Table of Contents
Let me disclaim this at the very top of the hour: The sigil shown here is not of ancient or Near Eastern origin, but was likely created in the 1970s by the authors of the Necronomicon.
The Faux Grimoire
There is a ton of controversy around the modern grimoire, Necronomicon, and plenty of disdain has been heaped upon it and all those who dare examine its working potential. Let me be clear:
I do not suggest the Necronomicon is an authentic Babylonian text and I acknowledge the author seems to have borrowed heavily from R.C. Thompson’s translations of Mesopotamian rituals.
It is still an interesting insight into ancient Babylonian religion and magic for anyone not previously exposed to either. I began exploring the book and experimenting with its proposals a few years ago and I don’t mind saying it’s been an enjoyable process that continues to yield productive magical results.
What can I say? If a method gets results why wouldn’t I use and recommend it?
Perhaps I have created a system of servitors or tapped into existing egregores with this work. Or maybe something else is happening.
I don’t know. What I care about is enacting magic that works, as in gets the results I aim for and then sharing that magic with others who may be interested.
Shall we carry on?
Asaru-alim
While Asarualim is the 11th name in the Book of Fifty Names within the Necronomicon, Asaru-Alim is one of the fifty names of Marduk from the Enūma Eliš. The latter is found in the text from tablet seven of Enūma Eliš.
Allow me to butcher the Akkadian language before we get into things:
- Asaru – to design, build, ordain, decree
- Alim – mighty, powerful
Typical stuff for an ancient god name; the supreme builder, one whose designs are mighty, etc. It turns out this name is a little more nuanced and interesting than the literal meaning.
This title of honor is also a description of one of Marduk’s powers, to put it in simple terms. This deity was and is associated with Jupiter and is treated as an aspect of the Divine Father and is associated with wisdom, protection, justice, courage, power, and conflict, among other things.
What’s in a name?
In Enūma ElišIn the fifty names are titles given Marduk by the elder gods after his victory over Tiamat. The describe the deity in distinct roles or in the context of certain powers.
In the Necronomicon each name is a facet of the deity’s nature or person, though some treat or perceive them as 50 distinct beings.
My interpretation of the 50 Names of Marduk, derived from both texts and personal experience, is that they are:
- Names for interacting with the sphere of Jupiter and the archetype of the Father.
- Specific to contacting aspects of Marduk
- Vessels that can interact as stand-alone entities within ritual magical context.
Obviously none of the listed items above are mutually exclusive and these could be three descriptors of the same entity or intelligence. There is also plenty of room for proponents of various magical theories, i.e. spirit model, psychological model, et al to argue about what is happening during interaction and subsequent magical operations.
Operational Value
In the magic or religious operations of Babylon (perhaps impossible to distinguish between in many contexts) one of the things Marduk, named Asaru-alim did was dispense wisdom and counsel – a perennial use of the father deity. A more interesting application of this power was and is to expose the hidden, reveal what is obscured, penetrate deception, compel the truth.
Mesopotamian doctrine says a demon cannot be expelled until it is identified. Marduk was often asked to:
- reveal the hidden affliction
- show the hidden hand
- make visible the invisible
- bring forth the unseen spirit and make it give an account of itself
- force a lying spirit to tell the truth
This magic could be used to discern the cause of illness, isolate a troublesome thought form, identify a saboteur, expose an unwanted spirit in the home, reveal a psychic attacker, and so on. I use the name Asarualim in this manner, and for general insight and revelation.
The name is also described as giving weighted counsel or to abound in counsel, making it appropriate for general guidance. I have found the Name and the intelligence it connects to very useful as an intermediary in divinatory work such as Runes, dowsing, and the Tarot.
I also deploy the Name as a sort of gatekeeper and key to accessing other spirits and influences in the same environment. By environment I mean the spheres of Jupiter and Mercury – the latter being an additional correspondence to this particular Name – or the Book of Fifty Names within the Necronomicon.
I suppose this needs clarification, even at the risk of redundancy:
The entity of the Name, be it Marduk/Jupiter/the Father, an egregore, a servitor I have created, or some other spirit who has entered the vessel of the Name and answers to the word and sigil given in the Necronomicon acts as a point of contact for any of the other Fifty Names I have reached out to, and as an intermediary with entities of Jupiter and Mercury.
I have also found it responds to the intelligences of Mercury and Jupiter. By responds I mean is easily summoned or engaged with when going through the aforementioned intelligences.
/
Example Procedure
To experiment with these uses of this Name, you could do something along these lines:
Raise a magic circle as per usual, to include the four elemental stations, be they Archangels, Watchtowers, Four Pillars, or any other method for calling four elemental creatures to the four compass points about your circle. Whenever I do this, often leveraging my four personal elementals along with four elementals from my locale requested through four local elemental rulers to call the four elemental beings I call by name to my compass points, I ask these beings to “Attune and fortify me” meaning dial me into the elemental frequencies and sort of prime my aura for further interactions with the four fields, and to “Endorse and Protect” both me and my work.
What I just said about elementals in shorter, more coherent form. In my personal operations within the magic circle, to populate the four compass points with elementals I:
- Communicate with my four personal elementals; ask their aid.
- Call upon local elemental rulers by name; ask them to dispense – also by name – four local elemental spirits.
- Use this network of elemental energy to call the names of celestial and terrestrial elemental authorities. I use the hierarchy of Archangel > Ruler > Angel > King or Queen.
- So for elemental water I would call the names Gabriel, Tharsis, Taliahad, Nixus.
- Having activated this hierarchy of names I then call the four named elemental spirits I have long used to come inhabit the four pillars of north/earth, west/water, south/fire, east/air.
- Thereafter I ask to be fortified, attuned, enforsed, and protected.
If anyone cares, this method of elemental conjuration – which takes some setup time in determining names of personal elementals and identifying local spirits, obviously – creates a potent matrix of elemental energy then activates/charges that matrix through the attention of the celestial-to-earthbound hierarchy. By the time you call your four recurring spirits to the pillars there is a palpable energetic charge within and around the circle. It is worth the time and trouble that goes into the prelim work.
Having the circle at the ready, burn some cedarwood or other incense and produce the sigil of Asarualim. Paper and marker are fine, and I have found walnut and birch wood are excellent conductors here.
You can do a simple conjuration of Jupiter or Mercury using Heptagram, Hexagram, and your standard spirit, angel, or intelligence names to evoke the planet’s current. Thereafter anchor that current through the sigil and begin the verbal calling to the Name.
“Asarualim!”
Call attentively through the throat chakra. Repeat three times.
“BARRMARATU!”
From the throat chakra and through the third eye. Repeat five times.
This is one full sequence. Repeat this until you feel a connection.
If my plan is to contact other entities using this Name I then add Asarualim you are the key and I call through you.”
From here is is a quicker and more seamless process to connect with any of the other 50 Names I may utilize.
Or upon connecting you can give Asarualim your task. Don’t ask like a prayer or command like its a bound spirit, simply instruct with polite authority and say thank you.
A good initial use might be to grant clarity and discernment during the evocation of other spirits. The entity of this Name, as mentioned, is good for informing you of other entities in your proximity and can seemingly force communication from said entities.