Book of Ceremonial Magic: Chapter I: The antiquity of Magical Rituals: Section 3: The Unprinted Literature of Ceremonial Magic

§ 3. The Unprinted Literature of Ceremonial Magic

For the purposes of the present, inquiry it will be convenient to consider the Rituals under the three heads of Transcendental, Composite and Black, subject, as regards the first, to some specific qualifications which will appear in the second chapter, and subject, in respect of all, to the perfect understanding that these three are one. So far as may be possible, the antiquity of individual Rituals will be determined in the course of their examination, but as this inquiry is based, with a single exception of undeniable importance, upon the printed literature, because it is that only which has exercised a real influence, it may be well, as a conclusion to this introductory part, to give some information regarding magical processes which have remained in manuscript, and are to be found only, or can at least be consulted only, in the public libraries of Europe. Almost without exception, the source of their inspiration is the work mentioned in the preface, namely, The Key of Solomon, and

Hochmel or Hocroel, (? Hochmaël), and thereafter wrote seven volumes of Magical Art, "giving the kernel to us and the shells to others." From these books he seems afterwards to have extracted ninety-three chapters, containing a summary of the whole subject, and made them into a volume which "we term the sacred or sworn book." In the meantime, the princes and prelates, having burned "certain fables or trifles," concluded that they had completely destroyed the art, and were therefore pacified. The magicians, however, took an oath among themselves to preserve the masterpiece of Honorius in the most secret and careful manner, making three copies at the most, the possessor of any example being bound over to bury it before his decease, or otherwise insure its interment in his own grave, unless there were some trusty and worthy person to whom it could be transmitted. It is interesting to note that this is the Law of Transmission in respect of Alchemy. The important point about the MS. itself is that it fixes the source of the mendacious tradition which ascribes a Grimoire of Black Magic to a Pope of the name of Honorius, as will be seen at length later on. The Sworn Book is not, of course, the Grimoire, but the existence and reputed authorship of the one will enable us to understand the attribution of the other. Honorius the sorcerer was identified with Honorius the Pope, firstly by the confused mind of magical legend, and secondly by conscious imposture, much after the same manner that Raymond Lully, the "illuminated doctor" of Majorca, was

The second group comprises two MSS., both in the Sloane collection, and both containing, among other treatises, the important and curious work attributed to Solomon under the title of Sepher Raziel. That numbered 3826 belongs to the sixteenth century. It is an English translation of a Latin original which in this form is unknown to myself; the first line of the original is usually given at the beginning of each section. It is divided into seven books, and purports to have been sent to Solomon by a prince of Babylon who was greater and more worshipful than all men of his time, his name being Sameton, while the two wise men who brought it were called Kamazan and Zazant. The Latin title of the treatise is said to be Angelus

Ala; it treats of the virtues of stones, herbs and beasts. The third is Tractatus Thymiamalum, the use of which term connects it with the Sworn Book of Honorius; it treats of suffumigations. The fourth sets out the times of the year, day and night which are disposed to operation; the fifth embodies the laws regarding lustrations and abstinence; while the sixth, called Samaim, expounds the nature of the heavens, of the angels and of the operations of each. The seventh and last book is concerned with the virtues of names. A Latin version of the Sepher Raziel occurs in Sloane MS. 3853, ascribed to the same period. It differs from the former in several considerable respects, being also much shorter and full of rare magical symbols.

The MSS. of the third group are all in English, and all of late date.

Sloane 2731 is a very neat MS., begun on January 10, 1676, and containing the entire Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon, in English. Some account of this celebrated work, which has so unaccountably escaped publication, will be found in the third chapter of this part. Sloane 3648 is another manuscript of the Lemegeton, also in English, together with the Ars Notoria, a book of invocations and prayers attributed to Solomon, of which there are many examples extant in England and on the Continent. 1 It is a work which connects with Magic

1 In either case, it is not a work of Ceremonial Magic, its title notwithstanding. Sloane 3805 is a quarto MS., chiefly alchemical and medical, comprising a translation of the forged epistles of Sendivogius, and towards the end the Lemegeton, started by the writer apparently with the intention of transcribing all the works attributed to Solomon under the heading of this angelic name. It breaks off, however, at the end of the offices of the thirteenth spirit belonging to the Infernal Hierarchy.

It should be added that the three groups contain materials which are common to all. The independent treatises which follow the Sepher Raziel in Sloane 3826 extract matter from the Sworn Book, while that entitled Liber Lunæ, concerning the intelligences of the mansions of the moon, the squares of the planets, their seals, rings and so forth--which, by the way, seems in this form unknown to modern critics--has given material to other and later collections.

The unprinted literature of Ceremonial Magic offers a considerable field to research, though even in the historical or bibliographical interest it is questionable whether it would repay the pains, unless research of all kinds whatsoever is to be regarded as its own reward. Among the miscellaneous MSS. in the British Museum, it is here only necessary to notice two,

Footnotes

21:1 The printed English translation of Robert Turner is well known to collectors.

22:1 The genuine Archidoxies are concerned with the alchemical separation of elements, with transcendental Medicine and the Quintessence, with Magisteries and Elixirs. The first complete rendering is in The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, edited by myself, 2 vols. 4to 1894.