In their excellent work, The Book of Gold ( Livre d’Or) the authors David Rankine and Paul Harry Barron provides the reader with a unique 17th century French magical work comprising numerous amulets, charms, prayers, spells and sigils for working with the Biblical Book of the Psalms of King David. Written in a simple style akin to a medieval Book of Secrets combined with magical practices from the ancient world, Le Livre d’Or brings together practices which have their roots in major works from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Cairo Genizah, to the Greek Magical Papyri and Sepher Shimmush Tehillim (Magical Use of the Psalms). Now translated into English for the first time, this exceptional text demonstrates the significance of the Psalms as a unifying and vital thread throughout the development of Western magic.
What follows is an extract from the introduction of this wonderfully practical work, in which the authors discuss just some of the ways in which the spells in the book use different substances – which illustrates the breath and practical nature, both in a historical context and of course, for the modern practitioner interested in putting these spells and charms to work today:
“Of the 179 charms contained in this work, a wide range of materials were used as the basis of the charm. Paper and similar substances such as vellum and parchment predominate (61), with a high number of glass plates (8) and cooking pots (4) being the next most common. Both of these latter items recall the use of such items in ancient spells.
Certain substance dominate the list of consecrating ingredients, specifically water (30) and types of oil (22), as well as fragrant substances such as aloe wood (8) and mastic (15). The darker nature of some of the charms is also seen in the range of types of blood used, showing all of the classic animal bloods associated with the grimoires, such as white cockerel, black hen, bat, dove and goat. Interestingly there is also a charm which makes use of menstrual blood, which has commonly been seen as a taboo substance.
The characters used with many of the Psalms are as eclectic as the charms, being drawn from magical alphabets like Malachim Script and a mixture of hermetic and alchemical sigils.
What is clear about the uses in this extraordinary work is that they emphasise establishing harmony and success in the material world, and largely ignore the spiritual. The practices remind us of the need for magick to create effective change to be worthwhile, and through doing so then perhaps opening the practitioner up to a higher goal. “
David Rankine and Paul Harry Barron, in The Book of Gold (Avalonia, 2009)
http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/grimoire-tradition/the-book-of-gold
