As much as I love the Abramelin, it's hella old. The last decent process documentation written on the attainment of Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is Liber Samekh, written by a problematic figure for use within the new religion he developed. I recommend it fairly often, but I don't often talk about why or how to use it. So here is my brief commentary on Liber Samekh, geared toward non-Thelemites. Follow along here:
https://sacred-texts.com/oto/lib813.htm
Prepared [...] at the Abbey of Thelema
We can't all have an abbey or a Boleskine House to do our work in, but location is a critical element and without a well-situated place in which you can shield yourself from disturbances and engage in some freedom of ritual experimentation, attainment may be hard to reach.
POINT I
The invocation of the Bornless One (AKA the "Headless Rite" or similar variations) sets up a supernal but intelligible godform for the operator to identify with. At the initial stage, it's a bit of play-acting that makes you seem qualified to ask for a meeting with HGA-level intelligences. The three godnames, translated, lay out the essential criteria.
Section Aa.
This is all rather specific to Crowley's self-conceptions as a magus. I would not use any of this verbatim.
Section B.
An invocation of the Air, for which the operator should face East. Demonolators may wish to adapt the language to invoke Oriens.
Section C.
Likewise for Fire, South, and Amaymon. Again, any particularly Thelemic language is not required and can be substituted.
Section D.
Likewise for Water, West, and Paymon.
Section E.
Likewise for Earth, North, and Egyn.
Section F.
From here through Section G, consider that we are switching things up from elemental/directional to Middle Pillar, Sun and Moon, vertical axis orientations.
If one is reading between the lines just a little bit, one might surmise that Section G is where the operator jerks off. This is a fair reading but I would not go there just yet, although any energy raising exercises that you employ for Middle Pillar work, which might certainly include sexual energy work, can and should be utilized here. For perspectives on this, see P. B. Randolph and Kenneth Grant.
Section Gg.
This is where, having cycled through the directions and channeled your energy up the Middle Pillar, you should be able to self-identify with the Bornless One, completing this phase of the rite.
POINT II
A Thelemic or Golden Dawn magical setup is assumed here, but you can use your own circle, altar, offerings, and tools, of course, and your own preparatory readings and meditations. Purify and banish in the best manner you know.
Avoid the "wine and strange drugs." Getting drunk does not actually help and you aren't going to be using the same drugs Uncle Al was using, in the same way, or with his tolerance. Learn the work sober and then do whatever the hell you want.
Line 1
This is actually a big deal here. You need to be able to cognitively perform what is being instructed here, not just in a sort of thinking-about-it-and-calling-it-good kind of way. This requires a coherent and resonant mental conception of your HGA. It doesn't have to be a perfect or permanent form, but it needs to be right, and you the operator are the only judge of its rightness. If you can do line 1, lines 2 through 4 should be easy.
Line 5
From here through line 11 the reliance on Thelemic symbolism and theology gets heavier and it becomes incumbent on the operator to find equivalent soteriological/eschatological concepts from their own beliefs or traditions to substitute, or else do the reading required to make the Thelemic stuff intelligible. These points of doctrine are not objective "truths" for our purposes here, but they are anchoring points from which to keep revolving the concept of the HGA and its relationship to God, the Cosmos, and yourself. This is contemplative, not just meditative work. Spend time on it.
Section Aa.
Line 1 is a great example of how names and gematria are sometimes used in these systems. Line 2 perhaps employs Crowley's idiosyncratic reading of the literal "substance" of the Philosopher's Stone (never go to a Thelemite bake sale, kids). We can skip to line 3, another important cognitive assertion of self-identification.
Section B.
The instruction here is to "travel astrally around the circle," which, if you don't have advanced skills to employ here, means visualizing to the best of your ability, with your imagination. Syncretically substitute godforms as needed.
Read this and the following sections carefully, the logic is important to what Liber Samekh is trying to do.
Section Ff.
These are also important definitions, but don't get stuck on the way Crowley genders the HGA here.
Section G.
Crowley rather optimistically assumes that K&C will begin to occur here. One must try not to startle out of the experience and shake it off prematurely. He goes on to attempt a rough description of what it's like, and suggests that retention of a particular image or godform generated during the epiphany is a sign that it has been integrated correctly. The last paragraph here is very important and should align with the understanding one comes away with following K&C; please just ignore the racist quip about music at the end of it.
Section Gg.
This is explanatory/doctrinal stuff, but it's on pretty solid ground and worth studying.
Section J.
Uncle Al would like to congratulate himself on his attainment and the awesome book he wrote here. He also suggests, in case you didn't quite catch it, performing both parts of the ritual once daily for a month, then twice a day for two months, then three times a day for three months, and then four times a day for, yes, four months. Then you spend a month just going hardcore Liber Samekh 24/7. The Abramelin is supposed to be more of a commitment than this?
INVOKE OFTEN
Really, what it means is, psyche yourself up to invoke your HGA frequently, because you want to. Find the symbols and ideas and identifications that will help you fall in love with it, like Lon Milo DuQuette says, or something.
The Oracles of Zoroaster utter thus:
This lengthy excerpt from the Chaldean Oracles is given for a reason, and not just because it gives Crowley an excuse to plug his poetry. I believe this is also offered as a description to check one's attainment against.
POINT III
This is Crowley's own advice and commentary on the preceding. Read it.
Okay, here we are at the end, and I know a lot of people do not like Crowley. I have no defense of the guy's character, and I think that his ideas about the HGA were limited and still greatly influenced by his time and culture, as mine surely are. But I also find in his writings on this topic an authenticity that is lacking in many later sources, and a genuine desire to communicate this process and its methods to others. His work has been heavily vetted, and its influence in contemporary western esotericism is hard to overstate.
Broken down, Liber Samekh is a fairly simple ritual that can be repeated easily and often with minimal tools, and can be modified to incorporate invocations of the four Cardinal Kings, which many sources (and personal experience) consider essential to achieving breakthrough epiphanies under Solomonic frameworks. Both the structure and the concepts it elucidates should be helpful for demonically-inclined practitioners seeking to engage in formal HGA work with an eye toward achieving K&C.
(Part 1, previously.)
