A grimoire /ɡrɪmˈwɑr/
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A grimoire /ɡrɪmˈwɑr/ is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are also believed to be imbued with magical powers, though in many cultures, other sacred texts that are not grimoires, such as the Bible, have also been believed to have magical properties intrinsically; in this manner while all books on magic could be thought of as grimoires, not all magical books could.
While the term grimoire is originally European and many Europeans throughout history, particularly ceremonial magicians and cunning folk, have made use of grimoires, the historian Owen Davies noted that similar such books can be found all across the world, ranging from Jamaica to Sumatra, and he also noted that the first such grimoires could be found not in Europe but in the Ancient Near East.
It is most commonly believed that the term grimoire originated from the Old French word grammaire, which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin. By the 18th century, the term had gained its now common usage in France and had begun to be used to refer purely to books of magic, which Owen Davies presumed was because “many of them continued to circulate in Latin manuscripts”.[citation needed] However, the term grimoire also later developed into a figure of speech amongst the French indicating something that was hard or even impossible to understand. It was only in the 19th century, with the increasing interest in occultism amongst the British following the publication of Francis Barrett’s The Magus (1801), that the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic.
Ancient period
The earliest known written magical incantations come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), where they have been found inscribed on various cuneiform clay tablets excavated by archaeologists from the city of Uruk and dated to between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The ancient Egyptians also employed magical incantations, which have been found inscribed on various amulets and other items. The Egyptian magical system, known as heka, was greatly altered and enhanced after the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great, invaded Egypt in 332 BCE. Under the next three centuries of Hellenistic Egypt, the Coptic writing system evolved, and the Library of Alexandria was opened, and this likely had an influence upon books of magic, with the trend on known incantations switching from simple health and protection charms to more specific things, such as financial success and sexual fulfillment. It was also around this time that the legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus developed as a conflation of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes; this figure was associated with both writing and magic, and therefore of books on magic. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that books on magic were invented by the Persians, with the 1st-century CE writer Pliny the Elder stating that magic had been first discovered by the ancient philosopher Zoroaster around the year 6347 BCE but that it was only written down in the 5th century BCE by the magician Osthanes—his claims are not, however, supported by modern historians.
The ancient Jewish people were also often viewed as being knowledgeable in magic, which, according to legend, they had learned from Moses, who himself had learned it in Egypt. Indeed, amongst many ancient writers, Moses himself was seen as an Egyptian rather than a Jew, and two manuscripts likely dating to the 4th century, both of which purport to be the legendary eighth Book of Moses (the first five being the initial books in the Biblical Old Testament), present him as a polytheist who explained how to conjure gods and subdue demons. Meanwhile, there is definite evidence of grimoires being used by certain, particularly Gnostic, sects of early Christianity; in the Book of Enoch found within the Dead Sea Scrolls for instance, there is various information on astrology and the angels. In possible connection with the Book of Enoch, the idea of Enoch and his great-grandson Noah having some involvement with books of magic given to them by angels continued in various forms through to the mediaeval period.
“Many of those [in Ephesus] who believed [in Christianity] now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.”
Acts 19, c. 1st century
Israelite King Solomon was a Biblical figure also associated with magic and sorcery in the ancient world. The 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus mentioned a book circulating under the name of Solomon that contained incantations for summoning demons and described how a Jew called Eleazar used it to cure cases of possession. The book may have been the Testament of Solomon but was more probably a different work. The pseudepigraphic Testament of Solomon is one of the oldest magical texts. It is a Greek manuscript attributed to Solomon and likely written in either Babylonia or Egypt sometime in the first five centuries CE, over a thousand years after Solomon’s death. The work tells of the building of The Temple and relates that construction was hampered by demons until the angel Michael gave the king a magical ring. The ring, engraved with the Seal of Solomon, had the power to bind demons from doing harm. Solomon used it to lock certain demons within jars and commanded others to do his bidding, although eventually, according to the Testament, he was tempted into worshipping “false gods”, such as Moloch, Baal, and Rapha. Subsequently, after losing favour with God, King Solomon wrote the work as both a warning and a guide to the reader.
