements as the Golden Dawn did. There is therefore, no evidence that the name Oip Teaa Pedoce is in fact, a holy name for the God relevant to the element fire. There is no doubt though, that it is certainly a holy name relevant to spirits whose names are found in the Southern Quadrangle of the Great Table or Tablet.

The watchtowers were among the Golden Dawn concepts introduced into Wicca (modern witchcraft) by its founder Gerald Gardner. The complicated tablets and Enochian names were largely abandoned, but Wicca retained the watchtowers as "the four cardinal points, regarded as guardians of the Magic Circle."[7] They are usually mentioned during the casting of the circle. In a conservative tradition such as Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wicca the invocation of the watchtowers begins in the east; the practitioner traces an invoking Earth Pentagram while saying;

Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, ye Lords of Air; I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness our rites and to guard the Circle.[8]

Modern adaptations

Many Wiccan circle-castings no longer mention the watchtowers by name. Another important development is experimentation with the attribution of elements to the directions, instead of adhering to the attributions used by the Golden Dawn and Gardnerian Wicca (north/earth, east/air, south/fire, west/water). Many Wiccans perceive themselves as participants in an earth-based religion; they believe their practices should reflect their living experience of the local environment. Both the Golden Dawn and early Wicca were active in Great Britain;[9][10] traditional attributions derived from the British climate may not appeal to or work for practitioners in other climates. A special instance of this problem is the circumstance of Wiccans living in the southern hemisphere, who tend to perceive the north, not the south, as the direction most characterized by fire and heat. Some Neopagans choose to follow the practices of a historical pagan group with whom they identify, or conform to local traditions; either choice may dictate a change of attributions.[11]

See also

Notes
  1. Dumezil, Georges, Archaic Roman Religion, volume 1, p. 343 344
  2. Robert Turner, Elizabethan Magic, p. 24.
  3. Turner, Elizabethan Magic, pp. 59-79 (gives the invocations together with the divine and angelic names for each quarter); Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn, pp. 630-42 (instructions for deriving the names from the Tablets).
  4. Regardie, Golden Dawn, Book 9, describes Enochian magic in the Golden Dawn, including detailed information on the watchtowers.
  5. Regardie, Golden Dawn, pp. 479.
  6. Regardie, Golden Dawn, p. 402.
  7. Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches' Way, p. 328.
  8. Farrar and Farrar, Witches’ Way, p. 296.
  9. Jenkins, Phillip (2000) Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History, p. 74. "Also in the 1880s, the tradition of ritual magic was revived in London by a group of Masonic adepts, who formed the Order of the Golden Dawn, which would prove an incalculable influence on the whole subsequent history of occultism." USA: Oxford University Press.
  10. Smoley, Richard (1999) Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions, pp. 102–103. "Founded in 1888, the Golden Dawn lasted a mere twelve years before it was shattered by personal conflicts. At its height it probably had no more than a hundred members. Yet its influence on magic and esoteric thought in the English-speaking world would be hard to overestimate." USA: Quest Books.
  11. Farrar and Farrar, Witches’ Way, chapter 25, In Tune with the Land, addresses both environmental and cultural issues in a sympathetic manner.

References
  • Dumezil, Georges. Archaic Roman Religion. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
  • Farrar, Janet, and Stewart Farrar. The Witches’ Way: Principles, Rituals and Beliefs of Modern Witchcraft. Custer, Wash.: Phoenix Publishing, 1984.
  • Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn. 6th edition, revised. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1990.
  • Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. 3rd edition. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.
  • Turner, Robert. Elizabethan Magic. Longmead: Element Books, 1989.
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