Grimoire

A grimoire (/ɡrɪmˈwɑːr/ grim-WAHR) (also known as a "book of spells" or a "spellbook") is a

textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like
talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination, and how to
summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities, and demons.[1] In
many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers, although
in many cultures, other sacred texts that are not grimoires (such as the Bible) have been
believed to have supernatural properties intrinsically. The only contents found in a grimoire
would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of
ingredients and their magical correspondences.[2] In this manner, while all books on magic
could be thought of as grimoires, not all magical books should be thought of as grimoires.[3]

This design for an amulet comes from the Black Pullet grimoire.
While the term grimoire is originally European—and many Europeans throughout history,
particularly ceremonial magicians and cunning folk, have used grimoires—the historian Owen
Davies noted that similar books can be found all around the world, ranging from Jamaica to
Sumatra.[4] He also noted that in this sense, the world's first grimoires were created in Europe
and the Ancient Near East.[5]

Etymology

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. Owen Davies presumed this was because "many of them
continued to circulate in Latin manuscripts".[6]

However, the term grimoire later developed into a figure of speech amongst the French
indicating something that was hard to understand. In the 19th century, with the increasing
interest in occultism amongst the British following the publication of Francis Barrett's The
Magus (1801), the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic.[1]

History

Ancient period

Page from the Greek Magical Papyri, a grimoire of antiquity.

The earliest known written magical incantations come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern
Iraq), where they have been found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets that archaeologists
excavated from the city of Uruk and dated to between the 5th and 4th centuries BC.[7] The
ancient Egyptians also employed magical incantations, which have been found inscribed on
amulets and other items. The Egyptian magical system, known as heka, was greatly altered
and expanded after the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great, invaded Egypt in 332 BC.[8]

Under the next three centuries of Hellenistic Egypt, the Coptic writing system evolved, and the
Library of Alexandria was opened. 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.[8] Around this time the
legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus developed as a conflation of the Egyptian god
Thoth and the Greek Hermes; this figure was associated with writing and magic and,
therefore, of books on magic.[9]

The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that books on magic were invented by the
Persians. The 1st-century AD writer Pliny the Elder stated that magic had been first
discovered by the ancient philosopher Zoroaster around the year 647 BC but that it was only
written down in the 5th century BC by the magician Osthanes. His claims are not, however,
supported by modern historians.[10]

The ancient Jewish people were often viewed as being knowledgeable in magic, which,
according to legend, they had learned from Moses, who had learned it in Egypt. Among many
ancient writers, Moses was seen as an Egyptian rather than a Jew. 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.[9]

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 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 through to the medieval period.[10]

Israelite King Solomon was a Biblical figure associated

"Many of those [in Ephesus] who
with magic and sorcery in the ancient world. The 1st-
believed [in Christianity] now came
century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus mentioned
and openly confessed their evil
a book circulating under the name of Solomon that deeds. A number who had
contained incantations for summoning demons and practised sorcery brought their
described how a Jew called Eleazar used it to cure scrolls together and burned them
cases of possession. The book may have been the publicly. When they calculated the

Testament of Solomon but was more probably a value of the scrolls, the total came
to fifty thousand drachmas. In this
different work.[11] The pseudepigraphic Testament of
Solomon is one of the oldest magical texts. It is a Greek way the word of the Lord spread

manuscript attributed to Solomon and likely written in widely and grew in power."

either Babylonia or Egypt sometime in the first five Acts 19, c. 1st century
centuries AD, over 1,000 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
demons in jars and commanded others to do his bidding, although eventually, according to
the Testament, he was tempted into worshiping "false gods", such as Moloch, Baal, and
Rapha. Subsequently, after losing favour with God, King Solomon wrote the work as a
warning and a guide to the reader.[12]

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 after the unsuccessful exorcism by the seven sons
of Sceva became known, many converts decided to burn their own magic and pagan books in
the city of Ephesus; this advice was adopted on a large scale after the Christian ascent to
power.[13]

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."[14] 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".[15]

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 for medicinal purposes, were tolerated. 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.[15]
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,"[16] while
several grimoires were attributed to Popes.[17]
An excerpt from Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, featuring magical sigils (or ‫סגולות‬, seguloth, in Hebrew).

