More Witch
StuffCoven of Cythrawl
POSTINGS
(Number 423)
MAGICK IN THEORY, PRACTICE & HISTORY
I wanted to once again go back to some of the earlier postings we had
on magick, but take it a step further. So far we have discussed
various models and certainly methods of magick, leaning more on Wicca
and Witchcraft than anything else. Therefore, I thought perhaps we
could go into some of the origins, foundations, Elementals,
traditions and various definitions and practices, plus a little more
psycho babble to round it off.
As this leans more to other Occult Paths, and certainly Ceremonial
Magick, I have therefore, also included a small listing and
description of some of the ancient Grimoires and other magickal books
for reference purposes, especially for those who followed more of a
Ceremonial Magickal path, or of course, who may be interested in the
historical side of things.
(For those that have just joined the group, all earlier postings can
still be found on the Yahoo site (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Coven-
of-Cythrawl/) under "messages", where one can browse at will through
all the previous postings so far.
Again, because this posting is rather historical in content I thought
I'd use the bullet form again for ease of reading and the actually
content merely highlight points of view from many different occult
perspectives. I hope this is once again food for thought and I
sincerely hope that it may also help provide a basic foundation of
knowledge for newcomers to the Old Path. Some of the viewpoints may
not be shared by all our members, but as I said, they're merely drawn
from many sources and are placed together in some semblance of order
for reading ease and then perhaps we can chat about in future group
discussions.
I - MAGICK IN THEORY
A. Origins of the word Magick(k)
1. Derived from the Greek "Magike Techne" meaning the art of the
Magi.
· The Magi were priests of ancient Persia (Iran) who also
practiced in Chaldea and Babylon.
· They were similar to the Druids, in that they wore white
robes and favored a simple mode of life and a vegetarian diet.
· The Magi worshipped no idols.
· They chose the Divine and Sacred Fire as the symbol of their
Divine Being.
· The Divine Fire burned in their sanctuaries and was never
allowed to go out.
· Parallels to this exist….In the practices of the ancient
order that looked after the Goddess Bridget's flame in Ireland, which
was reconstituted by the Christians for what is now known as St.
Brigit, and the Bishop of the time had taken umbrage to the fact that
he himself was not even allowed inside, so he extinguished the flame
because only females had been allowed inside the sanctuary for
generations for the Goddess and was continued by St. Bridgit's
followers. The flame was very soon reconstituted though and is still
maintained to this day.
· Also by the ancient Frisian megalithic culture in over 2,000
BC had a fire burning in the west of the their Holy areas (and later
a lamp) burning at all times while the High Priestess, or Burgh
Femme, carried out rituals honouring Wra-lda, the World Serpent (the
Origin, the Beginning). The practices of this ancient witchcraft are
still practiced today amongst select Traditional Sects, (such as the
Ordo Anno Mundi - OAM).
· And later, let's not forget the Vestal Virgins in ancient
Rome and the Presence Lamps that are always kept burning over the
altars of some Roman Catholic churches
· The Greeks were unaware of any other caste of priests that
practiced the magickal arts so they thought the Magi were responsible
for them.
· This shows how isolated and ill-informed the ancient peoples
were of their own world.
2. The Egyptians had quite a formidable magickal system based on
the Egyptian Book of the Dead many years before the Magi appeared in
Persia.
· There is also a Tibetan Book of the Dead, which details a
magickal system derived from Tibetan funeral rites.
3. The Greeks may have gained their root word for magick from the
Indo-European root word MAGH (meaning to be able, and/or to have the
power to act.)
4. Aliester Crowley started the custom of spelling magic as MAGICK
as he felt it would help in differentiating between the illusions
that are the stock in trade of stage magicians and real magick as
practiced by serious students of the occult.
B. Working Definition of Magick
1. The ability to recognize and understand the underlying forces of
nature and the laws, which govern them.
· Perhaps this can be pared to the ability to change
consciousness at will.
· To someone who understands these laws, magick is a very
natural part of the Universe.
· People who do not understand these laws or who refuse to
recognize them, see magick as a supernatural act performed against
God and therefore unnatural.
C. Foundation of Magickal Theory
1. All of magickal theory is based on the development of the human
brain, interaction with Spirits, entities of Otherworlds and
subsequent attempts to gain control over a hostile environment.
Looking briefly at the human brain though and its influence….
