The Almadel

The Almadel is a short Solomonic text for contacting angels by means of a consecrated wax tablet, the ‘almadel’, inscribed with divine names and seals and set above candles, on which the operator places a vessel or seal and burns incense; the angel is said to appear in the rising smoke. In medieval Latin manuscripts the text, often under the name Almandal, describes angels of twelve ‘altitudes’ or heavens, each with its own colour of wax, names and times of operation. It is one of the oldest Solomonic texts in Latin, attested at least by the thirteenth century, and David Pingree suggested it was translated from a lost Arabic original, though the evidence is slender. Versions survive in Latin, Hebrew, German, French and English. The English versions of the seventeenth century, which became Book IV of the Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon, are simplified: they reduce the altitudes to four ‘choras’, add a crystal, and include material not found in the Latin. The online page transcribes a seventeenth-century English witness (Sloane MS 3825) and adds a detailed survey of the manuscript tradition and comparative tables. The Almadel’s angelic orientation, relatively free of demonology, distinguishes it from the Goetia, and the critical edition of the Latin versions by Julien Véronèse has made it one of the best-understood texts of medieval ritual magic.

What it contains

• Construction of the wax almadel with names and seals
• Candles, censer and the golden seal
• Angels of the altitudes or ‘choras’ and their names
• Times and seasons suited to each altitude
• The invocation and the angel’s appearance in the smoke
• Comparison of Latin, Hebrew, German and English traditions