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The Brass VesselPlanetary and Manuscript Sets
Venus’s five pentacles begin with command over spirits and promises of favour and honour, then turn to attraction and compelled arrival. Their verses move through love, creation, shared flesh and a heart melting in distress. [1]
Mathers 1889
To control the spirits of Venus, especially those named within the figure; the notice also applies control to the following pentacles.
To obtain grace and honour and accomplish desires in matters belonging to Venus; control of Venusian spirits is shared with the opening notice.
When shown to a person, to attract love; its angel Monachiel is to be invoked in Venus’s day and hour, at one o’clock or eight.
To compel the spirits of Venus to obey and force a chosen person to come immediately.
When shown to any person, to incite and excite love.
| Pentacle | Attributed purpose |
|---|---|
| The 1st Pentacle of Venus | To control the spirits of Venus, especially those named within the figure; the notice also applies control to the following pentacles. |
| The 2nd Pentacle of Venus | To obtain grace and honour and accomplish desires in matters belonging to Venus; control of Venusian spirits is shared with the opening notice. |
| The 3rd Pentacle of Venus | When shown to a person, to attract love; its angel Monachiel is to be invoked in Venus’s day and hour, at one o’clock or eight. |
| The 4th Pentacle of Venus | To compel the spirits of Venus to obey and force a chosen person to come immediately. |
| The 5th Pentacle of Venus | When shown to any person, to incite and excite love. |
The opening Venus figure controls the planet’s spirits, especially those named in it. Mathers identifies Nogahiel, Acheliah, Socodiah or Socohiah, and Nangariel around its eight-character radial design. The notice extends control to the figures that follow. The second speaks broadly of grace, honour and accomplishing desires in matters belonging to Venus. [1]
These first two notices give the family a wider subject than attraction alone. Their diagrams also introduce different ways of arranging names: the first has four groups around a radial field; the second places spirit-name letters within and outside a five-pointed star. The second’s outer verse imagines a seal on the beloved’s heart and arm. [1]
The third is shown to someone to attract love. Its angel Monachiel is invoked at a Venusian day and hour, with one o’clock or eight stated in the notice. Two triangles meet point to point around the Hebrew name groups. The fifth is also shown, with a claim that it strongly excites love in any person. Its square carries Passing of the River names, two of which Mathers could not decipher. [1]
The fourth has a different force. It compels Venusian spirits to obey and forces a desired person to come immediately. A divided diamond and central grid carry IHVH and spirit names that Mathers gives as Schii, Eli and Ayib. That instant arrival is its specific claim, beside the third and fifth figures’ attraction through showing. [1]
The Song of Songs gives the second pentacle a seal upon heart and arm and love as strong as death. The full biblical passage continues with flame, unquenchable waters and the inability of wealth to buy love. Those are the setting of its inscribed words, while the notice’s promises remain grace, honour and Venusian desires. [1][2]
Genesis surrounds the third with blessing, multiplication and filling the earth. The fourth’s visible ring follows the man’s recognition of the woman in Genesis 2:23, bone and flesh shared; Mathers’s English quotation adds the next verse’s one-flesh language. [1][3][5][6]
The fifth turns to Psalm 22’s heart melting like wax. This is a lament’s image of distress, set around a pentacle meant to excite love. [1][4]
Copper is Venus’s general metal in chapter XVIII, with green given for paper figures and a planetary day and hour for metal engraving. Monachiel’s stated hours in the third notice are a more particular requirement. [1]
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1889; printed edition, including editorial restoration of Hebrew characters. Book I, chapter XVIII, printed pp. 66–67; figures 39–43, Plates IX–X (PDF pp. 89, 92); general materials/timing, pp. 56–57
King James Version, public-domain biblical text. Song of Songs 8:6–7
King James Version, public-domain biblical text. Genesis 1:27–28
King James Version, public-domain biblical text. Psalm 22:12–18
Hebrew Bible, Masoretic text; English translation presented by Mechon-Mamre. Genesis 2:21–24; Hebrew wording of 2:23 compared with figure 42
King James Version, public-domain biblical text. Genesis 2:21–24