Agla

Agla: A kabalistic word used by the rabbis for the exorcisms of the evil spirit. It is made up of the initial letters of the Hebrew words, Athah gabor leolam, Ado-nai, meaning, " Thou art powerful and eternal, Lord." Not only among the Jews was this word employed, but among the more superstitious Christians it was a favourite weapon with which to combat the evil one, even so late as the sixteenth century. It is also to be found in many books on magic, notably in the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III. Bron: encyclopedia of ancient and forbidden secrets (blz. 2) Agla. One of the Kabbalistic names of God, which is composed of the initials of the words of the following sentence : '1~yK iT?y~7 77a 1'Idi, Atah Gibor Lolam Adonai, " thou art mighty forever, 0 Lord ." This name the Kabbalists arranged seven times in the center and at the intersecting points of two interlacing triangles, which figure they called the Shield of David, and used as a talisman, believing that it would cure wounds, extinguish fires, and perform other wonders. (See Shield of David.)

A protective magical talisman, inscribed “AGLA,” designed for the reverse of the Sigil of Ameth by Dr. John Dee, under the [supposed] direction of the angel Uriel. It is a common form of an amulet already in use for several hundred years. (The image at right is a facsimile from Dee’s handwritten notes) AGLA is a notariqon (kabbalistic acronym) of the biblical phrase “Ateh Gibor Le-olam Adonai,“The Lord is mighty forever.” AGLA was condered a name of God by magicians of the middle ages and appeared in magical formulas for everything from protection to flying. By Renaissance times, the formula was a common inscription for amulets and talismans. AGLA is used in its short form in a number of apotropaic circle-making forumulas. The Golden Dawn used it as the “God Name” of the North quarter in the “lesser banishing ritual,” representing Earth, and in the GRP to represent the passive elements of water and Earth. Agla also appears in Masonic lore, and some Masonic scholars have suggested that AGLA was a substitution for the “Word which was lost,” a primordial name of God or magical incantion which may represent the tetragrammaton.

A magical square from Reginald Scott’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” with God-names

Detail from the 1427 “Ghent altarpiece” by Jan van Eyck; AGLA inscription in the floor tiles

Related Symbols:

Bookmark It 131. Manuscripts may complement archaeological evidence. For example, in a design in Villard de Honnecourt’s renowned sketchbook, dating from the second quarter of the thirteenth century (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS 19093), the artist wrote an inscription consisting of several divine names interspersed with crosses (“I hc xpc agla hel. iothe”) surrounding a monumental cruciWx in which Christ is Xanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist. On the same folio, a later hand (post-1300) sketched designs for two pendants, one with the same CruciWxion scene. It is difficult to know if any of these objects were actually executed. But divine names such as agla were common fare in textual amulets and pendants with apotropaic inscriptions. Theodore Bowie, ed., The Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1959), pp. 30–31, plate 10.

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