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Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic - Book I

Practical Angel Magic of Dr John Dee's Enochian Tables

Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

From two previously unpublished 17th century manuscripts on Angel Magic, with instructions for their use as used by Wynn Westcott, Alan Bennett, Rev. Ayton, F L Gardiner and other members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The authors have discovered what happened to John Dee's most important manuscript, his book of personal angelic invocations which he kept in Latin, and how it was preserved and developed by 17th century magicians into a full working magical system. How only a small part of this material reached the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1880's. Even this was then suppressed by the chiefs of the Order, and it did not appear in Israel Regardie's monumental work on the Order rituals.

They have also traced how the classical techniques of invocation and evocation drawn from late mediaeval grimoires, were passed through John Dee's magic, via Elias Ashmole, to the aristocratic angel magicians of the 17th century, including some of the most powerful and influential figures in England.

In the 20th century many fanciful constructions were added to GD Enochian by writers such as Aleister Crowley, who were however all unaware of the completely developed system that already existed, and which is here published in full for the first time.

This book provides the complete text of Sloane MS 307 and Sloane MS 3821, two previously unpublished 17th century manuscripts which expand massively on the Latin in Dee's Tabularum Bonorum Angelorum Invocationes found in Sloane MS 3191. The authors also provide derivative material from the original Sloane manuscripts which occurred in Rawlinson MS D1067 and Rawlinson MSS D1363. The first part of the material on the Enochian Tables found in the Sloane manuscripts was used by the Golden Dawn to form their Book H, and a transcription of Allan Bennett's personal copy of Book H is included as an appendix, as well as textual comparison from Frederick Leigh Gardner's copy against the Sloane material.

To appreciate manuscript material the context and provenance of the material needs to be demonstrated, and Skinner and Rankine have done this with extensive chapters elaborating on Sources of Angel Magic in the Grimoires, John Dee, Aristocratic Magic after the Sixteenth Century and the Impact of the Golden Dawn. A whole range of well-known and obscure magicians are brought to life with details of their lives and practices, tracing the ownership and use of the material from the time of their creation through to the Golden Dawn.

Hardback in dustwrapper. £35.00

Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic - Book II

Keys to the Gateway of Magic

Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

Summoning the Solomonic Archangels and Demon Princes. This work includes the complete unabridged version with variants of The Nine Great Keys, a vital early 17th century manuscript detailing the evocation of the Archangels and Orders of Angels. The practical techniques of summoning the Archangels, details of the hierarchies of spiritual beings, and how the Enochian system fits in with the Angelic and Demonic hierarchies are all covered, as well as the theology and philosophy associated with Angelic magic, giving the context that the pioneers of Angel magic were working within.

Additionally the evocation of the four Demon Princes and their role within the system of magic which can now be seen to cover all spiritual creatures from Archangels to Demons to Olympic Spirits and Elementals is also presented in detail with rare manuscript material being made available for the first time. Amongst the rare material is a previously unknown and beautifully illustrated volume dealing excusively with the Demon Princes.

This volume draws on a wide range of manuscript sources to make available some of the most important grimoire material of the seventeenth century. The Nine Celestial Keys details the evocation to visible appearance or into a crystal of the nine archangels who rule the heavens corresponding to the Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod on the Tree of Life, and includes seals for all the archangels. The primary and earliest source of this material is Sloane MS 3825, which also contains the Janua Magica Reserata and a Tenth Key, and from notes contained within it was clearly owned by Elias Ashmole. The Nine Celestial Keys are also in Harley MS 6482 with much other material, copied in 1712 by Peter Smart, and in Sloane MS 3628, bound in the front of a diary dated 1686-88.

Janua Magica Reserata contains a wide range of theological and philosophical material relating to the grimoires, including a unique hierarchy which connects the Enochian system to the Spiritual Creatures of the Grimoires. The Demon Princes are found in Sloane MS 3824, which uses exactly the same style of conjuration as the Nine Celestial Keys. The same material is also found in the derivative manuscript Rawlinson MS D1363, and textual comparison given to demonstrate the propagation of the material.

