Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition

No. 10, Vol. 1. Vernal Equinox 2006

Publisher
J. S. Kupperman

Main Content Editor

Alex Sumner

Creative Editor
J. S. Kupperman
Editorial - The End The Grimoirium
Rituals Editor of Volume One! Verum: A Lesser
Frater L. by J.S. Kupperman Solmonic Grimoire
by Samuel
Copy Editor
Frater L. Modern Grimoire Scarborough
Magick:Folk Magick In this article Samuel
and The Solomonic Scarborough examines
Art Direction one of the lesser known
J. S Kupperman Path grimoires of the
by Aaron J. Leitch Solomonic tradition, the
Web Design and Picking up where his Grimoirium Verum. We
Development Secrets of the Magickal will see that this grimoire
  J. S. Kupperman Grimoires leaves off, of ill-repute is just as  
Aaron Leitch traces effective and operable as
Contributing Writers medieval European the well known Greater
Dylan Dykins, Aaron J. mysticism as it traveled to Key of Solomon the King.
Leitch, J.S. the New World. Leitch
Kupperman, Samuel introduces the subjects of
the "receipt-book,"
Angelic Invocations
Scarborough, Alex
Sumner Amercian folk traditions by Alex Sumner
and Afro-Cuban Magic involving
influences on modern Angels has always
The Cover Art: The occultism and provides figured prominently in
Hexagram of Solomon links for further study.
by J.S. Kupperman Finally, he explores the
the Western Mystery
influence of these folk Tradition, although its
"Made of calf's skin traditions upon the significance has
modern revival of changed over time. In
parcment the Magus classical Solomonic
wears Solomon's this article Alex
mysticism. The essay
hexagram to compel concludes with some
Sumner examines the
the spirits to take practical tips for the work of three historical
human shape." modern sorcerer. figures who were
involved in Angelic
communication.
  

Poetry
On the Seventh Day -
Dylan Dykins
Book Reviews
Knowledge is Power - Submissions
Samuel Scarborough

Forbidden Rites - Aaron Announcements

J. Leitch and Feedback

The Keys of Magic - J.S.

Kupperman

Next Issue, No. 11: The Occult Revival – 1700s

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 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

Editorial

by J.S. Kupperman

Welcome to issue number 10, the final issue of volume

one of the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition. This
issue of the Journal delves into the oft mysterious and dark
topic of the grimoires; those books of magical rituals for
doing everything from consecrating talismans to evoking
demons and other divers spirits. In this issue we present to
you three articles on the subject. First is an article by
Aaron J. Leitch, author of a recently published book on
  grimoires (see the review by our own Samuel
Scarborough!). This article shows connections between the
grimoires and new religious movements such as Voudon
and Santaria. Second is an article on a "lesser" Solomonic
grimoire, the Grimoirium Verum, by Samuel Scarborough.
Last, though not least, is an overview of the influences of
grimoires on three famous historical occultists, written by
one of our own editors, Alex Sumner.

The next issue of the Journal of the Western Mystery

Tradition, number 11, volume two, will be on XXXX.
Thanks to everyone who made the first volume possible
and here is looking forward to many more in the future!
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  Modern Grimoire Magick: Folk Magick and The Solomonic

Path

Aaron J. Leitch

The medieval systems of "grimoiric" mysticism (of which the

European Solomonic tradition is a part) are outlined in such
manuscripts as The Key of Solomon the King, the Goetia, the Book
of Abramelin, The Magus, etc.[1] The authors of these texts (many of
them members of the medieval Catholic Church) drew magickal
secrets from the cultures they found around them - such as Jewish
Merkavah Mysticism and Qabalah, classical Gnosticism, Arabic
Sufism and the rich traditions of European pagan folklore.[2]

The mysticism that evolved among these Christian mages was fairly
shamanic. It called upon the Angels and spirits of nature. It
described methods of exorcism and acquisition of spirit familiars.
Wax images, sacrifices, incantations and necromancy all proved a
marked pagan influence on the texts. Yet, they were unquestionably
the work of devout Christians, who invoked the name of Jesus, used
standard Christian prayers (such as the Pater Noster and the
Psalms) as magickal spells, and presented a blatantly Christian
mythos.

The Solomonic mystics were unique because they were among the
first humans in history to have access to the technology of paper
and bound books.[3] (They were very often scholars, scientists or
scribes.) Therefore, they naturally recorded much of their tradition
into manuscripts called textbooks or “grammars” (French:
grimoire). The appearance of these grimoires shocked Roman
Catholic and many Protestant authorities so deeply, it triggered the
Inquisitions and mass book burnings. What we know of Solomonic
mysticism today comes largely from the grimoiric manuscripts that
survived.

After the Inquisitions, the Age of Enlightenment dawned in Europe.

The surviving grimoires had vanished into private collections and
museum archives - mostly guarded by the Masons as occult
curiosities. There was the odd scholar or quasi-Masonic group
(most of them students of Hermeticism) who discovered the texts
and made use of some of the material. You might recognize many
of the names - Elias Ashmole, "Dr. Rudd", Francis Barrett,
MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley are just a few. However,
few of them practiced the texts on their own terms. The more pagan
elements of the grimoires vanished, and the mark of Masonic lodge-
style magick was eventually imprinted upon them.

Today, there are many ceremonial groups that make limited use of
the Solomonic material - most of them descended from or
influenced by a late Victorian quasi-Masonic lodge called the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There have even been a
number of modern Orders that focus entirely on the grimoires,[4]
though even they are influenced by post-Golden Dawn magickal
methodology. Toward the end of the 20th Century, several books
were released that present methods for summoning Angels and
spirits based upon (or influenced by) Golden Dawn techniques.[5]

While the modern ceremonial systems may draw names, sigils and
talismans from the medieval grimoires, the techniques they utilize
are no older than the late 1800s - and in some cases are even
younger. The grimoires are not composed of lodge-style ceremonial
magick. You'll find no "Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram"
in the Key of Solomon the King. You will not see instructions in the
Goetia to inscribe geometric figures in the air. No Tarot-based
Elemental Weapons or Lotus Wands are found anywhere in the vast
corpus of medieval Solomonic literature.

At the time I wrote my book on grimoire magick, I was operating

under the impression that the "living grimoiric tradition" - as
recorded by the medieval mages themselves- had long-since ceased
to exist. I focused strictly upon the historical European Solomonic
tradition, along with suggestions for following a similar path in the
modern world. (In fact, I was hoping my book would help to re-
ignite the Solomonic tradition, and provide a textbook – grimoire -
for it.)

However, over the past several years, I have discovered that I was
fundamentally wrong about the passing of the "living grimoiric
tradition." It was not stamped out by the Church, nor has it been
dead and buried in Masonic vaults for the past 400 years! Indeed, it
survived the inquisitions, migrated to the New World with
European immigrants, and - true to its shamanic nature - mutated to
a new form. It has been with us right here in America for nearly as
long as the nation has existed - and it is currently becoming part of
a larger occult revival. I have been shocked to discover just how
many people are currently out there really working with this
material! Their procedures may or may not differ from what I
describe in my book. I may or may not always agree with their
philosophies about the magick. Yet, one way or the other, they are
using the old methods and getting results.

Thus, contrary to what you may read in my previous work, the

Solomonic tradition is alive and growing today. In this essay, I will
trace this slightly mutated "grimoiric" trend from Europe to the
New World (both New England and the American South), and
finally discuss how it is currently affecting aspirants searching for
the Solomonic path. Overall, I hope to give the reader a solid
impression of what it means when someone - right here in the
modern world - calls him or herself a "Solomonic magician."

European Folk Magick in the New World

The medieval Solomonic grimoires are, in fact, a sub-set of a larger
literary genre - the folkloric "receipt-book." (The word "receipt",
used in this sense, is an archaic form of the word "recipe.") A
receipt-book was a hand-written journal of family and local
folklore, passed down from generation to generation.

The typical receipt-book contained such things as agricultural lore,

cleaning tips, beauty aids and "home remedy" medicinal secrets.
For an example of such domestically-useful content, take this recipe
for a plaster that aids healing:

A Very Good Plaster.[6]

I doubt, very much whether any physician in the United States can
make a plaster equal to this. It heals the white swelling, and has
cured the sore leg of a woman who for eighteen years had used the
prescriptions of doctors in vain.

Take two quarts of cider, one pound of bees-wax, one pound of

sheep-tallow, and one pound of tobacco; boil the tobacco in the
cider till the strength is out, and then s train it, and add the other
articles to the liquid: stir it over a gentle fire till all is dissolved.

Or this recipe for curing fatigue:

Another Remedy for Weakness[7]

Take Dittany and St. John's wort, and put them in good old rye
whiskey. To drink some of this in the morning before having taken
anything else, is very wholesome and good. A tea made of the
acorns of the white oak is very good for weakness of the limbs.

The receipt-books also contained occult lore - in the form of

incantations, spells and simple conjurations. Depending on the
source, this occultism is variously known as European folk magick,
witchcraft or "collections of local superstitions." For example, here
is a folk remedy for the fever:

How to Banish the Fever.[8]

Write the following words upon a paper and wrap it up in knot-

grass, (breiten megrich,) and then tie it upon the body of the person
who has the fever:

Potmat sineat,

Potmat sineat,

Potmat sineat.

Or, how about this helpful hint for ranchers:

Another Way to Make Cattle Return Home.[9]

Feed your cattle out of a pot or kettle used in preparing your dinner,
and they will always return to your stable.

There are also more involved spells, which should sound very
familiar to any student of the Solomonic tradition:

To Prevent Bad People From Getting About the Cattle.[10]

Take wormwood, gith, five-finger weed, and assafœtida; three

cents' worth of each; the straw of horse beans, some dirt swept
together behind the door of the stable and a little salt. Tie these all
up together with a tape, and put the bundle in a hole about the
threshold over which your cattle pass in and out, and cover it well
with lignum-vitæ wood. This will certainly be of use.

This kind of magick was a hold-over from the paganism that existed
in Europe before the domination of the Church. While the pagan
religions themselves may have been destroyed, local and family
traditions and folklore often survived. Many of them simply
adapted to the new Christian environment. By the time the receipt-
books were penned, Biblical scripture and prayers to Jesus and
Saints had become intermixed with the older pagan material:

Another Well-Tried Charm Against Firearms.[11]

Blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the
hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which
Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ has
arisen from the dead; blessed are these three hours over thy gun,
that no shot or ball shall fly toward me, and neither my skin, nor my
hair, nor my blood, nor my flesh be injured by them, and that no
kind of weapon or metal shall do me any harm, so surely as the
Mother of God shall not bring forth another son. + + + Amen.

At the same time, aspects of Judeo-Christian occultism (such as we

see in the Solomonic grimoires) were incorporated into the receipt-
books. Perhaps the best example of this is the famous
SATOR/ROTAS magickal square:

SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS

We have seen this square on Solomonic talismans, and a (slightly

altered) version even appears in the Book of Abramelin.[12]
Meanwhile, the lesser-known receipt-books grant this talisman
various powers. If written on either side of a plate and cast into a
fire, it can extinguish the flames without water. If written on paper,
ground up and added to cattle's feed, it will protect the beasts from
evil witchcraft. If built into the structure of a door or window, it
will keep evil spirits from entering.[13]

Another folk remedy for the fever should be familiar to students of

European occultism:

To Banish Convulsive Fevers.[14]

Write the following letters on a piece of white paper, Pew it on a
piece of linen or muslin, and hang it around the neck until the fever
leaves you:

AbaxaCatabax
AbaxaCatabax
AbaxaCataba
AbaxaCatab
AbaxaCata
AbaxaCat
AbaxaCa
AbaxaC
Abaxa
Abax
Aba
Ab

This talisman is obviously adapted from the "Abracadabra"

formula, which adopts its principal from Qabalistic philosophies on
the power of words. The fever is symbolically linked to the word
"Abracadabra" (or, in this case, "Abaxacatabax"), and should
diminish as the letters of the word are reduced one by one. (Most
folks are familiar with "Abracadabra" because stage-magicians in
the early 1900s - who sometimes claimed real occult power -
adopted the word into their acts.)

The receipt-books were grimoires in every sense of the word- and

were sometimes known as "wonder-books." In fact, it could be said
that the Solomonic grimoires were merely the receipt-books (or
wonder-books) of one group of medieval Christian mystics.

Once the Inquisitioners had finished searching for grimoires on the

shelves of their clergy, they began seeking out the local healers and
midwives who often had receipt-books of their own. (From this
grew the legends of "witch-burning" that characterize the
Inquisition to this day.)

It was this atmosphere of religious persecution throughout Europe

that prompted many individuals and entire communities to seek
their fortunes in the New World. Those whose faiths were labeled
(or bordered upon) "heresy" migrated especially to the colony of
Pennsylvania, which had been founded (in 1681 CE by the Quaker
William Penn) on the principal of religious freedom. It quickly
became a haven for Quakers, Mennonites, Anabaptists and other
obscure (and often mystical) religious sects. By 1683, German
settlers had established the community of Germantown near
Philadelphia - and they brought their receipt-books with them.[15]

Once in the New World, the lore we find recorded in the books
combined with Native American herbalism. (The immigrant
cunning-folk and healers would have wanted to learn about the
local plant life as soon as possible, in order to make necessary
medicines and potions.) The information then began to appear in
published works in the late 1700s and 1800s. Thanks to mass
distribution through mail-order catalogues,[16] books like the
Farmers Almanac, and John Hohman's Pow-Wows, or the Long
Lost Friend (first published in German, in 1820, as Der Lange
Verborgene Freund) became the foundation of the New England
folk tradition.

This New England folk tradition is sometimes called Hexcraft -

though this may be a modern convention. Alternately, it has been
called braucha in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, speilwerk in the
German, or "Pow-wow" after the title of John Hohman's book. (He
had simply borrowed an Algonquian word for "shaman.")[17]

Practitioners of Pow-wow magick were known by the German term

Hexenmeisters (spell-masters). Besides their spells and
conjurations, they were most famous as herbologists and healers. In
most cases, the tradition could only be handed down from a male to
a female, or from a female to a male - especially from mother to
son. (Modern students of Wiccan history may find that information
of interest.)

Receipt-books had been kept within families since the invention of

paper and bound books, and they continued to appear even as late
as 1950s America. Eventually, the advent of the Industrial Age and
the nuclear family destroyed the transmission of such folk wisdom
from the older generations to the younger, and the receipt-book
finally disappeared.[18] Today, it is unclear how many hexenmeisters
are left, or whether or not the tradition will be handed down to
another generation.

Nonetheless, Mr. Hohman's book eventually became the

quintessential American grimoire, and was the principal (but not the
only) source of spells for Pow-wowing. (In fact, all of the above
examples of receipt-book folklore were taken from The Long Lost
Friend.) Another text of importance was Egyptian Secrets,
(supposedly) by Albertus Magnus, which was one of the main
sources for Hohman's book.

Even more interesting for us here, there were several classical

grimoires that made it through the Inquisition and across the sea to
America. The most important to the Pow-wow tradition were the
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, the Black Pullet and possibly the
Goetia as well. The hexenmeisters were not very interested in the
purification rites and conjuration ceremonies. Instead, they merely
adopted the elaborate seals and sigils - which they charged
according to their own tradition. For instance, merely placing a
grimoiric seal inside a Bible for seven days was often enough to
make it magically viable.

