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Prologue
This short exposition (since a longer one would take many volumes)
of the western traditions of Magic and spirituality is intended to
show a continuos line of developing and uninterrupted magical
thought. Clive Barker in his book Imajica says "Magic is the first
and the last religion of the world" and I think he said it right.
We start five thousand years in the past when our ancestors just
started to build the first cities (and built them well) and we end
in the twentieth century with the techno-shamanism of the new
cults. This paper is about what happened in between �
Asyro-Babylonian Magic
The religion on the ground of today's Iran and Iraq 4000 years ago
resembled the ancient Indian (Arian) one. It consisted of two
groups of Gods: Ahuras and Daivas. In the beginning these two
types of Gods had the same status, but then they segregated. While
in India Ahuras became gods and Daivas became demons, in the
Asyro-Babylonian civilization Daivas became gods and Ahuras
devolved to demons. Asyro-Babylonian religion relied heavily on
Astrology and, in fact, the oldest concepts of astrology come from
the areas around the rivers of Eufrat and Tiger, from ancient
Mesopotamia. From here astrology was distributed to India, China,
Greece and the rest of the world. The Asyrians were the ones who
invented the Zodiac, the twelve signs, the 360 degrees circle, the
idea of a "creative rest" day, the week of 7 days, the 12 months,
60 minutes in an hour, and they had very developed mathematics,
mostly for the need of Astrology.
From the Asyro-Babylonian tradition originate the words Magic,
Mag, and Magus. Magi (Magoi) were the highest priests, or "learned
men," in the Asyro-Babylonian kingdom, and their art or science
was called magic (or Magia). In the bible they are occasionally
mentioned as a "tribe" which may point that the position was
hereditary. Originally the Magi were just one of the many tribes
in Mesopotamia, but later most of the priests were chosen exactly
from this tribe and its name became symbol for magic and
magicians. The Magi were known for their worship of fire, and had
reputation of being able to control and direct fire and
lightening. Eliphas Levi says that the Magi have discovered the
secret of electricity and "were able to generate and direct it in
ways that are now unknown" (History, 55). In favor of this may
speak the artifacts that were found around today�s Baghdad, 400
years old, and which looked like modern batteries. When scientist
filled them with alkaline solution the "Baghdad Batteries" were
perfectly able to produce electricity.
In the oldest theogonies of the Asyro-Babylonian originally the
highest god was Enlil, the Lord Wind, but in other theogonies An
(Anum) was the ruling god, together with his son Enki (Ea). Anum
was the Sky God, and the king of all the other gods, while Ea was
the God of Wisdom, and also the Lord of the Earth. Although Anum
was the king of the gods, Enlil had the executive power, which he
often usurped. The most important god in the Babylonian tradition
was Marduk, who originally was just an aspect of the Sun God.
Under Babylonians he achieved supreme status and was equated with
Asallunhi, the God of Magic. The latter cult of Mithraism, that
was spread through the Roman Empire in the first centuries of our
era and was the main competitor to Christianity, has its origins
on Mesopotamian ground. The theogonies of the Mesopotamian
cultures also contained entities which were usually not counted as
gods but were sometimes considered more powerful than gods. Such
entities were Tiamat, the mother of gods, which was identified
with salt water, and Abzu, her counterpart, who fertilized her
with his seed which is identified with fresh water. Tiamat was
killed by Enlil when she tried to avenge the murder of Abzu. From
the dead body of Tiamat, man was created.
The greatest magical figure of these times was Zarathustra (or
Zoroaster in Greek pronunciation). His life is dated differently
by different authors an and? some speculate that there were
several Zarathustras. The accepted time period of his life is
usually put in the VI-VII century BCE, while some authors date it
more precisely "258 years before Alexander [of Macedon]."
Zarathustra proclaimed one God from the kind of Ahuras, called
Ahura Mazda, or only Mazda, which means "Sage God" or "Sage."
Zarathustra was his prophet on Earth. But on the opposite side of
this God who represented all good and right, Zarathustra put
Ahriman, the representative of all evil. These two forces were in
a constant combat with each other which kept the equilibrium of
the universe. Zarathustrian religion was basically dualistic,
because he gave both Gods almost the same power. Zarathustrian
teaching is written in the holy book "Awesta," and the oldest part
of it consists of 20,000 verses called gathas. Gathas are written
personally by Zarathustra. This verses brought him the reputation
of magician, and father of the magic, but they are also beautiful
as poetry. Herzfeld says about them: "The gathas are poetry. Be
there ever so much darkness in them, the train of thought clears
up with the progress of study"(238).
Egyptian Magic
The religion of the Ancient Egyptians was inseparably intermingled
with magic. The Egyptian religion, alike the early Mesopotamian
religion, was streaming directly from Shamanism, and therefore had
more close contact with its gods. One of the strongest
characteristics of the Egyptian magic and religion was the use of
the "words of power." The old Egyptians believed that every thing,
men and gods included, had its "true name," and if a magician knew
that name he could control the entity that bears it. Most of the
spells were cast calling the "true names" of the deities who were
supposed to obey every wish of the operator when called by those
names. These names were usually in a foreign jargon, meaningless
to the operator, and hard to pronounce. The failure of such
operations was usually ascribed to the mispronunciation of those
names.
We have an example of the use of these "words of power" in the
legend of Isis and Osiris. The goddess Isis, later the wife of
Osiris, the legend says, was a mortal woman who was very skilled
in magic. She knew that Osiris was taking walks through his park
every day, and one day she concealed a poisonous snake on his
path. Osiris got bitten by the snake and he yelled for help, but
no one could help him since only Isis had the anti-poison. She
came and asked from him his true name in exchange for the cure. In
first he didn�t agree, but as death approached him, he whispered
his real name to Isis. With this name she became a goddess and
married Osiris.
