[This is a practical demonstration of Scrying which I presented to the Welsh Occult Conference at Welshpool Town Hall on Saturday 16th May 2026. My talk started at 12.15pm: prior to the meeting I calculated that this fell within the planetary hour of Mercury.
One of the important points I emphasised in my talk is that when scrying, one should be mindful of the time chosen to do so: so for example, one should only scry a Tattva when the Swara corresponding to that Tattva is in force; likewise when should only scry an astrological symbol – and almost everything is related to astrology in one way or another – when the horoscope for the moment indicates that it is appropriate to do so. Hence I selected Mercury as an appropriate symbol to scry at the time of my talk.
It ought to be possible to use the Scrying exercise, given below, for oneself, in which case, in order to do so authentically, one should calculate the times of the Planetary hours for Mercury on that day, preferably when the Moon is well aspected to Mercury, or in the very least, when it is not badly aspected.
I pasted the glyph below into a Powerpoint slide and projected it onto a large white screen at the front of the hall, in front of approximately a hundred people. By pressing the W button, I was able to make the image suddenly “white out”: perfect for encouraging people to see a negative of the image! I need hardly add that the perceptive among my readers may surmise that although this concerns Mercury specifically, with the right amount of tweaking it could be adapted for any scrying session. – ALEX SUMNER].
… I would therefore like to invite you to seat yourself, as for meditation, and to close your eyes, breathing deeply and regularly.
Breathe with the four-fold breath: in-2-3-4; hold-2-3-4; out-2-3-4; hold-2-3-4. Keep breathing in and out regularly.
Spend some moments relaxing each part of your body in turn.
Before we even begin to attempt to Scry, let us first contemplate the nature of Mercury, so that we can get a feel for it, and attune ourselves to it.
Mercury is messenger of the Gods, so not surprisingly, Mercury in Astrology is the Planet of Communication. Think for a moment about how you communicate – how you express yourself: that is the influence of Mercury in your own life.
In the Hermetic tradition, the planets in the night sky were not merely named after the gods, they ensouled the gods. So when you contemplate how Mercury affects you astrologically, you are entitled to take that as evidence of how Mercury the god himself influences you. By concentrating on Mercury’s presence in your life, you can trace that back, by a kind of rising on the planes, to the archetypal god himself.
Mercury, being the messenger of the gods, is able to travel between the realms of the divine and of mortals, and indeed to any part of the Universe, spiritual or material. The only other deity who is said to be able to do this is the goddess Hecate, although that is another story. So when you trace the influence of Mercury in your life back to its spiritual source, realise that what you have found not only reaches from the Gods to the Earth; but also to the Underworld, hence explaining Hermes’ role as Psychopomp: and to different parts of the soul, wherever they are fragmented; and to realms of obscure knowledge. Hermes or Mercury traverses all of these and thus acts as messenger of Gods; as well as Psychopomp; as well as Soul Retriever; and hence Healer; and procurer of lost knowledge.
The realms of the Gods and of Mortals are themselves metaphors for the divine and immortal parts of yourself on the one hand, and your everyday psychic self on the other – between the Solar and Lunar principles with you. When this connection moves as freely between your Solar and Lunar selves as Hermes does between divine and mortal realms you will have achieved a deep level of insight.
So bring your attention to the reflection of Mercury in your own personality which is your intellectual nature. It is a higher vibration than your physical body; a higher vibration than your instinctive intuitive or psychic body.
That is the Mercury-level of your being. Remain still for a moment, calm, simply aspiring to the truth of what is above and beyond the thoughts which may occur in your mind.
Now, with your mind calm, slowly open your eyes… and stare at the symbol of the glyph of Mercury. Try to stare at it unblinkingly, for as long as you can manage…
[NOTE: here I hit the W button on my laptop.]
… And now stare at the blank screen. Without straining you should see a blue sigil on a yellow background – the negative of the image of the Glyph. Try doing this a couple of times, so you can get a clear idea of this negative-image.
Now, gently close your eyes again, concentrating on the Mercury-level of your being, and hold the negative image of the Mercury glyph before your mind’s eye.
As you keep hold of this image, aspire to invoke the real presence of Mercury with me, using these words taken from the Qabalah.
“I call upon ELOHIM TZEBAOTH to create and reify a link between the Sigil I visualise and what it embodies on the astral plane. Thank you, ELOHIM TZEBAOTH, for forming this astral current between ourselves and the realm of Mercury.
“In the name of ELOHIM TZEBAOTH I call upon the angel RAPHAEL KOKABIEL to strengthen the astral current linking what is in our mind’s eye and what it astrally embodies. Thank you, RAPHAEL, for ensuring that all the spirits of the sphere of KOKAB act in a friendly and co-operative manner to us, speaking truthfully to us, and causing no harm to us or our loves ones. Including pets.
“In the name of ELOHIM TZEBAOTH, I render thanks to Intelligence TIRIEL for everything you have done so far, and for assistance in our quest today.
“In the name of ELOHIM TZEBAOTH, I call upon the Spirit of Mercury TAPHTARTARATH. Thank you, TAPHTARTARATH for manifesting unto us all the beneficial qualities of Mercury: true knowledge for those who seek knowledge; Healing, for those that need healing; Success in business… Especially for all those who have stall set up today; success in all realms of our Intellectual life generally.
“In the name ELOHIM TZEBAOTH and by the power of all the Spirits of Mercury, may each of us by accompanied by a helpful Mercurial Spirit guide today.”
