Wednesday 6 January 2021

Nuctemeron

 This translation and interpretation by Levi is in the public domain. So I hope it serves as a useful resource for others trying to track down some of the genii in NAP.

enjoy,
tai

p.s. if someone else has a copy of the original Nuctemeron or anything else to add - e.g. information on the Assyrian hierarchy of genii from which they are allegedly derived - please do so in this thread.
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THE NUCTEMERON OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA
Translated and interpreted by Eliphas Levi

The Greek text was first published after an ancient manuscript, by Gilbert Gautrinus, in De Vita et Morte Moysis, Lib. III., p. 206 ; and subsequently reproduced by Laurent Moshemius in his Sacred and Historico-Oitical Observations. Amsterdam, 1721. Translated and interpreted for the first time by Eliphas Levi.

NUCTEMERON signifies the day of the night or the night illumined by day. It is analogous to the " Light Issuing from Darkness," which is the title of a well-known Hermetic work. It may also be translated THE LIGHT OF OCCULTISM. This monument of transcendent Assyrian magic is sufficiently curious to make it superfluous to enlarge on its importance. We have not merely evoked Apollonius, we have possibly resuscitated him.

THE NUCTEMERON

The First Hour.
In unity, the demons chant the praises of God ; they lose their malice and fury.

The Second Hour.
By the duad, the Zodiacal fish chant the praises of God ; the fiery serpents interlace about the caduceus, and the lightning becomes liarmonous.

The Third Hour.
The serpents of the Hermetic caduceus entwine three times ; Cerberus opens his triple jaw, and fire chants the praises of God with the three tongues of the lightning.

The Fourth Hour.
At the fourth hour the soul revisits the tombs ; the magical lamps are lighted at the four corners of the circle ; it is the time of enchantments and illusions.

The Fifth Hour.
The voice of the great waters celebrates the God of the heavenly

The Sixth Hour.
The spirit believes itself immovable ; it beholds the infernal monsters swarm down upon it, and does not fear.

The Seventh Hour.
A fire, which imparts life to all animated beings, is directed by the will of pure men. The initiate stretches forth his hand, and pains are assuaged.

The Eighth Hour.
The stars utter speech to one another ; the soul of the suns corresponds with the exhalation of the flowers; chains of harmony create correspondence between all natural things.

The Ninth Hour.
The number which must not be divulged.

The Tenth Hour.
The key of the astronomical cycle and of the circular movement of human life.

The Eleventh Hour.
The wings of the genii move with a mysterious and deep murmur; they fly from sphere to sphere, and bear the messages of God from world to world.

The Twelfth Hour.
The works of the light eternal are fulfilled by fire.

EXPLANATION

THESE twelve symbolical hours, analogous to the signs of the magical Zodiac and to the allegorical labours of Hercules, represent the schedule of the works of initiation. It is necessary therefore (1) To overcome evil passions, and, according to the expression of the wise Hierophant, compel the demons themselves to praise God. (2) To study the balanced forces of nature, and know how harmony results from the analogy of contraries ; to know also the great magical agent and the twofold polarisation of the universal light. (3) To gain initiation into the triadic principle of all theogonies and all religious symbols. (4) To know how to overcome all phantoms of imagination, and triumph over all illusions. (5) To understand after what manner universal harmony is produced in the centre of the four elementary forces. (6) To become inaccessible to fear. (7) To practise the direction of the magnetic light. (8) To learn prevision of effects by the calculus of the balance of causes. (9) To understand the hierarchy of instruction, to respect the mysteries of dogma, and to keep silence in presence of the profane. (10) To study astronomy exhaustively. (11) To become initiated by analogy into the laws of universal life and intelligence. (12) To fulfil the great works of nature by direction of the light.

Here follow the names and attributions of the genii who preside over the twelve hours of the Nuctemeron. By these genii the ancient hierophants understood neither angels nor demons, but moral forces or personified virtues.

Genii of the First Hour:
PAPUS, physician. SINBUCK, judge. KASPHUIA, necromancer. ZAHUN, genius of scandal. HEIGLOT, genius of snowstorms. MIZKUN, genius of amulets. HAVEN, genius of dignity.

Explanation:
We must become the physician and judge of ourselves in order to vanquish the witchcrafts of the necromancer, conjure and contemn the genius of scandal, triumph over the opinion which freezes all enthusiasms, and confounds everything in the same cold pallor, like the genius of the snowstorms; know, finally, the virtue of signs so as to enchain the genius of amulets that we may reach the dignity of the
magus.

Genii of the Second Hour:
SISERA, genius of desire. TORVATUS, genius of discord. NITIBUS, genius of the stars. HIZARBIN, genius of the seas. SACHLUPH, genius of plants. BAGLIS, genius of measure and balance. LABEZERIN, genius of success.

Explanation:
We must learn how to will and thus transform the genius of desire into power ; the hindrance to will is the genius of discord, who is bound by the science of harmony. Harmony is the genius of the stars and of the seas; we must study the virtue of plants, and understand the laws of the balance of measure in order to attain success.

Genii of the Third Hour:
HAHABI, genius of fear. PHLOGABITUS, genius of adornments. EIRNEUS, destroying genius of idols. MASCARUN, genius of death. ZAROBI, genius of precipices. BUTATAR, genius of calculations. CAHOR, genius of deception.

Explanation:
When you have conquered the genius of fear by the growing force of your will, you will know that dogmas are
the sacred adornments of truth unknown to the vulgar ; but you will cast down all idols in your intelligence ; you will bind the genius of death ; you will fathom all precipices and subject the infinite itself to the ratio of your calculations ; and thus you will ever escape the ambushes of the genius
of deception.

Genii of the Fourth Hour:
PHALGUS, genius of judgment. THAGRINUS, genius of confusion. EISTIBUS, genius of divination. PHARZUPH, genius of fornication. SISLAU, genius of poisons. SCHIEKRON, genius of bestial love. ACLAHAYR, genius of sport.

Explanation:
The power of the magus is in his judgment, which enables him to avoid the confusion consequent on antinomy and the antagonism of principles ; he practises the divination of the sages, but he despises the illusions of enchanters who are the slaves of fornication, artists in poisons, ministers of bestial love ; in this way he is victorious over fatality, which is the genius of sport.

Genii of the Fifth Hour:
ZEIRNA, genius of infirmities. TABLIBIK, genius of fascination. TACRITAU, genius of goetic magic. SUPHLATUS, genius of the dust. SAIR, genius of the stibium of the sages. BARCUS, genius of the quintessence. CAMAYSAR, genius of the marriage of contraries.

Explanation:
Triumphing over human infirmities, the magus is no longer the sport of fascination ; he tramples on the vain
and dangerous practices of goetic magic, the whole power of which is but dust driven before the wind ; but he possesses the stibium of the sages ; he is armed with all the creative powers of the quintessence; and he produces at will the harmony which results from the analogy and the marriage of contraries.

Genii of the Sixth Hour:
TABRIS, genius of free will. SUSABO, genius of voyages. EIRNILUS, genius of fruits. NITIKA, genius of precious stones. HAATAN, genius who conceals treasures. HATIPHAS, genius of attire. ZAREN, avenging genius.

Explanation:
The magus is free ; he is the occult king of the earth, and he traverses it as one passing through his own domain. In his voyages he becomes acquainted with the juices of plants and fruits, and with the virtues of precious stones ; he compels the genius who conceals the treasures of nature to deliver him all his secrets ; he thus penetrates the mysteries of form ; understands the vestures of earth and speech ; and if he be misconstrued, if the nations are inhospitable towards him, if he pass doing good but receiving outrages, then is he ever followed by the avenging genius.

Genii of the Seventh Hour:
SIALUL, genius of prosperity. SABRUS, sustaining genius. LIBRABIS, genius of hidden gold. MIZGITARI, genius of eagles. CAUSUB, serpent-charming genius. SALILUS, genius who sets doors open. JAZER, genius who compels love.

Explanation:
The septenary expresses the victory of the magus ; who gives prosperity to men and nations ; who sustains them by his sublime instructions ; who broods like the eagle ; who directs the currents of the astral fire, represented by serpents ; the gates of all sanctuaries are open to him, and in him all souls who yearn for truth repose their trust ; he is beautiful in his moral grandeur ; and everywhere does he take with him that genius by the power of which we obtain love.

