Storytime: Reading the Solomonic Hygromanteia, Part II
We read through Solomon's magical recipe book in BL MS Harleianus 5596. This is spirit-summoning as metier.
We read through Solomon's magical recipe book in BL MS Harleianus 5596. This is spirit-summoning as metier.
In a two-part episode, we explore the family of Solomonic addressative texts known as the Hygromanteia. In Part I we look at the range of MSS and scholarship and the Solomonic tradition which provides the context for this extraordinary manual for angelic and demonic manipulation.
Looking through the lens provided by three central figures of the western esoteric tradition -- Hermes Trismegistus, Apollonios of Tyana, and King Solomon -- we discuss three important East Roman magical books whose influence echoes from the end of late antiquity until the present day.
With papyrologist Korshi Dosoo as our guide, we explore the world of first-millennium Christian magic as it is found in the papyrus-records, both published and unpublished. Along the way we learn more about Christianity than we expected.
We explore the astral-demonic lore, the angelic medicine, and the many legendary stories recorded in the Testament of Solomon, and some of the manifold traditions which flow out from this legendary corpus. Come for the Testament, stay for the Pentagram!
We want to discuss the Testament of Solomon, an extraordinary demonological, angelogical, astrological, magical work from late antiquity. But we realise that, to get there, we need to spend some time exploring the earlier reaches of the ‘Solomonic tradition’. So we do. Come for the building of the First Temple, stay for the cloud upon the sanctuary.
We explore the evidence in the New Testament for accusations that Jesus was a magus or a sorcerer. Turns out there's quite a lot of them. What we are to make of these accusations, that's the question. We discuss ancient critics, Gospel apologists, and modern scholars.