Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses

The work contains reputed Talmudic magic names, words, and ideograms, some written in Hebrew and some with letters from the Latin alphabet.

It contains "Seals" or magical drawings accompanied by instructions intended to help the user perform various tasks, from controlling weather or people to contacting the dead or Biblical religious figures.

It influenced European Occult Spiritualism as well as African American hoodoo folk magic, and magical-spiritual practices in the Caribbean, and West Africa.

The growth of inexpensive paperback publication in the 19th century, like those of Chicago occult publisher L. W. de Laurence, helped the work gain popularity outside German communities.

[7] The boom in inexpensive publishing, and the interest in Spiritualism helped the work gain popularity in the African-American population of the United States, and from there, the Anglophone parts of the Caribbean.

From 1936 through 1972, the folklorist Harry Middleton Hyatt interviewed 1,600 African-American Christian root doctors and home practitioners of hoodoo, and many of them made reference to using this book and other seal-bearing grimoires of the era, such as the Key of Solomon.

In colonial Gold Coast and Nigeria, it was seen as a "western" form of magic that might be used by educated Africans seeking access to Britain or its power, much like Masonic ritual or Rosicrucianism.

Josiah Olunowo Ositelu's seals and mystical written incantations, used in the Nigerian Church of the Lord (Aladura) were likely derived from the Sixth and Seventh Books.

In Sweden and Finland these books are compiled and published under the titles Den Svarta Bibeln and Musta Raamattu, respectively, meaning "The Black Bible".

[1] Elements appear directly reprinted from Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1531) and an 18th-century German translation by Gottfried Selig of the Hebrew Sepher Schimmush Tehillim (The magical uses of the Psalms).

These two Books were revealed by God, the Almighty, to his faithful servant Moses, on Mount Sinai, intervale lucis, and in this manner they also came into the hands of Aaron, Caleb, Joshua, and finally to David and his son Solomon and their high priest Sadock.

There are twelve tables, each said to control powers associated with certain Angels, elements, or astronomical symbols: In the New York Edition this is followed by "The Magic of the Israelites", used in the 1849 version as the introduction.

These include "Extract from the True Clavicula of Solomon and of the Girdle of Aaron" (a version of the Key of Solomon grimoire), the "Biblia Arcana Magica Alexander, According to the Tradition of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, Besides Magical Laws", and the "Citation of the Seven Great Princes in the Tradition of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses" which contains similar seals and incantations with more or less Biblical connotations.

Title page of the 1880 New York edition
The seal from the Sixth Book of Moses , "The Sixth Mystery: The Seal of the Power-Angels seu Potestatum ex Thoro VI. Bi- bliis arcaiiorum, over the Angels and Spirits of all the Elements", from the 1880 New York edition
Figure from Vol.II, Formulas of the Magical Kabala of the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses , "The Spirit Appears in a Pillar of Fire By Night". From the 1880 New York edition.
Figure from Vol.II, p. 26 Biblia Arcana Magica Alexander: Tradition of The Sixth Book of Moses , "Figure 81. Breastplate of Moses". From the 1880 New York edition.
"Circle Written On Parchment In The Blood Of White Young Doves" (Fig. 24, Vol II, p. 40). From "Citation of the Seven Great Princes in The Tradition Of The Sixth And Seventh Books Of Moses", in the 1880 New York edition
Figure from Vol.II, p. 88 Biblia Arcana Magica Alexander: Tradition of The Seventh Book of Moses , "Diagram Illustrating the Symbols Employed by the Israelites in Their Laws of Magic". From the 1880 New York edition.