Hardback in dustwrapper. £35.00

Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic - Book III

The Goetia of Dr Rudd

Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

The Goetia (Lemegeton) is the most famous grimoire after the Key of Solomon. This volume contains a transcription of a hitherto unpublished manuscript of the Lemegeton which includes four whole grimoires:

• Liber Malorum Spituum seu Goetia

• Theurgia-Goetia

• Ars Paulina (Books 1 & 2)

• Ars Almadel

This was owned by Dr Thomas Rudd, a practicing scholar-magician of the early seventeenth century. There are many editions of the Goetia, of which the most definitive is that of Joseph Peterson, but here we are interested in how the Goetia was actually used by practising magicians in the 16th and 17th century, before the knowledge of practical magic faded into obscurity.

To evoke the 72 demons listed here without the ability to bind them would be foolhardy indeed. It was well known in times past that invocatio and ligatio, or binding, was a key part of evocation, but in the modern editions of the Goetia this key technique is expressed in just one word ‘Shemhamphorash’, and its use is not explained.

This volume explains how the 72 angels of the Shemhamphorash are used to bind the spirits, and the correct procedure for safely invoking them using dual seals incorporating the necessary controlling angel, whose name is also engraved on the breastplate and Brass Vessel.

This volume is a transcription of Harley MS 6483, the Lemegeton. Unlike other copies of the Lemegeton, Rudd included the use of the 72 angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash as controlling spirits for the demons of the Goetia, transforming the practice of Goetic magic. He also included far more of the material from Peter de Abano's Heptameron, the source of much of the grimoire tradition. Material from Rudd's other major work, Harley MS 6482, is also included to set the context of the work with the Shem ha-Mephorash angels.

Although much work has been done on the Lemegeton, Skinner and Rankine trace component parts of the grimoire back further than has previously been done, and include other relevant manuscript material not previously available. This includes proto-Goetic material from Sloane MS 3824, such as a Spirit Contract, invocations of the Wandering Princes and Ruling Demons. The Goetia of Ebenezer Sibley, found in Wellcome MS 3203 is also included to show a later derivative version and complete the range of available Lemegeton material in the public forum.

Available in two editions.

Standard hardback in dustwrapper. £40.00

Ltd. ed. 250 leatherbound copies, signed/numbered by Stephen Skinner. £125.00

THE COMPLETE MAGICIAN'S TABLES

Stephen Skinner

The Most Complete Tabular set of Magic, Kabbalistic, Angelic, Astrologic, Alchemic, Demonic, Geomantic, Grimoire, Gematria, I Ching, Tarot, Pagan Pantheon, Plant, Perfume and Character Correspondences in more than 777 Tables.

These magical tables are probably the most complete set of tabular correspondences covering magic, astrology, divination, Tarot, I Ching, Kabbalah, gematria, angels, demons, pagan pantheons, religious and mystical correspondences currently in print.

They are more than four times larger and more wide ranging than Crowley's Liber 777. The source of the data in these tables ranges from unpublished manuscript mediaeval grimoires and Kabbalistic works, Peter de Abano, Abbott Trithemius, Albertus Magnus, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Dr John Dee, Dr Thomas Rudd, Tycho Brahe, MacGregor Mathers, (and the editors of Mather's work, Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie), to the most modern theories of prime numbers and atomic weights. The sources include many key grimoires such the Sworn Book, Liber Juratus, the Lemegeton (Goetia, Theurgia-Goetia, Almadel, Pauline Art), Abramelin, and in the 20th century the grimoire of Franz Bardon.

All this material has been grouped and presented in a consistent and logical way covering the whole westerm Mystery traditon and some relevant parts of the Eastern tradition.

Available in two editions

Standard hardback in dustwrapper. £30.00

Ltd. ed. 250 leatherbound copies, signed/numbered by Stephen Skinner. £96.00

THE VERITABLE KEY OF SOLOMON

Stephen Skinner and David Rankine

1st 2008 448pp Golden Hoard 4to h/b. Prof. illus. in colour. Hand bound in black half leather and maroon buckram, with marbled endpapers and hand gold stamped. Limited to 350 Copies.

