the book of ceremonial magic contents - Yankeeclassic.com

Footnotes
90:1 A sequel, moreover, which contains several direct references, as, for example: "But
after what manner they appear has been described already in the former book of magical
ceremonies"--The Conjuration of the Lord's Day. This recurs with slight variations
throughout the Heptameron. It may be advisable to add that Agrippa was of the sixteenth
century.
§ 7. The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
The existence of this text had been known to students for a considerable period before it
was made available in an English translation by the editor of the Key of Solomon. The
amateurs of occult science in the more dubious of its practical branches became
possessed of this pearl of tradition in 1898, and I suppose that it is familiar enough in
certain circles. I am sorry that it seems necessary to say a few words concerning it in the
present place. Mr. Mathers prefixed an introduction which does honour to his especial
form of talent--that is to say, it is eloquent as a caution respecting things which should be
avoided by an expert in the expression of his views and the mode of writing exercises in
English.
The text is preserved in the Arsénal Library at Paris and is a French manuscript belonging
to the early part of the eighteenth century; it is also the sole copy which is known
certainly to collectors, though there is a rumour of another in Holland. According to its
own claim, the work belongs to the year 1458, at which period it was written by one
Abraham, the son of Simon and the father of Lamech, for whose benefit it was more
especially designed. The original is said to have been in Hebrew, and this statement on
the part of the text is naturally accepted by the translator. It is perhaps rendered
p. 93
the more probable from his point of view by the lavish internal evidence that it is the
work of a Christian hand, is full of Christian references and allusions to late Grimoires.
The point is not worth debating, at least on its own merits, but the references (a.) to the
"Jewish Sabbath," (b.) to the custom of paternal benediction, (c.) to those who leave
Christianity for Judaism, (d.) to the festival of Easter, and otherwise (e.) its allusions to
the New Testament, (f.) its use of the Vulgate, and (g.) its hypothesis concerning
Guardian Angels are unmistakable proof for those who know what is meant by textual
evidence. To conclude on this part of the subject, the date of the work is the date of the
known copy, or thereabouts; it was never written in Hebrew, or by one who was
acquainted with Hebrew; and the claim that the author was a Jew has the same value as
the translator's brilliant speculation that the supposed Abraham was a descendant of that
other Abraham the Jew, whose mysterious hieroglyphical tract on Alchemy came, as it is
alleged, into the hands of Nicholas Flame], his putative contemporary.