· The single most important development in the evolution of
humankind was the development and subsequent use of the cerebellum.
· Until humans developed a `higher brain' they had only
their `animal brain' to guide them through life.
· This `animal brain' is responsible for those functions that
people sometimes call instincts, but are really functions of the
autonomic nervous system.
· The autonomic nervous system monitors and maintains vital
functions such as heartbeat, digestion, circulation, hormone
production, reproduction and immediate responses to dangerous
situations.
· Recent research in Biofeedback and Cybernetics have revealed
that the autonomic nervous system (known commonly as the automatic
nervous system, because it takes no conscious thought to operate), is
actually capable of being directly controlled by conscious thought.
· With the development of the `higher brain', early humanity
was able to see the world as an integrated whole in, which they
played an independent role.
· The development of this `higher brain' led to self-
consciousness and started us on the road to questioning how our world
worked and how we could gain control of our environment.
· The subsequent development of the cerebrum into two
specialized organs interconnected so that they could work
independently or co-operatively as needed, led to the ability to
examine the world from two different viewpoints.
· The right half of the brain enabled humankind to form
holistic concepts of the interactions of the forces of nature in a
dynamic way.
· The left half of the brain allowed the development of verbal
skills, which ensured the transmission of knowledge learned through
trial and error and thus gave humanity the peculiar ability to learn
without the need to directly experience.
II - MAGICK IN PRACTICE.
A. The early magickal systems were based on the observation that all
of reality is based on the interaction of various natural forces.
1. The two basic magickal powers that are taught to all humans as
their birthright are the ability to embody complex concepts in
symbolic words and to divide the world into `pieces' so that they can
examine it for short periods of time as though it were caught in
a `freeze frame.'
· We dismiss the ability to embody complex concepts in symbolic
words as being too fundamental to consider, but it is the basis for
all learning.
· This process, which we call naming, is vital to our
understanding of the world around us.
· By creating names that embody specific concepts, we create a
vocabulary by which `initiates' in the subject can manipulate the
relationships between the different concepts to reveal new truths
that lead to a better understanding of the world around us.
· Gaining control over something by learning its name is one of
the oldest forms of magick.
· In the Christian Bible, God instructs Adam and Eve to name
all the plants and creatures and to exercise dominion over all of
them.
· In societies which practice magick, mothers give their
children `true names' and `public names' to protect them from harm by
someone wishing the child ill.
· Most people have heard the story of Rumplestiltskin, where
the heroine must guess the villains name; otherwise she will be
unable to stop him from carrying out his evil deeds.
· Or the story of the wizard who manages to summon a demon to
do his bidding, only to wind up becoming a slave to the demon because
he did not know the demon's proper name.
· Once humankind began to exert its influence on the world, the
need to differentiate its parts and count them became very important.
2. We differentiate the world through the use of DISCRIMINATION and
this allows us to count the separate parts.
· Discrimination is the ability to separate an object from its
shadow, trees from a forest, your child from a group of children, and
your friends from your enemies.
· The ability to distinguish the difference between a dog, a
hyena, a dingo, a cat, a horse, although it would be quite difficult
to "explain" this to someone who had never seen any of the above.
· Counting took on additional significance when trading surplus
food for finished goods became the basis of early commerce.
· The merchants needed to develop a method of keeping track of
their transactions. At first they used a picture code similar to
Egyptian hieroglyphics, which involved drawing a picture that
represented the goods traded and which were then assigned a numerical
value in accordance with how much could be traded for the goods.
· This was before the concept of money and allowed merchants to
trade for credits of non-tangible assets.
· As competition grew the merchants started abbreviating the
pictures of their trade goods and the symbols became the letters of
the various alphabets, with the number values still attached.
3. As astronomy and astrology were developed, the people who were
learning to recognize these interactions of the forces of nature
needed to record their knowledge, and they seized upon the merchants
secret trade codes, or alphabets (named after the first two letters
in the Phoenician script.)
· Because they placed great importance on the measuring of
things they also adopted the numerical values of the letters as
representing the numerical truth of the symbols they were using to
record their new knowledge.
4. This led to the magickal system called GEMATRIA, which is based
on reducing the letters of someone's name, etc to a number, which is
assigned special significance.
· Gematria was especially popular with biblical scholars. In
the thirteenth chapter of Revelations in the Christian Bible, a
beast "comes up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns and
ten crowns, and on its heads the name of blasphemy". One of the
heads had been `wounded to death', but the wound had healed. "Let
him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is
the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred, threescore and
six."
