ABSTRACT
We have already summarized the influences which the planets were believed to exert on the characters of men and we may now describe briefly the means which the Ḳabbalists used to obtain for their purposes the most favourable of these influences. They gave various significant names to each planet, and devised for each four signs, which they wrote on metal or parchment; these last-named indicated the various entities which were in it and those which were connected with it. These signs were followed by magic squares, containing a series of numbers which the Hebrew Ḳabbalists wrote in Hebrew letters and the Arabic Ḳabbalists in Arabic letters. The Ḳabbalists used magical squares as amulets, and they gave them a peculiar character by associating them with the seven astrological stars, and with certain metals. When and where the signs of the entities or spirits of the planets and the magical squares were invented is not known, but it is almost certain that they are of Sumerian or Indian origin. The material on which they are based in its earliest form is undoubtedly very ancient, though the forms in which we now have both signs and magical squares are not. The Ḳabbalists call the magical square “Ḳâmê‘a,” which Buxtorf translates by pittacium and amuletum, and he says that the Ḳâmê‘a was hung on the neck or breast (From Ḳâmê‘a comes caméo (French and Italian) and our word cameo) The signs and squares for the planets have been published in many books, e. g. Cornelius Agriff a, MagischeWerke, BD. II.p. 128F.; Poinsot, Encyclopédie des Sciences Occultes, Paris (no date) ; Sepharial, The Book of Charms and Talismans, London (no date), etc.
