Planetary and Astral Characters in Wellcome 110

Wellcome Library Manuscript 110 is a late 16th century manuscript with a lot of content to offer.

Wellcome Ms.110, fol 63v.

Contents: 

1. [Pseudo-SOLOMON]. Ars notoria. Incomplete at beginning and end. (ll. 1-35). 

2. [Pseudo-SOLOMON.] Vincula. (ll. 36-38.). 

3. Pseudo-BACON (R.). Thesaurus spirituum. (ll. 39v-98.) The beginning is wanting: the colophon on 1.98 reads: 'Explicit theasurus spirituum utilis et fidelssime editus per magistrum Bakon et quendam Turcum eius socium predilectum'. 

4. Miscellaneous conjurations, etc.: in Latin. (ll. 98v-101v.). 

5. Flores extracti de libello qui nuncupatur 'Offitium spirituum', with other conjurations, etc.: mainly in Latin, a few in English. (ll. 101v-111).

Sadly, the secretary hand employed is rather hard for me to read and I cannot vouch for the correctness of the angel names transcribed and the quality of the pentacles and diagrams is the worst I have ever seen in any manuscript, something that can lead us to think the characters themselves might contain errors. 

Nevertheless they are very interesting and worth the trouble of extracting. 

This article does not treat the figures of the manuscript exhaustively. I have not extracted the diagrams and circles, the various seals of the experiments nor the planetary characters that appear dispersed throughout. 

1. Characters of planetary ”Angels”

Fol.68r

Storax Angelus Solis  cuius caracterus (est)

Storax, the angel of the Sun, whose character is

Abametra Angelus Veneris cuius caracterus (est)

Abametra, the angel of Venus, whose character is

Paymon angelus Mercurij cuius caracter

Paymon, the angel of Mercury, whose character is

Carmelyon angelus Lunae cuius caracter

Carmelyon, the angel of the Moon, whose character is

Orcorion angelus capitis draconis cuius caracter

Orcorion, the angel of the Head of the Dragon, whose character is

Glozilus (?)angelus Saturni cuius caracter

Glozilus, the angel of  Saturn, whose character is

Phinemon (?) angelus Jovis cuius caracter

 Phinemon, the angel of  Jupiter, whose character is

Carnifex angelus Martis cuius caracter

Carnifex, the angel of  Mars, whose character is

These angels are most likely demons and are cited in some astral magic treatises regarding the use of rings and sacrifices.  In Conjuring Spirits, Juris Lidaka gives us a transcript and translation of  Bokenham`s Book of Angels, Rings, Characters and Images of the Planets, where he cites a work of the sage Messayaac, on pages 47-49: The Experimentum of Master Messayaac of the Secrets of the Planetary Spirits. After a detailed descriptions of the sacrifices and rites to make the rings, (the seven planets plus the Head of the Dragon), he says he deliberately left out the names and the characters, but they begin with Storax, Abamecta, Paymon and others. So this is quite obviously the same work. 

I`m greatly indebted to Goritsa Svortsan, whom I must thank,  for lending me her copy, as mine was unappropriated by a forgetful friend. 

According to the Book Of Oberon (Harms/Clark/Peterson), Storax, the angel of the Sun and Carmelion, the Angel of the Moon, rule over the spirit Oberion. Storax appears with 6 variations of his seal, many resembling the present, and Carmelion with 8 variations. 

2. Planetary Signs

Saturn

Jupiter

Mars

Sun

Venus

Mercury

Moon

Fol.30r: hec sunt signa planetarum: these are the signs of the planets

These are isolated symbols that bare close resemblance to the images of the planets shown in the Magical Calendar in in Ms. Harley 3420. 

The following three suits of planetary characters and seals and their dependence upon other texts, both published and in manuscript, will be studied in a future article. Superficial resemblances and insufficient data in this field often leads to incorrect attributions and I would like to steer off from that particular direction. 

3. Planetary Characters (Caracteres): Fol.63v

Saturn

Jupiter

Mars

Sun

Venus

Mercury

Moon

4. Planetary Characters (Caracteres): Fol.110r

Saturn

Jupiter

Mars

Sun

Venus

Mercury

Moon

5.Planetary Seals (Sigillis): Fol.111r

Venus

Sun

Moon

Mercury

Jupiter

Mars

Saturn

6. Zodiacal Characters

1.Aries                     2.Taurus (Sic)

3.Gemini                      4.Cancer 

5.Leo                      6.Virgo

7.Libra                      8.Scorpio

9.Sagittarius                     10.Capricorn 

11.Aquarius                      12.Pisces

  

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