Below I have reproduced a piece which talks about the occult scene in Liverpool in 1857. (Source: Liverpool Mercury, 27 April 1857, p3; I have made some light edits for presentational reasons.)

The piece is a rationalist polemic. The writer is unhappy that occultism is being practised at the present day in the “enlightened town of Liverpool”. He thinks that professional practitioners are fraudsters who mislead and harm people. Nevertheless, he recognises that the practices in question attract a significant number of people of both sexes, including deluded “men of education”.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that he is a sceptic who is hostile to the subject that he is writing about, the writer seems not to be scrupulously careful in distinguishing between different occult practices or in describing accurately how they are supposed to work.

The piece bears witness to the fact that Mesmerism and Spiritualism were prevalent phenomena in this period. But there are also references to other, older techniques, including crystal scrying, which the writer observes had recently experienced an increase in popularity. Most significantly, the piece describes what is clearly Solomonic ritual magic. Indeed, one of the invocations that is quoted seems to come from the Lesser Key of Solomon.

It is often thought that ritual magic went through something of a recession until the later part of the nineteenth century, and that interest in the tradition reawakened only gradually. The influential French occultist Éliphas Lévi published works on the subject from the 1850s, and in due course magical lodges began to appear in the 1880s and 90s, principally in the form of the Golden Dawn in England and revived Martinism in France. It is clear, however, from this piece that Solomonic ritual magic was being practised in Liverpool in 1857. It may therefore be questioned how severe the recession was and when it began to end.

The writer gives special attention to an unnamed cunning man in St Helens, who apparently claimed that he could contact fairies. The writer also makes it clear that other practitioners too believed that the spirits which they could contact included fairies. This seems odd, and it is not easy to determine how far the practitioners themselves would have talked about fairies in this context and how far the writer is garbling their beliefs.

Those familiar with ritual magic may find it surprising that the writer appears to attest that magicians would sometimes enter the triangle of invocation.

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“‘Tis all a cheat,

But, fool’d by hope, men favour the deceit.”

Good reader, it may sound strangely at variance with the notions thou hast formed of progression in the nineteenth century to hear of magic crystals, magic mirrors, and magic circles, into which the spirits of the earth and of the air, of the fire and of the water, are with religious solemnity summoned, that they may be compelled to reply with truthfulness to the questionings of drivelling fortune tellers too idle to work, or forced to reveal the secrets of the prison-house, that the prying curiosity may be gratified of the would-be philosopher, who prefers making use of the wits of any stupid ghost his imagination may conjure up, to the industrious and orderly exercise of the intellectual faculties, by which alone true knowledge may be obtained.

The worthy introduced in our last paper professed to have formed and entered, after due physical and spiritual preparation, the magic circle; but as neither angel nor demon gave answer to his summons, he became sceptical. It may be that he was too mean and despicable a villain for any order or degree of spiritual intelligences to truckle with. Some, however, who have passed through this mystic ordeal do profess to have been favoured by intimate and friendly intercourse with both seraphic and infernal beings.

One of these favourites of the gods lived in the neighbourhood of St. Helen’s. The magic circle had been the medium of gaining for him the goodwill and ready services of that sprightly race, of which poets only dream, but with whose pranks of breaking dishes, moving furniture, and milking the cows, the good wife of yore was rendered very familiar, so that her mind got settled as to the cause of many things going wrong. This wise man’s residence being in proximity to glass manufactories, he turned many a penny by obtaining crystals for, and consecrating them to the service of, the professional fortune teller. Many an amateur, too, in this enlightened town of Liverpool, who was ambitious of becoming his own seer, did this old man provide with these duly prepared mediums for witnessing the mystic visions of the past and future of his own and others’ lives.

