king of Solomon is renowned for his enormous and profound wisdom which of course extends well into the knowledge of the occult famous and legend for his binding and control over demonic forces employing them to even construct the temple in Jerusalem Solomon would come to be attached to a wide range of magical practices most infamously those contained in the key of Solomon literature these magical texts haunted the libraries of the Medieval World they earned the ire of the Inquisition who hunted them and burned them and they survived and they Thrive into contemporary magical practices of the occult all over the world today from The Testament of Solomon stretching all the way back to the early centuries of Christianity to the use of the goisha or the blesser key of Solomon by Aleister Crowley salamonic magic is one of the longest standing traditions in the history of Western Magic but what are its Origins what are the earliest texts in this tradition what do our earliest texts of solomonic magic even look like in this episode we're going to explore a collection of Greek magical texts that bridge the world of late antique Pagan and Jewish magic as they flourished first in their Byzantine setting before setting the stage for solomonic magic generally in the Western World the hugramontea of Solomon a work originally consisting of astrological planetary magic invoking Angels and Demons along with the occult virtues of plants words and stones but eventually coming to include a wide an enormous range of magical rituals techniques regalia divinatory techniques including good old-fashioned necromancy along with spells for invisibility and of course finding buried treasure all of which would set the stage for will become the most infamous form of sorcery and history solomonic Magic here to esoterica you can check out my other content including curated playlists and I'd hope you consider supporting my work of making scholarly and free content on topics and as a terrorism here freely available on YouTube by taking a look at my patreon with a one-time donation you could pick up a cool shirt from our merch store or with the super thank options that you can find below the video all those links are below but now let's turn to the hygromancy of Solomon and the foundations of Western ceremonial magic I'm Dr Justin Sledge and welcome to esoterica where we explore the Arcane in history philosophy and religion foreign [Music] one of the most striking and frankly impressive aspects of the history of Western magic is just how much continuity exists in the practice stretching back into the world of Graco Egyptian magic and the famed Greek magical papyri all the way to the practice of contemporary ceremonial magic now that's not to say there's some unbroken tradition or a perfectly preserved lineage of practice or anything like that but a great deal of the techniques the symbolism and the procedures remain remarkably consistent Through the Ages despite again a real wealth or problem of internal diversity one of the foundational elements of Western magic then are those linked with the ancient Israelite King King Solomon of course Solomon was long associated with ritual power especially exorcism and demonic binding along with occult knowledge of nature long before the rise of Christianity from Philo of Alexandria to Josephus the Roman writers that wrote about him and the Dead Sea Scrolls this reputation extended All the Way South into Arabia and is found in the Quran this would come together in an ancient legendary text in which Solomon is said to have bound demons in the construction of the Jerusalem Temple the famed Testament of Solomon now while The Testament itself isn't a magical handbook per se it forms the core of the demonology that would feature later in magical systems and already hence at least in the direction of magical practice and that's especially true of the C retention of that text now I've made an entire episode on The Testament of Solomon which serves as a kind of companion a pretty important companion to this episode but I would check it out if you haven't seen it already although I will say that this episode stands alone just as well thus with Solomon at the center of magical practices in the ancient legendary narratives from exorcisms demonic bindings and the Occult properties of nature in the early years of the Common Era we should be poly unsurprised to see magical narrative descriptions of his magical practices give way to full-blown manuals for actually practicing the magic that he allegedly did indeed some of this is already hinted at in the Greek magical papyri for instance at pgm4 850-929 we have a technique called Solomon's collapse this seems to be a kind of spell to induce a magical ecstatic trance along with mentions of Solomon's seal and his ring perhaps in connection with an exorcistic spell at pgm4 3007-86 along with several other mentions in the works of people like the Roman Jewish historian Josephus again all of this sets the stage for what seems to be inevitable the production of a singular text entirely dedicated to the magic practiced by Solomon and surprise surprise that's indeed precisely what we get in the hygromancy or the hugramantea of Solomon like many historical magical texts the history and rescindium process of this magical Treatise is profoundly complex positively tortured as they say but that's never stopped us before so let's Dive In and right at the beginning we get our first mystery the title of the text is the first mystery that we encountered depending on the retention goes something like the little key of the whole art of divination through water discovered by several Craftsmen and the holy prophet Solomon in which he seems to write about this to a son rayoboam other editions have something like the talismanic treaties or simply the epistle to rayoboam from Solomon kind of underwhelming when you get down to it the general title high gromancy is perplexing given that it means something like divination by water but specifically means divination perhaps by moisture and this is even more ironic because no such technique occurs in either of the older macro form which we'll talk about in a moment or