Preface

approached from bibliographical and critical perspectives, and all the sources of information that many years of research have revealed to the author have been consulted to make this work complete. At the same time, I have considered the needs of the practicing occultist: a person who studies or practices supernatural, secret, or mystical arts in two important ways, which I believe will not offend those who are only interested in history.

First, I have maintained strict technical accuracy. The ceremonial: the system of rituals and formal actions used in magic presented in this book is completely faithful to the original sources. This removes any need to consult the original texts to resolve doubts about historical magical procedures. For ease of reference, this book is actually superior to the originals because it has been organized systematically. The original texts are often impossible to understand due to the errors of scribes, the mistakes of printers, the sloppy methods of early translators, and—it must be added—the confused minds of the first authors, including “Solomon” original: "Solomon" refers to the legendary attribution of various magic books (grimoires) to the biblical King Solomon. himself. Therefore, those who are interested in these practices will find the countless offices of vain observance: elaborate but ultimately superstitious or empty rituals that make up Ceremonial Magic, as they appear in books, substantially intact here.

The second way I have considered the interests of the occult student is, however, much more important. Robert Turner original: "Robert Turner" was a 17th-century English translator of many influential magical and astrological texts., the English translator of the Magical Elements—a book written, or supposed to be written, by the unfortunate Peter of Abano: a 13th-century Italian philosopher and astrologer who was posthumously condemned by the Inquisition—describes that treatise as an introduction to “magical vanity.” This term was probably used in a transcendental: relating to a spiritual or non-physical realm that goes beyond ordinary experience sense, to suggest that everything in the physical world is equally pointless. The spiritual purpose of the current investigation is to provide those who are spiritually inclined with the fullest evidence of the vanity of