How To Read Grimoires

No doubt we are all familiar with the common story trope of a dusty and haggard book of Magic which is filled with spells, rituals and numerous diabolical looking diagrams. However, these certainly existed and many of them are housed in collections both private and public(ish). The word “Grimoire” got its name as these books were very hard to read and make sense of. Still to this day, if you were to open a translated Grimoire, it will leave one quite confused as to what to make of it. Until now that is. Let’s get cracking, we’ve got some work to do.

Show Notes

• Did you know I’ve already done a show about Grimoires with Dr. Alexander Cummins? It’s excellent. Have a listen
• Have a look at a scan of a 16th Century Grimoire – Folger V. b. 26. This is also available translated as The Book of Oberon. Another scan can be found here
• On Variations From and In Grimoires – Sam absolutely nails it here. Read it. Read it again. Make sure you understand all of what Sam is saying here. Very Important
• Esoteric Archives – Twilight Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica – Without a doubt the most important Website for Magicians at this moment. Most of the Grimoires I’ve talked about are here, free to read and well worth looking over. Joseph H. Peterson has done an absolutely amazing job bringing these to us. We all owe him a debt of gratitude. Now go buy some of his Translations. Oh! And his Recommended Reading lists are quite fantastic as well! If you wish to support, you can do so here
• The Grimoire Encyclopedia Vol I & II by David Rankine – I have waited for something like this for ages, and David has done mind-blowing work here. If you want to get into Grimoires seriously, this is MUST HAVE material in these volumes
• Grimoires: A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies – Brilliant Book! Highly Recommended. In fact, I’ve even made a 40 minute Patreon Episode about just this one book
• For a more technical guide on How To Read a Grimoire manuscript, Dr. Justin Sledge goes through it!
• Grimoire Encyclopedia – A Wayback-Machined version of this somewhat useful website. Not comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a good start. Too bad it’s dead
• Oh hey. Did you want a timeline of most major things that happened in Western Occultism? Here.
• Omega Magick: A Journey into Ceremonial Magick – Another website that had to be Wayback-Machined. Lots of great info on this site but definitely look at some of the Mansucripts here. Great stuff
• The Study of Solomonic Magic in English by Don Karr – An amazing guide and annotated bibliography here. Don Karr just absolutely crushed it. You won’t find a better guide as to where to go as far as Solomonic Magic is concerned. You might need to be a bit more familiar with Grimoires and their names for this to be supremely useful however. Hang in there, if Grimoires are interesting to you, you’ll get there!
• Calvicula? Key of Solomon? What’s that? Joseph H. Peterson has one translated on his website
• Books of Magick – A stellar website which has tonnes of scans of original grimoires. Just a fantastic resource for those who want to get info on these books
• The Transformations of Magic: Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance by Frank Klaassen. Besides going over a few Grimoires (Liber Juratus, Ars Notoria) this book single-handedly changed my outlook on Magic. Many myths busted in this one. I love this book
• Esoterica – Books of Magic – Dr. Justin Sledge has some wicked info on many grimoires and books of magic. Essential viewing!
• Daniel Harms has provided some amazing translations of a few Grimoires, but he has also reviewed many translations as well as other great insights on his old blog Papers Falling From an Attic Window and on his New Blog at Medium. Use the Search bar on Papers Falling… and most likely you’ll find out something about what you’re looking for
• Grimoiric Textual Authenticity and Legitimacy – More great insight from Sam Block
• Invoking Angels edited by Claire Fanger – Includes Uplifitng Souls by Sophie Page which covers Liber Raziel
• The Sworn and Secret Grimoire by Jake Stratton-Kent – Some useful bits in here certainly like the Traditional Method of Evocation and Jake’s more modern take
• Pandemonium: A Discordant Concordance of Diverse Spirit Catalogues by Jake Stratton-Kent
• Glitch Bottle Podcast – Such a great podcast and many a Grimoire is brough up here. One of my absolute favourite podcasts
• The Book of Grimoires: The Secret Grammar of Magic by Claude Lecouteux
• The Goetia and Grimoire Magic Facebook Group is well worth joining
• Do you now love Grimoires and want to read more about them? Scarlet Imprint as well as Hadean Press are leading the pack on that front

The Self-Directed-Teach-Yourself-in-8-Grimoires List!

• The Heptameron – I’ll just put Agrippa’s Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy here as it includes the Heptameron, On Magical Ceremonies, and the Arbatel
• True Black Magic
• The Secrets of Solomon
• The Hygromanteia or Magical Treatise of Solomon – I’ve also done a full Patreon episode about this book justsoyaknow
• The Sworn Book of Honorius or Liber Juratus
• Sepher Raziel: Liber Salomonis
• A Cunning Man’s Grimoire or The Secret of Secrets
• The Book of Oberon

One last time- I talk about Grimoires a TONNE on my Patreon. If you’d like some more insights, I’d love your support there.