A rant, and some thoughts on Gematria

 I picked up a book on amulets and talismans recently, and I've been reading through it. A vast portion of it makes extraordinary and unsupported historical claims (such as magic being in use by ancient peoples who decided it didn't always work, so turned their ways to worshiping gods after they already had magic and rituals.) and the author herself makes glaring contradictions in what she seems to believe. Not to mention the fluffy new agey trend of tying crystal power to some ancient Atlantian power. But apparently some people need confirmation from fantasy stories to confirm that their magic is real, and to sell their books. (no offense to you Chaotes out there who use fictional elements in your magic :) 

There were however some gems in the book that I didn't expect to find. There was a  section on kameas (magic squares) and even a section on how to derive sigils from names. This section referenced another section of the book, which led me to begin studying Gematria, and how it can be used to create sigils.

To make sure I understood the process I took Hismael's name and sigil, and then translated Hismael's name into Hebrew letters. Once I got to work,  Hismael quickly became HSMAL. To be sure that I had translated it correctly, I placed it over the kamea of Jupiter, and traced it out. This gave me much more information on how Hebrew actually works. Just when I thought I had it down, I decided to give Yophiel a try. I think I was correct on Y=I in Hebrew, but going much beyond that, it fell apart pretty quickly. That's what happens when you sit down, and try to teach yourself how the Hebrew letters work I suppose :) Either way, this has definitely lead to a greater interest in learning more Hebrew, and studying Gematria, and how to work with talismans and kameas.

Sadly I can't do that with my current collection of books. The good news is that my dear friend Conjureman Ali suggested a book that I can use for that :) So soon I'll be picking up a copy of Making Talismans: Living Entities of Power, by Nick Farell. 

I also have a couple of projects in mind that I'll likely post about later.