THE ORIGINAL KEY TO THE 6TH AND 7TH BOOKS OF MOSES
Book Details + Condition: Guidance House and Secular Products (Massapequa, NY). First Edition, 1959. Softcover with red wraps with black decoration and titling. 97 pages. Firm binding; wear to covers, with small tear to front; old tape to inside covers; interior is clean and free of markings, save owner name to title page. This appears to be a small publisher release, as there is black binding tape to spine (which is original, because the publisher sticker is over the tape), and some of the interior printing is a bit smudged. A very scarce and fascinating edition, in which the author (Mikhail Strabo) has distilled down the original Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses to the magical and occult / Grimoire aspects of the book consisting of magical spells, talismans and sigils to conjure angels and "other worldly entities". Despite the original text being of relatively recent origin - most scholars suggest it first began to appear in manuscript form in the 18th century - The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses is arguably one of the most influential of all the grimoires. It contains a series of magical incantations, spells and seals purportedly from the lost magical Books of the Biblical prophet Moses. The work apparently originated in Germany and then spread to America via the Pennsylvania Dutch, and their "pow-wow" books. It began to appear in print in the late nineteenth century, and became popular in the African American South and also in the Caribbean, and West Africa, making its mark on the Hoodoo, Rastafarian, and various African religious movements, as well as on European and American occultists.
Mikhail Strabo was a pseudonym of Sydney J. Rosenfeld Steiner, who was the first Jewish American Hoodoo author and publisher. He wrote dozens of books on magic and spirituality. His importance to the development of 20th century urban-style Hoodoo rests on his having been the first author to present material about the use of candle magic in African American Hoodoo ceremonies. During the 1940s, he established “Guidance House”, which published books on Hoodoo and Spiritualism and which were sold in small African American candle shops across the nation, distributed by many mailorder magical, occult, hoodoo and conjure supply houses. Today, his first editions are scarce.
