I hope that I have given you a reasonable introduction to, and a description of the architecture involved with the middle pillar of the Tree of Life. With the God aspects and Archangels of the sephiroth; but to expand on that; you have the sephiroth with their virtues and vices along with their planetary influences. However you may wish to aim at a specific part of the body, so what if we could use the sephiroth but without those particular God aspects and Archangels or those particular virtues and vices; and put in its place an angel who could perform acts that are more specific to what we want or need.
We can do that with the Shem ha-Mephorash or the name of extension, these are best described as angels and there are 72 of them. Making ritual with them is also different, with the Tree of Life if we are to perform a ritual we would do so facing east regardless of the sephira involved. With the Shem ha-Mephorash we face due east and make that 0 degrees. Each angel has 5 degrees allotted to them, so 72 angels times 5 degrees = 360 degrees a complete circle. So if you have a complete and correctly ordered list and a compass with 360 degrees measured out on it, the sort of compass that you would use in hiking and reading maps then you would find the correct direction to face to perform a ritual. So you start off at 0 degrees due east and go clockwise to measure out.
As the sephira have a virtue and a vice; when you bring in an angel from the Shem ha-Mephorash into that sephira in order to perform a ritual the virtue and vice of that sephira are replaced by the virtue and vice of that angel. Another thing to consider if one wishes to use the Shem ha-Mephorash system is that the angels have zodiac signs. Starting with Aries and the 1st angel at 0 degrees we go into blocks of 6; 12 zodiac signs times 6 angels equals 72; and just to bamboozle you a bit more of the blocks of 6 the 1st 3 are daytime angels and the other 3 are night ones.
If you are doing a ritual with these angels you have to consider the angel you wish to make petiton to, if they are a daytime angel you will have to aim to perform your ritual during the daytime hours which are from sunrise to sunset. And if it is a night time angel you will seek to do a ritual from sunset to sunrise. On top of that they have zodiac signs which will either be exalted, detrimental or middle of the road with certain planetary hours. So you might find yourself doing something of a juggling act with your timing if you wish to have a specific angel for a ritual.
We would have to calculate planetary hours and it is done like this; take the time period from sunrise to sunset, convert it into minutes and divide by 12. These are your daytime planetary hours, then calculate and convert the time period between sunset and the next sunrise, divide it by 12 and these are your night time planetary hours. To check if you are correct remember that the 1st planetary hour is the same as the planet of that day, if you are calculating planetary hours for a Sunday then the 1st planetary hour from sunrise will be of the Sun. If you have calculated correctly it should lead to the 1st planetary hour from sunrise on Monday being of the Moon.
The order of planets in regards to planetary hours goes like this;
Sun> Venus> Mercury> Moon> Saturn> Jupiter> Mars.
So we have 7 planets but 24 hours, if we take this chain of planets and divide the 24 hours with it we will be able to divide it 3 times with 2 left over.
3 times 7 equals 21 so if you think there must be 3 left over its actually 2 because the 21st hour includes when it begins and when it ends. To put it into a 24 hour perspective from 21:00 till 22:00 hours is the final hour of the chain, so that leaves us 22:00 to 23:00 and 23:00 till 24:00 and then the next day begins. So look at the chain of planets, pick one planet; eg. Venus which is Friday, count 2 ahead and you will come to Saturn which is Saturday, count 2 ahead and you will come to the Sun. Keep counting 2 ahead and you will cover the entire week in the proper order.
So with the Shem ha-Mephorash you have the angels with a zodiac sign which you should check to see if they are exalted or in detriment with the day or hour you intend to use. And each angel of the Shem ha-Mephorash has a specific psalm to them which you will have to use.
While some may say that the angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash are not actually angels but rather are God forms because they can be used in a sephira; and can be thought of as personalities of God whose 'residence' is the degrees they are listed with. I find this outlook overcomplicates things, I myself prefer to think of them as angels, similar to angels in all respects but just different. Are they God forms? To that I say that they are closer to God than what we are and can be.
How to use this knowledge
Purely physical or vigil or ceremony?
We have a choice on how to apply what we have learned so far; you might lean to just using the planetary products such as foods, herbs, crystals and so on without any esoteric practice. Or you might be content with just to use the planetary products along with praying much like the catholics do with saints, the only drawbacks are that you wont be especially specific because you will be working outside of the sephira. So you will be dealing with God/Jehovah as a whole, so you might be asking God to send Raphael to heal someone but this is a quite simplistic approach. You might be praying during certain hours, using incense and candles and for all intents and purposes be conducting an informal watered down ceremony.
You might feel content with these options, due to a lack of experience or knowledge. Its your life - its your choice, but sometimes you will have to roll the dice or bet everything on the turn of a card. If you are facing a situation where either you or someone you love has a terminal illness or something similar; well really what have you got to lose?
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