Notwithstanding the accounts of Biblical figures like Moses, Enoch and Solomon being associated with magical practices, when Christianity became the dominant faith of the Roman Empire, the early Church frowned upon the propagation of books on magic, connecting it with paganism, and burned books of magic. The New Testament records that St. Paul had called for the burning of magic and pagan books in the city of Ephesus; this advice was adopted on a large scale after the Christian ascent to power. Even before Christianisation, the Imperial Roman government had suppressed many pagan, Christian, philosophical, and divinatory texts that it viewed as threats to Roman authority, including those of the Greek mystic and mathematician Pythagoras.
Medieval period
In the Medieval period, the production of grimoires continued in Christendom, as well as amongst Jews and the followers of the newly founded Islamic faith. As the historian Owen Davies noted, “while the [Christian] Church was ultimately successful in defeating pagan worship it never managed to demarcate clearly and maintain a line of practice between religious devotion and magic,” and the use of such books on magic continued. In Christianised Europe, the Church divided books of magic into two kinds; those that dealt with “natural magic” and those that dealt in “demonic magic”. The former was acceptable, because it was viewed as merely taking note of the powers in nature that were created by God; for instance, the Anglo-Saxon leechbooks, which contained simple spells designed for medicinal purposes, were tolerated. However, the latter, demonic magic was not acceptable, because it was believed that such magic did not come from God, but from the Devil and his demons – these grimoires dealt in such topics as necromancy, divination and demonology. Despite this, “there is ample evidence that the mediaeval clergy were the main practitioners of magic and therefore the owners, transcribers, and circulators of grimoires,” while several grimoires were actually attributed to various Popes.
One such Arabic grimoire devoted to astral magic, the 12th-century Ghâyat al-Hakîm fi’l-sihr, was later translated into Latin and circulated in Europe during the 13th century under the name of the Picatrix. However, not all such grimoires of this era were based upon Arabic sources; the 13th-century the Sworn Book of Honorius, for instance, was, like the ancient Testament of Solomon before it, largely based upon the supposed teachings of the Biblical king Solomon and also included ideas such as prayers and a ritual circle, with the mystical purpose of having visions of God, Hell, and Purgatory and gaining much wisdom and knowledge as a result. Another was the Hebrew Sefer Raziel Ha-Malakh, translated in Europe as the Liber Razielis Archangeli.
A later book also claiming to have been written by Solomon was originally written in Greek during the 15th century, where it was known as the Magical Treatise of Solomon or the Little Key of the Whole Art of Hygromancy, Found by Several Craftmen and by the Holy Prophet Solomon. In the 16th century, this work had been translated into Latin and Italian, being renamed the Clavicula Salomonis, or the Key of Solomon. Also in Christendom during the Mediaeval Age, grimoires were written that were attributed to other ancient figures, thereby supposedly giving them a sense of authenticity because of their antiquity. The German Abbot and occultist Trithemius (1462–1516) supposedly had in his possession a Book of Simon the Magician, based upon the New Testament figure of Simon Magus. Magus had been a contemporary of Jesus Christ’s and, like the Biblical Jesus, had supposedly performed miracles, but had been demonised by the Medieval Church as a devil worshipper and evil individual. Similarly, it was commonly believed by mediaeval people that other ancient figures, such as the poet Virgil, astronomer Ptolemy and philosopher Aristotle, had been involved in magic, and grimoires claiming to have been written by them were circulated. However, there were those who did not believe this; for instance, the Franciscan friar Roger Bacon (c. 1214–94) stated that books falsely claiming to be by ancient authors “ought to be prohibited by law”.
Early modern period
As the early modern period commenced in the late 15th century, many changes began to shock Europe that would have an effect on the production of grimoires; the historian Owen Davies classed the most important of these as being the Protestant Reformation and subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, the witch-hunts and the advent of printing. The Renaissance saw the continuation of interest in magic that had been found in the Mediaeval period, and in this period, there was an increased interest in Hermeticism amongst occultists and ceremonial magicians in Europe, largely fueled by the 1471 translation of the ancient Corpus hermeticum into Latin by Marsilio Ficino (1433–99). Alongside this, there was also a rise in interest in a form of Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah, which was spread across the continent by Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin. The most important magician of the Renaissance was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), who widely studied various occult topics and earlier grimoires and eventually published his own, the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, in 1533. A similar figure was the Swiss magician known as Paracelsus (1493–1541), who published Of the Supreme Mysteries of Nature, in which he emphasised the distinction between good and bad magic. A third such individual at the time was Johann Georg Faust, upon whom several pieces of later literature were written, such as Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, that portrayed him as consulting with demons. The idea of demonology had remained strong in the Renaissance, and several demonological grimoires were published, including The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, which falsely claimed to having been authored by Agrippa, and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, which listed 69 different demons. To counter this, the Roman Catholic Church authorised the production of many works of exorcism, the rituals of which were often very similar to those of demonic conjuration. However, alongside these demonological works, grimoires on natural magic also continued to be produced, including Magia naturalis, written by Giambattista Della Porta (1535–1615).