The famous Egyptologist E.W. Budge, says the following about the
power of the names in ancient Egypt: "It was believed that if a
man knew the name of a god or a devil, and addresses him by it, he
was bound to answer him and do whatever he [the man] wished; and
the possession of the knowledge of the name of a man enabled his
neighbor to do him good or evil"(157). Egyptians had particular
love for amulets and talismans. They were everyday thing, worn for
health, luck, money, protection, etc. Most of the curing in the
Egyptian medicine was done through amulets and spells, and very
little through material cures, since Egyptians, despite the
mummification process, knew very little of anatomy and physiology,
and of the causes of illnesses. Many of the Egyptian amulets are
used even today. Such are the "udjat," or the eye of Horus, which
was suppose to give the bearer power to see things that other
cannot see, also the "ankh," the Egyptian cross, which gives long
life, and the scarab, symbol of resurrection, and thus overly used
in the mummification process.
Egyptians, alike the surrounding nations, extensively used wax
figures for spell casting, and enchanting objects at distance.
Usually they would ascribe the actions taken during the casting of
the spell to some deity, depending on the task, so that the
punishment, in case of failure, does not fail on the operator.
There were special formulas for procuring dreams, even for
ordering certain kind of dreams, of precognitive or other nature.
The Ancient Egyptians, alike the other Ancient Civilizations gave
special importance to the dreams, which they considered
communication from gods. Fatalism, was wide spread, since they
believed the destiny of a man was set before he was born.
Therefore astrology, especially natal horoscopes, was very widely
used. Connected with this was the belief in "lucky" and "unlucky"
days and according to their tables almost every third day in the
year was unlucky.
Man was considered to be consisted of nine parts: a physical body,
a shadow, a double or KA, a soul or BA, a heart or IB, a spirit or
KHU, a power, a name, and a spiritual body. The KA, was the double
of the physical body and it remained around the grave after death.
In the graves of the pharaohs there were special places built for
the KA, called "The Temples of KA." The KA was usually shown as
two upward hands. The IB or the heart had great influence after
the death when the earthly deeds of the individual were judged.
The heart was measured against a feather, and if it showed
heavier, the person was thrown to a crocodile-like monster to be
eaten. In the "Book of the Dead" there are special prayers with
which the person prays its heart not to testify against him. The
BA or the soul leaves for heaven after death, and it might visit
the grave from time to time. It was depicted as a bird with the
head of the person.
The process of mummification was the most complicated ritual in
the Egyptian magic and religion. The body was anointed with
countless perfumes, specially prescribed amulets and formulas were
put in special places, talismans and sacred stones were put in
their places, and many liturgies and evocations were held around
the dead body. The social strata (or "cast") of the priests, who
were the only magicians, was kept very closed from outsiders. Only
in the latter days could foreigners receive initiation, and even
then very rarely and under terrible oaths of secrecy. The priests
considered themselves to be the "guardians of the relics of the
former wisdom of nature" (Shepard, 287), in which definition we
can recognize echoes of the primeval Shamanism.
Hebrew magic
With Judaism the polytheistic eon is starting its downfall and the
monotheistic eon is arising. There were attempts at creating
monotheistic religion already in the Ancient Egypt with the
pharaoh Akhenaton who proclaimed the sun-god of Lower Egypt, Aton,
as the supreme and only God. He built many temples for Aton, and
gave up his deity (pharaohs were considered gods) in favor of his
new God. His name, Akhenaton, means in the mercy of Aton. Unlike
the other pharaohs, Akhenaton was depicted on the frescos and the
pictures as imperfect human, bald and with a good-sized belly. The
high priests of the old gods hated him for what he has done, and
immediately after his death restored the old religion and erased
the name of Akhenaton from every document or inscription they
could find.
While in polytheism magic was not only allowed, but also a
necessary part of religion and people�s everyday life, with
monotheism we have different attitude. The monotheistic God
condemns magic, because magic was always man's attempt to seize
the power of God. The standard Biblical explanation is that by
magic humans violate the order in God�s universe - they try to
reach knowledge that is not for them (past, future, etc.); Adam &
Eve were expelled from the Paradise because they could "become
like one of Us." Monotheistic God doesn't want rivals, and even
the personification of evil, the Satan, exists only because God
allows it. In such environment only prayer was considered as a
mean to influence reality. In the Old Testament there is a
reference which suggest that true believer should not allow a
witch to live.( Exodus|22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to
live. Deuteronomy|18:10 There shall not be found among you [any
one] that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire,
[or] that useth divination, [or] an observer of times, or an
enchanter, or a witch, Deuteronomy|18:11 Or a charmer, or a
consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. )
Nevertheless, the priests of the Temple in Jerusalem performed
acts of divination using animal innards. It is difficult,
nowadays, to make distinction between Hebrew Magic and Kabbalistic
Magic, with which, I am sure, many orthodox Kabbalists will
strongly disagree. According to the legend, Kabbalah was a divine
science given by God to Adam when he was sent to Earth. However,
the first Kabbalistic manuscript dates from the seventh century
AD, and Kabbalah had developed (or became public) about XII-XV
century. After that we find such variations as Christian Kabbalah
and Muslim Kabbalah. Because of that and because of the huge
influence Kabbalah had on modern western magic, it will be
discussed in separate chapter.
