Book of Ceremonial Magic: Chapter II: The Initial Rites and Ceremonies: Section 9: Concerning the Time of Operation

§ 9. Concerning the Time of Operation

When the sacrifice of the Art or its substitute has once been completed, the operator is in possession of all the materials that he will require ex hypothesi for the performance of Goëtic works as described in the Book of True Black Magic or the Grimorium Verum. But as the first of these Rituals ordains that the preparation of the artist shall be made in accordance with certain planetary influences, so in like manner does it regulate the time of operation or accomplishment. The instructions still follow, and still in a confused manner, the authority of the Clavicle. It will be well to reproduce them here in a succinct analysis, though the piecemeal nature of the treatise attributed to Iroë-Grego leaves the rules without much practical value, while no attention is paid to them by other makers of Grimoires:--

An experiment of speaking with spirits or conjuring them should be operated in the day and hour of Mercury, which hour may be the first or the eighth, but the fifteenth or twenty-second of the same night will be still better, for spirits appear more easily in the silence of the dark hours. A certain atmospheric condition is also required for the experiment of calling spirits, and an obscure uninhabited place congruous to such an art is even more necessary, for so only will it be accomplished and educed. But if the experiment be concerned with a theft, 1 it should be performed in the hour of the Moon and on her day--if it be possible, in the crescent Moon--from the first to the eighth hour, or, failing this, at ten o'clock in the night. It is better, however, in the day, because the light has more correspondence

1 should be operated when the Moon is in Pisces. Experiments of love, favour and grace 2 should be accomplished on the day and in the hour of the Sun or Venus, from the first to the eighth hour, with the Moon in Pisces. Works of destruction, hatred and desolation 3 should be performed on the day and in the hour of Saturn, from the first or eighth to the fifteenth or twenty-second hour of the night; they are then certain. Burlesque and amusing experiments are performed on the day of Venus, in the first and the eighth hour, or in the fifteenth and twenty-second hour of the night. Extraordinary experiences should be operated in corresponding hours on the day of Jupiter. 4

 

Footnotes

182:1 An experiment of this kind is reproduced by the Grimoire from the Key of Solomon, but does not call for inclusion either by its connection with Black Magic--for there is no connection, or by any inherent interest--for there is again none.

183:1 See Chapter VIII.

183:2 See Venereal Experiments in Chapter VIII.

183:3 See Chapter VIII.

183:4 The chapter on Extraordinary Experiments in the Key of Solomon is rendered unintelligible by want of details. It reappears in the Grimoire, but is omitted from this translation for the reason indicated.