The Book of Oberon: A Sourcebook of Elizabethan Magic

by Daniel Harms, James R. Clark, Joseph H. Peterson

Overview

A fascinating addition to the magical literature of the Elizabethan era, this lavishly illustrated grimoire is a must-have for magic practitioners, collectors, and historians. The Book of Oberon is the meticulous transcription and translation of a sixteenth-century manuscript acquired by the esteemed Folger Shakespeare Library. Unlike the more theoretical magic books of the era, this collection of spells, secrets, and summonings was compiled gradually by unknown authors for working practical magic.

Now published in a premium hardcover edition retaining the original's red lettering of significant words and holy names, The Book of Oberon includes rituals for summoning a long list of spirits and faeries (including Oberion, Fairy King and close relation to Shakespeare's Oberon); original drawings; common prescriptions used by cunning folk; instructions for dealing with Goetic demons that were censored in other texts; one of the oldest known copies of the magical manual The Enchiridion; and much more. This is a significant contribution to the annals of magical history, bringing to light the kind of grimoire that was commonplace in its era but is rarely published today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738743349
Publisher:	Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Publication date:	04/08/2015
Pages:	600
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Daniel Harms is a librarian and writer living in central New York. His major area of research is magic from antiquity to the present, especially necromancy and fairy magic. He has been published in Fortean Times, the Journal for the Academic Study for Magic, and the Enquiring Eye, as well as chapters for Palgrave Macmillan and Penn State Press books. Harms is also the author of two books on horror fiction and folklore.

James R. Clark has been working in various fields of philosophical and esoteric study for nearly two decades. His primary areas of focus are philosophy of number, Golden Dawn, and alchemy. James is a self-taught artist. He has illustrated The Essential Enochian Grimoire, the seventh edition of Israel Regardie's Golden Dawn, and The Book of Oberon.

Joseph H. Peterson has been studying esoteric texts for decades, intrigued by the Renaissance intellectual and experimental approach to spirituality. After years of collecting and digitizing rare texts for his own research, in 1995 he created the avesta.org and esotericarchives.com websites to share them with a wider audience. He lives near Rochester Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Contents

NOTE: The table of contents has been added to give a quick overview of the parts of the text but has been worded differently in some cases for clarity.

Introduction 1
Abbreviations and Typographic Symbols 31

Part 1: Theurgia 33
Preparatory Prayers 33
Excerpts from Heptameron 50
Excerpts from the Enchiridion, for protection 53
Excerpts from Heptameron resumed 74
Prayers before you call or consecrate: The Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, Creed, psalms 76
Sprinkling the lustral water 81
Blessing of the fumigations and exorcism of the fire 82
Concerning the garment and pentacle, and their use 82
The oration to be said while putting on the garment 83
To consecrate all instruments 83
The Athanasian Creed 85
The Gospel of Saint John 87
How you can speak with your own good angel whenever you wish 88
Prayer for one's angel 92
The method of the glass or stone 93
Another method to have a spirit in a glass, with sufflations and olive oil 102
Experiment of invisibility 107
The licence (or releasing) of any spirit 111
Consecration of the circle 112
Consecration of the holy water 113
In order that the spirits don’t have the power to harm you 113
Concerning Baron 114
A bond for a spirit who is rebellious and won't appear 120
Prayer of purification 121
A vincle or call 123
A conjuration of obedience 125
A band to bind them into the triangle or ring 125
To speak with a spirit in thy bed 132
For winning at games 133
Table of planetary hours 134
Planets which be good and evil 135
Signs that be good to work 136
John's gospel 136
Protection against thieves 137
Confession 138
Seven Angels 144
If you wish to test experiments 145
Epilepsy spell 146
Excerpts from Cardano of the intelligences, numbers, and names of the planets 147
The parchment, ink, pen, and writing 148
Seven planets, twelve signs, thirty days 149
The nature of the seven planets 150
Seven precious stones which were in the crown of Zepheraziel 153
Excerpts from Sepher Raziel on stones, herbs, and beasts 153
Of suffumigations called incenses 155
To defend treasure from finding 157
To constrain and bind devils 158
To see spirits, etc. 158
That one shall prosper in his affairs 159
To win favour of princes, etc. 159
To see devils or spirits 159
To bind and loose spirits 159
Upupa 160
To subdue spirits 160
Suffumigating 161
Semoferas 162
Four great names 166
A name to get victory 166
To remove wrath and sorrow 166
For victory 166
The consecration of the ring 167
Days most expedient to work any marvels on 168
A malediction for the fire 169
If he come, rewrite his name... 170
Another for the fire for the four kings 170
A suffumigation that rejoiceth spirits 172
Tables of planets and signs 173
A table of every thing of every sphere by himself 175
To make a thief not to depart 178
The names of the seven sisters of the fairies 179
Experiment for a theft 179
To be said at the beginning and ending of every work 184
Prayers of purification and consecration 187
Officium de spirittibus ("The offices of spirits") 191
Mycob, the queen of the fairies, and the seven fairy sisters 207
The four kings of spirits of the air and their subservients 208
The names and shapes familiar to the spirits of the planets, their fumigations, and conjurations 215
Sun / Sunday 215
Moon / Monday 218
Mars / Tuesday 220
Mercury / Wednesday 223
Jupiter / Thursday 225
Venus / Friday 228
Saturn / Saturday 230
Directional and planetary incenses 233
List of Pagan gods 234
Spirits that make books and write books 235
A conjuration most necessary to the angels of each day to the obtaining of any spirit thou callest 236
The order of the circle work 239
The blessing of the fumigations and fire 246
Opening and entering the circle 266
The consecration and fumigation of the circle 279
Fumigations that rejoiceth spirits 279
The necessaries for this art of Necromancy 290
The beginning of circle work 291
Rules and preparation 292
An invocation unto the four kings to urge and constrain a spirit 297
After you have done 314
A good constriction for a spirit 315
For the ground 315
This must be laid in the earth to urge a late dead man to appear and speak 318
For hidden treasure 319
The spirit of the North, who is called King Egin... 340
Conjuration of Baron 346
An experiment of Rome 351
In order to know about things lost, or accumulated... 356
Treatise on the experiment for a theft 357
To make an oil for seeing spirits from the air, as followeth 358
An experiment of two hazel rods of one year's growing 363
This is the office of angels, spirits, and devils... 364
To see spirits in the air or elsewhere 366
The secretness of secrets hid 368
A collection of talismans 370
Characters of the planets 381
The ten most sacred names of God 382
Hebrew for the planets 382
Seals without characters of the seven planets 383
Fumigations, excerpted from Petrus de Abano and Agrippa 385
Brief notes concerning the course of the Moon 385
The spirits of the planets and signs 387
Prayers before beginning 388
Circle work 391