the mini microforms that come to be joined to the macro form of the text now it's possible that this was originally there that spell was originally there either as a literal divination by moisture or water as part of angelic or demonic summoning ritual or it was just lost and so the title stuck but the spell was lost or hydromancy means something non-literal in this sense in the same way that necromancy sort of became a general term for black magic in the Middle Ages though titles of text and the stability of those titles weren't nearly as much concern for ancient literature as they are for us but the title has introduced the main literary framing of the text which is a letter or a teaching from King Solomon to his son rail boem in which he bids him to master astrological magic specifically in connection with the occult powers of what he says are plants words and Stones another title the text actually captures another dimension of the book A little better it's there the beginning of the astrological treaties of the congregation and edition of spirits here focusing on the invoking not only of the seven planetary spirits but also a positively giant array of Angels and Demons depending on the nature of the magic one wishes to yield as you might imagine you use the angels to do good stuff and the demons to to do bad stuff as we have it the text survives in about 18 late classical coin a and more medieval Byzantine manuscripts from the 15th to the 18th century thus testifying to its popularity 18 manuscripts over several hundred years not nothing it's typically bundled together with other astrological medical divinatory or otherwise magical texts especially the Testament of Solomon as mentioned earlier which makes sense because the Testament Solomon's kind of prologue to all this it appears to have originally been composed in coin a Greek probably originally in a highly syncretized urbanized Jewish or Jewish Christian milieu sometime in the fifth or the 6th Century of the Common Era although Scholars really don't know exactly the astrological influence may very well point to an earlier originally Egyptian perhaps even specifically alexandrian Center of production although literally it Bears some resemblance to the horologium of The Testament of Adam this is a Syriac text of a slightly older period second to 5th Century CE part of which describes which creatures praise God at every hour and how they do so along with a pretty detailed early angelology which actually had a massive impact on Western angelology more generally in fact there's a direct line from The Testament of Adam to pseudodonisius in fact The Testament of Adam needs a whole episode on its own another possible influence would have been works of elective astrology of that time especially something like that of I don't know heliodorus which also allows one to determine which planet rules at a very given hour whether that planet is good or evil male effect or neutral and what kind of actions one should do at a given hour given those astrological conditions though while these may be influences the hygromancy is certainly its own text it has its own inner logic in its own magical aims and finally the text itself seems to be composed of two distinct layers the planetary Angelic demonic system of the conjurations and the Occult properties which form the core of the text we call this the macro form along with a collection of magical accretionary material this material varies widely in the manuscript tradition but includes a wealth of magical instructions divinatory techniques which will attire Weaponry means of evocations and of course fun spells for things like necromancy and treasure hunting all of which though in various forms various diverse forms will go on to become part and parcel of the variable totality of the solomonic magical tradition but to see how this is all built up how it's all put together it's best to start with the Primitive macro form of the hydromancy and then to see how elements of the micro forms these smaller magical ritual units are kind of bundled up with it and how all of this goes into building out the highly diverse yet not random largest arbitrary world of early solomonic magic the macro form of the hydromancy is remarkably logical and pretty well preserved although not complete as we'll see presenting a nearly complete system of compact planetary Angelic demonic education following the introduction featuring Solomon providing his knowledge to his son Raya boam the text then details the days of the week starting with Sunday and going through which planet rules every subsequent hour of that day beginning at dawn this logically also dictates the kind of actions one should do or one should avoid doing during that hour of including things like holding conversations when to do business tackling lawsuits hobnobbing with the rich and the powerful doing Alchemy going to battle learning things dreams when to have good dreams prayers you know taking wrath on one adversaries as one does you know this is all typical d d stuff that we we just do all the time here at esoterica of note is that Friday is referred to as the day of preparation and Saturday is known and the text as the Sabbath all very Jewish in their denotation and yet at the same time Sunday is also called The Lord's day which is Christian and this is all the while invoking kind of quasi-pagan names for planets and their powers so yeah it's magic so hella syncretism next Solomon lays out the Angels and Demons which also attract each hour of each day in a very vast array of Angels and Demons now some of these angels and demons are pretty well known April and Raphael and all the Normie angels some of them are downright mysterious and then Southern show evidence of Italian influence on the Greek perhaps allowing us to further dial in the geographic location or at least the development of this text of course you need both Angels and Demons depending on what you're going to be doing with them again if you're going to be dealing out wheel or woe wrath on your enemies demons it's finally worth noting that some of the lesser-known demons in this text also appear in The Testament of Solomon remember ornias