Seals of the Archangels in the Bernardakean Magical Codex

As an introductory note, I must thank my anonymous friend from Greece, who decided to aid my scholarly research and sent me a photocopy of a book published by the Academy of Athens, the transcript of a 19th century magical work called the Bernardakean Magical Codex (Bernardakeios Magikos Kodikas)

The ammount of material in this book is simply staggering: traditional European grimoires, Arabic spells, charms and amulets, folk remedies and kabbala, all transcribed in one great compendium in Greek. This is a volume I will be continuously drawing from. 

One part that interests me is the transcription of the Heptameron, or at least a Heptameron-based section in the manuscript. It contains as expected the seven seals of the archangels. There is no doubt that the seals we have here draw directly upon the printed editions of the Heptameron and that is their direct source, so it is interesting to see how the seals change and morph in manuscript form when compared to their source, in this case knowing full well, their source. 

For the sake of comparison I will add there the seals as they are in the manuscript, complete with the astrological siglae that are also in the Heptameron and in one case, with the name of the Heaven associated with it (a simple click will enlarge them):

 

Sunday

 

Monday

Tuesday

 Wednesday

 

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

For practical reasons I chose to focus just on the seal, eliminating the other symbols and allowing us a more discerning look at their shapes. Their codes will be B.1 through B.7, for Bernadakeios:

 Seal of Michael (B.1)

The seal is slanted to the right and bears the mark of cursivity. The left section is very reduced from what we are accustomed in the Hept. seals, thhe horizontal line is elongated,  and the right descending line is now curved (similar in a way to the broken line in the CSS seal). The opened trapezoid is not separated from the base of the rhomboidal shape, but curiously joined, and a very peculiar feature is the ending: while the Hept. seals are terminated in a small elegant T, this seal ends with a very pronounced cross contained in a crooked circle. 

 

 Seal of Gabriel (B.2)

The left part, with the second figure going downwards continuously into a circle and the top circle seeming to be added after the completion, bears striking similarities to Hept2. Also, the bottom squares of the rectangular formation is missing, and we find that in Hept2. that is as well incomplete (although not missing entirely). The b-s and the A shape as well as the M shape are not changed, except for the usual rightward slant, but the ending is again very original: after the upward line and appended e-curl, we find it crossed through by another upward line, coming down into a curve, like a J. 

 Seal of Samael (B.3)

 This seal is also slanted to the right and seems a bit unbalanced, the left part being situated higher than the right. The cross is situated on top of the line and does not make one continuous angled line, the horizontal continues upwards in a 45 degree angle (not considering the usual scribal angle, this line is not parallel to that of the preceding cross) but a very interesting feature is that after the superior twist, the horizontal line does not have a semicircle, only a very small lower dash. Following this, the descending line is more likely a curve, ending in a very peculiar form quite different than the half-a-cross we see in the Hept. seals, and the circle atop the line crossing the figure is not intersected by the line, but rather joined to it. 

 Seal of Raphael (B.4)

The seal of Raphael is no less different. The beginning segment is reduced to a curve, rather than an angle, the first circle is quartered, not halved, and the horizontal line does not end with the circle, inside the enclosed figure, but continues well beyond that. 

 Seal of Sachiel(B.5)

 Curiously enough, this seal differs greatly from the Heptameron style. In thev  first figure, the horizontal line is not capped and the endings are curled inside. In the second figure, the vertical line is well slanted rightwards and the top part is not a fluid curve, but a small circular twist continued with a straight line, upon which a curl was added. The third figure lacks the hook in the left foot as we see in all Hept. seals, the vertical is slanted and the curve goes down and again up, unlike the Heptameron.

 Seal of Anael (B.6)

The first character is quite different from the Hept. versions. We do not have a circle or teardrop intersected by a triangle, but rather an elongated triangle that twists into a teardrop, much like in Clav.A.2. The second figure seems even more expedite, the body of the character is long, slender and straight, the circle is connected only to the top line and the bottom line arches up and forms the ending spiral. 

  Seal of Kassiel (B.7)

 Out of this series, the seal of Kassiel seems to be the most orthodox. The first character ends with a full circle, the second figure is topped by a curved line and the bottom also begins with a curve, much like Hept.1 and Hept.3, and the third figure only differs from the Heptameron in the middle curve of the form.

