Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
Encyclopedia
The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is an 18th- or 19th-century magical text allegedly written by Moses
, and passed down as hidden (or lost) books of the Five Books of Moses
or Pentateuch. A grimoire
, a text of magical incantations and seals, it purports to instruct the reader in the spells used to create the miracles portrayed in the Christian
Bible
. The work was printed with annexes or reputed Talmudic magic names, words and incantation, many taken from Christian biblical passages. It shows diagrams of "Seals": magical drawings accompanied by incantations intended to perform tasks from controlling weather or people, to contacting the dead or Christian religious figures. Copies have been traced to 18th century German pamphlets, but an 1849 printing, aided by the appearance of the popular press in the 19th century, spread copies through Germany and Northern Europe, to German immigrants in the United States, to the African American South and Caribbean, and Anglophone West Africa. It influenced European Occult Spiritualism
, as well as popular religious movements in the American South (Hoodoo), the Caribbean (Rastafarian), and West Africa.
by antiquarian Johann Scheible.
Historian Owen Davies
traces copies of the work from the 18th century in Germany. After circulating there, the work was popularized in the United States first in the communities of the "Pennsylvania Dutch
", rural German immigrants.
, European or European-American grimoires were popular among immigrants and in rural communities where the folk traditions of Europe, intertwined with European religious mysticism, survived. One of the earliest American grimoires is John George Hohman
's Pow-wows: or, Long Lost Friend, a collection of magical spells originally published in 1820 for Pennsylvania-Dutch
spirtualists, known as "hexmeisters".
While versions of "The Sixth and Seventh Books" were likely passed around German immigrant communities from the late 18th century, the 1849 Leipzig copy was followed by a New York printing, in German, in 1865, and an English translation in 1880. The growth of inexpensive paperback publication in the 19th century, like those of Chicago occult publisher L.W. de Laurence, helped the work gain popularity outside German communities.
Its prominence as a source of popular rural Pennsylvanian and Appalachian "folk magic" spells has been recorded as late as the mid-20th century.
helped the work gain popularity in the African American
population of the southern United States, and from there, the Anglophone
Caribbean
. There it became one of the founding works of the Rastafarian movement of the early 20th century, as well as influencing the earlier Jamaican Pocomania, Kumina
, and "Zion Revivalist" Christian movements. The influential Jamaican musical group the Maytals, for instance, released in 1963 the song "Six And Seven Books Of Moses": its lyrics list the accepted books of the Old Testament
, ending in "...the Sixth and the Seventh books, they wrote them all...".
It was also influential in Christian occult movements in Anglophone West Africa
and post war Germany.
and Liberia
,The Sixth and Seventh Books was adopted widely. It served as a source for "Christian Magic", both by West African spiritualist Christian cults and "assimilated" Africans. In Gold Coast colony and colonial Nigeria
, it was seen as a "western" form of magic, which might be used by educated Africans seeking access to Britain or its power, much like Masonic ritual or Rosicrucianism. The Nigerian press in the 1920s regularly featured advertisements for copies of The Sixth and Seventh Books and other Christian occult books.
West African religious movements which blended Christianity and traditional magic were also influenced by the work. Josiah Ollunowo Ositelu's seals and mystical written incantations, used in the Nigerian Church of the Lord (Aladura)
were likely derived from The Sixth and Seventh Books.
: Biblical texts outside the current Biblical canon
.
Containing numerous allegedly magical spells used to summon spirit
s to do the will of the conjurer, the books are attributed to works in which Moses
sets forth the magic which enabled him to defeat the magicians of Egypt, part the Red Sea
, and perform the acts attributed to him in the Old Testament
. Although these are allegedly Kabbalistic
in nature, there is very little or no influence of Kabbala within the pages. Most texts are reputed to be Hebrew, passed to the editors through European Talmudic scholars or Christian Medieval ecclesiastics who were privy to secret Biblical texts. Some of the texts are allegedly translated from a text written by Canaan
ite magicians and keepers of the Samaritan Pentateuch
in the "Cuthan-Samaritan language", a language considered extinct since the 12th century.