· Some scholars say that the Beast was meant also to stand for
the Roman Empire and its seven heads for the seven Emperors.
· However, there are still very ancient practices based on Wra-
lda, (the world serpent) who later biblical scholars tried to rename
Him Leviathan and make Him evil, rather than part of the `core of all
things'. (i.e. The Order of OAM).
· However, to continue on with the Beast; some scholars
consider that the head which was wounded to death but healed, could
also be an oblique reference to Nero, who took great delight in
persecuting the new Christian faith and its followers; one of the
more well known of which, was letting them fight lions bare handed in
the Coliseum. He was murdered in 68 AD, but there were persistent
rumors that he had risen again and had escaped to the East, and would
soon return with an army to take his revenge.
· Aliester Crowley adopted the name of `The Great Beast' which,
when reduced from Greek into numbers using gematria, equals 666. He
did this partly to shock the good people of the late Victorian era
and partly as an exercise in imitative magick.
· Another story told of the importance placed on the
interpretation of the Christian Bible through gematria involves the
same chapter of Revelations and believe it or not, the Social
Security Administration in the United States of America.
· In chapter 13:16-17, the author speaks of a second beast,
which comes after the first. `Also it causes all, both small and
great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the
right hand or the forehead,' `so that no one can buy or sell unless
he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its
name.'
· These verses were quoted over and over from pulpits in the
United States when it was announced that everyone was to be issued a
Social Security number for purposes of identification, and that all
government files would require the populace to submit their Social
Security number along with their name, to be sure they were properly
identified.
· The citizens, whipped into a fury by the clergy, deluged
their Congressmen with letters of protest.
· The Congressmen, being pragmatists, came upon a plan to
soothe the savage breasts of their constituents and still get their
own way.
· They made it a part of the Social Security Act that the
number was not to be used as identification for any purpose other
than for Social Security. This is why all Social Security in the USA
cards bear the legend "Not to be used for Identification."
· Many years later, around 1973, this was set aside when the US
Military Service numbers were abandoned in favor of using Social
Security numbers to `identify' military service personnel.
· Even today the Social Security card of the United States is
not generally accepted as identification, not because of the original
objection, but because it simply does not have a photograph of the
bearer.
Once again, I got side-tracked in non-relevant trivia, (sorry folks),
so back to the story in which the ancients, in seeking to bring order
and understanding to their world, developed the concept of the
Elementals.
5. They recognized that everything was the result of the
interaction of four great natural forces.
· These Elementals were not seen as `what the world was made
of', like today's' elements in chemistry, but a shorthand way of
explaining the way things interacted.
· After a while the process of visualizing the Elementals as
personifications of the natural forces produced thoughtforms which
were able to act independently of their creators.
· The major force that exhibited the principle of motion was
ascribed to the Element of Air.
· In visualizing `airy beings', the race of Sylphs were
actualized on our planet. These creatures had wings of gossamer,
with very slight and tiny bodies, their facial features were made up
of sharp planes and they tended to have very short attention spans,
and this usually left them in very good spirits because it was not
their nature to brood. Childhood stories retain a racial memory of
the Sylphs in our present day Fairies, much as Walt Disney drew
Tinkerbell.
· When the natural attribute of a force was expansion, it was
said to have a Faeiry nature.
· In the Isle of Man, where I come from, and of course Ireland
is still steeped in the Lore of the Little People, especially the
Faery.
6. The Elemental creatures of Fire were the Salamanders.
· These creatures loved to play in the warm ashes of fireplaces
and their skin glowed with alternating colors just like a hot piece
of charcoal. They were quick to take offense and could carelessly
allow a fire outside of the fireplace, if the family they chose to
live with allowed the ashes to get too cold for them to be comfortable
· With our present dependence on natural gas and electricity to
provide our heat, (and in places like Singapore where fires are
definatley not required to keep warm), we have lost touch with the
fire Elementals, but the big brothers of the Salamanders were
dragons, which possessed the airy quality of flight, the fiery
quality of being able to exhale fire and the earthy quality of being
fascinated by bright jewels and glittering gold. I guess both east
and west have dragons.
7. The natural force of contraction was assigned to the Elemental
of Water.
· The race of water Elementals were called Undines after the
undulating property of water, which rises and falls in
synchronization with the movements of the Moon.