Hebrew Magic was probably a derivative of the Egyptian Magic, as
Hebrew Alphabet is simplification of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. We
find a lot of information about Moses, and his Egyptian connection
in the Bible. Moses was arguably the greatest Hebrew magician, but
hew was very different from the usual conception of a magician. He
did not acquire his power by studying, training or instruction,
but directly by revelation from God. There is no mention of deeds
in the Bible by Moses that weren�t inspired by God, and for God�s
purpose. He repeated all the feats of the Egyptian Magicians and
they couldn�t repeat his, but that was revelation of the power of
God, not of Moses. Moses was a prophet, not magician. Prophets are
often magicians, but magicians are seldom prophets.
The other famous Hebrew magician was Solomon, the son of David.
Here we should make a distinction between the historical Solomon
and his magic and the many volumes of Solomonic Magic (Goetia,
Salomonis Clavicule, and their derivations) that tried to pass by
his name. While Solomon was a Jew and we would expect his magic to
be purely Jewish with maybe some Egyptian elements, the Solomonic
literature used Christian symbols and concepts and showed mixture
of many magical traditions. Because of the volume and the
importance of the Solomonic literature it will be discussed in a
separate chapter.
What we know about the historical Solomon comes mainly from
various Hebrew legends. He is said to have a ring with which he
commanded all the spirits on the planet. The ring was given to him
by an angel send from god. He could summon any spirit which would
materialize in front of him and he was obliged to do his biding.
As a king he had huge wealth which he increased further by magical
means. He could walk under the sea and fly in the air without any
effort, and he had 1,000 wives, 700 married and 300 unmarried.
Graeco-Roman Magic
The Magic of the classical world was formed under the influence of
many factors including the preceding cultures and their own
traditions. Greek magic was formed under the influence of the
Hebrew magic, Egyptian magic, Greece's own Pantheon, and the
teachings of the Pythagorean and Platonist philosophy schools.
Many Greek scholars (like Solon) went to Egypt to complete their
education. They brought parts of the Egyptian culture, as well as
parts of other cultures from the surrounding countries. It is very
unfortunate that the Greeks were so amazed by Egypt and its
religion that they tended to see everything as magic, even in the
most ordinary religious rituals of the Egyptians. Hence along with
some real magical information, Greek manuscripts are full of
exaggerated stories about adventures in Egypt.
The famous story about Atlantis has its roots in one of Solon�s
stories about his studies in Egypt. He was talking to an Egyptian
priest, after he spent a lot of time in his temple and gained the
trust of the priest, and the priest started reading him on of the
texts written on a pillar in the temple. The story was about an
ancient race of people that lived long ago from the other side of
Gibraltar. The priest said that the Greeks, though they don�t know
it, look alike this race. He said that they had developed
civilization, command of the air and the water and were very
intelligent. He goes on describing their capital which consisted
of concentric circles of water and earth with ports on each land
circle. On the innermost circle was built the largest and the most
beautiful temple the world has seen, and was devoted to the fire,
or the sun by some other sources. The priest told Solon how this
race was in war with another race and their land was destroyed in
that war and went under the sea. The people were forced to settle
in the surrounding lands. One of the groups settled on the
territory of today southern Greece. When Solon asked the priest
why he never heard about such civilization, the priest answered
that only the old cultures have preserved some memory of it, and
the Egyptians as the oldest culture, have many documents about
that and other older civilizations, since, the priest said, "many
cultures have lived and died on this earth, and we are neither
first nor the last."
Roman magic, alike Roman religion, is mainly a copy of the Greek
one, but it was also influenced by their surrounding cultures.
Romans inherited the great Greek pantheon, with all the legends
and myths, but they also inherited the myths and the customs of
the neighboring Etrurian culture, which is still a great deal
unknown. The Etrurians were another people (like the Greeks, the
Basks, etc.) that do not belong into any Indo-European ethnical
group. They had their own language and alphabet and had developed
culture in the time when Romulus and Remus were still sucking milk
from their wolf mother. When Romans grew into a powerful
civilization they assimilated the Etrurians and they stopped to
exist as a separate entity. The Romans accepted many customs from
the Etrurians, one of the most important one being the telling the
future from the liver of a sacrificial animal or by the flight of
birds. Rome was also a place where believes from north like those
of the Celts and the Germans, and from south like those of the
Hebrews and the Persians, met and mixed. All this, even before the
coming of Christianity, produced one very mixed and diverse
environment which was very fertile for the development of magic
and magicians. Two most important magicians from this time are
Apolonius of Tyana and Apuleius.
Apolonius of Tyana
Apolonius is probably the most famous classical magician. He was a
contemporary of Christ, and before Czar Constantine accepted
Christianity, some of the previous emperors made an attempt to
make a cult of Apolonius as an antithesis to the cult of Christ.
The only source of information about Apolonius comes from the
novel Philostratus wrote for his ruler, on the basis of some
writings by an Apolonius' student. The writing of Philostratus
conforms to the spirit of that time, with many exaggerations,
sentimentality, and is not very reliable. What little factual
information we can obtain is that Apolonius was member of the
Pythagorean School, and spent all his life in asceticism and
celibacy according to the rules of the Pythagoreans. He traveled a
lot through the world that was known back then. He has even been
to India, where according to Philostratus, he met a lot of
powerful magicians. He performed many miracles, like
dematerializing and materializing, curing sick with a touch of the
hand and rising people from the dead. After the death of
Apolonius, the people from Tyana raised him a temple, and there is
a legend that the ghost of Apolonius appeared to a Roman centurion
when he tried to conquer Tyana. His teachings area less known, but
mainly they were in conformity with the Pythagorean philosophy. He
preached asceticism, spiritual enlightement achieved through work,
training, self-control and self-denial, believed in reincarnation
and in personal soul and was against violence.
