A Collection of Magical Secrets & A Treatise of Mixed Cabalah Paperback – February 14, 2009

I am sitting here only 4 hours after I received Avalonia Books A Collection of Magical Secrets that is translated by Paul Harry Byron with introduction and commentary by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine and find my self having read it in one sitting. It is a rather small book at only 161 pages but those are some extremely interesting pages.The first of two parts of the book deals with something that is often called "experiments" in the grimoires. It is shorter and often easier ways to obtain things then doing an entire evocation in a grimoire. It deals with things from ways to not get shot, find treasures, curing diseases and all kinds of wonderful things. One thing that struck me was how similar some of the "experiments" are to the Swedish Black Art Books that circulated around Sweden in the 1700's to the 1800's. Some of them are very alike but do not use as much Latin and the Swedish material is more connected to the Swedish way. It feels though as if much of the Swedish Black arts Books must have lent ideas from the grimoire "experiments" since it draws from older sources. I wonder if not folk magic that was practiced in the 1700's to 1800's are not more related to the grimoires then many modern magicians care to admit.The second part is more like a divination technique to get in to a sort of ecstasy stage of mind where deep Cabalah secrets will be revealed to you. This is something I have not worked with before but the descriptions are very straight forward so I think I will actually give it a go when I have the time.This was a great presentation of a material that is often overlooked and underestimated. It is nice to see that people care about giving the public access to these more unusual materials that David and Stephen keeps bringing us. I believe this will become one of my favorites rather soon as I get more in to it. So this is defiantly 5 stars out of 5 possible!

I use the term "Book of Shadows" not as a slam against CM (Ceremonial Magic) but rather the idea that a 'spell book' is created by noting the useful amount of spells & lore it contains versus the journals or phone book lists of Spirits.Over the years I have collected many manuscripts on Magic with a plethora of Spirit names, spells, incantations, folklore, seals, diagrams & so on. Most of these are of the old, Medieval variety and often they have spells in them just as they are presented here in this book.What I liked about the book is that the authors have collected a lot of lore from grimoires of the Medieval period and then omitted some of the more difficult to obtain items that certain spells require. If something requires the actual blood of a bat, how do you plan on getting that unless you are set on killing a living bat? May I remind you that bats serve a great function in our eco-system as they eat a TON of mosquitos each night so killing a bat to get its blood is not something I'd want to do. However our Medieval minded brethren would not care about that in the least.Beginning on page 110 & ending on page 122, there are worded spells, mainly from the Psalms in Latin. Not all the Psalms are represented but there are at least 40 things that you can use the Psalm fragments for. For instance on page 112, there is one "To Prosper In All Things" which is taken from Psalm 16: 5-6. For it to work, you'd need to use the Latin verses instead of the English. I could see a practitioner writing this out on paper & placing it in their wallet & reading it aloud 3 or more times daily.Some spells such as the "To Be Loved By A Woman Or By Everyone Else" beginning on page 84 requires an actual rib from either a man or woman and it is suggested you get this from a cemetery! (Try explaining THAT one if you should get caught! Hah!) However, on page 83, there is a spell "To Receive Affection From Kings & Other Great People" which requires a prayer & some rose oil. Now that one is easily enough procured - provided you can afford some real essential rose oil. But imagine using this for helping you with a CEO, President, Judge and so on. It certainly seems to fit the bill.Some of the spells seem to have quite a bit of leeway for usefulness. There's a spoken spell to help in games of chance; some to be said if you have a toothache or nosebleed; wealth & prosperity; influencing others; and so on. This IS a nifty collection of spells. If you have talent or a Familiar Spirit at your disposal, you SHOULD be able to get any of these spells to work. The vast majority of CM's & Witches don't have either so they won't get much usefulness from this book.Also, starting on page 135 and ending on page 155, there is a system of Divination that gives a possible 112 different answers. It is called the 'Book of Fate' and this in of itself can be worth the price of the book. Most CM's rely on things like Astrology or Geomancy (to be authentic) but here's a Divination system that seems to work a little bit like the Yoruban Diloggun with its patakis (re: stories). Here you simply read a Xian based prayer & when finished you let a number float to the surface of your mind. You can also close your eyes & let your hand fall over the numbers from 1-112, then read the corresponding numbered passage and you have your answer. Simple & elegant.Overall I liked this book. I only give it four out of five stars for one simple reason which is there are no anecdotes from the authors/translators telling us of THEIR experiences in using the material within. That bothers me. Otherwise it's a great text and if you have real Magical talent you should have little difficulty in getting any of these spells to work - that is unless you have difficulty in getting a rib from a corpse. ;)

I did not have high expectations when I bought this book but I was pleasantly surprised with a few of the rare rituals and spells in this grimoire which I have not seen in others. The thing that caught my attention were the four or five rituals for obtaining a familiar spirit. Granted, some rites are not practical because they involve things like being with a person at the time of death; but aside from those impractical parts the rituals are insightful and a bit inspiring to a present day occultist, witch, or mage who may be interestest in borrowing parts for their own use. The conjurations in latin are a good inventory of magical words. For me, this book's a keeper.

I couldn't open this book though i tried so many times from kindle library

‘A Collection of Magical Secrets: Taken from Peter de Abano, Cornelius Agrippa and from other Famous Occult Philosophers and A Treatise Of Mixed Cabalah: Which comprises the Angelic Art Taken From Hebrew Sages,’ (2009) translated from French by Paul Barron with an introduction and commentary by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine, is a small but interesting paperback of 161 pages. It contains two books originally from a French manuscript Wellcome Ms 4669 dated 1796.The first part of the book ‘A Collection of Magical Secrets’ contains a variety of ‘low magic’ spells for various needs such as healing numerous ailments, making yourself loved or inducing immediate child birth with the use of pigeon excrement. It also contains various methods for having a spirit familiar, conversing with a spirit in a mirror in addition to inducing dreams where one might converse with the planetary spirit of Jupiter.While the second part of the book ‘A Treatise Of Mixed Cabalah’ contains a series of meditations, prayers and rituals with instructions detailing the construction, consecration and use of wax pentacles to obtain “graces.” The seals of the Angels and accompanying prayers for Angel magic are quite interesting. In addition to this it also includes an interesting workable system of divination allowing 112 answers similar to book of fates that have been published over the centuries.The majority of the rituals in the book as a whole seem quite straightforward to perform and are Judeo-Christian in style with the usage of Catholic prayers and verses from the book of Psalms. A few rites do require items that are quite difficult to obtain, such as a sword that has killed a man or a dead mans rib. Also some rituals from the first part of the book border on the bizarre, but are consistent with medieval style magic texts. I personally have not attempted any of the rituals in the book yet, so cannot comment on their efficacy, however the book contains instructions that can be borrowed and implemented in your own practice, e.g pentacle consecration. It interests me that many of the rituals are lunar orientated with some of the rituals requiring the Moon to be in the appropriate zodiacal sign, which is quite reminiscent of the Picatrix.Despite being a very worthwhile and interesting book to read, I have two minor criticisms with this edition of the text, perhaps some these can be addressed in later editions. A number of the orations used in the rituals are in Latin and it would be really helpful if the book provided a corresponding English translation. In addition to this, although the book contains many nice illustrations they are quite faint at times and look as though they have been lightly drawn in pencil.Overall this is a very practical book full of magical instructions which is well worth reading. It would be ideal for Magicians interested in traditional Judeo-Christian ‘High Magic,’ such as the Solomonic grimoires and would be of particular interest to those interested in historic medieval style ‘Low Magic.’This book is reasonably priced can be purchased new for around £11 / $15 including postage on Amazon ‘other sellers’