Tuesday 13 February 2018

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
Paymonthe 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
  





























2 comments:

  1. It's somewhat later than the Folger Book of Magic or Wellcome 110, but I also find Storax as Angel of the Sun & Carmelion as Angel of the Moon & some other names which are credible as corrupted forms of those on Wellcome 110, in a figure in Sloane MS. 3824 fol. 76r (probably 1660s) with associated characters:
    * Saturn: Orionen
    * Jupiter: Gloriatus
    * Mars: Phiton
    * Sol: Storax
    * Venus: Abamefra
    * Mercury: Panton
    * Luna: Carmelion
    This scheme didn't assign a name to Caput Draconis hence the names after Carmelyon in the Wellcome list are referred to different planets.

    Regards,
    T.S.

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    Replies
    1. indeed so. I ve published the Rings of Mesahalla, the work that originates them.

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