Man inscribed in a pentagram, from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia (Eng., Three Books of Occult Philosophy). The signs on the perimeter are astrological.
The advent of printing in Europe meant that books could be mass-produced for the first time and could reach an ever-growing literate audience. Amongst the earliest books to be printed were magical texts; the nóminas were one example of this, consisting of prayers to the saints used as talismans. It was particularly in Protestant countries, such as Switzerland and the German states, which were not under the domination of the Roman Catholic Church, where such grimoires were published. Despite the advent of print however, handwritten grimoires remained highly valued, as they were believed to contain inherent magical powers within them, and they continued to be produced. However, with increasing availability, people lower down the social scale and women began to have access to books on magic; this was often incorporated into the popular folk magic of the average people, and in particular, that of the cunning folk, who were professionally involved in folk magic. These works also left Europe and were imported to those parts of Latin America controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the parts of North America controlled by the British and French empires.
Throughout this period, the Inquisition, a Roman Catholic organisation, had organised the mass suppression of peoples and views that they considered heretical. In many cases, grimoires were found in the heretics’ possessions and destroyed. In 1599, the church published the Indexes of Prohibited Books, in which many grimoires were listed as forbidden, including several mediaeval ones, such as the Key of Solomon, which were still popular. In Christendom, there also began to develop a widespread fear of witchcraft, which was believed to be Satanic in nature, and the subsequent hysteria, known as the Witch Hunt, caused the death of around 40,000 people, most of whom were women. Sometimes, those found with grimoires, particularly of a demonological nature, were prosecuted and dealt with as witches, but in most cases, those accused had no access to such books. The European nation that proved the exception to this, however, was the highly literate Iceland, where a third of the 134 witch trials held involved people who had owned grimoires. By the end of the Early Modern period and the beginning of the Enlightenment, many European governments brought in laws prohibiting many superstitious beliefs in an attempt to bring an end to the Witch Hunt; this would invariably affect the release of grimoires.
Meanwhile, Hermeticism and the Kabbalah would influence the creation of a mystical philosophy known as Rosicrucianism, which first appeared in the early 17th century, when two pamphlets detailing the existence of the mysterious Rosicrucian group were published in Germany. These claimed that Rosicrucianism had originated with a Medieval figure known as Christian Rosenkreuz, who had founded the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross; however, there was no evidence for the existence of Rosenkreuz or the Brotherhood.
18th and 19th centuries
“Emperor Lucifer, master of all the rebel spirits, I beg you to favour me in the call that I am making to your grand minister LUCIFUGÉ ROFOCALE, desiring to make a pact with him; I beg you also, prince Beelzebub to protect me in my undertaking. O count Astarot! Be favourable to me, and make it so that this night the grand Lucifege appears to me in human form, and without any bad odour, and that he accords to me, by the pact that I am going to present to him, all the riches I need.”
From the Grand Grimoire.
The 18th century saw the rise of the Enlightenment, a movement devoted to science and rationalism, predominantly amongst the ruling classes. However, amongst much of Europe, belief in magic and witchcraft persisted,[citation needed] as did the witch trials in certain[which?] areas. Certain governments did try and crack down on magicians and fortune tellers, particularly that of France, where the police viewed them as social pests who took money from the gullible, often in a search for treasure. In doing so, they confiscated many grimoires. However, it was also in France that a new form of printing developed, the Bibliothèque bleue, and many grimoires published through this circulated amongst an ever-growing percentage[citation needed] of the populace, in particular the Grand Albert, the Petit Albert (1782), the Grimoire du Pape Honorious and the Enchiridion Leonis Papae. The Petit Albert in particular contained a wide variety of different forms of magic, for instance, dealing in both simple charms for ailments along with more complex things such as the instructions for making a Hand of Glory.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, following the French Revolution of 1789, a hugely influential grimoire was published under the title of the Grand Grimoire, which was considered[by whom?] particularly powerful, because it involved conjuring and making a pact with the devil’s chief minister, Lucifugé Rofocale, in order to gain wealth from him. A new version of this grimoire was later published under the title of the Dragon rouge and was available for sale in many Parisian bookstores. Similar books published in France at the time included the Black Pullet and the Grimoirium Verum. The Black Pullet, probably authored in late-18th-century Rome or France, differs from the typical grimoires in that it does not claim to be a manuscript from antiquity but told by a man who was a member of Napoleon’s armed expeditionary forces in Egypt.