Conclusions: The Heptameron entered Greece probably in the 17th century in printed form, and this version is probably derived from it via another manuscript. The slight modifications show another hand at work before our scribe, that most probably copied it in the 18th century.

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. 

Seals of the archangels in the Magical Calendar.

The Magical Calendar is one of the most amazing pieces of art and information available in Western Hermeticism. 

It was published in 1620 by Johann Baptista Großchedel its basically a tabular rendition of the correspondences found in  Agrippa's Book II, chapters 4 through 14. 

The original manuscript used as a source for it British Library manuscript Harley 3420. Adam McLean, who published a wonderful study of it in The Magical Calendar: A Synthesis of Magial Symbolism from the Seventeenth-Century Renaissance of Medieval Occultism (Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks Series) RedWheel / Weiser, 2008, decribes on his website the manuscript: 

British Library MS. Harley 3420.
Paper. 1614.

Johannis Baptistae Groschedelii, Dispositio Numerorum magica ab Unitate usq; ad Duodenarium.
Titulus ipsius Codicis: 'Dispositio numerorum Magica ab unitata usque ad duodenarium. Collecta singularis industria, compilatione diversa, magno labore, et investigatione sibi suisque, a Johanne Baptista Groschedelio, Equite Romano, ab Aicha Philomago, Lucisque et Gratiae, et Naturae indagatori vigilantissimo. Anno 1614.' Opus scil. Artimagicae et Astrologiae judiciali (ut loquuntur) inserviens: et in suo genere satis curiosum. [ With coloured figures.]

A good presentation of it is hosted by Joseph Peterson's website, copiously illustrated:

 http://www.esotericarchives.com/mc/index.html

I will present three versions of the seals, my sources being as follows:

MC.1

The 1620 engraving by Grosschedel and DeBry, from McLean and Peterson.

MC.2

The 1614 manuscript Harley 3420, from Peterson.

MC.3

A Dresden manuscript quite similar to the Harley version (in what I can glean from McLean's description, I haven't have the pleasure to inspect the manuscript first hand.)

 

 

 The entry on it:

'Ein Im[m]erwährender Natürlich-Magischer Calender, Welcher die Beschauung der Allertiefesten und Geheimesten Sachen, Ingleichen die Erkäntnüs der gantzen Philosophie in sich faßet', 1582. SLUB Dresden

 Adam McLean seems to think the date is spurious, yet Rafal T. Prinke gives the same date for the version in the Wroclaw Codex. I have not inspected this manuscript either, nor do I have a digital copy, so there is no MC.4, unfortunately.  

The order of the angels is quite peculiar, as is their attributions.

In MC.1, the angels are listed from Saturn to Moon, the so-called Chaldaic order of the planets. It rivals in popularity with the week order, as used in the Heptameron. Cassiel, Sachiel, Samael and Gabriel have their normal atributions, that is Saturn, Jupiter, ars and Moon. The others seem miss-matched. Anael is ascribed to the Sun, Raphael to Venus, and Michael to Mercury.

In MC.2, Anael is rightly attributed to Venus, but Raphael is attributed to the Sun and Michael to Mercury, the inverted order of the Heptameron. As Peterson points out, the Heptameron agrees with Agrippa, while the MC agrees with older works such as Liber Juratus and Sepher Raziel. We shal keep this order here. He concludes that the table has been muddled in the engraving: Raphael and Anael are reversed from the manuscript. This is probably due to the fact that Sol/Raphael/Machen is split by the binding. (Peterson, Magical Calendar, Seven)

In MC.3 the order is not as expected of a manuscript, in agreement with the MC.2, but in agreement with the later printer version, the MC.1.  We could therefore conclude that MC.3 is not an older version from the MC.1, but possibly derived from it.

Seal of Cassiel (Saturn)

MC.1

 

MC.2

 

MC.3

Notes: one cannot help noticing that while the seals from the Heptameron have three marks, the seal from Scot has two, we are presented here with only one mark, the first one. The shapes also differ: MC.1 and 2 share the trapezoidal shapes of the Heptameron, while MC.3 is rather slim and stylish, like Scot's rectangle.