Unfortunately, these classical grimoires were often associated with

"black-magick" by Pow-wow healers. Even owning such a book
was seen as an indication of satanic influence- and they were
strictly avoided by those who wished to present Pow-wow magickal
lore as lawful within Christian dogma.[19]

The Magick Moves South: The Hoodoo Tradition

While the European immigrants were bringing their religions and
folk magick with them to New England, the slaves were bringing
theirs to the South. In places like Cuba, the Caribbean and the
American southern states (like Louisiana), we find a strong
presence of the African Diaspora religions - such as Santeria, Palo
and Voodoo (or Voudoun).

These initiatory shamanic faiths were themselves combinations of

the original African religions and elements from religions in the
New World. Santeria adopted much from Catholicism, so that
Saints were invoked as indistinguishable from the African Orishas
(gods). Both Santeria and Palo drew from Allan Kardec's Spiritism
(an offshoot of Spiritualism) to replace their lost ancestral worship-
resulting in the mesa blanca (white table) séances.

It would also appear that, unlike the New England hexenmeisters,

the Diaspora faiths had no compunction against making use of the
European grimoires. [20] For example, at some point, several of the
seals from the Goetia and related texts were adopted by the Voodoo
priests as veves (sigils) for the African Loas (gods).[21]

For example, compare the following two sigils. One is from the
Goetia, representing the spirit Gomori. The other is the Voodoo
sigil for the Loa Ezili-Freda:
The next example is also from the Goetia - the seal of the spirit
Marbas. Compare this to the sigil of the Loa Ibo:

I'll give one final example here - this time the seal is from the
grimoire called the Grimoirum Verum, representing the spirit
Frucissiere. Corresponding to this, we have the Voodo sigil of the
Loa Papa-Legba:

As one should expect, these African-descended religions also

brought with them a rich tradition of African folk magick.
Crossroads magick, "foot track" magick, "laying down tricks",
crossing and uncrossing, gris-gris or mojo bags, ritual sweeping
and bathing are all African survivals. And, as usual with folk
traditions, these things were not strictly contained within the
Diaspora religions. Instead, during the late 19th century, they
disseminated among the lay-people as well - intermixing freely with
the folklore and occultism of surrounding cultures. Included in the
mix were Native American herbalism, Spiritism, European folk
magick (especially Pow-wow), and the medieval grimoires.

This new southern American folk tradition was eventually labeled

Hoodoo - also known as root-working and conjure sorcery.[22]
Because of its close ties to Voodoo, Palo, etc, it is often mistaken as
a Diaspora religion in its own right. However, Hoodoo is not a
religion, nor does one have to be an initiate of any of these religions
to practice. Like the Pow-wow tradition, it was taught and practiced
by common folk within families or close-knit communities. (Pre-
WWII blues music is known for references to Hoodoo - such as
Crossroads Blues by Robert Johnson and Hoodoo Lady by
Memphis Minnie.)

Of course, for this essay, we are most interested in the influence of

European folklore and occultism on Hoodoo. The southern
rootworkers (or root-doctors) were great fans of what they
considered "Jewish Kabbalistic" works like Hohman's The Long
Lost Friend,[23] Magnus' Egyptian Secrets and grimoires like The
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, The Black Pullet, The Key of
Solomon the King and The Goetia. In fact, there is some speculation
that the term "Hoodoo" may descend from the Latino word Judio,
pronounced "hoo-dee-oh", and meaning "Jewish." It could easily
have come into the culture via Palo, within which is a path named
Palo Judio. If this is the origin of the word Hoodoo, then it is likely
the practice was named for its association with so-called "Jewish
magick"; the medieval grimoires.

However, much as we see with New England folk magick, the

southern rootworkers were not interested in the grimoires' ritual
instructions - they wanted books with lots of seals and words of
power associated with them.[24] These seals were then drawn on
paper and placed in sachets, buried in pathways, built into doors,
placed upon wounds, etc. - similar to the manner in which the
SATOR square is used. They could be empowered via several
simple methods such as intonation of their words of power,
anointing with oil, recitations of scripture and/or enclosure within a
Bible for seven days.

Another European magickal tradition adopted into Hoodoo was the

use of the Biblical Psalms as spells or conjurations in their own
right.[25] This was largely (but not entirely) thanks to the publication
of a text called Secrets of the Psalms: A Fragment of the Practical
Kabala by Godfrey Selig.[26] (Possibly based upon a medieval
Jewish book entitled Shimmush Tehillim - On the Use of Psalms.)
Selig's book described the Qabalistic philosophy that the Psalms
(especially those attributed to King David) contain hidden "seed
syllables" that will produce magickal affects if pronounced aloud.

In practice, however, the use of Psalms in Hoodoo magick is much

like the conjurations of the Solomonic tradition. The magickal
effect produced by the scripture is directly related to the subject-
matter of the passage- rather than to Hebrew "seed-syllables."[27]

For instance, if one wants to bring fortune to his home, one might
recite Psalm 61 which says:

Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the
enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever, I will trust in the
covert of Thy wings.

If one has need to travel by night, one might invoke protection via
Psalm 121 which says:

I will look up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my
help.

For headaches or backaches, one can recite Psalm 3 (traditionally

used in exorcism) which contains the line:

Thou, o Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter of my
head.
In this manner, Secrets of the Psalms outlines Psalms for numerous
uses- such as release from prison, business success, safe childbirth,
success in court, defeat of enemies, general protection from evil and
more. Psalm magick remains central to Hoodoo practice to this very
day.

Hoodoo reached its greatest popularity during the early 1900s -

largely thanks to the growing mail-order industry and companies
like King Novelty Co., Valmore Beauty Products, the Lucky Heart
Co., and R.C. Strong. These companies specialized in beauty
products (like Sweet Georgia Brown Hair Pomade, Bleach Cream
and Face Powder), cleaning supplies, and "spiritual curios." The
spiritual curios are what interest us- the basic components of
conjure-spells like roots and herbs, incenses, anointing oils,
lodestones and herbal washes.

Within these same catalogues, rootworkers could find such

grimoires as The Long Lost Friend, The Black Pullet, The Sixth and
Seventh Books of Moses, and the Secrets of the Psalms, right
alongside of books like The Art of Kissing, the Book of 1000 Ways
to Get Rich and The Egyptian Witch Dream Book and Fortune
Teller.

Eventually, an expanding market lead to several new books that

blended the European occultism of the grimoires with the growing
lore of Hoodoo. Lewis de Claremont[28] released a number of books,
among them The Ten Lost Books of the Prophets, The Seven Keys
to Power, and The Ancients Book of Magic. Also of particular
interest to us is Henry Gamache's The 8th, 9th and 10th Books of
Moses, which is similar to the older grimoire, but includes a lengthy
introduction by the author that links African tribal beliefs with (so-
called) anceint Jewish and Egyptian practices.

Henry Gamache also wrote an important Hoodoo book called The

Master Book of Candle Burning. The folk use of candle burning
likely originated in the Catholic practice of lighting votives to the
Saints and the dead. Then, thanks to mass-production in the early
1900s, candles of all sorts of shapes and colors became easy to
obtain from local drugstores. This led to the central role that candle-
burning magick played in Hoodoo.[29]

The practice was fairly simple. One merely needs to take a candle
of an appropriate color (such as green for money, red for love, black
for curses, etc), anoint it with a related dressing oil (Money
Drawing Oil, Healing Oil, Follow Me Girl Oil, Aunt Sally's Lucky
Dream Oil, etc), and light it with an appropriate Psalm or statement
of intent.[30]

Today, Hoodoo candles are available in a plethora of types and

shapes. The most popular are glass-encased seven-day candles with
pictures of Saints on their labels. (They usually have a prayer to the
Saint on the back of the lable as well.) Some of them are multi-
colored for spells designed to have different effects at different
stages. You can even buy candles with one color on the outside and
another on the inside- for removing jinxes and returning them to
their senders. You can even buy candles shaped like men, women,
penises, and other shapes that aid in magickal sympathy with the
object of the spell.

It is very unlikely that Hoodoo is in the same danger of dying out as

Pow-wow. (This is likely due to the fact that Pow-wow put heavier
restrictions upon its transmission.) As Hoodoo once disseminated
itself through mail-order catalogues, it is now gaining popularity
through the Internet. Websites like the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.[31]
make the obscure spell ingredients, altar tools, talismans, and books
easy to find.

Rootworking and conjure-magick is alive and well. One reviewer of

Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires suggested the release of my
book was well timed, because it met with an "...increased interest in
operative magic..."[32] I suppose what they meant by that was a
rising interest in good old-fashioned witchcraft. The kind of folk-
magick that requires a crossroads at midnight and railroad spikes,
rather than initiations and lodge-style ceremonies. The kind of
magick our ancestors used and passed on to their children, but was
sacrificed to "scientific reason" and the nuclear family before our
generation came along. As the world becomes an increasingly
hostile and dangerous place, perhaps the younger generations desire
to reconnect to the healing spells, protective spirits and results-
oriented "operative magick" we have lost.

The Modern Solomonic Path

In this essay, we have traced grimoiric shamanism from medieval
times to the present day, and we have seen that it followed two
specific paths: One path was with the Masons and Hermeticists.
They eventually borrowed the grimoires' talismans and words of
power, but applied them to their own lodge-style magick. The
second path was with the immigrants who took the grimoires with
them to the New World, packaged with their native folklore.
However, they also ignored the ritual instructions in favor of the
talismans and words.

The modern Solomonic Path differs from these in that it does not
eschew the instructions recorded in the grimoires. The purifications
and preparations, robes and magickal tools, conjurations and
ceremonies are what define the Solomonic Path. However, at the
same time, the Solomonic mage is just as interested in the
"rootworking" aspects of the grimoires that have been dismissed by
the magickal lodges. The wax images, virgin-spun thread, sacred
herbs, etc.

The Solomonic mages in medieval Europe had borrowed what they

could from local pagan folklore. Likewise, modern Solomonic
mages are drawing pagan material from systems like European
folk-magick, the African Diaspora religions and Hoodoo. (In fact,
the practice of borrowing material from European and African
folklore is a hallmark of Hoodoo itself.)

When I began to explore the Solomonic material (during the

1990s), I was unfamiliar with the traditions of Pow-wow and
Hoodoo. I knew that Pow-wow existed, but I knew very little about
it and had no idea it was connected to the medieval grimoires. Of
Hoodoo I knew even less - except for a vague understanding that
some members of the Afro-Caribbean communities were using the
Books of Moses and possibly a few other medieval European texts.
In fact, I had heard there was a growing "Solomonic trend" within
these communities, though I had no clue where this movement was
taking place.

For some years, I had used the grimoires in the modern ceremonial
fashion; with acceptable results. I knew it was not a true reflection
of the magick presented in the medieval texts - however, the
grimoires were not easy to understand on their own terms. Besides
being jumbled and obscurely worded, they were missing a lot of
material that had likely been transmitted orally from teacher to
student. Plus, their instructions often directly contradicted what I
"knew" to be true about magick.

Eventually, I stumbled upon Santeria and Palo Mayombe through a

friend who had been initiated into both faiths. At first, my interest
in his knowledge was purely academic. I love to speak with people
of differing faiths and worldviews, and especially of different
magickal systems, in order to widen my own perspective. In this
case, I was wildly successful - because my discussions with the
Santero radically altered my worldview. Those long conversations
were my first real introduction to magickal principals outside the
influence of Neopaganism or the Golden Dawn. It was my first
direct encounter with established systems of shamanism.

It all came together when the Santero and I realized that his
descriptions of African-descended magick were coming awfully
close to my descriptions of the Book of Abramelin, the Key of
Solomon and several other grimoires. Agrippa's Occult Philosophy
did not contradict his own at all. (He was particularly fascinated by
Book I of the Three Books...- dealing with "natural magick," or
what we have been calling folk-magick.) Many aspects of the
grimoires that made no sense to me, and were often called "blinds"
by others, were perfectly logical when viewed through his shamanic
worldview. (Frog skin? Blood from a black cat? Ritual sacrifice??)

Before long, I was bringing the grimoires to him for clarification. I

would ask him about the obscured and missing aspects of
Solomonic magick, and he would fill in the gaps by describing
similar practices in Santeria or Palo. He could tell me why certain
things were done, and even where to find the obscure ingredients.
(The co-relations were so close, I began to suspect the African and
Solomonic traditions had crossed paths before.) Eventually, my
girlfriend decided to explore the path of Palo with my friend as her
spiritual god brother, and the two of them have been invaluable
sources of information and practical experience ever since.[33]

In some cases, the grimoires and folk traditions like Hoodoo match
almost exactly. A great example is the parallel folklore about
crossroads found within both. Hoodoo teaches that a crossroads at
midnight is a place of convergence - between days, human destinies
and "between the worlds" of human and spirit. At the crossroads,
spirits are met, deals are made and power is gained.[34]

Meanwhile, grimoires like the Key of Solomon the King insist that
evocations (especially necromancy or goetic work) are best
performed at a crossroads "during the depth and silence of the
night." [35]In The Magus, we find an operation for binding a number
of familiar spirits to a magickal book - including both a crossroads
and the hour of midnight.[36] One is to prepare the book with all the
prayers and conjurations necessary to call the spirits. Then, at a
crossroads at midnight, one must prepare a magickal circle. The
book is consecrated and the spirits are summoned. The book must
then be buried in the center of the crossroads and (after wiping
away all traces of the circle) left for three days. On the third night,
one must return again at midnight, reform the circle, offer prayers
of thanks and retrieve the book. That is the kind of magick any
good rootworker can appreciate!

We can find even more examples of folk magick in Agrippa's

Occult Philosophy, Book I, "Natural Magic."[37] In fact, I would
suggest that it stands on its own as a root-worker's manual-
especially for someone geared toward the Solomonic path. It is
certainly the most neglected book of Agrippa's trilogy, merely
wanting rediscovery by modern aspirants.

A wonderful example is found in Chapter 16, "How the operations

of several Virtues pass from one thing into another, and are
communicated one to the other":

Therefore they say that if any one shall put on the inward garment
of an Harlot, or shall have about him that looking glass, which she
daily looks into, he shall thereby become bold, confident, impudent,
and wanton. In like manner they say, that a cloth that was about a
dead Corpse hath received from thence the property of sadness, and
melancholy; and that the halter wherewith a man was hanged hath
certain wonderfull properties.

[...] If any shall put a green Lizard made blind, together with Iron,
or Gold Rings into a glass-vessel, putting under them some earth,
and then shutting the vessel, and when it appears that the Lizard
hath received his sight, shall put him out of the glass, that those
Rings shall help sore eyes. The same may be done with Rings, and
a weasel, whose eyes after they are with any kind of prick put out, it
is certain are restored to sight again. Upon the same account Rings
are put for a certain time in the nest of Sparrows, or Swallows,
which afterwards are used to procure love, and favor.

This sounds like something one would expect to read in a

Hexenmeister's receipt-book. It is an example of sympathetic
magick- or "like attracts like"- the hallmark of most primitive
shamanic and folk traditions.
Agrippa makes much of magickal sympathy in his book on Natural
Magick. Another example can be found in Chapter 19, "How the
Virtues of things are to be tried and found out..."

