The Fourth Chapter. That the Greater Number of Magical Books are False and Vain

THE FOURTH CHAPTER.

THAT THE GREATER NUMBER OF MAGICAL BOOKS ARE FALSE AND VAIN.

LL the Books which treat of Characters, Extravagant Figures, Circles, Convocations, Conjurations, Invocations, and other like matters, even although any one may see some effect thereby, should be rejected, being works full of Diabolical Inventions; ¹ and ye should know that the DEMON maketh use of an infinitude of methods to entrap and deceive mankind. This I have myself proved, because when I have operated with the Veritable Wisdom, all the other enchantments which I had learned have ceased, and I could no longer operate with them, and I made a very careful trial of those which I had learned with the RABBIN MOSES; the cause of which is that the deceit and fraud of the DEMON can never appear where the Divine Wisdom is. Furthermore, the most certain mark of their falsity is the election of certain days; since there be those which God hath expressly commanded to sanctify, we can freely operate

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on all other days, and at all times. And whenever ye shall see tables which do mark the days and their differences, the Celestial Signs, and other like matters, ¹ pay no attention thereto, because herein is a very great sin ² hidden, and a deceit of the DEMON; it being one of his many methods of endeavouring to confound the True Wisdom of the Lord with evil matters. Because this True Wisdom of the Lord can operate and perform its effects every day, and at any moment and second. The Gates of His Grace are daily open, He wisheth, and it is pleasing unto Him to aid us, as well on this day as on the morrow; and in no way could it be true that He desireth to be subjected to the day and hour which men would wish to prescribe for Him; seeing that He is the Master to elect such days as He Himself wisheth, and also may they be sanctified! Flee also all such Books

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as those whose Conjurations include extravagant, inexplicable, and unheard-of words, ¹ and which be impossible to understand, and which be truly the inventions of the Devil and of wicked men.

It is well also to recall that which I have said in the First Book, viz., that in the greater part of their Conjurations there was not the slightest mention made of God Almighty, but only of Invocations of the Devil, together with very obscure Chaldean words. Surely it would be a rash thing of a man who should deal with God by the intermediary of His Holy Angels, to think that he ought to address Him in a jargon, neither knowing what he saith nor what he demandeth. Is it not an act of madness to wish to offend God and His Holy Angels! Let us then walk in the right way, let us speak before God with heart and mouth alike opened, in our own maternal language ² since how can ye pretend to obtain any Grace from the Lord, if ye yourselves know not what ye ask? Yet, however, the number of those who lose themselves utterly in this vanity is infinite; many say that the Grecian language is more agreeable unto God, it may be true that it was perhaps at one time, but how many among us to-day understand it perfectly, this is the reason why it would be the most senseless thing to employ it.

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I repeat then:--Let each one speak his own language, because thus understanding what it is that ye are demanding of the Lord, ye will obtain all Grace. And if ye demand a thing which is unjust, it will be refused unto you, and ye will never obtain it.

Footnotes

56:1 It is necessary that the reader should not misunderstand this passage. What are meant are those Black Magic works containing garbled and perverted words and characters; and which teach nothing but hurtful and selfish practices; the great point in which is generally the forming of a Pact with an Evil Spirit. Because true Characters represent the Formulas of the Currents of the Hidden Forces of Nature and true Ceremonies are the Keys of bringing the same into action.

57:1 It seems again to me here that Abraham the Jew stretches the matter too far. it is perfectly and utterly true without doubt that Angelic Magic is higher than that form of Talismanic Magic which has its basis in the Astrological positions of the Heavenly Bodies; and can therefore do more, and be also independent of Astrological considerations, because the matter is relegated to a higher plane than this, and one wherein the laws of Physical Nature do not obtain. But certainly when working with the rays of the Sun, we shall more easily find his occult force of heat attainable when he himself is producing that effect upon the earth, i.e., when he is in the Sign of the Lion; while when he is in that of the Bull, his force will be rather that of Germination, etc., when in the Northern Hemisphere. And the same with the other Planets. Also if working by the Indian Tatwas, we shall find it necessary to consider the position of the Moon, the time in the day, and the course of the Tatwa in the period of five Gharis. Of course Abraham could not make the experiments of Rabbin Moses succeed if he substituted the laws of another plane for their own.

57:2 So it would be if he applied it to the Angelic working; but equally it would be an error which, though not so great, would still entail failure, to apply laws exclusively of the Angelic plane to those experiments which would mainly depend on the physical rays of the Planets; though undoubtedly the Angels of a Planet govern its rays. But the Angels of Mars do not govern the rays of Jupiter, nor those of the latter the rays of Mars.

58:1 The Grimoires of Black Magic would usually come under this head. But, nevertheless, the extravagant words therein will be usually found to be corruptions and perversions of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Egyptian titles of Gods and Angels. But it is undoubtedly evil to use caricatures of Holy Names; and these for evil purposes also. Yet it is written in the Oracles of Zoroaster: "Change not barbarous Names of Evocation, for they are Names Divine, having in the Sacred Rites a Power Ineffable!"

58:2 Yet, notwithstanding, it is well in a Sacred Magical Operation to employ a language which does not to our minds convey so much the commonplace ideas of everyday life, so as the better to exalt our thoughts. But, as Abraham says, we should before all things understand what we are repeating.