Ch.8 The Magick Circle (WMB 8.b)

Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr.

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The magick circle reproduced by Gardner in High Magic’s Aid, is often described as Solomonic, but it is in fact a composite with a number of errors introduced into it, possibly through a lack of understanding of Hebrew by the copier of the image or as a deliberate blind.

(The Magick Circle as portrayed in Gardner’s novel High Magic’s Aid)

(The Magick Circle as given in the Mathers’ Key of Solomon)

In fact this magick circle is based on the one in the frontplate of Mathers’ Key of Solomon, with a number of changes made to the original image which produce a new magick circle not found in any of the grimoires. These changes are as follows:

The four small outer circles containing censers have had the divine names transposed North-South and East-West. Thus we see:

In the inner circle, where there are four equal-armed crosses on the cross-quarters in the Key of Solomon magick circle, these are replaced in High Magic’s Aid with pentagrams. Likewise, in the second circle in the Key of Solomon, where there are the four hexagram permutations of two triangles at the cardinal points, these are also replaced in High Magic’s Aid with pentagrams. Gardner also introduced pentagrams in the north north-east of the magick circles to represent the entrance, which is not included in the Key of Solomon circle.

The inner circle of the Key of Solomon magick circle has the Hebrew letter Tav at the cardinal points, which are replaced in the High Magic’s Aid magick circle with the divine names attributed to the cardinal points in the censers (not transposed this time). However there is an error here with the western name written as IA instead of IH.

The second circle in the Key of Solomon magick circle has other divine names at the cross-quarter points. Two of these are miscopied (South-West and North-West) and two are transposed (North-East and North-West) in the High Magic’s Aid magick circle. Thus we have:

Extract from: Wicca: Magical Beginnings written by d’Este & Rankine, 2008 (Avalonia.) PB / Kindle @ https://amzn.to/3Ay4HJr. Shared here with the intention to inspire and inform the now and future generations interested in Wicca and other Pagan traditions inspired by it.