Chapter XLIV. The Composition of Some Fumes Appropriated to the Planets

The Philosophy of Natural Magic, by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, L. W. de Laurence ed. [1913], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER XLIV.

The Composition of Some Fumes Appropriated to the Planets.

We make a suffumigation for the Sun in this manner, viz., of saffron, ambergris, musk, lignum aloes, lignum balsam, the fruit of the laurel, cloves, myrrh, and frankincense; all which being bruised and mixt in such a proportion as may make a sweet odor, must be incorporated with the brain of an eagle, or the blood of a white cock, after the manner of pills or troches.

For the Moon we make a suffumigation of the head of a dried frog, the eyes of a bull, the seed of white

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poppy, frankincense, and camphor; which must be incorporated with catamenia, or the blood of a goose.

For Saturn, take black poppy seed, henbane, root of mandrake, the loadstone, and myrrh, and make them up with the brain of a cat or the blood of a bat.

For Jupiter, take the seed of ash, lignum aloes, storax, the gum benjamin or benzoin, the lazuli stone, and the tops of the feathers of a peacock; and incorporate them with the blood of a stork, or a swallow, or the brain of a hart.

For Mars, take euphorbium, bedellium, gum ammoniac, the roots of both hellebores, the loadstones, and a little sulphur; and incorporate them all with the brain of a hart, the blood of a man and the blood of a black cat.

For Venus, take musk, ambergris, lignum aloes, red roses and red coral, and make them up with the brain of sparrows and the blood of pigeons.

For Mercury, take mastic, frankincense, cloves, and the herb cinque-foil, and the stone achate, and incorporate them all with the brain of a fox or weasel, and the blood of a magpie.

Besides, to Saturn are appropriated for fumes all odoriferous roots, as pepper-wort root, etc., and the frankincense tree; to Jupiter, odoriferous fruits, as nutmegs and cloves; to Mars, all odoriferous wood, as sanders, cypress, lignum balsam and lignum aloes; to the Sun, all gums, frankincense, mastic, benjamin, storax, ladanum, ambergris and musk; to Venus, sweet flowers, as roses, violets, saffron, and such like; to Mercury, all the peels of wood and fruit, as cinnamon, lignum cassia, mace, citron or lemon peel, and bayberries, and whatsoever seeds are odoriferous; to the Moon, the leaves of all vegetables, as the leaf indum, and the leaves of the myrtle and bay-tree.

Know, also, that according to the opinion of the magicians, in every good matter, as love, good will,

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and the like, there must be a good fume, odoriferous and precious; and in every evil matter, as hatred, anger, misery, and the like, there must be a stinking fume, that is of no worth.

The twelve Signs, also, of the Zodiac have their proper fumes, as Aries hath myrrh; Taurus, pepper-wort; Gemini, mastic; Cancer, camphor; Leo, frankincense; Virgo, sanders; Libra, galbanum; Scorpio, opopanax; Sagittarius, lignum aloes; Capricornus, benjamin; Aquarius, euphorium; Pisces, red storax. But Hermes describes the most powerful fume to be that which is compounded of the Seven Aromatics, according to the powers of the Seven Planets—for it receives from Saturn, pepper-wort; from Jupiter, nutmeg; from Mars, lignum aloes; from the Sun, mastic; from Venus, saffron; from Mercury, cinnamon; and from the Moon, the myrtle.