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- Concourse of the Forces, Part 4 by Israel Regardie
-
- Key entry by Fr. Nachash
- Uræus-Hadit Camp, O.T.O.
- Completed 4-1-91 e.v.
-
- ******************************************************************************
-
-
- PART FOUR
-
- THE CONCOURSE OF THE FORCES
-
- ENOCHIAN OR ROSICRUCIAN CHESS
-
-
- From The Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie
- (c) 1971 by Llewellyn Publications
-
- This is one of the sub-divisions of the Angelic system of Tablets
- about which, sad to say, very little can be said. No one in the Order, or
- my Temple, seemed to know anything about it. Whether this same condition
- applies to other Temples is hard to say, though, from conversation with
- certain of the Adepti of those Temples, I gather the same conditions
- there prevailed. Nothing that was of practical value, as throwing any
- light on the nature and function of the game, was thrown on the subject
- by any of the Order members within the sphere of my acquaintance. It is
- probable that the knowledge of this system died with the early members.
- All that I ever heard were fulsome praises of its remarkable divinatory
- capacity, together with quite a few amusing comments by those who mani-
- festly knew nothing about it, though no precise indication was conveyed
- as to its procedure. On two of three occasions I have asked Adepti of the
- rank of 7=4 to play a game with me using my chess pieces and boards,
- though each politely backed out of the invitation. Also the unmounted
- state of the Order chess-pieces was a clear indication that they had
- never and could never have been employed--like other aspects of the Order
- teaching. And the actual documents on the subject that were shown to me
- were vague and obviously incomplete, giving no indication as to the true
- nature of this matter. No doubt it was intended, by those who wrote the
- papers and devised the system, that the Adepti should apply his own in-
- genuity to the bare-bones provided of the game, and formulate from that
- skeleton outline, as from the Enochian Tablets themselves, a complete
- system of initiation, and a profound magical philosophy. It is not there-
- fore my intention to say very much about Rosicrucian chess, although it
- can be stated that the perspicacious student will divine ideas of great
- import and discover a depth of magical significance hidden under the
- cloak of an apparently trivial game.
-
- However, the student who has mastered the foregoing sections of the Book
- of the Concourse of the Forces will no doubt be able to divine the re-
- lationship existing between the profundities of the Enochian Tablets and
- this chess-game. It will have been necessary as a preliminary step to
- have become perfectly familiar with the attributions of the Squares, so
- that any pyramid can be built up instantaneously in the imagination too.
- By this, I mean, that while playing a chess-game, the movement of a piece
- from one square to another should provide much material for thought, for
- the squares on the boards, as on the Tablets, may be formulated as Pyra-
- mids. Some experience, also in employing the Pyramids for skrying in the
- Spirit-Vision will be required before any real appreciation of Enochian
- chess can be acquired.
-
- In this game, the pieces are Egyptian god-forms, and the boards are cer-
- tain adaptations of the Enochian Tablets. The Tablet of Union, however,
- is not used. Tablets are reproduced as Chess-boards minus the Great Cen-
- tral Cross, the Sephirotic Cross, and the Kerubic Squares over the
- Calvary Cross in each Lesser Angle. This leaves only the Servient squares
- in each of the Four Lesser Angles--sixteen in number, which gives us
- sixty-four squares per board--the number of squares in the ordinary
- chess-board.
-
- One of the papers written by Greatly Honoured Frater N.O.M., gives a
- short history of Chess as it was derived from the Indian Chaturanga, the
- Persian Shatranji, and the Arabic Chess. But since it contains very litle
- that is of any practical import, I have thought better not to include it.
-
- A few words now as to the nature of the Boards. The Boards consist of the
- purely elemental part of each Tablet. There is nothing in the symbolic
- structure of the Board to suggest the operation of the Spirit in any of
- its aspects through the Elements. This operation of the Spirit and its
- potencies, however, is indicated not by the squares, but by the pieces
- and their movements over the board.
-
- To be of any real magical value, the board should be a sort of Talisman
- or Flashing Tablet. That is, it should be fully painted, showing all the
- triangles of the Pyramids as brightly and as flashingly as possible. The
- little flat squares shown at the summit of the Pyramid, indicating the
- throne of the god-form, are not necessary on these boards. The triangles
- are completely formed, and the resulting pyramidal shape is not truncated.
