Now that Amazon has separated my (utterly different) edition from the original Gaster edition of this text, the Sword of Moses is at last available.
The use of the Sword itself, which is a simple conjuration, in combination with various other sacred names listed in the book, is meant to allow the user to do many mystical things; destroy animals with incantations, heal sicknesses, make others sick, cause crops to grow, rain to fall, rain to not fall, storms to come, storms to leave, and neighbors and lords to look upon the conjurer with favor.
This is a tiny sampling of the actual rites listed herein; even though the manuscript is rather short (47 pages in length) it contains nearly as many uniquely identifiable spells and conjurations as some works that run for several hundred pages. In no instance are any of the shorter spells more than three or four sentences in length, describing first a sacred word and then some ritual act or object associated with them. I give here one of the many as an example:
"When injured or hurt by a weapon, so that it may not fester or rot, say name #36 over white naphtha and rub it over the place of the blow." Name 36 is then listed with many others in the final section I have added; Gaster omitted the sacred names as do several modern editions.
I have mostly modernized the antiquated word usage in prior editions.
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