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This is another old German text I translated into English.
It took me quite a while to complete this one. The old German font can be hard to read at times, there are a lot of words that are really archaic, and several pages are scanned in a way where letters or even complete words are cut off.
But with the help of some old dictionaries I was able to work most of it out though.
The text has 4 sections:
Where ingredients (plants or animals) are given, the original text always used the common (old) German names. I translated these with the common English name and if the names seemed unfamiliar to me I gave the (original German plus) Latin in footnotes. All footnotes in the text are added by me by the way.
The difficulty here – a general characteristic of old German, but here especially frustrating – is some sentences that go on for a page and a half at times with countless comma's and twists and turns that lead you in one direction and then have you go back all the way to the beginning.
Some parts of the text also have a kind of “creepy uncle” vibe and there's one part that in today's world definitely would get the writer cancelled – although he was quoting a researcher there.
On the other hand, that final chapter also reveals that he was aware the scientific discoveries of those days and how they can be used in (or alternatively make one lose faith in) magick.
As for the identity of the author:
I am not sure. The title page has the year 1921 in pencil, and there were of course several Magickal societies active in Germany around that time. The pen-name MAGUS for some reason made me think it could possibly be one of the members of the Fraternitas Saturni, but I have nothing to back that up and really question why I even leaped to that.
The book has 48 pages, which in English with the Times New Roman-font was dramatically reduced though. It will be a quick, but hopefully entertaining or even useful read.
It took me quite a while to complete this one. The old German font can be hard to read at times, there are a lot of words that are really archaic, and several pages are scanned in a way where letters or even complete words are cut off.
But with the help of some old dictionaries I was able to work most of it out though.
The text has 4 sections:
- the (untitled) introduction
- love spells from the works of Albertus
- a historic account of (a lady accused of) casting love spells on a German prince
- the Mechanics of Love magic
Where ingredients (plants or animals) are given, the original text always used the common (old) German names. I translated these with the common English name and if the names seemed unfamiliar to me I gave the (original German plus) Latin in footnotes. All footnotes in the text are added by me by the way.
The difficulty here – a general characteristic of old German, but here especially frustrating – is some sentences that go on for a page and a half at times with countless comma's and twists and turns that lead you in one direction and then have you go back all the way to the beginning.
Some parts of the text also have a kind of “creepy uncle” vibe and there's one part that in today's world definitely would get the writer cancelled – although he was quoting a researcher there.
On the other hand, that final chapter also reveals that he was aware the scientific discoveries of those days and how they can be used in (or alternatively make one lose faith in) magick.
As for the identity of the author:
I am not sure. The title page has the year 1921 in pencil, and there were of course several Magickal societies active in Germany around that time. The pen-name MAGUS for some reason made me think it could possibly be one of the members of the Fraternitas Saturni, but I have nothing to back that up and really question why I even leaped to that.
The book has 48 pages, which in English with the Times New Roman-font was dramatically reduced though. It will be a quick, but hopefully entertaining or even useful read.
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