| I don't have a copy, but it's been around for some time and is sold
to this day. Instead of $0.25, it generally now costs a buck or
so, and it's _still_ being published.
The basis for this curiousity is that in the tale of Exodus, when
God spoke to Moses out mo the burning bush, He showed Moses how
to perform some miracles (and while DeMille showed the rod-into-serpent
trick in his movie, he fell short of showing Moses' hand turn leprous
and then be restored, which Moses learned to do at the same time).
Whoever penned the subject book built upon the story of these events
and others (parting the Red Sea, having water come from a rock in
the desert, etc) to the point of making Moses a master magician
and then having the spells, etc., of the book supposedly having
been passed down from him.
I have yet to see any serious scholarship to suggest, much less
demonstrate, that the book is anything but spurious.
It's a curiousity. Neat that you got so old a copy. Since it's being
published today, though, if anyone's interested, it's easily available
in occult shops. Just don't take it too seriously.
A point here: In some circles, the idea about "occult writings"
is "the older, the better." Thus, people who want to fob off an
idea or increase the apparent value of something they're trying
to publish/sell would rather attribute it to an ancient author than
to themselves. Many spurious works were attributed to Alburtus
Magnus [and at least one current writer of alchemical works uses
the nom-de-plume of "Alburtis"], and the _Clavicle Solomonis_ was
almost certainly written centuries after Solomon was dead [the
_Clavicle_ is, nevertheless, scholasstically interesting]. Consider:
what sounds more impressive: _The Art of Talismanic Magic_ by Ophiel,
or _The Art of Talismanic Magic_ by Ed Peach? "Ophiel," I've been
told, is the pseudonym of Ed Peach. Doubtless the author(s) of
the _6th and 7th Books of Moses_ operated under the same logic.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
|
| Re .3 (Jim):
>I don't intend to offend religious fundamentalists, but the collocation
>of these 4 things - burning bush, rod-into-serpent, leprous hand, and
>talking bush is suggestive of accidental ingestion of a hallucinogenic
>substance.
Well, though a Christian, I'm not a fundamentalist. Interesting
idea, but recall that the burning bush was also the talking bush.
In addition, not only could Moses turn a staff into a snake and
vice versa, but so could Pharaoh's priests. As it happened, Moses'
"snake" was able to eat up the other three. [Ex 7:10-12. As it
happened, it was Aaron's rod, which Moses had been given the power
to "snake"; DeMille, among others, conveniently overlooked this
for the sake of the story.] If somebody doesn't see the symbolic
parallel to Pharaoh's dream in the story of Joseph (seven fat kine
eaten up by seven lean kine -- Gen 41:17-21) I'll gently point it
out now. Regrettably, literalists overlook the rich symbolic content
of the early parts of the Bible.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
|