Moreover thou must consider that the Vertues of things are in some
things according to the species, as boldness, and courage in a Lyon,
& Cock: fearfulness in a Hare, or Lamb, ravenousness in a Wolf,
treachery, and deceitfulness in a Fox... So is boldness in a Harlot,
fearfulness in a Thief. And upon this account it is that Philosophers
say, that any particular thing that never was sick, is good against
any manner of sickness: therefore they say that a bone of a dead
man, who never had a fever, being laid upon the patient, frees him
of his quartane.

Extending from this philosophy of sympathy, we find healing

practices in faiths like Santeria wherein an animal (usually a bird) is
applied to the body to "absorb" a sickness. This is described by
Agrippa in Chapter 21, "Of the Virtues of things which are in them
only in their lifetime...":

So they say that in the Colick, if a live Duck be applyed to the

belly, it takes away the pain, and her self dies.

Agrippa gives many further examples in Chapter 51, "Of Certain

Observations, Producing Wonderfull Virtues":

So they say that quartanes may be driven away if the parings of the
nails of the sick be bound to the neck of a live Eel in a linen cloth,
and she be let go into the water. And Pliny saith, that the paring of a
sick mans nailes of his feet, and hands being mixed with wax, cure
the quartan, tertian, and quotidian Ague, and if they be before Sun
rising fastened to another mans gate, will cure such like diseases. In
like manner let all the parings of the nailes be put into [anthills],
and they say that that which begun to draw the nailes first must be
taken, and bound to the neck, and by this means will the disease be
removed. They say that by Wood stricken with lightning, and cast
behind the back with ones hands, any disease may be cured...

Also the Spleen of Cattle extended upon pained Spleens, cures

them, if he that applies it, saith that he is applying a medicine to the
Spleen to cure, and ease it: After this, they say, the patient must be
shut into a sleeping room, the door being sealed up with a Ring, and
some verse be repeated over nineteen times.

I find the following quote - from the same chapter - to be

particularly fascinating from the root-working perspective:

It is said also in gathering roots and herbs, we must draw three

circles round about them, first with a sword, then dig them up,
taking heed in the mean time of a contrary wind.

Space prohibits me from giving more excerpts - though I certainly

could continue at some length. Agrippa continues to describe
auguries by animals, the power of "enchantments" (incantations),
and many more tidbits of use to modern sorcerers. The entire book
discusses the philosophies behind Natural Magick in depth - all
based upon the four Elements and the seven Planets.

As we can see, there is plenty of material within Solomonic

literature to appeal to members of Afro-Carribean religions and
Hoodoo rootworkers. For this reason, it would seem, the modern
Solomonic movement has become wedded to a parallel "ATR"
(African Tribal Religion) movement.

There is currently a growing interest in the ATRs, as cultural

intermixing in America has slowly opened them to Caucasians.[38]
Many are taking the full initiations, while some are choosing the
Hoodoo route of merely drawing folklore and folk-magick from the
religions. The modern Solomonic sorcerer usually falls into the
latter category, though I know of some Diaspora full-initiates who
also engage in Solomonic practice.

Therefore, when we encounter the records of a modern grimoiric

practitioner, we are likely to find a kind of hybrid between
Solomonic magick and African rootworking. Let us take a look at
some examples:

The Goetia tells us that King Solomon bound spirits into a brass
vessel. The book also tells us how to make a brass vessel of our
own, including the Hebrew Divine Names and the Seal of Solomon.
However, it tells us nothing at all about what to do with the thing.
One can assume the vessel should be placed in the Triangle of
conjuration (with the spirit's sigil traced on the ground beneath it),
and perhaps a metallic seal of the spirit placed inside. Beyond that,
where it comes to working with such a spirit in a vessel, the
grimoire is silent.

Meanwhile, if we look to Palo we also find familiar spirits bound to

vessels, called ngangas, and a practice backed by an elaborate and
ancient tradition. They know the secret ingredients to include inside
the vessel to provide a living environment for the spirit. They know
how to feed and care for it. And they know how to get it to work for
them.
The modern Solomonic mage can draw from such lore to "flesh
out" the instructions of the Goetia. The brass vessel could include
its own set of ingredients to provide the Goetic spirit with a
harmonious environment. A Goetic "King" (a Solar spirit) like
Belial would be in sympathy with the metals gold (from which his
Seal should be made) and pyrite, solary plants (like saffron,
sunflower, laurel and frankincense) and solar stones (such as ruby,
yellow topaz and carbuncle). Small figurines of a sun, a hawk, a
king, a scepter, and/or a throne (and better if they are fashioned
from gold) can be included.

Also dirt from places like local hospitals, courthouses, police

stations, etc. will grant the spirit a direct astral link with the places
from which the dirt was taken. This gives the shaman some amount
of protection from and influence over the organizations at those
locations.

Adding fresh hot peppers to the vessel is an obscure secret. Paleros

include them to add "spiritual heat" to their Ngangas; to excite the
spirit and discourage it from lapsing into sleep.

Further ingredients could be included, such as tools for the spirit to

work with. A writer would make sure to include a pen and paper.
An artist could add a paintbrush and easel. A police officer could
include a badge and bullet, or even a gun. Much like the dirt, the
tools you give the spirit will give it influence over the arts that
utilize those tools.

Santeria makes use of a special water it calls Omiero as a kind of

offering to newborn Orishas. Simply put, it is water that has been
strained through sacred herbs while a Santero sings shamanic songs
over it. The Santero then uses this sacred water to wash the Orisha's
sacred objects before sealing them in an urn. The practice appeared
 in Hoodoo in the form of various herbal washes- usually sold in the
catalogues as floor washes and baths. They can even be purchased
today.[39] Or one could make their own by straining Solomonic holy
water through herbs sympathetic to the spirit (i.e.solary herbs for
Belial, etc). For the right Psalms to chant, one could reference
Secrets of the Psalms[40] and/or read up on Psalmody in Secrets of
the Magickal Grimoires.[41] Then, the resulting water could be used
to wash the objects placed into the vessel, and even poured directly
into the vessel itself during the Conjuration.

After the Goetia's conjuration rites are complete, the brass vessel
could be placed on a simple altar or shelf decorated in sympathy
with the spirit; objects, colors, stones, plants, etc. Light a candle and
incense when consulting the spirit, and don't forget to feed it![42]

I'm afraid I must now bring this discussion to a close. If you are a
Solomonic mage, I hope these practical examples have fired your
imagination. If you are a student or aspirant seeking to discover the
"Solomonic Path", I hope I have given you some idea of the spirit
behind the tradition and its history. (Make sure to explore the links
in the footnotes!)
  Index  
Bibliography

AGRIPPA, H.C., April 11, 2004-last update, Heinrich Cornelius

Agrippa: Of Occult Philosophy, Book I. (part 1) [Homepage of
Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica], [Online]. Available:
http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm.

FRATER ALASTOR, February 21, 2004-last update, sigils and

veve [Homepage of The Magick Circle], [Online]. Available
http://www.frateralastor.com/veve.htm.

BARRET, F, unknown-last update, the magus [Homepage of

Internet Sacred Text Archive], [Online]. Available:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/magus/index.htm.

GRASSO, S, unknown-last update, hoodoo [Homepage of

philhine.org.uk], [Online]. Available:
http://philhine.org.uk/writings/ess_hoodoo.html.

KONSTANTINOS, 2003. Summoning Spirits. 2nd edn. St. Paul,

MN: Llewellyn Publications.
KRAIG, D.M., 2002. Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High
Magickal Arts. 2nd edn. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.

KRIEBEL, D., July 21, 2003-last update, powwowing: a persistent

american esoteric tradition [Homepage of Esoterica], [Online].
Available:
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeIV/Powwow.htm.

LEITCH, A., 2005. Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires. Woodbury,

MN: Llewellyn Publications.

MATHERS, S.L.M., PETERSON, J.H., December 3, 2005-last

update, the key of Solomon (clavicula salomonis) [Homepage of
Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica], [Online]. Available
http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/ksol.htm.

MATHERS, S.L.M., 1975. The Book of the Sacred Magic of

Abramelin the Mage. 2nd edn. NY: Dover Publications, Inc.

REGARDIE, I., 1985. The Golden Dawn: A Complete Course in

Practical Ceremonial Magic, Four Volumes in One. 6th edn. St.
Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.

RUNYON, C., 1996. The Book of Solomon’s Magick. Silverado,

CA: Church of the Hermetic Science, Inc.

SELIG, G., 1958. Secrets of the Psalms. NY: Dorene Publishing

Co., Inc.

STAVISH, M., unknown-last update, voxhermes review of ‘secrets

of the magickal grimoires’ by aaron leitch [Homepage of Aaron J.
Leitch], [Online]. Available:
http://kheph777.tripod.com/secretsrev2.html.

STRASSER, B.D., 1999. Pennsylvania German Mysticism & Folk

Spirituality. Allentown, PA: Allentown Art Museum.

YRONWODE, C., December 28, 2005-last update, hoodoo in

theory and practice: an introduction to african-american rootwork
[Homepage of Lucky Mojo], [Online]. Available:
http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html.
Index
Notes

1. See http://kheph777.tripod.com/secrets_chap1.html for an introduction to

the medieval grimoires.

2. In fact, one of the grimoires- the Book of Abramelin- chronicles the journeys
of one Aspirant who investigates all of these sources in his quest for the True and
Sacred Magick. See Mathers (1975).

During the medieval period, both Gnosticism and Hermeticism were nearly
dormant, and Rosicrucianism had yet to be introduced. These three, along with
the Christian Qabalah, would arise later during the renaissance era and become
the foundations of Christian Mysticism.

3. Paper was invented in China in the first century CE. However, they guarded
the secret of its manufacture for quite some time, and the technology did not
reach Europe until the 13th Century. This is the late medieval period. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper#History

4. See http://www.templeofastarte.com/ for the Order of the Temple of

Astarte.

5. Regardie 1985, p.402; Kraig 2002, pp.371-420; Runyon 1996; Konstantinos

2003.

6. Excerpts from John Hohman's Pow-Wows, or the Long Lost Friend. See
http://www.locksley.com/llf/

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. In the Key of Solomon the King, see the Second Pentacle of Saturn (where
the square is written with Hebrew letters).

In the Book of Abramelin, see Book III, Chapter Nineteen (For Every
Description of Affection and Love), the ninth Talisman (By a Maiden in
General). The square is there written:

SALOM
AREPO
LEMEL
OPERA
MOLAS

The earliest known appearance of the SATOR / ROTAS magickal square was in
first-century Pompeii, where it was written on a the wall of a residence, as
"graffiti." (It was more likely someone casting a Roman folk-magick spell.)

13. For further discussion of the folk use of the SATOR square, see Strasser
(1999)

14. Hohman, op. cit.

15. Ibid. for further discussion of the migration of German mysticism to America.

16. Yronwode (1996, Online), "Admixtures: European, Spiritist and Kabbalist

Influences on Hoodoo.”

17. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pow-wow_%28folk_magic%29 for a

short introduction to the subject of American “Pow-wow” magick; also Kriebel
(2002, Online) for a lengthy discussion of the Pow Wow tradition.

18. However, the receipt books would become source-books for later spiritual
traditions. No doubt, Gerald Gardner and the founders of British Traditional
Wicca had access to such books (the "family traditions" to which many of them
laid claim?) and drew much witchcraft lore from them.

19. Kriebel, op. cit.

20. In Leitch (2005), I made a small case for the idea that the African religions
had affected the European grimoires during the time of their writing. If this is the
case, then the favor was returned in the New World once the African Diaspora
religions began to adopt material from the grimoires.

21. Alastor 2003, Online.

22. Yronwode 1996, Online; Grasso 2004, Online.

23. Yronwode 1996, Online, Powwows -

http://www.luckymojo.com/powwows.html

24. Even today, you can purchase the Seals from the Books of Moses in
Botanicas or even from online curio suppliers. See
http://www.indioproducts.com/webstore/index.php?cPath=580 for an
example.

25. We can see this throughout the Key of Solomon the King, as well as other
medieval grimoires both Christian and Jewish.

26. Yronwode 1996, Online., “Secrets of the Psalms: The Kabbalist Influence on
Hoodoo” - http://www.luckymojo.com/secretspsalms.html

27. See Barret (Online), Book II, "Of The Consecration Of All Magical
Instruments And Materials Which Are Used In This Art." - "Then in the prayer
by which the consecration is made it derives its virtue either from divine
inspiration, or else by composing it from sundry places in the holy Scriptures, in
the commemoration of some of the wonderful miracles of God, effects, promises,
sacraments and sacramental things, of which we have abundance in holy writ."

28. See Yronwode (1996, Online), “The Enduring Occult Mystery of Lewis de
Claremont, Louis de Clermont, Henri Gamache, Joe Kaye, Joseph Spitalnick,
Black Herman, Benjamin Rucker, and the elusive Mr. Young.”

29. Grasso, op. cit.

30. Again, Wiccan scholars may wish to take note, as this could be the origins of
modern Neopagan and New Age candle magick.

For Hoodoo anointing oils, see

http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocatoils.html#hoodoo

For Hoodoo ritual candles, see

http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocatcandles.html

31. See http://www.luckymojo.com/catalogue.html

32. Stavish 2005, Online.

33. Both of them appear in the acknowledgements for Secrets of the Magickal
Grimoires, as their influence is found throughout the book.

34. Grasso, op.cit.

35. Mathers (1975), Book II, Chapter 7, "Of Places Wherein We May
Conveniently Execute the Experiments and Operations of the Art"

36. Barret (Online), Book II: The Perfection and Key of the Cabala, or
Ceremonial Magic, "Of the Invocation of Evil Spirits, and the Binding of and
Constraining of Them to Appear."

37. Agrippa, Online.

38. As always, the Internet is helping this along. Plus, there was an entirely new
Diaspora in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - which spread the lower classes
of New Orleans across America. This should result in further dissemination of
Afro-Caribbean folklore.

39. See http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocatbaths.html

40. Selig (1958). The original version of this book, Schimmusch Tehillim, or the
Use of the Psalms, can be found online here:
http://www.esotericarchives.com/moses/67moses2.htm#appendix4

41. Leitch (2005).

42. See Mathers (2005, Online), Book II, Chapter 23, "Concerning sacrifices to
the spirits, and how they should be made." I would feed the spirit at the time the
Goetia prescribes for its conjuration.

Index
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  The Grimoirium Verum:

A Lesser Solomonic Grimoire

by Samuel Scarborough

Introduction
Just what comes to mind when the word Grimoire is mentioned
in the magical community? In many circles, it is some musty
tome of forbidden knowledge and esoteric power lurking on a
dusty shelf in a moldering home of some half senile old man
thought to be a sorcerer. Well, at least that is the image that
Hollywood and some pulp literature such as the works of H. P.
Lovecraft portray, but does this image true identify what a
grimoire is?

In the magical community there has long been a tradition of

grimoire magick especially related to the works of Solomon, the
King of Israel from the Bible. Many books of magic are
attributed to him, but most noteworthy of them are The Goetia:
The Lesser Key of Solomon the King, The Key of Solomon the
King, often referred to as the Clavicula Salomonins, which is
Latin for "Key of Solomon," or the Greater Key of Solomon, and
the Lemegeton: The Complete Lesser Key of Solomon. These
works and many others were referenced by many of the early
magicians of the late Medieval period and early Renaissance
period, such as Henry Cornelius Agrippa. One of the more
interesting books in this line of Solomonic work is a very small
text known as the Grimoirium Verum, or the True Grimoire. It is
this interesting work that we will be looking at in this article and
comparing it with the other works in the Solomonic Tradition.

