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The 1725 Hammer edition, first printed version of the Abramelin book.

Abramelin Squares

The system of magic contained in The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, allegedly of 15th-century origin but probably dating from the 18th, which was translated into English bv MacGregor Mathers and which strongly influenced both Mathers and Aleister Crowley. The ‘sacred magic’, which dispenses with much of the complicated paraphernalia and ceremonial of the European tradition of ritual magic, is based on the principle that the material world is the creation of evil spirits which can be controlled by the magician, provided he has first acquired the ‘knowledge and conversation” of his Holy Guardian Angel, a being taken by practitioners of the system to be the magician’s true self. Once he has achieved this, he can use the spirits (which can again be interpreted as factors within himself) as his servants. The book contains a large collection of magic squares – arrangements of letters which represent wishes in the magician’s mind and which give effect to these wishes, though they are said to be extremely dangerous to use without the proper preparation.

Abramelin Magic

“To excite every Description of Hatred and Enmity, Discords, Quarrels, Contentions, Combats, Battles, Loss, and Damage.”

Notes:

The Symbols of this Chapter are manifested in part by the Angels, and in part also by the Evil Spirits.

BELZEBUD performs the Operations hereof.

The Familiar Spirits cannot well execute the Operations of this chapter.

Instructions: Name aloud the person or persons you wish to damage, and move the Symbol under whose class they come. But if it be not for yourself that you are operating, but for two or more other persons, you should still name such persons aloud, and move the Symbols of the class or classes under which they come. Also, if possible, it is a good thing to touch them with the Symbol, on the bare skin, if you can.

Squares for black magic from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage

The practical magic of Abramelin (found in both Book III of the French text, and Book IV of the German original) centres around a set of talismans composed of magic word squares. These are similar to traditional magic squares, though the latter are usually composed of numbers, while Abramelin’s squares contain letters.

Squares to excite quarrels an fights from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
Squares to excite quarrels an fights from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

The book exists in the form of twelve manuscripts and an early printed edition. The provenance of the text has not been definitively identified. The earliest manuscripts are two versions that date from about 1608, are written in German and are now found in Wolfenbüttel.

Composition of the magick squares

Each square from the book should contain words or names that relate to the magical goal of the square. A parallel is found in the famous Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas word square, an altered version of which is also found among Abramelin’s squares.

Squares to cause war from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

For example, a square entitled “To walk underwater for as long as you want” contains the word MAIAM (מים), the Hebrew word for “water”. A square for recovering treasures of jewelry begins with the word TIPHARAH (תפארה, a variant of Tiferet), which can mean “golden ring” in Hebrew and is also the name of the sphere of “Beauty” (which has the planetary attribution of the Sun) on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

Squares for discord from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
Squares for discord from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

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