Apuleius
Apuleius is born in the North African Roman colonies about the
first century AD. His name appears on several books preserved
until today but we are certain that only two are originally his.
The first one called Metamorphosis, and better known as the Golden
Ass, is a story about how a young man is turn into an ass because
of his curiosity. He watches a young witch turning into a bird
after putting magic oil on her skin, and he wants to try it also.
But he mixes the oils and finishes turned into an ass. In the rest
of the book the adventures of the man as an ass are described and
finally he is turn back into man by the goddess Isis herself, and
he becomes her priest. The books is firstly a social critique of
the society in Roman times, since the ass can have free access
everywhere and hear people�s most hidden thoughts. Apuleius shows
a profound knowledge of the magic done in Roman times, and
especially of the non-religion-bounded magic, which has been
preserved until today. However, it is mainly from his next work
Apologia de Res Magia we obtain some more information about his
magical works. The book is his defense in front of a court against
the accusation that he married a rich widow using his magical
abilities. The accusers are of course the widow's relatives who
don�t want to see the widow's money going to Apuleius. In his
Apologia, Apuleius not only defends himself and is proclaimed
innocent by the court, but he also shows his great knowledge of
magic. He, among the first, divides magic into harmful and useful,
i.e. black and white, and shows how magic can be used for curing
and beneficial goals. In his next work De Daemonum Socrates,
Apuleius discusses the existence of gods and demons, as well as
the ways to communicate with them.
Medieval Magic
Early Medieval magic
I consider early middle age as the period between VI and XIV
century. In this period we find Christianity already firm on its
throne and now the Christian rulers can afford such luxury as
forbidding all other religions and any magical work on the
territories of their states. However, there are hints that many
priests, bishops, even popes have been very active in the magical
art. Many books, supposedly written by bishops and popes, like
Thomas Aquinas and Honorious II, were published after their death,
but in many cases that did not stop the Church to proclaim them as
saints.
Since the establishing of Christianity until the revival of magic
in the XIX century magic and magicians were fiercely prosecuted,
so in this period we can the development of the magical thought
mainly through the magical workbooks called "Grimoires." The word
"Grimoir" has the same root as the word "grammar," and it refers
to a set of rules for doing something. This kind of magical
compendioums became very popular especially in the later middle
ages, but they were known since Egyptian and Babylonian times. The
difference between the ancient Grimoires and the Medieval ones is
that the ancient ones are written by learned people devoted to the
study of magic for purposes of spiritual enlightenment and wisdom.
The medieval ones were mostly random collage of bits collected
from various manuscripts, often not on the same topic, with the
sole purpose of achieving material wealth or getting the love of
women. It is very hard to find the bits of wisdom among all that
junk and many people still perform rituals from some rotten
manuscripts written by half-literate editor who collected the
stuff from several manuscripts he never understood. This
especially goes for the pronunciation and the spelling of various
magical formulas and incantanions were the mistakes are sometimes
disastrous. The Church and the Christian rulers have always
prosecuted the magicians and burned their books, but most of the
Grimoires were based on the Christian tradition and worshipped Our
Lord Jesus Christ on every page.
Picatrix
This is one of the oldest existing Latin Grimoires from the
medieval period. The version currently existing of this Grimoir is
a Latin translation of an Arabic original that probably is
translation of a Greek original. The Arab culture served as a
guard for Greek and Roman works during the dark centuries when the
church banned all speculation beyond the Apostolic Canon. The Arab
tradition was much more tolerable towards the metaphysical thought
and speculations. We can thank the Arab learned men that we still
have some works of Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers still
preserved today. The Greek and Latin works were retranslated to
their original languages from Arabic manuscripts during the
renaissance and Europe rediscovered what she always had. .
Picatrix is classical Grimoir with spells and rituals for invoking
ghosts, creating talismans, discovering treasures, etc. it
discusses the nature of the demons and other spirits, mainly by
the neo-platonistic school, and gives several ways of
communicating with them. Besides its non-readability, and highly
confusing and metaphorical language, this Grimoir is significant
because it doesn't have as much Christian influence as the others,
so we can trace the transformations of the magical thought.
Albertus Magnus
Historically Albertus Magnus was a Scholastic who lived in the XII
century. He was one of the "doctors," defenders of the
Christianity, and he was called the "divine doctor." During his
life he wrote many books on many subjects, but he is most famous
in the magical circles by the book that started circulating after
his death. The books was called "The greatest secrets of the
magnificent Albertus Magnus, Egyptian secrets, secrets of the
animals and flowers, and few words about women" or shortly
"Albertus Magnus". The book was attributed to one of the Magnus'
students Tomas Aquinas, another of the "doctors," who was accused
that he started dealing with magic and alchemy in his older days.
However we have no real proof of who is the author of this book.
The book consists of essays on magic, most of them on white magic,
while several are considered as black magic. The authenticity of
the book was questioned when later one of the essays concerning
women was forbidden by the authorities (Breau 44). The book
contained sections on talismans, magic power of gems, spells, etc.
In the XVII century another book appeared called "Albertus
Minoris" and it contained mainly village magic, like how to make
your cow give more milk, the only valuable parts of the books are
the ones copied from the books of Paracelzus. Albertus Minoris is
probably a compilation of the publisher who wanted to profit on
the popularity of the previous book (Breau 45).
