{"collection":"grim","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/grim/abr/abr001.htm","path":"grim/abr/abr001.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/grim/abr/abr001.htm","text":"By S. L. MAC GREGOR MATHERS.\nNotice of the \"Biblioth\u00e8que de l'Arsenal\" at Paris.--The Manuscript of the present work known to Bulwer Lytton and \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi.--Similarity between Mejnour's style of instruction of Glyndon in \"Zanoni\" and that employed by Abra-Melin to Abraham the Jew.--Critical description of the present Manuscript; its style; examples; apparent date.--Abraham the Jew, his era, and occult contemporaries.--His faith and travels.--Abra-Melin.--Place of residence, and family of Abraham the Jew.--Value of this Book to Occult students.--Notable persons with whom Abraham was brought in contact, and for or against whom he worked Magic.--His warnings against the error of changing one's religion, whether Jew, Turk, Christian, or Pagan.--The absolute necessity of unshaken faith in order to produce a Magical effect.--The Author comparatively broad in his views, though unjust to women.--Good advice in other matters given by him.--His counsel of a retired life not borne out by his own history.--White and Black Magic.--Apparent basal definitions of this particular system of Sacred Magic.--Its advantages, especially as regards Abraham's comments on other Professors of Magic he had met.--The employment of a Child-Clairvoyant, necessary or not.--Abraham's intolerance of other Magical systems.--Basis of his system in the Qabalah.--Example of Magical Square of Letters from Third Book, compared with a Pentacle in \"Key of Solomon\".--General character of these.--Practical Qabalah.--Definitions of the nature of Angels, Elemental Spirits, and Devils, with their differences.--Behaviour toward these, as advocated by Abraham.--Meaning of the word Demon, as distinct\nfrom Devil.--Magic in the \"Arabian Nights,\" compared with recipes in Third Book of this work.--Faust and the effects he is said to have produced.--Magic and the Qabalah derived from Egypt; difference between Egyptian and Chaldean Magic.--Value of a Sacred language and one's mother tongue compared.--Pentacles and Symbols-Evocation by the Magic Circle and Licence to Depart-Abraham's Remarks on Astrology.--Notes to this work.--This Introduction written for Occultists only.\npage xv\nAppendix A:--Table of Hebrew Letters and English Equivalents\npage xli\nB:--Cagliostro's use of a Child-Clairvoyant\npage xlii\nC:--Examples of other forms of Angelic Evocation\npage xliii\nTHE FIRST BOOK.\nThe Chapters of the First Book have no separate heading of contents given in the text; while those of the Second and Third Books have. I have therefore here placed those of the Chapters of the First Book in parentheses.\nPROLOGUE.\n(The First Book to be considered as introductory to the two others, which form the actual original Magic as taught by Abra-Melin)\npage 3\nTHE FIRST CHAPTER.\n(Abraham's reasons for giving this work as a legacy to his son Lamech)\npage 4\nTHE SECOND CHAPTER.\n(His Father Simon had told him somewhat of the Qabalah.--Of the Magic of Rabbin Moses of Mayence, and how greatly inferior this was to the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin)\npage 5\nTHE THIRD CHAPTER.\n(Beginning of the Travels of Abraham the Jew.--His going to Mayence in Vormatia (the district under the rule of Worms) to study under Rabbin Moses, for four years.--He then forms a friendship with a young Bohemian Jew named Samuel.--They resolve to travel together to Constantinople, with the intention of afterwards visiting Palestine.--They begin their journey on February 13th, 1397, pass through Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, and\n[paragraph continues] Greece, arriving at length at Constantinople, where they stop two years, and Samuel dies.--Abraham the Jew then travels into Egypt, where he remains four years, afterwards going into the Holy Land, where he remains a twelvemonth.--He there meets a Christian student of Magic with whom he passes on into the wilds of Arabia; but finding no Adept there, Abraham thinks of returning home)\npage 7\nTHE FOURTH CHAPTER.\n(He commences his return journey, travelling by Arabia Deserta and Palestine into Egypt.--Here he lodges with an old Jew named Aaron, in a small town called Arachi, situated on the banks of the Nile.--He tells Aaron of his numerous and fruitless travels in search of some Great Adept in Magic.--Aaron informs him that in the desert, not very far from Arachi, there dwells a very learned and pious Mage called Abra-Melin; and that he will find him a guide to shew him the route thither.