The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses

During the 18th century, pamphlets containing magical incantations, talismans, and rituals to command the supernatural elements began to circulate among the agrarian peasants living in the Vorderpfalz region of what is now Germany. Geographically, this area is located in the south-eastern part of Rhineland-Palatinate, with the Rhine River on the east and the Palatinate Forest hills on the west. Rural folks farming this rich valley soil had great use for the weather lore, protective charms, and healing enchantments contained within these circulars which continued to be distributed anonymously until 1849 when it was officially compiled into a book and published in the Palatinate (now Germany) by Johann Scheibel, a noted occult writer of his time. That book was the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. The magic that shaped its creation traveled to Pennsylvania long before the book was written. The Brauchers and Braucherins who employed its power from one continent to the other did their work for the greater need of the community, and in quiet disregard for the controversial conjuring of both angelic and evil biblical entities to do one's earthly bidding that would stir-up such a flurry of judgment from the Christian faction of practitioners of the time. in the late 19th century. It has been said that most Braucherei practitioners own a copy of this grimoire, though most will not admit to that ownership. I must admit the air around this book in my culture gave me much hesitation about exploring its pages; however, I firmly believe we fear what we do not understand, and through directing our intention upon self-education and evolving our development forward in humanity, we remove the ignorance that generates the fear which shuns, divides, and creates judgment between neighbors. In Braucherei, as in life, our intention dictates the way our energy flows; therefore, we are responsible for the results of our action or inaction. A book cannot be feared if we know our own capabilities and the intentions in our own heart. I went ahead and purchased a copy of the book, and I also committed to learning as much about it as I could, including the misinformation circulating behind the scenes.

The name of the writing alone lends to mystery. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses automatically activates one's fancy of the biblical man who parted the Red Sea with his staff and leads one to wonder if this ancient-looking script was purposefully excluded from the biblical text due to its nature. In fact, this was the goal of the anonymous author who first placed ink to parchment of those pamphlets in the Palatinate. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) are known as the Five Books of Moses (the Torah). By positioning the magical grimoire as a continuation of Moses's writings, the book gained authority and held religious weight in its anonymous author's claims to contain lost secrets passed down from Moses to Aaron, on through king Solomon. However, both historians and theologians advise the writing has no origin in ancient Hebrew or Second Temple manuscripts, as the language within its pages purported as "Hebrew" consists of hybrid phrases and pseudo-latin symbols.

The inexpensive pamphlets in circulation in the Palatinate in the 1700's were composite folklore, rather than the work of Moses. Their origin-- fragments of Christian and Judaic folk magic, stitched together with the contents of older, traditional magical and mystical traditions, including pieces of the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh (ie: "Seven Semiphophoras"). and believed the manuscript to be authentic. The original circulation of this text in the 18th Century German-speaking lands laid the subterranean folk magic foundation for rural superstition and secretive manuscript sharing, highlighting the importance of oral tradition in the ritual passing of information from one generation of practitioners to the next to mark the importance of the occasion and the significance of the tradition itself. In the Palatinate and rural region of what is now Southwest Germany, these earliest pamphlets of the text reinforced the role of the Braucherei practitioner who used seals, conjurations, and verses from scripture to counter malevolent witchcraft, heal humans and livestock, stop fire, heal burns, change the weather for their benefit, and even locate hidden treasure.

Agrarian peasants of the time did not have the benefit of hindsight, research, and science that we have now and believed the anonymous author's claim of the text's roots on Mount Saini. After all, they believed Moses was more than just a prophet, he was the master conduit of magical power on earth. So, when both the Catholic and Protestant churches censored the circulating grimoires, labeling them as "black magic," the institutions only served to increase their clandestine importance among the folk magic practitioners; hence, the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses became cornerstone among the practitioners of Braucherei, and the oral and handwritten traditions tendered in the Palatinate made the transatlantic journey with the 18th and 19th century emigrants who made their way to Pennsylvania for religious and cultural freedom, embedding themselves deeply in the folk healing tradition of the Pennsylvania Dutch, rooting Braucherei, firmly in the soil of the new world.

As continued suspicion of "black magic" and "witchcraft" was cast upon Braucherei practitioners by the institutions of the Church, even under the freedoms Pennsylvania offered, practitioners often remained quiet about their practice, even denying the same outside of their own community. Misunderstood grimoires, such as the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, were hidden away, if owned at all, as some practitioners even grew to fear such texts due to the propaganda generated around it by the powers that ruled. Most practitioners claimed to only use the Bible as their source of incantation, charm, and power. Others kept the popular grimoire, Long Lost Friend (Der lange verborgene Freund) by Johann Georg Hohman readily available after its writing in 1820, as it was more widely accepted by the general population. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses was often only discovered after the death of a Braucher(in), hidden away, to avoid unnecessary scrutiny, or even persecution, as the Christian institutions warned that repeating the book's incantations invokes demonic forces rather than divine power. The goal of such action by the Church was to remove inherent power from the people, as well as personal responsibility over one's actions, choices, and ability to direct one's own energy, which can create doubt in oneself and a schism within one's own sovereignty if one is not confident within oneself, ultimately lending oneself completely under the control of the governing institution of the Church. We need not discuss the fallout from lack of accountability that ensues from ownership of accountability for one's actions and inactions, choices, and decisions in daily life as we see the mounting evidence daily in our society of that downfall. At best, the Church's stance of the grimoire, and perhaps Braucherei as a whole, helped create the tightknit community the Pennsylvania Dutch became, shaping the culture we developed and traditions we hold most sacred, such as our healing and magical art that we pass down orally and ritually through lineage.

By the time Johann Scheible codified and printed the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses in Stuttgart in 1849, it was hard to shake the reputation, and false narrative of its origin, that had built over the previous century, though Scheible never claimed the book was descended from Moses, and Scheible doubled-down on those claims that the book had been hidden by high priests and later discovered by Emperor Constantine in 330 AD when it was translated and sent to Rome before later falling into the hands of Emperor Charles V in 1520. He subtitled the book as "wonderful arts of the old wise Hebrews, taken from the Mosaic books of the Cabala and the Talmud." Talmudic and Kabbalistic scholars confirmed that no such books existed in authentic Jewish canonical or mystical literature, nor do the texts exhibit any genuine Kabbalists theology. Scheible was merely an antiquarian publisher who gathered disparate 18th century folk magic pamphlets from the Germanic regions, romanticized them, and packaged them within his famous 12-volume publication of Germanic folklore, magical texts, occult writings, and fairy tales entitled Das Kloster. Weltlich und geistlich). The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses was originally contained within that large work.

Present day, one can easily obtain a copy of the Sixth and Seventh books of Moses. Used copies and new print are readily available in bookstores and online. Though the text may still be shunned by evangelical Christian factions, the centuries behind us have brought us knowledge through education, and we recognize ourselves as the bridge between our old ways and the evolution available to us through the innovation and information of our current time to move our Pennsylvania Dutch culture and traditions forward. As the great-granddaughter of a Braucherin who practiced in a time of great silence and shunning of the tradition, and as a proud Braucherin myself, I am privileged to practice in the light when my ancestors hid their traditions in the shadows. I take for granted the casual owning of a book, and openly using it for my cultural practice, when my great-grandmother would have hid her copy, or have been too frightened to even own one for herself. In the current state of our country, it is important for us to remember where we came from before information was readily available and education was not what it is today; before we had the vantagepoint of hindsight. In my efforts to advance my Pennsylvania Dutch culture and traditions forward and remove the stigma from empowering folk practices within our culture, I gallantly declare, Ich bin die Brick (I am the bridge).

By Gretchen Swank

8/27/26