Grimoires: A History of Magic Books

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!

Informative book.I really like it. Still reading it.

I love how the author points out the lack of oral tradition records, and the places of systemic power that went into the making of grimiores. but its not all doom and gloom as there are truly wonderful people mentioned in this book as well. I was thrilled, and will have to reread it to keep my memory fresh

Sometimes, I'm forced to tip my hat to the Algorithm that determines the Amazon.com recommendations. I am, frankly, impressed that this book was recommended to me. First of all, I loved it. Second of all, it was published in the US in 2010, and I've noticed that the Amazon Recommendation Algorithm works better for older books. In a world where Harry Potter has his own Florida theme park and Americans talk to Astrologers over the phone for 1.99 a minute, the continued relevance of Magic is beyond doubt. One of the surprises of this book is the narrow band within which Magic operated, historically speaking. For example, a major focus of interest in regards to Grimories was their use to locate treasure. Davies has a fascinating chapter in the middle of the book about the relationship between contemporary Magical practice and the divinations of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church. Magic Books existed before the printing press was invented, it's a tradition that stretches clear back to antiquity and many of the historically grounded Magic Books of Europe owe some influence to Egypt, Israel or Baghdad. Like many other emblems of literate culture, the tradition of Magic Book was sustained through the pre-printing press era by Church Officials and Monks, which is certainly evidence of a freedom of thought that one typically WOULD not associate with a Monastery circa 500 AD. The Printing Press made the distribution of Magic Books easier, but it remained a very esoteric phenomenon until the late 18th/early 19th century till a host of related conditions: Discovery of "folk culture" by intellectuals, grown of Esoteric Societies among the lower and Middle classes (Freemasonry, etc.), growth of English language literacy among Colonial societies; brought the magic book into what we call "the Modern Era." Certainly, Magic loses a bit of its charm after the Industrial revolution, though whether that is due to the Industrial Revolution itself OR whether the Industrial Revolution is itself a manifestation of the same shift in outlook that caused Magic to lose its status as an emblem of free thinking intellectualism. Contemporary Magic devotees fall into two main groups: People who are into it because they practice Wiccanism or some offshoot, and Harry Potter/Fantasy fans. These are large, powerful Audiences, but they bear little resemblance to the Audiences described for most of Grimories. I would have liked a chapter on "Mass Media and Magic" but it's a small point that doesn't mar an otherwise splendid treatment of an esoteric subject.

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.

Very good history of this subject. I was really intrigued; and although sometimes had to back track, this book really kept my interest. The stories really explain a lot about magic's roots I didn't understand before.

A really good read for anyone interested in the history of magical books. Tends to focus on books that maintain a historical relevance (sometimes up to the present day) and misses some of the isolated grimoires that nonetheless are still relevant to the topic. Still, I give it five stars because I found it fascinating.

Produto excelente. Sem nenhum indício de amasso ou erro de impressão.

I read chunks of this on google books, and found I wanted to know more. As other posters have said, Davies is not out to right about the content of Grimoires but instead how they have been received and used. His writing style is plain and accessible, and unlike many specialist University texts, he does not make assumptions about the level of awareness readers have on the subject. The pros of this book are that it gives a wonderful history of areas like the new World, Europe, instead of just the British Isles. The cons of this book I found were the minimal number of images. Personally, I would have liked more as examples of what Davies was speaking about, but then I am quite versed in this subject and can fill in the blanks, so to speak. This book has definitly taken pride and place in my collection!

This book covers the entirity of the written history of the book. Its examination of magic books includes investigation into the groups, societies, fraternities and religions that have been involved (pro or anti) with grimoires. It examines some of the sociology of who writes magic books, who buys them, why, what they do with them, and who tries to stop them.Davies traces the history of modern magic books from the very first book-producers to the modern printing presses in a country-by-country, era-by-era way. In the process he brushes with many quacks, crazy men, religious zealots and the Inquisition. It is a great book for anyone interested in alternative religion, the dark ages, magic, superstition. The book provides enough background information to be readable to those who aren't history buffs, and enough detail and methodical evidence to be of use to those who *are* history buffs.Like Professor Hutton, Own Davies sticks strictly to an evidence-first approach to history. At worst, the book the quite dry and dense. The author makes it clear that these magic books are often historical mistakes, but, in order to do so in a balanced way, the book is devoid of judgements, pronouncements and seemingly devoid of heartfelt conclusions. On the plus side, you can be assured that it is accurate and well-researched. There are a few pages about The Satanic Bible (about which I know a great deal), and I found that even in that niche Owen Davies had his facts right.

This is a great book it really reminds of some manly p hall books with writing style for quick future reference and the research standard is amazing this man has really went to town with is book it's a wealth of knowledge for anyone Its amazing to see this is where all modern fantasy like lord of the rings/elder scrolls games came from and will open ur eyes to how much the powers that be know about these things it's a rabbit hole for any one no matter what u already know about history or the occult It really becomes obvious the true history of the world and why certain secret societies exist

'Grimoires: A History of Magic Books' by Prof Owen Davies is the best book available on the history of grimoires, written by a genuine University scholar. Most authors on the occult blend history with their own opinion and remove bits that dont fit their bias whether that is Gnosticism, Left hand path or the Golden Dawn. This book is historically accurate.