· They constantly find their own level and can be both hard and
soft.
· The Undines were thought to be related to the Sylphs but of a
stouter character.
· They were slow to anger and slow to soothe; and steadfast
unless stirred up by the Sylphs.
8. The epitome of the solid earthiness, the last Elemental, was the
Gnome and his burrowing cousin the Dwarf.
· Gnomes and Dwarves were as big hearted as they were
diminutive, but they did not take kindly to anyone who harmed the
Earth. The forest was the natural habitat of Gnomes and they knew
all the secrets of each bud, leaf, root, and tree.
· The Dwarves lived inside the earth and mined the treasures
that were uncovered by dint of their delving. Skill as metal smiths,
they developed alongside their shrewd sense of trading; and woe to
the person who got between a Dwarf and his treasure, or bested him in
a deal.
9. In the early stages of humanity's development, the
personifications of the Elementals lived on the fringes of human
settlements, and developed their own societies and kingdoms.
· But as humans started to infringe upon their domains and
closed themselves off to seeing the Elementals, they in turn withdrew
into the higher planes.
· Since they were originally expressions of natural forces on
earth, they are bound to it and serve as caretakers for the Earth
until humankind is wise enough to care for it without their help.
· Because they were actualized on this plane by the strength of
human thought, they owe a debt of brotherhood to the human race and
will appear and help those humans who learn how to summon them.
10. Confronting the twin mysteries of Birth and Death, early
humanity was `forced' to consider the existence of a Supreme Being or
Gods who were responsible for these Mysteries.
· Why some societies chose to see these forces as warring or
opposite, while others chose to view them as mutually beneficial or
complementary, we can only guess.
· What we can be sure of is, that a lot of their rituals and
magickal acts were motivated by their particular worldview.
· The body of accepted rituals and magickal acts were codified
and served as the basis of the religion which would grow up to
explain how the world began, how someone was supposed to act while in
it, and what happened after s/he died.
11. Imitative and Sympathetic Magick evolved as a means of
influencing the world around the Ancients. These two forms of magick
were based on the principles of mimicry, contagion, and the belief
that man is a microcosm of the macrocosm.
· Imitative magick is the general category, which covers magick
performed on a model, doll, poppet, or actor representing the real
world counterpart, which is to be affected.
· Early examples of this type of magick would be cave drawings
depicting successful hunts, love poppets and Voodoo dolls, and the
survival of ancient folk dances where the dancer dons the skin and
horns of an animal, while the other dancers act out the stalking and
subsequent killing of the "sacrifice."
· Mimicry of a real life situation, while utilizing parts of
the subject, to form a bond is the basis for imitative magick.
· Underlying imitative magick is the Theory of Contagion, which
holds that parts of a living being contain the essence of its life,
even after being separated. In simple terms, a magickal link exists
between ourselves and our parts.
· American Indians, Orientals and many other indigenous races
did not want their pictures taken, for fear of losing their spirits
inside of the camera.
· Many of the Grimoires from the Middle Ages warn against
allowing nail clippings, locks of hair, or old articles of clothing
to fall in the hands of your enemies for fear of the harm your
enemies could bring against you by harming them.
· As a side note, the dancers in the `mummers' plays took great
care to ensure that the skins and horns of the animals that were used
in their dances were taken from male animals. This ensured that the
females were left to breed and produce new game for the future. (We
have a lovely song of the "Mummers" on the main Cythrawl site).
12. Sympathetic magick is based on the belief that man is a
miniature reproduction of the universe, that he is the microcosm to
the universe's macrocosm.
· This is based on the drawing of analogies between two like
beings.
· Many of the important magickal analogies are not natural to
most people's minds today, but have been handed down by tradition
from the remote past.
· Attempts to group observations into a codified system of
relationships resulted in the development of the many `Tables of
Correspondences', which have been handed down through the ages and
serve as source documents for creating new rituals.
· These tables usually ascribe variously corresponding items to
one of the old Astrological Planets.
· Each planet is ruled by a Goddess or a God from the local
pantheon and has its own number, colour, musical note, metal, gem
stone, hour of the day, herbs and flowers, and attributes.
13. The following section deals only with Hermetic / High Magick /
Ceremonial magickal operations, (as Wicca has no concept of demons
and satanic concepts, as that requires a belief in Judeo/Christian
concepts to begin with).
