Secrets of the Sabians

The Quran mentions four “Peoples of the Book” which are entitled to “protection” from the true Muslim believers: Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and Sabians. The mysterious Sabians have never been identified, but the Gnostic Mandeans of Iraq (who still exist, but mostly in the Diaspora) successfully convinced the Muslim conquerors that *they* were the group referenced. Another common proposal is that the Sabians were the pagans of Harran or Carrhae, perhaps the last surviving pagan group of the ex-Roman Empire. They supposedly convinced the Muslims to spare them by claiming Hermes Trismegistus as their “monotheist” prophet and, I suppose, the Corpus Hermeticum as their scripture! If so, it's possible that the Hermetic lore which was preserved within traditional Islam comes from the Harranian Sabians.

This little book, “Secrets of Planetary Ritual”, is an excerpt from a much larger work, the Picatrix, regarded as one of the most important works of medieval magic. The Picatrix exist in both Arabic and Latin versions. The critical Latin edition has been translated to English by Christopher Warnock and John Michael Greer (whom we have met before in other contexts). The Picatrix contains several chapters on astrological magic, supposedly derived from the traditions of the Sabians of Harran. “Secrets of Planetary Ritual” contain these particular chapters.

The work isn't particularly interesting for the general reader, being a long-winding rendition of various rituals the purpose of which is to supplicate the planetary deities. Sometimes, the rituals are unintentionally humorous, as when the work declares that supplication of Mars requires beheading a leopard “if you can find one”, or (if you can't?) killing a mouse and eating its liver! It's not immediately clear what's the most difficult thing to do – procure a leopard in Renaissance Italy or eating the liver of a house mouse… The work also contains a short description of an initiation ritual for teenage boys into the cult of Mars. Apart from the Sabians, the Picatrix references magical works attributed to Aristotle.

Both translators believe in the efficacy of magic, indeed both have magick blogs on the web, and they therefore warn their readers not to use the malefic spells contained in the rituals. They also assure us that the magic works even without animal sacrifice, so any stray leopards or mice in your backyard can sleep safely. “Secrets of Planetary Magic” is rounded off by shorter versions of the planetary incantations, prepared by Christopher Warnock. They apparently work just as well as the longer ones!

I bought this mostly because of the Sabian angle, and I admit that I didn't find it particularly interesting. Still, probably worth three stars due to the translation efforts of Warnock and JMG.