Planetary Characters of Albertus Magnus

Leipzig University Library Manuscript Cod.Mag.72 is another treasure for the astral magic researcher, with abundant examples of seals, diagrams and characters, which will be reproduced here in a few articles. 

Alberti Magni Tractatus von den 12 himmlischen Zeichen und ihren Sigillis, von den 12 himmlischen Zeichen und ihren Characteribus und denn von den 7 Planeten ihren magischen Ringen, samt ihren großen Heimlichkeiten, Kräften und Nutzen, letzlich von denen speculis magicis mit zugehörigen Instrumenten und Sigillen nebst dessen hohen Gebrauch, omnia ad laudem Dei. 

Or: Albert the Great`s Treatise of the 12 heavenly signs and their seals, of the 12 heavenly signs and their characters and of the seven planets and their magical rings together with their secrets, virtues and uses and lastly of the Speculis Magicis (Magical Mirror) and its  associated instruments and seals most high use, all to the glory of God. 

The Third Chapter (fols.10r-16r) is concerned with the seven planetary rings. 

Unfortunately I have no skill in transcribing or translating the cursive 18th century German, but let`s hope that someone will shed some light on the text in the hopefully-not-so-distant future.  

Ring of Saturn

Character of Saturn

Characters Saturn

ARCHIATROS

Spirit of Saturn

Ring of Jupiter

Character of Jupiter

Characters Jupiter

NABOR

Spirit of Jupiter

Ring of Mars

Character of Mars

Characters  Mars

AMON

Spirit of Mars

Ring of the Sun

Character of the Sun

Characters of the Sun

AFFORES

Spirit of the Sun

Ring of Venus

Character of Venus

Characters Venus

ALLON

Spirit of  Venus

Ring of Mercury

Character of  Mercury

Characters Mercury missing. 

ZEDIETNE

Spirit of  Mercury

Ring of the Moon

Character of the Moon

Characters the Moon

ZETELAY ZELEY

Spirit of  the Moon

Download free PDF

Planetary Characters of Bartolomeus Cocles

Thanks to the dilligent work of Joseph Peterson, we were made aware of the planetary characters used by Bartolomeus Cocles in his Chyromantie ac phisionomie anastasis the most likely source of Agrippa s characters.

Any rocket scientist will figure out that Agrippa mirrored them. Most likely this is a typographical error. We ll see in a future article which copy was used for reproducing the seals, or ar least what book was used by the die cutter.  These symbols then became some of the most circulated and widely used characters, to this day, in basically every  grimoire penned after the Occult Philosophy. 

There are two sets of images from this work: One set, named here B(artholomeus)C(ocles)1 is extracted from the 1504 Edition  which is the same used by Joseph Peterson. The other set, BC2, is extracted from the 1517 Edition which has the exact signs as the 1523 Edition (also here). The two differ slightly, and the differences have been noted at each one. 

Saturn BC1

Saturn BC2

Notes: Character 1 begins with a weak loop that slims down to a dot in BC1, which is lost in BC2. Character 4 ends with a separated 5-looking figure in the new set, while in the old set  the line is joined into an A-shape. 

Jupiter BC1

Jupiter BC2

Notes: Character 1 has the dash united with the lower part in the BC1. Character 7 switches the elongated part of the 3-shape.  Characters 9-10 could be one sign printed badly, but this is oddly apparent more in the newer rather than the older version. 

Mars BC1

Mars BC2

Notes: Character 1 is asymetrical in BC1. Character 5 is entirelly mirrored horizontally. 

SunBC1

Sun BC2

Notes: Characters 2 and three seem separate in BC1 and almost linked in BC2. Character 10 appears disjointed in BC2 due to a flaw.

Venus BC1

Venus BC2

Notes: Character 1 seems disjointed in BC1. 

Mercury BC1

Mercury BC2

Notes: Character 1 slants to the right in BC1. Character 2 is seemingly ended in a circle but close examination yielded a tight but free end, like BC2. The same goes for character 5. 

