
They have been called "the most dangerous books in the world" because of fears that reading them could drive people insane, lead them to commit horrendous acts and that just owning a grimoire could constitute a pact with the Devil. Yet grimoires have also been seen as holding the hidden secrets of power, wealth, success and divine knowledge.
Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
The story begins in ancient Egypt, Persia and Babylonia, when some magical writings that are still used today have their origin. The book ends in the 21st century when grimoires are available to freely download from the internet, for anyone who wants to read or use one.
In between, Grimoires travels through the medieval era; the war against magic and the Inquisition; the Enlightenment and the use of grimoires for treasure seeking; the spread of magic books among American settlers; the rediscovery of ancient magic in the 19th century; the American boom in mass-produced grimoires of the 19th and 20th centuries; fictional grimoires such as HP Lovecraft's the Necronomicon; and the modern Wiccan Book of Shadows penned by Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente.
I'm not going to try to precis the book - it is far too long, convoluted and intricate to do the content justice in short review. But it is a fascinating tale - perhaps mostly because of the amount of deception, fabrication and misdirection involved in the spread and creation of grimoires.
Pretty much every grimoire that has ever been inscribed, penned, copied or printed has had has some degree of fakery about it - and I'm not just talking about the spells they contain. They have often been attributed to authors who almost certainly never wrote them - and sometimes didn't even exist. The date and place of production is often made up - as is the history of how they were found.
One excuse is certainly that publishers of grimoires during times of persecution had good reason to pretend their books came from another country and another time, but it goes much further than that. Biblical Moses almost certainly never wrote Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
Owen Davies' book is not only full of information, it is also well written and entertaining. I believe Grimoires
Grimoires: A History of Magic Books
Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/08/history
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
Grimoire du pape Honorius : Avec un recueil des plus rares secrets
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/01/wicca-witchcraft-finding-out-basics.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/11/book-of-shadows-for-wiccan-year.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/08/necronomicon-lecture.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/review-grimoire-of-necronomicon.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/09/day-for-doreen-valiente.html
A Witches' Bible
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_shadows
http://www.sacred-texts.com/
2 comments:
so it basically explains info that you can easily find on the internet for free in 2 minutes that should already be common logic to any occult user.
Hi Anonymous - that wasn't my thoughts on reading the book at all. I found it very well researched and informative. Considerably more informative than anything you could find on the internet and read in two minutes. It took me many hours of reading to finish the book - it is quite long.
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