The widespread availability of such printed grimoires in France—despite the opposition of both the rationalists and the church—soon[when?] spread to neighbouring countries such as Spain and Germany. In Switzerland, the city of Geneva was commonly associated with the occult at the time, particularly by Catholics, because it had been a stronghold of Protestantism, and many of those interested in the esoteric travelled from their own Roman Catholic nations to Switzerland to purchase grimoires or to study with occultists. Soon, grimoires appeared that involved Catholic saints within them; one such example that appeared during the 19th century that became relatively popular, particularly in Spain, was the Libro de San Cipriano, or The Book of St. Ciprian, which falsely claimed to date from c. 1000. Like most grimoires of this period, it dealt with (amongst other things) how to discover treasure.
In Germany, with the increased interest in folklore during the 19th century, many historians took an interest in magic and in grimoires. Several published extracts of such grimoires in their own books on the history of magic, thereby helping to further propagate them. Perhaps the most notable of these was the Protestant pastor Georg Conrad Horst (1779–1832), who from 1821 to 1826, published a six-volume collection of magical texts in which he studied grimoires as a peculiarity of the Mediaeval mindset. Another scholar of the time interested in grimoires, the antiquarian bookseller Johann Scheible, first published the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, two influential magical texts that claimed to have been written by the ancient Jewish figure Moses. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses were amongst the works that later spread to the countries of Scandinavia, where, in Danish and Swedish, grimoires were known as black books and were commonly found amongst members of the army.
In Britain, new grimoires continued to be produced throughout the 18th century, such as Ebenezer Sibly’s A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology. In the last decades of that century, London experienced a revival of interest in the occult, and this was only further propagated when Francis Barrett published The Magus in 1801. The Magus contained many things taken from older grimoires, particularly those of Cornelius Agrippa, and while not achieving initial popularity upon release, gradually became a particularly influential text. One of Barrett’s pupils, John Parkin, created his own handwritten grimoire, The Grand Oracle of Heaven, or, The Art of Divine Magic, although it was never actually published, largely because Britain at the time was at war with France, and grimoires were commonly associated with the French. The only writer to publish British grimoires widely in the early 19th century, Robert Cross Smith, released The Philosophical Merlin (1822) and The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century (1825), but neither sold well.
In the late 19th century, several of these texts (including the Abra-Melin text and the Key of Solomon) were reclaimed by para-Masonic magical organisations, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis.
20th and 21st centuries
The Secret Grimoire of Turiel claims to have been written in the 16th century, but no copy older than 1927 has been produced.
A modern grimoire is the Simon Necronomicon, named after a fictional book of magic in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft and inspired by Babylonian mythology and the “Ars Goetia”, a section in the Lesser Key of Solomon that concerns the summoning of demons. The Azoëtia of Andrew D. Chumbley has been described as a modern grimoire.
The neopagan religion of Wicca publicly appeared in the 1940s, and Gerald Gardner introduced the Book of Shadows as a Wiccan grimoire.
there now follows a list of files and links and video to the grimoires mentioned before hand, please do not use it for recreating works, you should not ever attempt to replicate or use any of the information contained within their pages and think of it merely as a reference manual, and as such is the reason and use i give them to you to know as a 10: The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
The Book of Abramelin the Mage was written in the 15th century. It is one of the most popular mystical grimoires of kabbalistic knowledge ever produced. The fellow who wrote it was named Abraham von Worms, and he was a Jewish traveler who supposedly encountered an eccentric magician named Abramelin during a trip to Egypt.
9: The Sworn Book of Honorius
The Sworn Book of Honorius is another ancient grimoire, this one coming to us from the medieval period. This book is supposedly filled with all kinds of ritual magic, and is rumoured to have been made by someone named Honorius of Thebes, an extremely mysterious figure who has never been positively identified.
