Book Four, chapter 4

1Chapter 4

2We have extracted for you, O reader, from the choicest of the books of these people on this matter, that which, if you consider it, you will know the measure of the hardship we bore in gathering it from the scattered places of their books set down on this subject, which are the foundations of this matter. Of that is what 'Uṭārid the Babylonian mentioned in his "Chapters", which he named "The Secret of Secrets"; we have excerpted from them forty-five chapters, in which there is much knowledge of what we are concerned with.

3(1) The first of them is his saying: taking on the nature of a planet aids the one who keeps to it in drawing down its powers.

4(2) Ask of the Sun greatness of awe, loftiness of quality, far-reaching aspiration, the kingship of tyrants, the humbling of sultans, the kindling of fires and the illuminating of darkness.

5(3) Ask of the Moon the easing of movements, the divulging of secrets, the kinds of waters, the dying down of fires, the undoing of settled affairs and the scattering of united desires.

6(4) Ask of Saturn the binding of motions, the folding away of secrets, the laying waste of lands, the lowering of aspirations, the whispering of souls, and the stilling of waters. (5) Ask of Jupiter the gathering of wealth, the setting right of dream-visions, the repelling of evil whisperings, the calming of sorrows, and the safety of the roads on land and sea. (6) Ask of Mars the stirring up of enmity, boldness of soul, the setting of beasts of prey [upon others], the binding of desires, the kindling of fires, the engendering of seditions, and the subduing of enemies.

7(7) Ask of Venus the joining together of souls, the sending of joy, the repelling of cares, the stirring of desires, the begetting of noble offspring, the extinguishing of fire, and the taming of animals. (8) Ask of the Scribe the uncovering of things unseen, the bringing to light of hidden things, the loosing of tongues, the spending out of wealth, the rending of veils, and the sending of slanders.

8(9) Abundance of smoke, soundness of soul, continuance of fasting, perseverance in invocations, aiming at what is possible, choosing the correspondences, and setting out in detail what is asked: these are the mainstay of talismans. (10) When what you seek is of the nature of your governing [planet], your requests become easy; and the contrary [with the contrary].

9(11) The signs may corrupt the works of the planets and diminish their states, and they may set [them] right. (12) When the ascendant sign is not of the nature of the asker or of the need, it nullifies the invocation and deprives the asker. (13) The talismans of the fixed stars are longer-lived than the talismans of the wandering planets.

10(14) If you are able to employ, together with each wandering planet, a fixed star of its nature, you will have joined strength of effect and permanence of the work. (15) When the ascendant is of the nature of the need and of the dominant planet, and you seek help from a fixed star, and your certainty is sound, what is sought becomes easy and the effect becomes strong. (16) The Flying Eagle may be sought for help toward motion, as the Falling [Eagle] is sought for help toward rest.

11(17) In the conjunction of the planets there is great help, so attend to it. (18) In the states of the planets lies the support of talismans, as [it lies] in their conjunction. (19) Place the dominant planet in midheaven, in its exaltation or its domicile, and give it a share in the ascendant.

12(20) Seek protection with the Sun when you have been abased, for that leads to well-being and increase, and is swiftest in answer. (21) Seek protection with the Moon when you have been confined, for that is most penetrating in effect and swiftest in answer, and it too leads to well-being and increase. (22) Seek protection with Saturn when you have been banished, for that leads to well-being and increase. (23) Seek help from Jupiter when you have grown wealthy, for it is most penetrating in effect and swiftest in answer, and it leads to well-being and increase in provision.

13(24) Seek help from Mars when you are overpowered, for he is more effective in influence and quicker in response in this kind than any other, and he leads to soundness and increase. (25) Seek help from Venus when you are weary, for she is stronger in influence and quicker in response in this kind than any other, and she leads to soundness and increase. (26) Seek refuge with Mercury when you are ignorant, for in that he leads to soundness and increase, and is more effective in influence and quicker in response.

14(27) Slowness of response comes from your fault [reading uncertain: darakika], or from weakness of certainty, or from bad arrangement. (28) The work done to set up fumigations and to recite invocations is better than the work done for the rising vapour and the various breaths.