So first off, let us look at just what a Grimoire is. The word
comes from the French and is translated into English as
‘Grammar’, but the popular modern usage of the word refers
specifically to any medieval magical texts that record a practice
of magick. The main focus of these ancient books is the
summoning and command of spiritual entities for various
purposes.[1] So, what these classic grimoires are really is just the
notebook of a working magician during the late medieval or
Renaissance periods of time in Europe. They are just notes to
remind the magician of what to say, do, and when to do certain
actions for the accomplishment of summoning and controlling
spirit entities, as well, in many cases how to construct the
appropriate tools needs along with the invocations for those tools.
In any event it is clear that these texts or notebooks were
circulated widely since many of them survive in multiple
translations in various languages.[2] Most of the texts are filled
with prayers and commands coached in the language of the
period they were written, with heavy Biblical quotes from Psalms
and general use of Hebrew names for God along with any other
attendant spirit that may fall under a Divine name used. This
verbage and tone was used to convey that the work contained
within was of a Divine nature and that the magician was working
with the Divine in these acts of summoning and commanding
spirit entities.

Of these Solomonic grimoires, the Grimoirium Verum is one of

the lesser known in the tradition. It this article, we will be looking
at how this grimoire differs from some of the more widely
recognized grimoires of the Solomonic tradition such as the
Lemegeton, The Greater Key of Solomon, and The Lesser Key of
Solomon. There will be a comparison between the invocations
and charges to the spirits, the various spirits evoked, and the
general nature of the grimoire itself. With a renewed interest in
grimoiric and Solomonic magick in general this article should be
helpful to those interested in those fields of study within the
Western Mystery Tradition.

The Grimoirium Verum

What do we know about this book of magick? Well, looking at
the title page, we are told that it is translated from the Hebrew by
Plangière, un Jésuite Dominicain (Dominican Jesuit), and that the
book was originally published at Memphis by Alibeck the
Egyptian in 1517.[3] It is interesting to note a couple of things
concerning the above information. First it is published in Egypt,
often cited as the place of much magical knowledge. Secondly, it
is translated from the Hebrew, which helps connect the work to
the Jews, whom also during this time were considered to have a
great deal of magical knowledge. This same magical lore was
being spread throughout Europe during the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries after the conquest of Granada in Spain in
1492 and the expulsion of the Jews from that country in the same
year and the Moors in 1505. Of these dates, perhaps 1492 is the
one that sticks out the most. Of course, Columbus sailed for the
New World, but with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain they
had to travel to other lands to settle as they had no homeland.
This traveling led to the Westernisation of the more orthodox
Kabbalah of the Jews into the Christian Qabalah of the Hermetic
Tradition, as well as the furthering of the Solomonic tradition of
magick into the hands of the societies on the brink of the
Renaissance in Europe. Francis Yates, in her The Occult
Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, demonstrates how the
expulsion of the Jews from Spain was important in this regard, as
many exiled Jews traveled to Italy, where they were to influence
Pico della Mirandola, whome Yates considers to be the founder
of the Christian Qabalah.[4]

The third point to look at on the title page is the title of the
translator. This is the Jésuite Dominicain, or Dominican Jesuit,
two religious orders of the Catholic Church, both known for their
harshness of anything not conforming to the teachings of the
Church, and also alluding to the education of the translator. Both
orders were highly regarded for their education and study of not
only Christian material, but also the teachings of other cultures.

Aaron Leitch in his Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The

Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered draws the following
conclusions about the Grimoirium Verum:

Waite suggests that the date given in the above quotation is

fraudulent, as the text actually belongs to the mid-eighteenth
century. It is written in French, though it very likely has Italian
connections, and does in fact seem to have a connection to Rome.
It owes a debt, as do may other grimoires, to the Key of Solomon
the King as some of its material is taken directly therefrom. The
Lemegeton, too, had its influence, as the Grimoirium contains
instructions for the evocation f the exact same entities.[5]

Waite’s reference to a fraudulent date is directed at the date of

1517 as the year of publication. A common practice among the
occult and esoteric circles was and is to attribute things to having
a greater age, thus having more weight in the more modern eras
as being authentic. This practice is rather ancient and was even
practiced by the Romans and the Greeks.

Another issue with this particular grimoire is that it is reportedly

a book on ‘Black Magic’. Here again, in my opinion, we should
look at the translator Plangière, who purports to be a Dominican
Jesuit. The Jesuit Order was charged by the Catholic Church with
the Counter-Reformation as well as the Inquisition in many
places. This may explain the reputation of the book as being of an
evil nature, as well as why Lucifer is one of the entities evoked
within it. This gives the book a definitely Christian slant
regardless of when it was originally printed. The Grimoirium
Verum falls into the Solomonic Tradition but with a Christian
bias especially against what is called ‘Black Magic’. Aaron
Leitch again gives his opinion in the following:

Little more needs to be said concerning this text. This type of

grimoire, along with other purported “black” rituals, have always
struck me as somewhat boring, very unoriginal, and rarely of
much use practically. Overall, they tend to appear as little more
than rehashes of the Key of Solomon and Lemegeton, with a few
dissertations included to give the text a renegade “Satanic” feel.[6]

The statement given above draws attention particularly to the

contents of the first part of the Grimoirium Verum, called
"Demonologia : The First Booke", which concerns itself with the
characters of the demons and devils to be called, to the nature of
pacts made with devils, the kinds of spirits, the visible
appearance of the spirits, and finally, to invoke the spirits. We
will look at each section of the contents of the first part to see
how this relates to Aaron Leitch’s statement above.

I. Concerning the Character of the Demons (This Chapter gives

the Offices, Names, Powers and Sigils or Seals of the Demons
which are convocated and invoked by the Operator in their work.
These devils will accompany the Practitioner of this Art all their
days yet with deceit. The potentates which govern these quarters
are Noble and command respect and must be satisfied in their
own part else they will do no service to them that call them forth
nor shew themselves when called.)[7]

Looking at this description of the first section of the first part of

the book you notice that the word ‘demon’ or ‘devil’ is used
several times along with the term “deceit”. The use of these terms
relates to the diabolic nature of the text that the writer wishes to
convey to the operator of the material within the Grimoirium
Verum. As Mr. Leitch states, this “is somewhat boring and
unoriginal”, and shows the attitude of the writer of the text.
Plangière’s description, in the “First Booke”, of the “Character of
the Daemons” helps to reinforce the diabolic nature of the
subject.

This section gives us an insight into what operations were to be

used to begin with. First, a character was to be drawn on paper or
vellum in the operator’s blood or the blood of a sea turtle. This
character could also be engraved on either a ruby or an emerald,
which would be done on the day and in the hour of (Mars),[8] i.e.
on a Tuesday in the fourth hour according to the Planetary Hours
which are explained in the Grimoirium Verum.[9] These magical
hours are identical to the ones presented within the Key of
Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis),[10] though the list in the
Grimoirium Verum is much smaller and abbreviated from the one
listed in the Key of Solomon the King.

The other instructions are where to carry the item with the
character on it on the body or person. For a male, it is carried in
the right pocket, while for a female on the left side between the
breasts (close to the heart). The next portion gives advice as to
whom to deal with first in making pacts so that the operator has
the best chance of creating a binding pact with the evoked spirit,
though the discussion of pacts is really carried out in detail in the
next section of the First Book.

The next section in the “First Booke” of the Grimoirium Verum

deals with the nature of the pacts that are to be made with the
spirits evoked. It this section there are only two types of pacts
listed, the tacit (or the implicit) and the apparent (of explicit). The
writer next warns the operator about the dangers of the pact by
saying:

It is when you make a pact with a spirit, and have to give the
spirit something which belongs to you, that you have to be on
your guard.[11]

The section that follows this one is on the kinds of spirits, which
the writer has broken into two categories, the Superior and the
Inferior. According to the Grimoirium Verum the Superior Spirits
consist of Lucifer, Beelzebuth, and Astaroth. Each of these
Superiors has Inferiors that reside in various regions of the world
and do the bidding of the Superior. For instance, Astaroth
inhabits America,[12] as do the Inferiors under the rule of
Astaroth.

The next section deals with the visible appearance of the spirits,
describing them in some detail as well as providing the sigils for
them. The names and sigils listed are for the three Superiors,
Lucifer, Beelzebuth, and Astaroth. The section is rather brief, but
has some interesting information in it, particularly concerning the
fact that spirits do not always appear in the same shape because
“they are not themselves of matter or form, and have to find a
body to appear in”.[13] It then goes on to briefly describe the
appearances of Lucifer, Beelzebuth and Astaroth.[14]

Interestingly, Astaroth gets the least description within the

Grimoirium Verum, which simply describes Astaroth as
appearing “black” and in human form.[15] Compare the above
description with the one of Astaroth from the Goetia : The Lesser
Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis Regis):

Astaroth – The Twenty-ninth Spirit is Astaroth. He is a Mighty,

Strong Duke, and appeareth in the Form of an hurtful Angel
riding on an Infernal Beast like a Dragon, and carrying in his
right hand a Viper.[16]

The descriptions are not the only things that are different between
these two books in the Solomonic Tradition. The sigils listed in
both the Goetia and the Grimoirium Verum differ significantly as
well.

Looking at the above sigils it is clear that the one from the Goetia
(fig. 1) is more artistically done, while the one from the
Grimoirium Verum (fig. 2) appears to be a bit cruder in design.
The extra lines under the sigil from the Grimoirium Verum
appear to be what is known as the spirit signature that is often
used to verify the identity of the spirit when signed into the spirit
book of the operator. This book is one of the tools of the
Solomonic Tradition and will be discussed later in this article.

The “Second Booke” in the Grimoirium Verum is titled "Natural

& Supernatural Secrets". This section deals with things like the
Planetary Hours, several operations to be performed such as "To
make Three Girls or Three Gentlemen appear in your Room, after
Supper", "To Make a Girl come to You however Modest she may
Be", "Divination by the Word of Uriel", "Divination by the Egg",
"A Rare & Surprising Magical Secret" (concerning the manner of
making the Mirror of Solomon for use in divination), and "To
Make Oneself Invisible".

These ceremonies are rather standard in the Solomonic Tradition,

especially within those grimoires of a “darker nature” from the
Greater Key of Solomon the King, such as the Goetia and the
Grimoirium Verum. Interestingly two of the ceremonies given are
divinations, of these the "Divination by the Word of Uriel" is one
of the more fascinating ceremonies given in the Grimoirium
Verum or for that matter in any other Solomonic text. There are
no other divinatory ceremonies or operation of this kind given in
any of the other major works in the Solomonic Tradition, these
include the Greater Key of Solomon the King, the Goetia, the
Lemegeton, Ars Notoria, or even in the Grimoire of Armandel.
The actual ceremony of “Divination by the Word of Uriel” is
fairly lengthy but is of the general character of grimoires in
general. For instance it requires a clean and consecrated place for
the ceremony to take place, as well as a “virgin” glass vial of
spring water and “virgin” parchment and other special
implements and ingredients, such as a human fat for candles.
After a lengthy conjuration a “boy of nine or ten years of age,
who shall be well behaved and cleanly dressed” is to be used as
the actual diviner, it is he who will see the images sent by the
angel. Sometimes, for specific questions, the operation must be
suspended after the conjuration; the next day the answer to the
question will be found written on the parchment left for that
purpose.[17]

A number of other items stand out in this operation. First among

these is that the room should not been used by a woman or
women in an impure state for at least nine days. This means that
no woman that was menstruating could have been in the room
during this period of time, or that the room had been used as a
location for a sexual tryst in that time. This follows the standard
Solomonic dictates of a level of personal and spiritual
cleanliness. The number of days is also significant for
cleanliness, and is a common number of purification and
cleansing in Solomonic texts, particularly the Greater Key. This
cleanliness is a preparation to purification and consecration,
which is carried out by the consecrations and aspersion with Holy
Water with an Aspergillum, a device used to sprinkle Holy
Water, which in Solomonic Tradition is usually nine herbs
gathered together and tied with virgin thread (or thread spun by a
virgin), and dipped in consecrated water and then sprinkled
around the work area.

The second point that stands out within this operation is the
material of the tapers used. In this case, it is wax mixed with
human fat. Many of the “darker grimoires” mention the use of
unsavory items such as human fat, animal or human blood, and
other nasty items as ingredients. Many of these are simply
‘blinds’, i.e. placed there to keep the uninitiated from performing
the operations or ceremonies due to the gruesome ingredients
which in many cases would be taboo, such as human fat.
Otherwise the placement of these sorts of ingredients could come
from some of the translators, particularly the priests, to show that
all works of magic are evil or associated with evil in one way or
another. Plangière for instance in the Grimoirium Verum lists
himself as a Dominican Jesuit, who of course would not be
approaching the work from an unbiased point of view.

Some of the materials in these grimoires, such as blood or animal

brains for inks could have simply been thickening agents for the
other items in the recipes of the inks and other items where they
are used. Aaron Leitch in his Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires :
The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered holds the above view
that blood is intended as a bonding or thickening agent for such
items, mentioning that the Greater Key of Solomon the King calls
for the blood of a gosling, bat or other winged animal to make the
ink, this being the same animal that gave a feather to use as a pen,
and that in modern usage gum arabic could be substituted for the
blood.[18] What to substitute for something such as ‘human fat’
that is used in the candles in the above ritual, or for that matter,
just what the use of the “human fat’ affects in the ritual is not
apparent.

Implements and Tools in the Grimoirium Verum

The above discussion about the candles used in the operation or
ceremony "Divination by the Word of Uriel" from the “Second
Booke” in the Grimoirium Verum leads us into the “Third
Booke”, which concerns itself with the implements and tools to
be used in the operations within this grimoire. We will look at a
couple of the tools and compare them with instructions from
some of the more “reputable” grimoires within the Solomonic
Tradition such as the Greater Key of Solomon the King.
The first tool to look at is the general magical knife. The knife, or
“lancet”, must be of new steel made during the day and hour of
Jupiter while the moon is in crescent shape.[19] The general
knife to be used in the operations of the Greater Key of Solomon
the King is the white handled knife. This knife is to be made
during the day and hour of Mercury when Mars is in Aries or
Scorpio. Beyond this other preparations must be made, including
the tempering of the blade in blood or juice and having special
characters carved into its hilt. We are also told much more about
the knife’s function here than we are in the other grimoire.[20]

Obviously, the instructions from the Greater Key are more

detailed than those from the Grimoirium Verum, but both have a
great deal of similarity. Both instruct the operator to have the
knife made at the appropriate times depending on which grimoire
is being used, whether the operator creates the knife or purchases
it from a blade smith. Also there is a note within the Grimoirium
Verum, in the section concerning virgin parchment which
mentions the knife again, so that it more closely connects to the
one described in the Greater Key.

After inscribing on the blade AGLA and having fumigated it, the
knife will serve you for all purposes.[21]

This is the same as the instructions from the Greater Key

concerning the knife, though it is listed under another implement
completely within the Grimoirium Verum.

The next tool or implement to be discussed is the Pen of the Art.