· Salt is used to ward off demons. All demons are supposed to
detest it and no salt should be used in ceremonies designed to
attract them.
· Salt is anti-demonic because it is a preservative.
(Remembering that we are now talking about Hermetic and/or High
Magick); since demons are creatures that corrupt and destroy,
anything that has a preservative quality is contrary to their nature
and is disagreeable to them.
III - WESTERN TRADITIONS OF `CEREMONIAL MAGICK'
A. Hermetic Magick
1. This was the main tradition of the West during the time of
Christianity, but especially expanding from the Elizabethan times
until about the 1920's and has been championed by many secret
societies such as the Freemasons, Golden Dawn Society, and the
Builders of Adytum. Although, in saying this; Wicca, Traditional
Witchcraft and modern day Druidism took over some of these beliefs
and became much more popular in today's times.
2. Franz Bardon has written three volumes of instructions for
aspiring Hermetic Magickians.
· What we know of Hermetic Magick generally dates from the
first century AD.
· Hermetic Magick is a mixture of traditions. It actually
combines Egyptian knowledge with some ideas of the Greeks and Jews
who lived in Egypt, principally in Alexandria, at the approximate
time Jesus was supposed to have lived.
· These three groups all claimed that the knowledge they held
in common was divinely inspired. There are two different accounts of
how the knowledge actually had been received.
· The first account derives from the apocryphal `Book of
Enoch'.
· In a passage that amplifies Genesis 6:1-5, Enoch tells how
200 angels descended from heaven to Mount Hermon and took wives from
the "daughters of man."
· The angels taught their knowledge to these women and to the
children they bore. For this presumption, the angels were thrown out
of heaven.
· Hermetic scholars recognize in this account a parallel to the
myth of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
· In the Gnostic interpretation of Adam and Eve's fall, Jehovah
is not `The Deity', but a powerful, though lesser spirit, who built
the material world and rules over it.
· Because of his jealousy and pride, Jehovah forbade knowledge
to Adam and Eve hoping they would worship him as the Highest God.
· The serpent, in this interpretation, is not Satan, but the
spirit `Ouroboros', sent by Wisdom (Sophia) to liberate the minds of
men and women.
· Magickal knowledge is thus seen to be a higher and more pious
wisdom than obedience to Jehovah alone; and the serpent Ouroboros,
far from being humankind's enemy, is seen as one of its greatest
saviours.
3. In a second account, magickal knowledge came from Hermes
Trismegistus (Thrice Great Hermes) who has given his name to the
magickal sciences.
· Hermes was a God of Greek settlers in Egypt, and was also
identified with the Egyptian God Thoth.
· Through the agency of an ancient Egyptian king, this God gave
humankind 42 books of knowledge, of which 14 short fragments, (in
Greek), survive.
· The most important of these is the Emerald Tablet.
· What we derive from Hermes above all, is the Doctrine of
Correspondence: "That which is above, is like that which is below."
· In other words, each man and woman is a small model of the
cosmos. Each mind is a model of the Divine mind.
· The four material elements - water, earth, wind and fire -
are models of the four universal principles.
4. The Ptolemaic scheme of the solar system is a model of the system
of the astral spheres.
· The Doctrine of Correspondence is essential to magick, and to
all occult studies.
· From Hermetic Tradition we derive not only Ceremonial Magick,
but also Alchemy.
· Magickians have usually practiced both sciences; and both are
said to have been taught by the angels of the Book of Enoch and by
Hermes Trismegistus.
· The difference between them is that, in alchemy the magickian
tries to bring about a special physical manifestation of ether. This
is the Philosopher's Stone, the Prima Materia. With it the Alchemist
can transmute base metals into gold, which is the highest material
form.
· The Ceremonial Magickian on the other hand, manipulates the
ether to call upon Spirits and to learn from them.
· Obviously, these are two similar, though very different
branches are of one science.
B. Faustian Magick
1. Faustian magick is the evocation of demons, and it began to
develop well before the 16th century when Faust lived.
· We do not know how much Faustian magick that is named after
the 16th century wizard, Dr. Johann Faust, was actually practiced.
· There are several copies extant of a book attributed to him.
(a) `Doctoris Iohannis Fausti Magiae Maturalis Et Innaturalis',
printed in Passau in 1505.
(b). The most significant of the magickal practices advocated by
these books is the use of a book of spirits, or Liber Spiritum.