--Abraham visits Abra-Melin, and finds in him at length the Great and Wise Magician he has so long sought.--He remains with him and studies under him.--Abra-Melin gives him two Books on Magic to copy, which form the basis of the Second and Third Books of this work.--Abra-Melin implies that this true Sacred Magical Science will only remain among the Jews seventy-two years longer.--At length Abraham quits Abra-Melin, and goes to Constantinople, where he is detained by illness for two months.--He returns home by ship to Trieste, and thence through Dalmatia)\npage 10\nTHE FIFTH CHAPTER.\n(Concerning the various Professors of Magical Art, whom Abraham had found in the course of his travels.--Of Rabbin Moses of Mayence.--Of James a Christian of Argentine, and a juggler of a Black Magician called Antony of Prague in Bohemia, and his fearful end.--Of the Magicians in Austria.--Of the Magicians in Greece.--Of a Magician of Ephiba, near Constantinople, who wrote certain numbers on the ground.--Of the Magicians, Simon, and Rabbin Abraham of Constantinople.--Of the Egyptian Magicians, Horay, Abimech, Alcaon, Orilach, and Abimelec.--Of the Arabian Magicians.--Abra-Melin the only truly Great\n[paragraph continues] Adept.--Of a Magician, Joseph of Paris, a Christian who had become converted to the Jewish faith, and whose Magic was after the nature of that of Abra-Melin.--Abraham warns Lamech of the error of renouncing the religion in which a man is brought up)\npage 15\nTHE SIXTH CHAPTER.\n(Errors in the Magic of Rabbin Moses.--The Black Magic of Antony the Bohemian of Prague.--The manner of his death.--Of the Austrian Magicians.--Of the young Sorceress of Lintz, with whom he experimented.--Of the Greek Arts of Magic.--Of the many systems of Magical working, and how that of Abra-Melin was the best; because based on the Wisdom of the Qabalah)\npage 19\nTHE SEVENTH CHAPTER.\n(Abraham prepares to perform the Operation recommended in this work.--He acquires the knowledge and vision of his Guardian Angel; and of the Symbols of Magic like those of the Third Book)\npage 24\nTHE EIGHTH CHAPTER.\n(That he practised Magic with success from 1409 to 1458.--Of the divers persons he healed.--Of the Magical aid he gave to the Emperor Sigismund of Germany; how he lent him a Familiar Spirit; and how he facilitated his marriage.--Of the aid he gave to Count Frederic by making magically an army of 2000 horsemen appear.--How he helped the Bishop of his City.--How he delivered the Count of Varvich (Warwick) from an English prison.--How he aided the flight of Pope John XXIII. from the Council of Constance.--How he forced a person who had stolen from him, while with the Duke of Bavaria, to confess the theft and restore the money.--Of his warnings and prophecies to the Greek Emperor (Constantine Pal\u00e6ologos).How he performed the feat of raising a dead person to life, on two occasions, in Saxonia, and in the Marquisate of Magdeburgh.--How he obtained by Magic, both his marriage and a considerable treasure of money)\npage 27\nTHE NINTH CHAPTER.\n(General Advice.--That this Art is founded on the Holy Qabalah.--That all the Signs written in the Third Book are written with the Letters of the Fourth Hierarchy; but that the mysterious words are taken from Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Chaldee, Persian, and Arabic)\npage 35\nTHE TENTH CHAPTER.\n(Warning advice against the deceits of the Devil and the Evil Spirits)\npage 38\nTHE ELEVENTH CHAPTER\n(General Advice)\npage 40\nTHE TWELFTH CHAPTER.\n(Additional advice regarding the communication with the Guardian Angel; and of the use of a Child as Clairvoyant in the Invocation)\npage 43\nTHE SECOND BOOK.\n(Concerning the Sacred Magic)\npage 49\nHow many, and what, are the classes of Veritable Magic\npage 50\nWhat we ought to take into consideration before the undertaking of this Operation\npage 52\nOf the Age and Quality of the person who wisheth to undertake this Operation\npage 55\nThat most Books on Magic be false and vain\npage 56\nThat in this Operation it is necessary to make election neither of time, day, nor hour\npage 59\nConcerning the Planetary Hours, and other Errors of the Astrologers\npage 60\nRegarding what it is necessary to accomplish during the first two Moons of the beginning of this Veritable and Sacred Magic\npage 64\nConcerning the two second Moons\npage 69\nConcerning the two last Moons which must be thus commenced\npage 70\nConcerning what things a Man may learn and study during these two Moons\npage 72\nConcerning the Selection of the Place\npage 74\nHow one should keep oneself in order to carry out this Operation well\npage 77\nTHE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER.