Grimorium Verum, The

An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)

This magical text-book was first published in 1517, and purported to be translated from the Hebrew. It is based to some extent upon the Key of Solomon (q.v.), and is quite honest in its statement that it proposes to invoke "devils," which it refers to the four elements, so that these would appear to be of the type of elementary spirits (q.v.). A part of the account it gives regarding the hierarchy of spirits is taken from the Lemegeton (q.v.). The work is divided into three portions: the first describing the characters and seals of the demons, with the forms of their evocation and dismissal; the second gives a dsecription of the supernatural secrets which can be learned by the power of the demons; and the third is the key of the work and its proper application. But these divisions only outline what it purports to place before the reader, as the whole work is a mass of confusion. The plates which supply the characters do not apply to the text. The book really consists of two parts-the Grimorium Verum itself, and a second portion, which consists of magical secrets. The first supplies directions for the preparation of the magician based on those of the Clavicle of Solomon. Instructions for the manufacture of magical instruments, and the composition of a parchment on which the characters and seals are to be inscribed, as well as the processes of evocation and dismissal. The second part contains the "admirable secrets" of the pretended Albertus Magnus, the "Petit Albert" and so forth. The work is only partially diabolical in character, and some of its processes might claim to be classed as White Magic.