Magical texts

Mesopotamian

In the context of Mesopotamian texts, magic is understood to be the following things: curses, incantations and spells, divination, attempts at communication with lesser-beings, namely the daemonological, charms, amulets, talismans, and curative methodologies harnessing materia medica. Written forms on the divinatory begun during the third millennia B.C.E. The earliest written form on celestial divination comes from the 22nd century B.C.E.

The Babylonian for the word "bewitch" is transliterated as epêŝu, which is thought possibly as the origin of the word Ephesian.

Mithraic

Mithras Liturgy is a text of magic describing actual ascent to Mithras. The Liturgy is a apathanatismos.

Qumran community

The Qumran community were in possession of texts pertaining to magic, specifically either exorcism and protection against daemons (demons), or, divination, augury, and predictions. With regards to prediction, they used physiognomy, zodiology, brontology and astrology.

Judaic

There is no consensus, according to a source (2008) which states, the nature of texts which supposedly contain writings of magic and are Judaic, are ambivalent, which means, they have remained open to interpretation in respect to the significance of their content with regards to whether they are or aren't magical.

Sefer ha-Razim and Harba de Mosheh are the ancient titles of two Jewish manuals of magic. The Testament of Solomon also pertains to magic. The Genizah texts discovered within Cairo contain magic texts.

Some of the Genizah magical texts show Hebrew used in the copy of texts of writings of Muslim magic.

China

I Ching is a most ancient text on the art of divination.

Egyptian

Texts are written on papyri, ostraca, or stelae. Magical texts number to the hundreds, for the purposes of everyday use, within the context of culture of Ancient Egyopt. Individual written invocations of magic are known as spells. Most spells of the kind described as everyday, not Demotic or Coptic, and not royal, are extant in forms transmitted via copies made during the Middle Kingdom. In the heritage provided by Egyptian sources, the New Kingdom shows text which stems from sources external to Egypt, specifically, Nubian and Libyan.

Egyptian magical texts throughout historical periods contain spells to counter creatures within the Egyptian climate which were contrary to the harmonious functioning of ancient Egyptian society, namely scorpions, snakes and other reptiles. Examples of texts which contain such things are the 5th Dynasty Unas texts, and the Theban Edition and Saite Edition of the Books of the Dead.

Cippi of Horus talismans

House talismans (called Cippi of Horus), which were placed within houses for protection from evil and darkness, were made with greater frequency after the closure of the XXVi^th Dynasty. They were constructed of stelae with bases, and the base and reverse of the stele were customarily covered with magic text including spells. The most famous cippi is the Metternich Stela.

Coptic language texts

A text published during 1999, edited by Marvin W. Meyer and Richard Smith, and entitled Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power, contains 135 Coptic texts.

Pyramid texts

The Pyramid texts contain magical spells.

Karanis

Karanis has produced an archaeological papyrus showing the names, Iao, Sabaoth and Adonai, which are often present on magical texts finds, and are directly associated with the god of Hebrew. Two voces magicae seen relatively often in magical writings, and often together, are shown within the writing, these are ABLANATHANALBA, and, SESENGEMBAPHARANGES, which is classified as a magic word.

Great Magical Papyrus of Paris

Great Magical Papyrus of Paris (Papyrus Graeca Magica i.e. PGM IV) is 3274 lines in length, including notably two sections upon the act of exorcism. The text has Coptic interpolations added. According to archaeological reckoning, the text is probably, though not definitely, Theban.

Book of the Dead

The Egyptian book of the Dead is thought of as a magical text. Upon the occasion of someones death, magical texts were placed near to the corpse in order to give blessings to the transmigrated consciousness of the someone in their transmigrated state.

The Leyden

The Leyden papyrus is the longest magical book from Egyptian history, and contains 98 spells. The text is mostly written using Demotic, but additionally includes Greek, Old Coptic, Nubian and cipher.

Greco-Roman Egypt

Writings of magic of Hermetics is present in documents of the four hundred to five hundred years from the beginning of the first millennia, with a large majority dating to the period 200 to 400 C.E. The contents of the writings of this group are copies of writings from an earlier time. Three periods of papyri writing on magic exist, Demotic Egyptian, papyri dating from 100 C.E. which are Coptic and blend Hermetic and Christian ideas, and Greek. The Hermetic texts known as the Greek Magical Papyri dates from the 2nd century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.

During the first century C.E. (A.D.), a number of anonymous sages of Roman origin wrote works which were subsequently grouped together as Hermeticism, after Thrice-great-Hermes. The popular of the corpus Hermetica contained works of the occult (the learned contained philosophy and theology), the entire corpus being either to popular or learned.

Greek

A friend of Polemainetos, who was a seer, inherited books of divination from Polemainetos upon his death (Isocrates).

Texts written on tablets which when performed act as curses number to sixty-seven published, and these were known as katadesmoi.

India

Ancient inhabitants of India practicing the historical Vedic Religion produced the Atharvaveda which is a veda containing "spells and enchantments".

Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is thought of as a magical text.

Medieval Ages

The term Middle Ages is taken here to signify a period from 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D., although different datings of the period exist.

Psellus work of the 11th century entitled De Daemonibus detailed the various practices of witches.