Once more, the instructions are very similar for the creation of
the Pen of the Art in both grimoires. The sequence of events is
slightly different in the two concerning the pen. Where the two
differ is when the conjuration is performed for the pen. In the
Grimoirium Verum it is performed while cutting the points of the
quill after the quill has been fumigated with incense and asperged
with holy water, while the conjuration is performed while
plucking the feather from the gosling in the Greater Key. Both
conjurations are very similar asking the divine to remove all
errors and deceit ("illusion" in the Grimoirium Verum), while
making the quill or pen an effective instrument to use in the
operations.[22]

To go along with the Pen of the Art, the magician needs an

inkstand, which will hold the magical ink that the Pen of the Art
uses. Both the Grimoirium Verum and the Greater Key of
Solomon the King have instructions for just such and item. Unlike
with the previous instruments the instructions presented for the
inkstand in the Grimoirium Verum and the Greater Key of
Solomon the King are virtually identical.[23]

The above-mentioned implements from the “Third Booke” of the

Grimoirium Verum are just a few examples that are listed in
detail here. Other tools and implements of the Art include the
Sacrificial Knife, Virgin Parchment, the Lancet, the Magical
Staff, another Staff (Wand), Perfumes (Incense), and the Pentacle
of Solomon. Along with these items are the various orations and
conjurations for each, plus instructions on asperging during an
operation, making a sacrifice of the Kid (a young goat, not a
child), from which the parchment is created, and several other
orations connected with the creation of the virgin parchment.

The real magical meat of the Grimoirium Verum comes in the

“Fourth Booke” – Sanctum Regnum. It is here that the actual
summoning of various spirits is given in detail. As mentioned
earlier, the Superiors with in this grimoire are Lucifer,
Beelzebuth, and Astaroth and each has a number of Inferiors or
lesser spirits under their service. Each of the Superiors is given
two such Inferiors in this chapter of the grimoire. After these
there are listed eighteen other “dæmons” under the authority of a
Duke named Syrach. Each of the eighteen demons or lesser
spirits has a sigil that is listed for use by the summoner, along
with a description of the powers that each possess or grant to the
person that summons them. This arrangement is exceedingly
similar to the arrangement given in the Goetia for the spirits
listed, except in the Grimoirium Verum the spirits do not have a
description so that you know what they look like when they are
summoned into visible appearance either in a mirror, stone, or
physical manifestation.

Also within this section are the conjurations for Inferior Spirits,
the "Orison of the Salamanders", "to see Spirits of the Air",
"Dismissing any Spirit", "Dismissal of the Spirit", as well as the
"Dismissal of the Inferior Spirits". This later is worth looking at,
as it is in Latin and is very analogous to the "Dismissal" from the
Goetia.

Ite in pace ad loca vestra et pax fit inter vos redituri ad mecum
vos invocavero, in nomine Patris + et filii + et Spiritus Sancti. +
Amen +
[“Go in peace unto your abode and let there be peace between
you and I, and be ready to come to me when you are invoked, in
the name of the Father + and the Son + and of the Holy Spirit +
Amen +][24]

Now let us look at the general dismissal or "License to Depart"

from the Goetia : the Lesser Key of Solomon the King, and
compare it to the one above from the Grimoirium Verum.

O THOU Spirit N., because thou hast diligently answered unto

my demands, and hast been very ready and willing to come at my
call, I do here licence thee to depart unto thy proper place;
without causing harm or danger unto man or beast. Depart, then, I
say, and be thou very ready to come at my call, being duly
exorcised and conjured by the sacred rites of magic. I charge thee
to withdraw peaceably and quietly, and the peace of GOD be ever
continued between thee and me. Amen![25]

Conclusion
Looking at the Grimoirium Verum, it is clearly part of a larger
Solomonic Tradition due to the similarities between it and such
‘traditional’ Solomonic material as the Lemegeton, Greater Key
of Solomon the King, and the Goetia. The material shows a
definite Christian tint with having Lucifer as one of the primary
beings or spirits that one is to evoke and use to help command
obedience from the Inferiors or lesser spirits. The antiquity of this
grimoire is debatable. Waite felt that the date of 1517 listed in the
manuscript was fraudulent, and that the material presented within
probably belonged to the mid-eighteenth century. This is
probably a good hypothesis on his part. It is likely that the writer
of the grimoire, Plangière or whoever it was, was familiar with
the more traditional works in the tradition. The liberal use of the
material from the Greater and Lesser Keys within the
Grimoirium Verum point to this fact, especially since it is
arranged in a very coherent, workable manner. Whether or not
the grimoire was originally created to discredit or cast doubt on
practioners of magic cannot be proven.

Would the material presented within the Grimoirium Verum work

and produce results? Most likely, the answer to that question
would be yes. If the material presented in the more traditional
Solomonic Tradition works, and this grimoire was intelligently
created along those lines, then obviously what is presented here
can be used to accomplish what is described within it. The
problem that many may have with using this particular grimoire,
more so than even the Goetia, is the connotation of Lucifer being
 used. From a Western, predominately Christian world view,
Lucifer is equivalent with Satan, as is Beelzebub (variantly
spelled Beelzebuth, Belzebuth, or Beelzebaal). In any event all
are seen as Fallen Angels serving diabolic and evil forces, or the
evil force itself. Ultimately, it is at the discretion of the magician
as to whether the material presented in this grimoire should be
added to the repertoire within the Solomonic Tradition.

With much new scholarship into the Solomonic arts, many of the
once “dark” actions within these classic grimoires can be
overcome by modern substitution. No longer would the magician
need such unsavory (at least to most modern practioners) items as
blood from a gosling, bat, cat, or other bird, nor human fat, or
brains of a black cat for use in some of the instructions within
these grimoires, particularly those that have a “Satanic” or evil
slant. Sacrifice of a Kid or young goat to create vellum is another
item that is taboo in modern society, but was common during the
time that the grimoires were written from the simple stand point
of having to slaughter an animal for food and make use of its
hide. As recently as 50 years ago, there were many places in the
United States that still subsisted by slaughtering their own
animals for food and other needs. Now we can just run down to
the local store to get what we need for food and in many cases
magical needs as well, or check online for that special item, the
convenience of being a modern magician in the Information Age.
  Index  
Bibliography

AGRIPPA, H.C.. Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. Whitefish,

MT: Kessinger Publishing Company.

AGRIPPA, H.C., 1997. Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

TYSON, DONALD, ed. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.

ATALLAH, H. (trans), 2002. Picatrix : The Goal of the Wise ;

Vol. 1. KIESEL, WILLIAM, ed. Seattle, WA: Ouroboros Press.

BARDON, F., 1991. The Practice of Magical Evocation.

Wuppertal, Western Germany: Dieter Rüggeberg.

BARRET, F. 1989. The Magus : A Complete System of Occult

Philosophy. NY: Citadel Press.

CH’IEN, R. (trans), 1999. The Grimoire of Pope Honorius.

Seattle, WA: Trident Books.

DAVIDSON, G., 1967. A Dictionary of Angels : Including the

Fallen Angels. NY: The Free Press.

FRATER U.D., 2005. High Magic : Theory & Practice. St. Paul,
MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2005.

GASTER, M., 1992. The Sword of Moses : An Ancient Book of

Magic. Edmonds, WA: The Near Eastern Press.

HENSON, M., 1999. Lemegeton : The Complete Lesser Key of

Solomon. Jacksonville, FL: Metatron Books.

HENSON, M., and HENSON, G., 1995. Magical Notebooks : A

Survey of the Grimoires in the Golden Dawn, CICERO, CHIC
and CICERO, SANDRA TABATHA, eds. In: The Golden Dawn
Journal : Book III : The Art of Hermes. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn
Publications.

KING, F. and SKINNER, S., 1991. Techniques of High Magic: A

Guide to Self-Empowerment. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.

KONSTANTINOS, 1997. Summoning Spirits. St. Paul, MN:

Llewellyn Publications.

KRAIG, D.M., 1993. Modern Magick : Eleven Lessons in the

High Magickal Arts. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications.

KÜNTZ, D., 1999. The Black Pullet or The Hen with the Golden
Eggs. Edmonds, WA: Holmes Publishing Group.

LEITCH, A., 2005. Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires : The

Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered. Woodbury, MN:
Llewellyn Publications.

MATHERS, S.L.M., 1998. The Grimoire of Armadel. York

Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

MATHERS, S.L.M., 1997. The Goetia : The Lesser Key of

Solomon the King. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

MATHERS, S.L.M., 1989. The Key of Solomon the King. York

Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.
MATHERS, S.L.M., trans., 1975. The Book of the Sacred Magic
of Abramelin the Mage. NY: Dover Publications, Inc.

MCCLEAN, A., 1990. A Treatise on Angel Magic. Grand

Rapids, MI: Phanes Press.

MALCHUS, M., 1994. The Secret Grimoire of Turiel. Edmonds,

WA: Sure Fire Press.

PLANGIÈRE, 1997. Grimoirium Verum. Seattle, WA: Trident

Books.

RUDY, G., trans., 1996. The Grand Grimoire. Seattle, WA:

Trident Books & Ars Obscura.

TURNER, R., trans., 1997. Ars Notoria : The Notary Art of

Solomon the King. Seattle, WA: Trident Books.

TURNER, R., trans., 1997. Heptameron of Peter de Abano, along

with, The Arbatel of Magick. Seattle, WA: Ouroboros Press.

SAVEDOW, S., 2000. Sepher Rezial Hemelach : The Book of

the Angel Rezial. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

SAVEDOW, S., 1996. Goetic Evocation : The Magician’s

Workbook, Volume 2. Chicago : Eschaton Productions, Inc.,
1996.

SAVEDOW, S., 1995. Magician’s Workbook : A Modern

Grimoire. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

YATES, F., 1996. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. NY: Barnes

& Noble.

YATES, F., 1979. The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age.

London & New York : Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Index
Notes

1. Leitch. Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Text of Magick

Deciphered. Frontise page.
2. Henson 1994, p.239.

3. Plangière 1997, title page.

4. Yates 1979, p.18.

5. Leitch 2005, p.27.

6. Ibid.

7. Plangière 1997, p.i.

8. Ibid. pp.1-2.

9. Ibid. pp.7-8.

10. Mathers 1989, p.7.

11. Plangière 1997, p.2.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid, p.3.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Mathers 1997, p.41. The description goes on to tell of Astoreth’s legions
and the way the spirit should be treated.

17. Plangière 1997, pp.12-15.

18. Leitch 2005, p.286.

19. Plangière 1997, p.24.

20. Mathers 1989, p.96.

21. Plangière 1997, p.26.

22. Plangière 1997, p.26, Mathers 1989, p.108.

23. Plangière 1997, p.31, Mathers 1989, p.108.

24. Plangière 1997, p.59.

25. Mathers 1997, p.89.

Index
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  Angelic Invocations

by Alex Sumner

Introduction
Angels have always played a major part in the religion of
western civilization, and it is not surprising therefore that
they have also played a large role in the Western Mystery
Tradition. In the Christian tradition they are intermediate
beings between God and Man, created to do the Divine
Will. According to the Bible, as well as the Apocrypha and
the Pseudepigraphica, they are:

 Attendants before God’s throne.

 Messengers from God to humanity.
 Personal guardians.
 Guardians of locations (Genii Loci).
 Heavenly beings who perform a number of services
for mankind: e.g. to protect, comfort and enlighten.

There is a tradition of Good spirits in all the ancient

Semitic religions, and it is interesting to note that the
Talmud itself says that the names of the Angels were
introduced from Babylon.[1] Moreover, the Angels of the
Judaeo-Christian tradition appear to share functional
similarity with supernatural beings of the ancient
Babylonian religion – e.g. as divine messengers and Genii
Loci.

The practice of actively seeking out the help of the Angels

is at least as old as Christianity itself. In fact, St Paul
writing in the first century warned the Colossians about
adopting a “religion of Angels”,[2] perhaps referring to
works such as the Book of Enoch in which lists of Angels
are given much attention. Nevertheless, Paul himself seems
to have believed in them, and it was upon his writings that
the Fathers of the Church were able to draw up a hierarchy
of the Angelic Orders.

We know on the authority of Scripture that there are nine

orders of angels, viz., Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers,
Principalities, Dominations, Throne, Cherubim and
Seraphim. That there are Angels and Archangels nearly
every page of the Bible tells us, and the books of the
Prophets talk of Cherubim and Seraphim. St. Paul, too,
writing to the Ephesians enumerates four orders when he
says: 'above all Principality, and Power, and Virtue, and
Domination';[3] and again, writing to the Colossians he
says: 'whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities,
or Powers'.[4] If we now join these two lists together we
have five Orders, and adding Angels and Archangels,
Cherubim and Seraphim, we find nine Orders of Angels.[5]
(My annotations)

By the time of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, these nine orders

of Angels had been well and truly assimilated into the
Western Mystery Tradition. Agrippa assigns the following
correspondences between the Angelic orders:[6]

The Primum
Seraphim Kether
Mobile
Cherubim The starry heaven Chokmah
The sphere of
Thrones Binah
Saturn
The sphere of
Dominations Chesed
Jupiter
Powers The sphere of Mars Geburah
The sphere of the
Virtues Tiphereth
Sun
The sphere of
Principalities Netzach
Venus
The sphere of
Archangels Hod
Mercury
The sphere of the
Angels Yesod
Moon

By the late middle ages and Renaissance periods, one can

find a number of grimoires which advocate what seems to
be “Angel Magic”. However, caution needs to be
exercised, in that some of grimoires which are supposedly
about Angels are not dissimilar to grimoires which deal
with demons! For example, in the Heptameron of Peter De
Abano, the “Prayer to God, to be said in the four parts of
the world, in the Circle”[7] is mostly cribbed straight from
the First Conjuration of the Goetia of the Lesser Key of
Solomon. Or indeed vice versa – but it does indicate that
the author of at least one of these books did not make clear
distinctions between Angels and Demons.

Other grimoires did manage to make the distinction, whilst

still assimilating the cult of the Angels into their paradigm
of ceremonial magic. The most famous of these is the Book
of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, in which the
central operation is a lengthy invocation of what is known
as one’s “Holy Guardian Angel”. The concept of a personal
Guardian Angel not actually part of the Christian faith at
the time: the Church believed that Angels guarded people
only in a general sense. However, belief in personal
Guardian Angels was part of the folklore surrounding the
Christian faith, and it was accepted as unofficial doctrine,
even by the Church fathers. Unsurprisingly, the idea of
each person having a personal spirit or tutelary deity can be
found in many religions and cultures in the classical world
and the near- and middle-east. In Judaism, a guardian angel
is known as a Maggid; in Islam, Hafaza (of which each
person has four); whilst a belief in the guidance of a
Tutelary Spirit is central to Neo-Platonist philosophy.[8]

I thus intend to describe how three different people went

about invoking Angels, and noting the similarities and
differences in their work and results. In doing so I hope to
draw out some of the realities of Angelic Invocation in the
magic of the Western Mystery Tradition.

