Page 9 (part 2)

Click to view TALISMAN OF ARBATEL Even with the qualification which I have registered, the putative Transcendental Rituals are exceedingly few. There is--1. The Enchiridion of Pope Leo the Third. 2. The Arbatel of Magic . 3. The Celestial Magic of an anonymous German occultist, entitled Theosophia Pneumatica , which must be held to represent and to save enumeration of one or two similar handbooks. Of these, the first is included among the Rituals of Ceremonial Magic: by the invincible ignorance of almost every person who has undertaken to class it. On the other hand, the third borrows all its importance from the second, in which, upon both counts, the interest evidently centres. As regards its origin, its authorship, and even its scope, there is, however, considerable mystery. Within my own knowledge, there are no copies in manuscript, or none at least which are prior to the end of the sixteenth century. It appeared in a tiny volume at Basle and bore the date 1575. Back-dating and imputed authorship are the two crying bibliographical sins of Grimoires and magical handbooks, and the antiquity of the Arbatel rests under a certain suspicion on account of its literary connections; at the same time it would require the knowledge of an expert in typography to pronounce certainly on the reliability of the date indicated. The text is in Latin, but there is a slender possibility in favour of its being the work of an Italian. It makes a reference to Theophrastic Magic, which indicates the influence of Paracelsus, and, although it is difficult to speak with any certainty, seems to hint at an early period of that influence, the period, in fact, of Benedictus Figulus , slightly antedating Rosicrucian enthusiasm, and thus accounting for the omission of all Rosicrucian references, which, in view both of matter and manner, might have been irresistibly expected had the work been posterior to the year 1610. It should be observed that the Arbatel has no connection with the cycle, hereinafter considered, of the Keys of Solomon, and it is permeated with Christian ideas. The authorship is completely unknown. Arbatel, or ארבעתאל {Hebrew ARBOTAL }, is probably not an assumed name, but indicative of an instructing or revealing Angel. The use of this Hebrew term is, however, peculiar in connection with the fact that the references to the Old Testament are few and unimportant, while the sayings of Christ, and the New Testament narrative generally, are subjects of continual citation. Solomon, moreover, is not mentioned in the frequent enumerations of adepts and wise men. So far concerning the origin, authorship and date of the book. It remains to say that it is incomplete. Of the nine "Tomes" into which it purports to be divided, we possess only one. It is not unlikely that the rest were never written, because the author has left us a plan of his entire proposal, and it is evident that his first book more than once overlaps what should have followed. As it stands, the Arbatel of Magic is concerned with the most general precepts of Magical Arts--in other words, with the Institutions. It is entitled Isagoge , which means essential or fundamental instruction.