Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses

In the early 19th-century 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 spiritualists known as "hexmeisters".[4]

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[5] and Appalachian "folk magic" spells has been recorded as late as the mid-20th century.[6]

The boom in inexpensive publishing, and the interest in Spiritualism helped the work gain popularity in the African-American population of the United States, and from there, the Anglophone parts of the Caribbean.

From 1936 through 1972, the folklorist Harry Middleton Hyatt interviewed 1,600 African-American Christian root doctors and home practitioners of hoodoo, and many of them made reference to using this book and other seal-bearing grimoires of the era, such as the Key of Solomon. When Hyatt asked his informants where such books were purchased, he was told that they could be had by mail order from hoodoo suppliers in Chicago, Memphis, or Baltimore.[7]

In the West Indies, the book became one of the central texts of Jamaican obeah and was counted among the founding works of the "Zion Revivalist" Christian movement and the Rastafari movement of the early 20th century.[1] The influential Jamaican musical group Toots and 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."[8][9]

In early 20th-century British West Africa 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 colonial Gold Coast and Nigeria, it was seen as a "western" form of magic that 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.[10]

It was also influential in Christian occult movements in Anglophone West Africa,[1] and West African religious movements which blended Christianity and traditional magic made use of the work. Josiah Olunowo 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.[10]

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".

Scheible also inserted an introduction, "The Magic of the Israelites", taken from Joseph Ennemoser's 1844 Geschichte der Magie.[12] The introduction to the 1880 New York edition explains the genesis of the books.

These two Books were revealed by God, the Almighty, to his faithful servant Moses, on Mount Sinai, intervale lucis, and in this manner they also came into the hands of Aaron, Caleb, Joshua, and finally to David and his son Solomon and their high priest Sadock. Therefore, they are Bibliis arcanum arcanorum, which means, Mystery of all Mysteries.

— 1880 New York printing, Vol. I, p.6

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 by 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 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:

1. The First Table of the Spirits of the Air;
2. The Second Table of the Spirits of Fire;
3. The Third Table of the Spirits of Water;
4. The Fourth Table of the Spirits of the Earth;
5. The Fifth Table of Saturn;
6. The Sixth Table of Jupiter;
7. The Seventh Table of Mars;
8. The Eighth Table of the Sun;
9. The Ninth Table of Venus;
10. The Tenth Table of Mercury;
11. The Eleventh Table of the Spirits;
12. The Twelfth Table of the Schemhamforasch.

In the New York Edition this is followed by "The Magic of the Israelites", used in the 1849 version as the introduction.

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 Solomon 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.

These are followed by a long section reputing to explain the powers associated with each of the Hebrew "Names of God", other seals which are to be used with these incantations, the Schemhamphoras of King Solomon (The Semiphoras and Schemhamphorash a 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:

Psalm 123.—If your servant or journeyman has run away from you, write this Psalm, together with his name, on a leaden or tin plate, when he will return to you.

— 1880 New York edition, Vol II, p. 107.

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 Brecher'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

Rabbi Jochanan said: A chief among witches told me: If you meet witches you should utter the following charm: "Hot dirt, in perforated baskets, in your mouths, ye enchanting women. May your heads become bald; may the wind blow away your breadcrumbs; may it scatter your spices; may the fresh saffron which ye have in your hands fly away. Witches ! so long as men were gracious to me, and I was careful, I came not in your midst; now I did, and you are not agreeable to me."

— 1880 New York edition, Vol II, p. 124.