Because there was some interest in this method, taught to me by my mentor Scott Stenwick, I’m writing it up as a blog post for easy reading and reference.

One of the challenges in contacting any spirit is knowing its name. Knowing a spirit’s name is like knowing its private key, as Trithemius points out in Steganographia. If you follow the cosmology that every person has a spiritual helper, Holy Guardian Angel, or whatever you’d like to call it, you probably want to establish regular and clear communications with it. Having the name is a step along that path. A couple of years ago, my mentor taught me a method that produced a name that had particular synchronistic relevance and had internal consistencies that proved to me that it was valid, including finding the name of that spirit in a famous grimoire. The name was generated randomly, through the following tarot method.

First, perform a ritual to set up contact. This can be Liber Samekh, the Headless Rite, or in my case a sequence of rituals starting with the Qabalistic Cross, followed by the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram, the Middle Pillar, and the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram using all four elements to tune the space to Malkuth. My ritual sequence is another method taught to me by my mentor, following his theory of the “operant field”.

Once your ritual is complete, meditate for a moment with the intent in your mind to contact your spiritual helper. Then, take a full deck of tarot cards and shuffle well. Draw three cards.

If you draw one of the Major Arcana, keep drawing until you hit a pip card. If you are able to top deck draw at least three Major Arcana, the method was successful. Though, you should keep drawing until you get a pip card. If you don’t draw at least three Major Arcana off the top of the deck, the attempt was unsuccessful, and you should use the pip card that was revealed as guidance about possible obstacles or challenges standing in the way of your contact. Only make one attempt at this per day. If you are unsuccessful, meditate on the pip card you pulled and try again the next day or later.

If the method is successful and you get at least three top deck Major Arcana, reference Liber 777 and compare column II (Hebrew names of Numbers and Letters) with column XIV (General Attribution of Tarot). I personally preserved the order of the letters based on the order of my draws. In addition, I added an לא to the end of the name, or in English the suffix “-iel”.

Let’s try an example.

You perform your contact ritual and start drawing cards. You draw The Wheel of Fortune, The Star, and the Three of Wands. This attempt was unsuccessful, and you should meditate on the meaning of the Three of Wands to determine what might be blocking the contact.

Let’s see another example:

The cards you draw happen to be The Lovers, The Empress, the Fool, and the Seven of Cups. This attempt was successful. Referencing Liber 777, you can find that the letters corresponding to these trump cards are Zayin, Daleth, and Aleph, or זדא, which you might pronounce something like Zah-Dah-Ah. Adding the “-iel” suffix and getting a little creative, we might get something like Zadaiel.

Feel free to roast me if my butchering of Hebrew here is atrocious, my general knowledge and understanding of it are pretty limited. But, I do feel there is a degree of creative interpretation in this method and assuming the letters form a sort of abbreviation of the full name is totally acceptable as well. Massage the name a bit until you get a sound that feels “right” when said out loud. Do the gematria on the name, see if it holds some secret synchronistic relevance to your own life or situation, and look in grimoires like the Heptameron to see if your helper has been mentioned elsewhere. More than anything, use this name in further contact rituals and see if you get a hit, or something talks back.

One note about the name you divine. It is totally up to you whether or not you’d like to share it with anyone. Call me superstitious, but I would not share the name of your spiritual helper with others, unless your trust in them is absolute beyond any doubt. I treat the name like a true name, one that has power. I think keeping it secret and safe is very prudent, but do what thou wilt.