lesserkey5.pdf

THE ARS NOVA

Book V

of the

Lemegeton

Ars Nova – Book Five of the Lemegeton

Transcribed from Sloane MS. 2731 and

prepared in Adobe Acrobat format by Benjamin Rowe, June, 1999.

Typeset in Adobe Caslon

ARS NOVA

Introduction

There is some question whether the Ars Nova qualifies as a separate book of the

Lemegeton . In my copy of the manuscript (Sloane 2731) it consists of a single sheet

of paper. It is only distinguished from the preceding Ars Almadel by the word “Finis”

at the end of that book; there is no new title for the text that follows.

It is my belief that the lack of a title – and an error at whatever time the pages

were numbered – has caused previous publishers and commentators on the Ars Nova

to put its two pages in the reverse of the sequence in which they should be shown.

Using the opposite of the accepted order puts the presentation in a logical sequence,

and clears up the mystery surrounding the “Mighty Oration”, which has puzzled

previous commentators.

Sloane 2731 is characterized by an almost obsessive concern with conserving

space. Each sheet of paper is used to the maximum. The writing is minuscule. The

margins are very narrow, and the copyist wrote in what we now call “landscape” ori-

entation in order to fit as many words as possible on each line. There are only two

places in the manuscript where as much as a half-page is left blank, and one of these

is in the Ars Nova . If the accepted order of the pages is used, this blank comes in the

middle of the presentation, for no obvious reason. It seems more reasonable to con-

clude that this blank comes at the end of the section, and thus at the end of the

entire Lemegeton ; it is blank because the work is finished at that point.

Most of the text of Ars Nova clearly relates to the first book of the Lemegeton ,

the Goetia, and the “tools of the trade” described therein: the magickal circle and tri-

angle, the hexagrams within the circle and the pentagrams surrounding it. It lists the

divine names written in each of these, and adds a short prayer, with one line of

prayer per name. This list takes up the entire first page. I believe that the prayers

were to be spoken either while drawing the divine names and figures, or later while

consecrating the place of the work.

On the opposite side of the sheet, there are three sections. In the first, several

sets of Hebrew characters are shown with accompanying names in the Latin alpha-

bet. The latter do not appear to be transliterations of the Hebrew – which, in any

case, is only partly legible.

The second section is a prayer that incorporates some of the Latin-alphabet

words from the previous section. But it actually makes more sense with those words

excised: it is a prayer to god to confine evil and aerial spirits in a brass urn. This

immediately brings to mind the brass vessel of Solomon, shown in the Goetia . Possi-

bly this is a prayer to be said while consecrating or preparing such a vessel. However,

the divine names in this prayer are not those shown on the vessel in my copy of the

manuscript, nor those on the vessel in the Crowley/Mathers edition of the Goetia .

Possibly this section is a borrowing from some document outside the Lemegeton tra-

dition; the extreme corruption of the divine names would suggest it.

With the order of the pages reversed, the final section is the “Mighty Oration”.

Nelson White puzzles over this invocation, wondering whether the magician is sup-

LEMEGETON: CLAVICULA SALOMONIS

posed to address the Spirit as if it were a thief. The explanation is simple; it is not

part of the Lemegeton as such. Rather, this section is a curse directed against any

person who steals the book in which it is written. Such curses were common in the

times when books were reproduced by hand; the time and effort it took to copy them

made them much more valuable commodities than our modern mass-produced vol-

umes. Its presence in this position is the final confirmation that the order of the

pages has been reversed.

It should be noted than in the Introductory Description of the Lemegeton (pre-

sented in the Goetia volume of this series) this book is sometimes erroneously titled

Ars Notoria . The Notoria is a separate (and much more complex) work, the text of

which was included (without its vitally important illustrations) as an appendix in one

copy of the Lemegeton .

— Benjamin Rowe

ARS NOVA

The First Page of the Ars Nova

Eheie . Kether . Almighty God, whose dwelling is in the highest Heavens: 1

Haioth . The great King of Heaven, and of all the powers therein:

Methratton . And of all the holy hosts of Angels and Archangels:

Reschith . Hear the prayers of Thy servant who putteth his trust in Thee:

Hagalgalim . Let thy Holy Angels be commanded to assist me at this time and

at all times.

— (Sphere of the Primum Mobile)

Iehovah . God Almighty, God Omnipotent, hear my prayer:

Hadonat . Command Thy Holy Angels above the fixed stars:

Ophanim . To be assisting and aiding Thy servant:

Iophiel . That I may command all spirits of air, water, fire, earth, and hell:

Masloth . So that it may tend unto Thy glory and unto the good of man.

— S. Z. (i.e., Sphere of the Zodiac)

Iehovah .

God Almighty, God Omnipotent, hear my prayer:

Elohim .

God with us, God be always present with us:

Binah .

Strengthen us and support us, both now and for ever:

Aralim .

In these our undertakings, which we perform but as instruments

in Thy hands:

Zabbathai

In the hands of Thee, the great God of Sabaoth.

— S. H. 2

Hesel 3

Thou great God, governor and creator of the planets, and of the

Host of Heaven:

Hasmalim

Command them by Thine almighty power:

Zelez

To be now present and assisting to us Thy poor servants, both

now and for ever.

— K. S.

Elohim Geber Most Almighty and eternal and ever living Lord God:

Seraphim Command Thy Seraphim :

Camael, Madim To attend on us now at this time, to assist us, and to defend us

from all perils and dangers.

1. The divine names in this section are all written in the periphery of the Circle of Art,

shown in the Goetia .

2. It is uncertain what the “H” abbreviates. The names all refer to the Sphere of Saturn.

3. The copyist mistook a “d” in the diagram of the circle for an “l”, here and in the name

Zelez, which should be “Zedeq”.

— S.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: