Ars Phytonica
[anonymous]
Treatise
on the
Phytonic Art
Manuscript source: Universität Leipzig
Date of origin: ca. 1750
Material: Paper
Author: unknown
Length: 8 double pages
German Transcript: Anne Hila
English Translation: Frater Acher
© Frater Acher 2018
Ars Phytonica
Here begins the Phytonic or Phytonic Work, which often has found to stand the test, and through which you can gain specific knowledge of future things.
But if you want to work on a Sunday, you shall begin to lent on a Thursday and not to drink anything but water. But if you want to operate on a Thursday, you shall begin to lent on a Monday. Firstly have a knife made on the morning of a Friday, of pure steel, and the shell [i.e. handle] of the horn of a ram. Once the knife is completed, engrave the names of the three Patriarchs on it: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Once this is prepared, take the head of a long dead, which is free of all flesh and filth, retreat from all dwelling places where one would hear the dogs bark or roosters crow, and go with it to a flowing water. However, this must not be on the first day of your lent.
Firstly, wash your entire body, and once you have even washed all your clothes, dress yourself again, and wash the head [of the dead] and its neck inwardly and outwardly in flowing water, and wrap it in a fresh cloth and conceal it in the house in a secret place, so that it might not be seen by anyone. This [procedure] you must perform three days in a row, while being all the while washed and clean yourself. On the fourth day though, after the washing of your body, go while dressed in fresh clothes to the place where you have hidden the head, and also have the knife with you and a glass vessel filled with wine as well as a headband that has not yet dressed any head. And this headband shall be crafted by a virgin. After the Sun has set, first wash your entire body in flowing water and after you have dried yourself, so wash the head [of the dead] with the aforementioned wine.
Hereafter find a place in the countryside, and place the head down, and upon it place the aforementioned hat or head-base, called nifala, and speak: I have sent the spirit into you! And write these four names on it [the headband]: Cortornifer, Forfornifer, Angerion, Cornigerion. Thereafter measure from your seat nine cubits towards midnight [West] and draw a circle with the knife. You can also make it [the circle] large enough as you want, so in case you have two or three companions with you, all of you can sit well. You, however, turn towards Noon [East] and stare the dead head into its face, hold the knife in your right, and say this conjuration:
'O you, Cortornifer, o you, Forfornifer, o you, Angerion, o you, Cornigerion. I conjure your names in the name of the eternally living and true God, and in the name of your great Prince, may you appear quickly, and may you answer to my question quickly and truthfully and [may you] fulfil my desire perfectly. I conjure you Cortornifer, Forfornifer, Angerion and Cornigerion, by the virtues of the true and living God, and by the angelic virtues, and by the throne of the Divine Majesty, and by the consuming fire, and by the potent name of the almighty God, and by these names, O Elohym, Elohe, Adonay, Saday, α et ω. ya,uhion, Pantheon, Toachon [greek: to archon, the ruler], Tetragrammaton [IHVH], Messias, Sother [latin: soter, saviour], Emanuel, Principatus et Potestates primenus [latin: mighty angels/demons/spirits], Gebaton, and by other names which have to remain unmentioned, and by the head of a black prince, and by the crown on his head and by his right hand in which he holds the sceptre, and by the throne in which the Mighty rules and governs, and by the holy baptism of this head. I conjure you to quickly come into this head and to truthfully answer to my question, and to diligently do as I will.
Such you shall speak three or four times, then the head itself will come in, [and this is] when you can ask it whatever you desire, as it will provide answer to everything you like. Finally, you shall do your plea; and whatever you plea for you will receive. Thereafter give it vacation [i.e. permission to depart] in this manner:
Depart in peace and be ready to fulfill all my desire and everything I order you, and when I desire you will return to us. Peace may be between us and you and peace may be with you.
Thereupon the master gathers the items in the order in which they were laid out, and walks home in such order and in peace. The head, however, return to the place from which you took it [and where nobody can find it].
Explanation
You shall begin to lent on Thursday until the evening and eat nothing other than bread and food meant for lent. You shall not eat any food from which comes blood [i.e. a vegetarian diet]. In addition on the same day you will require a brain-head [Hirnschädel] of a dead man or a skull on which there is no flesh any longer. And [you will also need] a good cup, and a knife with a black shell [i.e. handle] made of a ram's horn on which is written: 'O Gaseon, namil, Lucifer, Astaroth, Inanialchi'. Also take with you a dove with signed out name. Go to a river and wash the skull in the water of the river, and afterwards wash the cup with the aforementioned wine, then kill the dove with the knife, and once the head is ready write on it with the blood of the dove: 'Lucifer, Beelzebub, Astaroth, El'. Once you have completed everything make a large circle so that you stand inside of it with your [number] companions. With the knife in your right hand speak:
'O you spirits whose names are written on this head, I conjure you by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, by the Virgin Mary, by all of the Saints of the holy God, and by the nine ineffable names of God, which I cannot utter, and by Sunday [the Sun] and Moon, and by everything that is in Heaven and on Earth. So that when I may call upon you, you may come rushing, in the shape of a woman, so come without noise and without harm of any person on earth, without harm of the trees and the fruits, and without harm of my own and my companion's body and soul. And grant me answer to what I ask of you, and fulfil all my commandment.
And soon you will hear them as a strong wind, then ask them in the name of mercy, so they will provide answer to you. Afterwards take the head and wrap it in a cloth of new, white linen. And once you have wrapped it, say the conjuration and they will obey you and speak to you in the form of strong winds. Then grant them vacation and speak:
'I conjure you in the name of the might of God, and by the divine virtues, so you may depart in peace and not harm anyone.'