Prayer in Astrological Magic: Part I – Historical Background

Words have power: the power to communicate, to persuade, to command—and most importantly from the perspective of astrological magic, to enhance, augment, and direct the effects of talismanic workings. This post series explores the role of prayers in astrological magic. In Part I, we examine the overarching function of invocations and prayers in astrological magic, arguing that spoken words used to invoke, channel, and direct the power of talismanic workings play a central role in the tradition of astrological magic.

“All the Wise Who Have Spoken of this Science”

It would be a bold claim if we at Idola Stellarum said that every significant source in the tradition of astrological magic gives some pride of place to prayer and invocation as a central component of astrological magic. Fortunately, the landmark text of our tradition, the Picatrix, makes this claim for us: “All the wise who have spoken of this science agree that in working with magical images, words and prayers help in combination with substances and actions” (Book I, Chapter 5, tr. Christopher Warnock & John Michael Greer).

Let us now turn to sampling the major texts of the tradition to see how well the claim of the Picatrix is substantiated in practice.

We can first turn to the Picatrix itself, which in the very first chapter asserts that although creating an image using the proper materials at precise astrological times comprises the essence of astrological magic, this practice becomes bolstered through the use of magical words:

“You should know that those who have equaled the ancient sages in making images know that the virtue of images consists wholly in the election of hours and times of the proper constellations, and in appropriate substances from which the images are made. Words also form a part of magic, because words themselves have magical virtues. Plato says the same thing, that just as a friend can become an enemy through wicked and insulting words, good and friendly words can turn an enemy into a friend. By this it is clear that words have magical power in them. The greatest strength is achieved when several strengths are joined together to overcome, and this is the perfect virtue in magic.
—Picatrix, Book I, Chapter 1, tr. Christopher Warnock & John Michael Greer

In the text “On the Stellar Rays” attributed to the 9th century Islamic philosopher Al-Kindi, the author states that knowledge of talismanic images proceeds in part “from the knowledge of the virtue of words and works which are required in the formation of images along with the intention of the operator” (Chapter 8, tr. Robert Zoller).

A text attributed (likely apocryphally) to Ptolemy called Opus Imaginum containing a recipe for a talisman of the first decan of Aries instructs the mage to make a talisman from copper, and “Then you will say: ‘I have bound every robber away from this house with this talisman’” before burying the talisman in the middle of your house, and contains similar instructions for words to intone for other talismans.

The tradition’s foremost text on talismans of the fixed stars, De Quindecim Stellis, comes to us from multiple different texts and versions, which give us a range of variations in the sigils, herbs, and essential instructions for making such talismans. For the most part, these texts are compendiums of the essential ingredients: the stones, herbs, sigils, and purposes corresponding to the 15 Behenian fixed stars. One of the editions, however, the Liber Thebit, contains some of the most explicit instructions for exactly how words are to be used in the ritual process of talismanic creation. The text includes an “orison” (prayer) attributed to Thebit that is to be recited while “setting the stone” that includes a call to the “most high Creator of all, Alpha and Omega” (tr. Regulus Hess).

Likewise, and in similar fashion, the talismanic lapidary of the sage Techel, Liber Sigillorum, also includes a “Blessing for the Sanctification of Stones” predicated on “the sanctification and invocation of [the name of God]” (tr. Regulus Hess). Although specific instructions on the use of this Blessing are not provided, it would presumably serve a ritual function similar to the orison in Liber Thebit.

The Sepher ha-Levanah aka Liber Lunae, a grimoire containing instructions for lunar mansion images, instructs the magician to “recite over [the image] the names of the [corresponding] angels” and to “swear upon seven times over every image with each suffumigation” (tr. Don Karr, pp. 104-5), with “the name of the hour, the name of the Moon, and also the name of the [lunar] mansion” recited (and therefore, presumably invoked) as well.

