[META & TRANSLATION] EL ELOHIM [MEGATEN]
Mar. 17th, 2013 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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suwafoughtenfieldWhether or not you've played the first Shin Megami Tensei game, if you're a fan of the mainline games, there's a good chance you're familiar with the text that appears in its intro sequence.
What do we know about this text? Well, at first glance, it's easy to identify as Hebrew, and judging by all the "el"s in there, it has to be something to do with God. (Big surprise there, right?) I got curious and decided to do some digging into what it actually means. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as translating it from Hebrew into English, and it wouldn't be even if I spoke Hebrew.
Initial googling of the phrase turned up something called the Grimoire of Armadel, sometimes regarded as part of the Key of Solomon. (I won't go too deep into hermeticism here, but it's basically a collection of Renaissance magic texts, many of which draw influence from Kabbalah.) The actual phrase comes at the very end of the manuscript, and it's apparently a conjuration used to invoke a spirit, a process that involved a number of other conjurations as well as the use of a magic circle. The conjuration is as follows:
In other words, it's basically a summoning technique. It was intended for use in summoning divine spirits, but I imagine SMT's team extended it to mean summoning demons as well. (Not that the game differentiates much between demons and angels anyway.) The rest of the text before it appears to have to do with programming, and I'll be first in line to admit that I know jack shit about that, but I think we can assume that what we're seeing is part of STEVEN's Demon Summoning Program. Cool!
More poking around turned up the term for a block of text like this: "Barbarous Names." According to Thelemapedia:
The article goes on to say that Crowley was reluctant to translate any of these names, because it would involve trying to trace the etymology of all the corrupted versions of names of God included in it.
That's all fine and dandy, but what does that block of all-caps text actually mean? For one reason or another, I couldn't find a single resource on this in English. It didn't seem like anyone had tried their hand at translating it since then. All Google turned up for me was the information I summarized above... and a post by a blogger named innocent_sin.
I'll state here for the record that since I have no idea where innocent_sin got their information, I have no way of knowing how accurate their translation of this text is. I've added some notes I found to the terminology, but that's about it. What follows is also a translation from Hebrew to Japanese to English, or possibly even Hebrew to Chinese to Japanese to English, considering that it's presented in both Japanese and Chinese on their website. Regardless, here's what innocent_sin has to say about the text in the SMT intro:
So what do we take from this? Certainly the strongest impression I came away with was, wow, this is some obscure shit. These passages weren't even translated by Crowley, not to mention that the text they originate is hardly well-known to anyone who doesn't spend their time studying the hermetic art. I'd noticed in the past that a lot of the "Biblical" content in the games is taken not so much from the Bible but from more occult sources like Jewish spiritual texts and Kaballah, but I'm pretty impressed at the inclusion of this particular conjuration, because not only does it sound fancy and meaningful, but it also does actually have meaning. Good work, guys!
What do we know about this text? Well, at first glance, it's easy to identify as Hebrew, and judging by all the "el"s in there, it has to be something to do with God. (Big surprise there, right?) I got curious and decided to do some digging into what it actually means. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as translating it from Hebrew into English, and it wouldn't be even if I spoke Hebrew.
Initial googling of the phrase turned up something called the Grimoire of Armadel, sometimes regarded as part of the Key of Solomon. (I won't go too deep into hermeticism here, but it's basically a collection of Renaissance magic texts, many of which draw influence from Kabbalah.) The actual phrase comes at the very end of the manuscript, and it's apparently a conjuration used to invoke a spirit, a process that involved a number of other conjurations as well as the use of a magic circle. The conjuration is as follows:
I do Conjure thee by the virtue of the Great and Holy
Names of God, that immediately and without delay thou art to appear unto me
under an agreeable form, and without noise, nor injury unto my person, to make
answer unto all that I shall command thee; and I do conjure thee herein by
EL ELOHIM ELOHO ELOHIM SEBAOTH ELION EIECH ADIER
EIECH ADONAY JAH SADAY TETRÁGRAMMATON SADAY AGIOS
OTHEOS ISCHIROS ATHANATOS AGLA Amen.
Names of God, that immediately and without delay thou art to appear unto me
under an agreeable form, and without noise, nor injury unto my person, to make
answer unto all that I shall command thee; and I do conjure thee herein by
EL ELOHIM ELOHO ELOHIM SEBAOTH ELION EIECH ADIER
EIECH ADONAY JAH SADAY TETRÁGRAMMATON SADAY AGIOS
OTHEOS ISCHIROS ATHANATOS AGLA Amen.
