What many people tend to forget is that those ancient, original works on magic are just as relevant today as the latest copy of the Manual of Practical Thaumaturgy. The language might be difficult and solid theory ensconced with mysticism and allegory, but these books still form the basis of many modern magical traditions. While most of them are best understood as strictly theoretical, the canny magician can wheedle a little actual power out of these works...and did I mention they're all available online and for free these days?
The Key of Solomon
Clavis Salomonis is an influental 15th century book on magic that forms part of the fundamentals of the Hermetic library. According to its own introduction, the book was originally written by King Solomon himself, the legendary Jewish monarch who constructed the First Temple in Jerusalem, before the kingdom of Israel split, and to whom later legends attest a number of mystical feats. The text itself is split into two "books." The first describes how the "exorcist" (the term for magician) invokes the power of God while performing certain "experiments" (magical operations). The second book describes various preparations and requirements for the "exorcist," including rituals of purification and construction of tools.
I really prefer the 2042 annotated version of this work by Julia Mairtin, Ph.D.Th., which just about triples its length if you click on all the channels regarding its historical importance and influences - personally, I just stick to the practical bits. You have to take some of the God-talk with a grain of salt unless you're an out-and-out theurgist, but there's a lot of practical information in the Key of Solomon regarding the basics of ritual theory and enchanting. Julie warns the users that while some of your basic spells today started off here in the Key of Solomon, the modern versions are relatively safe while these most definitely are not. Definitely watch the embedded clip where that guy in 2016 managed to autoflay himself while casting an invisibility spell.
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The Lemegeton
Also known as The Lesser Key of Solomon or Clavicula Solomon, the Lemegeton is a 17th-century follow-up to the Clavis Solomon and is considered the most popular pre-Awakening work on demonology, and the famous Goetia edition of 1904 was translated by Mathers and Crowley. The anonymous author based their text on a number of mideval grimoires, some from the 14th century, and uses many of the same conventions as the Key of Solomon, including the term "exorcist" for the magical practitioner. The text is divided into five parts, each of which deals with a different magical art - mainly concerning the summoning and binding of 72 demons, 31 aerie spirits, and various angels using complex seals, and is a primary source for the ritual circles used in some Hermetic summonings and the basis of spirit formulae as we know them today, but also the creation of almadels and a collection of spells at the end.
The Lemegeton is actually the more popular of the two Keys of Solomon, and I couldn't begin to tell you how many kids got their start "playing at magic" by drawing the seals and chanting the words to try and summon up a Prince or President of Hell. None of the demons actually work (despite many attempts), but the first elementals were conjured using the Lemegeton in 2012, and the rituals refined and recodified into something workable for the modern mage by 2013. On the down side, the Lemegeton also has a history of association with Faustians, corrupt mages, and other toxic magicians. Ownership is not restricted in most countries, but particular copies belonging to the Sons of the Fly, a trio of mass-murders who purportedly summoned toxic spirits to attack a downtown mall in San Antonio are known to have been destroyed or placed under lock and key in Lone Star vaults.
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Pow-Wows, or the Long-Lost Friend
This is an 1820 book of German reciepts, or spells and talismans, published in America for the Pennsylvania Dutch. It made the rounds and carried some quite venerable charms into the rootwork of the south, influencing New Orleans Voodoo and some other magical practices. It deals primarily with medicine and simple ailments, and includes more than a few purely mundane recipes and the like. Few people these days are aware of it, and it is little more than a footnote in magical history.
That said, many theurgists have taken to speaking the morning prayer from the Long-Lost Friend before starting an astral journey, and some of the incantations against malign witchcraft are workable and useful during counterspelling and warding. If nothing else, the text sounds authentic and can be used when you need to put a little show in your magic for the mundanes. I know at least one magician who considers it something of a good luck charm because of a passage in the book that promises protection to those who carry it.
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The Book of the Dead
This ancient Egyptian funerary text is the basis of much Heka magic, not to mention thousands of Hollywood sims regarding mummies. There are easily hundreds of translations, and the actual text itself developed, organized, and standardized over centuries of continuous use before the first European scholar ever made a bad translation of the text. The quality of the original copies varies considerably; the images are usually highly detailed while the text itself is truncated or wrong in most cases - it took Egyptologists a fair sample of papyrus examples of the Book of Dead to piece together what a "complete and correct" copy would look like (and then reprint it for gullible tourists and other Egyptologists).
Heka magicians prefer to use very elaborate versions of the Book of the Dead as grimoires and their copies come with all sorts of extras - I've seen e-scrolls with mechanical scarab drones that attack anyone who doesn't match the magician's biometric data, for example. The Judges of Duat in particular are known for their outstanding grimoires based on the Book of the Dead, many of them done in a mixture of media but incorporating a lot of lapis lazuli and gold leaf. The copies from the souk in Dubai are just gorgeous.
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