The Book of Abramelin: A Review
The Book of Abramelin is a Jewish magical text that began circulating in the 15th century. The author purports to be a Jewish man named Abraham von Worms who wrote this text as a magical guide for his second son, Lamech. Abraham details his journey from Germany to Egypt and back again, during which time, Abraham meets multiple âmastersâ of the magical arts. One of these masters, Abramelin, he regards above all else and, indeed, he discards the others as frauds and agents of the devil after meeting Abramelin. After they meet, Abraham is taught the secrets of the hermitâs magic, which is Kabbalistic in nature, and bound in service to God. Abramelin directs him to live a good and pure life according to the will of God and Abraham agrees to this despite, as he puts it, appearing to âmy friends, relatives, and other Jews as a bad and crazy person.â (P. 16) Some of the text in the book is, according to Abraham, directly from Abramelin himself, who bestowed several Kabbalistic texts upon the author before he left him.
The ritualistic magic described in the book directs the reader to purify themself in the eyes of God in order to meet their Holy Guardian Angel. By meeting the Holy Guardian Angel, the reader is then able to safely command various spirits, including the Four Kings of Hell, Lucifer, Satan, Leviathan, and Belial. The whole operation takes place over eighteen months, though this detail is not consistent across all versions seeing as the Mathers version states that the operation takes six months instead.Â
Unlike many magical texts of the time that I am familiar with, this one decries the use of astrology. In Chapter Six of my translation, Abraham von Worms compares consulting the âstars, sun, and moonâ with asking wild game for permission to hunt it (P. 120). Despite feeling it a pointless exercise, Abraham goes on to describe how Astrologers divide the planetary hours in great detail and he does admit to believing that the stars and planets affect different things, but only in regards to earthly matters, such as the weather.Â
The earliest manuscripts of this text are written in German and date back to the 1600s. Having no talent for other languages and no copy of the original text, I cannot speak to the writing voice of Abraham von Worms himself or how engaging the text is. This is a translation compiled and edited by George Dehn and translated by Steven Guth. Originally, it was also written in German, but Dehn decided to create an English translation with Guth in the early 2000s. If I recall correctly, unlike Macgregor Matherâs translation, the authors of this translation decided to update the language to feel more contemporary. This makes the reading experience easier and more enjoyable overall. I sped through this book fairly quickly, at least compared to other books on similar subjects so I would give this a very positive score for readability. It is also surprisingly funny and I found myself laughing out loud at a couple of parts over the course of reading this book.
I'm not planning on enacting this operation myself. I don't really have the patience for this kind of ritual work right now and I'm also not a big believer in God. That said, I think this was a fascinating and entertaining read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Grimoire traditions of Western Ceremonial Magic. I hope to get my hands on a copy of MacGregor Mathers version so I can see the differences for myself and because I personally enjoy collecting occult books.
Abraham ben Simeon, Georg Dehn, and Steven Guth. The Book of Abramelin: A New Translation. Lake Worth, FL: Ibis Press, 2015.