Now, imagine that in your vision, you are moving towards the Sigil of Mercury. You are moving through the Sigil, as if you are passing through a veil. Imagine that you have passed right through, so that the Sigil is now behind you.
Mentally repeat the name “ELOHIM TZEBAOTH” to yourself and take note of the images which appear before your mind’s eye.
Do not censor what may appear: just observe. Don’t necessarily interact with what you may see, but just take note of what happens.
Always remember that you are safe whilst you are repeating the divine name “ELOHIM TZEBAOTH.”
Now see yourself standing at a nexus point between dimensions. In every direction lead to tunnels, leading from all realms to all realms. It is how Mercury is able to travel wherever he needs to be.
If you see a creature appear, mentally repeat the name “ELOHIM TZEBAOTH”: if the creature appears happy, you may take this as indicating that it is willing to act as your guide. If not, dismiss it, and ask for a new guide, that does recognise the name “ELOHIM TZEBAOTH.”
Now, assuming you have your guide with you, I want you to ask it a series of questions which I will dictate, and try to listen to how it answers.
What exactly is what I see and experience in this vision?
What does it mean?
What could it become?
How can I make use of it magically?
What does it mean in relation to my past lives in general?
What does it mean in relation to my past life as a powerful magician?
What will it mean in a hundred years’ time?
What would it mean to someone on another planet?
Is this a gateway to another magical universe?
Spend a moment to recollect the answers you have received.
Realise that you can return at any time in the future to investigate further, by repeating this journey in the way you have made it today.
Now we are about to leave, but first let us contemplate gratitude to all the powers of Mercury, and that greater Cosmic Power of which Mercury is the embodiment in our Solar System.
Express gratitude especially to your spirit guide.
When you are ready, you begin to move back, floating gently back through the veil through which you passed on the way here… until you see again the Sigil of Mercury from this side, which is the gate through which you first passed. You float gently down, and through the portal, and feel yourself coming back to your body, and gradually returning to normal consciousness.
“We now give all spirit which have been entrapped by this ceremony licence to depart in the name ELOHIM TZEBAOTH. May the blessings of ELOHIM TZEBAOTH be upon ye. Depart ye in peace with our gratitude unto your abodes and habitations. Be there peace between us and you, and be ye ready to come again when ye are called. So mote it be.”
When you are ready, seal all your energies within your physical body by stamping your foot and placing your left forefinger on your lips – and open your eyes.
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
The Order of the Cubic Stone
Way back in the dim distant past (i.e. the 1990s), I would scour my local library for absolutely any books they had on the occult at all. Amongst the inevitable dross I did find some gems, which however disappeared from the library altogether after I had returned them: subsequent borrowers not being as honest as me, I would imagine.
One book, however, which I found which was more valuable than anything else was a slim volume entitled Elizabethan Magic by Robert Turner. This was the first time I had found anyone who had written about the Enochian system in detail. I wanted to find out more about this abstruse magical system: so that when I came across Regardie’s Black Brick, and discovered by skim-reading it that the Golden Dawn itself incorporated Enochian magic into its teachings, I decided to invest in it – both in terms of time and effort – and hitch my wagon to the GD from that point forward. Yet I have to admit that this book by Turner definitely influenced my choice of direction.
I subsequently learned the full story: that Turner and a chap called Dave Edwards had, in the 1960s, founded a magical order they called The Order of the Cubic Stone, which had a public face in the form of its journal The Monolith – scans of some copies of which appeared floating around the internet. The story of the Order it described was that two young occultists contacted a Spirit Guide which told them to form an order like the Golden Dawn, but with the errors in the Enochian system corrected by reference back to the original Dee manuscripts.
Looking at Regardie’s black brick it is easy to see what this Spirit Guide meant. The four Enochian tablets published in Regardie’s set of tomes often had multiple letters in various squares: whilst large parts of the total material given by the angels to Dee is just plain missing: for example, the Holy Table, the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, the Tabula Bonorum Angelorum, as well as a full explanation of the 30 Aethyrs and 91 governors of the various parts of the Earth.
We now know that the Enochian material used by the original GD was a lot better quality than that published by Regardie: for example, it used the proper lettering of the four watchtowers, derived from the reformed table of Raphael. Moreover, I myself found evidence that at least by 1916, Adepts in Amoun Temple of the Stella Matutina, the GD spin-off, were at least aware of the other parts of the Enochian system, e.g. the Sigillum Dei Aemeth. It would appear that the material which came into Regardie’s possession and which he subsequently published had been corrupted from the original in relation to the Enochian system – as indeed to the rituals generally.
However, the scholarly resources we have now would not have been available to Turner and Edwards back in the 1960s, which means that their efforts to “correct” the Enochian system were all the more pioneering.
Now it so happens that modern GD orders do not rely on the material published by Regardie as is, but have actually made an effort to go back to the original material, and have even incorporated those parts of the Enochian system missing from the black brick. This makes me suspect that The Order of the Cubic Stone inspired modern GD orders – not necessarily because they used the OCS’ material, but because the OCS’ integrity and fidelity to its sources goaded them into upping their game.
As to what has become of the OCS, both Turner and Edwards have passed on, as indeed has Turner’s wife Patricia who was herself a leading member and organisational force in the Order. Nevertheless I believe there are OCS members about somewhere – one of them made himself known to me at the recent Welsh Occult Conference – they are, amongst other things, working to ensure that their publications are still available for modern occultists.
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