Bygone Beliefs: Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways of Thought

by H. Stanley Redgrove

Planet. Symbol. Day of Metal. Colour.
Sun. {} Sunday Gold Gold or yellow.
Moon. {} Monday Silver Silver or white.
Mars. {} Tuesday Iron Red.
Mercury {} Wednesday (1)Mercury Mixed colours or purple.
Jupiter {} Thursday Tin Violet or blue.
Venus {} Friday Copper Turquoise or green.
Saturn. {} Saturday Lead Black.

(1) Used in the form of a solid amalgam for talismans.

Consequently, the metal of which a talisman was to be made, and also the time of its preparation, had to be chosen with due regard to the planet under which it was to be prepared.(1) The power of such a talisman was thought to be due to the genie of this planet—a talisman, was, in fact, a silent evocation of an astral spirit. Examples of the belief that a genie can be bound up in an amulet in some way are afforded by the story of ALADDIN'S lamp and ring and other stories in the Thousand and One Nights. Sometimes the talismanic signs were engraved on precious stones, sometimes they were inscribed on parchment; in both cases the same principle held good, the nature of the stone chosen, or the colour of the ink employed, being that in correspondence with the planet under whose auspices the talisman was prepared.

(1) In this connection a rather surprising discovery made by Mr W.
GORNOLD (see his A Manual of Occultism, 1911, pp. 7 and 8) must be
mentioned. The ancient Chaldeans appear invariably to have enumerated
the planets in the following order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus,
Mercury, Moon—which order was adopted by the mediaeval astrologers.
Let us commence with the Sun in the above sequence, and write down every
third planet; we then have— Sun . . . . Sunday.
Moon. . . . Monday.
Mars. . . . Tuesday.
Mercury. . . . Wednesday.
Jupiter.. . . Thursday.
Venus. . . . Friday.
Saturn. . . . Saturday.

That is to say, we have the planets in the order in which they were supposed to rule over the days of the week. This is perhaps, not so surprising, because it seems probable that, each day being first divided into twenty-four hours, it was assumed that the planets ruled for one hour in turn, in the order first mentioned above. Each day was then named after the planet which ruled during its first hour. It will be found that if we start with the Sun and write down every twenty-fourth planet, the result is exactly the same as if we write down every third. But Mr OLD points out further, doing so by means of a diagram which seems to be rather cumbersome that if we start with Saturn in the first place, and write down every fifth planet, and then for each planet substitute the metal over which it was supposed to rule, we then have these metals arranged in descending order of atomic weights, thus:—

Saturn . . . Lead (=207).
Mercury . . . Mercury (=200).
Sun. . . . Gold (=197).
Jupiter . . . Tin (=119).
Moon. . . . Silver (=108).
Venus . . Copper (=64).
Mars. . . . Iron (=56).

Similarly we can, starting from any one of these orders, pass to the other two. The fact is a very surprising one, because the ancients could not possibly have been acquainted with the atomic weights of the metals, and, it is important to note, the order of the densities of these metals, which might possibly have been known to them, is by no means the same as the order of their atomic weights. Whether the fact indicates a real relationship between the planets and the metals, or whether there is some other explanation, I am not prepared to say. Certainly some explanation is needed: to say that the fact is mere coincidence is unsatisfactory, seeing that the odds against, not merely this, but any such regularity occurring by chance—as calculated by the mathematical theory of probability—are 119 to 1.

All the instruments employed in the art had to be specially prepared and consecrated. Special robes had to be worn, perfumes and incense burnt, and invocations, conjurations, etc., recited, all of which depended on the planet ruling the operation. A description of a few typical talismans in detail will not here be out of place.

In The Key of Solomon the King (translated by S. L. M. MATHERS, 1889)(1) are described five, six, or seven talismans for each planet. Each of these was supposed to have its own peculiar virtues, and many of them are stated to be of use in the evocation of spirits. The majority of them consist of a central design encircled by a verse of Hebrew Scripture. The central designs are of a varied character, generally geometrical figures and Hebrew letters or words, or magical characters. Five of these talismans are here portrayed, the first three described differing from the above. The translations of the Hebrew verses, etc., given below are due to Mr MATHERS.

(1) The Clavicula Salomonis, or Key of Solomon the King, consists mainly of an elaborate ritual for the evocation of the various planetary spirits, in which process the use of talismans or pentacles plays a prominent part. It is claimed to be a work of white magic, but, inasmuch as it, like other old books making the same claim, gives descriptions of a pentacle for causing ruin, destruction, and death, and another for causing earthquakes—to give only two examples,—the distinction between black and white magic, which we shall no doubt encounter again in later excursions, appears to be somewhat arbitrary.