2. The Liber Spiritum must be written on virgin paper.
· On the left hand pages are pictures of demons and on the
right hand pages are oaths that those demons have taken to serve the
sorcerer.
· Each oath is signed by the demon's mark.
· The book must be consecrated by a priest, who says three holy
masses over it.
· The process the good doctor had to go through to evoke the
demons and force them to swear oaths to him was very involved.
a. Here is a short biography of Faust.
Johann Faust (ca. 1480 - ca. 1540), probably born in Swabia and was
described by a contemporary as, "a most filthy beast, the midden of
numberless devils." He was as notorious for his homosexuality, as he
was for his reputed pact with Mephistopheles. When he died there
was, "A great noise and shaking of the house that night..... In the
morning he was found dead, with his neck rung behind him; the Divell
whom he served having carried his soule into Hell." Although he
sold his soul for material gain, he seems to have died in poverty.
C. Enochian Magick
1. What we know of Enochian Magick comes from a book called, "A
True and Faithful Relation of What Passed For Many Years Between
Doctor John Dee and Some Spirits", edited by Meric Casaubon and
published in 1659.
· The book is a memoir of the Welsh scholar John Dee (1527-
1608), concerning the experiments he conducted with the aid of the
psychic Edward Kelley (c. 1553-1595).
· John Dee was a mathematician and astrologer at the court of
Elizabeth I of England, while Edward Kelley was a psychic; he was
also probably a sorcerer and necromancer.
· Dee learned that Kelley had a gift for contacting spirits by
means of crystal gazing, and from 1582 to 1587, he used Kelley in
arduous attempts to learn the wisdom of the angels.
· Kelley, for his part, was never sure he was communicating
with angels and he constantly tried to withdraw from the experiments,
but Dee convinced him otherwise and to continue.
· Eventually, the spirits (chiefly a guide named Enoch),
communicated through Kelley, a spiritual language.
· This Enochian language had an alphabet of 21 letters. The
spirits supplied 19 invocations in this language and they translated
these for Dee. They also dictated magickal diagrams, primarily
squares; some of them containing as many as 2,401 letters and
instructions for their use.
· Despite the wealth of knowledge it encompassed, Enochian
magick fell into obscurity for many years.
· It was revived by the `Order of the Golden Dawn' and supposed
manuscripts currently on the market titled "The Book of Enoch",
claims to present the complete Enochian system in a simplified and
easy to use format.
D. Abramelin Magick
1. This branch of magick is based on an 18th century French
manuscript titled "The Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage".
· Abramelin set forth the semi-Gnostic doctrine that the world
was created and is maintained by demons who work under orders from
Angels.
· A magickian given the help of a Guardian Angel could learn to
control the demons for his own purposes.
· An adept depends heavily on word magick in the process and
especially on palindromic magick squares.
IV - THE GREAT BOOKS OF MAGICK
A. All great Fairy Tales mention a Magick Book of Spells, kept by
the great magickians of times long ago. I suppose this is perpetuated
in the present, "Book of Shadows".
1. These are records of incantations and gestures that have been
tried out numerous times before and proved to be most effective.
2. Medieval magickians collected any and all books on magick they
could get their hands on.
· There was an explosion of magickal books in the Middle Ages.
· Most were imperfect copies of each other as they were
translated from various languages to other languages and then back
again. (No wonder the mess).
· These books were called `Grimoires', perhaps an adulteration
of the French word for Grammer, which was applied to books, which
used to teach the basics of many different subjects to the children.
3. Actually there were only about five books of magick, which had
any claim whatsoever of being authentic and most of the others were
incomplete, and/or mostly incorrect copies of these basic five.
B. History of the Grimoires
1. The Testament of Solomon is the first great book of magick known
to us.
· It was published in Greek between 100-400 AD.
· Probably copied down by hand in the 2nd century.
· Speaking of the book, `as being published', is of course
strictly a convention, since all books were hand copied until the
invention of the printing press.
· This book purports to be Solomon's autobiographical memoir of
the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, which he accomplished with
the slave labor of devils.
· With the help of a ring given to him by the angel Raphael,
Solomon bound the vampire devil Ornais and forced him to work on the
Temple.
· Solomon learned the names of the other devils from Ornias and
bound them as well.
· By the 12th or 13th century, a list of 51 useful demons had
crept into copies of the Testament of Solomon.
· These were demons who could be persuaded to bring material
benefits to the sorcerer.
