NAMING THE HEAVENS: ORATIONS FROM THE SUMMA SACRE MAGICE

Summa Sacre Magice buzzing’s have been happening more over the last year since the release of Brian Johnsons pamphlet Naming the Heavens: Orations from the Summa Sacre Magice. I am admittedly somewhat late to the party in getting round to reading it.

After having read and highly rated Brian’s Necromancy in the Medici Library I fully expected this pamphlet to be phenomenal – and it is! Much like his previous work, a specific portion of the SSM has been translated out of a larger document. As an amateur grimoire enthusiast, I feel that it is not the type of work one can fully appreciate without having a little bit of knowledge regarding the subject matter. This is perhaps the reason it sat unread on my shelf for nearly a year because at first glance I did not know what to make of it.

One of the things that stood out to me right away was from reading the introduction wherein it states it was assembled in 1346. This places it quite early in the grimoire tradition as we know it – as most of what we have available to us now begins a few hundred years later. I am always excited to hear when we’ve discovered new traces of the grimoire tradition that date us closer to the Greek Magical Papyri.

Speaking of the PGM – I could not help but call attention to the commentary Brian gives regarding the mention of Proseperine who in this work is directly tied to the moon. This is an especially exciting reference because we find Persephone in PGM spells such as IV. 296-466 – which you can read how to use in Mat Hadfield’s A Wondrous Spell: Necromancy in the PGM.

There are a total of 53 footnotes – all of which are insightful and helpful for further research. This is one of the reasons I really enjoy anything Brian works on because he never fails to share observations with readers who may not catch the same details (such as myself).  I don’t want to spoil too much though so I highly encourage buyers to read through it carefully. Hadean pamphlets are truly the best value that we have available to us and worth even more than the exceptionally low cost they are offered at!

Fortunately for us – GlitchBottle did an interview with Brian regarding his pamphlet and it is also worth the listen. Alex never disappoints in his analysis and his questions are well thought out. Brian is an excellent speaker who always delivers his thoughts with clarity and occasional humor. Starting with the origin story of his interest in translating, all the way to the specific details inside that make it important. This is where I learned that it connects to the Sworn Book of Honorius – another one of the earliest grimoires we have available. One by one we are slowly putting the jigsaw pieces together of the grimoire puzzle.

A quote came to mind when wrapping up this review that I think encapsulates our collective interest in the grimoire tradition:

“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together” – Martha Goedert

All of our interest and efforts combined move us further every day.

🖤🌹 Aequus

ORIGINALLY POSTED - November 1, 2023