- The four Angles of each Tablet will thus stand out quite brightly, since
- the elemental colour of the quarter will show its nature, even though the
- triangles of yellow, blue, black and red will jostle each other by cheek
- and jowl. When fully painted, the board is most impressive as a flashing
- Tablet. The student may know he has done his work properly when there
- appear white flashings at the angles of the squares. This is important,
- for the object of a flashing Tablet is to attract an appropriate type of
- force. And if these chess-boards are made as Flashing Tablets, they will
- automatically attract force and their utilisation will become the more
- significant. In brief, each square is, as it were, the name and symbolic
- address of a different Angelic force. The flashing squares will attract
- the commencement of the operation of that type of Angelic power, and the
- movement of the Chess God-forms over the squares may produce even bright-
- er flashes and indicate the operation of the divine forces therein. With
- these hints the student is left to work this out for himself.
-
- There will be, in short, four different Boards. Each is representative of
- one of the Four Quadrangles or Watch-towers of the Elements, and the
- Angelic Names on the latter will be implied on the Boards even although
- no letters or Names are painted on them. The use of any of the four
- Boards will depend upon the particular purposes, and the attributions of
- Elements as in the diverse schemes of Divination will determine which of
- the four boards must be used at any given time. In Tarot, the Element of
- Air, the Sword suit, indicates Sickness and Sorrow and unhappiness gen-
- erally. Hence, in Enochian chess, for divining for some such question as
- touches upon trouble or unhappiness the Air Board would be employed. The
- Fire Board will represent the Tarot suit of Wands, implying swiftness,
- energy, activity. The Water Board indicates the Tarot suit of Cups of
- pleasure, happiness, merry-making, and marriage. The Earth Board will
- refer to all material plane matters of money, work, employment, occupa-
- tion, and so forth.
-
- The Four Boards of the Rosicrucuian game, although different, neverthe-
- less agree in certain particulars. In each board it is convenient to
- speak of the arrangement of the Lesser Angles as an Upper and Lower
- Rank--Air and Water forming the Upper Rank, and Earth and Fire the Lower.
-
- It is evident that the columns of the one Rank are continuous with those
- of the other; and in this continuity a certain regular rule is observable.
- Every column of eight squares commencing in the Upper Rank is continued
- below by a column of the opposite Element.
-
- Thus the Fiery columns below invariably stand on the Watery columns; the
- Watery on the Fiery; the Airy on the Earthy; and the Earthy on the Airy.
-
- A different arrangement of the horizontal Files or Ranks of Squares is
- observable, and there is a difference in the Upper and Lower Tablets.
-
- In the Upper Tablets the Kerubic Rank of squares is continuous with the
- Elemental Rank; and the Cardinal is continuous with the Common sign Rank,
- whereas in the lower Tablets of Earth and Fire the various Ranks--Keru-
- bic, Cardinal, etc., are continuous right across the board.
-
- The pieces employed are, as previously remarked, Egyptian God-forms. A
- full set of chess-pieces numbers twenty men and sixteen pawns. (Note the
- possible relationship of the thirty-six pieces to the thirty-six decante
- cards of the Tarot.) The game is played by four players, representing the
- Four Lesser Angles of the Board, thus giving each player one set of five
- pieces and four pawns. The five pieces represent the operation of the
- Spirit and Four Elemental Rulers--the Five points of the Pentagram, the
- five letters of YHShVH, and the Tarot Ace and Court Cards. The pawns are
- their servants or vice-gerents. Strictly to be in order, each of the
- twenty principle pieces represents a different God-form, thus:
-
- FIRE SET AIR SET
-
- King Kneph King Socharis
- Knight Ra Knight Seb
- Queen Sati-Ashtoreth Queen Knousou Pekht
- Bishop Toum Bishop Shu Zoan
- Castle Anouke Castle Tharpeshist
-
- WATER SET EARTH SET
-
- King Ptah King Osiris
- Knight Sebek Knight Horus
- Queen Thouerist Queen Isis
- Bishop Hapimon Bishop Aroueris
- Castle Shooeu-tha-ist Castle Nephthys
-
-
- However, this tends to confusion, creating in practice far too complex a
- game. It will be found that four sets of the same five god-forms will
- suffice. There are only five major god-forms, the others being variations
- or different aspects of those types. These are:
-
- Osiris, bearing crook, scourge, Phoenix wand. he is represented as
- sitting on a throne, silent unmoving. He is the King and represents
- Spirit, the operation of the Great Cross in the Tablets. He corre-
- sponds to the Ace in Tarot, the root-force of any element.
