The Title

To remove us from this morass, I will be using “ritual magic” to describe much of the content of this book. To help readers conceive of what sets this apart from other spiritual practices, I would like to set out the following tendencies among the material that these books cover:

• It is often transmitted through writing. • The primary source of its language is Christian liturgy and tropes, including

Biblical figures, saints, and prominent figures; written and oral narratives; and particular sacraments and rituals, often used in ways that are outside of orthodox praxis. • The agents it calls upon are intermediate beings—angels, demons, fairies, planetary spirits, the dead, or other intelligences—who are usually coerced and commanded into service rather than entreated or worshiped. • Its aims are usually based on instrumental goals of an individual, rather than spiritual progress or community concerns.

This is not to say that this is a perfect definition. It omits the inclusion of ideas derived from Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and other learned traditions; the similarities to the techniques of exorcism; the overlap in definition with sanctioned individual prayer; and the usage of names of God causing effects by virtue of their own power. It gives short shrift to talismanic magic, along with other qualities such as length, timing, atmosphere, tools, materials, and other aspects that others might find important. I’m sure some readers will be raising other objections and concerns. At the same time, I feel that this idea of “ritual magic” is a good place to start the conversation.

Yet even “ritual magic” is an insufficient term to describe the entirety of the present book. Some content overlaps with what readers will likely define as astrology, astrological magic, alchemy, household remedies, devotional works, and poetry, among other categories. The copyists were not concerned with niceties of definition when they compiled the manuscript, so we should not expect strict adherence to these boundaries.

The Title Some manuscripts of magic are clearly recognised by title as part of a given textual tradition with numerous exemplars. This manuscript is not one of them. Thomas Harrington’s title, The Key to Cornelius Agrippa’s Fourth Book, reflects his aspirations for the work more than the contents of the manuscript. The publishers and I did not want to give readers the impression that this was a direct commentary on the Fourth Book when it is an entirely different work. The spine title on the binding, “Magick,” is much worse, of course.