So, I've finally decided to give the CP edition of the Mathers-Crowley Goëtia a bibliography (since that edition is in large measure being used as a vehicle for some of my researches / studies on the Lemegeton tradition and 17th-century English magick generally) & I'm also working over the breakdown of the other books of the Lemegeton. In the process of doing so, noticed a few things:
1. Of the four parallel texts Mathers gives of the introductory breakdown of the compilation, none is identical, or even close, to the BL Lemegeton texts (Sloane MSS. 2731, 3648, 3825; Harley MS. 6483 lacks the short description of the five parts). The fourth is probably from a Hockley copy: it omits all mention of the Ars Notoria, and the Wellcome 3203 and 4665 versions both agree with it in the omission of the words "of spirits" at the start of the description of the Ars Paulina; but the Sloane copies all contain the reference to "20 chief spirits" in the Ars Almadel, omitted in the first three of Mathers' parallel texts; nor does any contain the more elaborate account of the Ars Theurgia-Goetia that appears in Mathers' second column.
2. In addition to the "By the figurative mystery" prayer for robing, there's another close-to-verbatim parallel between the Lemegeton and "anti-Scot," the collection of magical processes interpolated at the start of book XV of the 1665 "Third Edition" of the Discovery of Witchcraft. Towards the end of the Ars Paulina, the subject turns to the invocation of the personal "genius," apparently defined as the Angel governing the astrological sign and degree of the magician's birth, concluding with "an Exorcisme to call the genius into the christall stone": the example prayer given (it is specifically stated to be "set for an Example"), runs as followeth (Sloane MS. 3825 fol. 145r):
O thou great and blessed N. my angell guardian, vouchafe [sic] to descend from thy holy mansion that is celestiall with thy holy Influence and presence into this Cristal Stone, that I may behold thy glory, and enjoy thy Society, aide and assistance, both now and for ever hereafter, O thou who art higher than the fourth heaven and knoweth [sic] the secrets of Elanel, Thou that rideth upon the wings of the winds and art mighty and potent in thy celestial and superlunary motion, do thou descend and be present I pray thee, and I humbly desire and entreat thee That if ever I have merited thy society or if any of my actions and Intentions be real and pure & Sanctified before thee bring thy external presence hither, and converse with me one of thy submissive pupils, By and in the name of great god Jehovah, whereunto the whole quire of heaven singeth continually O Mappa La-man Hallelujah Amen.
Book XV, ch. 7 of the "third edition" of Scot is titled, "How to obtain the familiarity of the Genius or Good Angel, and cause him to appear." The preliminary instructions and rubric are completely different: the magician is referred to "the Rules of Travius and Philermus" to find out the name of the personal daimon, as well as the appropriate "Character and Pentacle, or Lamin": while earlier in the chapter the magician is instructed to personally "compose an earnest Prayer unto the said Genius," which is to be repeated regularly for a week prior to the main invocation, for the ritual proper (likewise an invocation to crystal) the following form is prescribed:
O thou blessed Phanael my Angel Guardian, vouchsafe to descend with thy holy Influence and presence into this spotless Chrystal, that I may behold thy glory and enjoy thy society O thou who art higher than the fourth Heaven, and know'st the secrets of Elanel. Thou that ridest upon the wings of the wind, and art mighty and potent in thy celestial and super-lunary motion, do thou descend and be present I pray thee, and desire thee, if ever I have merited thy society, or if my actions and intentions be pure and sanctified before thee, bring thy external presence hither, and converse with thy submissive pupil, by the tears of Saints and Songs of Angels, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, who are one God for ever and ever.
The citation "By the tears of Saints and Songs of Angels," while at least vaguely poetic, probably got redacted out in the Ars Paulina as smelling too strongly of Catholicism for the compiler of the Lemegeton. The final citation in the Lemegeton version, as Skinner & Rankine observed in a note on a similar phrase being used in the Janua Magica Reserata, likely derives from a Dee-Kelly Spirit Action (T&FR p. 82).
3. The main conjuration of Part I of the Ars Paulina shares some phrasing with the "Invocation of Angels" texts, which of course could simply mean that that phrasing was a commonplace of English magical texts of the period: it doesn't share as much with them as they do with each other, and it doesn't have the same level of verbosity or legalism.
EDIT: the main conjuration of the Ars Almadel of the Lemegeton seems to have more phrasing shared specifically with the Janua.
4. Even if the prayer cited above derived independently from the same MS. tradition rather than being copied from anti-Scot, there are other considerations making it doubtful that the Ars Paulina of the Lemegeton significantly pre-dates 1665: it is possible, though this is currently speculation, that is was concocted at the time of the original compilation of the Lemegeton and the redaction of the first two books (the Ars Notoria of the Lemegeton definitely pre-dates the compilation: not having studied the Latin Almadel texts I'm not sure how heavily, or when, the Lemegeton version of that was worked over from the mediæval prototypes) prompted by Agrippa mentioning the "ars paulina" alongside the ars almadel and ars notoria in cap. 46 of De incertitudine et vantitate scientiarum (the work to which he was referring is a more heavily Christian derivative of the Ars notoria and has no connection beside the name with the third book of the Lemegeton).
EDIT: Joseph Peterson's account of the Ars Almadel indicates that the Lemegeton version has been drastically simplified from the Latin Almadel family, reducing twelve "Altitudes" to four, for example. Further, the concluding lines of the main conjuration are simply repeated from that in Part i. of the Pauline Art of the Lemegeton.
5. Someone in the MS. transmission at a fairly early stage couldn't tell his 'R's from his 'L's: in three of the four BL texts the spirit is conjured by the "Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Region" (well, the copyist of Sloane 3648 eye-skipped from one "seat" to the next, giving (fol. 9r) "ministers of the Tartarean seat of Apologia in the 9th Region." Waite (Book of Ceremonial Magic, p. 227) also has "region" and a bunch of other textual garbling in the first conjuration (e.g. "Baralamensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachie, Apoloresedes") although it is unclear if this was due to carelessness, an issue with his source MS., or deliberate--like Wier 400 years or more before, Waite admitted to tampering with the texts he printed in order to make them unusable.
6. The Pauline Art of the Lemegeton is not to be confused with "Paul 'n' Art," of whom it is sung, And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made.
No comments:
Post a Comment