Salomonis Clavicule
This grimoire attributed to the king Solomon is probably the most
famous in the European tradition of magic. It exists in countless
revisions, rewrites, in manuscripts and printed, on almost all
European languages. The oldest sample of the grimoire on Greek
originates from VI century, while the newest can be found in the
bookstores, since it is frequently reprinted. The grimoire
consists of instructions how to make magic circle, how to prepare
for evocation of spirits and how to evoke and use them, then it
contains instructions on making talismans, sigils, magical
squares, etc. The version that is published nowadays is the
translation of Samuel Lidel McGregor Mathers who unscrupulously
cut a lot of the grimoire�s best parts, judging that "its not for
the public," overlooking that the original manuscript can be found
in many major libraries. The symbolism of the original Salomonis
Clavicule is Hebrew with Egyptian allusions, but there is a
version which has translated all the symbols to their Christian
equivalents. There is also a book called Lemegeton or "The Lesser
key of king Solomon" which is also known as Goetia, and develops
further the evocations of the spirits. There are translations of
Goetia from Mathers and Aleister Crowley. There is also a very
famous version of Salomonis Clavicule called True Black Magic
which deals especially with the darker aspects of the original
grimoire.
Kabbalah
About hundredth years ago Kabbalah was considered a system of
Hebrew religious and mystical philosophy. Only after the
destruction of the secret magic order "Golden Dawn" it was
revealed that Kabbalah had an occult and magical tradition woven
in it. The word "Kabbalah" means "Tradition", or literally "from
mouth to ear." The Kabbalistic rituals and methods weren't put on
paper until "Golden Dawn." Kabbalah is extremely important for the
western magic because most of it is based on the concepts that
Kabbalah developed. Kabbalah teaches that all visible world was
created by emanations from the "Superior Being" and the Kabbalists
describe that process through a diagram called "The Tree of Life"
which consist of three veils, 22 paths, 10 sephiroths(fruits), and
one hidden sephiroth. Kabbalah teaches that the "Superior Being"
emanated itself first through the three veils than in the highest
sephiroth which is the plan of God, and continued to emanate
itself in more and more dense form until it finally came to the
last, tenth sephiroth which is the material plan. Kabbalah
attributes certain powers to each of the sephiroths and an
essential parts of the Kabbalah are the methods for evoking these
powers. Kabbalah considers the tree of life as a diagram of the
universe (macrocosm), as well as the diagram of the man
(microcosm). The Kabbalah's teachings in a hidden form, the form
for the non-initiated, is given in two main books. The firs called
Sefer Jecirah in symbolic way describes "The Tree of Life" an the
properties of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet which is
attributed to the paths on "The Three of Life." Sefer Jecirah's
oldest versions dates from the VI century, but it claims that it
comes from the first men on earth. The second important book is
Sefer Zohar or "The Book of Splendor". Opposite of Sefer Jecirah
which is about 20-30 pages, Zohar comes in five volumes of the
basic contents with thousands of pages, and even more commentaries
on the main volumes. Zohar speaks in extremely metaphoric language
which is understandable only for the initiates of the Kabbalah.
After the destruction of the Golden Dawn order, the parts of the
Kabbalah that were never put in writing were published by Aleister
Crowley, and later by Israel Regardie.
Later Medieval Magic
The second part of the middle century (which I am considering
until the XIX century) is marked by the appearing of the press.
The hard job of rewriting books now was made easier by the
printing press and a real explosion of books, and among them also
magical ones, appeared. For the sake of numbers I would like to
mention that before the XIV century in Europe were circulating
around 20,000 different books, while after the invention of the
press the number of the books circulating in 50 years increased to
200, 000 books (Breau 32). Here we also have to look in the
Grimoires because the authors were still under pressure from the
church and couldn't express their identity publicly.
Pope Honorius
"The sworn book of Pope Honorius" is very infamous grimoire in the
western tradition. Partially its reputation is due to the very
unfavorable description in Eliphas Levi's book "Transcendental
Magic (129-36)." The "Sworn Book" started circulating during
Pope's life, and it contained spells and evocations for evoking
the devil. The book contains some references about sacrificing
animals, and some of them Levi interpreted like codes for
sacrificing human beings. The book had several editions, as well
as some modern reprints.
Pope Leon
Another Pope involved in magic, which is not very surprising since
the Vatican library especially its secret chambers was, and
probably still is, the richest with forbidden books, including
magical books. There are rumors that from every heretic or magical
book the inquisition burned (together with the author of course),
a sample was send to Vatican for cataloging. "The Enchrydium of
Pope Leon" is another very famous grimoire and it contains
exorcists spells for banishing demons but also instructions for
holding black masses and evoking demons. After the original on
Latin, the book was translated on French, German and English. The
first edition on the cover contained a talisman for which the
author claimed that have a tremendous power, either for evoking
demons or banishing them.
Cornelius Agrippa
Agrippa was born in Germany where he spent most of his life. When
he started writing (on Latin by the custom of that time) he added
to his name the Latin ending "Agrippa." He is most famous by his
work in three volumes "De Occulta Philosophiae" in which he
defends magic as a science, and gives an outline of all magical
teachings with their principles. In this book he also
comprehensively discusses Kabbalah and gives many examples for
creating Kabbalistic talismans. He also gives the sigils of the
planetary spirits used for their evocation. Besides all this ",De
Occulta Philosophiae" is mainly theoretical work, but about 100
years after the first publishing of this book another volume
called "The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy" started circulating
and it contents were much like a classical grimoire. The
authenticity of this book is not proved. Agrippa published another
book after the "De Occulta Philosophiae" called "De Vanitatie
Scientiae" which had quite pessimistic notation, and in which he
tries to prove that all sciences are not serving any cause.
