The Triangular Book of Saint-Germain: Complete Translation and Comparative Notes

The Triangular Book of Saint-Germain: Complete Translation and Comparative Notes

Introduction

Among the scattered Hermetic manuscripts of the eighteenth century, few have generated as much speculation as The Triangular Book of Saint-Germain. The text survives in at least three known exemplars:

• MS 209 (Manly P. Hall Collection, Getty Research Institute) — a gold-and-red triangular codex;

• MS 210 — a rectangular copy with an appended cipher key;

• Wellcome 4668 (London) — a tidy study manuscript with French and English marginal notes.

Each contains the same ritual core: an operation promising the recovery of treasures lost in the seas, the discovery of metals in the earth, and the preservation of health for one hundred years. The following translation integrates these witnesses and indicates differences in [brackets].

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Main Text

Opening Dedication

The Holy Magic revealed to Moses, discovered within an Egyptian monument and preserved in Asia under the emblem of a winged dragon.

1. To find things lost in the seas since the flood of the globe [MS 210 reads “since the overthrow of the globe”].

2. To discover mines of diamonds, gold, and money [Wellcome 4668 “silver”] in the bowels of the earth.

3. To preserve one’s health and prolong one’s life for a century with the vigor of fifty years.

The first two operations are to be performed only when the Sun, Moon, and Earth are in conjunction on the same line and plane. The third may be performed at any time, provided the operator carries upon his person a figure like that shown in the manuscript.

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Preparation of Fire and Lamps

Take a suitable vessel (of any material) and fill it with fire, which you shall exorcise as follows:

O Creature of Fire, I exorcise you by Him through whom all things were made, that you remove from yourself every phantom.
Blessed be the Eternal Father, for the glory of Thy holy and immortal Name. Thou who livest and reignest through all the centuries of the centuries.

The Levite – the assistant – responds: AMEN.

Next, bless the incense and four lamps:

O Eternal God, Sovereign Being, bless this incense and these lamps, that their virtue increase the fear of Thy enemies, and that none may enter here. Thou who livest and reignest through all the centuries of the centuries.

The Levite answers: AMEN.

Pour the blessed incense upon the fire and light the lamps before the operations.
The small concentric circle marks the operator’s place; the larger outer circle that of the Levite.
Both are to be drawn upon the ground, as in the figure.

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Consecration of the Circles

When arriving at the chosen place, give the figure to the Levite. Each shall stand within his respective circle. Then say:

NOTAMARGATET — bless this circle — bless YANODA — bless MIOLE — bless ALAG — bless AOTHIO — bless SORIDIS — bless APHAL — bless AGEMO — bless THOBASSA — bless ARIF — bless BADORA;
Thou who livest and reignest through all the centuries of the centuries.

Levite: AMEN.

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Invocation of the Spirits

Call the spirits who preside over the hours of the night:

• East (rising Sun): LEAMAN, LECIAB, LATRANAVIO, RIBRAL, TELARO.

• West (setting Sun): ELANA, LEPAB, USTAEL, THAERRUB, SOTARECO, ILIBAPAC.

• Upper quarter: ELIA, ELINA, AMIGABIREL.

• Lower quarter: PEDINBAD, FIALECHAM, CHARSIEL.

Then prostrate on the ground and invoke:

We invoke you YALATINA, LEMIROT, LESIAB, TELAR, HERIBAG, ARNAVIO, TRABA, ARIOT, ANIEL, LEDIMAT, YANAEL, CALMAS, LEASO, and VIANOEL;
We command you by Him through whom all things were made, and by all the other names of the Eternal: IANODA, EL MIHOLES, HOLAE MEBOTH, NOLICSAZ, and NOTAMMARGATET, who is the Lord God exalted before you and represented invisibly near this circle.
Let me know by just inspiration if I am found worthy by the purity of my soul to learn the places where are mines of diamonds, gold, and silver [MS 209: money], the treasures lost in the seas, and the means to prolong my life in health for a century.
Grant these favors without peril or danger, by Y and V that Adam understood, by the name AGLA for the preservation of Lot from the fire of Sodom, by JOTH for the deliverance of Jacob from his brother, by SOIGAD, YANADA, THEOS, and NOTAMMARGATET, and by all the other names of the Almighty who truly lives and reigns.

Levite: AMEN.

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Reception of Inspiration

Place upon your head, with your left hand, the figure previously carried.
If your heart is pure, you will feel inspiration; incline your ear to the whispers of the aerial spirits, and inscribe upon a brass plate from right to left the characters they reveal. [MS 210 adds “afterward bless them with these words.”]

Blessed be PAO — THEOS.

Communicate these things to no person, for you would make yourself unworthy of divine generosity and lose the success you hope for.

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Closing Formula

Take again the figure from your head, hold it in both hands, and kneel, saying:

In the Name of the Eternal, my God, true Master of my body, soul, and spirit, go in peace. Withdraw, yet remain ready to come whenever I shall call you.

AMEN and AMEN.

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Concluding Note

The ritual closes beneath three ciphered stars — the final emblem in MS 209 — a symbolic seal of completion.
While the three manuscripts differ in minor diction, all retain the same architecture: dual circles, the presence of a Levite, the invocation of aerial intelligences, and the act of receiving and inscribing revealed characters.

Whether the operation was ever performed cannot be proven. Yet its structure shows a consistent Hermetic logic: geometry as boundary, invocation as resonance, and inscription as transmission.
For the Saint-Germain Circle, such a text was less a superstition than a philosophical experiment — an attempt to synchronize human intellect with the hidden harmonies of the world.

Related reading:

• The Ritual Exemplar of MS 209

• Three Hands of the Triangular Book

• The Saint-Germain Circle: Hermetic Networks of the Eighteenth Century

 

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