A Collection of Magical Secrets & A Treatise
of Mixed Cabalah
Taken from Peter de Abano, Cornelius
Agrippa and other famous philosophers
Translated from the French by Paul Harry Barron
Introduction by Stephen Skinner & David Rankine
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.
Publisher's Additional Notes:
Many of the simple charms in the first
part, A Collection of Magical Secrets, 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.
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. Amongst the material in the first part, is also
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.
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.
The material was originally bound with the material
which was used by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine
in their groundbreaking work "The Veritable
Key of Solomon" (Golden Hoard & Llewellyn
2008), which is the first new Key of Solomon grimoire
material to be published in more than a hundred years
since the compilation by MacGregor Mathers, one of the
founding fathers of the Golden Dawn, was first published
1889. It is likely to appeal to both scholars of the
Key of Solomon and the grimoire traditions, as well
as those interested in Qabalah and a range of other
subjects of interest to practitioners of the western
esoteric traditions of magic.
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RRP £12.99, 166pp,
pb,
ISBN 978-1-905297-20-7
Publication date: February 2009
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