Grimoires: A History of Magic Books [ハードカバー]

Davies has written an entertaining survey of grimoires, surpassing in different ways Christopher McIntosh's earlier and shorter text on the subject The Devil's Bookshelf (1985), which is still a well-informed although limited introduction to the topic. The subtitle of Davies' book needs clarification. This is not a history of magic books in general, but a history of a specific type of magic book. As Davies states in his introduction, "grimoires are books of magic,... but not all books of magic are grimoires, for as we shall see, some magic texts were concerned with discovering and using the secrets of the natural world rather than being based on the conjuration of spirits, the power of words, or the ritual creation of magical objects". Although his history is limited primarily to "grimoires" as he understands them, he does touch on magic texts in general and looks at their relationship to the magical aspects of writing itself, including the ritual use of materials in book production and the eventual democratizing of literary magic through print and cheap productions, leaving only illiteracy as an obstacle.

Davies' approach is strictly that of a social historian writing a popular history, not a practitioner of magic. He is more concerned with the social influence of grimoires and any controversies surrounding them than their content (which is generally and lightly touched on) and effectiveness, and he considers the "lineage of magic" as "dubious" (page 11). At the top of his list in terms of "the greatest influence on the modern world of magic and religion" is The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses followed by "the most enduring, influential, and notorious Solomonic book," The Key of Solomon (pages 11 & 15). Other grimoires discussed include the Picatrix, the Sworn Book of Honorius, the Little Albert, the Grand Grimoire (and a version of it called the Red Dragon), the Book of St Cyprian, the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Francis Barrett's The Magus, the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, and Gerald Gardner's Book of Shadows among others. However, some may be disappointed by the low degree of coverage of certain texts. The American book pirate L. W. de Laurence and his publishing influence, on the other hand, receives ample coverage. Some may also be surprised to find Simon's Necronomicon, which Davies calls "a well-constructed hoax", treated as "no less 'worthy'" as a piece of magical literature than other grimoires. Of this and other Necronomicons he states: "Like other famous grimoires explored in this book, it is their falsity that makes them genuine" (page 268). These type of statements show that although false authorship and fictive elements are used in many grimoires, Davies lacks the discerning eye of a skilled practical magician and more careful scholar of magic.

Given the above caveats, Davies' text is still an enjoyable and informative read. It will certainly introduce some readers to grimoires they did not know existed and provide a historical context for them. For further context, Davies highly recommends Michael D. Bailey's Magic and Superstition in Europe: A Concise History from Antiquity to the Present (2007) as "an ideal companion" (pages 286 and 291 [Note 4]). Like Davies' text, it too has its weaknesses, but each book is strengthened by the other if used together. In addition to being well bound with an attractive dust jacket, Davies' book also contains 27 illustrations, 17 plates on glossy pages, a six-page Epilogue, as well as chapter notes, an index, and a useful Further Reading section.

I was surprised because "Grimoires", while it is a very good survey of magical books in the West from the Middle Ages to the present, actually is much more, the best one book study of esotericism in the West I have yet seen.

And here's why. In "All the President's Men" the source Deep Throat says, "follow the money" because that's how all of the seemingly disparate secrets are connected. When it comes to astrology, alchemy, magic and esoteric knowledge in the West, it's follow the book, or rather the books! In the East there are traditions that have continued their oral and direct transmission of wisdom and technique until the present day. In the West oral transmission essentially ceased and the esoteric traditions of the West from the Middle Ages onward have been heavily literary, dependent to a great extent on learning from books. Therefore, when you trace the history of grimoires, books of magic, as Davies has done, you can see the importance of magic books.

I was particularly taken by the incredible notoriety of DeLaurence, who I'd always taken as a plagiarist and publisher of pulp [Davies has a whole chapter called Pulp Magic!] In South America, in the Caribbean and especially in Jamaica, DeLaurence became notorious and the possession of his "Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses" the key to magical credibility. Amazingly enough I encountered this personally recently. I shipped a talisman to Jamaica recently and of course included my usual instruction booklet. The talisman was confiscated by Jamaican Customs! When I checked the Jamaican Customs regulations I found that there was no restriction on jewelry, but that magic books published by DeLaurence were specifically banned in Jamaica. What a synchronicity! Particularly since Davies mentions the Jamaican Customs regulations in his book.

So we have everything, King Solomon, Greek Magical Papyri, Hermes Trismegistus, Picatrix, Ficino, Agrippa, Key of Solomon, 17th & 18th century Europe and America, Petit Albert, Red Dragon, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Books of Moses, Freemasonry, Joseph Smith, Voudun, Santeria, Allen Kardac, Hoodoo, Paschal Beverly Randolph, the Golden Dawn, Crowely, Necronomicon, Anton Levey, Gardner and Wicca. All the disparate strands of Western esotericism, all connected by grimoires!

I'm reading this and saying, "Why haven't I heard of this book before?" Well it was only published in 2009. Excellent, really excellent! This is exactly what an academic study is useful for, placing things in historical perspective. Definitely extremely useful and worth getting!

Grimoires: A History of Magic Books

Writing in similar vein to his "Cunning Folk: Popular Magic in English History", Davies has penned an enjoyable yet scholarly account of the evolution of magical spellbooks from earliest times to the present day, opening up new territory in his exploration of their development and proliferation in the United States by following a murky thread of tradition, complex borrowings and multiple piratings. In this, Davies' book splendidly supplements the work in European fields first undertaken by E. M. Butler, and now more recently, by Kiekhefer, Fanger, Luck, Klaassen, Peterson, Mathiesen, and Hutton. Well illustrated with previously unpublished material such as Francis Barrett's handwritten title page of his manuscript for "The Magus", Davies' book should be of as much interest to the student of the occult as to the historian.