THE POWER OF GRIMOIRES

"By the light of at tallow candle a man was reading something written in a grimoire that usually was taken hidden.He was reading aloud and seemed to be waiting for something to occur. And then, when the room filled and trembled with sounds, carefully, the man designed a pentacle on the ground and slowly a giant form of grey came from the darkness..."

The works of Papus are entirely based on the following assertion: "the visible is the demonstration of invisible" and the aim of his work the "Elementary Treatise of occult science" is to make us accept this sentence: "Scientia occulta. Scientia occultati. Scientia occultans." (The hidden science. The science of the hidden. The science which hides what it has discovered).

Similar science, that is to say the knowledge of the hidden is found into the grimoires. They are books of magic spells, books of secrets, black books, those famous grimoires from which come their priceless value. It was between the 13th and the 15th centuries that mysterious small works were sold under the coat in which it was told that monks, masters in theology, and scientists alchemists have transmitted their secrecies for fighting fate and obtaining marvellous privileges from the very powerful divine.

The first character of a grimoire lies in its form which engenders the power to bind the invisible. The reader acts as a miracle-worker : he goes, he comes, he orders, he officiates. The second character affirms itself in its action, its power operating. A black book implies inescapably action. It is not the matter to pry and wait. It is advisable to enterprise according the requirements of the form of the book.
The miracle-worker orchestrates. The third character of a grimoire proceeds from magic because it calls for hidden forces.

A main question comes: how to establish the authenticity of such a book, how to discover it is not a rotten trick? Several arguments can justify its value.

Thus, spiritual and ceremonial recommendations and invocations reference themselves to some old or modern works already written by some kabbalists Masters, then, the tone of the prayers, the style of invocations and also, the fast ordered revealing a quasi religious style. And above all, to conclude, the style of the rituals described by Cornélius Agrippa, Raymond Lulle, Pope Honorius, Roger Bacon, Priest Thrithème, Eliphas Levi... who all were inspired by the same occult tradition.

The main known grimoires are keys. They are:
* The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage
* The Sworn Book of Honorius
* The Greater Key of Solomon
* The Grand Grimoire
* The Red Dragon
* The True Black Dragon
* Enchiridion
* The Little Albert
* The Great Albert

They give access to the invisible world, to treasure, to the Holy Grail... to marvellous things. The naivety of these works takes sometimes an aspect of old wives’ remedies, rather touching because one finds there some receipts supposed to attract love, fortune, health… the evil eye. The black books are associated with some pentacles like as many medals or shield. Some are wonders of graphics.

As a conclusion, one tells that grimoires can bring:

– the joy for a hoped happiness,

– the support of a court of spirits, saints, archangels or devils…

The spirits only appear to be subject to the will of the officiating operator but on the other hand they are the good devils who will be convened to help to discover a treasure.

The general tone of the black books evokes that one of the famous curious stories of Dr. Johann Georg Faust (1480 – 1540), and it is because they are haloed with suffer that they are so detectable to read.