The Key of Solomon is the most famous and infamous of all the Grimoires and books of magic ever produced. Yet amazingly only one version of it has ever been published, which was compiled from diverse sections drawn from seven different manuscripts in 1889 by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, the occult scholar who was one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Stephen Skinner and David Rankine have explored the labyrinthine trail of manuscripts of the Key of Solomon around the world, and after studying dozens of manuscripts, decided on the two which best represent this grimoire tradition to provide the widest range of material in their new work, The Veritable Key of Solomon. The book reproduces the Keys from Wellcome MS 4669 and MS 4670, two previously overlooked French manuscripts scribed for a French aristocrat in 1796, and here translated into English for the first time. They are not the earliest, but they are the most detailed, containing three separate Keys which cover a wealth of material not found in the Mathers’ edition. These Keys are The Keys of Rabbi Solomon, The Key of Solomon King of the Hebrews and The Universal Treatise of the Keys of Solomon. One of these manuscripts was the one referred to by Bulwer-Lytton in his classic nineteenth century magical novel of initiation, Zanoni, and another one contains an early version of the material later found in the Grimorium Verum.

The fame of the Key of Solomon probably stems from the fact that it was the closest thing available to a manual for the aspiring or practicing magician wishing to evoke angels and demons during the Renaissance. Everything from how to construct the magic circle, how to determine the most auspicious times, what perfumes were most conducive to burn, how to prepare your tools, what prayers and conjurations should be used, how to make and use the pentacles which acted as magical foci for the appropriate intent, indeed all aspects of the process and practices were included. The Veritable Key of Solomon shows the influence of the Heptameron on these practices more clearly than the previous Mathers text, through such elements as magic circles, perfumes, seals and including all the planetary circles for the seasons. It is illustrated in colour, with more than twice as many talismanic pentacles as were produced in the nineteenth century text, and also is more inclusive of earlier material such as the Olympic Spirits, Planetary Intelligences and Spirits. These Keys contain the most comprehensive collection of practical planetary grimoire material ever seen in a book and greatly expand the scope of information available to students and practitioners.

The Veritable Key of Solomon also features a commentary on the provenance of the different families of Key of Solomon manuscripts, tracing their use through Renaissance Europe, and exploring the effects they had on society around them as they were copied and transmitted into ever wider circles. The Introduction includes commentary on all the families of manuscripts including the earlier Greek manuscripts, as well as a study of the other books attributed to Solomon. The appendixes include a list of the known Key of Solomon manuscripts and incorrectly attributed manuscripts. The huge number of extant manuscripts (more than 120) clearly demonstrates that the Key of Solomon was the most significant magical book for several hundred years from the late sixteenth through to the nineteenth century, and this work finally restores the Key of Solomon tradition back to its place in the heart of the magical revival. £96.00

OCCULT SPELLS

Compiled by Frederick Hockley

With an Introduction by Silens Manus

1st 2009 208pp Teitan Press 4to h/b. Printed on library-quality paper, sewn, in a heavy weight black cloth binding, with a gilt sigil stamped on the front cover, and gilt title etc. to the spine. Color frontispiece. No d/w as issued. Ltd. ed. 500 copies.

The first section comprises a 9 page Introduction, which is followed by a 72 page typeset transcription of the text of the grimoire, with explanatory footnotes, translations of the passages in Latin, etc. etc. The final section is a 120 page facsimile of the original manuscript of the grimoire, printed on special coated paper that gives a photograph like quality to the reproduction.

This is the first ever printing of Occult Spells, a work that until now has existed only as a manuscript in a private collection. It is part of a rich legacy of carefully written manuscripts, left to the world by the Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), an occultist and Freemason with an interest in Spiritualism who in later life was associated with the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Hockley's peers considered him to be one of the great occult scholars of his time: in fact he was held in such high regard by one of the founders of the Golden Dawn, W. Wynn Westcott, that he posthumously claimed Hockley as one of the Order's most outstanding Adepts.