Johannes Faustus
Dr. Faustus is most well known by the play from Goethe, but he was
also a historical person. He lived about XV century in Germany and
besides the novel and biographies written after his death there
aren't many information about him. From the later works we find
out that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for youth and
some magical powers. The stories about him have very didactic
character and the church probably used them to teach obedience to
its flock. Goethe was among the first writers that granted Dr.
Faustus a happy end in his work. The previous authors almost
without exception finished their stories with Faustus being
carried to hell by the devil. What is mainly unknown is that there
is a book preserved today under Czechoslovakian translation with
Faustus as an author. The book claims to be translation of the
German original and contains spells and rituals for evoking ghost
and elemental spirits.
Paracelzus
Even that I don't discuss Alchemy and alchemists in this work, the
giant figure of Paracelzus must be mentioned. Paracelzus burned
the books of Avicena and other classical authorities on the square
in Berlin, and proclaimed nature as the only teacher he
recognizes. Then he went through all Europe collecting knowledge
from village shamans and printing his books on "vernacular" German
and not on Latin which was a scandal at that time. He dealt mainly
with alchemy but he contributed also for the magical though with
his theories about the magical currents in man's body and his
lengthy discourses on curing magically caused diseases.
Francis Barret
Barret is probably the last of the medieval magicians who also
opens the way for the revival of magic in the second half of the
XIX century. His life is almost completely unknown and he is most
famous by his book published in 1801 called "Magus" with subtitle
"Heavenly intelligence." This is one of the last original
Grimoires and it contains a complete course of magic, from making
magical stick, to description of the demons and spirits that can
be evoked. The next reprint of the "Magus" was in 1896, when magic
was already blooming in Europe.
Modern Magic
The revival of magic is usually taken to begin in 1855-56 with the
printing of the Eliphas Levi's books "The Dogma of the High Magic"
and "The Ritual of the High Magic." This is the time when the
glory of the period of rationalism is passing and people are
starting to be disappointed by the rigidness of the rationalistic
view of the world. The people are looking for alternatives, and
they are staring to rediscover the occult tradition. Many
half-forgotten books are traced back on the dark shelves of the
old libraries and studied with zeal. New books are written on the
old topics and new ideas are appearing. In short, the occultism is
blooming.
The end of XIX century is also marked by the creation and
destruction of the "Golden Dawn," the most influential magical
order in Europe. The original order lasted for less than twenty
years, but its successors orders are active even today. But with
the new wave of magical thought, the magic itself is understood
(by the majority, at least) to have different goals than before.
The trends in the modern magic are to shape magic as a form of
spiritual path, as a method for accelerated evolution. Discovering
treasures, and winning love and favor, are now left to the
dilettantes. Most of today's spiritual paths originated at west
are trying to fuse the eastern and western wisdom in one universal
path.
Eliphas Levi
His real name was Alphonse Luis Constant and he took the pseudonym
Eliphas Levi when he started writing works about magic. He went to
religious school and became a priest of the lowest rank, but he
couldn't make a career in that vocation because of his radical
views. He was imprisoned because of printing pamphlets with ideas
not compatible with those of the ruling class of that time. His
first teacher in occultism was the polish mystic Wronski, who
wrote in his memoirs that he initiated Levi in the secrets of the
High Kabbalah. After that, Levi spent much time studying occult
books and Grimoires and he synthesizes all that knowledge in his
books "Dogma and Ritual of the High Magic" (translated by A.E.
Waite under the name of "Transcendental Magic: Theory and
Practice") and "History of Magic." By the style of his writings he
was still a magician of the old school because he didn't try to
show any concepts of magic as scientific, but by the conciseness
and the comprehensives he belongs to the new school. His language
is very metaphorical, he makes a lot of references to other books
(Crowley says that Levi never read some of them), and his writing
has low readability from time to time. In "Transcendental Magic"
he divides the chapters by the 22 Tarot Atus and claims that all
the wisdom is already contained in a symbolical form in the
pictures on the cards. Although he calls his second book "The
Ritual of High Magic" it is still a great deal theoretical
treatise than practical compendium. Crowley says that the most
valuable Levi�s writings are his letters of instruction to his
students. Levi could not live only from writing books about magic
(unlike today) so he had to give lessons in order to feed himself.
This letters are his most valuable works. His "History of Magic"
is very comprehensive, but it gives very little facts about the
history of magic and is more a discussion of the concepts that
Levi believes are fundamental to any magical working. His works
are frequently reprinted.
Golden Dawn
This secret society made great impact on the European magic of the
XX century with the publishing of its secret material by its
former members. According to a story that circulated among the
members of the society, it is based on a coded manuscript that Win
Westcot, one of the founders, freemason and occultist, found in an
antique store (Crowley 452). Then Westcot contacted Samuel Lidel
McGregor Mathers, who was a respectable magician and Egyptologist
in that time, and they together decoded the manuscript which
consisted of four complicated rituals. In the manuscript they
found an address of a certain person called Mrs. Spriengel from
Germany who was responsible for a secret magic order, supposedly
from the tradition of the Rosicrucians. From Mrs. Spriengel they
received a letter of approval for founding the secret magic order
Golden Dawn with the first lodge Isis-Urania in London. The
founders and the heads of the society were Mathers, Westcot, and
Woodman, another English occultist and freemason.
The order offered a complex magical (hermetic) training, and it
had degrees that corresponded to the sephiroth of the Tree of
Life. For earning each degree there was a certain amount of
theoretical and practical knowledge that should have been
achieved. The obtaining of the degrees and the initiations were
performed as group rituals. The Neophyte (the pretender to the
first degree of Zelator) was given "knowledge lessons" which
contained the symbolism of the Hebrew Alphabet, astrology and
Alchemy. After that there was the intiation ritual and later every
pretender for greater degree had to pass exam by the higher degree
members. The degrees contained such things as Kabbalistic
correspondences, making natal astrological charts, divination with
Tarot and Geomancy, Clairvoyance with tattwas, astral projection,
Enochian Magic, etc. There were detailed instructions for
preparing magical weapons and robes and for their consecration.
