By Torsten Schwanke
1
O Muse, tell me of the seal,
Of the seal of Solomon!
Solomon, king of the Jews,
Was the greatest king of all,
Greater even than king David,
Than Hezekiah and Josiah,
Was the mightiest of the people
Of Israel, of the children of God.
But in Arabia
Solomon is known as king
Soliman and Sülleymann,
Is considered a prophet of Allah.
In Arabia the king
Is the ruler of all the jinns,
Who rules the creatures,
Who rules the devil himself!
Solomon in his wisdom
Can command the demons
And lock up the evil spirits
Even with power in a bottle!
Solomon once wrote books too,
Wrote not only the Book of Songs
And Ecclesiastes, Proverbs,
And the Wisdom of Solomon,
But was also a magician,
As a pius magician,
And so he wrote books on
The magic of the magicians.
2
And so it was reported to me,
That the wise Solomon
Possessed a talisman,
To wield his power.
And in this sense
That seal of Solomon
That is handed down,
Its image is in the books.
This seal of Solomon
Is a pious Star of David,
This is a double triangle,
Which is a star with six points.
This is no pentagram,
Which the Satanists love
Or even the communists
Wear on their bear's cap.
No! It is the Star of David,
Which is seen on the flag
Of the state of Israel,
The sign of the Zionists!
But not only the star
Of David is to be seen on
This seal of Solomon,
But engraved all around
Are the signs of the elements,
Earth, water, air and fire.
This serves as a talisman
Or also as an amulet.
3
This sigil was once
By the magician,
Who bore the name Ben-
Saladin, an evil man.
This magician named Ben-
Saladin took this seal,
Which he found in a book
Of Solomon's magic,
And with the help of this seal
This magician banished
A djinn in a bottle.
This was done out of pure envy!
For the Djinn with his power
Helped Ben-
Saladin, he helped with power
His worst rival!
As the magician used
That seal of Solomon,
The djinn could not defend himself,
Was banished into a bottle.
A magical force
Pulled the djinn into that bottle.
Yes, such is the power
Of a bottle for the spirit!
And the magician sealed
Now with a cork tree cork
That bottle with the djinn,
Painted on it the magic seal
And the evil sorcerer Ben-
Saladin enchanted
That bottle full of the genius
And he said this banishing curse:
For seven hundred years
May you open no more,
O bottle full of the spirit,
By the seal of Solomon!
4
There was a robber island
Somewhere in the Mediterranean,
Where the wildest pirates
Buried their treasures deep.
One day it exploded
This island of pirates,
Which was caused by the spirit
Who is also called Abraxas.
This god of the Gnostics
And of the alchemists was
A very exalted demon
From the house of Ashtarot.
So Abraxas discovered
Floating in the Mediterranean
The mysterious bottle
With the imprisoned jinn.
Seven hundred years had
Degrees past, so could
Abraxas could open this bottle,
Open it with the magic seal.
And the djinn came out of the bottle
And told the Abraxas
How the evil sorcerer Ben-
Saladin had imprisoned him.
Abraxas asked the djinn,
To make him rich with treasure,
For even the demons love
Silver, gold and precious stones.
But the djinn went away like smoke
Or a cloud.
A moment ago he could be seen
On the horizon in the west.
Abraxas now wanted to be
Particularly clever,
And he painted that sigil
On the sail of his ship.
So Abraxas wanted to
Subdue the djinn, but
Abraxas could not,
For he knew not the spells.
Now, Abraxas had great
Power as to the passage of time
In the world. He spoke,
Come back, past!
So the djinn was again
Locked in his bottle,
Had to spend another hundred years
In the belly of the bottle.
But Abraxas suddenly found himself
In the midst of crusading knights,
Who liberated Christ's tomb
From the terror of the Muslims.
5
Knight in the crusading army
Was the brave Don Francis.
Don Francis and Abraxas
Survived the crusade in one piece.
And so they both set out
In search of the bottle
With the imprisoned spirit
And the seal of Solomon.
But by the power of the seal
All the afflicted had
Forgotten what the seal
And the spirit bottle looked like.
It was only by chance,
That the knight Don Francis
Got hold of the bottle
With the seal of Solomon.
Meanwhile the Abraxas
Found in a pyramid
In Egypt a writing
With the image of the magic seal.
Then Abraxas
Again remembered that seal.
And he read in that writing,
Behold, a mystery
Is at home in Mesopotamia
By the Euphrates and the Tigris.
And Abraxas understood at once:
This mystery was the seal.
So Don Francis and
Abraxas set out
To the beautiful land of Mesopotamia,
But by different ways.
Meanwhile in Mesopotamia
Three treasure diggers dug deep,
By order of the Hodjas
Kanniz, Nachnitz and the Nudnitz.
And in a ziggurat
They found the seal stamp
With the seal of Solomon.
And they were filled with joy.
And the seal came to the Hodja.
To the hodja came Abraxas
And the two of them wanted to reveal
The secret of the seal.
But the seal and the bottle
Fell into the hand of the knight
Don Francis of the Cross,
As Solomon would have it.
Don Francis with the bottle
And the seal of Solomon
Now entered the tower of the wind,
And tried to open the bottle.
But Mother Earth shook!
Don Francis was swallowed up!
With him was lost
That seal of Solomon!
6
Three hundred years later
Abraxas again
Met his enemy,
Don Francis of the Cross.
For in the Tower of Winds was
A mysterious time gate,
Which brought Don Francis
To the time of the matriarchy.
There Don Francis tried
In the library of Ishtar
To fathom the secret
How to travel through time.
O goddess of love, Ishtar,
Reveal to me the art
How to travel through time,
You are eternal, goddess of love!
And he found in a book
A map, on which was painted
Every time gate in the world.
And so he entered a time gate
And so he came to Egypt.
And he came to that place
Sais, where Isis was
Glorified as veiled.
And so when he came to Sais
The seal of Solomon was
In the sanctuary of Isis
Landing-place for Don Francis.
The Abraxas at that time
In the pyramid used
A time gate too, but
Solomon's seal, he did not find.
These journeys through time
Are mysteriously
Magical relationship to
Solomon's magic seal.
7
Don Francis and Abraxas
Now came to Spain, where
The Catholic Majesties
Ferdinand and Isabella
Ruled. And the two came
With the ships of Columbus
To the sugar island of Cuba,
Went to Mexico too,
Then came from Eldorado
To the misty London
To the house of the poet Ben
Jonson, wise priest of the Muses.
There Abraxas discovered
Now the bottle of Solomon.
Ben could not believe
What Abraxas told him.
But the great Ben realised,
That the bottle with the seal
Was a magical object
For the attainment of profound wisdom.
In the catacombs of London
The most mysterious act
Was performed by the poet,
Who silently invoked the muses.
Goddess of love! My mistress!
I am your least slave!
So prayed the poet
And the magic bottle rolled
To the seal of Solomon
In the catacombs of London,
And so the spirit was freed.
And a time gate was opened.
Epilogue
So came the magic bottle
With the seal of Solomon
To the German poet Schwanke
In the jubilee year of two thousand.
A bottle full of wine,
Bottle which is never empty
Always in the bottle is
Wine from that wedding of Cana.
He who drinks of this wine
He hears the poet David
Singing psalms in Hebrew,
David then comes to his couch.
He is also able to talk
With the wise Solomon.
Hear what Solomon said
To the German poet Schwanke,
We by God are very pleased
With the poetry you write!
God gave you the gift!
Praise God for this grace!