Sigillum Dei
The Sigillum Dei (, seal of God ', also signum dei vivi, sign of the living God ', and since John Dee Sigillum Dei Aemeth ) is an attested in magical literature since the late Middle Ages diagram of two circles, a pentagram and three is composed Heptagonen and labeled with the name of God and his angels. It is an amulet ( amuletum ) with magical and theurgic function, with which the initiate in the ars magica master ( magister ) to the explanation of one of the oldest sources ( Liber iuratus ) power over all creatures, with the exception of the archangels win can obtain and as far back otherwise only the blessed vision of God and angels reserved ( beatific vision ) is.
Pictures
Liber iuratus, MS Sloane Ms. 3853, 16th century
Clavicle di Salomone, Michael MS 276, not dated
Clavicle of Solomon, MS Aubrey 24, 1674
John Dee, Sloane MS 3188, 1582
Athanasius Kircher, 1653
Middle Ages
Liber iuratus
Probably the oldest known text with a description and illustration of the Sigillum Dei is the traditional in manuscripts from the period since the 14th century Liber iuratus (also Liber sacratus, Liber sacer sive iuratus, Eng. Sworne Booke ), the deemed from the prologue genesis of a Honorius, master of Thebes and son of Euclid, is attributed, and perhaps as early as the first half of the 13th century, but likely not before the time of Pope John XXII. (1316-1334) was born.
The description of the seal in the Liber iuratus first sets the dimensions of the circle surrounding the band in relation to common symbol numbers of the Christian tradition:
The circular band created in this way are then at the apex of a small cross and from this starting from left to right 72 Latin letters to be written, which vary in the tradition (MS Sloane 3853: h, t, o, e, x, o, r, a, B, A, W, La, Y, Q, C, I, Y, S, T, A, L, G, A, a, o, n, o, s, v, l, a, R, Y, C, E, K, S, P, F, Y, o, m, E, n, E, A, U, A, R, E, L, A, T, E, D, A, T, o, to n, o, n, a, o, y, l, e, p, o, t, m, a) and in total the Shem hamephorasch, the ineffable name of God ( " magnum nomen Domini Semenphoras 72 licterarum " ) arising: a continuity of a Jewish tradition that since the 13th/14th. Century in other Latin texts is tangible.
The circular band inscribed next a pentagram in the center of which a Greek Tau is registered, this is surrounded by the five letters of God's name " El " and " Ely ", as well as five other pairs of letters ( lx, al, la, lc to ) which shall be entered in the triangular segments of the pentagram.
To the Pentagon, in turn, is to draw a first Heptagon in such a way that its top is touching the tip of the pentagram at its center, and the pages of this heptagon must be labeled with the names of seven angels and archangels ( Cafziel, Satquiel, Amael, Raphael, Anael, Michael, Gabriel ).
To this first Heptagon are a second and a third drawing, the description is hard to understand and was interpreted differently in the handwritten figures, but the result in any case results in more segments to be provided in seven vertices with crosses and with two other rows God's name should be labeled: a first series of seven names of God, which breaks down into three syllables or components and are spatially related with those on the initial and final syllables of the last names of angels as well as to cut or vertices of the figure, namely la- ya- ly ( to Cafziel ), na -ra- th ( to Satquiel ), ly - bar - re ( Raphael ), ly -ba - res ( to Michael ), ( e) t- ly- alg ( to Samael ), ve -h -am ( to Anael ), and y -al- gal ( to Gabriel ); further into sub-segments and gaps seven other Vos, Duynas, Gyram, Gram, Aysaram, Alpha and Omega, a third series El, On, El, On, El, On, Omega, as additions to the registered crosses the four letters a, g, a, l, and finally again a series of five God's name Ely, Eloy, Christ, Sother and Adonay.
For staining of the seal are the Liber iuratus that usually the pentagram red with yellow faces, the first Heptagon blue, the second yellow, the third purple and the circles black, and also the area between the circles yellow and color all the other spaces green were, this would also handled differently in magical operations when will instead drawn with the blood of the mole, pigeon, hoopoe, bat or other animals on virgin parchment of cattle, horse or deer.
Clavicle of Solomon
In the form by the use of a hexa- place pentagram different witnesses of the Sigillum Dei are known from the tradition of the clavicle of Solomon, namely from an Italian working in the collection of Heimann Joseph Michael in the Bodleian Library ( Ms. Michael 276), and a by John Aubrey in 1674 produced a copy of the clavicle, also in the Bodleian library ( MS. Aubrey 24).
Early Modern Times
One of the two oldest surviving manuscripts of the Liber iuratus that originated from the late 14th or early 15th century manuscript No. 313 from the collection of Hans Sloane in the British Museum, was temporarily in the possession of the mathematician and magical experimenter John Dee, in whose Mysteriorum libri quinti, or, Five books of mystical exercises (1581-1583), the Sigillum Dei then played a central role and the name Sigillum Dei additional: Emeth or Aemeth ( "truth" ), one of the 72 names of God in Kabbalistic tradition, has been extended.
At John Dee, who received the authoritative description of the seal 1582 by its medium and employee Edward Kelley and heranzog written sources only for their better understanding, this scholarly and antiquarian interest was ultimately the purpose of practical application subordinated. In contrast, Athanasius Kircher, who devoted a detailed interpretation of the Sigillum Dei in his Oedipus aegyptiacus, the rejection of magical practice with the scholarly effort to recognize the Christian, Jewish, Arab Muslim and pagan shares and inseparable union. About the triangular segments of the pentagram inscribed letters, in Liber iuratus lx, al, la, lc, to, Kircher, however, yl, al, le, al, order, according to Kircher than Arabic la, alla, ella, alla " non est Deus nisi deus ", with a final formula is for" Mahumet Rassoul alla " to interpret, so that the demon had foisted seduced the magician as a supposedly Christian worship praise of Allah and Muhammad's formula one.