The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy is, in fact, several treatises. Attributed to the authorship of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, it was presented as the addendum of "practical magic" to accompany the "theoretical" side of his encyclopedic Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Such attribution has been disputed since the demonologist Johannes Weyer, one of Agrippa's students, vigorously denied his former master would write something that so explicitly taught black magic and became thus so useful for magical practitioners. Historians continue to debate which of the six main texts of the Fourth Book may have indeed been written by Agrippa.

What is certainly true is that, in the years after his death, Agrippa began to develop a sinister reputation; shifting from famed occult philosopher to infamous black magician. Rumours circulated from the mid-sixteenth century of a book by Agrippa "teaching nigromancy". In France and elsewhere, any book thought to contain potent devilish material began to be referred to as "an Agrippa", and we have records of many cunning-folk and other folk magical practitioners being accused of owning and using such dangerous tomes. Having circulated in furtively-copied manuscript form for a century, it was finally "English'd" and set to print by the botanist and alchemist Robert Turner, whose other publications included Paracelsian treatises on amulets, metallurgy, and medicine.

Certainly the Fourth Book contains a great variety of explicit early modern material on the conjuration of spirits; offering instructions, practical considerations, and explanations for working with holy angels, planetary spirits and unclean devils. It even has a "spotter's guide" to the forms these spirits might take. It presents operations of necromancy, rituals and regulations for incubating oracular dreaming, and detailed instructions concerning how to make and use a Liber Spirituum - a personal grimoire which acts as a repository of daemonic pacts and indeed a tool of office for exorcising and commanding spirits.

Most particularly, the Fourth Book concentrates on astrological magic, offering two complete systems of summoning and directing aerial spirits of the planets: the incredibly popular Heptameron, offering means of communing with the seven planetary archangels and the spirits that obey them; and the Arbatel, a handbook combining axioms concerning magical conduct and cosmology with instructions for working the so-called "Olympic" planetary spirits. Combined with its two short instructional texts on geomantic divination, it is clear why this book was so influential, infamous, and indispensable to early modern magical practitioners; that is, by both "low" folk magicians and cunning-folk as well as "high" ceremonially-minded magi.

In this course, students are led through this early modern "one-stop-shop" of a compilation-guide of useful magical texts. We delve into the historical contexts of the component parts, examine the approaches to spirits and working them, and - crucially - assess how such material is still thoroughly relevant and helpful for modern magical practitioners.

This three-part course series breaks down into the following two-hour-long classes:

Session 1: Reception, History & Context
In which is discussed the life of the Fourth Book, from its (contested) authorship, to its translator. The six main treatises of the Fourth Book will be introduced and students provided contexts for its historical reception and use. Along the way we will therefore discuss both its practicable cunning and rumours of its more sinister black magic reputation.  

Session 2: Stars & Stones
In which we will assess and consider the European Renaissance expressions of computational geomantic divination and experimentation as discussed in the Fourth Book’s treatises ‘Of Geomancy’ and ‘Astronomical Geomancy’, as well as the planetary conjurations of ‘The Magical Elements of Peter de Abano’ (aka the Heptameron) and the ‘Arbatel of Magic’. 

Session 3: Spirits & Ceremonies
In which we go into detailed exploration and analyses of the most wide-ranging but also most widely-applicable occult understandings and sorcerous applications of pre-modern spiritwork contained in the treatises ‘Of Magical Ceremonies’, and ‘The Nature of Spirits’. Finally, some explicit considerations and conclusions are drawn for modern practice with this material.

By purchasing this course, you agree that you understand that no part of the material dictated or provided throughout the duration of the course may be reproduced, distributed, or used in any other form (neither electronic nor mechanic, including photocopies and recordings), without the direct and written consent of the instructor, Dr Alexander Cummins.