Abramelin Squares/Texts: Mathers vs. Guth/Dehn Translations

Two weeks ago, I received the recent re-translation of the Abremalin texts. Steven Guth (translator) and Georg Dehn (editor) are the producers of the new “The Book of Abremalin” which was published in 2006.
The differences are astounding and, dare I say, somewhat troubling.
Not only does Guth/Dehn claim that Mathers, in fact, translated the well known English version of these manuscripts from a French translation of the earlier documents themselves instead of having translated it directly from the original texts, but lay an explanation in the forward of this book by Lon Milo DuQuette as he exlaims, “[Mather’s translation] was itself so incomplete and dissimilar to the original German texts as to be almost worthless as an accurate rendering of the content and intent of the original documents.”
Now - that does sound quite harsh - however, to be fair to DuQuette, he did follow that up with saying, “This is not to say that Mathers’s Sacred Magic is not a valuable contribution to the library of Western magical literature or to suggest taht he did a poor job of translating the 1750 French manuscript into proper English. On the contrary, experts tell us Mathers did a wonderful job. The problem rests with the woefully incomplete and ‘doubtful French text’ from which he worked.”
The major differences and concerns are:

  1. In the new translation of the oldest original German manuscripts found, the collection comprises FOUR books rather than the three that Mathers translated.

2)The initiatory right that originally took 6 months, is actually much more intricate and exhaustive initiation comprised of a now 18 month undertaking filled with ritual pathworkings.

  1. There are 242 squares in the Mathers translation, but a more complete 251 squares in the original German text, and hence, the Guth translation.

  2. The mather’s translation contains mostly incomplete squares (originally I had thought that the missing letters in the squares was just the way Abramelin did it), however, in the original German texts and the Guth translation each square is completely filled and Kabbalistically significant.

  3. And most frustrating to find out, many of the squares in the Mathers translation contain misspelled magical words, miss-ordering of the words themselves within the squares, incorrectly distributed squares (ie: the squares did not match the content list in the heading of each chapter of squares and did not match up to the original German texts), and misidentification of the squares themselves.

For example, this is one of the first all inclusive examples found in Chapter 4:
(note: this is literally an extremely mild example)

Mather’s Translation: “For Mirrors of glass and crystal”
| g | i | l | i | o | n | i | n |
| g | | | | | | | |
| i | | | | | | | |
| l | | | | | | | |
| i | | | | | | | |
| o | | | | | | | |
| n | | | | | | | |
| i | | | | | | | |
| n | | | | | | | |

Original German as translated by Guth “In mirrors, Glass, and crystals”
G I L I O N I M
I R I M I I R I
L I O S A S I N
I M S A R A I O
O I A R A S M I
N I T A S O I L
I R I I M I T I
M I N O I L I G

The four books in the new translation are as follows:

Book 1 - Abremaham’s letters to his son, Lamec, detailing his search for a true magician to study under. It also details his desire for his son to learn these arts. Abraham also talks about all the magicians he met in his journeys and what they were capable of as well as how they acquired their powers. He then goes on to detail how he met Abremalin and a brief overview of some of their studies together.

Book 2 - Contains miraculous kabbalistic formulas and spells.

Book 3 - Contains the 18 month self-initiation into true adepthood and magical attainment.

Book 4 - Contains the full and accurate crux of the entire system, the mystical magic squares in their correct and fully complete beauty.

Now, I would like to point out, as the authors also did, that not only was this book translated from the original German manuscripts, but they also used some other copies of the Abremalin texts in order to clarify some of the missing pieces and worn areas which became hard to read. They also used some of the other texts which detailed and clarified some of what Abraham’s original texts contained.

All in all, I am impressed, and - after having gotten over my attachment to the mystical look of the squares with missing letters and the rest of the Mathers translation, I feel deeply confident that this new translation is much more powerful and interesting. The authors also include a “fifth book” at the end detailing much of the studies and verification the author and editor embarked on; adequately titled, “The Editor’s Quest”. This addition chronicles the verification of Abraham as well as the identification of his alter-ego (common among Jews at the time) as the Great MaHaRIL, or Jacob Mollin.

They also included some of the writings and teachings of Mollin himself, giving the reader an extremely well rounded understanding of who Abraham was and how he found the great magician, Abremalin.

What is not well understood is that the two major magical books, Book Three: The Initiation, and Book Four: The Magical Squares - are two manuscripts that Abremalin made Abraham copy, word for word, for his own records. So, when we read the third and fourth books, we’re actually reading the manuscripts that Abremalin himself worked and learned from which were passed to him by yet a still greater unknown magus.