\nConcerning the Convocation of the Good Spirits\npage 81\nTHE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER.\nConcerning the Convocation of the Spirits\npage 86\nTHE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER.\nConcerning what you should demand of the Spirits, who are divided\ninto three different Troops, and convoked on three separate days\npage 92\nTHE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER.\nConcerning the sending them away\npage 97\nTHE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER.\nWhat we should answer unto the interrogations of the Spirits, and how we should resist their demands\npage 98\nTHE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER.\nHow he who intendeth to operate ought to conduct himself with regard to the Spirits\npage 101\nTHE NINETEENTH CHAPTER.\nDescription of the Names of the Spirits upon whom we may call to obtain that which we desire\npage 104\nTHE TWENTIETH CHAPTER.\nIn what manner we ought to carry out the Operations\npage 123\nTHE THIRD BOOK.\n(Brief Advice)\npage 163\nHow to know all kinds of things Past and Future, which be not however directly opposed to God, and against His Holy Will\npage 165\nHow to acquire information, and be enlightened concerning every kind of proposition, and all doubtful sciences\npage 172\nHow to cause any Spirit to appear, and take various forms, as of man, of animal, of bird, etc.\npage 174\nTo procure divers Visions\npage 175\nHow one may retain the Familiar Spirits bound or free, in whatsoever form\npage 178\nHow to make manifest mines, and push on all manner of work connected therewith\npage 182\nTo cause a Spirit to perform all manner of Chemical work and Operations with facility and promptitude, especially as regards Metals\npage 184\nTo excite Tempests\npage 186\nTo transform Animals into Men, and Men into Animals. (Also to transform Animals into Stones)\npage 187\nTo prevent all operations of Necromancy and Magic from producing any effect; except the Operations of the Qabalah, and of this Sacred Magic\npage 190\nTHE ELEVENTH CHAPTER.\nTo cause to be brought to one any kind of book, and whether lost or stolen\npage 192\nTo know Secrets, and especially those of any person\npage 194\nHow to make a Corpse rise from the Dead, and perform all the Operations\nwhich the person would do were he living, and this during the space of seven years, through the means of the Spirit.\npage 196\nThe Twelve Symbols for the Twelve Hours of the Day and of the Night, in order to make oneself Invisible to every person.\npage 198\nTo cause the Spirits to bring us everything to eat and drink which we may wish, and even everything which we can think of\npage 201\nHow to discover and take possession of all kinds of Treasure, provided that it be in no way (Magically) guarded\npage 203\nHow to fly in the Air and go wherever one may wish\npage 209\nTo heal divers Maladies\npage 211\nFor all kinds of Affection and Love\npage 214\nTo excite every kind of Hatred, Enmity, Discord, Quarrels, Contests, Combats, tattles, Loss, and Damage\npage 220\nTHE TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTER.\nTo transform oneself, and take divers shapes and forms\npage 223\nTHE TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER.\nThis Chapter is only for working Evil, for with the Signs herein we can cast Spells, and perform every kind of Evil Work. We should not avail ourselves hereof\npage 225\nTHE TWENTY-THIRD CHAPTER.\nTo demolish Buildings and Castles\npage 227\nTHE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER.\nTo discover Thefts\npage 229\nTHE TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTER.\nTo walk and operate in and under water\npage 231\nTHE TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTER.\nHow to open every kind of lock without a Key, and without noise\npage 232\nTHE TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER.\nHow to cause Visions to appear\npage 234\nTHE TWENTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER.\nHow to obtain as much gold and silver as one may wish, both to be able to provide for the necessaries of life, and to live in opulence\npage 243\nTHE TWENTY-NINTH CHAPTER.\nHow to cause Armed Men to appear\npage 245\nTHE THIRTIETH CHAPTER.\nTo make Comedies, Operas, and all kinds of Music and Dances to appear\npage 246\nCONCLUSION.\nRemarks on these Symbols of the foregoing Chapters\npage 248\nThe Order of the First Hierarchy\npage 260\nThe Order of the Second Hierarchy\nThe Order of the Third Hierarchy\npage 261\nTHE END.","title":"Sacred Magic of Abramelin: Table of Contents","type":"page"}