Of The Composition Of Some Perfumes Appropriated To The Seven Planets

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CHAP. X.

OF THE COMPOSITION OF SOME PERFUMES APPROPRIATED TO THE SEVEN PLANETS.

THE SUN. ☉

WE make a suffumigation for the sun in this manner:--

Take of saffron, ambergris, musk, lignum aloes, lignum balsam, the fruit of the laurel, cloves, myrrh, and frankincense; of each a like quantity; all of which being bruised, and mixed together, so as to make a sweet odour, must be incorporated with the brain of an eagle, or the blood of a white cock, after the manner of pills, or troches.

THE MOON. ☽

For the moon, we make a suffume of the head of a frog dried, and the eyes of a bull, the seed of white poppies, frankincense, and camphire, which must be incorporated with menstruous blood, or the blood of a goose.

SATURN. ♄

For saturn take the seed of black poppies, henbane, mandrake root, loadstone, and myrrh, and mix them up with the brain of a cat and the blood of a bat.

JUPITER. ♃

Take the seed of ash, lignum aloes, storax, the gum Benjamin, the lapis lazuli, the tops of peacocks' feathers, and incorporate with the blood of a stork, or swallow, or the brain of a hart.

MARS. ♂

Take uphorbium, bdellium, gum armoniac, the roots of both hellebores, the loadstone, and a little sulphur, and incorporate them altogether with the brain of a hart, the blood of a man, and the blood of a black cat.

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VENUS. ♀

Take musk, ambergris, lignum aloes, red roses, and red coral, and make them up with sparrow's brains and pigeon's blood.

MERCURY. ☿

Take mastich, frankincense, cloves, and the herb cinquefoil, and the agate stone, and incorporate them all with the brain of a fox, or weasel, and the blood of a magpie.

GENERAL FUMES OF THE PLANETS.

To Saturn are appropriated for fumes, odoriferous roots: as pepper-wort root, &c., and the frankincense tree. To Jupiter, all odoriferous fruits: as nutmegs, cloves, &c. To Mars, all odoriferous woods: as sanders, Cyprus, lignum balsam, and lignum aloes. To the Sun, all gums: as frankincense, mastich benjamin, storax, laudanum, ambergris, and musk. To Venus, flowers: as roses, violets, saffron, and the like. To Mercury, all the parings of wood or fruit: as cinnamon, lignum cassia, mace, citron peel, and bayberries, and whatever seeds are odoriferous. To the Moon, the leaves of all vegetables: as the leaf indum, the leaf of the myrtle, and bay tree. Know, also, that according to the opinion of all magicians, in every good matter (as love, good-will, &c.), there must be a good perfume, odoriferous and precious;--and in evil matters (as hatred, anger, misery, and the like), there must be a stinking fume that is of no worth.

The twelves Signs of the Zodiac also have their proper suffumigations, viz., Aries, myrrh; Taurus, pepper-wort; Gemini, mastich; Cancer, camphire; Leo, frankincense; Virgo, sanders; Libra, galbanum; Scorpio, oppoponax; Sagittarius, lignum aloes; Capricorn, benjamin; Aquarius, euphorbium; 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;

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from Mars, lignum-aloes; from the Sun, mastich; from Venus, saffron; from Mercury, cinnamon; and from the Moon, myrtle.

By a close observation of the above order of suffumigations, conjoined with other things, of which we shall speak hereafter (necessary to the full accomplishment of Talismanic Magic), many wonderful effects may be caused, especially if we keep in eye what was delivered in the first part of our Magic, viz. that the soul of the operator must go along with this; otherwise, in vain is suffumigation, seal, ring, image, picture, glass, or any other instrument of magic: seeing that it is not merely the disposition, but the act of the disposition, and firm and powerful intent or imagination that gives the effect.--We shall now hasten to speak, generally, of the construction of rings magical, and their wonderful and potent virtues and operations.