The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, by MacGregor Mathers

The Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin The Mage the book influenced the system of Thelema; the religion that Crowley went on to form even inspiring Crowley to make a version of the Abramelin operation which he considered to be superior to the original.

The use of magical squares in this book is particularly notable, and seems to be an advancement of more simple magical numbers associated with divine number patterns and perhaps sacred geometry. The power of names, a strongly Jewish mystical idea, runs through all these shapes, some incomprehensible to modern eyes, some obvious.

The importance of this intriguing text is not just the influence it had on the founders of modern occultism (whose thinking can be found inside high ceremonial magic, traditional witchcraft and even Wicca), but also the slice of historic thought it shows us. A demonstration of an era where magic, geometry, science and the mystical mingled together. An era when the power of magic was subject to not only strict adherence to morality, but also vigorous intellectual examination.

Cornelius Sinclair April 2013