John Dee
John Dee (1527 – 1608) has already been described at
length in the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition.[9]
Dee is an example par excellence of one who used
Ceremonial magic to attempt to contact Angels. As a
Bibliophile and the creator of the finest library in
Elizabethan England, Dee was almost certain to have been
exposed to a great number of texts on magic. We know for
certain that he was familiar with Agrippa’s Three Books on
Occult Philosophy, for Dee mentions it specifically in his
magical records.[10] Dee regularly used the Heptameron of
Peter De Abano, which he kept laying next to his copy of
Agrippa by the window in his oratory.[11] In addition, it has
been pointed out that there are copies of key magical texts
preserved in the British Museum, which have marginalia in
Dee’s handwriting.[12]
Dee’s acquaintance with yet more grimoires can be
inferred from his use of certain phrases within his magical
records. For example, in the record of Thursday 15th
March 1582, Dee recorded the following conversation with
the Archangel Raphael:

I will shew thee, and I will shew you, the Angel of your
Direction, which is called OCH.[13]

[Dee’s marginal notes] De OCH vide in libello Arbatel - 

I.e. Dee was obviously familiar with the Olympic Spirits,

of which “Och” is the Solar spirit, which are mentioned in
the grimoire known as the Arbatel. There are also
references in Dee’s records to beings mentioned in the
Lesser Key of Solomon, e.g. the Angels Anchor, Anachor
and Anilos.[14]

Dee’s Angelic experiments were thus, at the beginning of

his magical workings, heavily influenced by well-known,
as well as perhaps some not so well know, magical
grimoires. Although Dee’s records begin in 1581, I have
stated elsewhere that Dee may have been practising angelic
magic at least twelve years before that.[15] The only thing
Dee said about his unrecorded Angelic workings was that
he attempted to invoke Raphael and Michael at various
times – there is no record of him attempting anything more
ambitious.

From 1582 onwards – i.e. from the time he met Edward

Kelly – his practice began to evolve, in that he started
making contact with hitherto unheard of supernatural
beings, calling themselves Angels. These beings revealed
to Dee a whole new method of ceremonial magic, which
Dee put into practice and began to make use of from that
point on. This system was centred around, firstly, the
Sigillum Dei Aemeth, which as a symbol had been
previously set out in the Liber Juratus or the Sworne Book
of Honorius. However, Dee’s “angels” re-vamped the
Sigillum, so that it now featured the names of the new
beings that were being revealed to Dee.

As well as the Sigillum, the angels gave Dee the design of a

Holy Table, and revealed to him a hierarchy of 49 Angels
who were associated with the seven planets of classical
astrology – the Tabula Bonorum Angelorum (Table of the
Good Angels). These 49 Angels consisted of seven
“Kings”, seven “Princes”, and their respective Ministers.

In 1584, Dee’s angels also revealed unto him what has now
become the most famous part of his magical workings, the
Tablet of Nalvage, Liber Scientiae, the four Watchtowers,
the Tablet of Union and the 48 Angelic calls, which is best
known to us today as “Enochian Magic”. Although
Enochian Magic was made famous (or notorious) by
Crowley and the Golden Dawn, the irony of the situation is
that Dee is not known to have used the system himself!
Dee did however make extensive use of the Tabula
Bonorum Angelorum, which may be described as proto-
Enochian. He used his Angelic experiments to investigate
the nature of the “Kings” and “Princes” in detail, and even
to attempt Talismanic magic with the beings derived from
the Sigillum Dei Aemeth.[16]

Throughout his Angelic workings, Dee did not see the

Angels himself, or indeed any magical phenomena, except
on rare occasions. Instead, he relied on others to skry the
results of his conjurations in a Crystal ball, or black
obsidian mirror-mirror. The people he chose to be his
skryers were a colourful bunch, and included Barnabas
Saul, whom Dee accused of dabbling in black magic, and
most famously, Edward Kelly – who had his ear cropped
for forgery. Dee also made use of his infant son Arthur on
one occasion, and towards the end of his life, a servant
named Bartholemew Hickman. It was whilst working with
Kelly that Dee experienced the most productive phase of
his Angelic Invocations. However, Kelly’s reputation has
led people like Paul Foster Case to criticise Enochian
Magic on the basis that real angels would not communicate
through such a person.

For an Angelic working, Dee would make use five copies

of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth: one to support each of the legs
of the Holy Table, and the fifth to place on the table’s
surface to bear the crystal ball. Dee wore a lamen and a
magic ring, the designs for which were also given to him
by the angels. Dee’s approach is thus entirely consistent
with that of a ceremonial magician.

The Ceremony itself would consist of Dee praying, in

Latin, for God to send visions into the crystal. Dee used
various prayers at different points throughout his career,
and often made variations in the wording, as he felt
appropriate. For example, one prayer which Dee used
towards the end of his life was:

Mitte lucem tuam & veritatem tuam Domine, quae nos

ducant & perducant ad montem Sanctum tuum, & ad
coelestia tua tabernacula.[17]

(“Send your Light and your Truth, oh Lord, which lead us

and bring us to your Holy mountain and to your Heavenly
tabernacle.”)

Upon the Angel appearing in the crystal, Dee would then

give thanks to God. The skryer would then describe what
he saw and what he heard, with Dee asking questions and
recording the answers. When the session ended, Dee would
conclude with another prayer of thanksgiving, e.g. the well
known

Gloria Patri et Fillio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in

principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum.
Amen.

(“Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as it was in

the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen”)

We are lucky in that Dee left very many detailed examples

of his magical workings, which is remarkable considering
that Elias Ashmole thought many more might have been
destroyed through ignorance. We are thus able to form a
fairly accurate impression of what occurred in each skrying
session. Once criticism from a modern point of view is that
Dee might be accused of relying too heavily on the efficacy
of his own prayers – and the good faith of the skryer – for
attracting a benevolent spirit into the crystal. Dee did not,
on every occasion, specifically test the spirits thus
appearing to find out whether they were the correct ones,
or were speaking the truth. On occasions that he did, he
sometimes allowed the spirit to get away with avoiding
Dee’s interrogations directly. Thus on one occasion he had
to rely on the spirits themselves to tell him that another
spirit which had previously spoken to him was trying to
deceive him.[18]

Furthermore, on several crucial occasions, Dee apparently

accepted visions received by Kelly from skrying sessions at
which Dee was not present. These included revisions to the
material on Enochian magic, and also the infamous Wife-
swapping incident. It would appear therefore that Dee did
not exercise as much quality control over his Angelic
experiments as a modern magician would be expected to
do, and his work may have suffered because of it.

As to Dee’s results, we have already seen that the Angels

gave him extensive material and guidance on practical
magic, of which Dee only made partial use. Dee also
attempted to make use of his Angelic experiments for the
purposes of practical (i.e. “grey” magic), although he
appears to have little or no success in this regard. Generally
speaking, there were three main types of result that Dee
experienced. Up until August 1584, i.e. before Dee and
Kelly relocated to Prague, their results mainly concerned
the revelation of a new system of ceremonial magic.
However, once they moved to Prague, the Angels stopped
revealing new magical information, but rather urged Dee to
get involved in European politics, under the guise of giving
him messages with a supposed theological slant. The
Angels thus persuaded Dee to confront the Emperor
Rodolfus, which started a chain of events leading to Dee
and Kelly eventually going into exile in Trebone in
Bohemia.

Dee was willing to lap up new theological information

from the Angels. However more and more the “Angels”
gave information that conflicted with Dee’s religion,
instead of explaining it. It was thus that Dee was eventually
persuaded to enter into a “wife-swapping” arrangement
with Kelly, on the grounds that the Angels had given them
a dispensation to do so. Some have blamed Kelly being a
scoundrel for this, but the truth is more complex than that.
For example, when the spirits appearing in the crystal gave
the first indication that they were no longer sweet-and-
innocent angels, Kelly himself expressed shock and
apparently no longer wished to work with them – but Dee
urged him to continue.[19] Kelly may still have been
manipulating him all the same, but it would appear Dee by
that time had developed so much hubris that he couldn’t
bear to believe that the “Angels” would be wrong.

After the break-up with Kelly, Dee continued to invoke

Angels almost until the end of his life, using different
seers. Dee seemed content to use the great Archangels not
for visions of cosmic importance, but for answering
questions of a rather mundane nature. It would appear that
although during his time he achieved great things with
Angel magic, Dee allowed a lack of quality control to spoil
somewhat his exemplary work.

Emmanuel Swedenborg
Emmanuel Swedenborg was born in 1688 in Stockholm,
Sweden. His life is an interesting one when compared with
Dee’s. Both men came from a solid academic background:
Dee having studied at Cambridge, Swedenborg at the
University of Uppsala. Both men were Scientists. Dee was
a mathematician, astronomer, geographer and alchemist.
Swedenborg was a Metallurgist and minerologist, who later
extended his expertise into Anatomy, astronomy, and
geography.

In addition, both men were familiar with Hermetic and

Neo-Platonic philosophy, and allowed it to colour their
scientific researches. Dee, for example wrote several such
treatises, such as “Propaedeumata Aphoristica” (1558),
“Monas Hieroglyphica” (1564) and his "Mathematicall
Preface" to Euclid's Elements of Geometrie” (1570), which
exemplify Dee’s interest in Hermeticism, Alchemy, and
Pythagorean number mysticism respectively. Swedenborg
wrote “The Organisation of the Soul’s Kingdom” (1740)
and “The Mineral Kingdom” (1744), in which he applied a
neo-Platonic model to what was then known of the
sciences of Anatomy and Physics respectively. In doing so,
he was able to innovate a number of theories which were
confirmed years after his death by later generations, and
which in some cases pre-figure even modern research.

However the most important similarity, as far as the topic

under discussion is concerned, is that both Swedenborg and
Dee sought to commune with Angels, in order to attain
insight into Theology. From 1743 onwards, Swedenborg
(then aged 51) cultivated his inner psychic faculty, and
claimed that Angelic beings were revealing to him truths
about the such subjects as the mystical interpretation of
both the Old and New Testament, man’s true spiritual
nature, the future of the Christian religion, etc. Swedenborg
foresaw that in the future there would be a “new Church”,
based not on dogma, but on the internal mystical realisation
of the Church’s members, and which would be universal
enough to include people of all religions within it.

Swedenborg described the importance he attached to his

visions thus:

Church people these days know practically nothing about

heaven and hell or their life after death, even though there
are descriptions of everything available to them in the
Word. In fact, many who have been born in the church
deny all this. In their hearts they are asking who has ever
come back to tell us about it.

To prevent this negative attitude—especially prevalent

among people who have acquired a great deal of worldly
wisdom—from infecting and corrupting people of simple
heart and simple faith, it has been granted me to be with
angels and to talk with them person to person.[20]

Swedenborg wrote around forty books based on his

Angelic communications, of which just under half he
published within his own lifetime. So, what was his
technique for communing with Angels? Primarily it
appears that Swedenborg’s psychism was based around
lucid dreaming. In his first spiritual writings, he relates
how he gradually found the resolution to various spiritual
problems besetting him by analysing in details the
symbolism of his dreams.[21] He described his first entrance
into the Spiritual world as a dream-initiation of dying and
re-awakening.[22] In 1745 he related that he had a dream
vision of being welcomed into the Kingdom of God “by the
Messiah Himself”, and communing with various Heavenly
personages and “with the dead who have risen again.”[23]

One has to be careful when reading Swedenborg in that he

has his own definite ideas about what Angels are. To him,
the Soul in its highest aspect is “Angelic”. Therefore, a
person who becomes united with this aspect of their Soul
is, after death, reborn in the spiritual world as an “Angel”.
Moreover, two lovers who in the Earthly life have united
with each other at the inmost level of their soul, are united
in the Spiritual world and become one Angel.[24]

Therefore, when Swedenborg discourses on the nature of

Angels, he is in a way also referring to the Angel-within.
He is in fact describing what someone has to look forward
to in the Spiritual world if he or she has managed to enter
into the deepest and most intimate level of Divine
communion.

However, although there are similarities between Dee and

Swedenborg, there are important differences as well.
Swedenborg managed to win a certain amount of acclaim
for his spiritual writings within his lifetime. Although this
was mixed with a certain amount of criticism against him
for being perceived as a mad visionary, Swedenborg
enjoyed enough respect for a healthy number of people to
want to earnest discuss theology with him. When two of
Swedenborg’s followers were charged with heresy,
Swedenborg himself was able to petition the King of
Sweden on their behalf – the case against the men was
dropped. In short, it appears that Swedenborg was able to
escape the “conjurer of devils” tag which blighted Dee’s
professional career and forced him into poverty and
obscurity.

A second important difference is that Swedenborg’s

visions were purely spiritual and theological in nature, and
avoided the political tones of Dee’s angelic conversations.
So for example, Swedenborg was content to publish his
writings and send them to libraries and religious figures of
the time: but he avoided confronting the temporal
authorities with apparent delusions of his own messiah-
ship: which is what caused so much trouble for Dee.
Swedenborg was also relatively open about his Angelic
communications, whilst Dee was secretive. Although
Swedenborg started to publish his spiritual works
anonymously, his identity soon became an open-secret, and
from 1768 onwards he publically acknowledged his own
authorship. Dee never published his angelic workings
within his lifetime, although this backfired on him in that
his adherence to secrecy meant he could never effectively
refute accusations of black magic that circulated.

A third important difference was that Swedenborg

managed to exercise a greater degree of quality control
over his visions than did Dee. Despite the fact that most
orthodox religionists would regard Swedenborg’s teachings
as unusual at best, at least one can say that overall he
managed to maintain a generally authentic Christian
character to them. To paraphrase Clement of Alexandria,[25]
Swedenborg’s visions were an example of the Gnosis
which proves Faith, not denies it. Contrast this with Dee,
whose visions with Edward Kelley led him into being told
that Jesus was not Christ, and that wife-swapping was
permissible.

In short, by comparing the two lives of Swedenborg and

Dee, one might be tempted to speculate that the former was
the reincarnation of the latter. If this were so, it would
appear that Swedenborg managed to resolve the spiritual
issues successfully, which led Dee into error originally.

Frederick Hockley
Frederick Hockley (1808 – 1885) was a prominent
Rosicrucian of the 19th Century, who was cited by the
founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn as an
inspiration. Hockley was a member of the SRIA, having
joined in 1872. However, it appears that he was recognized
as a Rosicrucian Adept for his work before entering the
Society, as he seems to have been advanced to the grade of
VIIº Adeptus Exemptus almost immediately upon joining it
(he attained the grade of VIIIº Magister by 1877 at the
latest). This recognition was due to the fact that Hockley
was an experienced Seer, who had experimented with
Magic mirrors and Crystals since the age of 16.

Hockley is an important figure, in that he has left us

considerable details of not only his results in Angelic
Communication, but also the techniques which he
employed. Apart from his own writings on the subject,
Hockley also publicly gave evidence to the “London
Dialectical Society” on the subject of Skrying, in which he
described some of his own experiences. It is clear
therefrom that Hockley did not have any superstitious
belief in clairvoyance, but derived his confidence in it from
the accuracy of his experimental results.

Although he had a large library of magical grimoires, it

appears that Hockley did not practice ceremonial magic per
se. Indeed, although he was well acquainted with the
Almadel of the Lesser Key of Solomon – a work on
Angelic Magic – he specifically stated that he never used
it. Needless to say he avoided any truck with evil spirits,
and on the rare occasions that he encounter them, he
banished them speedily. Nevertheless, Hockley’s working
practice shows a structured approach, which does at least
indicate that he was inspired by ceremonial magic even if
he did not directly make use of it.