Moon BC1

Moon BC2

Notes: Character one is more curved in BC2. Character 4 has an S-shaped curl, unlike its C-shaped predecessor. 

I know, it s fabulous and fascinating.

Downloadable PDF 

Planetary Characters (Liber Razielis Angeli)

One manuscript in the Leipzig collection is of special interest to me, namely Cod.Mag.40 or to name it by its full title  Liber Razielis Angeli Adamo poenitenti post lapsum a deo missus, per quem possit intelligere, scire et cognoscere omnia mirabilia, quae facta sunt et fuerunt, et sunt facienda, it. omnes potestates, quae sunt in coelis et terris, aquis, abyssis, it. coelos eorumque angelos, ministros et virtutes etc. 

So... Liber Razielis Angeli, for friends. One variant of this work has already been published by Stephen Skinner and edited by Don Karr (here), and there is one free available version edited by Joseph Peterson on his website. 

In this very interesting Latin version, Chaper X (Fols.56v-57r) is titled De characteribus planetarum eorumque Spiriuum Nominibus, (Of the Characters of the Planets and their Spirits) and gives eight series of characters of the planetary spirits. The interesting thing is that these characters are give as characters of both good and bad spirits of the planets, except for the Moon, which lists two separate sets according to the two categories. Once I get through the text at least one I ll edit in the names of these spirits as well. 

Characters of Saturn

Characters of Jupiter

Characters of Mars

Characters of Sol

Characters of Venus

Characters of Mercury

Characters of Luna (Good)

Characters of Luna (Evil)

Note: the last character of the third row of Mars is partially absconded by the fold of the page, but we could guess it would be an x symbol. 

Please do not repost my work or use it commercially. If you do, the bad spirits of the Moon sphere will come and to icky things to you while you sleep.True story. Thank you.

Oh yeah, and if you comment that they look like Chinese or Egyptian writing, I m gonna smack you. 

Characters of the Planets in Harley 80

Manuscript Harley 80 of the British Library is dated to about 1200-1499, and contains five sections. 

The third unit of the manuscript, comprising of ff.75r-84v are mainly texts on astronomy and the making of astrological talismans and images. Thebit ben Corat  De imaginibus (ff. 75r-76r)
Claudius Ptolemaeus De imaginibus super facies signorum (ff. 76r-77v)
Hermes Trismegistus (or Belenus), Liber imaginum lune (ff. 77v-81r)
Hermes, Trismegistus (or Belenus), De quindecim stellis (ff. 81-84v). 

The British Library catalog entry mentions that the marginal notes and notabilia, Sigilla Planetarum (ff. 75v-76r, lower margins), and Zodiac signs (f. 78r, margin) added by 14th- and 15th-century hands.

What we are most interested in here are the Sigilla Planetarum, or the characters or seals of the planets, placed on fol.75v

 

and fol.76r .

 

  
This series of seals will be coded H80.   

The First Series

  

Characters of Venus  (H80.1)

  Characters of  the Moon (H80.2)

  Characters of  Jupiter (H80.3)
 

  Characters of  Mars (H80.4)

 

  Characters of  the Sun (H80.5)

 

 Characters of  Saturn(H80.6)

  Characters of  Saturn (H80.7)

The second series

  Characters of  the Sun (H80.8)

  Characters of  Mercury (H80.9)

 

   

Characters of  Saturn (H80.10)

 Characters of  Venus (H80.11)

  Characters of  the Moon (H80.12)

   

Characters of  Jupiter (H80.13)

  Characters of Mars  (H80.14)

 

There are two series of characters, I believe each with it s origin, one on each page. 

Perhaps the strange and unorthodox order in which the planets are listed will help us do just that, identify each source or at least it s appearance in other manuscripts.  

There are undeniable resemblances with the characters given by Gerolamus Cardanus, by the Liber Lunae and later printed French grimoires, which we shall duly study in the following posts.