The crystal has of late become a favourite means of divination. Its popularity is in a great measure owing to the powers which many mesmerists ascribe to it, of rendering deeper the magnetic sleep of their patients when applied to the forehead; and it is also regarded by some as forming a fine material plane for the concentration of clairvoyant visions. The fortune-telling fraternity, of course, ascribe all its wonderful properties to the solemn rites of consecration, and to the mystic influences infused by charging. The pellucid stone crystal is now rarely used for fortune-telling purposes, for the seers were not slow in discovering that a cheaper article could be endowed with the same magical virtues. A sphere of flint glass, free from air bubbles and highly polished, is now therefore in general use amongst both professional and amateur seers. These crystals are mostly egg-shaped; some, however, are globular, and others are cylindrical. The latter sort is usually mounted on a wooden frame, round which is a metallic plate bearing a number of engraved cabalistic characters.

These crystal spheres are consecrated to different purposes. Some for the governing angels or their ministers to take their stand while the wizard issues his commands; others for the ghosts of the departed to make their appearance, whilst their shaken-brained relatives gaze at them with wonder and affright through the ferret eye of the professional seer. Some are for presenting to the eye distant and wide tracks of country in foreign climes, that the weary wanderings of a long-absent relative, friend, or lover may be traced, and that the inquirer – the fair inquirer – may learn how he travels, what he eats and drinks, where he sleeps, if he wears a nightcap, if his complexion is darkened or his whiskers grown, if his heart throbs, and to whom his thoughts revert. And others are specially adapted for representing or imaging the past events of life, and revealing by mystic symbols the future destinies of men and nations. He who has entered the circle is supposed to have had imposed upon him the gift of interpreting such visions, and he must speak out when a sixpence, or a shilling, or a larger sum is placed upon his table; for the fortune-teller, like gentlemen of the medical profession, is seldom seen to take up the money of his customers.

The wizard of the St. Helen’s district being noted for his strict observance of all magical rites and ceremonies, the crystals that have come from him are held in high estimation. His reputed intercourse with fairies attracted to his cottage the superstitious from all parts who had suffered loss from theft or carelessness. The resting places of old registers of marriages, births, and deaths, of wills and old deeds, he gave out were particularly made known to him by these his faithful servants; and we have known a few of the well-to-do and pretty intelligent inhabitants of this commercial town to wend their way to this old seer’s dwelling, flushed with hope that he would bring to light out of fairy land some missing documents of value.

What! are not the superstitions about fairies fully exploded yet? Is it possible that they are regarded now in any other light than as beautiful poetic fictions? Yes, good reader, by more than the mere fortune hunting class are these spirits believed in, for the fairy seers have become numerous in these days of mesmerism, spirit rapping, and clairvoyance.

The magic circle to the fortune-telling seer is the medium of introduction to what he may deem the ruling agencies of nature, and the means of opening out the germs in which the future lies concealed. To another class of seers – who stand on safer ground in relation to penal enactments, but who, we fear, are quite as sordid – the mesmeric trance, or the spirit circle and creaking table, are the grand mediums of instruction relative to the mysteries of the inner life, and of communication with the spirit world. The spirits that some of these seers have come across, manifesting about the same degree of intelligence and a similar love of mischief to those which the crystal peeper and the fortune-telling favourite of the fairies profess frequently to have had the honour of seeing and of conversing with, lead us to suspect that they belong either to the same family of delusions, or to that of base impositions upon the credulity of the people.

At some of the table-tipping revelations we can heartily laugh, especially at that recently communicated to a gentleman of high standing in the literary world, who, in answer to his question put to test the intelligence of a wicked wag of a ghost, received the astounding information “that the spirit of Hamlet has seventeen noses.”

But the graver relations of tipping mediums and clairvoyant seers relative to spiritual laws and spiritual life, and the effect of such revelations upon society, are matters for very serious reflection. All appeals to the purely imaginative faculties should be carefully watched by the people’s educators, and no means neglected to test the purity of their source. Pooh-poohing that which to the learned may appear clearly erroneous will never stay the progress of error; the judgment of the people must be trained to test for themselves the truth of evidence. The fortune teller has appealed successfully to the people’s love of the marvellous, and the results have been, and continue to be, fearfully injurious; for few can imagine the fiendish delight some of these villains take in tormenting their willing victims by prognostications of disappointments, misery, and shame. How frequently does reason become dethroned, and how many suicides might be traced to the insidious influences which this class of charlatans are continually bringing to bear upon their weak-minded dupes. A poor wretch who had been in almost daily communication for some time with an illustrious seer and extensive dealer in charms desperately put an end to her life a few hours after leaving the professor’s sanctum.

