Psalm Magic

In my review of the Hoodoo Tarot, I mentioned that one of the reasons I found this magical practice appealing was because of the magickal use of Scripture. It feels empowering for me, as someone recovering from religious trauma, to repurpose a tool of oppression into an empowering magical tool. Since I wrote that review, I finally dove into something I have been wanting to explore for a long time and that is Psalm Magic.

Psalm magic is used by many traditions and has its roots in Jewish Folk Magic. The book, Sefer Shimmush Tehillim, a book of Jewish Psalm magic was published in Italy in 1551. Christianised translations quickly spread across Europe and were brought to the US by immigrants. However, at the same time hermeticists and ceremonial magicians were using the Book of Psalms in ways not related to folk magic.

It seems we now have several streams and multiple expressions of use of the Psalms for magical purposes as well as consciousness evolution. While folk magic practitioners will have more of a practical focus, practitioners of ceremonial magic or offshoots of that tradition may have more of a focus on soul alchemy.

The Original Way of Working with the Psalms in the Shimmush Tehillim

Each of the Psalms is ascribed a virtue. The Psalms come with specific instructions that vary depending on the Psalm and what practical application it has. Often the Psalm is accompanied by a specific prayer that includes one of the names of God. Sometimes, the instructions are to read the Psalm a set number of times etc.

The Hebrew virtues of some of the Psalms do not translate very well for folk magic use. So you can see why they were changed for European/American conjure. One such example is Psalm 80 which in the Shimmush Tehillim is for strengthening faith and making people avoid conjure advisors and any kind of ‘Pagan’ practices. In the Christianised/Conjure version, it is simply for ‘strengthening faith.’

Many of the Psalms have practical virtues/uses only in the Shimmush Tehillim. One such use is for Psalm 1 which is to prevent miscarriage and comes with the following prayer:

“May it be your will, One God (El
Chad = חד אל), that you will rescue
this woman (name and mother’s
name) that she will not abort and
that she will be completely healed
from now on and forever. Amen,
Amen, Amen, Sela, Sela, Sela”

However, according to Pater Amadeus, you can translate this practical usage into the more metaphysical ‘avoiding miscarriage of thoughts.’

If you want to learn Jewish Folk Magic, I recommend Shimmush Tehillim – The Magical Virtues of Psalms by Orna Ben-Shoshan on Udemy.

The Advantages of Psalm Magic

• It’s foolproof. It never fails to affect change. This is the reason why it became so popular and spread like wildfire. It is also the reason why people from so many diverse religious and cultural backgrounds practise it. From the POV of Chaos Magick, the reason it is foolproof is that it runs along a large and well-established stream of energy. From the point of view of the hermeticist, it is foolproof because it adheres to or even lays the foundation of Divine/Cosmic Law.
• It’s safe. You are working with the one Source of all of creation by whatever name you recognise it. This is the Supreme Good, in other words. You are not dabbling with spirits or entities. Hence there is no need to offer sacrifices so they behave. Nobody is going to prank you if you get it wrong.
• It’s free. You can find everything you need, free of charge, online.
• Does not limit itself to any particular spiritual path, religion or monotheistic belief paradigm. While you are addressing God/Source, this can be seen as an aspect of your Higher Self if you like. It’s okay to combine deity work and/or venerate ancestors with the Magic of the Psalms.

Free Resources for Psalm Magic

NB: While you can start practising with only online resources, you will probably want to get a hard copy of the Book of Psalms eventually. It’s a nice item to keep on your altar too.

YouTube Resources

• Ariel Gatoga – Ariel Gatoga mixes his Psalm Magic with Angel Magick and a simplified form of Ceremonial Magick. He also adds a dash of conjure with his use of scents. I adore this way of working and have adapted it for my use. Ariel Gatoga shares a FREE 33-page PDF download about Psalm magic HERE.
• Pater Amadeus – Pater Amadeus has more of a focus on the text, so this is ideal if you don’t like props. Sadly, his playlist is incomplete and only covers the first few Psalms, with the most recent upload being nine months ago. Fingers crossed that he picks up where he left off. However, you can still learn a lot on this channel. Pater Amadeus also shares a free PDF download about Psalm Magic on his website which I highly recommend.

Online Resources

• Psalms King James Version – You can also download free Bible apps on your smartphone. The recommended Bible versions for these workings are the KJV or the Catholic Bible. I like the familiarity of the KJV as well as the Shakespearian quality of the English.
• Metaphysical Bible Dictionary – The TruthUnity.net website contains the Philmore Metaphysical Bible Dictionary. You can access metaphysical information about any term from the Psalms that you wish to examine. The easiest way to do this is via the search bar at the top of the site.
• Folk Magic Uses of the Psalms – This site lists the Christianised folk magic versions of the Shimmush Tehillim that Hoodoo and Conjure practitioners use to this day.
• The Psalms in Latin – This is a good resource for those of you who enjoy using ancient languages when working with Psalm magic. Frater Amadeus recommends using a few words or a sentence in one of the ancient languages for more of an impact on the subconscious mind. In the image at the top of the post, I chose to include the final sentence of Psalm 1 in Latin. You can choose any part of the Psalm that stands out to you. Write your translation (Latin, Hebrew or Greek) on a piece of paper or turn it into a sigil. Alternatively, you can simply read it out loud as you recite the psalm.

Addendum: The Marian Psalms and Psalm Magic

While I have not yet come across any practitioners using the Marian Psalms by Bonaventure for magical purposes, I can’t imagine I’m the only one who has thought of doing so. You can find those free online here. There are 150 Marian Psalms so you can combine them with the original Psalms in Scripture, Psalm-by-Psalm.

Combining the two makes sense to me as a Magdalene Priestess in service of the Divine Feminine. According to both Ariel Gatoga and Pater Amadeus, it is likely that the Psalms are much older than the current Judeo-Christian text. And if anything got edited out in favour of the tribal God Jahve, you can bet it was the Goddess.

Metaphysically, you can look at Mary in any number of ways. Mary has the following meaning according to the Philmore Metaphysical Bible Dictionary:

“The feminine, the soul, the affectional and emotional phase of man’s being, both when seemingly bound and limited by sensate thought, and in its freed, exalted state.”

The freed, exalted state is what we see in the dancing Holy Sophia figure depicted in the Tarot World card.