So I’ve been having a good time reading through Kieckhefer’s book on the Munich Manual, and he’s got a lot of great insight on the topic of the manuscript and putting into the wider occult context of its time.  He offers a lot of thoughts and suggestions about where the original author or authors might have learned this stuff and their intents for their rituals, and he also offers a good analysis of the rituals, demon names, herbs, and circumstances behind the rituals themselves.

Although Kieckhefer translates some parts of the Manual for use in his analysis, the whole thing has not yet been translated into English, so a good number of parts remain unheard of in my native tongue.  However, since I love new chances to translate Latin, I’m going through parts of the book and translating them into English, much like how I did the “De Responsione Spirituum” earlier this summer.  I’ve made a new section under the Ritual menu specifically for things translated from the Munich Manual, and have already uploaded my translation of the Bond of Solomon, a lengthy exorcism and binding on unwieldy spirits.  I’m starting the translation a long stretch of rituals and lists from the Manual about astrological magic and the conjuration of planetary angels and such, but that might take me a week or three to finish.

If you’re interested in the same set of conjurations while I’m getting my translation up, check out Asterion’s old blog, Practical Solomonic Magic, where he offers his translations of the conjurations of the days of the week and comparisons to the Heptameron (on which this section of the Manual was likely based or with which this shares a common ancestor).

In other news, I’m melting down lead for talismans today.  Yay!