Old Magic

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I'm a private individual, a former student of Michael Vincent and semi-pro magician. I used to be a very dedicated cardician. Why am I selling? The text is composed of both magic and astrology. One element that has contributed to the notoriety of the Picatrix is the obscene nature of its magical recipes. The gruesome concoctions are intended to alter one’s state of consciousness, and may lead to out-of-body experiences, or even death. Ingredients include blood, bodily excretions, brain matter mixed with copious amounts of hashish, opium, and psychoactive plants. For example, the spell for “Generating Enmity and Discord” reads: The demons Vassago, Seere, Dantalion, and Andromalius are not listed in this book, while Pruflas is not listed in The Lesser Key of Solomon. Pseudomonarchia Daemonum does not attribute seals to the demons, as The Lesser Key of Solomon does. One of the highlights of this grimoire is an elaborate ritual known as the ‘Abramelin Operation’, which is said to enable a mage to gain the ‘knowledge and conversation’ of his ‘guardian angel’ and to bind demons.

Under the next three centuries of Hellenistic Egypt, the Coptic writing system evolved, and the Library of Alexandria was opened. This likely had an influence upon books of magic, with the trend on known incantations switching from simple health and protection charms to more specific things, such as financial success and sexual fulfillment. [8] Around this time the legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus developed as a conflation of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes; this figure was associated with writing and magic and, therefore, of books on magic. [9] The Galdrabok is essentially composed of two kinds of spells: groups of spells working by means of prayer formula, invoking higher powers, and by which the magical end is effected indirectly. Only a small number of spells in the Galdrabok (8 in total) fall into this category. This combination of practical application and theoretical rigor made Picatrix a key source for Renaissance mages like Cornelius Agrippa and Marsilio Ficino. You can read a scholarly account of the importance of Picatrix by Eugenio Garin.One such Arabic grimoire devoted to astral magic, the 10th-century Ghâyat al-Hakîm, was later translated into Latin and circulated in Europe during the 13th century under the name of the Picatrix. [18] However, not all such grimoires of this era were based upon Arabic sources. The 13th-century Sworn Book of Honorius, for instance, was (like the ancient Testament of Solomon before it) largely based on the supposed teachings of the Biblical king Solomon and included ideas such as prayers and a ritual circle, with the mystical purpose of having visions of God, Hell, and Purgatory and gaining much wisdom and knowledge as a result. Another was the Hebrew Sefer Raziel Ha-Malakh, translated in Europe as the Liber Razielis Archangeli. [19] One of the prayers said to have been called Artem Novam (in Latin) by King Solomon, makes mention to Jesus. Other prayers mention God Father, his son Jesus, and the Holy Ghost, precisely the Christian Trinity. Another mentions the Apostles and martyrs, and another one the Lord’s Prayer.

I usually think of Halloween as the time for ghosts, goblins, and witches, but Christmas apparently has its own selections of these spooks, who have been co-opted into Christian ceremonies. I find it fascinating that some of these folk tales have survived in any form into the 21st century, but Santa Claus is certainly doing well, that jolly old elf! Mind you, he has been recruited by retailers to encourage us to part with our cash. This explains to me the Victorian habit of telling ghost stories at Christmastime, like the ghosts who visit Ebenezer Scrooge.The ancient Jewish people were often viewed as being knowledgeable in magic, which, according to legend, they had learned from Moses, who had learned it in Egypt. Among many ancient writers, Moses was seen as an Egyptian rather than a Jew. Two manuscripts likely dating to the 4th century, both of which purport to be the legendary eighth Book of Moses (the first five being the initial books in the Biblical Old Testament), present him as a polytheist who explained how to conjure gods and subdue demons. [9] A later book also claiming to have been written by Solomon was originally written in Greek during the 15th century, where it was known as the Magical Treatise of Solomon or the Little Key of the Whole Art of Hygromancy, Found by Several Craftsmen and by the Holy Prophet Solomon. In the 16th century, this work had been translated into Latin and Italian, being renamed the Clavicula Salomonis, or the Key of Solomon. [20]

Believed to be descendants of Indo-Europeans, the Celts were a brilliant and dynamic people, gifted artists, musicians, storytellers, and metalworkers, as well as expert farmers and fierce warriors much feared by their adversaries, the Romans.The Ars Theurgia Goetia (“the art of goetic theurgy”) is the second section of The Lesser Key of Solomon. It explains the names, characteristics, and seals of the 31 aerial spirits (called chiefs, emperors, kings, and princes) that King Solomon invoked and confined, the protections against them, the names of their servant spirits, called dukes, the conjurations to invoke them, and their nature, that is both good and evil. Still, the book survived, “mined as a source on witchcraft and folklore,” and his material on practical magic and sleight of hand “found a large audience,” Davies writes. ForScot’s original aims, that wasn’t good. Rather than debunking stage magic for the masses as he’d hoped, “Discoverie” became a handbook for magicians in Europe and America, well into the 17 th and 18 th centuries. Famous works such as “ Hocus Pocus” and the “ The Juggler’s Oracle “ drew heavily on “Witchcraft,” thus spreading the very mysteries that Scot had hoped to quell. Davies: “[I]t travelled in directions Scot himself may never have imagined.”