Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Reading language

Prayer for the Work

Prayer to be said for the work, against spells, possessions, and other magical arts

May the Word, who became incarnate, was fastened to the Cross, and is seated at the Father's right hand to hear the prayers of believers, who lives and reigns

in perfect unity, deign, by the power of his holy name before which every knee bends, by the merits of the Virgin his mother, and by the prayers of all holy men and women, to preserve this creature N.... from every incursion of sorcery and demons. For behold the cross ✝ of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in which are our life and our resurrection, and the overthrow of spells and demons. Flee, then, hostile powers! For I conjure you, infernal demons and evil spirits, whatever your nature, whether present or absent, if, summoned in any manner and under any pretext, or sent of your own accord, or through enchantments, or by the magical art of a man or woman, you come to dwell here or cause distress: withdraw, so that this creature may be preserved from your diabolical deceit. ✝ By the living God, ✝ the true, ✝ the holy, ✝ the Father, ✝ the Son, ✝ and the Holy Spirit; above all, by him ✝ who was sacrificed in Isaac, ✝ sold in Joseph, ✝ slain in the lamb, ✝ crucified in man, in whose blood they conquered you, when Michael fought against you and

won the victory. If you approach, I command you to turn back and to have no power, under any pretext, to trouble this creature N...., either in the body or outside the body, by vision or by terror, by day or by night, asleep or awake, eating or praying, or doing anything whatsoever of a natural or spiritual kind. Otherwise I pour upon you every curse and excommunication, ✝ every degree and suffering of torment and destruction in the lake of fire and sulfur, at the hands of your enemies, by order of the Holy Trinity and through the ministry of Michael the archangel. For if you are bound by any command of worship, incense, inundation, or art compiled and contrived for any evil end whatsoever—whether in herbs, words or elemental stones, whether natural or supernatural, or in the names of the great God and the angels, or in characters, hours, minutes, years, days or months—and spiritually observed through an explicit or tacit pact, even confirmed by oath, I break them all, annul them, and destroy them,

by the power of the Father who created the whole world ✝, by the wisdom of the redeeming Son ✝, by the goodness of the Holy Spirit ✝; by him who fulfilled the whole law ✝, who is, ✝ who was, ✝ who will come, ✝ almighty, ✝ holy, ✝ immortal; ✝ Tetragrammaton; Jesus, Alpha and Omega ✝, the beginning and the end. May every diabolical power therefore be driven out within this creature and put to flight by these signs of the holy cross and by the invocation of angels, archangels, patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, confessors, virgins and the blessed Virgin, and all those who reign in heaven with the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, and who live righteously in the church of the holy God. Withdraw, then! Just as the smoke from the gall of a burned fish drove the spirit from Sarah during Raphael's absence, may these blessings drive you away, so that you dare not come within a hundred thousand paces of this creature marked with the sign of the Cross. For my command is not my own, but that of him who was sent from the Father's bosom

to destroy our works, and who destroyed them upon the altar of the Cross, and gave us, for his glory and the benefit of the faithful, the power to command you, as we now command and order you not to dare approach, through Christ, the Lord your God. ✝ ✝ Behold the cross of the Lord! Flee, hostile powers! The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered. Praise the Lord. Amen, amen; let it be done, let it be done!

15.N.... is the manuscript's place for the name of the creature or person to be protected. 'Every knee bends' recalls Philippians 2:10. The repeated cross signs are part of the prayer's written form, not editorial punctuation.

16.The sequence Isaac–Joseph–lamb–man reads earlier biblical figures as prefigurations of Christ. Michael's battle and victory through the Lamb's blood recall Revelation 12:7–11.

17.The catalogue rejects both material instruments and written or temporal signs when used to bind spirits through a pact. 'Inondation' is the manuscript's apparent wording; the context may instead intend innodation, a binding. The translation leaves the visible word as 'inundation' rather than silently substituting that conjecture.

18.The phrases 'who is, who was, who will come' and 'Alpha and Omega' recall Revelation 1:8. Tetragrammaton, written here in Greek letters, denotes the four-letter divine name.

19.The narrative alludes to Tobit 8:2–3. There the heart and liver of the fish produce the odor that repels the demon, and Raphael pursues it; the manuscript instead says gall and describes Raphael's absence. Both differences are retained.

20.The lion of Judah and root of David are titles of the victorious Christ in Revelation 5:5. The prayer closes with repeated performative formulas; their repetition is retained.