How To Learn The Lunar Mansions Of The Shams al-Ma'arif In One Month
A lunar month to be precise.
The Shams al-Ma’arif, or The Book of the Sun of Gnosis, is a 13th century Arabic grimoire that has become one of the most infamous magical texts in human history. Originally developed by an Egyptian magical order and the mystic Ahmed al-Buni, the text was created to be taught to his students, and includes material with all sorts of magical techniques—talismans, djinn evocation, spells, a lot of planetary magick (which this article will focus on), and many other things. Unfortunately, specific Islamic scholars, especially Ibn Tamiyyah, a proto-Salafi thinker and the father of tafkirist ideology, called the text evil, making many falsely believe that it is a book made up of evil sorcery. This cannot be further from the truth.
If you actually read the book for yourself, you will notice that it is quite similar to many other esoteric grimoires from this general time period. It is not anymore dark or evil than any popular European grimoire. In fact, the entire text is incredibly and shockingly right-hand path and pious. I feel as if it solidly falls into the category of mysticism, not sorcery. For many, when they think of this text, their mind goes straight to the djinn rituals that have made it famous. But, there is a lot more in this grimoire than djinn evocation. In fact, the vast majority of the text is not about djinn.
The most frequently discussed form of magick in the book is planetary magick, a type of magia naturalis (natural magick). This refers to any sort of mystical or magickal practice that relies upon the planetary bodies to work. However, unlike many western planetary magick texts, the Shams al-Ma’arif relies heavily upon the movements of the moon. Of course, solar movements do matter—many talismans and charms are dependent upon being created on specific planetary days or hours, but for the vast majority of the text, the moon is central.
To understand the lunar magick of the grimoire, you need to first understand that there is more to the movements of the moon, than the normal moon phases that all mystics are well aware of. In the grimoire, there is a key emphasis of the idea of the lunar mansions, which is 28 subdivisions of the lunar cycle, based on specific astrological degrees of the moon, that all have their own distinct meaning.
Each mansion has a name, which is written in Arabic but can be translated to English, a ruling on whether it is favorable or unfavorable, a description, a set number of degrees that it covers, and an associated spirit that “descends to the earth” with each mansion. It is critical to remember that Arabic astrology does not operate under the same metaphysical understanding that many western astrological texts do (as above, so below). Instead, it operates based on a celestial rays and spirit based models. The planets impact us because they reflect God and have associated spirits to each planet. It is not an inter-relational understanding. I suggest reading Al-Kindi’s “On The Celestial Rays” to get a sense of this prior to reading the grimoire.
To begin understanding them, you should read what they are. You can read about them in the untranslated version (available in Turkish, Urdu, and Arabic) or in the shortened select English translation. Thankfully, this section is in the translated version!
Then, to begin the learning method that I created, wait until the first day of the next lunar month. I begin lunar month calculations based on Hellenistic methods, using the noumenia, which is the first visible sliver of moon after the new moon. If you want to use the calculation of the Islamic world, you begin your lunar month when the crescent moon is first visible. With either of these methods, you need to sight the moon with your eye, not based on online calculations! This is the traditional method and is most accurate. As well, it gets you used to noting the moon in the sky.
Once you begin, and you sight the moon, you will go onto an astrological chart calculator online, input the current time, and then scroll until you find the sign and degree of the moon. Then, you will reference that against the grimoire, and write your first diary entry. You will write the date, time, the moon phase based on visible eye sighting, then the exact lunar sign and degree, the name of the lunar mansion, what it means, what spiritual practices you did that day, then do a dairy entry based on how your day went.
You will repeat this process for an entire lunar month! Do not skip nights, even if there are nights when the mansion remains the same. At the end of the month, read your entries back, and reflect how everything aligned. At this point, you will have read all of the mansions, seen how they play out in your life, and became acutely aware of the metaphysical meaning of it all. I firmly believe that experience is the greatest spiritual teacher.
After this point, use the mansions in your esoteric practice, and get to cracking into the wondrous and complex planetary magick of this grimoire.
-GR