Remember the invisibility spell from a couple entries ago? We finished translating it today – it is very strange. You perform a ritual and then summon four spirits, who give you an invisibility cloak, but with a catch...

There was also popular request to post the spell, so that I will. Not the full thing, because that would take to long, and the incantations are also rather religious (I told you it was strange), so a summary will have to suffice...

~ Preparation ~

Go out to a secluded place, away from the city, with flat ground. It must be Wednesday, the moon must be waxing, the sky must be clear, you must have recently cut your hair and beard, you must be wearing a white cloak (this is very important!), and one other thing I'm not going to list due to its slight suggestiveness. Then, draw a circle on the ground using a very ornate sword. Around the circle, in the four cardinal directions, write the names Melemil, Berith, Taraor, and Firiel, clockwise from Melemil at the north. Then write "Magister" (master) in the center. Then put the sword, pointing toward the west, above the word Firiel. Next, walk around the circle clockwise from Firiel, holding a vase filled with burning frankinsense, mirrh, and whatever olibandus is (some herb, obviously). Finally, sprinkle yourself and the circle with holy water while saying an incantation.

~ Invocation ~

Next, kneeling toward the west, recite a very long incanatation. It begins with "I, (your name here), summon you, O Firiel, Melemil, Berith, and Taraor, spirits powerful, magnificent, and illustrious ..." And you then go on to say that you summon them in the names of the father, son, and holy ghost, the one and only god, the earth and the sky, the sea and the underworld... It goes on. When you've done this facing each cardinal direction, the four spirits appear, and state that they will obey your every command. Tell them that you want an invisibility cloak. One of them will disappear, returning soon holding such, but will tell you that he cannot give it to you unless you first give the spirits the white cloak that you're wearing. If you do, he'll give you the cloak, and you can dismiss the spirits freely. Once they've gone, leave the circle, taking the sword with you.

~ Afterward ~

On the third day after receiving the cloak, you must go back to the circle with the invisibility cloak. You'll find your original white cloak there, which you have to burn. You will hear "most great lamenting and wailing" as you do. Then you sprinkle the ashes around the circle and through the air, and recite another incantation, this time summoning protection against the four spirits. Once you've done this, you sprinkle more holy water on the invisibility cloak, and say one final incantation. We didn't translate this part in class, but unless I'm very much mistaken, in this last one you talk to the cloak, asking it to always make you invisible whenever you put it on.

The catch is that if you go back on the fourth day instead of the third, you won't find anything there. And if you arrive too late and thus can't take back your own garment, you'll die on the seventh day after invoking the spirits.

Cheerful, no? But if you're careful about preparations and timing, you get an invisibility cloak out of it. Dr. Jones said that there was another invisibility spell somewhere in the book, this time involving a dead cat, which intrigues me... This one is quite strange already, and makes absolutely no sense at times. But then, it's from the Middle Ages. Very few things from then make sense.

Anyway. There you have it. A spell to acquire an invisibility cloak. It occurs to me that it could actually be performed tomorrow – the moon is waxing, it'll be Wednesday... But it never says if this spell is to be performed at night or day...

~ ToM