No complete manuscripts older than Scheible's 1849 printing are extant, and the claimed origin must be regarded pseudepigraphic and spurious. It is rather of a school of European Medieval and Enlightenment grimoires, such as The Key of Solomon, The Red Dragon, Petit Albert
and others. Elements appear directly reprinted from Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
(1531) and an 18th century German translation by Gottfried Selig of the Hebrew Sepher Schimmush Tehillim (the magical uses of the Psalms).
The vast majority of the printed works of 1849, a New York German printing of 1865, and the first English public printing of 1880 are additions to the reputed biblical books. In the 1880 edition, for instance, "the Sixth Book of Moses" and "the Seventh Book of Moses" run only from page 6 to 28, making up 23 of the 190 pages. The vast majority of the work is appendices, restatements of similar seals and incantations, reputedly from those Kabala teachers to whom this knowledge was passed. Finally, there are sections including lists of the powers associated with each of the Hebrew "Names of God", the powers and use of reciting each of the Psalms
and each Hebrew letter.
grimoire), the "Biblia Arcana Magica Alexander, According To The Tradition Of The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses, Besides Magical Laws,", and the "Citation of the Seven Great Princes in The Tradition Of The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses" which contains similar seals and incantations with more or less Biblical connotations.
, other seals which are to be used with these incantations, the "Schemhamphoras of King Solomon (published 1686)" ("The Semiphoras and Schemhamphorash
" an 1686 occult book attributed to King Solomon printed by Andreas Luppius), and the powers and use of reciting each of the Psalms
and each Hebrew letter. For example:
's Das Transcendetale, Magie, und Magische Heilertarten im Talmud (Vienna Klopf und Eurich, 1850). This work was one of a school of Wissenschaft des Judentums
("the science of Judaism" in German
), a 19th-century movement of critical investigations of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature
, using more or less scientific methods.
After a long treatise on Astrology
, a further section lists cures, spells and amulets, and gives a source preceding each, such as
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, and passed down as hidden (or lost) books of the Five Books of Moses
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
or Pentateuch. A grimoire
Grimoire
A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons...
, a text of magical incantations and seals, it purports to instruct the reader in the spells used to create the miracles portrayed in the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. The work was printed with annexes or reputed Talmudic magic names, words and incantation, many taken from Christian biblical passages. It shows diagrams of "Seals": magical drawings accompanied by incantations intended to perform tasks from controlling weather or people, to contacting the dead or Christian religious figures. Copies have been traced to 18th century German pamphlets, but an 1849 printing, aided by the appearance of the popular press in the 19th century, spread copies through Germany and Northern Europe, to German immigrants in the United States, to the African American South and Caribbean, and Anglophone West Africa. It influenced European Occult Spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
, as well as popular religious movements in the American South (Hoodoo), the Caribbean (Rastafarian), and West Africa.
History
No first version of this work has been established, but early versions began to appear as inexpensive pamphlets in German in the 18th century. Elements of the "Seventh Book", such as “The Seven Semiphoras of Adam” and “The Seven Semiphoras of Moses” appear to have come from the seventh book of the earlier European copies of the late Roman era Liber Salomonis. The work came to wide prominence when published as volume 6 of "Bibliothek der Zauber-Geheimniss- und Offenbarungs-Bücher, etc." in 1849 in StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
by antiquarian Johann Scheible.
Historian Owen Davies
Owen Davies
Owen Davies is a reader in Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. His main field of research is on the history of modern and contemporary witchcraft and magic....
traces copies of the work from the 18th century in Germany. After circulating there, the work was popularized in the United States first in the communities of the "Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
", rural German immigrants.
