Artifacts – Complex machines, astral forms given an anchor in the material world such that persistence in time can be maintained

outside of the Quantum containment of observation. These

constructs include synthetic intelligences, spirits, Turing machines and devices built along psionic principles.

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Chapter 30 : Demonologies

Tassel, George Van, early physical contactee and founder of the first UFO conclave, the long-defunct Giant Rock Conventions. Van Tassel also engaged in psychic communications and was closely associated with the earliest New Age groupings…(o)f particular interest is that, beginning in 1952, Van Tassel was in communication with a being calling itself Ashtar the name of a medieval demon said, in the old magical texts, to have relocated to America. Ashtar has shown up in many subsequent cases.²⁸⁹

ASHTAR most likely derives from Astaroth, a great duke in the

infernal regions, according to the ancient magical text The Lemegeton.

The … Grimorium Verum in that text informs us that Astaroth has set up residence in America. ²⁹⁰

The Seal and Characters of Astaroth from the Grimoirium Verum

The foregoing quotes are reproduced here to demonstrate a central idea that is contained in the NAEQ6 and demonstrated beyond doubt in Allen Greenfield’s Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts; that the beings

289 Allen Greenfield, Secret Cipher of the UFONauts, Page 26

290 Allen Greenfield, Secret Cipher of the UFONauts, Page 47

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which are contacted by both the magician and the UFO “contactee” are the same and that these beings are, in both cases, the same demons or daemons, in whatever form, that have been known from the beginning of recorded history to shamans and magicians. That Ashtaroth is related to Astarte, as we saw when applying the NAEQ6 to Liber 49 should come as no surprise. It is not the case that this identification should make us reject the experience of the beings; they are not, it should be clear, evil in any metaphysical sense. Nevertheless, the same may be said of Radium which, despite its neutrality will still kill you if proper precautions are not observed. Know what you are about before you do it.

It is also relevant to the subject of this book that the demons of the medieval grimoires are often the gods of the pagan ancestors of the magicians who wrote them. In the case of Ashtar / Astaroth above, this being had yet another life before her (this spirit was, as we have seen a Goddess with a large cult) demotion to the so-called descending hierarchy. It is also significant that the writers of the Griomoires (among others) rarely agree on more than generalities as the following quotes will demonstrate:

Astaroth appears as an ugly angel riding a dragon and holding a viper in his left hand. It is thought that this powerful grand-duke presides over 40 legions, and possibly over the East and is treasurer of hell.

The Sidonians and Phlistines worshipped him in the past. Wierus mentions that he knows of past and future events, secret things, liberal arts, and the story of creation and the fall of the angels. He also believes he received an unjust punishment. Some magicians say he procures the goodwill of great lords and can be summoned on Wednesday. He is said to emit a powerful fetid odor, and to endure that, the magician should hold a silver magical ring that prevents odors under his nose.

Astaroth is cited as one of the seven princes of hell who visited Faust, appearing as a serpent with a colored tail, two small feet, a chestnut neck, and spines similar to a hedgehog that can grow up to a finger's length. As his feminine counterpart, Astarte, he is portrayed with a heifer's head.²⁹¹

291 Johann Wier , Pseudomonarchia daemonum

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Astaroth is a great and a strong duke, comming foorth in the shape of a fowle angell, sitting upon an infernall dragon, and carrieng on his right hand a viper: he answereth trulie to matters present, past, and to come, and also of all secrets. He talketh willinglie of the creator of spirits, and of their fall, and how they sinned and fell: he saith he fell not of his owne accord. He maketh a man woonderfull learned in the liberall sciences, he ruleth fourtie legions. Let everie exorcist take heed, that he admit him not too neere him, bicause of his stinking breath. And therefore let the conjuror hold neere to his face a magicall ring, and that shall defend him.²⁹²

