Throughout the ages, every single race and culture has been magically oriented until recent times. Ceremonial magic itself, is extremely complicated and very very ritualistic. The instructions for a ceremonial rite must be followed *to the letter* and I cannot stress that enough. To stray from the preset ceremonial paths and to go another way than outlined could very well mean the end for you and your assistance. Furthermore, in this article I will not be teaching you ceremonial magic, I will only be talking about it.
Background:
Ceremonial magic is a branch of magic which inspired by Hermeticism and the Order of the Golden Dawn. Though it has certainly existed before in the past, you can consider this pretty much its revival. Ceremonial magic also includes other types. As before, I have said some of these types can be dangerous, and others not so. I will expand on these types futher on. Some types are: Tarot, Goetia, Enochian, astrology, grimore magic, and kabalah or qabalah. Tarot and astrology are more divination methods than actual ceremonial magic.
The Types:
Goetia: This section of magic is founded specificially upon the first book of the Lesser Key of Solomon. It gives specific instructions on when to summon, how to summon, one of the 72 entities in the book. A word of caution however....specific entities out of these 72 entities are known as trap entities, who will do nothing but destroy you and your assistants upon summoning, so tread cautiously.
However, not explicitly mentioned in the Goetia, practictioners claim that it works on other entities not described in the book. The entities from this book were called demons by earlier magicians, however, if summoned and commanded properly, they serve many a great function
Enochian: This system of magic is based as well on the commanding and summoning of various spirits. This in particular is based on the 16th centtury writings of Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly, who claimed the information was delivered directly by an angel who created the Enochian script and the table of correspondences that go with it.
Kabalah/quabalah: Kabalah is a form of Jewish mysticism with most forms teaching that every letter, word, number and accent of scripture contains a hidden sense and teaches the methods of interpretation for decoding these occlt meanings. Since the late 19th Century, the Kabalahhas been studied as a rational system of understanding the world, pioneered by Lazar Gulkowitsch.
Texts:
Grimoires: The word grimoire is from the Old French world of gramaire and has the same root word as grammer. This "branch" of magic isn't really classified as a "branch". A grimoire is nothing more than a book of magical knowlede written between the late-Medieval period and the 18th Century. Books such as this contain astrologial correspondences, lists of anges/demons, directions on casting charms and spells, mixing medicines, summoning unearthly entities, commanding those entities, and/or making talismans.
These days, people refer to their own books in which they have accumulated their own mystical knowledge as "grimoires" not to be confused with the much more older and potent grimoires of the late Medieval and 18th Century.
Notable Authentic grimoires:
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage
The Sworne Booke of Honorious aka Liber Juratis
The Black Pullet
The Greater Key of Solomon
The Lesser Key of Solomon aka The Lemegeton
In the late 19th century, neo-masonic movements such as the Golden Dawn and Ordo Templi Orientis reclaimed these books. Aliester Crowley served as a vector for the modern movement of wicca, satanism, and chaos magic.
A modern grimore is the [u]Necronomicon[/u] which draws its name from the fiction book of magic in H.P Lovecraft's stories and inspired by Sumerian Mythology and the [u]Ars Goetia[/u] which concerns the summoning of demons.
THe voynich manuscript could also be a grimoire but its text has never been deciphered.
The Book of Enoch:
Enochian magic is said to embrace secrets within the questionable Book of Enoch. Scholars date the composition of the Book of Enoch to the 2nd century BCE. The Book of Enoch is attributed to Enoch the great-grandfather of Noa and describes the petition of the Nephilim (Fallen Angels) to Enoch t o intercede on their behalf with God, Enoch's visit to Heaven, and his revelations.
The text of the Book of Enoch was considered lost except for passages quoted by ancient writers until 1773 when James Bruce produced two copies of a version he had obtained in Ethiopia. Since his discovery, Old Slavonic translations have been identified, as well as two seperate Latin translation fragments, fragments of papyri containing parts of a Greek translation recovered at Akhmim, and also identified in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Lesser and Greater Keys of Solomon:
The Lesser Key:
The Lesser Key of Solomon, or Lemegeton Clavicula Salmonis (Clvicula Salmonis or Key of Solomon is an earlier book on the subject) is an anonymous 17th Century grimoire and one of the most popular demonology books. It has been long known as the Lemegeton which is incorrect because it depends on faulty Latin. Appearing in the 17th century, it seems much of it was taken from texts of the 16th century, late-medieval grimores. Likely books by Jewish Kabbalists and Muslim mystics were also inspiriaton. Some of the material in the first section dates to the 14th Century or earlier.
The book claims that it was written by King Solomon, however the titles of nobilitiy assigned to the demons were unknown in his time, as well as the prayers to Jesus and the Christian Trinity which are included in the text.
The Lesser Key contains detailed descriptions of spirits, and the conjurations needed to invoke and oblidge them to do the will of the conjurer (called the exorcist). It also details the protective signs and rituals to perform, the actions necissary to prevent the spirits from gaining contro, the preparations prior to the invocations and how to make the necessary instruments for the execution of these rituals. Several original copies vary in detail and the spelling of the spirits' names. Contemporary editions are widely available in print and on the Web.
The Lesser Key is divided into five parts:
Ars Goetia
Ars Theurgia Goetia
Ars Paulina
Ars Almadel
Ars Notoria
The Greater Key of Solomon:
This Key is broken into two books, the first it shows you how to avoid errors in the operations and summoning of the spirits themselves *such error could very well prove fatal*. In the second you are taught how you can reduce the magical arts to your desired object and end.
Submitted By: Knight Serenity
Redistributed from 1 Octmensis 62 Newsletter
