The Sword of Moses
From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers
The Sword of Moses or Harba de Moshe is a famous 13th or 14th century Jewish grimoire. Its creation is attributed to Moses, the most famous Jewish spiritual figure and prophet, who is the purported author of the first five books of the Jewish and Christian Bible. The earliest known copy of The Sword of Moses dates to the 13th or 14th century, long after the passing of Moses, but the text is clearly older than that, for Rabbi Hai Gaon (939-1038 CE) discussed the book by name and described its contents sufficiently well enough to prove that the book existed during his lifetime. Some scholars speculate that the text dates back as early as the first four centuries CE. The true name of the author is unknown.
The Sword of Moses documents the unknown author's own personal three-day purification ritual of fasting, prayer, and angelic adjurations to be performed in order to gain the spiritual authority to use the Sword of Moses. This is a figurative weapon, not an actual sword, by which 1,800 divine names can be invoked and wielded by the magician’s tongue for magical purposes. (The linked symbolism of the tongue, breath, and speech with a sword is also found in the four elemental suits of the tarot cards, where "Swords are Air and Air is prayer.") The logocentric nature of this magical tradition of whispering ineffable names can also be applied to creating amulets, magical garments like the one worn by the prophet Elijah, or even writing them on (or under) one’s own skin. Additionally, the author compiled magical formulas from multiple texts and the result is a compendium of 136 spells which emphasize the power of the spoken word rather than materia magicae. These spoken spells include specific incantations to enable one to cure migraines caused by a demon, kill curses, provide spiritual protection, catch thieves, undertake miraculous travel, and even to walk on water.
In 1896, the German-Jewish scholar Moses Gaster translated the Hebrew manuscript of "Harba de Moshe" (then known as MS Gaster 78) from his own famous collection of early Hebraica. This manuscript is now in the British Library in London, listed as MS Or. 10678. Gaster's German-language edition was easily accessible to Ashkenazi Jews in America, among them Anne Fleitman, whose occult pen-name was Henri Gamache. In 1945, Fleitman wrote an influential modern spell-casting book called "The Mystery of the Long Lost 8th, 9th, and 10th Books of Moses." She presented this as a sequel to the 18th century German-Jewish grimoire known as "The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses," which itself drew heavily from the 13th century Jewish grimoire "Sefer Raziel" or "The Book of Raziel." Fleitman combined three elements into her book. First, she wrote an Afrocentric history of Moses as a Black conjurer, "The Great Voodoo Man of the Bible." This concept continued from the ideas of the Jamaican Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey and the Arican-American folklorist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston. Second, from "The Greek Magical Papyri," a Greco-Egyptian spell book dating from 100 BCE to 400 CE, she included the 13th section, known as the "Eighth Book of Moses." Third, she translated selected spells into English from the German edition of Moses Gaster's "Sword of Moses" and included them in the text. Advertised in African-American newspapers and sold nationwide in hoodoo herb and candle shops, this influential book effectively melded "The Sword of Moses" and other Jewish grimoires into the practices of American hoodoo root doctors.
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