In other words, it's basically a summoning technique. It was intended for use in summoning divine spirits, but I imagine SMT's team extended it to mean summoning demons as well. (Not that the game differentiates much between demons and angels anyway.) The rest of the text before it appears to have to do with programming, and I'll be first in line to admit that I know jack shit about that, but I think we can assume that what we're seeing is part of STEVEN's Demon Summoning Program. Cool!
More poking around turned up the term for a block of text like this: "Barbarous Names." According to Thelemapedia:
Barbarous Names is a generic term applied to the long strings of unintelligible words often found in the rituals of antiquity and medieval grimoires.
The article goes on to say that Crowley was reluctant to translate any of these names, because it would involve trying to trace the etymology of all the corrupted versions of names of God included in it.
That's all fine and dandy, but what does that block of all-caps text actually mean? For one reason or another, I couldn't find a single resource on this in English. It didn't seem like anyone had tried their hand at translating it since then. All Google turned up for me was the information I summarized above... and a post by a blogger named innocent_sin.
I'll state here for the record that since I have no idea where innocent_sin got their information, I have no way of knowing how accurate their translation of this text is. I've added some notes I found to the terminology, but that's about it. What follows is also a translation from Hebrew to Japanese to English, or possibly even Hebrew to Chinese to Japanese to English, considering that it's presented in both Japanese and Chinese on their website. Regardless, here's what innocent_sin has to say about the text in the SMT intro:
It's actually a little different from what's used in the story, but here's a little information on the summoning of demons. I'll start out with the words written on the pentagram that appears in the opening.
AGLA: You, O Lord, are mighty forever [Atah Gibor Le-olam Adonai]
TETRAGRAMMATON: Lit. "the four letters", refers to YHWH/YHVH
AΩ: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end
QVODINFERIVS [Quod inferius]: The Supreme One [My reserch says it means "that which is below," which comes from the Emerald Tablet: "That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing"]
MICROPROSOPVS [Microprosopus]: The All-Knowing Lord [I found that it refers to one of the aspects of God]
QVODINFERIVS and MICROPROSOPVS are written alternatingly around the perimeter of the pentagram.
After performing the chant [I won't translate this because it's reproduced more fully above], you continue with the following words:
el elohim eloho elohim Sebaoth
elion eiech adier eiech Adonai
jah sadai Tetragrammaton sadai
agios O theos Ischiros Athanaton
Agla amen
(Our eternal Lord, our God Sebaoth
Glorious things are spoken in the name of our God Adonai
And in the name of the Tetragrammaton that cannot be spoken
O Theos, Ischiros, Athanaton
You, O Lord, are mighty forever. Amen)
AGLA: You, O Lord, are mighty forever [Atah Gibor Le-olam Adonai]
TETRAGRAMMATON: Lit. "the four letters", refers to YHWH/YHVH
AΩ: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end
QVODINFERIVS [Quod inferius]: The Supreme One [My reserch says it means "that which is below," which comes from the Emerald Tablet: "That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing"]
MICROPROSOPVS [Microprosopus]: The All-Knowing Lord [I found that it refers to one of the aspects of God]
QVODINFERIVS and MICROPROSOPVS are written alternatingly around the perimeter of the pentagram.
After performing the chant [I won't translate this because it's reproduced more fully above], you continue with the following words:
el elohim eloho elohim Sebaoth
elion eiech adier eiech Adonai
jah sadai Tetragrammaton sadai
agios O theos Ischiros Athanaton
Agla amen
(Our eternal Lord, our God Sebaoth
Glorious things are spoken in the name of our God Adonai
And in the name of the Tetragrammaton that cannot be spoken
O Theos, Ischiros, Athanaton
You, O Lord, are mighty forever. Amen)
So what do we take from this? Certainly the strongest impression I came away with was, wow, this is some obscure shit. These passages weren't even translated by Crowley, not to mention that the text they originate is hardly well-known to anyone who doesn't spend their time studying the hermetic art. I'd noticed in the past that a lot of the "Biblical" content in the games is taken not so much from the Bible but from more occult sources like Jewish spiritual texts and Kaballah, but I'm pretty impressed at the inclusion of this particular conjuration, because not only does it sound fancy and meaningful, but it also does actually have meaning. Good work, guys!
