Polygraphy and the Seven Secondary Intelligences

THE FIRST Angel, or spirit of Saturn, is called Orifiel, to whom God committed the governance of the world from the beginning of creation. He began his rule on the 15th day of the month of March, in the first year of the world, and it lasted 354 years and four months. Now, "Orifiel" is a name of office, not of nature; name of office, not of nature: A theological distinction meaning the angel's name describes his job or rank in the celestial hierarchy rather than his essential being. it is a name attributed to the spirit by reason of his actions. Under his rule, men were crude and wild, dwelling in solitude in the manner of beasts. This requires no proof from me, as it is manifest to everyone from the text of Genesis. Trithemius is aligning the "Age of Saturn"—often seen as a Golden Age in myth—with the harsh, primitive survival of humanity after the Fall in the Biblical narrative.

THE SECOND governor of the world is Anael, the spirit of Venus, who began to rule by the influence of his planet after Orifiel, in the year of the world 354, in the fourth month—that is, on the 24th day of the month of June. He governed the world for 354 years and four months, until the year 780 from the founding of the world, as is clear to anyone calculating the ages. Under this rule of Anael, men began to be more civilized: they established houses and cities and invented manual arts, such as the craft of weaving, wool-working, and similar things. They also began to indulge more extensively in the pleasures of the flesh, taking beautiful wives for themselves, forgetting God, and departing from natural simplicity in many ways. They invented games and songs, played the cithara A stringed instrument similar to a lyre or lute., and devised whatever pertains to the nature and worship of Venus. This licentiousness of life lasted among men until the Flood, taking therefrom the justification for its own wickedness. original: "sumens argumentum pravitatis suae"; suggesting that the moral decline under Venus provided the reason for God's judgment via the Great Flood.