First of all, it should be noted that Hockley generally

worked with a “Speculatrix” – a female seeress. In this
Hockley, like Dee, did not gaze into the crystal himself, but
relied on someone else to do so whilst he asked the
questions and recorded the answers. Unlike Dee, Hockley
is not known to have employed the services of a known
rogue to do his skrying: instead his speculatrices tended to
be chaste young ladies.[26]

According to Hockley, the first task when setting out on a

Clairvoyant operation would be to consecrate a new
Crystal ball. Hockley preferred balls of pure rock crystal,
as did Dee, although he admitted that in the absence
thereof, a round-bottomed flask filled with water would
suffice. The consecration would consist of invoking a
“Guardian Angel” from God to become the Guardian of the
Crystal, and to prevent evil spirits from appearing. This
approach is almost identical to that of the Ars Paulina,
another part of the Lesser Key of Solomon, which also
deals with skrying Angels in a Crystal ball.

Hockley, based upon the results of his Angelic

experiments, believed that such Guardian Spirits were
Archangelic in nature, and thus in the topmost rank of what
he saw as a threefold-hierarchy: the other two categories of
good spirits being “Heavenly” and “Atmospheric”
respectively. He believed that the first session in a
Clairvoyant operation should not last longer than half an
hour, and consist exclusively of ensuring the Guardian
Angel’s co-operation in future skrying sessions. To
Hockley, Guardian Spirits were actual angels who
protected the skryer from evil entities, watched over his life
generally, and finally acted as a Psychopomp in death.

At this juncture, I would like to draw a comparison:

  In the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the
Mage, the first task of the magician is to evoke the
Holy Guardian Angel – and detailed instructions
are given for the purpose of doing so.
 In the Ars Paulina, the first task of the magician
before attempting to contact any of the other
planetary angels via the crystal sphere is to invoke a
(the) Guardian Angel.
 According to Hockley, the first task in a clairvoyant
operation is to invoke a Guardian Angel to be
Guardian of the crystal ball to be used.

Can it be, perhaps, that the occult world post-Crowley has

fundamentally misunderstood the concept of “Guardian
Angel”? Crowley believed that “Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”, a phrase he
borrowed from the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin
the Mage, was the quintessential task of Adeptship, and
equivalent to making contact with ones own Higher Self.
However, by comparing Abramelin to the Ars Paulina and
Hockley’s own work, it would appear that this Guardian
Angel is not the Higher Self, but a Guardian of the
Clairvoyant process. I.e. when Hockley invoked a
Guardian Angel to watch over his crystal, he would not
have regarded this spirit in the same awe-filled reverence
as would Crowley would regard his own Holy Guardian
Angel. Hockley did have an Angelic contact whom he
regarded as superior to all his other spirit guides, whom he
called “the Crowned Angel of the Seventh Sphere.”
However, it is clear from his records that Hockley regarded
this Crowned Angel as a being apart from the Angel he
invoked to watch over his Crystal Ball.

The Crystal having been consecrated with prayers and

dedicated to the service of God, Hockley would go about
an operation by first invoking Christ three times, so as to
summon his spirit guide. Hockley was definitely a
Christian magician, despite the fact that his practices
probably would not have been approved by any Christian
denomination at the time! Hockley was originally a
Unitarian Christian, although as a result of his Angelic
conversations, he was converted to a Trinitarian viewpoint.
Thus, like Swedenborg, most of his skrying operations
served to reveal to him an inner mystical interpretation
about his Christian faith.
Before starting to skry, Hockley would banish the room of
all evil spirits. This he did with a three-fold prayer:

In the name of the Almighty God in whom we live and

move and have our being, I dismiss from this room all evil
spirits that may be therein!

On purporting to make contact with a particular spirit, he

would test its identity, and if unsatisfied he would banish it,
with the following:

If thou, spirit, who art now in communication with us, are

not really and truly the spirit of A.B. I dismiss thee hence
in the name of our Almighty God, in whom we live and
move and have our being.

A session being over, Hockley would discharge all the

spirits by making a threefold invocation of Christ and His
Angels, followed by a prayer of thanks. It should be noted
that Hockley believed that to evoke the lesser spirits and
the souls of dead people, it was not necessary to go through
as elaborate a procedure as required for Guardian Spirits.

We can thus see the Hockley employed the same sort of

structure when communing with spirits as would a modern
magician; however he accomplished the same through the
use of prayers and invocations, whereas a modern
practitioner would use elements of ritual.

As to what he learnt from the Angels, the “Crowned Angel

of the Seventh Sphere” taught Hockley much to do with
religion, theology, the nature of death, and the inner
meaning of the Christian Faith – in much the same was as
Swedenborg’s angels taught him. As we have noted, his
experiments obviously had a deep impression on him, as
they eventually caused Hockley to convert from one
Christian denomination to another. Hockley was operating
at the time when Spiritualism first became popular. Like
Spiritualists, who were much derided in occult circles, he
contacted the souls of dead people; and even those alive,
but far away! Unlike the Spiritualism, Hockley introduced
the sensibilities of ritual magic into his practice so he could
avoid the criticisms usually levelled at mediums by
occultists.
Conclusion
The lives of the three men mentioned above demonstrate
that the practice of invoking Angels is in a state of constant
change, reflecting the times through which those invoking
them lived. For example, for Frederick Hockley, the
fashion of the time was Spiritualism, which in turn had
been inspired by the great uncertainty first caused by
Darwin’s new theories of evolution. Hence, Hockley
fashioned his own form of Spiritualism, but instead of
merely contacting the souls of dead people, which
admittedly he did do from time to time, he also
concentrated on contacting Angelic forces. Hockley’s
approach married the structure of ceremonial magic with a
scientific attitude to testing the validity of the spirits
contacted. Hockley’s work is thus a blue-print for modern
Angel-magic, even if modern practitioners would actually
use different ritual techniques.

Swedenborg meanwhile lived through the (so-called)

“Enlightenment”. Thus for him, seeking Angels to explain
the mysteries of his religion was his own way of
rediscovering the spiritual side of life in an increasingly
materialistic world. Swedenborg’s world was very much
after Newton’s work had been accepted, and therefore the
intellectual fashion of the time was one of Determinism,
based on science, and which ultimately excluded the
Spiritual from its world-view. By relying on his psychic
faculty to make contact with Angels, Swedenborg was not
trying to strive for a form of religion which he felt
belonged to the past. Instead he was looking forward
towards how Spirituality would develop in the future:
religion based on inner mystical revelation, and a faith
which although nominally Christian would build bridges
with all peoples of all races.

Dee, on the other hand, lived at a time when the ultimate

reality of the Christian religion was not seriously
questioned. There was thus no particular reason for Dee to
prove to himself the validity of his own faith, unlike
Swedenborg and Hockley for example. The result of this is
that Dee’s Angelic visions have as much to do with
mundane matters such as politics and events in his personal
life, as they have to do with theology. That Dee thought
this was permissible was due to a prevailing world-view
that the Spiritual and material were linked together in one
 harmonious whole: it was thus natural to consult spiritual
forces in relation to material matters. The downside of this
was that at times Dee treated the Angels not so much as
exalted beings, but more like lesser types of spirit guide
that could be contacted via the grimoires of ceremonial
magic of the time. There may have been a sinister reason
for this. At the time, evoking goetic spirits would have
been the fastest way to imprisonment, torture or death. Dee
however thought that by invoking Angels, who by
definition are good entities, he could escape the
opprobrium of black magic, even though he tended to make
use of Angels almost as one would make use of goetic
spirits. It is perhaps for this reason that a lot of grimoires of
the time talk a lot about invoking Angels, so as to avoid the
censure of the Church and secular authorities.
  Index  
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Seer: The Magical Writings of Frederick Hockley.
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK: Aquarian Press.

PLONTINUS, March 10, 2006-last update, enneads,

MACKENNA, S., PAGE, B.S., trans [Homepage of
Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College],
[Online]. Available:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/plotinus/enneads.toc.html

POPE, H., February 2, 2006-last update, angels.

[Homepage of the Catholic Encyclopedia]. [Online].
Available:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm

SUMNER, A., December 12, 2003-last updated, john dee.

[Homepage of the Journal of the Western Mystery
Tradition], [Online]. Available:
http://www.jwmt.org/v1n1/dee.html

SWEDENBORG, E., 1962. The Spiritual Diary: Records

and Notes Made by Emanuel Swedenborg,
B etween 1746 and 1765 from his Experiences in the
Spiritual World Swedenborg. BUSH, G., SMITHSON,
J.H., BUSS, J.F., trans. Bloombury, London, UK: The
Swedenborg Society.

SWEDENBORG, E., 2000-last update, heaven and hell,

DOLE, G.F., trans. [Homepage of The New Century
Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg], [Online].
Available:
http://www.newcenturyedition.org/HH_Translation.pdf

SWEDENBORG, E., February 23 2004-last update, The

Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love
To Which is Added The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining
To Scortatory Love, SUTHERLAND, J., VERGON, K.,
KING, D., eds. [The Homepage of Project Gutenberg],
[Online]. Available:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11248/11248-h/11248-
h.htm
Index
Notes

1. The Talmud of Jerusalem, Rosh Hashanah, 56

2. Colossians 2:18

3. Ephesians 1:21

4. Colossians 1:16

5. St. Gregory the Great, qtd. in Pope 2006, Online

6. Agrippa 2004, Online. Book 2, chapter ii

7. De Abano 2004, Online p.7

8. Plotinus, 2006, Online. The Third Ennead, Fourth Tractate

9. Sumner 2003, Online

10. Peterson, 2003, p.77 et passim

11. Ibid. p.84n

12. Ibid., p.12

13. “Regarding OCH, see in the book ‘Arbatel.’” Ibid., p.83

14. Ibid. p.66

15. Sumner 2003, Online. See note #14.

16. Dee 1942, p.5

17. Actio Tertia. Ibid., p.41

18. Peterson 2003, p.72.

19.Actio Tertia. Dee 1942, p.5

20. Swedenborg, 2000, Online; from the preface.

21. Swedenborg, 1962

22. Swedenborg, 2000, Online

23. Op. cit. (n.d.)

24. Swedenborg (1768)

25. Born ?, died ca. 215 AD.

26. E.g. the Speculatrix with whom Hockley produced his best results
was one Emma Louise Leigh, who lived from 1838 – 1858.

Index
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  Knowledge is Power

Secrets of the Magickal

Grimoires : The Classical
Tests of Magick Deciphered,
Aaron Leitch. Llewellyn
Publications; Woodbury,
Minnesota, USA, 2005. 432
pages. $29.95 USD

review by Samuel Scarborough

The lure of that secret, hidden knowledge buried in

a old musty tome just waiting for someone to come
along and read the words thus releasing some great
power, has lured many new magician with the
hopes that they can do just that from picking up
those slightly scary and to some degree, awe-
inspiring books known as Grimoires. Unfortunately,
most of the magical community has done just that,
but once we had these books with names like
Clavicula Salomonis (The Key of Solomon the
King), the Lemegeton, the Goetia, Grimoirum
Verum, or even that seemingly holy (unholy) book,
The Grand Grimoire, what do we do with them?
We read them and quickly learn that we are not sure
what we are supposed to do with this great secret
wisdom and power that we hold in our hands, so
these books go back on the shelf to collect dust for
most of us.

Now a new light shines on these often discussed,

but long neglected books on our shelves. Aaron
Leitch, a scholar and spiritual seeker with over a
decade of practical experience has written a book
that will be helpful to every magician that has the
call to work with those classic books on magic.
Where books like Modern Magick by Donald
Michael Kraig and Summoning Spirits by
Konstantinos give the hopeful magician snippets of
information or information that is not that helpful to
many, Leitch lays out a detailed method of working
with these classics.

When I first got the book I was impressed for a

product from Llewellyn. In many cases Llewellyn’s
books do not have any sort of reference of where
the writer is getting his information, but in Secrets
of the Magickal Grimoires, there are detailed
endnotes at the end of each chapter showing the
research that has gone into the material presented.
The next thing that caught my eye was the use of
relevant images throughout the book to illustrate a
point made by Leitch in the text or to help explain
passages from those musty old books. Being
something of a scholar myself, I just had to check
out what the bibliography looked like…I was again
surprised to find one of the most comprehensive
bibliographies that I have seen in sometime outside
of most academic circles. Finally, I got the best
surprise of all…I sat down to read the book, and in
the text was clear knowledge of those sirens known
as the grimoires. Aaron Leitch clearly expressed his
points and explained those difficult passages from
such esoteric volumes as the Heptameron and the
Sworn Book of Honorius in a clear manner that shed
the light of understanding suddenly on just what
those magicians of 400 – 500 years ago were
talking about.

The book is impressive in its size. At four hundred

and thirty-two pages with additional xxi pages of
Table of Content, Acknowledgements Preface, and
Introduction it makes for a large book. Do not let
the size fool or scare you away, it is well worth
reading. The Preface is full of praise for Leitch and
his work on the subject is written by Chic and
Tabatha Cicero. The rest of the book covers such
topics as medieval magick with a short history of
the classic grimoires from the Picatrix to The
Grand Grimoire and every other classic grimoire or
important text relating to them such as Barrett’s
The Magus and Casaubon’s A True and Faithful
Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers Between
Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in
 Q. Eliz. And King James their Reignes) and Some
Spirits to chapters on what tools are described in the
texts of the old grimoires with modern-day methods
of creating them as well as many places to find the
required materials for them. The meat of the book
though covers the operations listed in the classic
grimoires and just what is meant for a person to
follow the often misunderstood instructions that
were written in them so that a person can perform
them in the 21st Century.

If the glowing words above do not inspire you to

get this book, then I will say it in very plain
English. Go out and buy this book, come home and
read it, and then look at those dusty volumes on
your shelf that long ago promised you the lure of
sudden power and knowledge of our Holy Guardian
Angel in a new light.
  Index  
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  Forbidden Rites: A
Necromancer's Manual of the
Fifteenth Century, Richard
Kieckhefer. Pennsylvania State
University Press; University
Park, PA, 1998. 384 pages.
$23.95 USD.

review by “Aaron Jason”

Leitch

Without a doubt, Penn State Press' Magic in History

series is the finest line of books on medieval occult
literature produced to date. I have enjoyed reading
each book in the series - not the least of which is
Professor Kieckhefer's Forbidden Rites. Whether
you are a scholar examining the esotericism of
medieval Europe, or a practitioner following a
similar modern tradition, you will benefit
immensely from a study of this book.

Professor Kieckhefer's book is unique in that it does

not attempt to gather and cross-compare a large
number of medieval grimoires, which is the more
common method - as we see in texts like Waite's
Book of Ceremonial Magic or my own work on the
Solomonic cycle. Instead, the Professor dedicated
Forbidden Rites to a single, and very obscure,
German manuscript. Because the first couple of
pages are missing, the name of the grimoire, as well
as its author, is lost to history. Kieckhefer simply
refers to it by its catalogue designation: Codex
Latinus Monacensis 849 (CLM 849), or the more
romantic title The Munich Handbook of
Necromancy.

I find the scope of this book reaches far beyond one

simple manuscript. As the Professor leads us
through the spells of the Munich Handbook, we get
to learn something about the life and shifting
interests of a working medieval mage. In every
chapter, Kieckhefer draws from an array of related
medieval records - most of them anecdotes about
magick, and even Inquisitorial court records - to
illustrate the culture within which our anonymous
German mage worked.

