THE SEPTENARY OF TALISMANS rod
is
245
replaced by the sword and the lamp by the candle of shall explain this difference in the chapter
Cardan.
We
Let us come now to the descripand consecration of the instruments. The magical rod, which must not be confounded with the simple divining
devoted to black magic. tion
rod, with the fork of necromancers, or the trident of Paracelsus, the true
fectly
straight
and absolute magical rod, must be one perof almond or hazel, cut at a single
beam
blow with the magical pruning - knife or golden
sickle,
before the rising of the sun, at that moment when the tree It must be pierced through its whole is ready to blossom. length without splitting or breaking it, and a long needle of
magnetized iron must fill its entire extent ; to one of its extremities must be fitted a polyhedral prism, cut in a triangular shape, and to the other a similar figure of black
Two rings, one of copper, and one of zinc, must be at the centre of the rod ; subsequently, the rod must placed be gilt at the resin end, and silvered at the prism end as resin.
it must then be covered with silk, far as the ringed centre On the copper ring these the extremities not included. ;
must be engraved nKHpnD^SW* and on the zinc HD^ "]tan. The consecration of the rod must last ring seven days, beginning at the new moon, and should be made by an initiate possessing the great arcana, and having himcharacters
:
:
self
a consecrated rod.
This
is
the transmission
of the
magical secret, which has never ceased since the shrouded The rod and the other origin of the transcendent science. all, must be concealed with no the magus permit them and under should care, pretext otherwise they will to be seen or touched by the profane
instruments, but the rod above
;
one of the arcana
The mode
of transmitting the rod is of science, the revelation of which is never
lose all their virtue.
The length of the magical rod must not exceed permitted. that of the operator's arm ; the magician must never use it unless he is alone, and should not even then touch it without
necessity. Many length of the forearm
ancient magi made it only the and concealed it beneath their long