15(29) The rising of the Sun and the falling of sight cut off the spiritual powers (rūḥāniyyāt) of the nocturnal planets. (30) The blackness of night and the stillness of movements cut off the spiritual powers of the diurnal planets; so employ each planet in its turn. (31) The heavy planet, by its stillness, is more effective in influence than the light planet by its motion, even if it is close to it in power.

16(32) Do not ask Mars for union, just as you do not ask Venus for severance; so reason by analogy on that, and do not turn a planet aside from its way.

17(33) Employ those with tails, when they appear, in what they indicate, just as you employ the fixed stars according to their nature. (34) Make Mercury speak in the mute signs, and employ the Moon with him in both states together. (35) Employ Mercury for a thing and its opposite, because of the diversity of his states. (36) The loosening of tongues, with Mercury in his house, is effective for one whom Mercury governs.

18(37) The Sun may answer one whom Mars governs, and Mars may answer one whom the Sun governs. (38) The Moon may answer one whom Venus governs, and Venus may answer one whom the Moon governs. (39) The Sun is averse to one whom Saturn governs, and Saturn is averse to one whom the Sun governs. (40) The Moon is averse to one whom Mars governs, and Mars is averse to one whom the Moon governs. (41) Venus may answer one whom Jupiter governs, and Jupiter may answer one whom Venus governs.

19(42) Jupiter is averse to one whom Mars governs, and Mars is averse to one whom Jupiter governs. (43) Mars is averse to one whom Venus governs, and Venus is averse to one whom Mars governs. (44) Mercury is averse to one whom Jupiter governs, and Jupiter is averse to one whom Mercury governs. (45) The two mutually averse planets may be set apart [sense uncertain] in the governance of human individuals, and that is because of the difference of the planets in the division; so know that. And this is what we have excerpted from the words of this man.

20And from the words of the chief of the craft of judgements, Ptolemy, in his book entitled 'The Fruit', these ten scattered aphorisms:

21(1) The astrologer may be able to ward off many of the actions of the stars, if he is knowledgeable of the nature of that upon which [they] act, and prepares for the action, before it befalls, a recipient that can bear it.

22(2) The wise soul assists the celestial action, as the strong farmer assists nature by ploughing and cleansing.

23(3) The forms that are in the world of composition are obedient to the celestial forms; and for this reason the masters of talismans drew them at the lodging of the planets in them, for what they wished to work.

24(4) Employ the malefics in elections, as the skilled physician uses poisons in the sufficient measure.

25(5) The agreement of two persons on some thing is taken from the indicator of that thing in their nativities. If it is of one likeness, there is agreement between them in it; and the stronger of the two in position stands in the place of the agent and the chief, and the weaker of the two stands in the place of the patient and the subordinate.

26(6) Love and hatred are taken from the exchange of the positions of the two luminaries in their nativities, and from the likeness of their ascendants, for love, hatred and discord; and the obedient sign is stronger in love.

27(7) Employ the fixed stars in the building of cities, and the wandering ones in the building of houses. And every city that is built while Mars is in mid-heaven, or a star of the fixed stars of his nature, the death of most of those who hold power over it is by the sword.

28(8) Do not neglect the matter of the one hundred and twenty conjunctions that belong to the wandering stars, for in them is the knowledge of most of what happens in the world of generation and corruption.

29(9) Make exception in every judgement according to the measure of the recipient's incapacity to receive the whole of the form of the action.

30(10) The Sun is the source of the animal faculty, and the Moon the source of the natural faculty, and Saturn the source of the retentive faculty, and Jupiter the source of the growing faculty, and Mercury the source of the cogitative faculty, and Mars the source of the irascible and attractive faculty, and Venus the source of the concupiscent faculty. And for that reason Mercury, Mars and Venus in the nativity are indicators of the character of its owner and of his craft.

31And I have seen, of the eminent "Plato", in some of his works composed on philosophy, expressions that are fitting to be brought in at this place. Among them is his saying: Nothing indicates the truths except Jupiter.