Instruments of the Art 398 An experiment approved by Friar Bacon to have a spirit appear in a circle... 399
Bilgall—Conjuration of the Spirit 401
For enclosing a spirit in a ring 403
Experiment of Solomon for having whatever you may covet. Lapwing. 407
Annabath 409
Ascariell— Conjuration of the Spirit 410
For making a stolen item return again 416
An experiment to see in thy sleep whatsoever thou shalt desire 416
To know whether one suspect be the thief or no 417
Satan—Conjuration of the Spirit 418
Experiment concerning the spirit called Baron, Baaran, Bareth, or Baryth 426
Saint George 432
The figure of the mirror 433
Romulon—Conjuration of the Spirit 434
Mosacus—Conjuration of the Spirit 445
Orobas 453
Oberyon—Conjuration of the Spirit 454
Figures and Characters of Oberyon and His Followers 455
Another way to invoke Oberion 473
The circle for the great work, i.e., to call the four kings... 482
On the nigromantic doctrine for all useful experiments 483
Concerning the Baths 485

Part 2: The Key of Solomon 491
The Eye of Abraham, for theft 492
For the toothache 493
Experiment to overcome enemies 495
For all manner of headache 496
For to bind any ground or house or field that nothing shall be stole out... 497
To find treasure of the earth... 499
Ritual for hunting 500
For shooting 501
Rite using bread loaf to find a thief 502
Instructions to the Steward 505
This longeth to the priest to use after this manner following 507
For biting of a dog, adder, or snake 522
To cause sleep 523
Terebinthus 523
To cause conception 525
A special good for women in travail 525
For the ague 526
For one that is bewitched 526
To cause a spirit to appear in thy bed chamber 527
Magrano—Conjuration of the Spirit 528
An excommunication 528
A conjuration, proven, regarding a theft 533
Experiment for having the spirit Sibilla in the light of a candle 537
For to take fowls with your hands 540
For a maid's thought 541
For love in the day and hour of Venus 541
Against thieves 541
Against thy enemies 541
Against witchcraft 542
For axis or ague 542
For sorrow of the teeth 543
A charm for thndbr... 543
In the event of theft 543
In the event of thefts, proven 544
Experiment for thieves 544
To make one fair 545
For the toothache 546
To make a maiden to dance 546
To make one follow thee 547
For a woman's love 547
If thou wilt know if she is a maid 547
To make love between men and women 547
If any be angry with thee 547
Also to make thieves to stand as well by night as by day 547
An experiment for thieves 548
For ulcers or p raid es (?) bladder & yard 550
For fretting of the yard or any other part 550
[???] ... a reumen 551
Huius libra Guilielmus Braius professor 551
How to call the king of the pigmies 551
For the Swallow 554
The virtue of vervain 555
Bibliography 557
Index 569