I hope you all find this useful information, and I hope this prompts those of you who are Abremalin fans, and magicians of the art of squares, to seriously consider acquiring this new expanded and extremely powerful tome to sit side by side with your original copy of Mathers’s translation.

I still hold the Mather’s squares in high regard, and feel that they still hold some power - if not simply acquired from the legacy Mathers created through the initial introduction to the magical community of the legendary magic of Abremalin The Mage.

2 Likes

Here’s a link to the translation I’m speaking of (really the only other translation besides Mathers’) on Amazon:
[url=http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Abramelin-New-Translation/dp/089254127X/]http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Abramelin-New-Translation/dp/089254127X/[/url]

Did you post this for me?? GETTING IT!!

I checked out the link DK and I got a good laugh when I checked out the review that scored the book 1 star out of 5. LMFAO! muslims crack me up…Allah be with you lol :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

LMAO!! But seriously, how long will so many remain blind? Almost makes me sad…Almost >:)

oh man - so many of those posts are horribly biased and just plain ignorant. but yeah dude - heh - that muslim post face-palm hehe. I guess it’s a legitimate concern for a god fearing Muslim brother - but extremely ignorant.

Hey, will you post the square for money from ch. 28? In the old version, it is incomplete and uses the word “SEQOR”.

Sure thing … plus a few extra :smiley:

Gold Coins:
SEGOR
EGAMO
GAZAG
OMAGE
ROGES

This is RICHES in general:
HAMONOMAH
ARUSOMAGA
MUTIRADAM
OSILAGAMO
NORACARON
OMAGALISO
MADARITUM
AGAMOSURA
HAMONOMAH

And THIS is specifically MONEY!!!
SEGOR
EROTO
GOLOG
OTORE
ROGES

1 Like

What is the best approach to using these squares?
For example, are they composed with a chant (of the square) similar to Hebrew terumah (as exemplified by Saadia and Abulafia)?
Are they empowered or activated by the same methods used to evoke a spirit via a sigil?

Thanks in advance

[quote=“Student_of_Goetia, post:9, topic:597”]What is the best approach to using these squares?
For example, are they composed with a chant (of the square) similar to Hebrew terumah (as exemplified by Saadia and Abulafia)?
Are they empowered or activated by the same methods used to evoke a spirit via a sigil?

Thanks in advance[/quote]

You can either open them like a sigil, or you can get the spirits recommended for that square to activate and work it. However, if you’re not a higher-level mage, getting a square to open and work properly is a bit tricky. It may be easier to call upon the demons, angels, or other forces which is associated with the square and activate it that way.

My girlfriend has been having all kinds of strange looking stuff happening on the sigil when she goes to open it, a design gets drawn repeatedly, and seems to reoccur over the same pattern areas, and expand beyond the letters shown.

I don’t know what it means, at first I thought it might be the sigil of a spirit, but I am not sure what to make about the pattern, from what she says it seems somewhat recurring.

And then I thought about how we use the squares, at the heart they are connected to some powerful spiritual current that is most probably self aware at heart. From what I’ve seen, these beings are all made of consciousness, and their being represents a current of consciousness, which explains why these beings are able to do so much.

In my, conversations with Koetting, he seemed to agree, these beings are made of consciousness.

Which makes me wonder. If these squares represent some spiritual force, whether being a planetary intelligence or a demonic legion/house, or the name of any particular spirit, can’t they be evoked too? Can we open this sigil, and then conduct some blind evocation, like the kind Koetting talks about in the book of Azazel.

I guess what I’m getting at, is the reaction of this square is making me wonder if it can be interacted with to provide more powerful results. Seeing as how opening a sigil seems to be a lot more powerful once it’s been used for a success. I’ve also heard of some crazy techniques for making new square that seem to make sense, and my theory in practice now is that you can insert your name into a square you make in order to insert yourself into a spiritual current of your choosing. This technique was taken from a book, where the user had some chaos magick experiments of a darker sort, where the author said it can be used to cause specific ailments specific to certain types of demons, and they work best together. As someone who has committed psychic attack on people, experience seems to say usually the most powerful one wins out (there are always exceptions), so I’m always a fan of overwhelming force when it is optional.

But the squares of the Abramelin make me wonder if this is possible, I can’t tell if there is any balance or any name to write my name in it, or to evoke it. But I’m interested to hear what you have to say, I will post a link to the book, or at least it’s name soon.

I’m all for experiments, so I’ll probably try that, it seems like my last magical experiment was a painful success, but I’ll take that over failure and obscurity any day.

