The sixth and seventh books of Moses, or, Moses, magical spirits-art : known as the wonderful arts of the old wise Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the Cabala and the Talmud, for the good of mankind : translated from the German, word for word, acco

For people interested in folk magic. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, arguably one of the most popular magick books ever published, contains two secret apocrypha ascribed to Moses, perhaps pseudepigraphically. The book consists of a collection of texts,which claim to explain the magick Moses used to win the biblical magick contest with the Egyptian priest-magicians, part the Red Sea, and perform other miraculous feats. It includes instruction in the form of invocations, magick words, and seals for calling upon the angels to affect worldly ends, from the sublime (calling down a plague of locusts and frogs upon your enemy) to the mundane (getting more money). Many manuscripts and printed pamphlet versions circulated in Germany in the 1800s, and an English translation by Johann Scheible first appeared in New York in 1880 that had not been corrected or re-edited until now. In creating this restored, corrected edition, Joseph Peterson drew on Scheible's final edition of the text and his original sources. It will be of great interest to those who have suffered through prior editions and anyone looking for a traditional source of Western magick. * Used in various modern traditions of American folk magick, from Pennsylvania Dutch hexmeisters and contemporary eclectic magicians, to voodoo practioners and African American root workers. * Updated or fresh translations from original German, Latin, and Hebrew sources and restoration of censored or left out passages in earlier editions and 35 pages of text never before translated. * Describes the biblical magick ascribed to Moses and its application. * Extensively illustrated with over 100 magical seals, signs, and sigils. Of all the popular handbooks of magic, The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is perhaps the most influential. It has become quite important in American folk magic, being extensively used by Penssylvania Dutch hexmeisters, Hoodoo practitioners, African-American root workers, withes of various sorts, and rural Germans and Swiss among others. It is also widely used by practitioners of obeah (folk magic of the West Indies), as well as West Africa. Gerald Gardner, arguably the founder of modern Wicca, owned a copy. Why is it so popular? One reason may be its claim of biblical roots. Another is undoubtedly its sinister reputation. Folklorists have collected many reports of its successful use, but frequently practitioners are claimed to have become ensnared by it. A glance through the pages tend to support the view that an evil magic pervades it, with plague spells and the sinister Faustian materials. Constantly alluded to in popular European tradition as diabolical writings, it has the reputation of being powerful but evil in American folklore as well. Yet others believe it was designed to counteract the Black Bible, a Satan-inspired book, and that Moses delivered the Sixth and Seventh Books to provide protection from the hexes of a witch. Here Peterson constructs this edition by reviewing all of the previous editions and comparing them for consistency, clarity, and deviations. Chapters included in one edition, but missing in others, are bound together for completeness. Extensive endnotes, commentary, and introductory material place the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses in their historical context, as well as give meaning to what was previously barely decipherable material, making this edition a more comprehensive and more easily understood version of the ever-popular writings