Genii of the Eighth Hour:
NANTUR, genius of writing. TOGLAS, genius of treasures. ZALBURIS, genius of therapeutics. ALPHUN, genius of doves. TUKIPHAT, genius of the schamir. ZIZUPH, genius of mysteries. CUNIALI, genius of association.

Explanation:
These are the genii who obey the true magus ; the doves represent religious ideas; the schamir is an allegorical
diamond, which in magical traditions represents the stone of the sages, or that force which nothing can resist, because it is based on truth. The Arabs still say that the schamir, originally given to Adam and lost by him after his fall, was recovered by Enoch and possessed by Zoroaster ; and that Solomon subsequently received it from an angel when he entreated wisdom from God. By means of this magical diamond, Solomon himself dressed the stones of the temple merely by touching them with the schamir.

Genii of the Ninth Hour:
EISNUCH, genius of agriculture. SUCLAGUS, genius of fire. KIRTABUS, genius of languages. SABLIL, genius who discovers thieves. SCHACHLJL, genius of the sun's rays. COLOPATIRON, genius who sets prisons open. ZEFFAK, genius of irrevocable choice.

Explanation:
This number, says Apollonius, must be passed over in silence, because it contains the great secrets of the initiate, the power which fructifies the earth, the mysteries of secret fire, the universal key of languages, the second sight from which evil-doers cannot remain concealed. The great laws of equilibrium and of luminous motion represented by the four animals of the Kabbalah, and in Greek mythology by the four horses of the sun, the key of the emancipation of bodies and souls, opening all prisons, and that power of eternal choice which completes the creation of man and establishes him in immortality.

Genii of the Tenth Hour:
SEZARBIL, devil or hostile genius. AZEUPH, destroyer of children. ARMILUS, genius of cupidity. KATARIS, genius of dogs or of the profane. RAZANIL, genius of the onyx. BUCAPHI, genius of stryges. MASTHO, genius of delusive appearances.

Explanation:
Numbers end with nine, and the distinctive sign of the denary is zero, itself without value, added to unity. The
genii of the tenth hour represent all which, being nothing in itself, receives great power from opinion, and can suffer consequently the omnipotence of the sage. We tread here on hot earth, and we must be permitted to omit elucidations to the profane as to the devil, who is their master, or the destroyer of children, who is their love, or the cupidity, which is their god, or the dogs, to which we do not compare them, or to the onyx, which they possess not, or to the stryges, who are their courtesans, or to the false appearances which they take for truth.

Genii of the Eleventh Hour:
EGLUN, genius of the lightning. ZUPHLAS, genius of forests. PHALDOR, genius of oracles. ROSABIS, genius of metals. ADJUCHAS, genius of rocks. ZOPHAS, genius of pantacles. HALACHO, genius of sympathies.

Explanation:
The lightning obeys man ; it becomes the vehicle of his will, the instrument of his power, the light of his torches ; the oaks of the sacred forests utter oracles : metals change and transmute into gold, or become talismans ; rocks move from their foundation, and, drawn by the lyre of the grand hierophant, touched by the mysterious schamir, transform into temples and palaces ; dogmas evolve ; symbols represented by pantacles become efficacious ; minds are enchained by powerful sympathies, and obey the laws of family and friendship.

Genii of the Twelfth Hour:
TARAB, genius of extortion. MISRAN, genius of persecution. LABUS, genius of inquisition. KALAB, genius of sacred vessels. HAHAB, genius of royal tables. MARNES, genius of the discernment of spirits. SELLEN, genius of the favour of the great.

Explanation:
Here now is the fate which the magi must expect, and how their sacrifice must be consummated ; for after the
conquest of life, they must know how to immolate themselves in order to be reborn immortal. They will suffer extortion; gold, pleasure, vengeance will be required of them, and if they fail to satisfy vulgar cupidities they will be the objects of persecution and inquisition ; yet the sacred vessels are not profaned ; they are made for royal tables, that is, for the feasts of the understanding. By the discernment of spirits they will know how to protect themselves from the favour of the great, and they will remain invincible in their strength and in their liberty.

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