Every degree had different robe, different emblem, magical motto,
symbol, etc. The progress of the members was monitored htrough
keepeing magical diaries, which is still wide practice today. The
higest degree holders periodically controlled them. This was
mainly Win Westcot�s job, and after his death no one could do it
with his efficiency, so before the breakdown of "Golden Dawn" it
turned more to a bridge club where degrees were given without any
real practical basis.
The order fell apart from two basic reasons. First, after the
deaths of Westcot and Woodman, Mathers was left as an unquestioned
dictator which he used for ruling the order with an iron fist.
Because of this many progressive members of the order have left,
and because Mathers wasn't interested in the boring jobs of
admitting and testing, the new members were of poor quality. The
final blow to "Golden Dawn" was given when Aleister Crowley
published all its secret materials in his magazine "Equinox."
Israel Regardie afterwards reprinted these materials many times in
many editions. The public availability of materials with such
value, written without metaphors, for instant practice, had
bombastic influence on the development of magic orders and on the
practicing of magic in Europe. There were several orders that
sprang from the ruins of "Golden Dawn" like "Stella Matutina" and
today we still have orders that practice the orthodox "Golden
Dawn" style of magic like the Oxford based "hermetic Order of
Golden Dawn."
Aleister Crowley
Crowley was born in England in 1875, the year when Eliphas Levi
died. Crowley came from a rich, noble family that enabled him to
study at Cambridge where he met for the first time with occultism
and magic. He was initiated in Golden Dawn and under the guidance
of his teacher Allan Bennet, very powerful magician at that time,
he passed through all the degrees of the order in about year and a
half, something that no one else had done before. Allan Bennet was
the adopted son of Mathers, the head of the order, and was very
talented in the occult sciences. He moved to Crowley�s apartment
and taught him everything he knew about magic. Later he was forced
to leave for Ceylon, because he had life-threatening asthma. There
he became Buddhist monk and spent several years on monastery. He
returned to England where he stayed until the end of his life
trying to prove the existence of the Astral world empirically.
Crowley saw that he cannot stay in the Mathers dominated Golden
Dawn anymore, so he left the order and published all of its secret
materials in his newspaper "Equinox." He justified this claiming
that he was ordered to publish the secret materials by the "Great
Chiefs" of the order. The most significant event in Crowley�s life
happened in Cairo in 1904, where he received a message from an
extraterrestrial intelligence that called itself "Aivass" and who
gave Crowley the text of the sacred book "Liber Legis" later to be
called "Liber AL vel Legis" procaliming new religion called
Thelema (from the Greek word meaning "will"). Crowley was the
prophet of this religion and according to Liber AL he proclaimed
the new Aeon under the domination of the God Heru-Paar-Kraat. This
Aeon was supposed to be the Aeon of the child, Horus, by the
Egyptian sumbology. It was the third Aeon, the first two being the
Aeon of the mother, Isis, which was the Aeon of matriarchate and
polytheistic religions, and the aeon of the father, Osiris, which
was the Aeon of the patriarchate and monotheistic religions.
Crowley spent the rest of his life preaching his religion,
although he claimed that he tried to renounce it several times,
but it was stronger htan him. He wrote many books about magic,
replacing the symbols of the old age in them with the symbols of
his new religion. His works on Kabbalistic correspondences which
were started already on "Golden Dawn" with Bennet are especially
valuable and are published in his book "Liber 777." He formed a
secret society called Argentum Astrum which later became the inner
organization of O.T.O. It was supposed to be the only real
successor of Golden Dawn, but it disappeared within OTO. Crowley
was head of O.T.O. during his life. He died in 1947 in an asylum
for old people.
O.T.O.
O.T.O. or Ordo Templi Orientis claims to originate from the
knights Templars. It was founded by Karl Kellner who claimed that
three magicians from the east initiated him in the secrets of the
order. The order practiced a mixture of oriental Tantra Yoga and
western magic, mainly the Freemason tradition, which resulted in a
form a sexual magic. However, some forms of sexual magic practiced
within OTO like autoeroticism have no parallels in the Eastern
Tantric teachings. Before Crowley became head of the order and
reformed it, OTO was a mainly rosicrucian order with many Masonic
elements.
Crowley was proclaimed head of the English branch by Theodore
Reuss, who inherited Kellner after his death in 1905, after the
publishing of Crowley�s "Book of Lies" in which he discovered the
highest secret of the order accidentally. After the death of
Reuss, Crowley became the international chief of the order. He
changed the rituals of the order to be compatible with his Thelema
religion, added some new rituals, and put homosexual magic as a
compulsory part of the degrees (he actually added the XI degree
which was reversed IX degree which involved heterosexual magic).
After the death of Crowley in 1947, Karl Germer took the
leadership, but Kenneth Grant, influential member of the order who
was not too happy with the inside situation, formed his own branch
of O.T.O in 1955. After the death of Kellner, the order segregated
in two parts, that of Kenneth Grant who excluded homosexual magic,
and included some new techniques, and the "orthodox" branch that
continued with the old practice Today there are many orders that
claim the title "the only original O.T.O" including the voodoo
O.T.O.A. of Michael Bertiaux.