Jumping to Renaissance Europe, the Renaissance physician-priest-magician Marsilio Ficino dedicated a whole chapter to words, prayers, and in particular songs as conveying the spiritual power of the celestial spheres—particular Solar powers, since “words, song, and sounds…are rightly dedicated to Apollo whose greatest invention is music” (Three Books on Life, Book III, Chapter XXI, tr. Carol V. Kaske & John R. Clark). More directly relevant to talismanic magic, he notes that “certain words pronounced with a quite strong emotion have great force to aim the effects of images precisely where the emotions and words are directed,” and encourages the reader to “remember… that a prayer, when it has been suitably and seasonably composed and is full of emotion and forceful, has a power similar to a song” (ibid).

Finally, the German Renaissance polymath Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa builds up, over a series of chapters, an argument that the dispositions of the mind (i.e., one’s intentions) have an effect on the world, and that words, as carriers of intentions, play an important role in magic. There is much to be said about Agrippa’s view of these matters, but for our purposes here we shall quote a bit from a single chapter, in which he builds toward the conclusion that spoken words regarding the purpose of a magical working play a role in conveying the proper occult virtues into the working:

“It should now be plain that there is a great virtue residing in the dispositions of the mind. Additionally, you must understand that there is no less virtue in words and the names of things, and there is a great virtue included in speech and orations… [W]ords are the most suitable medium between the speaker and listener. They convey with them not only a concept but also the virtue of the speaker, which is transferred and accepted by the listener with a certain efficacy. This often occurs with such great power that it not only changes the listeners but also certain other bodies and inanimate things… Explaining the virtues of things causes the power of those virtues to be engrafted to the words spoken, and thus they act as a vehicle by which those virtues are prepared and set forth.”
—Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book I, Chapter 69, tr. Eric Purdue

Albertus Magnus: Throwing a Wrench in the Gears?

The glaring potential exception that may arise in the minds of those familiar with this tradition would have to be Albertus Magnus, who infamously decried astrological magic that involved ritual elements such as suffumigation and invocation as “abominable” and “filth” (Speculum Astrologiae, Chapter 11, tr. Paola Zambelli). One view of Albertus Magnus is that of bare minimalism in the art: that a simple engraving or casting of an image at the appropriate time, with not a single other trapping of magical ritual, would be sufficient to create an operative astrological talisman. This perspective arose because of Albertus Magnus’s commitment to seeing talismanic images as an essentially “natural” phenomenon having nothing to do with spirits or daemons, and therefore licit in the eyes of the church.

However, it should be noted that although Albertus Magnus decried the use of suffumigations and invocations, he nevertheless noted that certain words can be employed “during [a talisman’s] casting. He cites the example of a talisman made for expelling scorpions from a place, and notes that a statement can be made as to the talisman’s effect so long as “it does not appear to be an exorcism or an invocation” (Chapter 16). The example he includes is, “This is an image [i.e., a talisman] for the destruction of scorpions from that place so long as the image is preserved in it,” and he also notes that one could engrave the word “Destruction” on the back of the talisman.

If this manner of announcing the purpose of the talismanic working sounds familiar, it might be because one of the two texts on talismanic image magic that Albertus Magnus considered licit was pseudo-Ptolemy’s Opus Imaginum cited above.

The other primary text that Albertus Magnus considered licit was De Imaginibus, by the 9th century Islamic polymath and Harranian Sabian Thabit Ibn Qurra.

The Mystery of (the lack of?) Ritual Elements of De Imaginibus

Even if we consider Albertus Magnus neutral on the use of words in astrological magic (permitting but not requiring them), Thabit Ibn Qurra’s De Imaginibus still presents us with one glaring exception to the claim of the Picatrix. De Imaginibus, at least in the version that comes down to us via the edition by Christopher Warnock and Nigel Jackson, does not seem to mention prayers, incantations, or inscriptions in any capacity (with the possible exception of naming a talismanic statue after the person it is supposed to work on).

This presents us with quite a puzzle: Given that the author of Picatrix not only knew of but was indebted to Thabit Ibn Qurra’s work, why does his work seem to be an exception to the strong, universal claim in the Picatrix that “All the wise who have spoken of this science agree that in working with magical images, words and prayers help in combination with substances and actions”?

