Abramelin The Mage's Biography(Books)(Photos)

Abramelin the Mage is one of the many "house-hold names" in
occultism, though in reality very little is actually known

spirits to work.

about the man himself. What we know of him comes to us
through a medieval manuscript preserved in the Bibliotheque

The last part of the book gives specific instructions for
clairvoyance, divining metals and treasure, warding off evil

de l'Arsenal in Paris. This text was a French copy from the
17th or 18th century of the original Hebrew manuscript.

magick, healing illness, levitation, transportation, making
oneself invisible, creating illusions, reading minds, and

"The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, as
delivered by Abraham the Jew unto his son Lamech, A.D.

many various powers and magicks, both white and black, which
the magician may now utilize.

1458," as the manuscript was titled, detailed the complete
system of magick of an Egyptian sage by the name of

The "Abramelin operation," as it is often called, in reality

Abramelin. It was translated into English by S.L. MacGregor
Mathers of the Golden Dawn.

consists of two seperate operations. The first operation,
the attainment of knowledge and conversation of the Holy

The author of this book, Abraham of Wurzburg, was a Qabalist

Guardian Angel, is the perfection and purification of the
Self. It opens the path of communication between man and

and connoisseur of magickal practices. In accordance with
tradition, Abraham's eldest son received the Holy Qabalah.

Divine. In the second operation the evil demons, who are
sometimes considered the magician's "lower Self" or negative

Wanting his younger son to also "...be able to admire, to
consider, and to enjoy the marvels of the Lord," Abraham

character traits, are conquered and commanded to do the
magician's bidding by force of will and magick. This second

gave this book to Lamech when he felt he was old enough.

operation would therefore fall into the category of medieval
magick called goetia.

In his introduction, Abraham narrates to his son the story
of how he came upon the great magician in a small town on

It should be noted that while the two processes are

the banks of the Nile river. His interest in various
magickal practices had led him on a tour of the civilized

essentially two different formulas, this has only been noted
for the sake of analysing the operation. The knowledge and

world, seeking out magicians and Qabalists, taking what he
could learn from each.

conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is an essential
prerequisite to the evocation of the evil spirits, unless

After describing how he came to learn the Sacred Magic of

the magician should desire to become enslaved to those
demons which it was his initial desire to command.

Abramelin, Abraham proceeds to explain in great detail the
entire necessary operation, from the selection of an

It is difficult to be sure how much of this system of magick

appropriate place, to the summoning of various spirits and
demons to do the bidding of the magician. The book

was directly from Abramelin, and how much was embellished or
added to by Abraham's extensive knowledge of the Qabalah, or

carefully details the qualifications necessary to become a
magician, protections, asceticisms, purifications,

by the French copyist's knowledge (or lack thereof) of the
magickal processes detailed within the book. However, such

evocations, vestments and prayers.

considerations are for the historian, not for the magician.
Despite a certain amount of dogmatism on the part of the

The goal of paramount importance to the operation is the
invocation, or knowledge and conversation, of the Holy

author, an extremely viable method for attaining knowledge
and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is presented

Guardian Angel. This is the first written use of this term,
which is now extremely common in modern occult literature.

therein. Due to this dogmatism and the general
superstitious nature of many medieval grimoires, many

The Holy Guardian Angel, considered by many modern magicians
to be the "Higher Self" or Augoeides, assists the magician

magicians have rewritten the Abramelin operation,
maintaining the same core formula and removing extraneous

through the remainder of the operation. The next step of
the process is to evoke the denizens of hell, and force

aspects. Most notable of these rewrites is Aleister
Crowley's Liber Samekh.

their allegiance and submission to the magician. Once the
magician has mastered the evocation of good and evil

The Egyptian mage known as Abramelin will remain a

spirits, commanding those spirits to do his will, and
overcoming rebellious spirits, he can begin putting the

mysterious figure in history, but the legacy of his system
of magick will continue to live on for a long time to come.