· Of course, if you speak to Freemasons they will fiercely
disagree with the builders being devil slave labour and invoke Hiram
Abiff as the Master Mason.
2. "The Key of Solomon" is perhaps the most famous of all the
magickal texts.
· There are many versions of "The Key of Solomon" in various
languages.
· The bulk of these are in French and Latin, some dating from
the 18th century.
· The Grimoire itself is believed to be much older though. In
the 1st century AD, Josephus referred to a book of incantations for
summoning evil spirits supposedly written by Solomon.
· The Greek version in the British Museum may date back to the
12th or 13th century.
· `The Key' was prohibited as a dangerous work by the
Inquisition in 1559, although like most books of magick, the local
clergy were allowed to keep (and to use) copies as long as they did
not step out of line and/or defy the authority of Rome.
3. `The Key' was concerned almost wholly with the practice of magick
for personal gain.
· It contained no hierarchy of demons, but it did offer a
system of magick based on the drawing of pentacles, which are five
pointed stars inscribed with charms.
· These were grouped according to astrological signs.
· The pentacles for Saturn, for instance, were useful for
causing earthquakes, inciting demons to fall upon victims, and in
general, bringing about ruin, destruction and death.
· The "Lemegeton", or `Lesser Key of Solomon', appeared not
long after the "Key of Solomon".
· It was divided into four parts.
4. Goetia
· Wier, Agrippa's pupil was said to have drawn on the Goetia
for his Grimoire, called Psuedomonarchia Daemonium.
(1) Theurgia Goetia
(2) The Pauline Art
(3) The Almadel
5. The Almadel was mentioned in writings dating back to the 1500's.
6. The `Lemegeton' included a complete hierarchy of 72 demons, whom
the sorcerer could evoke for his benefit.
· The origin and meaning of the `Lemegeton' is unknown.
7. The "Constitution of Honorius" first appeared in 1629.
· It was attributed to Pope Honorius III (1216-1227) and its
main contribution was to put a strongly Roman Catholic construction
on magickal evocation.
· Manuscript copies (corrupt ones), of the `Constitution of
Honorius' made their way to Germany well before 1629.
· These had been translated from Latin to French, leading some
to believe that it had made its way into France before coming to
Germany, where it was translated from French into German.
· Elements of the Constitution mingled with certain other
available texts and from these arose the strange mixture of
practices, which can properly be called Faustian magick.
8. The Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage is another puzzling text
with no definite source.
· As far as we know, it began as an 18th century French
manuscript, dated 1458, and it claimed to have been translated from
Hebrew.
· MacGregor Mathers, who founded the `Order of the Golden
Dawn', came across the text in the British Museum and translated it
into English. Since then, it has had a very strong influence on the
practice of magick and occult practices in general.
C. Other Grimoires
1. As previously noted, there was an explosion of Grimoires in the
Middle Ages and they continued to proliferate with the advent of the
Renaissance.
2. Most of these Grimoires were rip offs from `The Key of Solomon',
or later additions by `lesser known' magickians, to works attributed
to `well known' magickians.
3. "Grimorum Verum", written in French and supposedly published in
Memphis by Alibeck the Egyptian in 1517, (although it probably dates
from the 18th century), and seems to be based on the `Key of
Solomon'.
4. "Grand Grimoire", was written in French and probably dating from
the 18th century.
5. "The Red Dragon", is a version of the `Grand Grimoire'.
6. "True Black Magick", or "The Secret of Secrets", a French
version of the `Key of Solomon' was published in 1750.
7. "The Arbatel of Magick", was published in Latin at Basle,
Switzerland in 1575.
8. "The Black Pullet", supposedly published in Egypt in 1740, but
probably dates from the late 18th century.
9. "The Fourth Book", added to Agrippa's Occult Philosophy after
his death, and was rejected by his pupil Wier as a forgery.
10. "The Magickal Elements of Heptameron" was attributed to Peter
of Abano, who died in 1316. It was probably written in the 16th
century as a supplement to the `Fourth Book'.
V - THE TRAINING OF A MAGICKIAN
A. How Ceremonial Magick Works
1. We have seen that magickal texts always appeared in print many
years after they were written.
· By that time, the texts had become corrupted, secrets had
been suppressed, and whole new doctrines had been grafted onto the
older teachings.
2. The practice of magick is a highly individual matter.
· A true adept works out their own methods of evocation, after
sifting through all the available material, and adopting techniques
that resonate with his own inner self.