-
- Horus, a God with Hawk's head, double mitre, and standing upright,
- as though to stride forward. He is the Knight of Enochian Chess and
- represents the operation of the ten-squared Sephirotic Cross in the
- Fire Angle of any Tablet or Board, and corresponds to the King in
- the Tarot, the figure astride a horse.
-
- Isis, an enthroned Goddess with a Throne symbol mounted on the
- vulture head-dress. In Rosicrucian Chess, Isis is the Queen, and
- represents the operation of the Sephirotic Cross in the Water Angle
- of any Tablet. She corresponds to the Tarot Queen who is shown
- seated on a throne.
-
- Aroueris, a human shaped God, with a double mitre. He is Bishop in
- Enochian chess, and his form is that of a standing figure, to
- indicate his swift action. He represents the operation of the
- Sephirotic Cross in the Airy Angle of any Tablet, and represents
- the Prince or Knight of the Tarot--the figure driving a chariot.
-
- Nephthys, a Goddess with an Altar or Crescent symbol above the
- vulture head-dress. She is the Castle or Rook of the Chess game.
- This piece is always represented as somewhat larger than the
- others, and is enclosed within a rectangle frame, within which she
- is enthroned. Her office is the representation of the operation of
- the Sephirotic Cross in the Earth Angle of any Tablet, and repre-
- sents the Princess or Knave of the Tarot--the Amazon figure who
- stands alone.
-
- These are the five principle forms used for each of the four angles of
- the Board. Some differences should be made in the tone of the colouring
- of the front or face of the piece to indicate its angle on the board.
- Coloured bands may suffice for this purpose. Moreover the back of the
- piece--for it is customary to use flat pieces, not round as in ordinary
- chess--should be painted in the appropriate colour of the element it
- represents so as to avoid confusion in the recognition of its power. Thus
- the back of the King, as Osiris form, should be painted white to
- represent Spirit, and this rule applies to all four Kings in the four
- Angles. The Knight, Horus, should be coloured red. The Queen, Isis,
- should be be blue; the Bishop, Aroueris, yellow, and the Castle,
- Nephythys, should be black and set in a large frame. Each piece should be
- cut about three inches high.
-
- For practical use, these pieces should be mounted on square wooden bases,
- and those bases painted in different colours. It will be by the bases
- that their place on the board may be recognised. For example, there are
- four sets of Chess pieces to be set out in the four corners of the board.
- Each piece is more or less like its corresponding piece in some on of the
- other corners. The pieces placed in the Air quarter of the board, there-
- fore, will be mounted on yellow bases. Those in the Water Angle will have
- blue bases. The pieces in the Earth Angle will have black bases, and
- those in the Fire quarter will have red bases. Thus, as in the Four
- Angelic Tablets, there results a minute sub-division of the sub-elements
- of the Tablet. There will be an Osiris piece, a King with a white back,
- on a yellow base, indicating that he is a King, belonging to the Air
- Angle. He represnts the sub-element of Spirit of Air, the most spiritual
- and subtle phase of that element, the Tarot Ace of Swords. A King with a
- blue base indicating his place in the Watery Angle. A Queen, an Isis
- figure with a blue back, set on a red base, shows that she is the Queen
- of the Fire Angle, representing the Watery Aspect of the Fire sub-element
- of any Tablet, the Queen of Wands. A Bishop, yellow backed, mounted on a
- black base, shows that he belongs to the Earth Angle, as against a Bishop
- with a yellow base whose place is in the Air Angle and who, therefore,
- corresponds to the Prince of Swords in the Tarot pack. And so forth for
- the rest.
