The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
The Why and What of Abramelin - https://ko-fi.com/s/0061e2a99c
The work is framed as a testament by “Abraham the Jew” (Abraham von Worms), who recounts how, after years of seeking, he found the Egyptian adept Abramelin near Araki on the Nile, received two books of “Divine Science and True Magic,” and transmitted them to his son Lamech, dating the gift to 1458. The English world first met the text through S. L. MacGregor Mathers’ translation of a late French manuscript held at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal (published 1897–1900). Mathers’ version presents three books.
Critical work since 2001 (Georg Dehn’s German edition and Steven Guth’s 2006 English translation) collates the earliest witnesses—two German manuscripts dated 1608 in Wolfenbüttel, additional Dresden copies, a 1725 Cologne print (Peter Hammer), a Hebrew manuscript at the Bodleian, and others—and restores a fourth book, many corrected word-squares, and (crucially) a longer timescale for the work.
The book defines its “magnum opus” without ambiguity: “by purity and self-denial to obtain the knowledge of and conversation with one’s Guardian Angel; and thereafter … the right of using the Evil Spirits for our servants in all material matters.”
This is the axis of the system: first ascent (Angel), then descent (subjugation and ordering of chthonic forces), then application (the squares and their operations).
The operation in Mathers’ recension (six months)
Timing. The work explicitly rejects astrological elections; the traditional commencement is “the first day after the celebration of the Feasts of Easter [Passover] … and the end falleth [at] the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Cadence. The discipline unfolds across six lunar months in three movements:
- First two months: sunrise and evening prayer, beginning the morning after Easter/Passover, with full-body washing on the first day and a regimen of sobriety, charity, study, and seclusion.
- Second two months: same prayers “morning and evening,” with washing of hands and face before entry; weekly whole-body ablution; the Qabbalistic fast on the Sabbath eve.
- Final two months: prayer thrice daily (morning, noon, evening), confession, and the perfume maintained upon the altar continually.
Place and furnishings. The operator prepares an oratory and a contiguous terrace for the appearance of spirits, keeps the oratory “clear and clean,” and sets a wooden altar with a lamp, censer, vestments (white linen tunic; over-robe of scarlet and gold), girdle, crown, wand of almond, “Holy Oils,” and the specific perfume. The oil’s formula is myrrh (1 part), “fine cinnamon” (2), galangal (½), with olive oil equal to half the total weight of aromatics; the incense uses frankincense, stacte, and lign-aloes/cedar/rose/citron.
Climax. After the six months, a seven-day consummation begins: the “day of consecration,” three days for the convocation of the Good Spirits, then three for the Evil. On the second morning the Angel appears in splendour; on the third day one “remain[s] in familiar conversation” with the Angel, receiving instruction and correction. The text even directs one to set out a prepared silver plate so the Angel may inscribe a sign or counsel.
Subjugation. Only after the Angelic encounter does one convoke the chthonic hierarchy. Vesting with crown, girdle, and wand, the operator summons the “Chief Spirits and Princes,” with courage and comprehension, not by rote.
Spirits and the hierarchy
The book names four Sovereign Princes—Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Belial—then eight Sub-Princes—Astaroth, Magot, Asmodee, Belzebud; Oriens, Paimon, Ariton, Amaimon—over legions listed in detail. The operator is cautioned rarely to summon the Princes themselves.
The word-squares and their scope
Book III supplies talismanic letter-squares for practical effects ranging from invisibility and discovery of treasure to healing, transformations, command of weather, “to fly in the air,” and more. Even Mathers warns that some squares are “dangerous” if left about unattended, because of their automatic virtue. The table of contents alone conveys the breadth of intended operations.
The longer version (eighteen months) and modern reception
Dehn’s collation strongly indicates that the original cycle was a year-and-a-half, not six months, and that Mathers’ French witness compressed the schedule and corrupted numerous squares. This critical point—together with the restored fourth book—has reshaped scholarly and initiatory reading of the text.
The grimoire’s influence on modern ceremonial magic is decisive. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn absorbed its Angelology; Aleister Crowley’s career pivots on the “Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel” (he attempted an Abramelin retirement at Boleskine and later composed Liber Samekh, “Theurgia Goetia Summa,” as an Angel ritual). Even the injunction to a “semester” of consecration echoes through The Vision & the Voice and A∴A∴ praxis.
The structure is initiatory drama. The six- or eighteen-month retirement establishes a liturgy of time—dawn/noon/evening—by which the operator’s day becomes a temple. The oratory is the inward sanctum; the terrace is the threshold where the unresolved forces of the psyche appear “without,” to be named and assigned their offices. The silver plate on which the Angel writes marks the sealing of vocation: the intellect receives a sign, the will a charge. The vestments polarize purity (linen) and royal art (scarlet and gold). The oil and perfume recall Exodus 30’s anointing and incense: the aspirant consecrates temple, tools, and self to become a fit sanctuary for the Angel; then, under the Angel’s governance, one binds the Princes—pride of light (Lucifer), abyssal inertia (Leviathan), adversarial compulsion (Satan), and worthlessness/unrestrained lawlessness (Belial)—into ordered service of the Great Work. This is not pact-magic but hierarchy: “the Evil Spirits … Executioners of the Divine justice,” compelled only after ascent.
“From this it results that the magnum opus … is: by purity and self-denial to obtain the knowledge of and conversation with one’s Guardian Angel.”
“Having carefully washed one’s whole body … precisely a quarter of an hour before Sunrise ye shall enter into your Oratory … and devoutly … invoke the Name of the Lord … supplicating Him … to send unto you His Holy Angel.”
“During these two last Moons ye shall perform the prayer three times a day, and during this time ye shall ever keep the Perfume upon the Altar.”
“You shall prepare the Sacred Oil … myrrh … fine cinnamon … galangal … and … olive oil.”
“During Seven Days shall you perform the Ceremonies … the Day of the Consecration, the Three Days of the Convocation of the Good and Holy Spirits, and the Three other Days of the Convocation of the Evil Spirits.”