LAMENS AND PANTACLES 
157 
engraved it neatly on his arm. I don't know how he 
proceeded to set to work; but his wife came back all right, 
and a very short time afterwards he killed himself. 
Then there are the Elemental Tablets of Sir Edward Kelly 
and Dr. John Dee. From these you can extract a square to 
perform almost any conceivable operation, if you understand 
the virtue of the various symbols which they manifest. They 
are actually an expansion of the Tarot . (Obviously, the Tarot 
itself as a whole is an universal Pantacle-forgive 
the 
pleonasm! Each card, especially is this true of the Trumps, is 
a talisman; and the whole may also be considered as the 
Lamen of Mercury. It is evidently an Idea far too vast for any 
human mind to comprehend in its entirety. For it is "the 
Wisdom whereby He created the worlds.") 
The decisive advantage of this system is not that its variety 
makes it so adaptable to our needs, but that we already 
possess the Invocations necessary to call forth the Energies 
required. What is perhaps still more to the point , they work 
without putting the Magician to such severe toil and exertion 
as is needed when he has to write them out from his own 
ingenium. Yes! This is weakness on my part, and I am very 
naughty to encourage you to shirk the hardest path. 
I used often to make the background of my Talismans of 
four concentric circles, painting them, the first (inmost) in 
the King (or Knight) scale, the second in the Queen, the third 
in the Prince, and the outermost in the Princess scale, of the 
Sign, Planet, or Element to which I was devoting it. On this, 
preferably in the "flashing" colours , I would paint the 
appropriate Names and Figures. 
Lastly, the Talisman may be surrounded with a band 
inscribed with a suitable "versicle" chosen from some Holy 
Book, or devised by the Magician to suit the case. 
In the British Museum (and I suppose elsewhere) you may 
see the medal struck to commemorate the victory over the 
Armada. This is a reproduction, perhaps modified, of the 
Talisman· used by Dee to raise the storm which scattered the 
enemy fleet.