Over the last year or so I’ve been doing a lot of work with R.J. Stewart’s Sphere of Art ritual. With the Sphere of Art you create a sphere by working with the four elemental archangels. I’ve modified the SOA working to include three additional archangels, one for the underworld, one for the cosmos, and one to tie it altogether. This modification hasn’t been done lightly, but rather has occurred as a result of a careful reading of both the Sphere of Art and works by William G. Gray who references the other three archangels extensively.
So who am I working with?
Raphael in the East, Michael in the South, Gabriel in the West and Auriel in the North for the elements, but just as importantly for space itself.
Sandalaphon in the Underworld (Memory), Metatron (Imagination) in the cosmos, and Suvuviel (present) to bring altogether and tie it up nicely with his cord. These three are also focused on time, but not the linear divisions of time, but rather the expressions of time.
There are multiple purposes for creating the sphere, so lets review those for a moment.
To create magical sacred space outside the conventional space/time we inhabit…but this space is a place of stillness and manifestation, the liminal threshold where probability can be come reality, and where form meets with potential.
To do alchemical work with planetary and elemental energies (as shared in Sphere of Art 2).
To do the necessary work of creating connections and correspondences in order to do deeper work with the archangels and the forces they mediate.
Those are my reasons or purposes for doing this work and they’re good ones to have. A significant aspect of this work has focused on doing the sphere of art daily for the last 6 months. In order to do that work, I actually memorized the entire sphere of art ritual, as well as the chants I added for the 3 archangels that aren’t in the original SOA working. The benefit of memorizing the chants is that it allowed me to imprint the words, concepts, practices etc on my mind, body and spirit, enabling me to set the stage for the actual working because I conditioned my internal environment to fully embrace and embody the ritual. This is done through the mansion of memory technique (see Sphere of Art 3 for further details).
Once I memorized the sphere of art and got used to the specific energetic changes that occur in the sphere, I started working with the alchemical processes, taking specific substances and charging/changing them in the sphere. The purpose of doing that work was to align those substances with planetary energies and other relevant correspondences and then use those substances to mediate the particular energies both externally and internally. By externally, I mean the environment around me, and by internally I mean the internal environment of my body, as well the internal energy I cultivate in said environment.
Currently my work is focused around developing an even deeper relationship with the archangels and with the forces they mediate. In each case, what I’m recognizing is that it’s important to approach the work from a place of opening myself to the forces I’m working with as opposed to operating from a place of trying to control those forces. The work is collaborative, with a focus on working together to create a mutually beneficial relationship, but also a deeper connection with the universe at large. When I work with the archangels, they act as mediators, but in a sense I find that I’m also acting as a mediator because the work is changing my relationship with the energies being mediated. This makes sense because as we attune ourselves to specific energies, we bring them into our lives more and as a result express them into the world.
I’ll share further updates on this work down the line, but wanted to show something that’s a work in progress in my life.