Seal of Sachiel (Jupiter)

MC.1

 

MC.2

 

MC.3

Notes: Seal does not present great differences. The first mark is hollow, no lines or dots as in Scot. or Hept., the second mark has the superior part ending horizontally, not in a curved line (Scot, Hept) and the last mark resembles Scot. more than Hept., having no lower left hook. MC.3 is again similar to MC.1 rather than MC.2.

Seal of Samael (Mars)

 

MC.1

 

MC.2

 

MC.3

Notes: first of all, MC.1 and 3 share most characteristics, and differ from MC.2, this having a lower left protuberance and an apparent absence in the right (no circle). MC.2 has a perpendicular termination while  MC.1 and MC.3 do not, but do continue with a straight segment. These differences again speak for the probability of MC.1 being the source of MC.3, and not vice-versa. Here there are no breaks in the semicircle as in Hept.1 and 3, but bare close similarity to Hept.2 and Scot. he most striking fact is that in the far right, the cross is absent, the leftward dash is connected to the oblique line and the circle is placed below the figure, not above it. his last feature is the most striking above all, and can trace the origin of the seals. 

Seal of Raphael (Sun)

MC.1

 

MC.2

 

MC.3

Note: One of the problematic issues of the MC versus HEPT. In MC, the angel of the Sun is switched. Thea seals themselves remain, only the angelic  names suffer change. MC.1 and MC.3 share the same mistake, putting Anael as the regent angel of the Sun, but MC.2 has the correct table of assignment.  From all seals presented, this series is more tied to Scot. and Hept.2, they have the closest line to the left curve, almost joining at the head. Here we see a continuity between them, the cross being dragged up and circled once then circled again, creating more fluidity in the drawing. MC.2 has a straight termination, but MC.1 feels the need to embellish, curving the line inward and naturally MC.3 copies this embellishment, insisting even more and evolving it into a circle. MC.is also faulty, missing the inner upward cross.

 Seal of Anael (Venus)

MC.1

 

MC.2

MC.3

 

Notes: no great difference observed, but we can say that MC.2 again stands out as a possible origin of the others. It bears the most resemblance to Hept.1, having a more acute top vertical stroke, whereas MC.1 and MC.2 try to fix it, giving the curve a rounder shape. In MC.2 the tail has three curves, ending upward, while 1 and 2 attempt simplification, with two curves, ending downward. No similarity to Scot.

Seal of Michael (Mercury)

MC.1

 

MC.2

 

MC.3

Notes: the second problematic seal. In the Heptameron, this is still the seal of the angel of Mercury and Wednesday, but there it is Raphael.  As imagined, 1 and 3 differ from 2. In figure MC.2, the first circle is parted, while the  other two omit the vertical line, the beginning line is slightly longer in the upper part, just like the Hept. figures, while the other two do not share this feature. All three have an evenly divided square in the enclosed part, quite different from Hept., all have circle endings, and the most strikingly different is MC.3, adding a more decorative styling to the ending.

Seal of Gabriel (Moon)

 

MC.1

 

MC.2

 

MC.3

Notes: again we see MC.2 standing out as a source, dependent more on the Heptameron or at least a common ancestor. The most striking feature of these seals is the absence of the inner vertical  line. MC.1 and 3 have four divisions, more like Scot., but interestingly enough, MC.2 has six, with two inner lines in each half of the rectangle. The B formation is mostly present in MC.2 in a similar fasion to the Hept. figures, especially Hept.1, but we lack in all seals the suspended b's or 6's. The slanted A shape is present in figure 2 in a more decorative manner than in Hept., with lower curves, a feature that is accentuated in 1 and 2 to the point of no resemblance to an A or an upside-down V, but more like an upside-down glyph of Aries.    The M figure is more decorated in figure 2 and more simplified in 1 and 3, rendering closer to the Hept. figures, while the final e shape is diminished in size in figure 2 and also restricted to the top half of the seal, above the line, a feature that MC.1 and subsequently MC.3 take and evolve in a more fluid and graceful shape. 

I have no doubt that Harley 3420, dated to 1614, is the source of the Calendarium Magicum, dated 1620, which in turn served as a model, with all mistakes, for the Dresden manuscript.

As I type this I await professor Rafal T. Prinke's response with a scan of the Warclaw codex, but if my presumption is correct, this too will be inspired by either MC.1 (1620) or even MC.3, sharing similar shapes, but above all, placing Anael as the Sun angel, therefore pushing it's date well pass 1620.