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.[18] However, not all such grimoires of this era were based upon Arabic
sources. The 13th-century Sworn Book of Honorius, for instance, was (like the ancient
Testament of Solomon before it) largely based on the supposed teachings of the Biblical king
Solomon and 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.[19]

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 Craftsmen 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.[20]

In Christendom during the medieval 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 a Book of
Simon the Magician, based upon the New Testament figure of Simon Magus. Simon Magus
had been a contemporary of Jesus Christ's and, like the Biblical Jesus, had supposedly
performed miracles, but had been demonized by the Medieval Church as a devil worshiper
and evil individual.[21]

Similarly, it was commonly believed by medieval 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.[22] 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."[23]

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. Historian Owen
Davies classed the most important of these as 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 among 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 a rise in interest in the Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah,
which was spread across the continent by Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin.[24]
The most important magician of the Renaissance was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–
1535), who widely studied occult topics and earlier grimoires and eventually published his
own, the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, in 1533.[25] 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.[26] A third such
individual 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.[27]

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,[28] and the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, which
listed 69 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.[29] Alongside these demonological works, grimoires on natural magic continued
to be produced, including Magia naturalis, written by Giambattista Della Porta (1535–
1615).[30]
Iceland held magical traditions in regional work as well, most remarkably the Galdrabók
where numerous symbols of mystic origin are dedicated to the practitioner. These pieces
give a perfect fusion of Germanic pagan and Christian influence, seeking splendid help from
the Norse gods and referring to the titles of demons.[31]

A 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. Among the earliest books to be printed
were magical texts. The nóminas were one example, consisting of prayers to the saints used
as talismans.[32] 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, and they continued to be produced.[33]
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.[34] These works left Europe and were imported to the parts of Latin America
controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the parts of North America controlled
by the British and French empires.[35]

Throughout this period, the Inquisition, a Roman Catholic organisation, had organised the
mass suppression of peoples and beliefs that they considered heretical. In many cases,
grimoires were found in the heretics' possessions and destroyed.[36] 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.[37]

In Christendom, there also began to develop a widespread fear of witchcraft, which was
believed to be Satanic in nature. The subsequent hysteria, known as the Witch Hunt, caused
the death of around 40,000 people, most of whom were women.[38] Sometimes, those found
with grimoires, particularly demonological ones, were prosecuted and dealt with as witches
but, in most cases, those accused had no access to such books. Highly literate Iceland
proved an exception to this, where a third of the 134 witch trials held involved people who
had owned grimoires.[39] 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.[40]

18th and 19th centuries

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,[41] as did the witch trials in certain areas.
Governments tried to crack down on magicians and fortune tellers, particularly in 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.[42]

A new form of printing developed in France, the Bibliothèque bleue. Many grimoires published
through this circulated among an ever-growing percentage of the populace, in particular the
Grand Albert, the Petit Albert (1782), the Grimoire du Pape Honorius and the Enchiridion Leonis
Papae. The Petit Albert contained a wide variety of forms of magic, for instance, dealing in
simple charms for ailments along with more complex things such as the instructions for
making a Hand of Glory.[43]

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
particularly powerful, because it involved conjuring and making a pact with the devil's chief
minister, Lucifugé Rofocale, 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.[44] 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.[45]

The widespread availability of printed grimoires in France—despite the opposition of both the
rationalists and the church—soon spread to neighbouring countries such as Spain and
Germany. In Switzerland, Geneva was commonly associated with the occult at the time,
particularly by Catholics, because it had been a stronghold of Protestantism. Many of those
interested in the esoteric traveled from Roman Catholic nations to Switzerland to purchase
grimoires or to study with occultists.[46] Soon, grimoires appeared that involved Catholic
saints; one 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 (among other
things) how to discover treasure.[47]

The title page of the 1880 New York edition of The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

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.[48]

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.[49] The Sixth and
Seventh Books of Moses were among 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 among members of the army.[50]

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 that was
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 an influential text.[51]

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 published, largely because Britain
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.[52]

In the late 19th century, several of these texts (including The Book of Abramelin 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.[53]

A modern grimoire, the Simon Necronomicon, takes its name from a fictional book of magic in
the stories of H. P. Lovecraft, inspired by Babylonian mythology and by 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 by Gavin Semple as a modern grimoire.[54]

The neopagan religion of Wicca publicly appeared in the 1940s, and Gerald Gardner
introduced the Book of Shadows as a Wiccan grimoire.[55]
The term grimoire commonly serves as an alternative name for a spell book or tome of
magical knowledge in fantasy fiction and role-playing games. The most famous fictional
grimoire is the Necronomicon, a creation of H. P. Lovecraft.[55]

See also

Table of correspondences, a type of reference work used in ceremonial magic

References

1. Davies (2009:1)

2. "Grimoire vs Book of Shadows" (http://www.flyingthehedge.com/2014/09/grimoire-vs-book-of-shado

ws.html) .

