I recently came across a stash of these ornate keys. To my eye, the bow (head) is a stylized gryphon. As many of you know, locks and keys form a very important part of my magic, because my late father collected antique padlocks. (Google "Mike Mastros collection padlocks" to see some). As soon as I saw these, Helios and his Gryphons began teaching me how to enchant them to open all doors.
Gryphons are half-lion and half-eagle, and combine the magical powers of both. As kings of both land and sky, they are beings of great majesty and power. They are often said the guard vast treasures, and to preside over the mining of gold. In my own work, I have found them especially useful for revealing secrets, recovering lost treasures (both literal and metaphoric), and healing trauma that involves conflicting or confused memories.
Flavius Philostratus, a second century Greco-Roman teacher, had this to say about them: “For these animals do exist in India and are held in veneration as being sacred to the Sun ; and the Indian artists, when they represent the Sun, yoke four of them abreast to draw the images ; and in size and strength they resemble lions, but having this advantage over them that they have wings, they will attack them, and they get the better of elephants and of dragons.”
Helios, the Greek god of the Sun, was worshipped as the Great God in the Dodecanese, particularly at his cult center on Rhodes, where his great statue, called The Colossus, was one of the seven wonders of the world.The conjuration, which is based on the ancient Greek Magical Papyrus called “The Eighth Book of Moses”, calls on Helios to open the four quarters of the cosmos, and to cause any locks to crumble into pieces. It is effective at opening roads to almost any kind of goal, but is especially good for opening doors to healing, wealth, and fame.
You can
pre-purchase an enchanted key here, or continue reading for instructions to make your own. I expect these to sell out quickly.
If you have completed the initiation of the Eighth Book of Moses (PGM XIII 1-313), I encourage you to enchant your own key, using the ritual that follows. If you have not, but have another Helios or solar initiation which graced you with a personal name for the Sun, that will also work. If you do not have this, but want to try it anyway, go ahead! Say whatever name for Sol bubbles to your lips at the moment of invocation. In what follows “NAME” is your personal solar name. Feel free to modify what follows however you like, and please report back your results!
Awakening a Key for Helios
You will need:
- A fancy gold-colored key
- Solar incense (recipe below), charcoal, and a place to burn it
- A short squat beeswax candle. You’re going to have to balance it, lit, on your head for about 25 minutes.
- An idol or ikon in the shape of the Colossus of Rhodes, large enough to pass a key through his legs
- Olive oil
- Honey
- Clean fresh living water (that is, water from a natural source, such as rain or spring water)
- Headphones, and a way to play this recording.
- A vagina. Don’t have one? Imagine that you do. Don't want to imagine that? Write your own ritual.
Solar Incense Recipe
- Frankincense resin, 5 parts
- Amber resin, 2 parts
- Dried orange peel, 1 part
- Cinnamon chips, 2 parts
- Local honey, 1 part
The ritual should be timed to peak as near to the solstice as possible. Here in Pittsburgh, that’s a few minutes before noon. I recommend starting around 11:15. Arrange the space in advance.
What to do:
- Clean and arrange a working space sacred to Helios. Ideally, this work should be done outside, in direct sunlight. Put the image on a plate
- Make a substantial offering to your choice of solar charities. I recommend Solar Cookers International, which provides solar cookers and education in developing communities still reliant on dirty, inefficient, dangerous methods to cook their food.
- Wash your hands, face, and genitals. Wear a white skirt or robe (you’re going to have to reach up there later).
- Cover your hair. (This is an unusual request in Greek magic, but Helios specifically requested it.)
- Begin by entering magical space, time, and consciousness according to your usual method.
- Recite the Orphic Hymn to Helios (next page).
- Light the candle, saying “I conjure you, fire, daimon of holy love, the invisible and manifold, the one and everywhere, to reside in this candle at this time, shining and not dying out, by the command of NAME.”
- Yell aloud: Helios Axabyxrōm AAA ĒĒĒ ŌŌŌ I I I AAA OOO Tsavaot YHVH-IAŌ Zagreus the god Arat Adonai Basim IAŌ.
- Make the following noises: TAK TAK TAK POP POP POP HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
- Pour honey over the idol, and then olive oil.
- Light the incense, and say: “I am she of the two cherubim, at the middle of the cosmos, between heaven and earth, light and darkness, night and day, rivers and sea. Appear to me, archangel of G-d, set in authority under the Holy ONE. I call in the name of NAME.”
