Psalms And Magic

That the Biblical Psalms have been used in magic for many hundreds of years is a well known fact amongst knowledgeable occult students and practitioners. The authors of "The Book of Gold", David Rankine and Paul Harry Barron, wrote in their excellent introduction to the 17th century manuscript which they transcribed and translated for this unique book, about the history of the Psalms and their use in magic that: "From their early Jewish and Christian roots of magical use, th"e Psalms would spread across the whole of Europe, as far north as the Scandinavian countries and as far east as Russia, becoming a part of local folk magic and also permeating the grimoires. The grimoires are books of magical practices with lists of spirits and/or practices and charms, which were normally hand-copied, and span the period from the thirteenth-eighteenth century. The level of Psalm usage in such grimoires as the Key of Solomon, the Goetia and the Abramelin show how effective the magic of these words was believed to be. Conversely, words used in conjurations in early grimoires such as Liber Juratus, the Heptameron and the Steganographia are found in Le Livre d'Or, suggesting a grimoire influence on some of the material within." "The use of Psalms in cures also occurred through both the Church and the tradition of Cunning-folk which flourished from the late Middle Ages through to the twentieth century. Another popular use amongst both Church and Cunning-folk was for protection from witchcraft and evil occurrences." "Divinatory Psalters containing the Psalms were well documented in the Slavic countries from the eleventh century onwards, a testament to the popular bibliomantic use of the Psalms. Another popular technique from the thirteenth century onwards was to make a spiral of the numbers 1-150 and throw a seed or pebble on and see which number it covered." "However it was not just for divination and healing that the Psalms were employed. This work is centred on the Livre d'Or, a late seventeenth century French MS which was attached to a copy of the Key of Solomon (Lansdowne MS 1202), emphasising the connection between the two. As the subtitle indicates, the Psalms are those of David, and for this reason we have not included the other Psalms found in the books of Samuel and Jonah, or the additional Apocryphal Psalms found in the Dead Sea Scrolls."
" Magic in Slavia Orthodoxa: The Written Tradition, Mathiesen, 1995:165." For more information on The Book of Gold by David Rankine and Paul Harry Barron, please see - http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/grimoire-tradition/the-book-of-gold