3. Davies (2009:2–3)

4. Davies (2009:2–5)

5. Davies (2009:6–7)

6. 1969–, Davies, Owen (2009). Grimoires : a history of magic books. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 9780199204519. OCLC 244766270 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/244766270) .

7. Davies (2009:8)

8. Davies (2009:8–9)

9. Davies (2009:10)

10. Davies (2009:7)

11. Butler, E. M. (1979). "The Solomonic Cycle". Ritual Magic (Reprint ed.). CUP Archive. ISBN 0-521-
29553-X.

12. Davies (2009:12–13)

13. Davies (2009:18–20)

14. Davies (2009:21–22)

15. Davies (2009:22)

16. Davies (2009:36)

17. Davies (2009:34–35)

18. Davies (2009:25–26)

19. Davies (2009:34)

20. Davies (2009:15)

21. Davies (2009:16–17)

22. Davies (2009:24)

23. Davies (2009:37)

24. Davies (2009:46)

25. Davies (2009:47–48)

26. Davies (2009:48)

27. Davies (2009:49–50)

28. Davies (2009:51–52)

29. Davies (2009:59–60)

30. Davies (2009:57)

31. Stephen Flowers (1995). The Galdrabók: An Icelandic Grimoire (https://archive.org/details/Galdrabok

AnIcelandicGrimoire1/mode/2up) . Rûna-Raven Press.

32. Davies (2009:45)

33. Davies (2009:53–54)

34. Davies (2009:66–67)

35. Davies (2009:84–90)

36. Davies (2009:54–55)

37. Davies (2009:74)

38. Patrick, J. (2007). Renaissance and Reformation (https://books.google.com/books?id=_JDOVMDi8d4

C&pg=PA802) . Marshall Cavendish. p. 802. ISBN 978-0-7614-7650-4. Retrieved 7 May 2017.

39. Davies (2009:70–73)

40. Davies (2009:47)

41. Hsia, R. Po-chia (15 April 2008). A Companion to the Reformation World (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=oB8z7JC2c6EC&q=However%2C+amongst+much+of+Europe%2C+belief+in+magic+and+wit
chcraft+persisted%2C&pg=PA452) . John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-7865-5.

42. Davies (2007:95–96)

43. Davies (2007:98–101)

44. Davies (2007:101–104)

45. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2006). "grimoire". The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy. Infobase
Publishing. ISBN 1-4381-3000-7.

46. Davies (2007:109–110)

47. Davies (2007:114–115)

48. Davies (2007:121–122)

49. Davies (2007:123)

50. Davies (2007:134–136)

51. Davies (2007:123–124)

52. Davies (2007:135–137)

53. Malchus, Marius (2011). The Secret Grimoire of Turiel. Theophania Publishing. ISBN 978-1-926842-
80-6.

54. Semple, Gavin (1994) 'The Azoëtia – reviewed by Gavin Semple', Starfire Vol. I, No. 2, 1994, p. 194.

55. Davies, Owen (4 April 2008). "Owen Davies's top 10 grimoires" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/
2009/apr/08/history) . The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2009.

Bibliography

Davies, Owen (2009). Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. Oxford University Press USA.
ISBN 9780199204519. OCLC 244766270 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/244766270) .

External links

Look up grimoire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Media related to Grimoires at Wikimedia Commons

Internet Sacred Text Archives: Grimoires (http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/)

Digitized Grimoires (http://www.hermetics.org/library/Library_Grimoires.html)

Reidar Thoralf Christiansen; Pat Shaw Iversen (1964). Folktales of Norway (https://archive.
org/details/folktalesofnorwa0000unse) . University of Chicago Press. p. 32ff. ISBN 978-0-
226-10510-9.

Scandinavian folklore (http://www.ststlocations.com/Archives/Scandinavian/Folklore/)

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