32And among them also is his saying: Just as the elements of the body of man are blood, the two biles and phlegm, so the elements of the faculties that are in him are only the moving planets; and likewise the prevailing of some of them over others is according to the firm establishment of the moving planets, and their strength and their weakness, at the beginning of its [pronoun ambiguous: the body's or the faculties'] coming-into-being. And among them is his saying: that which prevented the science of the stars from being explicit is the difference in the disposition of the recipient. And for that reason the measures of the practitioner of the omen and of augury are unsettled, for he works on [the premise] that its counterpart will come afterwards; and sometimes something that corresponds to it meets him, and sometimes nothing comes but something other than it.

33And among the words of Hippocrates, the one foremost in that, concise in expression: When al-Birjīs has dominion over the Sun at the time of the revolution of the solar year, the year is of few diseases and much health, and pregnancy and birth go well.

34And among the words of the sage Aristotle: that kingship belongs to Saturn, justice to Jupiter, elegance to Venus, governance to Mercury, service to the Moon, and tyranny to Mars.

35And we have brought you the greater part of the words of these people in the scattered parts of their books only so that you may know that these people, for all the excellence of their reflection and their precedence in the sciences, had no concern but the extraction of these secrets which are expressed by 'the two results', and the reaching of them.

36And Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn also translated a treatise by Aristotle, the lord of the Greeks in truth and the most deserving of them of merit and precedence; I resolved to set it down for you in this place, so that you may come upon all the words of these people, the obscurities of their thoughts and the results of their intellects. We had mentioned some points of it in Book One, and the agreement of [my] soul then settled on setting it down in its entirety, because of its small size.

37And its beginning is: that for every craft there is a door through which the seeker enters and a ladder by which the climber ascends; for he who rides upon affairs at random and steps over them at hazard cuts himself off, not reaching his desire.

38And some of the philosophers have spoken on this science, which is among the divine gifts and the heavenly bestowals, that is, Kurūtiyūs, Aflīmūn, Aghādīmūn and their like; and their speech on it was obscure and their symbolism hidden. So the obscurity in the composition led to the loss of what was sought and to failure to hit the mark, and its harm came to be set upon [sense uncertain] the benefit for which it was composed. And I have given in this craft an indication that is not hidden from the practised, astute one and the sharp-witted philosophizer.

39The first entry to it is knowledge of the images of the rising stars, and knowledge of the images found among them by themselves, and knowledge of the images of which no single one appears except after limbs from others are joined to it. Then you endeavour to impress it in the earthly clay in correspondence with the celestial matter, and you aim to seek in the lower clay, from the sharing animals, opposite the spiritual images shared in those celestial images, that which is closest to it and most fitting in relation to it, aiming to bring about kinship in reality and the impressing of the shape by correspondence, and seeking the pairing which in this craft is the foundation of the hīlāj.

40For when you do that, the talisman stands everlasting in its fixity, perpetual in its endurance, in the purpose for which it was intended; its power does not come to an end except with the passing away of the clay, the corruption of the composition and the removal of the setting; and sometimes it passes away through the shortness of the life of the planet.

41And the best on which a talisman is impressed is the action of the seven planets, and the most lasting of them in action and the highest of them, when a benefic opposes it that helps in bringing its spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) down to the earth from the sphere.

42And sometimes there is among the divine names that by which, when the spiritual power is drawn by it, it sinks down low and falls descending; and sometimes it kills the one who draws it down, if he is not knowing of the nature of the spiritual power of the planet being drawn down.

43And in magical incantations, although they do not pass beyond the circle of the earth, there is what approaches the making of this, in drawing down what is drawn down. But incantations do not attain that in their action except by the hope in them being attached to the Greatest God, Who moves them, commanded, towards matter and directs them to the point of the earth.

44And the maker of the talisman: his knowledge of the substance of the prepared nature, and of how it is to be made ready, should come first. And there must be an incanter, and he takes care lest there be, between the two natures and that fashioned image, an enmity by occult property. An example that I strike for you, for the most retentive of people [sense uncertain], is that I say: if the figure bound by the spiritual power (rūḥāniyya) of the talisman is a lion, then the one who binds, the incanter, the maker of the talisman, should not be greatly afraid of this animal in the composition of his nature;

45and he should have seen the lion and know that by which its attack is repelled: a mouse, as they have mentioned, or the figure of a cock, as they claim; and he prepares one of the two things at the binding. And when the maker is of this description, he is a ruler effective in his desires. And God, majestic and mighty, knows that I have not seen it [set down] by an earlier philosopher.

