>> Now, Midwinter has brought up an interesting point about magick. He/she
>> says that the Name of God is not God. This may not in fact be the case, as
>> it pertains to magick. Magical names are formulae for the things that they
>> name. The true magical name of any entity is the blueprint of that entity,
>> sort of like one's DNA is a formula for the construction of your body. So
>> the Name of God could indeed be thought of as God.
>
> Finally got to the root of the thread I was tracing back, sheesh...
>
> It's important to remember the source of our beliefs in the powers of
> the names of God. For example, Agrippa says in
>
>
http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa3.htm#chap11
>
> Chapter xi. Of the Divine names, and their power and vertue [virtue].
>
> "God himself though he he only one in Essence, yet hath diverse names,
> which expound not his diverse Essences or Deities, but certain
> properties flowing from him, by which names he doth pour down, as it
> were by certain Conduits on us and all his creatures many benefits and
> diverse gifts; ten of these Names we have above described, which also
> Hierom reckoneth up to Marcella. Dionysius reckoneth up forty five
> names of God and Christ. The Mecubales of the Hebrews from a certain
> text of Exodus, derive seventy-two names, both of the Angels and of
> God, which they call the name of seventy two letters, and
> Schemhamphores, that is, the expository; but others proceeding
> further, out of all places of the Scripture do infer so many names of
> God as the number of those names is: but what they signifie is
> altogether unknown to us..."
>
> Later, in chapter 24 of Book 3, he goes on to say:
>
> Chapter xxiv. Of the names of Spirits, and their various imposition;
> and of the Spirits that are set over the Stars, Signs, Corners of the
> Heaven, and the Elements.
>
> "Many and divers are the names of good spirits, and bad: but their
> proper, and true names, as those of the Stars, are known to God alone,
> who only numbers the multitude of Stars, and calls them all by their
> names, whereof none can be known by us but by divine revelation, and
> very few are expressed to us in the sacred writ..."
>
> Now, that chapter is probably the most important chapter in Agrippa's
> 3 Books of Occult Philosophy for understanding what it is we are
> conjuring when we conjure any spirit by it's alleged "name."
>
> IMO.
>
> -R.O.
