A Collection of Magical Secrets
November 23rd, 2008 by starsorceror
I have been receiving requests and enquiries from people regarding the contents of the forthcoming volume A Collection of Magical Secrets. For this reason I felt it would be appropriate to give a precis of the pleasures to look forward to in this book.
Amongst the material in the first part, A Collection of Magical Secrets, is a conjuration of a Prince of the Thumb, an angel onto the olive oil-anointed thumbnail of a virgin child or pregnant woman, along with associated practices. There are a large quantity of charms for regaining stolen or lost property, showing a wide range of sympathetic magick techniques such as dreaming, poppets, bread and sieves.
Many of the simple charms resemble the writings of Albertus Magnus and also the nineteenth century French pseudo-grimoires of black magick, such as the Grimoire of Pope Honorius III, the Red Dragon and Grimoirum Verum. The charms referred to as coming from Agrippa include a wider range of material. As well as many healing cantrips, there are a number of examples of how to gain a familiar spirit, plus the inevitable charms for winning in love and gambling.
The first part of Concerning Miscellaneous Cabalah is a description of the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life with their main qualities, i.e. name, divine name, archangel, order of angels, heaven, as well as which biblical character was ruled by the archangel. This is followed by a ritual sequence of prayer and actions for maintaining purity and leading a good life, performed over a series of days for increased knowledge of Cabalah or other revelations from the angels.
The second part of Concerning Miscellaneous Cabalah is largely concerned with practical instructions for the construction, consecration and use of the seals. This is followed by sections on Properties of the Verses and Scriptures, and Verses for Illnesses & Infirmities.
The section on the properties of the Verses and Scriptures mirrors the type of use of the Psalms described in Sefer Shimmush Tehillim, although some of the uses are different. The third part of Concerning Miscellaneous Cabalah is a technique for angelic dream incubation. The prayers and seals are given for the planetary angels, with a very concise and lucid set of instructions on their use. The fourth part of Concerning Miscellaneous Cabalah is a system of divination based on 112 answers.
Tags: a collection of magical secrets, concerning miscellaneous cabalah, cornelius agrippa, dream incubation, grimoire of pope honorius, grimorium verum, princes of the thumb, qabalah, red dragon
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What is a Ceremony?
November 10th, 2008 by starsorceror
Whilst writing Practical Elemental Magick, Sorita and I spent a fair amount of time discussing how best to express our views on many of the ideas contained within it. Amongst these was how we perceived ceremonies. The result of this was the following, which we hope is of interest to other practitioners:
A ceremony is the synergy of its component symbols, parts and principles, and this synergy is expressed through creating a sequence of focused ritual actions imbued with power. The sequence when performed forms a critical mass of intent resulting in a predetermined consequence. When a ceremony is repeated its internal power increases and it becomes a ritual. It can then be considered a sequence of sacred technology, as it develops an inherent flow which can be experienced by anyone who practices it correctly, generating repeatable results.
Tags: ceremony, magick, practical elemental magick, sorita d'este
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Typos and Mistakes - they always creep in!
November 10th, 2008 by starsorceror
Whilst delighted with the production of The Veritable Key of Solomon, it has reminded me once again of the problems of having proofreaders. Whilst even blockbusters usually contain typos, which category they fall into determines their irritation factor. They fall into two categories, either simple grammatical errors such as misspelling, or contextual errors. The latter can range from annoying to funny, depending on the context. The mistake which crept in to the Veritable Key came from the inexperience of a proofreader, who did not realise that Lynn Thorndike was a man and annoyingly changed a he to she on p21! Still it is not as bad as the translator who felt that the letter q had to be followed by a u, and that is why Franz Bardon’s book “Key to the True Quabbalah” introduced a new and spurious spelling of the word Qabalah! Or more amusingly, a translator who did not know the occult field, and translated the words from a German manuscript to read “bungalows of the moon” instead of “mansions of the moon”!
Tags: franz bardon, key to the true quabbalah, lynn thorndike, mansions of the moon, veritable key of solomon
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