-
- With but one or two slight exceptions, the pieces move exactly as do the
- corresponding pieces in Chess. The Queen here does not have the full
- liberty of the board as she does normally, nor is she the most powerful
- piece on the board. Here she can only move to every third square. This
- she can make in any direction, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally--
- but only three squares at a time. She can leap over intervening squares,
- and take pieces on the third square from whereever she stands. The other
- exception is that no Castling is permitted.
-
- The Pawns in this Enochian chess represnt the God-forms of the four sons
- of Horus, the Canopic Gods. Their attributions are:
-
- Fire. Kabexnuv, mummy-shaped, awk-headed, the Knight's pawn.
-
- Water. Tmoumathph, mummy-shaped, dog's head, Queen's pawn.
-
- Air. Ahephi, mummy-shaped, ape-headed, the Bishop's pawn.
-
- Earth. Ameshet, mummy-shaped, human-headed, the Castle's pawn.
-
- The same rule for colouring the other pieces applies to the pawns. Their
- backs should be painted in the colour of the piece they serve. Thus the
- back of the Knight's pawn will be painted the colour of the Knight, red.
- The base will be coloured according to the Lesser Angle in which it is
- placed. So that in each of the Four Angles you will have four pawns on
- bases in the colour of its sub-element. The Airy Angle, for example, will
- have four pawns mounted on yellow bases. Those pawns will have four
- different coloured backs to indicate the piece, and therefore the element,
- which they represent and serve.
-
- The pawn moves only one square at a time, and not two for the first move
- as in modern chess. The rule of en passant does not apply here, although
- the regular method of taking with pawn, via the diagonal, either to right
- or left, holds equally well.
-
- It will be noted that the King has no pawns. Since he is Osiris, the
- other four pieces and their pawns are his persoanl servants and vice-
- gerents. His place on the board is always on the corner of the Lesser
- Angle, where the corresponding Letters of the Tetragrammaton would be
- placed on the Angelic Tablets. On the four corners of the board as a
- whole, therefore, will be found the Four Kings. Identical in every way,
- they yet differ in the colour of their bases, the colour of the Angle
- which they rule. Some variation might be made as to the posture of the
- God. For instance, the Fire King could be cut as a standing figure, the
- Water King sitting, and so forth. Let it be noted that on the corner
- squares, two pieces will always be found. The King and the piece corre-
- sponding to the Letter of the Angle will occupy the same square.
-
- A piece or pawn threatening, that is giving check, to the corner square
- also checks the King as well as whatever other piece happens to be upon
- that square.
-
- In setting up the pieces for play, the rule of Tetragrammaton on the
- Kerubic Square of the Tablets, has application. That is, the order in
- which the letters of the Name YHVH are placed on the uppermost squares of
- the Servient Squares of any Lesser Angle, as reflected from the Kerubic
- Squares above, also govern the placing of the pieces. The Bishop will be
- placed on the Vau Square, the Queen on the Heh Square, the Castle on the
- Heh final Square, etc. The student who has thoroughly assimilated the
- principles involved in the attributions of the Enochian Tablets will find
- all this perfectly straightforward, and experience no difficulty herein.
-
- With regard to this injunction to set out the pieces on the board follow-
- ing the prime player's setting, whose chessmen are arranged according to
- the order of Kerubs, note that the remaining three sets of pieces are
- arranged, on any board, exactly in that order regardless of the order of
- Kerubs in their Angle. That is to say, if the prime player chooses an
- Earth of Water setting, his pieces will be set out: King and Castle on
- the corner square, then follow the Knight, Queen, and Bishop. The other
- three sets of Air, Water and Fire pieces on that board, are set out
- precisely in that order, either horizontally or vertically as the case
- may be.
-
- It thus follows that there may result sixteen possible arrangements of
- pieces. That is, since there are four Kerubic ranks on each board, and
- there are four seperate boards, the chess-pieces may be arranged on the
- board in sixteen different settings. The reason for any particular
- setting--if divination is the motive for play--must depend on the prime
- player's synthetic grasp of the Order teaching. Let him remember that
- there are sixteen figures of Geomancy, each with a special and specific
- divinatory value. It should be remembered that these Geomantic figures
- are each under the influence of a Zodiacal genius and a planterary ruler.