8: The Greek Magical Papyri
The Greek Magical Papyri is extremely old. It comes from the 2nd century BC, and is a list of spells, rituals, and divinations. Included within the list are detailed instructions for how to summon your own personal headless demon, how to burst open the doors to the underworld, and how to protect yourself in the case of an attack from a wild beast.
the earliest collection of magical texts in the ancient world - The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) and the Egyptian Demotic spells. The PGM is the greatest collection of ancient magic. Written on papyrus these collections of spells, incantations, evocations, represent the rich cross-pollination between various cultures, religious systems, and forms of magic and divination. From Egyptian, Roman, Jewish, Greek cultures and religions emerges an amazing religious and magical syncretism. This video introduces the PGM and discusses a collection of spells including: an invisibility lotion, the invocation of Helios, a rare example of lesbian love magic, a curse for your boss, magical athletic ability, protection from demons, an anger management spell and more
Scattered across many museums, there are scrolls of Papyri from the Early Common Era. Strange documents filled with spells of all kinds, formulae, prayers, hymns, rituals and rites. Their influences are all over the place- Egyptian, Greek, Jewish, Babylonian, Coptic even Gnostic and Christian. They are called the Greek Magical Papyri. Amazing documents that give us a glimpse into how magic was performed for a period of time, even though many of the spells date from much further back. Their existence is Miraculous. In this episode of WMiT, Doug is joined by Matthew to discuss a kind of magic that the host uses on a near weekly basis- Graeco-Egyptian Magic!
7: Lesser Key of Solomon
The Lesser Key of Solomon is an anonymous grimoire from the 17th century, but was published in English in 1904 by Aleister Crowley, who you might remember as being kind of a crazy person. Crowley tried to start his own religion, he participated in some of the most profane acts a person can, and it's even believed that he committed murder.
Magical Treatise of Solomon, or Hygromanteia, a Greek magical book that survives in a number of manuscripts, the earliest of which dates to the 15th century. Its importance lies in the fact that its material seems to have influenced posterior magical books of the West, such as the Key of Solomon and the Grimorium Verum.
The Treatise can be divided in four parts: the first part is related to the construction of talismans and their consecration by planetary forces; the second and third parts are related to evocation, and the fourth comprises independent magical operations scattered throughout the manuscripts.
6: The Black Pullet
The Black Pullet is a little different. Instead of coming from ancient Greece or ancient Egypt, this book dates back to France in the early 18th century. The book focuses on the study of magical talismans, which are believed to be special objects engraved with words of power that can protect and strengthen the person who wears them.
The Black Pullet (La poule noire) is a grimoire that proposes to teach the "science of magical talismans and rings", including the art of necromancy and Kabbalah. It is believed to have been written in the 18th century[1] by an anonymous French officer who served in Napoleon's army. The text takes the form of a narrative centering on the French officer during the Egyptian expedition led by Napoleon (referred to here as the "genius") when his unit is suddenly attacked by Arab soldiers (Bedouins). The French officer manages to escape the attack, but is the only survivor. An old Turkish man appears suddenly from the pyramids and takes the French officer into a secret apartment within one of the pyramids. He nurses him back to health whilst sharing with him the magical teachings from ancient manuscripts that escaped the "burning of Ptolemy's library".
The book itself contains information regarding the creation of certain magical properties, such as talismanic rings, amulets and the Black Pullet itself. The book also teaches the reader how to master the extraordinary powers from these magical properties. Perhaps the most interesting magical property claimed in the book is the power to produce the Black Pullet, otherwise known as the Hen that lays Golden Eggs. The grimoire claims that the person who understands and attains the power to instruct the Black Pullet will gain unlimited wealth. The notion of such a lucrative possession has been reflected throughout history in fables, fairy tales and folklore.
This text has often been associated to two other texts, known as the Red Dragon (or The Grand Grimoire) and the Black Screech Owl. The latter is also confusingly known as The Black Pullet or Treasure of the Old Man of the Pyramids, and is in fact an alternate printing of the original Black Pullet with only slight changes. All three grimoires claim to possess the science of ancient magic.
5: The Satanic Bible
It's a little funny that the Satanic Bible is such a new book. It was written only 50 years ago by Anton Szandor LaVey, from the United States. Anton was an author and musician, and through his writing he managed to create his own religion that still exists today.