46And part of the completion of the power of the talisman's influence is that you compose it at the time of the excitement of its figure and the frenzy of its kind, and that you guard against that being at the time of an ailment that befalls the thing imprinted or the thing imprinted upon, so that its action is weakened.

47And every motion revolving in the sphere, that motion is a mover of that animal on the earth, by the decree of the subtle Originator. And look at the cycle of that planet: if you aim that the duration of its endurance be everlasting, two figures are made for it, one of them from the degree which is the beginning of its traversing of the signs, and the second from its turning away to its resting-place; and whenever it revolves in its sphere, the power of the talisman revolves with it, going and coming, ascending and descending.

48And know that one who makes a talisman for other than the wandering [planets] is only a stirrer-up and an apostate, seeking sedition and eager for corruption; so away with him. And look at what the talisman faces by its being set up: whatever has its mention in the sphere manifest, make it manifest; whatever is covered, cover it; and whatever is hidden, represent it in a likeness. And God, mighty and majestic, is the Giver of His gift and the Master of His wisdom. This is the text of his words.

49So train yourself, O reader, and attend to what he has deposited of the secrets of this result; and look at his saying 'if you aim that the duration of its endurance be everlasting', how he used the degree of the beginning of the circle of the horizons, which is that which separates the visible half of the sphere from the hidden half.

50And know, may God illuminate your intellect, that the degree is a certain quantity used in measurement, and it is among the equivocal terms. The celestial degree is sixty-six miles and two-thirds of a mile; and the degree is also used in the qualities, I mean heat, coldness, moisture and dryness; and measurement is made by it in everything whose whole can be measured by a part of it or by parts.

51And likewise the minute too: it is five parasangs and four-fifths of a parasang and a sixth of a tenth. And the mile is three thousand fathoms, and the fathom three cubits, and the cubit two spans, and the span two fitrs.

52And the need was pressing to acquaint you with these subtle points and with knowledge of the quiddity of the celestial degree. So consider, may God strengthen you, these noble passages with which we have favoured you, and conceal them except from their people; and who will procure them for you, that one of them should be found?

53For we have left nothing of the secrets of those who came before that has reached us but we have bestowed it on you, following the example of the chief of this matter in his compositions, by whom I mean the unique one of his age, Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān. So what do you think of it, O the seeker in disclosing the secrets of the wisdom of the folk. And I mention here, from his words, what will help you to attain what you desire, and that is his saying: The work of the talisman is only something resembling the acts of nature, and it does not come about except through knowledge of what has been allotted to it of animals, plants and stones, and of the standing directly overhead of the wandering and the fixed stars and the signs above the regions of the lands, and comprehension of the science of astronomy, and of the shares of the planets and their mansions, and of latitude and longitude, and of the natures of the regions of the earth, and its waters, its soil, its rains, its snows, its deserts, its seas, its rivers, and their positions relative to the equator,

54and of what animals are generated and multiply in them and whose existence endures, and the lifespans of those animals and all their ramifications, such as snakes, scorpions, gnats, mice, wasps, geckos, people, beasts of burden and cattle; because among the regions of the lands there are those in which nothing of these animals is generated, and among them those in which some are generated and not others. So whoever knows these things, the work of the talisman will not be strange to him, nor its devising, nor the bringing forth of what he wishes.

55And the most reliable talismanic work is in stone, rather than the other two kinds, because of the drying up of the plant and its burning up with time and its perishing, and because of the putrefaction of the animal and the little endurance of it and of its generation [sense uncertain], even though in all of that the work is possible.

56And the action of talismans is two actions: either acquisition and attraction, or annihilation and driving away. And the times likewise are two times, and the motion two motions. That is, the times for annihilation and driving away, and this is the thing most needed, are in the categories of opposition to the degrees and the planets.