Occult Spells is a sort of esoteric "commonplace book" in which Hockley recorded material on different spells, talismans, charms and such-like that he came across in rare books and manuscripts in the course of his researches. Hockley started compiling the book at about the age of twenty, and added to it throughout his life: he still had it in his possession when he died at the age of seventy-six. The sources that he used ranged from "occult classics" such as Richard Saunders' "Physiognomie, and Chiromancie, Metoposcopie" (1671), John Heydon's "Theomagia, or the Temple of Wisdome" (1663); and Henry Cornelius Agrippa's "Three Books of Occult Philosophy" (1651), to relatively obscure works like Joseph Pettigrew's "Bibliotheca Sussexiana" (1827), and notorious grimoires like the "Petit Albert". The spells and talismans vary as much as his sources: from sublime Enochian invocations, through folk magic, and on into the darker realms of necromancy. Thus it includes charms to determine "the name of the person you will marry" (useful only to virgins!), a quite poisonous-sounding "love powder," talismans for all sorts of purposes, and even a recipe for the creation of a homunculus.

The book includes an Introduction and a typeset transcription of the text of the manuscript, prepared by Silens Manus, a scholar of Hockley's works who has studied literally dozens of his manuscripts. In addition to checking and restoring illegible words or phrases from the original sources that Hockley used, Manus has also added footnotes explaining many obscure terms, plant and deity names and such-like, as well as providing translations of most of the less common non-English phrases and passages that appear in the text. Hockley had also left a number of blank spaces in the text of the manuscript in which he planned to eventually reproduce some of the tables and diagrams in the works from which he quoted. Where possible Manus has included these in the transcription. £52.50

A COLLECTION OF MAGICAL SECRETS/A TREATISE OF MIXED QABALAH

Translated from Wellcome MS4669 by Paul Harry Barron from the original French manuscript dated 1796

With introduction and commentary by Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

1st 2009 166pp Avallonia trade p/b.

Between the worlds of the Renaissance magician and the modern witch lie the Books of Secrets. Bridging the complexity of Grimoires and the practicality of folk magic, A Collection of Magical Secrets is a treasure trove of simple charms made with easily available materials for healing, love spells, good fortune, gaining familiar spirits, making magical rings, regaining stolen property, and communicating with spirits and angels. A wide range of sympathetic magic techniques such as dreaming, poppets, using bread, herbs, mirrors and sieves, are utilised to ensure the success of the charms.

A Treatise of Mixed Cabalah contains four parts, three of which fit together to develop a greater knowledge of the practical Qabalah. This includes a ritual sequence of prayers and actions for increasing knowledge, practical instructions for the construction, consecration and use of wax pentacles for absent healing, a technique for angelic dream incubation and a system of divination with 112 possible answers.

The two parts of this book were previously bound together in a late eighteenth century French manuscript, Wellcome Ms 4669, with The Clavicule of Solomon and The Universal Treatise of the Keys of Solomon. These are reproduced along with The Keys of Rabbi Solomon, in the most significant grimoire publication of modern times, The Veritable Key of Solomon by Stephen Skinner & David Rankine. The inclusion in the beautifully copied manuscript of these two diverse parts captures the essence of a time when books about magic were starting to become more available to the masses. Despite their recent production date of 1796, both of these parts draw on techniques with their roots in the practices of the ancient world, reaffirming the continuity of practice over the millennia also seen in the Key of Solomon. £12.99

GRIMOIRES: A HISTORY OF MAGIC BOOKS

Owen Davies

1st 2009 384pp OUP h/b in d/w. 16pp plates.

From the author of “Cunning-Folk.” Grimoires are books of spells that were first recorded in the Ancient Middle East and which have developed and spread across much of the Western Hemisphere and beyond over the ensuing millennia. At their most benign, they contain charms and remedies for natural and supernatural ailments and advice on contacting spirits to help find treasures and protect from evil. But at their most sinister they provide instructions on how to manipulate people for corrupt purposes and, worst of all, to call up and make a pact with the Devil. Both types have proven remarkably resilient and adaptable and retain much of their relevance and fascination to this day.