8 videos10 viewsLast updated on 22 Oct 2020
4: The Galdrabok
The Galdrabok is an Icelandic grimoire from the 16th century that contains a collection of 47 spells collected by a variety of magicians. The spells inside the book rely heavily on staves, which were extremely popular in Icelandic magic at that time. Staves are basically runes; they come equipped with magical properties and can give the wearer special powers.
More on galdralag: https://youtu.be/j_wgXEfzG-A Introduction to the galdr (magic spells) discussed in the Eddas and sagas, as well as a little about the magic spells and symbols found in later Scandinavian grimoires. Jackson Crawford, Ph.D.: Sharing real expertise in Norse language and myth with people hungry to learn, free of both ivory tower elitism and the agendas of self-appointed gurus. Visit https://jacksonwcrawford.com/ (includes bio and linked list of all videos). Jackson Crawford’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/norsebysw Visit Grimfrost at http://www.grimfrost.com?aff=183 and use code CRAWFORD for 5% off your order! Latest FAQs: https://vimeo.com/375149287 (updated Nov. 2019). Jackson Crawford’s translation of Hávamál, with complete Old Norse text: https://www.hackettpublishing.com/the... Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Poetic Edda: https://www.hackettpublishing.com/the... Audiobook: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Poetic... Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Saga of the Volsungs: https://www.hackettpublishing.com/the... Audiobook: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Saga-o...
3: The False Hierarchy of Demons
The Pseudomonarchia Daemonum is better known as The False Hierarchy of Demons, and it’s probably the most extensive catalog of demons ever created. It was written by a famous demonologist named Johann Weyer in the 16th century.
Johann Weyer's "Pseudomonarchia Daemonum" is considered the great-granddaddy of demonic catalogues. Many later works, including Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft" and the Goetia, are considered derivatives of Weyer's classic. This edition of "The False Hierarchy of Demons: Illustrated English Translation of Pseudomonarchia Daemonum" was produced as an imitation leatherbound volume. This new definitive translation of Weyer's four hundred year old encyclopedic work of demonology includes digitally enhanced and enlarged versions of de Plancy's 19th century woodcuts from Dictionnaire Infernal, demonic seal reproductions and newly commissioned full-color illustrations from an international team of fantasy artists, each providing a unique modern vision of these infernal beings. Each octavo volume is bound in red imitation leather with a black imitation leather spine and gold foil embossing. The English text is shown in black, side-by-side with the original Latin text in red. In addition, the book has a new index, bookmark and full-color endpapers. The book is delivered in a designer box. The "Pseudomonarchia Daemonum" was originally published as an appendix to the hugely popular "De Prestigiis Daemonum." Since then, it has been used as the definitive reference and source for dozens of grimoires including The Lesser Key of Solomon and Dictionnaire Infernal. Natalia Zasadzinska is a professional translator and book author. Her previous works include translation of the first English translation of the full text of De Plancy's Infernal Dictionary.
1: Picatrix
Our final magical grimoire is Picatrix, and it dates back to the 11th century. This is probably the biggest book on the list. It was originally written in Arabic and has 400 pages dedicated to astrological magic and astrological theory. There are spells and incantations designed to channel the energies of the planets and the stars to grant the wielder ultimate power and enlightenment.means of defence as it is wiser to know the ways of the enemy and it is better for you that i give you them in honesty and truth to better arm you and shield you from their evil works and deeds that fix against you and me and everyone of of and all, i leave you with this extremely serious warning #DontDoIt
The mysteries of the Picatrix – the ancient Arabic text considered to be the ultimate magical handbook.
It is referred to as the Picatrix, the four-hundred-page book containing comprehensive details of magic and astrology which explains to the reader how to create magical statues, talismans and even entire cities using the power of astrology. While the book is considered to be rather obscure today, it has enjoyed vogues of enormous popularity since the 11th century. But despite its historical importance, the authorship of the book remains a matter of great dispute. “Through this ancient manuscript…the reader could attract and channel the energy of the cosmos so that a certain event develops according to the will of the practitioner, zodiacal magic; which is said to help master and dominate with accuracy—through the force of the universe—nature and its surroundings.”
It is believed that the book was originally written in Arabic and arrived in Europe through the Moorish invaders of Spain where it was translated into Spanish. Later, in the thirteenth century, it was translated into the franca lingua of the day, Latin where is spread throughout Europe. While the original Spanish text has been lost over the years, there are still multiple examples of the Latin text in existence dating from between the 15th and the 18th centuries.