57And in stones there is a secret, and that is that if the natures of the animal to be driven away by it are hot, the stone is cold, and if it is moist, the stone is dry, and conversely. So if we wish to drive off vipers and wasps, then [it is] with kark, the magnet, silver and the like of these among stones; and one of those who came before chose, among all stone, the use of diamond from it, and this is an elegant saying. And if the animal is cold, like the scorpion, flies, gnats, lice and the like, the stone for it is hot, like malachite, copper, gold, alum and the like. This is for annihilation and driving away.

58But for acquisition and attraction, then the use of likeness: thus for the likes of vipers, gold and copper and all the rest, and for scorpions, kark and crystal and the like. And the cause in that is the agreement of temperaments and the conjunction of sound motions, and the disagreement of temperaments and the difference of single motions and those departing from the course.

59And as for the engraving and the drawn images, they are after the likeness of that animal: as the mouse for the mouse, vipers for vipers, snakes for snakes, the scorpion for the scorpion and the gnat for the gnat.

60And know that the size of the talismanic stone, relative to its action, is small and particular, since the size of the stone on which one engraves is from the measure of an ūqiyya to a raṭl, while the extent of its action is about a hundred farsakh, and more and less. But that extent is either through the compound or through the essence; that is, the firmly fixed has no motion and no action beyond occupying its place, like earthy and watery bodies, while spirits have a place wider than the place of bodies of little spirit.

61And remember, O reader, the saying of Plato, when he said that bodies are the opposites of spirits, so that this one is not built up except by what ruins that one. So prefer the ruin of your bodies for the building up of your spirits, and give authority to yourselves over your desires, which are the pleasures of your bodies so that the bodies may be the instrument of the souls in their will; and do not make your spirits an instrument for your bodies; and make the dead of the two parties die by the life of the living, and do not make the living die by the death of the dead.

62And remember when he was asked, and it was said to him: O sage, why has the soul come to be moved with delight at the motion of the strings? And he said: Because nature moves the levity of the aspirations of the rational soul and of the bestial [soul] by the manifest natural likeness, which is like the body for them, in the manner of what the soul possesses of the order of love and conquest: so at one time it unites the parts, and at another time it multiplies the unity. So when nature moves with a continuous motion, I mean the continuity of the parts, the two souls embrace in spiritual love and are joined to the mirrors [or: visions] that shine with their likeness upon their worlds, and so it becomes subtle and simple.

63And when it moves it with a disjoined motion, the bestial soul draws it to bodily love. And likewise also in the definition of conquest: the rational soul is moved with delight and [reading uncertain: takes the lead] by the subtle likeness [word uncertain: al-mūnjab] from the side of nature; and the bestial soul is moved with delight by the parts and the divided strings, toward the divided likeness from the direction of the body of nature.

64That is because the soul has in its essence shapes which the soul is not able to bring out by speech toward nature; so when nature moves them by the likeness of what it has of the body, I mean the bodies of the strings and their measures, the soul is moved with delight by the motion of those shapes which it was not able to bring out by speech, and the soul moves them with shapes and subtle motion, with the eyebrow and the pupils of the eye and smiling and other such members of the body.

65And for that reason it was said that the sound of the string is a link between the delineations of nature and the soul. And how excellent is what was said: that among the most excellent things is that the motion of the intellect and the motion of the soul be composed with the motion of nature, like the composing of the motion of the strings, so that the motions become united; in that would be the joy of the world and its pleasures, and its remembrance encompassing them, and its joy blazing exceedingly, and its rejoicing great.

66So train, O reader, your thought by the results of the thoughts of these people. For the ancient of the sages used to urge the training of the souls in waking and sleep, since he says: Train your souls by dream-vision, for much of what you do not grasp in waking you grasp in dreams.

67He only meant by this saying that in the time of waking the outward senses occupy the inward senses [and keep them] from their activities; and at the time when these have no activity, this sage commanded that the inward faculties be employed, such as thought, estimation, recollection and supposition. For the soul at that time, and the faculties, are bare, [sense uncertain: an occupier occupies them], and the heat has become latent; and when the heat is latent it dissolves every residue in the body. So when you train the soul at that time, it shows you in the time of dream-vision and acquaints you with the clarification of what you thought upon.