the pedophilic demon that started the whole business in The Testament of Solomon it actually reveals the fact that he's here in this texture it just kind of reveals some early intertextuality with the field of solomonic magic already in this very early stage of its development now following the long angel demon array which varies from manuscript to manuscript as we should expect we're then told by Solomon via rayoboam that we must utter the prayers of the planets at the appropriate hour obviously followed by the adorations to the proper hourly Angels and Demons as well the prayers of the planets invoke associations typical of the planets from classical astrology but they also include a list of secret names for each planet because of course they do this is Then followed by an adjuration of the Angels and Demons followed by the magical symbols and or the characterists of the planets these are very typical of late classical magic each planetary magical symbol is really a kind of Talisman and it has Specific Instructions for the construction of that Talisman invoking various kinds of inks including blood of animals various surfaces to write out these symbols upon including a range of creature is flesh including the Flesh of a vulture along with various other ritual fumigations including instances that are specific to each planet now for anyone that studied much in the way of medieval solomonic Magic this should all start sounding pretty familiar even sort of vague necromancy like you find in clma49 the last two sections describe the various plants of the zodiac and their magical medicinal powers and the techniques to prepare them along with a similar section on the plants of the specific planets again along with their magical and medical powers and the techniques by which to prepare them remember it's about the occult virtues of things found in nature though it's worth mentioning that the names of the plants here are much more typical of something like first century denotations of those plants as you find in something like dioscorides rather than later Byzantine or their medieval equivalence thus again testifying to the relatively early dating for the composition of this text all in all despite lacking a section on the zodiacal and planetary Stones recall that Solomon was to teach rehoboam about the occult powers of plants words and stones there's no Stones here the text as I've mentioned is a quite Compact and relatively complete system of astrological evocation including Angelic and demonic conjuration it includes a whole system of talismanic production and the Occult virtues of at least plants but also remember the planets also have some nomina Barber associated with them so that might be the magical words that he was mentioning the system looks remarkably like the magical text of the Greek magical Pottery although tighter more systematic and compact as it stands again lacking a discussion of the occult virtues of the stones the macro form of the hygromancio Solomon is truly the earliest known text of solomonic magic and the foundation for what will become a great deal maybe the majority of the deal of Western ceremonial magic pikatrix being accepted here though it's worth mentioning that among the earliest types of natural magic in early medieval western Europe they would Fill precisely that whole gap of the occult properties of stones and gems I think maybe even to fill the gap of this text at some level it's amazing how obsessed they are in the Early Middle Ages with the occult powers of stones and gems now with the macro form described that leaves the smaller ritual literary units which came to adhere to the core macro form text for us to discuss well now the development of the microform accretions around the structural core of the hygromancy makes sense for for a lot of reasons the first is simply The Logical result of actually asking how one does the techniques of the hycromancy of the macro form text and recording the results of those very experiments or just suggestions about how to do this in the manuscript tradition how does one prepare parchment how does one sanctify the various elements of these texts how do you make the incense Etc it's a forensic question and those commentaries often get built into these magical texts secondly Innovations upon the macro form based on active experiments with it but also the inheritance and the incorporation of previous forms of magical practice the higromancy didn't develop in a vacuum it's also going to Hoover Up Older magical traditions for instance the development of specific magical attire and protective circles was a Mainstay in ancient magic and thus its eventual incorporation into the performance of the evocation of the macro form rituals makes complete scent it's a totally reasonable accretion I mean do you really want to Summit a bunch of angels and Spirits without a protective Circle further reasons could also include just interest in specific spells who doesn't like love and treasure and divination and invisibility these are all perennially popular even now hence their eventual inclusion finally there's just a whole layer of accretionary material just sort of Rando occult stuff because well while you're at it bad stuff so you get trapping demons in bottles you get an evocation of a kind of mountain fairy princess of course you get some you know good old-fashioned necromancy along that expands even the astrological magic of the macro form we get an entire lunarium in some of these microforms I mean who doesn't like a good lunarium as you can imagine the manuscript retention history is varied and diverse and honestly its distribution is pretty poorly pretty poorly understood to this day however that the material in the microform and the microform those layers are a bit scatter shot especially the microforms in the textural tradition shouldn't be at all surprising these texts were never meant to be polished systematic treaties in the way that perhaps a philosophical treaties or a poetic texts were they were practical manuals and as such they were destined to dramatically change through time and they were put into practice and revised based on that practice this isn't the