Making the Knife and Sword of the Art

Chapter 8 of Book II describes forging and consecrating the blades of the Art. The white-hilted knife is made on the day and hour of Mercury, with Mars in Aries or Scorpio and the Moon full or increasing; its hilt is engraved with characters and the names AGLA and ON, after which it is perfumed, sprinkled and wrapped in silk. A black-hilted knife for tracing the circle follows the same pattern under Saturn. The sword of the Art is cleaned and polished on a Wednesday in the first or fifteenth hour, engraved with Hebrew divine names on both faces, censed, sprinkled and conjured with a prayer of names before being wrapped in silk. Swords for the disciples are described in some manuscripts.

Purpose

The consecrated knife and sword are the operator's principal working blades, used to trace the circle, prepare other instruments and, in the text's words, to overawe spirits.

Timing

Day

Wednesday — the day of Mercury

Planetary hour

An hour of Mercury, reckoned from local sunrise and sunset

Moon

Waxing (increasing in light)

White-hilted knife: day and hour of Mercury, Mars in Aries or Scorpio, Moon full or increasing. Sword: Wednesday in the 1st or 15th hour (both Mercury's hours on that day). The black-hilted knife is made the same way but in the day and hour of Saturn.

Materials

• steel blade
• white hilt (knife)
• black hilt (circle knife)
• incense of the Art
• exorcised water
• silk cloth

Tools

• white-handled knife
• black-handled knife
• sword of the Art
• burin for engraving characters

Omitted

The text tempers the white-hilted knife in the blood of a gosling with the juice of pimpernel, and the black-hilted knife in the blood of a black cat with the juice of hemlock (a deadly poison). These animal-blood and poison requirements are described for historical understanding only and should not be performed.

Sharp blades; fire safety when heating metal or burning incense.