- Yell aloud: Helios Axabyxrōm AAA ĒĒĒ ŌŌŌ I I I AAA OOO Tsavaot YHVH-IAŌ Zagreus the god Arat Adonai Basim IAŌ.
- Clap three times, and then whistle a long shrill note.
- Begin playing the recording.
- Take the key(s) in your hands and say the following, passing them through the fire and the smoke, then quenching them in the water. “I call on you alone, the only one in the cosmos who gives orders to both gods and men, who changes yourself into holy things, and brings existence out of the nonexistent and nonexistence from existent things, holy Thoth, tongue of Ra. I conjure you, spirit coming into air: By the power of the eternal god enter, inspire, empower, and awaken, this key and let it partake of your essence, for I am she who acts with the power of Thoth, the tongue of Ra, the holy god.”
- Pass the key through the legs of Helios of Rhodes, front to back, tapping it gently on his penis three times.
- Uncover you head.
- Stand with your legs spread, balancing the candle on your head. Hold the key(s) between your hands as if you are praying.
- Assume the god-form of Helios of Rhodes
- Feel the heat of the sun on your head. Feel the candle there, another shining sun. Feel the sunlight descend through your head, and infuse into you. Begin pushing it into the key(s).
- Chant to Helios as seems right to you. I recommend beginning with Helios Axabyxrōm AAA ĒĒĒ ŌŌŌ I I I AAA OOO Tsavaot YHVH-IAŌ Zagreus the god Arat Adonai Basim IAŌ and then chanting your sacred SUN NAME, and then slipping into glossolalia trance. Continue for at least 10 minutes in this way, pushing solar energy into the key(s) the whole time.
- Eventually, you should feel it begin to overflow the key, and pool into your belly and genitals. If you require healing, at this time, you can divert some of the solar energy into the relevant part of your body, making a spontaneous chant that makes word play with Heal and Helios.
- Before the recording ends, carefully remove the candle from your head, and put it in front of the idol. If you’re not sexually aroused and hot for Helios by now, you have not properly assumed the godform. Repeat steps 18-22.
- Pass the key through your legs from back to front, tapping your own genitals at least three times on the way. Pass from your right hand behind into your left in front.
- Say aloud: “Open, open four quarters of the cosmos, for the lord of the inhabited world comes forth. Archangels, decans, angels: Rejoice! For the Aion of Aion herself, the only and transcendent, invisible, goes through this place. Open, I say to you, Door! Hear my words, Bar! Fall into pieces, Lock! By the name AIA Ainrychat, cast upon the Earth, for the Lord who Contains All Things, the Storm-Sender, Controller of the Abyss, Master of Fire says OPEN! Open, for Achebykrome commands you!”
- Say Helios Axabyxrōm AAA ĒĒĒ ŌŌŌ I I I AAA OOO Tsavaot YHVH-IAŌ Zagreus the god Arat Adonai Basim IAŌ 8 times.
- Sit in silence, communing with Helios, asking him how to use your key, and listening to his council. Ask him for a name for the key. “The god will talk with you as with a fellow god.”
- Return to normal space, time, and consciousness.
- Drink some water. You’re very thirsty, but you might not realize it until you start drinking.
If you would prefer, you can purchase a pre-enchanted key (which comes with a name),
you can do so here, for $111 plus shipping.
The Orphic Hymn to Helios
Hear me, blessed one, eternal all-seeing eye
Gold gleaming light, Titan Most High.
You are self-made and tireless, of beautiful form,
On the right side, you give birth to the morn,
While with your left hand you pour out the night,
Compounding the hours, endless alchemy of light.
Your four fleet-footed horses gambol and play,
High spirited coursers leading light of new day.
Whizzing blissful and swiftly, fiery charioteer,
Whirl like a bullroarer on your endless road round the year!
Draw forth cosmic harmony, good guide of the good;
Scorch the wrongdoers, who are acting in falsehood.
You give the signal, and good deeds are done,
You measure the seasons with revolutions you run.
Multiformed and evergreen, eternally undefiled,
Lightbringer, life-giver, cosmocrat all-fruitful Paian.
You are immortal Zeus, and undying Father Time,
Truth-doing, all-shining, round-running cosmic eye.
You measure seasons, making sense, giving signs
When the sun sets, and when you rise up and shine.
Flow-loving cosmic king beaming righteous light,
Truth-guarding all-protector, radiant knight,
Whip-whistling horse rider, life-loving charioteer:
Attend to my prayer, and to your mystic, draw near.