Thank you for your time
-Frater Apotheosis

Interesting. Yes - I believe you can. In fact, EA even goes into opening “whole” squares to conjure the currents of that particular “sector” of the universe.
What, according to many a sources, the biggest folly when people start working with squares is that they don’t understand how the squares work or how, exactly, the powers are made manifest through them. Don’t get me wrong - it seems many a mage are capable of bringing the squares into life without fully knowing how they work - however, (and I’m no expert, so I cannot say with a full surity) It seems - to me personally - that by knowing and understanding the “science” behind them increases their potency because you are consciously using them correctly. Either that, or the knowledge just happens to have grown in direct relation to the magicians progress. It seems that either, or both, are at work here.

Squares are heavily influenced by the kabbalah, simply because their roots are directly anchored IN the kabbalah. And, what many people don’t understand about the kabbalah is how to actually induce the currents and forces of the letters.

The magickal squares of Abremalin are also closely related to the mathematical “magic squares” wherein each line or word adds up to a specific number without using the same number once. A great introduction for me was getting into the names of god, a subject which I’m still studying and learning from.

[url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html]http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html[/url]

When, in conjunction with the kabbalah, you now have letters - each having a universal meaning and symbolically expressing a universal power, current, energy, or element (which must be acknowledged and consciously induced)

Now, the kabbalah can be translated into any language. The tone is related to an actual vibration, a color, an organ or limb, a finger or toe, a mental state, an emotion, a power, a current, etc. So, basically - what we’re looking at here is a collective formulation of powers and forces. Of course, each one can be selected due to any one of it’s attributes. The law of analogy. With the “collection” of words or letters, added up horizontally, vertically, or exactly diagonally.

Now, there’re all these rules and ideas - and, honestly, it actually starts to make sense and one begins to see a logical map of how these energies manifest.

Now, as others have pointed out, it seems the squares contain a power anyway without the wielding magician knowing anything concerning the kabbalah. That one is capable of conjuring the energies and powers of the square that the original designer created the square to express without inducing the currents and energies of each letter.

As the study of squares continues and many an author and magician get deeper into the meaning and mystical properties of the squares - the more mysterious the becomes. The Kingdom of Flames appears to be one of the most interesting presentations of squares that don’t seem to make any kabbalistic sense, yet still emit a power rivaled by proper kabbalistically formulated squares.

So, your experiences with these squares that seems to insinuate some yet hidden attributes and abilities of these squares, may be something to look deeper into. The mysteries of the squares seems to go much deeper and have a greater breadth and dimension than the kabbalistic soil from which they sprang.

Why this is, I cannot say. It’s as if a mechanic designed an engine with widely available parts and pieces - yet, after the engine is finished and constructed, not only does it play its role as an engine, but it performs in unforeseen ways. Perhaps it has begun to express certain aspects of a conscious machine, perhaps it randomly transports passengers of the vehicle halfway around the world. Perhaps it has begun to communicate a secret and sacred knowledge that has nothing to do with the original engine plans, nor the perceived properties of each engine part.

Somehow - the collection of these forces and energies have opened doors and capabilities that were not a part of the original intention.

1 Like

I am glad you got your hands on a copy of Kingdom of Flames.

Maxx

[quote=“DK The Mage, post:12, topic:597”]Interesting. Yes - I believe you can. In fact, EA even goes into opening “whole” squares to conjure the currents of that particular “sector” of the universe.
What, according to many a sources, the biggest folly when people start working with squares is that they don’t understand how the squares work or how, exactly, the powers are made manifest through them. Don’t get me wrong - it seems many a mage are capable of bringing the squares into life without fully knowing how they work - however, (and I’m no expert, so I cannot say with a full surity) It seems - to me personally - that by knowing and understanding the “science” behind them increases their potency because you are consciously using them correctly. Either that, or the knowledge just happens to have grown in direct relation to the magicians progress. It seems that either, or both, are at work here.

Squares are heavily influenced by the kabbalah, simply because their roots are directly anchored IN the kabbalah. And, what many people don’t understand about the kabbalah is how to actually induce the currents and forces of the letters.

The magickal squares of Abremalin are also closely related to the mathematical “magic squares” wherein each line or word adds up to a specific number without using the same number once. A great introduction for me was getting into the names of god, a subject which I’m still studying and learning from.

[url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html]http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html[/url]

When, in conjunction with the kabbalah, you now have letters - each having a universal meaning and symbolically expressing a universal power, current, energy, or element (which must be acknowledged and consciously induced)

Now, the kabbalah can be translated into any language. The tone is related to an actual vibration, a color, an organ or limb, a finger or toe, a mental state, an emotion, a power, a current, etc. So, basically - what we’re looking at here is a collective formulation of powers and forces. Of course, each one can be selected due to any one of it’s attributes. The law of analogy. With the “collection” of words or letters, added up horizontally, vertically, or exactly diagonally.