American rural folk magic
In the early 19th-century United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, European or European-American grimoires were popular among immigrants and in rural communities where the folk traditions of Europe, intertwined with European religious mysticism, survived. One of the earliest American grimoires is John George Hohman
John George Hohman
John George Hohman , who was active between 1802 and 1846, was a German-American printer, book seller and compiler of collections of herbal remedies, magical healings, and charms...
's Pow-wows: or, Long Lost Friend, a collection of magical spells originally published in 1820 for Pennsylvania-Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
spirtualists, known as "hexmeisters".
While versions of "The Sixth and Seventh Books" were likely passed around German immigrant communities from the late 18th century, the 1849 Leipzig copy was followed by a New York printing, in German, in 1865, and an English translation in 1880. The growth of inexpensive paperback publication in the 19th century, like those of Chicago occult publisher L.W. de Laurence, helped the work gain popularity outside German communities.
Its prominence as a source of popular rural Pennsylvanian and Appalachian "folk magic" spells has been recorded as late as the mid-20th century.
African American spirituality
The boom in inexpensive publishing, and the interest in SpiritualismSpiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
helped the work gain popularity in the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
population of the southern United States, and from there, the Anglophone
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. There it became one of the founding works of the Rastafarian movement of the early 20th century, as well as influencing the earlier Jamaican Pocomania, Kumina
Kumina
Kumina or Cumina is a cultural form indigenous to Jamaica. It is a religion, music and dance practiced by, in large part, Jamaicans who reside in the eastern parish on St. Thomas on the island. These people have retained the drumming and dancing of the Akan people. Like the Kongo practitioners...
, and "Zion Revivalist" Christian movements. The influential Jamaican musical group the Maytals, for instance, released in 1963 the song "Six And Seven Books Of Moses": its lyrics list the accepted books of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, ending in "...the Sixth and the Seventh books, they wrote them all...".
It was also influential in Christian occult movements in Anglophone West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
and post war Germany.
In Anglophone West Africa
In early 20th century British West AfricaBritish West Africa
British West Africa was the collective name for British colonies in West Africa during the colonial period, either in the general geographical sense or more specifically those comprised in a formal colonial administrative entity...
and Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
,The Sixth and Seventh Books was adopted widely. It served as a source for "Christian Magic", both by West African spiritualist Christian cults and "assimilated" Africans. In Gold Coast colony and colonial Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, it was seen as a "western" form of magic, which might be used by educated Africans seeking access to Britain or its power, much like Masonic ritual or Rosicrucianism. The Nigerian press in the 1920s regularly featured advertisements for copies of The Sixth and Seventh Books and other Christian occult books.
West African religious movements which blended Christianity and traditional magic were also influenced by the work. Josiah Ollunowo Ositelu's seals and mystical written incantations, used in the Nigerian Church of the Lord (Aladura)
Church of the Lord (Aladura)
The Church of the Lord is an African Initiated Church founded by the first Primate and Late Prophet Dr. Josiah Olunowo Ositelu in 1925, but inaugurated in 1930 in Ogere-Remo, Shagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria; Reference: Journey So Far, ISBN 3-8258-6087-7; Publication - TCLAW Publishers, 2009."Aladura"...
were likely derived from The Sixth and Seventh Books.
Elsewhere
Versions of this work circulated throughout Scandinavia and Central Europe. In Sweden and Finland these books are compiled and published under the titles, "Den Svarta Bibeln" and "Musta Raamattu", respectively, meaning "The Black Bible".Contents
The printed texts of The Sixth and Seven Books of Moses (from 1849) combine two purportedly lost short Biblical texts with several contemporary essays and half a dozen purported writings of those who kept this knowledge and practiced its use through history, dated from Biblical times to the 17th Century. These works attempt to paint a portrait of secret knowledge which Moses was given by God, and then handed down father to son until King Solomon, when it was handed to Priests, and finally, Talmudic scholars. In Christian circles, the text appealed to the same authority as did Biblical apocryphaBiblical apocrypha
The word "apocrypha" is today often used to refer to the collection of ancient books printed in some editions of the Bible in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments...
