The Magic of the Sword of Moses: A Practical Guide to Its Spells, Amulets, and Ritual

by Harold Roth, Joseph Peterson (Foreword by)

Overview

A practical guide to the famed medieval book of pre-kabbalistic Jewish magic, freshly interpreted and revealed for the first time with instructions on how to use the spells.

The Sword of Moses is one of the earliest Jewish magic books, which describes a rite for adjuring angels to assist in controlling and wielding the "Sword of Moses" for magical purposes. The rite involves a short period of purification and then the adjuring of four sets of angels, each higher than the last. These angels in turn give the magician the power to control the Sword through a series of divine names that work as magical spells. The spells, 137 in all, have a wide variety of uses, including healing, harm, love, sex, exorcising demons, divination, and more.

This work was first translated by Moses Gaster in 1896, but he removed many of the spells, making the text unusable for magic. The Magic of the Sword of Moses is the first book to show in detail, exactly how a magician can use the Sword—how to do the purification ritual, adjure the angels, and pronounce and use the divine names for each spell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578637263
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	08/01/2022
Series:	Weiser Enochian Library
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Harold Roth is among the foremost authorities on plants within the modern occult community. The author of The Witching Herbs, he teaches classes on botanical magic and witchcraft. Visit him at haroldroth.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword Joseph Peterson xiii

Introduction 1

Background of the Sword of Moses 7

Earlier Forms of Jewish Magic 8

Qumran Exorcism Texts 8

Incantation Bowls 9

Magic Texts from the Cairo Genizah 11

Sefer ha-Razim 11

Hekhalot/Merkavah Magical Practices 13

Rabbinic Magic 14

The History of Magical Swords in Jewish Magic 15

Using Divine Names 15

The Importance of Words in Jewish Magic 18

Why It's Okay to Adjure Angels 21

The Havdalah of Rabbi Akiva 23

The Spell-Loosener of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa (Pishra de-Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa) 24

Characteristics of Jewish Magical Texts 25

Who Wrote It, When, and Where 27

Language in The Sword of Moses 30

Influence of Greek Magic 31

Relationship with Egyptian Magic 31

German Jewish Medieval Use of Magical Texts like The Sword 32

The Structure of the Sword of Moses 33

Preparation through Ritual Purification 33

Preparation through Prayer 42

The Historiola 44

The Sword Itself 46

Writing the Divine Names in The Sword 49

The Spells 52

Treating the Sections of The Sword like Talismans 53

Materia Magica of The Sword's Spells 56

Ethics of the Spellwork in The Sword 57

A Warning 58

Working to Wield the Sword 59

The Prayers to Be Said 64

Can Non-Jews Do This Ritual, Including Saying the Amidah? 64

Saying the Amidah 65

The Weekday Private Amidah 69

Adjurations 76

The Spells 89

A Selection of Spells 92

General Spells 93

Healing Spells 96

Protection Spells 105

Knowledge 114

Harming or Cursing Spells 118

Love Spells 130

Miscellaneous Spells 133

Path-Jumping 136

Divination 141

Freeing Prisoners 142

Conclusion 143

Notes 149

References 163

Index of Spells 167

Editorial Reviews

"What a fascinating book, a treasure trove of both history and spells.  More than any purely scholarly or purely magical text, The Magic of the Sword of Moses brings ancient Jewish magic to life in all its uniqueness and power."—Rachel Pollack, author of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom and A Walk Through the forest of Souls
 

Reviews

Harold Roth provides a coherent, digestible, and wonderfully entertaining guide to the Sword of Moses. The perfect tome for any Jewish magical practitioner or occultist, it is a treat to live in this exciting time when authors like Roth are making new sense out of such seminal grimoires and ancient magical texts. There are several things from this book that I have already adopted into my own study and practice.

Cooper Kaminsky

Harold Roth has gone beyond the ancient text of the Sword of Moses and its assumptions and provided suggestions for how it can be adapted to modern situations. The result makes this interesting text come alive and practical for a wide audience.” 

Joseph Peterson

In The Magic of the Sword of Moses, Harold Roth presents a well-organized, insightful, and informative guide to an important first century Jewish manual of magic, a critical edition of which was recently produced by Joseph Peterson, who contributed the foreword here. This is an excellent addition to any modern grimoirist’s bookshelf, outlining as it does the history, background and, above all, use of the Sword of Moses. This significant work enables us to understand the use of the Sword in the past, while encouraging and assisting active engagement with it by practitioners today.

Jake Stratton-Kent

I have probably learned more about Jewish magic from The Magic of the Sword of Moses than from any other single book I have read in the past. Apart from the translation of the text itself, and the modern applications that Harold suggests, the context that is given is extensive and delicious. I particularly appreciate the passages detailing the thoughts of different rabbis on magic and the relationship between angels and humans. Ancient works of magic are sometimes difficult to use in the modern day without significant changes, but the Sword of Moses can be wielded by anyone willing to follow the instructions and put in the effort. The spells in this text are as relevant today as they were 1,500 years ago when they were written.

Jason Miller