Here we have to do some source sleuthing. It turns out that by far the most common manuscript of De Imaginibus that we have is not actually a direct text from Thabit Ibn Qurra, but a Latin translation by the 12th century translator John of Seville. In fact, until very recently, we did not have access to any texts closer to the 9th century when Thabit Ibn Qurra would have been writing in Baghdad.

However, there is a second, less common stream of source texts related to De Imaginibus, also translated in the 12th century into Latin by the philosopher Adelard of Bath. The Liber Praestigiorum Thebidis, in contrast to John of Seville’s De Imaginibus, does include information on “inscriptions of signet rings, suffumigations and prayers to the spirits of the planets” (p. 18) according to Charles Burnett in his 2007 paper “Tabit ibn Qurra the Harranian on Talismans and the Spirits of Planets.” Burnett argues that these additions in Adelard of Bath’s translation are likely faithful translations of the original, based on their seamless inclusion into the text, inclusion of Arabic words, and similarity to practices of other Islamic magicians.

Five years later in 2012, however, Burnett, along with Gideon Bohak, published “A Judeo-Arabic Version of Tābit Ibn Qurra’s De Imaginibus and Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Opus Imaginum,” which examines text fragments on astrological magic found in the Cairo Genizah (a paper storage room of a medieval synagogue). These texts do suggest that John of Seville’s translation was a faithful rendering, at least of these fragments of magical texts copied by a medieval scribe. Burnett and Bohak do say, however, that “The possibility still remains that Adelard translated from a variant version of Tābit’s text which has not yet been identified.”

Final Thoughts on Our Traditional Sources

With the possible exception of Thabit Ibn’s Qurra’s De Imaginibus (which focuses, by the way, on house-based talismans, not planetary or fixed star talismans), an examination of the current major source texts of our tradition of astrological magic largely bears out the claim of the Picatrix: words—that is, inscriptions, invocations, prayers, and ritual statements of intention—are widely attested across the various branches of the tradition.

What are we to say, then, about De Imaginibus? We can lay out the following points in favor of the idea that Thabit Ibn Qurra’s practices likely did involve ritual prayers and invocations, even if they were not documented in the main particular extant source we have of his writings on talismans:

The Picatrix makes a universal claim that the sources the author was familiar with all attest to the value of words in this art;
We can say with certitude that the author of the Picatrix knew about and relied upon Thabit Ibn Qurra’s writings;
We have a plausible alternate version of De Imaginibus by Adelard of Bath, the Liber Praestigiorium Thebidis, that includes ritual prayers in its instructions for making talismans;
On the other hand, we have no evidence of a foundational 9th century Arabic source of Thabit Ibn Qurra’s writings that would definitively establish Adelard of Bath’s prayers as fabrications, and nor do we have any other reason to reject them as spurious; and finally,
We have good reasons to believe that the Harranian Sabians were engaged in full on stellar devotion (see Christopher Warnock’s book The Celestial Way).

Given all of this, from our point of view as practitioners, although there may not be a rock solid scholarly case that all talismanic magic involves words, it seems very clear to us that words and prayers are a central part of the tradition that are widely attested and likely widely practiced. There is therefore a very strong case to be made that close attention should be paid to prayers and invocations as one of ingredient of astrological magic recipes where a practitioner can devote care and attention to enhance the efficacy of their magic.

In future posts in this series, we will delve further into the role and function of words and invocations, and offer a rationale based in our magical worldview for why astro mages should pay close attention to prayers and invocations in their workings.

As stewards of the tradition of astrological magic, it is our privilege to bring the wonder of astrological talismans to others. Sign up to our mailing list for word of our upcoming talismanic collections and workings:

By clicking ‘subscribe’, I consent to Idola Stellarum storing my email and information solely for the purpose of communicating upcoming offerings and content, and I am able to unsubscribe at anytime.