The Twenty-ninth Spirit is Astaroth. He is a Mighty, Strong Duke, and appeareth in the Form of an hurtful Angel riding on an Infernal Beast like a Dragon, and carrying in his right hand a Viper. Thou must in no wise let him approach too near unto thee, lest he do thee damage by his Noisome Breath. Wherefore the Magician must hold the Magical Ring near his face, and that will defend him. He giveth true answers of things Past, Present, and to Come, and can discover all Secrets. He will declare wittingly how the Spirits fell, if desired, and the reason of his own fall. He can make men wonderfully knowing in all Liberal Sciences. He ruleth 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, which wear thou as a Lamen before thee, or else he will not appear nor yet obey thee, etc.²⁹³

Astarot: From Hebrew, OShThRVTh, = flocks, crowds or assemblies.

Usually written "Ashtaroth". Also a name of the Goddess Astarte;

Esther is derived from the same root. (my emphasis)

The beings that lie behind the “machinery” of the phenomenal universe are often seen as “fallen” or conquered, is in the Chaldean myths of the Dragon Goddess Tiamat. However these beings are approached, it does seem that they are in some sense “bound” to the universe²⁹⁴ – perhaps as we are – and that the most powerful of them are, like Cthulhu, dead but dreaming. This is the mythology of the Dragon that I have “discovered in my own work, and it is advised that

292 MacGregor Mathers Trans., Crowley, Goetia

293 MacGregor Mathers, Trans, The.Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage

294 This may be seen in Crowley’s encounter with Hekate in The Vision and the Voice

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the student be as familiar as possible with the mythic permutations of their chosen Gods, called for whatever purpose. It should be noted that this myth stream is also a part of the Solar religions that are with us today, as “heretical” books such as the Book of Enoch – which so captured the mind of Dee and also, we find, influenced the writers of the New Testament, shows. In the following extract, Enoch witnesses the place where the Seven Stars are bound until the end of the

Universe. For a complete study of this material, see especially Gerald Massey and, from am magical perspective, Cults of the Shadow by Grant as well as the Chapter in the current work Death Dragon..

(extract from the Book of Enoch, Laurence)

9. And I saw a burning fire which was in all the hills.

10. And there I saw a place, beyond the great earth; there the waters collected.

11. And I saw a great abyss in the earth, with columns of heavenly fire; and I saw among them columns of heavenly fire, which fall and are without number, either towards the height or towards the depth.

12. And over that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of heaven above it, and no foundation of earth beneath it, and no water above it, and no birds upon it; it was a void place.

13. And there I saw a terrible thing: seven stars, like great burning mountains and like spirits, that petitioned me.

14. The angel said: “This is the place of the consummation of heaven and earth; it is a prison for the stars of heaven, and for the host of heaven.

15. And the stars that roll over the fire are they who have

transgressed the command of God before their rising, because they did not come forth in their time.

16. And he was enraged at them, and bound them till the time of the consummation of their sins in the year of the mystery²⁹⁵.

Finally, I will mention the work of Paul Huson, whose book, Mastering Witchcraft, is one of the true “classics” of the genre and virtually alone in the books that came out of the occult “explosion”²⁹⁶

295 Book Of Enoch Ch 19

296 More of an implosion, really, like the hippies and their counterculture. Sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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of the 60’s and 70’s, seems to grasp the nature of the beings that dwell in the Outer Darkness (as in the quote from the Book of Enoch,

above): According to that collection of ancient Cabalistic lore, the Zohar, Great Azazel and his cohorts had had to assume tangible bodies in order to descend upon the earth. Because of their revolt against higher authority and the ties with this world which they had subsequently formed, they were unable to divest themselves of these material forms and ascend into the heavenly spaces again.

It is from these exiled beings that all true magical knowledge and power is said to be derived.²⁹⁷ (My emphasis) . It is therefore

imperative that, when reconstructing, or more likely synthesizing, the formula of Witchcraft we take into account the nature of the beings with whom we must traffic.

297 From the Introduction to Mastering Witchcraft Paul Huson, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970

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