Dion Fortune
One of the rare women in the history of magic. Her real name was
Violett Firth and her pseudonym originated from her magical motto
"Dio Non Fortune," which she carried in Golden Dawn. She was an
active member of Golden Dawn and after the destruction of the
order she formed her own order called "Society of Inner Light"
which had the same magical training as the Golden Dawn, but with
the quality that the former couldn't provide. She was very famous
psychic also, with high medium capabilities. She wrote several
important books for the western magical tradition of which the
book "Mystical Kabbalah" is maybe her most important because
inside Fortune gives the first systematized presentation of
Kabbalah in the written tradition. Her order still functions
today, but with much lower quality than when Dion Fortune was its
leader.
Karl Gustav Jung
Jung never talked about himself as of magician, but he contributed
more to the modern concept of magic that many of the people who
spent all their lives dealing with magic. He was born in
Switzerland where he spent most of his life working as a clinical
psychologist. Jung was one of the rare scientists who had courage
to enter the world of occultism and to try to figure out its
principles instead of automatically rejecting everything connected
with magic. Jung studied Alchemy all his life, and his books
"Psychology and Alchemy" and "Misteriorum Coniuctionis" are the
fruits of that effort. The most important Jung's contributions to
the modern magic are his concepts of the Collective Unconscious,
the Archetypes, and the Synchronicity. Besides Freud's personal
unconscious Jung defined the unconscious of the whole human kind
in which all experiences of the humanity are stored and in which
all demons, angels, gods and spirits are reality. The theory of
the Archetypes states that certain primordial images are the most
powerful concentrations of energy in the collective
unconsciousness and they tend to express themselves in all
cultures, independently of the space or time. He gives examples of
the archetypes of a hero, child, mother, etc. The final concept of
Synchronicity offers the explanation for the connection among
events that are not connected by casual, cause and effect,
connections (Jung 501). He also first used the term "psychic
reality" for describing the supernatural occurrences including the
UFOs. Jung gave the basis for the scientific foundations of magic,
and many magicians accepted this basis and continued to build upon
it. The Astral world, for example, has been equaled by many with
Jung�s collective unconscious.
Austin Osman Spare
He was very important magician who was neglected by most of the
authors of magical literature and finally he received recognition
by Kenneth Grant in his book "The Cults of the Shadow." When Spare
was young, he was member of Crowley's order Argentum Astrum and
Crowley continued to treat him as his student until the publishing
of Spare's book "The Focus of Life." Spare said about him that Ms.
Peterson, very mysterious old lady who claimed to originate from a
many generations of witches, initiated him in witchcraft. Spare
says that she had power to materialize her thoughts when she
couldn't express herself with words. They used to go on many
Sabbaths (witch meetings) with their astral bodies, because the
Sabbaths were held on the Astral Plan.
Spare was a gifted painter and he won the Royal Scholarship for
attending a college for painting. Spare published two books "The
Book of Pleasure" and "The Focus of Life" and also one unfinished
grimoire where he presented his teachings. He claimed that his
books are dictated to him by his familiar that he called "Black
Eagle." His magic relied on the sexual energy condensed through
special sigils that he used for evoking spirits as well as for
materializing wishes. This technique of "sigilization" as well as
his teachings about Zos, the body as a whole, and Kia, the
immortal soul, was incorporated and further developed by Peter
Carroll to form what is today known as Chaos Magick. Spare is
considered the "grandfather" of Chaos Magic. He died poor and
deserted in a basement in London.
Franz Bardon
Bardon was very important magician of the XX century who still has
not received the recognition he deserved by the wide magickal
audience. He was of German origin born in former Czechoslovakia.
We don't know much of his life, and what little we do know is
mainly through his books, especially "Frabbatto, the Magician"
which is a kind of autobiography. During the World War II he was
imprisoned and tortured by the Germans because he didn't want to
use his powers and knowledge in their advantage and after the war
he was prosecuted by the communist government of Czechoslovakia,
again because of his knowledge and powers. Except "Frabbatto" he
wrote three more books: "The path to the real Adept - Self
Initiation" (translated on English as "Initiation into
Hermetism"), "Evocation of Spiritual Beings," and "The Key to the
Real Kabbalah."
He gives step by step instructions with detailed descriptions of
every concept or technique. His books are divided in degrees, from
the simplest exercises to the hardest, with time periods connected
with each of the degrees. Although Bardon claims all the time that
he is emphasizing the practical side of magic, he, like Levi,
likes to indulge in lengthy discussions on various non-productive
topics. Still, his concepts and techniques, especially about the
"fluid condensers" are both original and important for the western
magickal tradition. Many of today's so called "masters of magic"
borrowed a great deal of their techniques from Bardon�s work
without giving him any credit.
Israel Regardie
He was a personal secretary of Aleister Crowley in which position
he had access to the secret materials of the Golden Dawn which he
later published in his book "The Golden Dawn" in four volumes. He
started reading Crowley's works as a teenager and continued
working with magic through all his life. Later he broke up with
Crowley and revealed some secret details from his life after what
Crowley condemned him. Regardie wrote one of the first manuals of
magic called "The Tree of Life" in clear ordinary language. He
published the Golden Dawn materials in many editions in various
formats and lengths.
Epilogue
As we saw through this short presentation, magic tends to
incorporate itself in the science again, from where it was
banished long time ago. Many fields that were taken as magic now
are parts of the science, like hypnosis that became important part
of psychology and the same is with suggestion. Today's magic
doesn't intend anymore to give the practitioner primarily the
power over the world, but to give him a safe method of
self-development and self-improvement. Magic, along with the other
spiritual paths, tends to fill the hole left in the modern man's
soul by the material science that refuses everything spiritual.
The final reunion of the spiritual and the material sciences has
already begun. How long it will last, depends only on us, the next
generation.
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