corruption of a once pure text this is a living text born of ritual practice and revised as a result of precisely those practices further they're often copied in the particular interests or even the religious commitments of a given practitioner thus the addition that one wizard one goes produces will vary sometimes dramatically from another said Wizard or goess all of which is independent of the fact that who knows what manuscript they even had access to begin with it's not like this is the kind of thing you could just go and get these were somewhat persecuted manuals of magic though all of that is not to say that the distribution pattern is somehow totally random no there is a clear solomonic field of magical theory and practice for which there is a relatively stable distribution of the microform accretions thus a great many manuscripts will contain descriptions for the production and use of things like ritual items because you need to know how to produce things like richly fit quills or Reed pens richly fit knives parchment or how to you know obtain the correct blood to write the planetary sigils also unsurprisingly the least of magic circles is not uncommon in this text magical circles are perennially popular going back for millennium without a doubt the most famous object described in these microforms is the ring of Solomon known since Antiquity Josephus even describes a Jewish ritual expert driving out a demon before nonetheless them the emperor vespation using a thalamonic Ring The Ring appears in about half of the extent manuscripts unsurprisingly who doesn't want to boss solomonic ring even now interestingly enough it's first described as being made in virgin wax covered with Virgin parchment which is written upon with various sets of magical words or nomina Barbara and then worn on the index finger of the right hand it's it's a wax ring first and foremost though later text will have it cast in silver now with the symbols being carved upon its bezel with the knife of Art oh yeah you got to know how to make the knife of art later still versions have the Seal of Solomon taking the form of a simple pentagram or hexagram the Star of David by the way or the mug and dovet the shield of David doesn't become a symbol associated with Judaism for centuries after the production of the hydromancy however numerous numerous widely ranging so-called seals of Solomon also develop and are associated with this ring all through this period and all the way till now one of the earliest examples of those are found in a manuscript containing both The Testament of Solomon and the hydromancy along with a boatload of other cool Greek magical to text that seal from harley5596 is rather unlike the seal that survived in any of the clavicular thalamonix literature generally or the seals that most folks are familiar with from the I guess the Mathers edition of the key of Solomon though it is one of the earliest attested so if earlier is more magically than go early now which one of these is the most authentic guy that beats the hell out of me but this does show the stability of the microforms at least in one sense interest in the sale of Solomon is early and it persists into the Contemporary period yet the mutability of the tradition hardly any two seals are actually the same from manuscript to manuscript and there are at least a dozen set of magical words or nomina Barbara and various symbols associated with those that are set to feature on the ring throughout the range of the manuscripts that's why I think it's important to think of solomonic magic as a genre of literature rather than a strict magical tradition in any strong sense of that word along with the ring there are other very popular microforms the conjuration of the four demonic directional quarters while not part of the Primitive macro form was very clearly popular in the early manuscript history and it endures into contemporary occult practice the calling of the four watchtowers however other occult techniques occur only in a plurality of text and others occur only once they're sometimes idiosyncratic to a specific recession or even to a to a manuscript nevertheless the General Distribution of the macro form and the majority of the microforms do in a substantial sense coalesce into a singular distinctive form of ceremonial evocatory magic founded on astrological timing employing a range of ceremonial rituals and trappings that are now clearly recognizable as solomonic magic through and through thus it's probably somewhere in southern Italy perhaps Sicily that the hygromancy of Solomon leapt from its origins in greco-egyptian Byzantine magic into the Latin world into the Latin tradition the world of Western Europe thus setting the stage for the whole clavicular solomoni's tradition or the key but hear the word clavicula sometimes little key lesser Key by the 17th Century recall that the Greek text often refers to itself as a clydion a little key as well and that little key has come to be both feared and praised in the history of Western occultism from the manuals of the medieval Inquisition to the novel grimoires of the 21st Century if you want to study a scholarly reconstruction of the macro form of this magical treaties the earliest primitive version of it the best place to do that with a brief but helpful introduction is in the volume of Old Testament pseudopigrapha in the edition of toyhano who also has one of the best academic studies in the development of the solomonic magical Legend especially its development in the occult world that text is Solomon the esoteric King published by Brill so here's to your saving throw against poverty another truly wonderful addition is by marathakis and this text really Dives deeply into the manuscript variations especially of the microform material with really amazing illustrations comparative charts and helpful notes throughout that's a great forward by Stephen Skinner as well it's a fantastic text and well worth looking especially if you're interested in the practice of this material until next time I'm Dr Justin Sledge thank you for watching esoterica where we explore the Arcane and history 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