INTRODUCTION

‘Lo, we are prepared to break the locks of wardrobes and safes containing hidden treasures, etc.’

‘Lo, we are prepared to obey your commands, and wherever you please there shall meet 10,000 or even a million men in arms, etc.’

There is a paragraph (folio 66 a Folio refers to a leaf in a manuscript; "a" denotes the front side (recto).) telling how ‘to shut up a spirit in a ring, so that you may converse with it by day and by night, and it will teach you if you wish all that can be done in the world’. There are directions (folio 67 a) for ‘rendering yourself invisible’; for ‘eluding prison and fetters’; telling how you can injure any enemy (folio 68 b); for one who has taken poison; for one petitioning a lord or ruler (folios 6 a–6 b, Appendix).

The divers other paraphernalia required in the performance of the magical acts, such as the knife, the sickle, water and hyssop A plant used in biblical times for ritual cleansing and purification., light and fire, etc., are all minutely described; the conjurations for the days of the week, and the relation of the Signs of the Zodiac to the art of Magic, are set forth in detail.

The Mystic Alphabet A series of symbols believed to hold spiritual power, often used in amulets. or ‘Alphabet of the Angels’ is given on folio 1 a of the Appendix; and on folio 40 b there is, touching angels, an excerpt from the Book of the Angel Rasiel original: Sefer Raziel HaMalakh; a medieval handbook of Jewish magic and mysticism.—a work that has long been regarded as perhaps the standard compilation of Jewish practical Magic The use of sacred names and rituals to influence the physical world, as opposed to purely theoretical or meditative study.. We can adduce no better example in support of this statement than the final prayer contained in our Key, which, extending over nearly four pages (folios 71 a–72 b), apostrophizes God as the ‘King’, going through the entire Alphabet a greater or less number of times in order to describe His distinctive attributes.

A similar passage occurs in the Book of Rasiel (towards the end), but with this difference; whilst the Book of Rasiel gives about 140 forms referring to the Creator as the King of the Universe, the compilation before us has about 360 such forms. Our version is, therefore, more complete than that which occurs in Rasiel. Besides, the variations themselves are most interesting and instructive; and what strikes one at first sight is the use of expressions throughout this long passage in our Key identical with those occurring in the Jewish Prayer Book, the original source of which may be traced to the Hebrew Scriptures themselves.

H. G. The initials of Hermann Gollancz, the scholar and rabbi who edited this version of the manuscript.