I’ve written previously about how to get started with divination, and how to build a solid magical practice more generally. The vast bulk of my magical work at this point, however, is spirit conjuration – specifically in or inspired by the Solomonic tradition. Let’s say you’re learning your chosen divination system and you have your magical foundation in order. How does one get started communing with spirits?
I’m going to make a brief digression here to talk about historical martial arts.1 The vast majority of historical European martial arts are broken traditions; as weapons technology changed, they either evolved into near-unrecognizable modern sports (Olympic foil fencing) or were abandoned completely (longsword). There were no living masters to learn from, so modern practitioners have rebuilt the moves and systems in these arts from period treatises. These manuscripts were mostly written by combat masters from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries, laying out their particular systems. In this, historical martial traditions are highly similar to historical grimoiric traditions. We cannot learn from masters in an unbroken lineage of practice, but must reconstruct such practice from existing primary sources.
Why am I bringing this up? It is generally accepted in historical martial arts circles that the more modern a treatise, the easier it is to work from. For learning combat with a one-handed sword, something like Charles Roworth’s The Art of Defence on Foot with the Broad Sword and Sabre – written in 1798 – is much easier to work from than I.33 – a treatise on the use of the arming sword from somewhere around the year 1300.
There are three reasons this should be the case. First, our understanding of human pedagogy has advanced significantly over the last few centuries. We are now much better at formulating knowledge into systems that convey concepts in a logical progression. Second, the idea that a real-world system – something like fighting or ritual magic – might be entirely learned from a book is something of a modern conceit; many historical treatises are more like notebooks, intended to be studied alongside instruction from a master, rather than works designed to stand alone. Finally, the cultural context of the time in which a manuscript was written was different from our cultural context today; things that were assumed to be obvious to a reader at the time of writing may no longer be common knowledge. The Grimorium Verum, for example, makes reference to the “seven penitential psalms” with no further explanation of which these are. This is not too great a hurdle, as the penitential psalms are still known (if not so widely as they were), and some research can quickly answer the question. It becomes more troubling for texts in the Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri, that include a space in the ritual to “add the usual.” What is the usual? We can only guess, there is no one left we can ask for a definitive answer.
For all of these reasons, more modern sources are usually easier to pick up and work with as a modern reader, while sources become more fragmented and more cryptic the further back in time you go. It holds as true for grimoires as for arms treatises: the stepping stone closest to the bank is the easiest to reach.
I’m therefore going to make my recommendations in reverse chronological order: from more recent to more historical. The more modern sources are generally simpler and easier for a beginner to pick up, while still remaining true to the structure of Solomonic spirit conjuration.2
Modern Sources
Consorting with Spirits by Jason Miller
If you’re only going to pick up a single book to get you started with spirit conjuration, this should be it. It contains a substantial theoretical section, discussing what spirits are and the various modes of communicating with them. It also includes a number of different, general-purpose spirit conjuration frameworks, all of which conform to traditional Solomonic ritual structure. These systems range from gentle invitations to communicate to heavier-handed conjuration formulas – with options that are classically Christian, Luciferian, or based in the lore of Hecate, depending on what appeals to your personal sensibilities. It’s an excellent, well-rounded and historically grounded book.
Seven Spheres by Rufus Opus
If you’re mostly interested in conjuring planetary archangels, this is probably the clearest modern system. It is roughly based on The Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals (more on that later), but strips away the more onerous requirements to present a complete program of theurgic evocation.3
Transitional Sources
The Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals by pseudo-Trithemius
This one is technically a historical source, though a fairly recent one. It appears as part of Francis Barrett’s 1801 book The Magus, attributed by Barrett as a translation of an older Latin manuscript authored by Abbot Johannes Trithemius of Sponheim. No earlier manuscript has ever been discovered, and certainly nothing related to Trithemius. It is likely that this was an original contribution from Barrett and – following a grand tradition of Solomonic grimoires – attributed to a famous historical occultist.4
The text offers a simple rite for conjuring angels into a scrying crystal. If you want to run it by the book, it has some obscure equipment requirements (an ebony wand, a silver ring, etc.), but the ritual itself is incredibly straightforward. In fact it forms the basis for Rufus Opus’s Seven Spheres system. The great thing about this option is that the full text is available online through Esoteric Archives, as is an exhaustive analysis of it from Polyphanes’s Digital Ambler blog.
Historical Sources
If you want to disdain modern sources entirely, and go straight back to the sixteenth century, there are two grimoires that lend themselves well to beginners:
The Arbatel
Published in Switzerland in 1575, the bulk of this slim grimoire is a set of aphorisms guiding the magician to live virtuously and in right relationship with God. It also contains the names, seals, and offices of seven olympic spirits. The method for conjuring them mostly boils down to reciting certain prayers at dawn on the planetary day associated with them. In terms of ritual complexity, it’s hard to find a simpler method – but this simplicity can actually be somewhat challenging as a beginner. Many magicians who have worked with the Arbatel (for example Frater Acher), include many more ritual trappings around the core operations, to flesh out the bones presented in the text itself.
The best edition of the Arbatel, hands down, is Joseph H. Peterson’s translation.
The Heptameron
Attributed (likely spuriously) to Pietro d’Abano, the Heptameron was first popularized due to its inclusion in the printed version of The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy in 1565. While the method of drawing the circle and the conjurations to be used are somewhat intricate (varying by the day, hour, and season), the equipment requirements and the ritual itself are both straightforward. The text lays out the conjuration of seven aerial kings, but can be adapted for the conjuration of other spirits as well.
While the basic text of the Heptameron is available on Esoteric Archives, Joseph H. Peterson has a much more comprehensive edition (including the Heptameron’s precursor text) in his book Elucidation of Necromancy.
If you are looking for a framework that you can pick up and start working with in a matter of hours or days, it’s hard to go wrong with Consorting with Spirits or Seven Spheres. Both are fresh, modern takes laying out complete and workable systems. If you want to reach a little further back in time, The Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals is a quick read, and has been adapted with great success by dozens of modern practitioners. For classic grimoires, the Heptameron and the Arbatel are both solid starter choices.
Regardless of which text you choose to work from, the important thing is that you do the work. There are so many grimoires available these days (with new ones published every year), that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by options. Focusing your efforts on a single text, and experimenting with it thoroughly before moving on, will help accelerate your path to adept conjuror.
- Which is also a hobby of mine. Because apparently I’m a nerd who enjoys reading early modern manuscripts for fun on several fronts. ↩︎
- Which is by no means guaranteed in works by modern authors. An awful lot of modern books contain chaos magick with demonic seals sprinkled on top, and consider it spirit conjuration. ↩︎
- Rufus Opus has a follow-up work on evoking the spirits of the Goetia, which I would not recommend. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not particularly compelling in relation to the other books on this list. ↩︎
- This makes it perhaps Barrett’s only original contribution to The Magus, the vast majority of which is plagiarized directly from other occult authors, such as Agrippa. ↩︎
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