The Grimoire

Hi there!

If you have stumbled upon this article I suppose you are either new to witchcraft and wondering where to start off or just want to know a bit more of the history of witchcraft. Either way you are more than welcome.

Now if you are still new, as I am writting this mostly for the baby witches out there, I guess you have heard about grimoires and that they are important part of the craft, but want to know what exactly it is and how to make one.

You came to the right place!

So, let's say you started reading stuff here and there, came across some spells, tried out some, gathered some information on a herb, on tarot, even astrology and you want to save that information in some way. Well that is why you need a grimoire!

The Grimoire is the place for all the sacred witchcraft knowledge of a witch that is why it is also believed to be imbued with magical power.

The Grimoire a.k.a The Book of shadows is usually a textbook, although nowadays it can be in digital form on your PC or smartphone, it is where a witch saves instructions for magical items, spells, charms, herbs, divination, or summoning or invoking supernatural entities or familiars.

History

According to Owen Davies the term grimoire is originally European, but these books were not only used by European magicians but around the whole world. The first grimoires though were created by Europe and the ancient Near East.

In history the earliest known magical incantations were from ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The Mesopotamian people wrote their incantations on clay tablets and the Egyptians inscribed them on amulets. When the writting system evolved and the Library of Alexandria was opened was when the grimoires as we know them now began to come into existence.

Around this time Hermeticism started to form and the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes, who are associated with writing and magic therefore became also associated with books on magic.

The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that books on magic were invented by the Persians. The ancient Jewish people were often viewed as being knowledgeable in magic, which, according to legend, they had learned from Moses, who had learned it in Egypt. In two manuscripts, both of which connected to the eighth Book of Moses, present him as a polytheist, who explained how to conjure gods and subdue demons.

Another evidence of the use of grimoires can be found with certain, particularly Gnostic, sects of early Christianity. In the Book of Enoch e.g. there are mentions of angels and astrology.

Israelite King Solomon was also associated with magic and sorcery in the ancient world. The Romano-Jewish historian Josephus mentioned a book (grimoire) under the name of Solomon that contained incantations for summoning demons and described how a Jew called Eleazar used it to cure cases of demon possession.

When Christianity became the dominant faith, the early Church frowned upon books on magic, connecting it with paganism, and burned them as well as many converts decided to burn their own magic and pagan books.

Did that stop the making of grimoires though?

Of course not.

the production of grimoires continued amongst Jews and the followers of the newly founded Islamic faith. In Christianised Europe, the Church divided books of magic into two kinds: those that dealt with "natural magic" and those that dealt with "demonic magic".

The former were tolerated as they used the power of nature and were used oftentimes in medicine. Demonic magic was not acceptable for obvious reasons.

Furthermore, there is evidence that the mediaeval clergy were the main practitioners of magic and therefore the owners, transcribers, and circulators of grimoires, Several grimoires were even attributed to Popes.

Also, it was commonly believed ancient figures, such as the poet Virgil, astronomer Ptolemy and philosopher Aristotle, had been involved in magic, and were believed to have written several grimoires.

During the Renaissance there was an increased interest in Hermeticism, Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah, The idea of demonology, and natural magic.

Which resulted in the writings of many books, considered as book of shadows such as: the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, the Supreme Mysteries of Nature, Doctor Faustus.

To counter this, the Roman Catholic Church produced many works of exorcism, ironically the rituals of which were often very similar to those of demonic conjuration.

Throughout this period, the Inquisition organised the mass suppression of peoples and beliefs that they considered heretical.

In 1599, the church published the Indexes of Prohibited Books, in which many grimoires were listed as forbidden, including several mediaeval ones, such as the Key of Solomon.

Furthermore the widespread fear of witchcraft began to develop, as the craft was believed to be Satanic in nature. This lead to the Witch Hunt, which caused the death of around 40,000 people, most of whom were women.

Sometimes, those found with grimoires, particularly demonological ones, were prosecuted and dealt with as witches but, in most cases, those accused had no access to such books.

With the rise of the age of Enlightenment in France was developed a new way of printing of many grimoires, the most influential of which was the Grand Grimoire, which was considered particularly powerful, because it involved conjuring and making a pact with the devil's chief minister, Lucifugé Rofocale, to gain wealth from him.

The widespread availability of printed grimoires in France spread to neighbouring countries such as Spain and Germany. In Switzerland, Geneva was commonly associated with the occult at the time, particularly by Catholics, because it had been a stronghold of Protestantism. Many of those interested in the esoteric traveled from Roman Catholic nations to Switzerland to purchase grimoires or to study with occultists.

At some point appeared grimoires that involved Catholic saints; one example was The Book of St. Ciprian, which falsely claimed to date from c. 1000. Like most grimoires of this period, it dealt with how to discover a treasure.

During the 19th century In Germany started an increased interest in folklore and many historians took an interest in magic and in grimoires. Several published parts of such grimoires in their own books on the history of magic, thereby helping to further popularize them.

Throughout the 18th century Britain experienced a revival of interest in the occult, and new grimoires continued to be produced, such as Ebenezer Sibly's A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology and Francis Barrett published The Magus, the latter of which contained many things taken from older grimoires.

One of Barrett's pupils, John Parkin, created his own handwritten grimoire, The Grand Oracle of Heaven, or, The Art of Divine Magic

In modern days the neopagan religion of Wicca, publicly appeared in the 1940s, and Gerald Gardner introduced the Book of Shadows as a Wiccan grimoire.

But enough history, its time for the more fun part

Making your own Grimoire.

1. Get a textbook (or even a few ones) you find appealing aesthetically. Or get a text file ready, as digital grimoires are easier to manage and conceal.

2. PLAN ! I am pretty sure that like me, you don't want to get a textbook, start writting things in it and then all of a sudden there is absolutely no structure and you feel like you have ruined it and damn, it was a pretty one too. So, here is what to do, think about what you want to write in it, e.g I have a few textbooks all for different things I practice - 1 for devination, 1 for astrology, 1 for spells and 1 for plants and 1 for runes and sigils. You get the point. You might want to get a simple one to use as a mockup and just write everything in it then put it in the official one in a more structured way. If you don't want to use a mock up one you can create a simple layout plan of all of the information you want to include in your grimoire, how many pages it will take up and how you’ll organize the information contained within.

3. You can put wards and sigils to keep unwated eyes off of your grimoire.

4. Treat your book of shadows not only as a study book, but as a journal of your thoughts. Include whatever feels right or important to you, be it your own impressions of energies around you, colors, times of day plants, tools, philosophies, recipes, myths, research on dieties and muths, historical events that interest you connected to the craft. To me personally, the grimoire is not only a place for me to write down what I want to memorise, but also a type of diary that who knows, maybe my kids or just baby witches would use to get accustomed with the craft as well. This blog too is a type of grimoire. Which leads me to the next step.

5. Last, but not least Don't feel overwhelmed. Have fun with it! Take the time to really make it yours. Don’t be afraid to get creative and let your imagination run free with the pages and how you want them to look.

What do you say?

Ready to make your own Book of Shadows?

Happy crafting!

Blessed be Witches!