The Picatrix: Not What You’d Expect

The Picatrix is mind-boggling.

It is one of the most famous and long-lived books of magic in the Western tradition. Experts think it was written between 954 to 959 CE, and the author is…hotly debated. The opening chapter states, “One wise philosopher, the noble and honored, Picatrix, compiled this tome…” but such a person never existed and might have been a name created when it was translated from Arabic to Spanish in 1256 CE.

The writer was probably an educated Arab gentleman though. Might have been a guy named Maslama ibn al-Qasim, or maybe not.

Whoever it was knew a metric ton of astronomy and insisted on elaborate rituals involving animal sacrifice and color-coded outfits. The general idea is complicated, but involves God sending power down to the planets, which can then send aid to you in whatever area of expertise that planet has.

There is also a lot of manipulating symbols and talismans.

What there is none of is pentagrams, summoning devils, or talk of Satan. The writer is mighty pious and sees no contradiction in summoning power through the planets and praising God.

You can now get an English translation from Amazon, the Pennsylvania State University Press, and Walmart Online, and it comes with an exhaustive introduction that is almost as long as the original book.

I wouldn’t try enacting the spells, personally. It’s hard to get a black cat’s head to burn with opium these days, and despite the book being a mere $35 in hardback, the amount of stuff you have to waste will get pretty expensive.

You have to assume that the court functionaries and urban gentlemen who hired wizards to help them paid well. Any magic-worker using this book had to make significant investments upfront, and it commands the user to be well-educated on all the arts and sciences known at the time. No peasant is going to use this book, that is certain.

The book, though, is worth skimming for anyone curious about how ‘real’ magic was done in the early Middle Ages.