The superstitious belief in fairies is not only fostered by such fortune-telling seers as was the favoured one of the district of St. Helen’s, but “spiritism,” as developed by clairvoyance and table rapping, introduces us again to the fairy realms; and the spiritualist boldly asserts “that there is precisely the same reason for affirming these beings as that which furnishes the largest ground for spiritualistic faith in other departments.”

It may not be uninteresting just to glance at some of the instrumentalities by which such revelations respecting spiritual existences are made known to us dull-sighted mortals. First, then, the fortune teller’s spiritual vision and miraculous powers are developed by the sacred magical rites in the formation and consecration of the circle; and not only are such rites performed by professional charlatans, but men of education, sometimes led off by their love of the wonderful, and the intense desire to penetrate the clouds and darkness that separate the spiritual from the material, will enter heart and soul into these mystic ceremonies, and may be found solemnly summoning into a charcoal circle, or a magic mirror, the ghosts, it may be, of their reverend grandames.

Yes! we have known many circles formed in Liverpool for the ostensible purpose of raising the spirits of the dead. Imagine, good reader, that you enter at night an unfurnished apartment, very dimly lighted, where are assembled seven or nine grave-looking men. See, they group around a circle of about two feet in diameter, thickly coated with charcoal. There they stand, silent and still as death, linked together with the mystic grip. Their eyes are riveted on the centre of the circle. Their thoughts are fixed on one well known to them all, and whose studies and practices had been one with theirs. He has passed the bourne; but they, his friends and fellow students, stand here in the full hope that the strong vibrations of their souls will strike on his, and induce him to assume a mortal shape within that circle, that he may tell them what is doing on the other side. We ask thee but to believe that this scene is passing in a room connected with a public institution, and thou wilt have no difficulty in arriving at a just conclusion as to what will be the result of the experiment.

But the ordeal through which the two fortune-telling worthies to whom we have referred professed to have passed, and through which we know many have passed, requires preparation by strict fasting, and other denials of the external man. Peculiar vestments are sometimes worn, but more frequently now they are dispensed with. The wizard selects his place for forming the magic circle in accordance with the character of the spiritual intelligences with whom he wishes to be in association. The locality where a suicide has been committed is regarded as very favourable for magical rites. If subterranean spirits be desired to appear, pits and other hollow places are selected. If fairies, nymphs, satyrs, spirits of the air or of the water, are to be summoned, elevated positions, woods, or rocks near the sea are pitched upon for the wizard’s operations. Eastham Wood not long ago was selected for the rites and ceremonies connected with the magic circle. Having found a suitable place, the wizard will choose a time when the moon shines brightest, or a night when storms of wind, lightning, or thunder rage, for at such times he supposes that spiritual beings are nearer the earth and can more readily pay attention to his invocations.

All the necessary preparations completed, he, with a charred stick, will form a circle nine feet in circumference, and placing himself in the centre, will throw off his old shoes and don a pair of russet leather ones, having a cross cut on the top. These he will have made and consecrated for the occasion. He will now take his magic wand, which is a new hazel stick, and holding it at arm’s length, will turn himself round, uttering with all the fervency of his maniacal soul – “I, who am the servant of the Highest, do by virtue of his holy name Emanuel, sanctify unto myself the circumference of my foot round about me – from the east Blauzah, from the west Barron, from the north Cabon, from the south Berrith – which ground I take for my proper defence from all malignant spirits, that they may have no power over my soul or body nor come beyond these limitations, but answer truly, being summoned, without daring to transgress their bounds.”

