The 7th Pentacle of Mars

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The storm encounter

The seventh Mars pentacle is credited with immediate hail and tempest. Its notice describes a figure written on virgin parchment or paper with bat’s blood, in the day and hour of Mars. It is then uncovered inside the circle while the demons whose names are written on it are invoked. [1]

Two scripts around equal-valued names

An interlaced eight-pointed star surrounds a central field. El and Yiai occupy that centre. Mathers notes that the two names have the same numerical value in Hebrew. Ordinary Hebrew letters and circle-tipped Celestial characters occupy the spaces around the star, forming spirit names; the editor does not supply a complete Roman-letter list. [1]

The outer Hebrew band selects Psalm 105:32–33: hail instead of rain, flaming fire, and the smiting of vines and fig trees. In the full Psalm passage, Moses and Aaron show signs in Egypt amid darkness, ruined waters, frogs, insects and destructive weather. [1][2]

Blood in the notice and the preface

The bat’s-blood prescription remains in this printed notice even though Mathers’s preface warns against using blood. In that preface he says prayer, pentacles and perfumes are sufficient. His warning and the surviving storm prescription stand together in the 1889 book. [1]

Sources and editions

The Key of Solomon the King · The 7th Pentacle of Mars
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1889; printed edition, including editorial restoration of Hebrew characters. Book I, chapter XVIII; printed p. 64; figure 31, Plate VII; plate PDF page 83; Complete Mars notices and notes, printed pp. 63–64 (PDF pp. 80–81); Preface p. vi; general Book I VIII pp. 39–41 and XVIII pp. 56–57
Psalm 105:26–36 · Signs in Egypt and destructive hail
King James Version, public-domain biblical text. Psalm 105:26–36

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Pentacle profile

The storm encounter

Two scripts around equal-valued names

Blood in the notice and the preface

Sources and editions