A new reconstruction and translation of the Maqlû text The Akkadian series Maqlû, “Burning,” is one of the most significant and interesting magical texts from the Ancient Near East. The incantations and accompanying rituals are directed against witches and witchcraft and ctually represent a single complex ceremony. The ceremony was performed during a single night and into the following morning at the end of the month Abu (July/August), a time when spirits were thought to move back and forth between the netherworld and the world of the living. Features: English translation of approximately 100 incantations and rituals Annotated transcription Introduction places the series in historical context and shows how it is a product of a complex literary and ceremonial development.

The Akkadian series Maqlû, 'Burning', remains the most important magical text against witchcraft from Mesopotamia and perhaps from the entire ancient Near East. Maqlû is a nine-tablet work consisting of the text of almost 100 incantations and accompanying rituals directed against witches and witchcraft. The work prescribes a single complex ceremony and stands at the end of a complex literary and ceremonial development. Thus, Maqlû provides important information not only about the literary forms and cultural ideas of individual incantations, but also about larger ritual structures and thematic relations of complex ceremonies. This new edition of the standard text contains a synoptic edition of all manuscripts, a composite text in transliteration, an annotated transcription and translation. "These were only minor remarks scribbled in the margins of an excellent and most welcome edition of Maqlû, a real monument. This book is the firm foundation on which future studies on Maqlû will be based." Marten Stol, NINO Leiden, Bibliotheca Orientalis lxxIII n° 5-6, September-December 2016

"This book examines the epigraphy and history of transmission of the cuneiform sources of the Maqlû antiwitchcraft ritual, one of the major compositions of ancient Mesopotamian exorcistic lore ... the manuscripts are presented in 'hand-copies' (technical drawings) on the plates in the second half of the book."--Preface, p. [vii].

This volume, edited by Tzvi Zbusch and Karel van der Toorn, contains the papers delivered at the first international conference on Mesopotamian magic held under the auspices of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in June 1995. It is the first collective volume dedicated to the study of this topic. It aims at serving as a bench-mark and provides analytic and innovative but also sythetic and programmatic essays. Magical texts, forms, and traditions from the Mesopotamian cultural worlds of the third millennium BCE through the first millennium CE, in the Sumerian, Akkadian and Aramaic languages as well as in art, are examined.

This volume is about the history, literature, ritual, and thought associated with ancient Mesopotamian witchcraft. With chapters on the changing forms and roles of witchcraft beliefs, the ritual function, form, and development of the Maqlû text (the most important ancient work on the subject), and the meaning of the Maqlû ceremony, as well as the ideology of the final version of the text. The volume significantly contributes to our understanding of the Maqlû text, and the reconstruction of the development of thought about witchcraft and magic in Mesopotamia.

In the past 31 years, there has been a lot of ink—actual and virtual—spilled on the subject of the Necronomicon. Some have derided it as a clumsy hoax; others have praised it as a powerful grimoire. As the decades have passed, more information has come to light both on the book's origins and discovery, and on the information contained within its pages. The Necronomicon has been found to contain formula for spiritual trans-formation, consistent with some of the most ancient mystical processes in the world, processes that were not public knowledge when the book was first published, processes that involve communion with the stars. In spite of all the controversy, the first edition sold out before it was published. And it has never been out of print since then. This year, the original designer of the 1977 edition and the original editor have joined forces to present a new, deluxe hardcover edition of the most feared, most reviled, and most desired occult book on the planet.

Maskim Hul is a complete grimoire of Tiamat-centered magick, pre-luciferian sorcery developed from authentic Mesopotamian clay tablets. Tiamat, Kingu and the 11 Chaos-Monsters created by Tiamat are explored, their functions, manifestations and how they survived and existed in the pantheon of Marduk, Ea and the other gods. The gods, demons and evil spirits of Mesopotamia are presented along with Cuneiform sigils and documentation of their use in sorcery. The extensive Invocations of the Gods, Hymns and the entire foundation of authentic Kassapu-practice of ancient Babylon is offered in a concise manner. The grimoire is founded and dedicated to the Seven Sebitti or Maskim, the "Seven Evil Gods" or rebels along with Lamashtu, Lilith are presented in a plethora of rituals and their names of calling. The Serpent Gods of fertility, Ishtar revealed as a form of Tiamat (from pantheon sources) and the rites of necromancy and the Black Flame (Melammu) is presented.

Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. "Now that we have the second volume, we the more admire the thoughtful organisation of the entire project, the strict methods followed, and the insightful observations and decisions made." - Martin Stol, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXIV n° 3-4 (mei-augustus 2017)