Book Discussion Shams Al Ma'Arif

[GreyBird]

Sorry about that. I was talking about.

Ahmad al-Buni & John Friend - Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra: The Complete Sun of Divine Knowledge. (link does not work)
Not​

The Sun of Knowledge (Shams al-Ma'arif): An Arabic Grimoire in Selected Translation​

It's my fault.
​

 

[Ombriel]

Reading through this thread, especially the breakdown of elemental interactions by Angelkesfarl and the talismans shared by MacLu69, I see so many parallels with the martial mysticism we practice here in Southeast Asia.

The Staff of Moses talisman for authority and stopping enemies in their tracks uses the exact same energetic architecture as our local invulnerability and martial initiation rites. Striking the earth to establish a boundary and command the space is a foundational physical and spiritual mechanic in our folk magic. The earth grounds the charge and the strike directs the will.

Angelkesfarl also made a great point about the cross fertilization of elements like fire and air acting as heat and breath while earth and water form the clay and blood of the living vessel. That maps perfectly onto our microcosm philosophy. We use that exact same elemental alchemy in our inner power breathwork. You pack the fire and air into the clay of the lower abdomen to generate martial heat and authority.

It is wild to see how a 13th century Arabic framework and Southeast Asian folk mysticism arrive at the exact same mechanical conclusions about how the human body holds and projects power. This really makes me want to dig deeper into the geometry of his squares. Thanks for sharing those rare excerpts.

 

[Lion]

Who uses the Shams often as part of their practice? I am trying to work out what exactly needs to be done with number squares...what names do we cosde into it? ours? the spirits? both ? and how to activate them

 

[yourfantasyjulianna]

Many Arab practitioners I know consider this a closed practice. So the dissemination of this knowledge is discouraged as a whole, and even when practices are taught or shown to outsiders, many names or words are intentionally changed.

 

[L’chaimGoldberg]

It seems like there is a new transaltion of the Shams here, with all 40 chapters:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

I can't exactly verify if the source manuscripts for this version constitute a "critical edition" like what you might get with Joseph Petersons stuff, but it is the only one I see that is a complete english translation. It is a 1978 page beastie and hopefully contains everything unlike previous versions that provided only limited translations in parts. It certainly is expensive, but this is probably the one OP might be looking for.

This is the new translation I just discovered, I wonder has anyone bought it yet and looked through it?
The only other English versions Ive seen are selected parts, basically an abridged version, and reading Arabic wasn’t my strong point. I saw an Arabic version on amazon and thought about getting it and using Google translate but then I read that most copies available aren’t even the real version, even if they’re in Arabic.

I’d just like to know before I spend 150 dollars, kinda steep. I saw the translator, John Friend, has a couple translated books on jinn magic that look really interesting