The Magus/Book 1/Part 2/Chapter 10

WE make a fuffumigation for the fun in this manner:—

Take of faffron, ambergris, mufk, lignum aloes, lignum balfam, the fruit of the laurel, cloves, myrrh, and frankincenfe, of each a like quantity; all of which being bruifed, and mixed together, fo as to make a fweet odour, muft be incorporated with the brain of an eagle, or the blood of a white cock, after the manner of pills, or troches.

For the moon, we make a fuffume of the head of a frog dried, the eyes of a bull, the feed of white poppies, frankincenfe, and camphire, which muſt be incorporated with menftruous blood, or the blood of a goofe.

For faturn, take the feed of black poppies, henbane, mandrake root, loadftone, and myrrh, and mix them up with the brain of a cat and the blood of a bat.

Take the feed of afh, lignum aloes, ftorax, the gum Benjamin, the lapis lazuli, the tops of peacocks' feathers, and incorporate with the blood of a ftork, or fwallow, or the brain of a hart.

Take uphorbium, bdellium, gum armoniac, the roots of both hellebores, the loadftone, and a little fulphur, and incorporate them altogether with the brain of a hart, the blood of a man, and the blood of a black cat.

Take mufk, ambergris, lignum aloes, red rofes, and red coral, and make them up with fparrow's brains and pigeon's blood.

Take maftich, frankincenfe, cloves, and the herb cinquefoil, and the agate ftone, and incorporate them all with the brain of a fox, or weafel, and the blood of a magpie.

To Saturn are appropriated for fumes, odoriferous roots as pepper-wort root, &c., and the frankincenfe tree. To Jupiter, all odoriferous fruits: as nutmegs, cloves, &c. To Mars, all odoriferous woods: as fanders, cyprus, lignum balfam, and lignum aloes. To the Sun, all gums: as frankincenfe, maftich benjamin, ftorax, laudanum, ambergris, and mufk. To Venus, flowers: as rofes, violets, faffron, and the like. To Mercury, all the parings of wood or fruit: as cinnamon, lignum caffia, mace, citron peel, and bayberries, and whatever feeds are odoriferous. To the Moon, the leaves of all vegetables as the leaf indum, the leaf of the myrtle, and bay tree. Know, alfo, that, according to the opinion of all magicians, in every good matter (as love, good-will, &c.), there muft be a good perfume, odoriferous and precious;—and in evil matters (as hatred, anger, mifery, and the like), there muft be made a ftinking fume that is of no worth..

The twelve Signs of the Zodiac alfo have their proper fuffumigations viz., Aries, myrrh; Taurus, pepper-wort; Gemini, maftich; Cancer, camphire; Leo, frankincenfe; Virgo, fanders; Libra, galbanum; Scorpio, ophoponax; Sagittarius, lignum aloes; Capricorn, benjamin; Aquarius, euphorbium; Pifces, red florax. But Hermes defcribes the moft powerful fume to be, that which is compounded of the feven aromatics, according to the powers of the feven planets for it receives from Saturn, pepper-wort; from Jupiter, nut ​meg; from Mars, lignum-aloes; from the Sun, maftich; from Venus, faffron; from Mercury, cinnamon; and from the Moon, myrtle.

By a clofe obfervation of the above order of fuffumigations, conjoined with other things, of which we ſhall ſpeak hereafter (neceffary to the full accompliſhment of Talifmanic Magic), many wonderful effects may be caufed, efpecially if we keep in eye what was delivered in the firft part of our Magic, viz. that the foul of the operator muft go along with this; otherwife, in vain is fuffumigation, feal, ring, image, picture, glafs, or any other inftrument of magic: feeing that it is not merely the difpofition, but the act of the difpofition, and firm and powerful intent or imagination, that gives the effect.—We fhall now haften to fpeak, generally, of the conftruction of rings magical, and their wonderful and potent virtues and operations.