- Not only so, but each is attributed to a Hebrew letter, therefore a
- corresponding Tarot Trump, with its allocation to a sign and a constella-
- tion in the heavens with all the hierarchical ideas that the latter
- implies. Thus the playing of this game resumes the whole philosophy of
- Magic.
-
- The prime player must be guided in his selection of boards not only by
- choice of element as previously described, but by any one of these six-
- teen root significations of Geomancy. For each one of these sixteen
- figures may be applied to the sixteen Lesser Angles of the Enochian
- Tablets and chess-boards. So that each angle comes under the operation of
- a Geomantic ruler and genius, and under the dominion of that portion of
- the starry heavens corresponding to its Tarot trump. The method of attri-
- buting the figures to the Angles is identical with the process described
- for the squares of both columns and ranks in the Lesser Angles. Thus the
- Airy Lesser Angle of the Air Chess-board would be Mutable (Airy) Air,
- referred to the Zodiacal sign Gemini, and hence to the Geomantic figure
- of Albus, which is a mercurial figure under the presidency of Taphthar-
- tharath. The Watery Angle of the Air Tablet would be Kerubic or Fixed
- (Watery) Air, which is the Sign Aquarius, and the Geomantic figure of
- Tristitia, attributed to Saturn, and the ruler over it is Zazel. The
- Earthy Angles of the Air Tablet, is elemental Air, referred to the
- Geomantic figure of Fortuna Minor, also a solar or Leo figure, ruled by
- Sorath. The fiery Angle is Cardinal Air, the Zodiacal Sign of Libra, and
- Puella would be the Geomantic figure, with a Venusian nature, ruled by
- Kedemel.
-
- The same principle is involved in allocating the Geomantic figures to the
- other Tablets and angles. The magical and divinatory value of the Geo-
- mantic figures must therefore decide the choice of Chess-boards and
- Lesser Angle settings.
-
- The yellow and red men are so placed that they advance to the attack of
- the black and the blue respectively by the columns; while the latter
- advance by the ranks. That is, the Actives are shown as a vertical force,
- while the passives are shown operating horizontally, shewing the Cross
- of Life, corresponding to the forces of the Court Cards and the Zodiacal
- Trumps in the Tarot.
-
- The central squares of the board contain the 16 signs that are allotted
- to each Lesser Angle. And it is only from these 16 squares that the
- pieces--except the Rook and the King--develop their full influence or
- defensive force.
-
- The Watery and Airy Boards are counterparts of each other, so far as the
- arrangement of the signs, etc., of the squares are concerned. And the
- same is true as regards the Earth and Fire Boards. Every Board has its
- uppermost and lowermost ranks of the passive or female element; and its
- two central ranks are of the active or male element.
-
- The most striking difference between the Air and Water, and the Earth and
- Fire Boards is in the fact that in the former the ranks are broken,
- whereas in the latter they are not only continuous across each board, but
- they are continuous right across both boards when in situ. To this is due
- the greater balance and eveness seen in the play of the pieces in the
- lower boards.
-
- -oOo-
-
-
- SETTING OF THE ENOCHIAN CHESS-MEN
- FOLLOWING THE AIR ANGLE OF THE FIRE TABLET
-
-
- (The arrows indicate direction of play)
-
-
- AIR ANGLE WATER ANGLE
- <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
- ┌───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┬───────┐
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- │ KING │ │ │ │ │ │ │ KING │
- \/ │ │CASTLE │KNIGHT │ QUEEN │ │ │ PAWN │ │
- \/ │BISHOP │ │ │ │ │ │ │BISHOP │
- \/ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ │ PAWN │ PAWN │ PAWN │ PAWN │ │ │ PAWN │CASTLE │
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ PAWN │KNIGHT │
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- \/ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ PAWN │ QUEEN │
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
- │QUEEN │ PAWN │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │KNIGHT │ PAWN │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │CASTLE │ PAWN │ │ │ PAWN │ PAWN │ PAWN │ PAWN │ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- ├───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼───────┤ /\
- │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ /\
- │ BISHOP│ │ │ │ │ │ │BISHOP │ /\
- │ │ PAWN │ │ │ QUEEN │ KNIGHT│CASTLE │ │
- │ KING │ │ │ │ │ │ │ KING │
- └───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┘
- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
- EARTH ANGLE FIRE ANGLE
-