Professor Kieckhefer begins Forbidden Rites with

an essay on the magick-book in medieval occultism.
I found this information absolutely fascinating, as it
is a neglected subject in nearly all modern studies of
Solomonic mysticism. Of course, there are plenty of
books about the contents of the grimoires, but there
is precious little that explains the
books themselves as living magickal beings.
Meanwhile, Kieckhefer shares medieval anecdotes
about grimoires that scream when burned, or spirits
who accost the unwary who merely open such a
book. He explains how a grimoire must be
consecrated and kept as a magickal tool in its own
right - as something of a familiar to its author.

The introductory chapter finishes with some

discussion of the art of necromancy in medieval
Munich. Here Professor Kieckhefer makes a
distinction between the conjuration of the dead and
of infernal spirits. Both are called "necromancy",
though Forbidden Rites focuses primarily upon the
evocation of demons. This brief introduction to
classical necromancy - which is continued in a later
chapter - is vital to understanding any text of spirit
conjuration.

In the next chapter, the Professor introduces and

outlines the Munich Handbook itself. Herein, he
proposes a distinction, though by no means a hard
one, between "integrally composed" books, usually
dedicated to occult theory, like Agrippa's Three
Books of Occult Philosophy, and "miscellanies,"
collections of practical magick without much
theory, usually compiled by one person over a
period of time. Most of the grimoires we know
today are of the miscellany type, including the Key
of Solomon the King, Lemegeton, etc. Finally,
Kieckhefer uses the contents of the Munich
Handbook to conjecture about the author of the text
- thereby creating a wonderful illustration of the life
and times of a "typical medieval wizard."

In chapters three through five, the Professor

explores different aspects of the Munich Handbook,
separating its spells into the three main headings of
"Illusionist", "Psychological", and "Divinatory."
Illusionist experiments, or "experiences" as the
Handbook sometimes refers to them, are intended to
"trick" their target - such as producing illusory
castles, banquets, armies, etc. Psychological
experiments are intended to gain control over or
influence the mind of their target - such as gaining
favor at court, causing people to fall in or out of
love, etc. This chapter also includes much on
sympathetic image magick - such as the medieval
wax image or "voodoo doll." Finally, Divinatory
experiments are intended to reveal secret
information, or to gain knowledge of the past or
future. Overall, these three categories cover the
largest bulk of spells in all grimoires.

As I previously stated, the author examines each

aspect of the Handbook alongside of anecdotal
medieval records - throwing some light onto the
motivations behind such magick, and placing them
into their proper historical context. Unfortunately,
space does not permit me to outline the contents of
these chapters in depth. Suffice it to say that there is
much practical magick found in these chapters, and
the anecdotes are thrilling. (Indeed, I find myself
wishing there were more collections of medieval
stories about wizards at work, such as those found
in Elizabeth Butler's Ritual Magic.)

Having examined the intent and nature of the spells

of the Munich Handbook, Kieckhefer then turns his
attention in chapter six to the conjurations and
exorcisms used throughout the grimoire. This is
another incredible piece of historical scholarship, as
the Professor explains the broader practice of
exorcism in medieval Europe and compares it to
grimoiric conjurations. He illustrates that exorcising
malignant spirits from the sick is
essentially the same art as spirit evocation. The
techniques are identical, while only the intent is
slightly different in each case. Perhaps best of all,
he breaks down classical exorcisms right alongside
of spirit conjurations, showing us exactly how they
are composed to bring about their effects. I cannot
overstress the importance of this chapter to anyone
wishing to comprehend books like the Goetia,
Heptameron, Magus, etc.

In chapter eight, Professor Kieckhefer explores the

magickal seals found throughout the Munich
Handbook. Most of these figures are for magickal
circles drawn upon the ground, or drawn with blood
on parchment to command the spirits. The author
examines their forms, the words written within
them, the images drawn upon them and their proper
uses. Hands down, this is the best explanation of the
magick circle I have ever read. For instance, no
modern source has suggested such a circle could be
held in the hand as a talisman- yet the practice does
appear in various grimoires. It is also rare to learn
that magickal circles were primarily an aspect of
exorcism - where modern traditions tend to use
them for every kind of magickal work.

Finally, Kieckhefer outlines an elaborate method of

circle-creation found in the Munich Handbook. See
the tables on pages 181-183, where the divine
names and other considerations for the circle are
given for each day of the week and hour of the day
or night. Also see page 296ff for the material in its
original Latin. He claims that this material draws
much from the Picatrix, an Arabic book of
astrological magick, but he does not mention that
the whole of this section is also found in the
Heptameron or The Magus. As it happens, this is
my favored method of circle-creation, so I was
excited to
see it presented here from yet a third source. This
also helps to illustrate the large influence the
Picatrix has had on the medieval esoteric tradition.

To complete his book, Professor Kieckhefer

 includes the entire Latin text of the Munich
Handbook of Necromancy. Unfortunately, he does
not provide an English translation, except for the
portions he translated for earlier chapters of his
book, which fortunately are considerable. However,
he has organized the manuscript very neatly,
placing all recitations in italics, breaking the
conjurations down into their component parts. That
makes this book potentially very useful to someone
who knows Latin and might wish to translate the
text for the rest of us.

Though it may be redundant, I will say once more

how highly, very highly, I recommend Professor
Kieckhefer's book Forbidden Rites: A
Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century. It
makes no difference if you are a practitioner or an
academic (or both), you will immensely enjoy this
wonderful exploration of medieval magick, and you
will find it foundational to your understanding of
the magickal grimoires.
  Index  
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  The Keys to the Gateway of

Magic: Summoning the
Solomonic Archangels &
Demon Princes, Stephen
Skinner and David Rankine.
Golden Hoard Press; London,
UK, 2006. 254 pages. $65.00
USD.

review by J.S. Kupperman

Keys to the Gateway of Magic is the second of

Skinner and Rankine’s “Sourceworks of
Ceremonial Magic” series, following their first
book on the angel magic of John Dee. The goal of
this series is to provide transcriptions of important
manuscripts on Renaissance ceremonial magic. This
makes the “Sourceworks” series an important
source for primary source material for those
studying Renaissance magic.

Keys consists of transcriptions from Harley MS

6482 and Sloane MSS 3628, 3821, 3824 and 3825
from the British Museum and Rawlinson MS
D.1363 from the Bodleian Library. In simpler terms
it is a collection of three texts on angelic and
demonic evocation; Janua Magica Reserta (Keys to
the Gateway of Magic), Dr. Thomas Rudd’s Nine
Hierarchies of Angels with their Invocations to
Visible Appearance and The Demon Princes. Each
of these texts appears to have been extremely
influential not only during the period when they
were written but also in centuries to come; those
familiar with the teachings of the Hermetic Order of
the Golden Dawn will find many of the
correspondences presented in these texts to be quite
familiar.

Janua Magica Reserta, the first of the texts

transcribed by the editors, consists of several
different sections. These sections deal with diverse
subjects ranging from magical aphorisms to the
nature of the human soul and its relation to the
Earth to the nature of angels, demons and other
spirits such as fairies and Robin Goodfellows, not
necessarily subjects one would expect to find in a
manuscript on ceremonial magic.

The second book, Dr. Rudd’s Nine Hierarchies of

Angels with their Invocations to Visible
Appearance is a practical answer to the theoretical
information provided in Janua. Hierarchies begins
with “The Directory”, which consists of numerous
evocations for the summoning of spirits; good, bad
or in between, it is interesting to note that there are
no differences between the evocations used to call
angels and those used to call demons. The text also
instructs the magician in ways to test the spirits that
have been evoked to see if they are what they say
they are. The final section presents nine celestial
keys or calls used to evoke the archangels of the
Kabbalistic sefirot, along with their seals or signs.
As with the previous section the nine calls, each of
which being about four pages long and consisting of
a single sentence, are identical, with only the
specifics of the angels being changed. There is also
a tenth key that appears to be a later addition that
differs from the previous keys in tone and does not
include a seal. The information on the sefirotic
angles will be quite familiar with modern
ceremonial magicians and appears to be a source for
much of the Golden Dawn’s understanding of those
great angels.

The Demon Princes is the final, as well as shortest,

part of Keys. Princes arms the magician with
information about not only the three primary fallen
spirits; Lucifer, Beelzebub and Sathan, two of
which can actually be evoked, but also the divers
spirits that serve beneath Sathan, the four kings of
the air; Oriens, Paymon, Egyn and Amaymon.
Following these four kings are the numerous spirits
who act as their ministers and messengers. Thus
Princes is similar in nature to the Goetia, though
there are some notable differences such as a
complete lack of seals or magic circles. It does
however provide lengthy evocations similar in
nature to both those found in the Goetia as well as
those found in Hierarchies.

The editors do a fine job in their transcriptions;

notes are provided to tell the reader where
differences between manuscripts occur and they
even go so far as to use red ink in places were the
original manuscripts used red ink, usually for
heading titles or the names of spirits. While I was
disappointed to see only facsimiles of the angelic
seals, which were often unreadable in places, and
no cleaned up versions for ease of reading, this was
not a major concern. The readability of the overall
text, combined with the numerous notes, more than
make up for this.

However the introduction, as well as a few notes

and comments on some of the bibliographical
material were of concern. The editors present a
great deal of historical information, some correct,
some not, that while interesting is not always
useful. Richard Keickhefer’s Magic in the Middle
Ages does in fact provide a much more
comprehensive view of medieval magic. While
some of the background information on the
personae dramatis of the period is interesting they
fail to support a number of the theories they present
with actual evidence, many of their conclusions
come through inference instead. Finally, in a multi-
page dissertation on how demons are true entities
and not simply psychological constructs, along with
attacks on modern psychology appear to be more of
a rant than a scholarly discourse; while these
assertions may in fact be true the editors are far
from able to prove it and simply attacking those
who feel otherwise is less than persuasive. Their
views also fail to take into account the records of
pre-Christian philosophers who were of the opinion
that such entities were figments of the mind.

For the most part Keys to the Gateway of Magic

will only be of interest to those who want to study
primary source material, with its Christian theology
 and moralizing, long invocations and complete lack
of modern banishing techniques. Keys to the
Gateway of Magic presents a type of occultism that
will be foreign to many practicing occultists today,
however it will also show where much of modern
occultism comes from. Even with the issues
surrounding the editors’ introduction, the
transcription makes the purchase of the book
worthwhile, though the price makes such a purchase
somewhat daunting. For anyone interested in the
history of ceremonial magic Keys to the Gateway of
Magic is a must have that I greatly recommend.
  Index  
 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition
  No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006

  The Keys to the Gateway of

Magic: Summoning the
Solomonic Archangels &
Demon Princes, Stephen
Skinner and David Rankine.
Golden Hoard Press; London,
UK, 2006. 254 pages. $65.00
USD.

review by J.S. Kupperman

Keys to the Gateway of Magic is the second of

Skinner and Rankine’s “Sourceworks of
Ceremonial Magic” series, following their first
book on the angel magic of John Dee. The goal of
this series is to provide transcriptions of important
manuscripts on Renaissance ceremonial magic. This
makes the “Sourceworks” series an important
source for primary source material for those
studying Renaissance magic.

Keys consists of transcriptions from Harley MS

6482 and Sloane MSS 3628, 3821, 3824 and 3825
from the British Museum and Rawlinson MS
D.1363 from the Bodleian Library. In simpler terms
it is a collection of three texts on angelic and
demonic evocation; Janua Magica Reserta (Keys to
the Gateway of Magic), Dr. Thomas Rudd’s Nine
Hierarchies of Angels with their Invocations to
Visible Appearance and The Demon Princes. Each
of these texts appears to have been extremely
influential not only during the period when they
were written but also in centuries to come; those
familiar with the teachings of the Hermetic Order of
the Golden Dawn will find many of the
correspondences presented in these texts to be quite
familiar.

Janua Magica Reserta, the first of the texts

transcribed by the editors, consists of several
different sections. These sections deal with diverse
subjects ranging from magical aphorisms to the
nature of the human soul and its relation to the
Earth to the nature of angels, demons and other
spirits such as fairies and Robin Goodfellows, not
necessarily subjects one would expect to find in a
manuscript on ceremonial magic.

The second book, Dr. Rudd’s Nine Hierarchies of

Angels with their Invocations to Visible
Appearance is a practical answer to the theoretical
information provided in Janua. Hierarchies begins
with “The Directory”, which consists of numerous
evocations for the summoning of spirits; good, bad
or in between, it is interesting to note that there are
no differences between the evocations used to call
angels and those used to call demons. The text also
instructs the magician in ways to test the spirits that
have been evoked to see if they are what they say
they are. The final section presents nine celestial
keys or calls used to evoke the archangels of the
Kabbalistic sefirot, along with their seals or signs.
As with the previous section the nine calls, each of
which being about four pages long and consisting of
a single sentence, are identical, with only the
specifics of the angels being changed. There is also
a tenth key that appears to be a later addition that
differs from the previous keys in tone and does not
include a seal. The information on the sefirotic
angles will be quite familiar with modern
ceremonial magicians and appears to be a source for
much of the Golden Dawn’s understanding of those
great angels.

The Demon Princes is the final, as well as shortest,

part of Keys. Princes arms the magician with
information about not only the three primary fallen
spirits; Lucifer, Beelzebub and Sathan, two of
which can actually be evoked, but also the divers
spirits that serve beneath Sathan, the four kings of
the air; Oriens, Paymon, Egyn and Amaymon.
Following these four kings are the numerous spirits
who act as their ministers and messengers. Thus
Princes is similar in nature to the Goetia, though
there are some notable differences such as a
complete lack of seals or magic circles. It does
however provide lengthy evocations similar in
nature to both those found in the Goetia as well as
those found in Hierarchies.

The editors do a fine job in their transcriptions;

notes are provided to tell the reader where
differences between manuscripts occur and they
even go so far as to use red ink in places were the
original manuscripts used red ink, usually for
heading titles or the names of spirits. While I was
disappointed to see only facsimiles of the angelic
seals, which were often unreadable in places, and
no cleaned up versions for ease of reading, this was
not a major concern. The readability of the overall
text, combined with the numerous notes, more than
make up for this.

However the introduction, as well as a few notes

and comments on some of the bibliographical
material were of concern. The editors present a
great deal of historical information, some correct,
some not, that while interesting is not always
useful. Richard Keickhefer’s Magic in the Middle
Ages does in fact provide a much more
comprehensive view of medieval magic. While
some of the background information on the
personae dramatis of the period is interesting they
fail to support a number of the theories they present
with actual evidence, many of their conclusions
come through inference instead. Finally, in a multi-
page dissertation on how demons are true entities
and not simply psychological constructs, along with
attacks on modern psychology appear to be more of
a rant than a scholarly discourse; while these
assertions may in fact be true the editors are far
from able to prove it and simply attacking those
who feel otherwise is less than persuasive. Their
views also fail to take into account the records of
pre-Christian philosophers who were of the opinion
that such entities were figments of the mind.

For the most part Keys to the Gateway of Magic

will only be of interest to those who want to study
primary source material, with its Christian theology
 and moralizing, long invocations and complete lack
of modern banishing techniques. Keys to the
Gateway of Magic presents a type of occultism that
will be foreign to many practicing occultists today,
however it will also show where much of modern
occultism comes from. Even with the issues
surrounding the editors’ introduction, the
transcription makes the purchase of the book
worthwhile, though the price makes such a purchase
somewhat daunting. For anyone interested in the
history of ceremonial magic Keys to the Gateway of
Magic is a must have that I greatly recommend.
  Index