Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Kamea of Jupiter

"In the Western Occult Tradition, each planet has traditionally been associated with a series of numbers and particular organizations of those numbers. One such method of numerological arrangement is the kamea, also know as the magic square. The kamea are mathematical structures that have been associated with planetary magic. Each planet has its corresponding kamea, but it is more correct to say that each positive whole number has its corresponding kamea and that each number is used to represent specific planetary spheres. Let's take a look at this without relying upon overly analytical mathematical formalisms.Let's use the kamea of Jupiter to illustrate all of the concepts associated with these mathematical constructs. Jupiter is the fourth sphere in Hermetic cosmology because it comes after the first and second spheres of primordial archetypes and after the third sphere of Saturn. Hermetic cosmology, as well as the Kabbalah, start at the Divine and work their way down. Hence Jupiter is the fourth sphere down and its principal number is four in terms of its kamea. This means that the kamea for Jupiter is a 4x4 matrix. That's how we start constructing the Jupiterian kamea.

The next step, mathematically, is to determine which positive whole numbers fit into each cell so that the arithmetic sum of every column, row, and the diagonal equal the same number. Luckily, this has been solved for the modern day occultist thanks to Hermes Trismegistus' initial foray into this field and we get the following structure. Notice that every row in this 4x4 matrix sums up to one number: 34.

4 + 14 + 15 + 1 = 34.

9 + 7 + 6 + 12 = 34.

5 + 11 + 10 + 8 = 34.

16 + 2 + 3 + 13 = 34.

Notice, also, that every column in this 4x4 matrix sums up to 34.

4 + 9 + 5 + 16 = 34.

14 + 7 + 11 + 2 = 34.

15 + 6 + 10 + 3 = 34.

1 + 12 + 8 + 13 = 34.

Finally, even the two diagonals in this 4x4 matrix sum up to 34.

4 + 7 + 10 + 13 = 34.

16 + 11 + 6 + 1 = 34.

That is how the kamea for Jupiter is constructed and the same process occurs for the kamea of the other planetary spheres.

Constructing the planetary sigils...

Each of the seven classical planetary spheres has a sigil associated with it that is constructed from its kamea. There are, of course, the traditional symbols of the planets that we think of zodiacally, but these are distinct from the sigils we refer to here. Let's illustrate by seeing how we construct the planetary sigil for Jupiter. Sigil construction is more of an art than a science, to be honest, but the idea is to create a symbol that touches upon all the numbers of the kamea and expresses the archetypes of that particular planetary sphere. So for Jupiter, we begin by making an 'X'-like structure of perpendicular lines that touch upon the diagonals of the kamea. In sigil crafting, it's traditional (whatever that means) to end open line segments with a small circle. To finish this sigil, we need to touch upon the remainder of the numbers in the cells while still maintaing aesthetic pleasure and the characteristics of the sphere. To do this we encompass the untouched numbers with a circle. What precisely this means in the context of Jupiter has to with its qualities of expansion within the partitions of form and is elucidated upon in the section on Jupiter. But we end up with a sigil suitable for the planetary sphere. The final result is depicted below, removing the kamea from the picture and leaving only the symbols that we used to construct the sigil for the planet: simple shapes like lines and a circle. This is the meditative sigil for the visually-inclined magician while the analytically-inclined might prefer the kamea itself."
68 = 19+15+16+8+9+1 = SOPHIA

102 = (20+1+15)+(20+5)+(3+8+9+14+7) = TAO TE CHING

170 = (9+18+15+14)+(12+9+15+14)+(26+9+15+14) = IRON LION ZION

"Silence is the language of God, everything else is just poor translation." -- Rumi