Now, there’re all these rules and ideas - and, honestly, it actually starts to make sense and one begins to see a logical map of how these energies manifest.

Now, as others have pointed out, it seems the squares contain a power anyway without the wielding magician knowing anything concerning the kabbalah. That one is capable of conjuring the energies and powers of the square that the original designer created the square to express without inducing the currents and energies of each letter.

As the study of squares continues and many an author and magician get deeper into the meaning and mystical properties of the squares - the more mysterious the becomes. The Kingdom of Flames appears to be one of the most interesting presentations of squares that don’t seem to make any kabbalistic sense, yet still emit a power rivaled by proper kabbalistically formulated squares.

So, your experiences with these squares that seems to insinuate some yet hidden attributes and abilities of these squares, may be something to look deeper into. The mysteries of the squares seems to go much deeper and have a greater breadth and dimension than the kabbalistic soil from which they sprang.

Why this is, I cannot say. It’s as if a mechanic designed an engine with widely available parts and pieces - yet, after the engine is finished and constructed, not only does it play its role as an engine, but it performs in unforeseen ways. Perhaps it has begun to express certain aspects of a conscious machine, perhaps it randomly transports passengers of the vehicle halfway around the world. Perhaps it has begun to communicate a secret and sacred knowledge that has nothing to do with the original engine plans, nor the perceived properties of each engine part.

Somehow - the collection of these forces and energies have opened doors and capabilities that were not a part of the original intention.[/quote]

In one of my conversations with E.A. he confirmed something I had long known, that the entities we know of are made of pure consciousness. But what is the nature of consciousness is a tough question.

However, I had an experience lately with my girlfriend trying to open up a sigil that made me think there was more to this abramelin square. I open sigils, but I don’t know if I can say I’ve felt a sigil come alive on a square, but my girlfriend seems to be doing that when she opens this square with her third eye. I have no idea, but she said something peculiar about how she kept seeing a similar pattern coming from one part of the square and tracing itself over certain letters, and into the nothingness of the square.

Most squares that I am familiar with are balanced. They aren’t missing letters. But, I have been turned onto a new technique in a book I found about experiments with chaos magick. Although they were of a really dark nature much of the time, I always like to re-purpose death magick for the purposes of well being. As someone who has long practiced this form of magick, I always try to apply the novel ideas these risk taking magicians come up with.

The technique I repurposed came from a European Author, who would insert the name of the victim with a demon intended to cause a specific malody, or a number of demons to make the attack more powerful, and to have the demons cause a health problem that was a culmination of their destructive energies on those parts of the body.

To understand how I’m repurposing it, I will explain the theory in action I have come up with.
These squares, are in some form a gateway to an current of pure consciousness, which is essentially what any spirit comes from, or rather exists out of. If you study quantum physics, you will understand the power that consciousness has can put any nuclear weapon to shame. This consciousness is self aware, as is just about any spiritual entity you will come in contact with. This is what spirits really are, not how we perceive them. And what we are doing when we put a name in a square with the name of any type of spirit, is we are inserting them into this spiritual current, where it will slowly overpower them in a grand way.

This can obviously be used for benefit, when we understand the theoretical mechanics of the operation, regardless of whether or not it’s true, the grand design I have laid out imparts an understanding, and this understanding can be made to manifest most probably by intent and belief, but this is really neither here nor there, you understand what I’m getting at by this point.

However my question comes from something slightly different…Is it possible to do more than open this square, if it is tied to some spiritual self aware current, this is representative of a powerful spirit of some nature, at least that is implied to me. So can it be evoked? If so, what would we be evoking? Is there any way to write your own name in the missing letters of the square, or is this basically playing chemistry experiements with magick? I think the only good answer I can give, is to say we may never know without a blind evocation. But I’m curious to know what you all think of this, and have any pointers you can give me on any of this.

Best of Luck
-Frater Apotheosis

[quote=“DK The Mage, post:8, topic:597”]Sure thing … plus a few extra :smiley:

Gold Coins:
SEGOR
EGAMO
GAZAG
OMAGE
ROGES

This is RICHES in general:
HAMONOMAH
ARUSOMAGA
MUTIRADAM
OSILAGAMO
NORACARON
OMAGALISO
MADARITUM
AGAMOSURA
HAMONOMAH

And THIS is specifically MONEY!!!
SEGOR
EROTO
GOLOG
OTORE
ROGES[/quote]

Thanks DK!

