The Protection of the Archangels
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@Meletiros said
Can we say that Goetic spirits are evoked from the Collective Unconscious?
That's one of several theories. Another is that they are wholly objective beings. Another is that they are expressions of the individual magician's subconsciousness.
I've never found much value in trying to pin this down. I'm more of a "do such-and-so, and get so-and-such result" kind of person.
By what authority does the magician command these spirits?
If they are goetic, then they are commanded by the authority of the Divine Names employed in the formulae of The Goetia.
If his authority to command spirits is based on the invocation of the Archangels (without whom the magician would presumably be unprotected), what is the reason the Archangels support magicians in their endeavors?
I don't buy your "if" - the actual authority is Atziluthic, not Briatic.
But, speaking generally, archangels are protective of humanity because that's their essential nature. (Beyond that, one could have various theories.)
Note that "who" these archangels are would vary across millennia as humanity's collective nature changes. Other beings would have served this function in the distant past - today we call them demons or devils, perhaps not because they have changed, but because their relationship has with us has changed as we have collectively changed.
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Maybe we don't really have the authority to command the goetic spirits, but sometimes they like to make us think that we do.
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@nameless said
"Maybe we don't really have the authority to command the goetic spirits, but sometimes they like to make us think that we do."
Maybe that depends on who you're referring to as "we" and "us"...