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- May 10, 2025
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Hi everyone,
I’m working through the Tabula Semiphoras in Stephen Skinner’s Summa Sacrae Magice material and I’ve hit a practical + textual question about how it’s actually meant to be used.
Most of the surrounding discussion calls it a tabula (table/board/tablet) and gives very “artifact-like” instructions (how it should be drawn, proportions, cautions about how the exemplar looked, inks/colors, etc.). That reads to me like a fixed diagram/board intended to be present in the operation (on the altar, within the working space, for reference/recitation).
But by the end of the instructions (or at least the way I’m reading them), it almost feels like it could be treated like a lamen—something the operator wears over the heart—especially since in closely related Solomonic/ritual contexts we often see explicit use of a breast-plate/lamina/lamen.
So my questions are:
Thanks!
"And while you are in the circle, carry it [the lamen] hanging from your neck in silk of seven colors, or in front of your chest in a square fold [of material]. And before they come it must be ‘mute’ (i.e., folded), because if it were standing open they could not appear nor would they dare. It must be shown to them [the spirits] before they come, so that they are compelled to obey. It is not necessary to fold the spirit paper tied to it.”
I’m working through the Tabula Semiphoras in Stephen Skinner’s Summa Sacrae Magice material and I’ve hit a practical + textual question about how it’s actually meant to be used.
Most of the surrounding discussion calls it a tabula (table/board/tablet) and gives very “artifact-like” instructions (how it should be drawn, proportions, cautions about how the exemplar looked, inks/colors, etc.). That reads to me like a fixed diagram/board intended to be present in the operation (on the altar, within the working space, for reference/recitation).
But by the end of the instructions (or at least the way I’m reading them), it almost feels like it could be treated like a lamen—something the operator wears over the heart—especially since in closely related Solomonic/ritual contexts we often see explicit use of a breast-plate/lamina/lamen.
So my questions are:
- Is the Tabula Semiphoras actually intended as a “board/tablet” placed in the working space, or is for using it as a lamen worn on the chest?
Thanks!
"And while you are in the circle, carry it [the lamen] hanging from your neck in silk of seven colors, or in front of your chest in a square fold [of material]. And before they come it must be ‘mute’ (i.e., folded), because if it were standing open they could not appear nor would they dare. It must be shown to them [the spirits] before they come, so that they are compelled to obey. It is not necessary to fold the spirit paper tied to it.”