Heptameron, or Magical Elements

The Heptameron is a compact handbook for conjuring the angels and aerial spirits associated with each day of the week. It was printed at Marburg in 1559 as an appendix to the pseudo-Agrippan Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy and was translated into English by Robert Turner in 1655, which made it one of the most accessible grimoires in early modern Europe. It carries the name of Peter of Abano, the Paduan physician and philosopher who died around 1316, but scholars since Lynn Thorndike have regarded that attribution as false. Trithemius already linked a similar ritual text to Abano in 1508. Joseph Peterson has shown that the printed Heptameron is a rearranged and abbreviated form of the Lucidarium artis nigromantice, a longer Latin text preserved in manuscripts, and suggests the reworking may have been made for the printed edition. The book explains how to draw the circle according to the season, day and hour, with the names of the angels of hours, seasons, sun and moon; how to consecrate and bless the circle, perfumes, fire, garment and pentacle; the exorcisms and prayers to the four quarters; and how to receive and dismiss spirits. It closes with a day-by-day section giving the angels, seals, aerial spirits, incense and conjuration for Sunday through Saturday. The Heptameron later fed directly into the Grimoire of Pope Honorius, the Lemegeton and nineteenth-century occultism.

What it contains

• Construction and inscriptions of the circle
• Names of hours, seasons and their angels
• Consecration of circle, perfumes, fire, garment and pentacle
• Exorcism of aerial spirits and prayers to the four quarters
• Visions, reception and licence to depart
• Angels, seals and conjurations for each day of the week