Trithemius wrote a text also entitled de daemonibus. He developed for himself a theory on magic, which included working on making a kind of synthesis of the religious origins of magic and those dogmas firmly within Christianity.

From a time during the sixteenth century onward, printed instructions for black magic were made, as well as books for invoking spirits.

Works of angel magic (theurgy) were much more accepted and circulated at the time of the latter parts of the Medieval period.

King Alfonso X of Castile (1221 - 1284) was a patron of the translation of writings, including magical texts.

Shams al Ma'arif al-Kubra

The text is attributed to Ahmad bin Ali al-Buni (d. 1225).

Lapidario

Is the name of a text translated at the court of King Alfonso X. The book pertains to stones and their magical applications and magico-medicinal properties.

Ars notoria

The Ars notoria describes notory art which is elsewhere described as "the art of Toledo".

Ghâyat al-Hakim

This text is considered amongst the most important from the Medieval (and Renaissance) periods, and greatly influential on Occidental thought.

Ghâyat al-Hakim was translated from Arabic during the time between the years 1256 and 1258 CE, the Latin title of which was Picatrix.

The text contains references to magical practices of Sabean, Indian, Greek, Nabatean and others. The author is thought to be Maslama al-Qurtubi, with the text supposedly written during 348 AH (959 CE)

The title translates to The Aim of the Sage.

Le Grand Albert

Le Grand Albert is a well known book of magical spells from France printed within the sixteenth century, the text is known in the long-form as Les secrets admirables du grand Albert which translates as The admirable secrets of the great Albert.

Renaissance

Balthazar Walther (b.1558) collected a number of tracts containing magical writings. These are extant within libraries of Europe. During the late Renaissance, practice of high magic flourished within social-circles of the elite, by use of Greek sources and other influences.

Benedectine abbey of St Augustine at Canterbury

Three magical texts of a collection previously belonging to a Benedictine abbey of St Augustine located at Canterbury were owned by John Dee (1527-1608/9). These were Harley 13 (of the British Library), Corpus Christi 125 and Corpus Christi 221 (of Oxford University).

Cambridge University Library MS Additional 3544 (the Cambridge book of magic)

This is a book of necromancy. The text is dated to about the year 1560. Cambridge University purchased the text from Sydney V. Galloway during January 1899.

English language

N. J. Johnson, and R. J. Wallis both profess to be heathen shamans, and together wrote Galdrbok: Practical Heathen Runecraft, Shamanism and Magic. The text includes content on scrying, Galdr and Runes. "Galdrbok" translates into English as "spell-book".

United States of America, and the United States

Grimoires were in use by Afro-Caribbean persons in the French Colonies.

Ember Grant wrote a text, published 2013, which details spells to use with crystals, rocks, minerals and sand.

England

Arthur Edward Waite wrote a book entitled The Book of Black Magic, first published 1898. which is otherwise entitled The Book of Ceremonial Magic.

Patrick Dunn (PhD), who is a Pagan, wrote Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic in the Information Age, published 2005 by Llewellyn Publications. The text provides guidance on magical artifacts, defixios, divination decks, elementals, glamours, servitors, sigils, spirits, symbol systems, the creation of talismans, and an astral temple, in addition to other contents (not shown here).

Canada

The Holy Order Of The Golden Dawn (of Canada) publish a text called the Golden Dawn Magick System.

German language

Lange Verborgene Freund by Johann Georg Hohman is a spell book, translated from German during the year 1855, as a book entitled Pow-Wows or alternatively Long Lost Friend, or alternatively again, Long Hidden Friend. Another German book entitled The Egyptian Secrets of Albertus Magnus, containing a number of protective and good luck charms, and in part describing the utilization of herbs magical, was given an English translation during 1910. The Hohman text contains contents almost identical to the Magnus text.

Yoruba

The Yoruba Ifa Odu verses are a corpus used for the purposes of divination.

Ethiopia

In modern-day Ethiopia, at least circa the year 1995, men needing a partner use a number of methods, of which resort to the recitation of a magical text is a last resort. These texts are called Amsi'o bi'isit, which translates as women-bringer.

The Golden Dawn

Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) published works of the founder of the Golden Dawn S.L. MacGregor Mathers, including writings of his own.

The Church of Satan

Anton LaVey wrote a monograph, written and subsequently circulated during 1968 to 1969, which included a description of Satanic magic.

The Temple of Set

Michael Aquino wrote The Book of Black Magic in Theory and practice (published 1992). his principal text is The Black Magical Theory of the Universe (published 1983).

New Age

Scott Cunningham (died March 28, 1993) produced a (288 page) book entitled Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic.

Text pertaining to magic

De occulta philosophia which translates as, The occult philosophy, was written by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Von Nettesheim, and is a comparative study of magic to religion. The fourth book of the work is thought to be a grimoire spell book (by one source). Agrippa also wrote, On Rapture, Ecstasy, and Divination on those who are seized by Epilepsy and Fainting and in the Dying.

Marlowe, Jonson and Shakespeare all included textual references to magic within a number of their works.

Ancient latin language text

Texts written in Latin on tablets which when performed act as curses, are forty-six published, and these were known as defixiones.

Grimoires

A number of known grimoires exist, some of which are:

Voces magicae

Magical words are seen rarely in texts prior to the Roman Imperial period, but are instead common from the time immediately afterward.