: Biblical texts outside the current Biblical canon
Biblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
.
Containing numerous allegedly magical spells used to summon spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
s to do the will of the conjurer, the books are attributed to works in which Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
sets forth the magic which enabled him to defeat the magicians of Egypt, part the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, and perform the acts attributed to him in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. Although these are allegedly Kabbalistic
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
in nature, there is very little or no influence of Kabbala within the pages. Most texts are reputed to be Hebrew, passed to the editors through European Talmudic scholars or Christian Medieval ecclesiastics who were privy to secret Biblical texts. Some of the texts are allegedly translated from a text written by Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite magicians and keepers of the Samaritan Pentateuch
Samaritan Pentateuch
The Samaritan Pentateuch, sometimes called Samaritan Torah, , is a version of the Hebrew language Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, used by the Samaritans....
in the "Cuthan-Samaritan language", a language considered extinct since the 12th century.
No complete manuscripts older than Scheible's 1849 printing are extant, and the claimed origin must be regarded pseudepigraphic and spurious. It is rather of a school of European Medieval and Enlightenment grimoires, such as The Key of Solomon, The Red Dragon, Petit Albert
Petit Albert
Petit Albert is an 18th century grimoire of natural and cabalistic magic.-On-line Edition:* Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du petit Albert....
and others. Elements appear directly reprinted from Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim was a German magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist.-Life:Agrippa was born in Cologne in 1486...
(1531) and an 18th century German translation by Gottfried Selig of the Hebrew Sepher Schimmush Tehillim (the magical uses of the Psalms).
The vast majority of the printed works of 1849, a New York German printing of 1865, and the first English public printing of 1880 are additions to the reputed biblical books. In the 1880 edition, for instance, "the Sixth Book of Moses" and "the Seventh Book of Moses" run only from page 6 to 28, making up 23 of the 190 pages. The vast majority of the work is appendices, restatements of similar seals and incantations, reputedly from those Kabala teachers to whom this knowledge was passed. Finally, there are sections including lists of the powers associated with each of the Hebrew "Names of God", the powers and use of reciting each of the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
and each Hebrew letter.
Introduction
Scheible also inserted an introduction, The magic of the Israelites, taken from Joseph Ennemoser's 1844 Geschichte der Magie. The introduction to the 1880 New York edition explains the genesis of the books:The Sixth Book of Moses
The Sixth Book includes an introduction along with seven chapters, known as "The Mystery of the First Seal" through "The Mystery of the Seventh Seal". The included pictures of the "seals" consist of various stylized symbols surrounded pseudo-Hebrew and pseudo-Latin phrases and letters. Each "Seal" or "Table" (in the Seventh Book) is paired with an incantation (reputedly Hebrew) and a very brief description of its powers.The Seventh Book of Moses
The seventh book is much the same: taking the events of the Biblical narrative of Moses' life (and other Biblical and unknown stories) and gives a reputed pairing of an incantation and a drawn magical object, here called "Tables". There are twelve tables, each said to control powers associated with certain Angels, elements, or astronomical symbols:- The First Table of the Spirits of the Air;
- The Second Table of the Spirits of Fire;
- The Third Table of the Spirits of Water;
- The Fourth Table of the Spirits of the Earth;
- The Fifth Table of Saturn;
- The Sixth Table of Jupiter;
- The Seventh Table of Mars;
- The Eighth Table of the Sun;
- The Ninth Table of Venus;
- The Tenth Table of Mercury;
- The Eleventh Table of the Spirits;
- The Twelfth Table of the SchemhamforaschShemhamphoraschThe Shemhamphorasch is a corruption of the Hebrew term , which was used in tannaitic times to refer to the Tetragrammaton. In early Kabbalah the term was used to designate sometimes a seventy-two Letter name for God, and sometimes a forty two Letter name...
