The Sigillum Dei Æmeth

    In my opinion the Sigillum Æmeth - or as it was named by the angels: Sigillum Dei - is one of the most beautiful and complex sigills of ceremonial magic. Æmeth is pronounced like "emeþ" and means "Truth". The complete translation of the sigill's name is: "The seal of the truth of God". In earlier works on angel-magic are some more primitive forms of the Sigillum Dei handed down to us. As far as I know you can find the oldest version in the Liber Juratus, the book of the oath. The Sigillum Dei is made of wax, its diameter measures nine english inches and its thickness ranges between three fourth inches and one inch. The outer ring of the Sigillum Dei consists of fourty mansions, filled with numbers and letters. In Kelley's vision these were fourty different angels, clad in white silk-robes, that opened their robes to reveal either a number and a letter or only a letter. Dee started on the top side and wrote the letters and numbers clockwise. Inside this outer ring Dee drawed a concentric heptagon, one overlapping heptagram and two smaller heptagons within the heptragram and inside of a pentagram. The big heptagon was divided into 49 gates, filled with letters. The last gate remained empty - an analogy to the 49 calls of which only 48 can be uttered. The letters in this heptagon can be extracted of a square, Kelley dictated on March the 20th in 1582:

    The square contents the seven cabbalistical angels of the planetary powers that you can find in Agrippa's works and which were at Kelley's hands: Zaphkiel, Zadkiel, Cumael, Raphael, Haniel, Michael and Gabriel. The names of these angels are written from the upper left vertical downwards. The seven names of God have to be read from left to right. Another square with angelic names that can be found in Agrippa's occult philosophy used a different list of angelic names. This square was used to generate the names of the gaps between the heptagon and the first heptagram:

    The angelic names in this square are the following: Sabathiel, Zedekiel, Madimiel, Semeliel, Nogahel, Cochabiel, Levanael. This time you read the names diagonal, beginning at the top left corner: S - AB - ATH - 21/8ZED - EKIEI₂₆ etc. The names of the seven sons of light you can extract by reading diagonal from the bottom left corner: I, Ih, Ilr, dmal, heeoa, beigia, stimcvl. They are controlled by Hagonel. The sons of the sons of light can be read diagonal from the bottom right corner: E, an, ave, liba, rocle, hagone, ilemese. To get the names of the daughters of light read diagonal drom the upper left corner downward: E, me, ese, 21/8ana, akele, azdobn. stimcvl. To extract the names of the daughters of the daughters of light you read diagonal from the upper left corner downward: S, ab, ath, 21/8zed, ekiei, madimi, esemeli. Some abbreviations were used in this square: The term 21/8 signifies E, L or El, I and Iel. The 8 signifies an L, similar as 26 and 30. The Governors of heaven are located in and around the inner pentagram: Zabath(iel), Zedekiel, Madimiel, Semeliel, Nogahel, Corabiel, Levanael. On the backside of the Sigillum Dei the angels wanted to see a big cross with the cabbalistic name of God: AGL ("Ateh Gebor Le-Olahm Amen"). Four smaller seals were framed in laurel-wood and found their places under the legs of the altar-table.

The Sigillum Dei Æmeth - Frontside, © by Clay Holden

The Sigillum Dei Æmeth - Backside