· Magick is an inner discipline. The errors that crept into
the magickal texts were errors of form, as opposed to errors of
substance.
· The inner meaning is what gives the work its `Power'.
· What matters is the magickian's state of mind, which produces
the psychic force he invests in the invocation. (Raising and
releasing power as in most forms of magick).
· Before one can practice magick he or she must attain a high
level of development in the mental, psychic and physical planes.
· In order to practice ceremonial magick it is necessary to
strengthen and develop the physical and etheric.
· Become expert in the techniques of astral travel and psi.
· And master the symbols of the Universal Mind in all their
forms.
3. Magickians are reputed to be able to make Spirits appear and
talk to them face to face, also to materialize balls of fire, or
watery globes and set them to work, to penetrate people's minds, and
travel to the farthest parts of the world as quickly as thought
itself.
· They are said to be able to do these things by mastering the
use of the `universal energy' called "Ether".
· Some call the universal energy AKASHA, which is a Sanskrit
word meaning, bright or shining.
· Ether is not matter, but it is the origin, or substratum, of
all matter.
· It infuses the entire universe. The universe being considered
to be nothing but ether in its various states of existence.
· Ether emanates directly from the Deity. At its purest, the
point at which it is closest to the Deity, is pure Light.
· As it emanates outward in all directions, it becomes more and
more gross.
· The different levels of what we call the `astral plane' are
levels of ether.
· What we call the `material plane' is the lowest, grossest
form of ether.
5. Magickians use the Ptolemaic scheme of the universe as a map of
the etheric levels.
· In this scheme, the universe is made up of 10 astral spheres
and four material spheres.
· It is further grouped into the Higher Astral, Lower Astral,
and the Material Planes.
6. The Higher Astral Plane
(a) Primum Mobile (First Mover)
(b) Crystal firmament
(c) Fixed stars
7. The Lower Astral Plane
(a) Saturn
(b) Jupiter
(c) Mars
(d) Sun
(e) Venus
(f) Mercury
(g) Moon
8. The Material Plane
(a) Fire
(b) Air
(c) Water
(d) Earth
9. In describing the Material plane, magickians use the ancient
division of four elements: earth, water, air and fire.
10. Ether serves as the fifth element or (in Latin) the `Quinta
Essentia', or `Quintessence'.
· Because ether, (or akasha or quintessence), has no bounds of
time or space, anyone who learns to use it will be able to penetrate
all levels of the universe thoroughly and instantly.
· The magickian who is adept in his craft can thus work equally
well on the mental, astral, and material planes.
B. The Apprenticeship
1. It is possible to stumble across your hidden talents, but it is
better to follow a set course of study in magick.
· This provides guidance along the way and because you are
following a path that has been trodden before, you will come across
milestones that will help you gauge your progress.
2. The following information is derived from a 10-stage programme
of initiation based on the contemporary German magickian Franz
Bardon's book, "Initiation into Hermetics".
· Before you begin, you must give up the idea that you own your
own thoughts.
· Most people believe their thoughts are part of their minds,
just as their hands are a part of their bodies.
· Your thoughts live freely in your mind, just as wild animals
roam freely through a forest.
· Each mind is connected to the Universal Mind and thoughts, as
well as thought-forms, swim through it occasionally surfacing in this
mind and that…….
· This concept must be mastered if you are to understand and
master the process of magickal evocation.
· The spirits you will evoke inhabit your mind just as
independently as your thoughts.
· They live in your mind because it is a part of the Universal
Mind.
· For this reason if you evoke a Spirit of the sphere Venus, it
will not arrive from outer space but from within your own mind.
· The Spirits originate in the mind, but they are quite real.
The Spirits do appear and work on the material plane, but you must
look within yourself for them.
· The point is, that whatever you seek must be looked for
within, for you only delude yourself when you look for the answers
without, or outside yourself.
· Once you have grasped the above material fully, you can begin
the ten stages of the initiation.
· The exercises will prepare you mentally, psychically, and
physically for the practice of magick.
3. Mental - Now that you are aware that your thoughts are like
living beings, you must become more aware of them.
· Meditation, perhaps coupled with yoga, is a good way of
doing this, as is carrying out some forms of candle magick, or like
the special Supplementary exercises for Coven of Cythrawl members,
which helps open hidden doors to Otherworlds.
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