Picatrix Book III: Planetary Spirits and Prayers

About this book

Book III is the book of prayers, images and offerings. It begins with what «belongs» to each planet and each sign: plants, animals, stones, metals, colours, crafts and parts of the body. Then come the images of the seven planets and the colours of their garments, the ladder of nature and the «Experiment of love», and the Perfect Nature of Hermes, the spirit-teacher who appears to the sage in a dream and says: «call me by my own name, and I will answer you». The longest chapter teaches how to speak with each planet, with its prayers, petitions and sacrifices. The book ends with the names of the spirits and the feasts shared with them, the «stones» of Aristotle that are really alchemical alloys, and medieval confections for love, hatred and the binding of tongues, as recorded in the text (the poisons among them are marked in the notes with a firm warning).

Translated into modern English by BlusaBooks, directly from the Latin manuscript; the medieval text is in the public domain. Every sentence, not a summary, in the voice of the original. No manuscript images are reproduced: the six brown crosses of the manuscript are our own redrawings, set in their place in the text.

What is inside

• Chapters 1–11 of Book III: the shares of the planets and signs in nature, the images, garments and suffumigations of the planets, the ladder of nature, the Perfect Nature of Hermes, the prayers and sacrifices of the seven planets, the prayers of the Nabataeans, the names of the spirits, the stones of Aristotle, confections of love and hatred.
• Notes on the same page (Arabic names, spirits, stars, plants and substances — poisonous ones are marked).
• A foreword on where Book III breaks off and how to read it; a commentary in plain words at the end.
• Colour illustrations: a prayer to a planet on a rooftop at night, a suffumigation, an alchemist casting metal.
• PDF, A5 page size (148 × 210 mm), 140 pages, readable on phone, tablet and computer.

Who it is for

Readers of the history of magic, astrology and the occult, lovers of grimoires and Hermetic books, anyone who has met Picatrix in Agrippa or in books on planetary magic and wants to read the real prayers.

A historical source: the book gives a medieval text and what historians know about it. It is not a practical guide. Its recipes contain poisons (arsenic, lead, quicksilver, mandrake, opium, hellebore) and some are described as deadly; they are not advice and must not be tried. The book also contains animal sacrifices and curses, translated as history. Digital PDF, delivered for download after payment.