I don't have "Liber Israfel" at hand, but I can tell you that
Taphthartharath is one of several spirits whose names and signs are
structured into the magic squares in Cornelius Agrippa, book 2. I do not
know of any prior reference to this spirit, whose name is gibberish, so
I rather doubt it has an Egyptian origin. GD members could have
encountered this figure in Agrippa, but also in Francis Barrett's _The
Magus; or, Celestial Intelligencer_ (1801), which includes at least some
material borrowed from Trithemius as well. So I would suggest looking in
Barrett for sources.
Chris Lehrich
Caroline Tully wrote:
> Hello, does anyone know where the ciphers in the "cipher manuscript"
> that the Golden Dawn was founded upon came from and does anyone know
> where the Invocation to Thoth used in the Conjuration to Visible
> Manifestation of the Spirit Taphthartharath performed by Florence
> Farr, Alan Bennet, (and the other two participants) and which is now
> used in Aleister Crowley's "Liber Israfel" , came from? Was it from an
> ancient Egyptian source, or did the ritualists make it up? Was there a
> record of the result of this ritual?
>
> And also, Al Billings, what is your study 'angle' regarding the Golden
> Dawn again, can you remind me. Thanks.
>
>
> ~Caroline.
--
Christopher I. Lehrich
Boston University
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