Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

A variety of popular books, and the advent of the internet, have created and perpetuated a number of errors in the Elemental Implements, which are being unwittingly copied and promulgated by a new generation of occult students. Firstly, Robert Wang's The Secret Temple gave the wrong Divine Names for the Elemental Implements, adopting the Sephirothic names instead of the Elemental ones (that we see in the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram). His errors were duplicated and popularised by Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick . Wang and Kraig give the following: Fire Wand: YHVH Tzabaoth Water Cup: Elohim Tzabaoth Air Dagger: Shaddai El Chai Earth Pantacle: Adonai ha-Aretz The correct names are: Fire Wand: Elohim Water Cup: El Air Dagger: YHVH Earth Pantacle: Adonai Further, most depictions of the Earth Pantacle are missing a name: Aphar ( עפר ). This is another name for earth, often translated as "dry earth" or "dust". It goes ...

For many, making magical tools is a significant challenge, and for some it is even an obstacle. After all, not everyone has woodworking or metalworking skills, so the Elemental Implements can seem quite daunting. Something that I found interesting when going through Ritual G was the wording for creating each of the implements. There is a subtle distinction between making/forming  two of them (the Wand and the Pentacle) and adapting the remaining two from existing objects (the Dagger and the Cup). For the Fire Wand, we are told that it is "convenient to make the wand of wood," though cane (or bamboo) with an existing hollow and notches presents an easy alternative. Yet either method requires some amount of assembly. For the Air Dagger, we are told that "any convenient dagger, or knife, or sword may be adapted for this purpose; the shorter the better." For the Water Cup, we are told that "any convenient clear glass cup may be adapted..." ...

The Four Implements (the Wand, Cup, Dagger, and Pentacle) are perhaps the most iconic and memorable set of tools in the Golden Dawn tradition, relating to the four elements, the Tetragrammaton, and the four suits of the Tarot. Due to their elemental nature, some groups have incorporated their use into the Outer Order, tasking initiates to make and consecrate each particular tool in the grade related to that particular element. On the surface this might seem like a good way to better imbue the tool with the associated element, but the big problem with this, aside from Inner Order teaching not belonging in the Outer Order, is that these four implements are not to be separated (as would be the case if divided by the four Elemental Grades). Ritual G tells us that these implements "have a certain bond and sympathy between them," elaborating as follows: "So that even if one only is to be used, the others should also be present. Even as each of the four Elemental T...