Medieval Square Magick



This instruction is from the Book of Angels, Rings, Characters and Images of the Planets, attributed to Osbern Bokenham, J. G. Lidaka translation. It outlines a method of magic utilizing the well-known "magic squares" associated with the planets, where the square is constructed of some certain material and used after the manner of a talisman. Often as not, the device is constructed and used more offensively than defensively (as is typical with talismanic magic in general.) No specific consecration is mentioned. Of Saturn it is written:

The figure of Saturn is square and has a grid of three. When you wish to do magic by this figure to help a woman in childbirth, rite the figure on the day of Saturn (Saturday) and in its hour... when Saturn is fast on course, that is direct, and the Moon is rising in Mercury; write it on silk and tie it to the right hip, And if you sculpt this figure on a thin piece of lead, with Saturn retrograde or decreasing in light and Mercury, or in the rays of the Sun or stationary, and if you place it in a building or a new inhabitation, this building will never be finished and people will flee from the inhabitation. And if you place it in the seat of some prelate, he will immediately he deposed. And if you sculpt it on a thin piece of lead, with Saturn in a favorable position and falling, and if you suffumigate it with a spider and carry it with you, you will fear neither the king nor anyone else who wishes to harm you, and you will get whatever you wish from them.





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