;
The remainder of Volume I
In the New York Edition this is followed by The magic of the Israelites, used in the 1849 version as the introduction.Volume II
The second volume of the work collects a series of works claimed to be "in the tradition of" the original two books. In the New York edition, this begins with "Formulas of the Magical Kabala of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses", which again demonstrates seals and incantations, these said to be the Magic used by Moses himself at various points in the Biblical stories, such as how to turn his staff into a snake or conjure the pillar of fire. They include other incantations, such as the one labeled "These words are terrible, and will assemble devils or spirits, or they will cause the dead to appear." This is followed by works of only a dozen or so pages, all giving similar "Seals" and incantations (often with identical titles, such as "the Breastplate of Moses") These include "Extract From The True Clavicula Of Solomon And Of The Girdle Of Aaron" (a version of the Key of SolomonKey of Solomon
The Key of Solomon , is a grimoire, or book on magic incorrectly attributed to King Solomon. It probably dates back to the 14th or 15th century Italian Renaissance...
grimoire), the "Biblia Arcana Magica Alexander, According To The Tradition Of The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses, Besides Magical Laws,", and the "Citation of the Seven Great Princes in The Tradition Of The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses" which contains similar seals and incantations with more or less Biblical connotations.
Names and Psalms
These are followed by a long section reputing to explain the powers associated with each of the Hebrew "Names of God"Shemhamphorasch
The Shemhamphorasch is a corruption of the Hebrew term , which was used in tannaitic times to refer to the Tetragrammaton. In early Kabbalah the term was used to designate sometimes a seventy-two Letter name for God, and sometimes a forty two Letter name...
, other seals which are to be used with these incantations, the "Schemhamphoras of King Solomon (published 1686)" ("The Semiphoras and Schemhamphorash
Semiphoras and Schemhamphorash
Semiphoras und Shemhamphoras Salominis is the title of a 1686 occult book attributed to King Solomon printed by Andreas Luppius. Its text cannot be traced to an earlier date, but it is possible that it is of late medieval origin, the title being mentioned among grimoires by earlier authors such as...
" an 1686 occult book attributed to King Solomon printed by Andreas Luppius), and the powers and use of reciting each of the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
and each Hebrew letter. For example:
Astrology, cures, and amulets
Finally there are sections "ASTROLOGICAL INFLUENCE UPON MAN AND MAGICAL CURES OF THE OLD HEBREWS. From Dr. Gideon Brechee's work: The Transcendental, Magic and Magical Healing Art in the Talmud. Vienna: 1850". This is a likely bowdlerizing of Gideon BrecherGideon Brecher
Gideon Brecher , also known as "Gedaliah Ben Eliezer", was an Austrian physician and writer.Brecher was the uncle, by marriage, to Austrian bibliographer and Orientalist Moritz Steinschneider....
's Das Transcendetale, Magie, und Magische Heilertarten im Talmud (Vienna Klopf und Eurich, 1850). This work was one of a school of Wissenschaft des Judentums
Wissenschaft des Judentums
Wissenschaft des Judentums , refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions.-The Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden:The ...
("the science of Judaism" in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), a 19th-century movement of critical investigations of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term...
, using more or less scientific methods.
After a long treatise on Astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, a further section lists cures, spells and amulets, and gives a source preceding each, such as
Printings
- A copy of an 1880 English translation of the Johann Scheible version, originally from the Harry HoudiniHarry HoudiniHarry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
Collection at the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
is available as: "The sixth and seventh books of Moses: or, Moses' magical spirit-art, known as the wonderful arts of the old wise Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the Cabala and the Talmud, for the good of mankind. Translated from the German, word for word, according to old writings". s.n., 1880 - Joseph H. Peterson (ed., with critical commentary). The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses: Or Moses' Magical Spirit-Art Known as the Wonderful Arts of the Old Wise Hebrews, Taken from the Mosaic Books of the Kabbalah and the Talmud, for the Good of Mankind. Ibis, (2008) ISBN 089254130X