Customer Reviews

Sepher Raziel: A Sixteenth Century English Grimoire (Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic Series)

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Sepher Raziel--also called Liber Salomonis--is a full grimoire in the Solomonic tradition from a sixteenth century manuscript. It contains seven books: the Clavis, concerned with astrology and its use in magic, with precise interactions between planets, Signs, and Houses; the Ala, outlining the magical virtues of stones, herbs, and animals; the Tractatus Thymiamatus, which determines perfumes and suffumigations used in the Art; a Treatise of Times detailing the correct hours of the day for each operation; a Treatise on Preparations on ritual purity, and abstinence; Samaim, on the different heavens and their angels; and finally, a Book of Names and their virtues and properties, being seven semiforas of Adam and seven semiforas of Moses.

The Sepher Raziel text is given in two forms: a literal transcription with no changes in spelling or wording and a modern English version.

This volume also includes a foreword which offers an overview of Raziel manuscripts, which represent a number of independent traditions, an essay on the literature of Solomonic magic in English, an introduction to the Sepher Raziel manuscript presented, an appendix on incense nomenclature as a supplement to Tractatus Thymiamatus, a list of printed notices and manuscript sources of Sepher Raziel, and a full bibliography of printed works on Solomonic magic and items of related interest.

Scholars and practitioners alike should be delighted with this edition of the "Sepher Raziel: Liber Salomonis". Not only is the book handsome, finely printed and well edited, but the writing of Karr and Skinner is clear, meticulously sourced, and suitably informative.

Speaking for myself, it's marvelous to finally have the full text of this work available and not to have to rely on previously published and generally unreliable snippets like those to be found in books like Thompson's "Mysteries and Secrets of Magic" or even Agrippa's "Three Books". Hats off to Karr and Skinner for all the hard work obviously involved here, to the Golden Hoard press for the fine presentation, and to Llewellyn for distributing such genuinely esoteric material.

The name of the book is Sefer Raziel, but the original Sefer Raziel (Hamalakh)had nothing to do with one of the Salomonis books such as; Clavicula Salomonis, Clavicula Salomonis Regis, or Liber Salomonis. I have translated several books such as Sefer Yetzirah, The Bahir and am now in the process of translating Sefer Raziel Hamalakh. I don't think Sefer Raziel and Sefer Raziel Hamalakh are from the same source and if this true, the name of the book is misleading.