The majority of scholars who are interested in the unusual text believe that the Picatrix was originally composed by Abū- Maslama Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn ‘Abd al-da’im al-Majrīt in the eleventh century. Al-Majrit was an astronomer, mathematician and an alchemist who had a specific interest in the magical knowledge accumulated by Middle Eastern scholars between the 8th and 9th centuries. However, while he seems like the most likely candidate to have penned the astrological handbook some scholars believe that it may have been written by an Arab mathematician named al-Maijriti in the eleventh century. While the true identity of the author may always remain a mystery, one thing is for certain – following the book’s arrival in Europe it took on a life of its own. Multiple readers from all over the continent read the book with fascination to learn how they could channel the energy of the planets using numerology and the lunar calendar to manipulate the physical world around them. The book also contains details about how to build and animate magical statues, how to create magical talismans and details about entire cities being constructed using the power of astrology. In addition to the comprehensive details about numerology and the lunar calendar, the ancient text also contains a huge number of recipes for magical potions that would allow the potion master to control the spirits of the earth. Many of these potions contained mind-altering ingredients including hashish, opium and other psychoactive plants while others included some deeply unusual ingredients including blood, sperm, urine, earwax, tears, and saliva. Whether the book was considered to be an interesting curiosity by its readership over the centuries or whether they attempted to use the spells to alter the course of history is still a mystery.
“Through this ancient manuscript…the reader could attract and channel the energy of the cosmos so that a certain event develops according to the will of the practitioner, zodiacal magic; which is said to help master and dominate with accuracy—through the force of the universe—nature and its surroundings.”
Picatrix explains not only how to create and ensoul magical statues and talismans, but even speaks of whole cities constructed using the principles of astrological magic.
The Pixatrix—as it’s called today—is an ancient, 400-page magical grimoire of originally written in Arabic under the title غاية الحكيم Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm. Experts believe it was composed in the 11th century although some argue it was created in the first half of the 10th century. The work is divided into four books, which exhibit a marked absence of systematic exposition.
In the thirteenth century, the king of Castile Alfonso X (also known as Alfonso “The Wise”) ordered the translation of the ancient text to Spanish and.
The translation into Latin gained a notable popularity in Europe between the XV and XVIII centuries.
Although the Castilian version is said to be lost, the Latin translation (Liber Picatrix) spread throughout the West and reached a notable success between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.
The Picatrix is believed to have been written by Abū- Maslama Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn ‘Abd al-da’im al-Majrīt, an astronomer, mathematician, and alchemist of Al-Andalus who wanted to gather all the knowledge of the Middle East from the 8th and 9th centuries.
Arab historian, Ibn Khaldun, ascribed authorship of Picatrix (referring to the original Arabic version, under the title Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm) to the mathematician, al-Majriti, who died between 1005CE and 1008CE.
Although there are those who disagree with such authorship and attribute this magical grimoire to an unknown apprentice of a mysterious Middle Eastern magic school—mostly due to the style in which the work is presented which looks like a kind of notebook—the enigmatic grimoire was extremely popular and promised to teach its reader, among other things, how to obtain energy from the planets of the cosmos. Many authors summarize the work as being “the most thorough exposition of celestial magic in Arabic”.
The contents fo this ancient magical grimoire are fascinating and in it, we find reference to talismanic magic and astrological references to animals, plants, metals, stones, etc.
Through them, the reader could attract and channel the energy of the planets so that a certain event develops according to the will of the practitioner, zodiacal magic which is said to help master and dominate with accuracy—through the force of the universe— even nature and the surroundings.
The ancient magical grimoire also gives insight into numerology and lunar calendars that supposedly would help plan rituals considering the most propitious moment so that the energy of the universe favored the result.
However, there’s more to this mysterious magical grimoire than numerology and astrology. This ancient text includes different bizarre recipes for countless spells that had to be composed using ingredients as dangerous as hashish, opium and other psychoactive plants that were used in large quantities to induce altered states of consciousness and astral journeys.
If on the other hand, the intention was to contact the spirits and master the forces of the spirits, then the ingredients that had to be used were different: blood, sperm, urine, earwax, tears and saliva were all mixed together specifically to obtain the best results and master the world we cannot see on a daily basis.
Interestingly, Picatrix explains not only how to create and ensoul magical statues and talismans, but even speaks of whole cities constructed using the principles of astrological magic.
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