But the grimoire represents much more than just magic. To understand the history of grimoires is to understand the spread of Christianity, the development of early science, the cultural influence of the print revolution, the growth of literacy, the impact of colonialism, and the expansion of western cultures across the oceans. As this book richly demonstrates, the history of grimoires illuminates many of the most important developments in European history over the last two thousand years. £14.99

A BOOK OF SHADOWS

Transcribed and with Artwork and Embellishments by pan.zos pagurus

1st 2008 128pp Teitan Press 4to h/b. Prof. illus. Fine black cloth with a striking white design to the front cover, and white titling on spine Limited edition 400 numbered copies.

The compiler of A Book of Shadows, pan.zos pagurus, was initiated into a Witchcraft Coven in England in 1976, and in keeping with tradition copied out his initiators' "Book of Shadows" adding his own embellishments, and magical notes. The result, reproduced here in facsimile, is an authentic and very beautiful grimoire, created by an active practitioner of the craft over thirty years ago.

At the time of his initiation pan.zos pagurus was told that the "Book of Shadows" was a traditional work central to "the Craft." Although he didn't know it then, the text was derived from a manuscript belonging to the so-called "Father of modern Wicca," Gerald Gardner, who many now suggest was actually its author. A Book of Shadows, as it is here published contains that text, as well as the "rites and structures of the seasonal ceremonies," that were given to pan.zos at a later stage. Initiates were also encouraged to personalize their book, so pan.zos added in a series of images and diary doodlings that were inspired by ceremonies and studies over a three year period. During this time he was also deeply drawn into the worlds and work of Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley, whose influence show both in the Spare-inspired "embellishments," and the frequent quotations from their works.

This is not a "how to book" or historical study. As pan.zos says in his Introduction "I make no claims at all with regard to the profundity of my own part of this book. It is presented simply as a very personal record of the early years of an occult journey, started half-a-lifetime ago." £39.99

SEPHER MAPHTEAH SHELOMOH

(BOOK OF THE KEY OF SOLOMON)

Keith Richmond (ed)

Edited and with Introductions by Hermann Gollancz

Foreword by Stephen Skinner

1st thus 2008 158pp Teitan 4to h/b. Blue cloth with gilt titling to spine and front covers, and gilt design on front cover, no d/w as issued. Edition limited to 358 numbered copies

The book centres on a Hebrew manuscript entitled Sepher Maphteah Shelomoh, that dates from around 1700. The original manuscript was discovered in the library of a London Rabbi, Samuel Marcus Gollancz (1819-1900), by his son, Herman, not long after his father's death. Hermann Gollancz, himself an eminent Hebrew scholar, was fascinated by the manuscript, and felt that its study might give important insight into the history and origins of the "Solomonic" grimoires or books of magic, that are a mainstay of the Western occult tradition. In 1903 Gollancz published his preliminary thoughts and translations in a booklet entitled Clavicula Salomonis, A Hebrew Manuscript, and in 1914 he published a facsimile of the manuscript, along with a twenty-page English-language Introduction discussing the text, under the title Sepher Maphteah Shelomo in an edition of only 300 copies. Both books are extremely rare, and have never before been reprinted.

This new Teitan Press edition includes the full text of both of Gollancz's books, a facsimile of the original Hebrew manuscript, and a new Foreword by well-known scholar of the occult Stephen Skinner, in which he explores the history of the grimoire in the light of modern scholarship.

The first section comprises the English-language Foreword and Introductions, and is 64 pages: printed on quality uncoated paper for easy readability. The remaining 158 pages (the facsimile of the original Hebrew manuscript) are printed on special coated paper, that gives a photograph like quality to the reproduction of the manuscript, with its numerous drawings of seals, talismans etc. In keeping with tradition, it has been printed so that the English text, which is of course read left to right, is back-to-back with the Hebrew facsimile, which is read from right to left. £49.99