A 13th-century grimoire claims it can accelerate mastery of any subject through a combination of angelic dreams, geometric meditation diagrams, and a daily ritual tea — and this summer, we're testing it.

Abammon is joined by Dr. Stone to break down the Ars Notoria: its history, its controversies, and its surprisingly sophisticated ritual technology. Then we announce a two-month experiment: Abammon attempts to reach translation-level Arabic, Dr. Stone attempts translation-level German — each using a different interpretation of the same medieval text. The results come in a follow-up episode.

📖 In This Episode:

• What the Ars Notoria actually is — and why it's unlike any other grimoire in the Solomonic tradition

• Its condemnation by Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and the Bishop of Paris almost immediately after it surfaced

• The purification ritual: two weeks of Lenten fasting, penitence, and prayer culminating in a dream visitation from an angel granting permission to begin

• Reconstructing a historical Lenten diet — what Christian fasting actually means and how Abammon is using it

• The pharmacology of the daily saffron and rosewater tea: why the ritual timing (morning preparation, afternoon consumption, evening practice) maps precisely onto the pharmacokinetics of crocin, crocetin, safranal, and PEA — and what BDNF, GABA, and the blood-brain barrier have to do with memorizing a grimoire

• The prayers and barbarous names: why Abammon doesn't think Latin carries magical weight, which languages actually do, and why the "prayers" in the Ars Notoria may actually be dense spirit conjuration hiding in plain sight

• Hacoronez — the name the Picatrix gives to Saturn — sitting inside a supposedly angelic prayer

• The Notae: what these extraordinary geometric diagrams are, the memory palace theory, and why Abammon is using them as objects of Zhine meditation instead

• The Arabic magical tradition of meditation as an "Indian science" and what that means for the text's origins

• The experiment: full ritual reconstruction vs. pure psychology — and what we're hoping to learn

📚 Editions Referenced in This Episode:

Mathias Castle — Ars Notoria: The Notory Art of Solomon

https://www.amazon.com/Ars-Notoria-Solomon-Medieval-Treatise/dp/1644115271

Dr. Stephen Skinner — Ars Notoria: The Grimoire of Rapid Learning by Magic

https://www.amazon.com/Ars-Notoria-Grimoire-Learning-Apollonius/dp/0738764523

Dr. Stephen Skinner — Ars Notoria: The Method (practical companion volume)

https://www.amazon.com/Ars-Notoria-Method-Mediaeval-Angel/dp/0738770302

🔗 College and Temple: collegeofmagicians.org

🔗 Occult App: livegrimoire.com