Just one question: Abramelin uses Q instead of G. e.g. SEQOR instead of SEGOR

Why the difference? Or is this irrelevant?

1 Like

[quote=“Bran, post:15, topic:597”][quote=“DK The Mage, post:8, topic:597”]Sure thing … plus a few extra :smiley:

Gold Coins:
SEGOR
EGAMO
GAZAG
OMAGE
ROGES

This is RICHES in general:
HAMONOMAH
ARUSOMAGA
MUTIRADAM
OSILAGAMO
NORACARON
OMAGALISO
MADARITUM
AGAMOSURA
HAMONOMAH

And THIS is specifically MONEY!!!
SEGOR
EROTO
GOLOG
OTORE
ROGES[/quote]

Thanks DK!

Just one question: Abramelin uses Q instead of G. e.g. SEQOR instead of SEGOR

Why the difference? Or is this irrelevant?[/quote]

I’ve seen pictures of the actual text, and it actually looks like a Q. However, as you look at more and more of the original texts, you realize that the scribes’ Gs actually look like Qs but are really Gs. The actual Q is completely different.

I have to agree with DK. I got the Guth version about a month ago and it was even better than I thought it would be when I ordered it. I’m impressed with it, much better than the Mathers version.

[quote=“DK The Mage, post:16, topic:597”][quote=“Bran, post:15, topic:597”][quote=“DK The Mage, post:8, topic:597”]Sure thing … plus a few extra :smiley:

Gold Coins:
SEGOR
EGAMO
GAZAG
OMAGE
ROGES

This is RICHES in general:
HAMONOMAH
ARUSOMAGA
MUTIRADAM
OSILAGAMO
NORACARON
OMAGALISO
MADARITUM
AGAMOSURA
HAMONOMAH

And THIS is specifically MONEY!!!
SEGOR
EROTO
GOLOG
OTORE
ROGES[/quote]

Thanks DK!

Just one question: Abramelin uses Q instead of G. e.g. SEQOR instead of SEGOR

Why the difference? Or is this irrelevant?[/quote]

I’ve seen pictures of the actual text, and it actually looks like a Q. However, as you look at more and more of the original texts, you realize that the scribes’ Gs actually look like Qs but are really Gs. The actual Q is completely different.[/quote]
I am a litle bit confused abot the squares so I need halp…???
Bran? enyone?
Ok,here is the thing(I worked with squares a month ago-painted them with black marker and blood-3days ago I got 1000$ the exactley amount I’asked…)since then I worked with squares 2 times -the diference was this Time I didn’t painted them with blood-just black marker,the squares did not work…where the hall is the catch.
Just one more question-I

[quote=“innana, post:18, topic:597”][quote=“DK The Mage, post:16, topic:597”][quote=“Bran, post:15, topic:597”][quote=“DK The Mage, post:8, topic:597”]Sure thing … plus a few extra :smiley:

Gold Coins:
SEGOR
EGAMO
GAZAG
OMAGE
ROGES

This is RICHES in general:
HAMONOMAH
ARUSOMAGA
MUTIRADAM
OSILAGAMO
NORACARON
OMAGALISO
MADARITUM
AGAMOSURA
HAMONOMAH

And THIS is specifically MONEY!!!
SEGOR

I know that are diferent tipes of equal squares -the one with Q and with G((SEQOR-SEGOR)
Wich one to use?

kind regards

EROTO
GOLOG
OTORE
ROGES[/quote]

Thanks DK!

Just one question: Abramelin uses Q instead of G. e.g. SEQOR instead of SEGOR

Why the difference? Or is this irrelevant?[/quote]

I’ve seen pictures of the actual text, and it actually looks like a Q. However, as you look at more and more of the original texts, you realize that the scribes’ Gs actually look like Qs but are really Gs. The actual Q is completely different.[/quote]
I am a litle bit confused abot the squares so I need halp…???
Bran? enyone?
Ok,here is the thing(I worked with squares a month ago-painted them with black marker and blood-3days ago I got 1000$ the exactley amount I’asked…)since then I worked with squares 2 times -the diference was this Time I didn’t painted them with blood-just black marker,the squares did not work…where the hall is the catch.
Just one more question-I[/quote]

can you give more details innana?if it worked that way,i wanna try it.
what version you used,how you mixed blood with the marker how you stated your desire etc…

i think it’s better to post your success here if you want:

[url=http://becomealivinggod.com/forum/money-spells/money-spells-(and-other-workings)-that-yielded-results/msg35005/#msg35005]http://becomealivinggod.com/forum/money-spells/money-spells-(and-other-workings)-that-yielded-results/msg35005/#msg35005[/url]