Magic is an ancient art with thousands of years of history and many facets. The word magic itself has had so many associations over the centuries that it isn’t enough any more to say you are a magician. You need to specify what kind of a magician you are. Over the last hundred years a number of labels have become increasingly popular in the Western world, such as Golden Dawn, Enochian, Chaos, Voodoo, High versus Low, Ceremonial, Ritual, Egyptian, Thelemic, and many others [‘a label’ Magical System] that are available for you to chose from. Many of those monikers are modern and convey an understanding and view of magic that is different from what the ancients believed and practiced as their craft of wisdom. The idea that there are various traditions and approaches to magic is rooted in history. Nevertheless, magical approaches and techniques the world over share remarkable similarity even when the cultural parameters, labels, and certain philosophies differ. One of the oldest magical traditions and the most influential worldwide was the one that emerged from the melting pots of civilizations in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It gave us Sabian, Chaldean, Hermetic, Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Egyptian, Greek, and Arabic systems of magic, which the ancients viewed as one craft with many masters. It is why Chaldean magical approaches can be seen in Jewish occult writing and why Arabic magicians talked of their master Hermes and why Egyptian-Greek papyri mixed Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek Divine names together in one incantation. Magic is magic, growing and expanding, yet one craft. Over hundreds of years, the combinations and exchanges between those disciplines eventually coalesced to form a single fountain that today feeds many occult rivers across the world. 

Arabic magical literature was the last pure incarnation of those ancient techniques. It borrowed heavily from previous civilizations and preserved or synthesized the various systems into one unified operative system. While doing so, Arabic magicians made an effort to credit the various schools of magic and their influences. This gives us today a lucid and valuable snapshot of the various magical philosophies that predate them and some of the thoughts that went into some of the things that modern magicians take for granted.

Hebrew, Coptic, and Arabic School (Angelic Magic)

This is the most trusted and commonly used method of magic in both medieval and modern magic. It is based on reciting evocations consisting of prayers and a set of names and charges with unknown meaning in certain arrangements. Those conjurations are recited as oration to an invisible audience. They believed that magical effect arises from the jinn and that those conjurations compel angels who in turn compel the jinn. Many of these names and methods were revealed to saints and prophets in dreams or revelation.

 There are three ways to call up the rouhaniah for magical operations. They are as follows:

a)      Istikhdam or utilization is the highest and most beneficial form. It only comes to pass after an extended period, which differs based on methods. Often this results in some powerful physical manifestations and involves long term covenants.

b)      Istinzal or bringing down; in this case the response occurs quickly, but the benefits are limited to limited things such as revealing hidden knowledge or curing someone who is possessed.

c)      Istihdar or to make present; this is the lowest of the kind. This is the most popular and common method and is often confused with the other two. It is only beneficial for knowing things that are hidden. The presence or appearance of the rouhaniah or jinn occurs either during one’s waking period through attachment of the spirit to the body of a boy or in a mirror during the session, resulting in imaginative images appearing on the mirror as the boy enters into a state similar to sleep (hypnotic trance). If the experience occurs during sleep, where answers occur in dreams, it is referred to as unveiling.

The book al-Madkhal (The Introduction) by Salim Ben Thabit is the most complete book on this kind of magic from the Hebrew perspective.

The book al-Jawharah (The Jewel) by al-Khwarizmi is the good introduction to the methods of Istinzal and Istihdar.

The book al-Eedah al-Andulsi (Andalusian Clarification) is a good introduction to Istikhdam techniques.

The book al-Ghumar to Khalf Ben Yosef al-Dasmasamani is an excellent book on all three techniques. 

The best of all books on this subject is called al-Basateen [The Orchids] as it teaches how to call and enlist the aid of the spirits of humans, jinn, and demons.

It should be noted that the fourth school is similar to the third in devotion, prayers, and appeals to the rouhaniat. However, the adorations and appeals are to angels and not planets. They do follow and watch for astrological alignments, but consider astrological effects to be natural phenomena obedient to the Divine creator and don’t consider the planets in and of themselves to be perfect causers, but instead, obedient agents to the Divine and angels.