If he has the courage to call infernal spirits to his aid, he will protect himself by forming three other circles within the outer one. Sacred names he will have had written in crosses and triangles, and at the angles of the triangles will be small circles, in which also will be written the names of the Divine Being, and at the angles will be inscribed the names of the Trinity. The triangles and crosses he will place round about the inner circles, and proceed with his conjurations. His reason for all this preparation is, that if the spirit he conjures be not readily brought to communicate truthfully, he may be compelled to enter the triangles, for the wizard believes that infernal spirits are then forced to speak the truth by virtue of the names of the sacred Trinity.

The exorcisms of the circle are most presumptuous, but they show so clearly the nature and tendency of this class of superstitious practices that we submit a specimen of a general exorcism which we know to have been used for magical purposes. The wizard who has the temerity to desire the presence of a powerful spirit will, after the consecration and blessing of the circle, say boldly – “I, being made after the image of God and endowed with the power of God, do exorcise you, ye ariel spirit, by the most mighty and powerful name of God, El, strong and wonderful. Aba, I command you by He who spoke the word and it was done, by all the names of God, Adonai, El, Elohim, Elohe, Zebaoth, Elion, Eserchie, Jah, Tetragrammaton, Sadai, Lord God Most High. I exorcise you and powerfully command you forthwith to appear unto me here before this circle in a fair human form without any deformity or tortuosity. Come ye because I command you by the name Yau and Vau; which Adam heard and spoke; and by the name Agla, which Lot heard, and was saved with his family; and by the name Joth, which Jacob heard from the angel with whom he wrestled and was delivered from the hands of his brother Esau; and by the name of Anaphexton, which Aaron heard and was made wise; and by the name Zebaoth, which Moses named, and all the rivers were turned into blood; and by the name Eserchie Oristen, which Moses named, and all the rivers brought forth frogs, which ascended into the houses of the Egyptians and destroyed all things; and by the name Elion, which Moses named, and there was great hail, such as had not been since the beginning of the world; and by the name Adonai, which Moses named, and there came up locusts which appeared upon the whole land of Egypt and devoured all that the hail had left; and by the name Tchemesa-Amathis, which Joshua called upon and the sun stayed his course; and by the name Alpha and Omega, which Daniel named and destroyed Bel and slew the Dragon; and by the name Emanuel, which the three children sang in the midst of the fiery furnace and were delivered; and by the name Hagios and by the seal of Adonai and by Ischyros, Athanatos, and Paracletos, and by these three sacred names, Agla, On, Tetragrammaton, I do conjure you. By these and by all other names of the living and true God our Lord Almighty I exorcise you and command you by him who spake the word and it was done, to whom all creatures are obedient; and by the dreadful judgment of God, and by the uncertain sea of glass which is before the Divine Majesty; by the four beasts before the throne, having eyes before and behind; and by the fire round about the throne, and by the holy angels of heaven. By the mighty wisdom of God I do powerfully exorcise you that you appear here before this circle, to fulfil my will in all things which shall seem good to me. By the seal of Baldachai, and by this name Primeumaton which Moses named and the earth opened and swallowed up Corah, Dathan, and Abiram; and by the power of that name Primeumaton, which commanded the whole host of heaven, I curse you, and deprive you of your office, joy, and place, and do bind you in the depth of the bottomless pit, there to remain until the dreadful day of the last judgment; and I bind you into eternal fire and the lake of fire and brimstone, unless you forthwith appear before this circle to do my will. Therefore come ye, come ye, come ye. Adonai commandeth. Sadai, the mighty King of kings, whose power no creature is able to resist, be unto you most dreadful. Unless ye obey and forthwith affably appear before this circle, let miserable ruin and fire unquenchable remain with you. Therefore come ye, in the name Adonai, Zabaoth Adonai, come, come, come. Why stay you? Hasten! Adonai, Sadai, the King of kings commands you, El, Aty, Zateip, Azir, Hin, Jen, Minosel, Achadan, Vax, Va, Ey, A, El, El, El, A, He, Hau, Hau, Hau, Va, Va.”

Thus will the wizard go on calling, until he either awakes to his folly or his brain becomes disordered, and spectres wild, fantastic, or hideous are seen by him as palpable realities, tracking his steps from this his consecrated circle through life.