Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 1 of 23 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition No. 10, Vol. 1, Vernal Equinox 2006 Modern Grimoire Magick: Folk Magick and The Solomonic Path Aaron J. Leitch The medieval systems of "grimoiric" mysticism (of which the European Solomonic tradition is a part) are outlined in such manuscripts as The Key of Solomon the King, the Goetia, the Book of [1] Abramelin, The Magus, etc. The authors of these texts (many of them members of the medieval Catholic Church) drew magickal secrets from the cultures they found around them - such as Jewish Merkavah Mysticism and Qabalah, classical Gnosticism, Arabic Sufism and the rich traditions of European pagan folklore.[2] The mysticism that evolved among these Christian mages was fairly shamanic. It called upon the Angels and spirits of nature. It described methods of exorcism and acquisition of spirit familiars. Wax images, sacrifices, incantations and necromancy all proved a marked pagan influence on the texts. Yet, they were unquestionably the work of devout Christians, who invoked the name of Jesus, used standard Christian prayers (such as the Pater Noster and the Psalms) as magickal spells, and presented a blatantly Christian mythos. The Solomonic mystics were unique because they were among the first humans in history to have access to the technology of paper and [3] bound books. (They were very often scholars, scientists or scribes.) Therefore, they naturally recorded much of their tradition into manuscripts called textbooks or “grammars” (French: grimoire). The appearance of these grimoires shocked Roman Catholic and many Protestant authorities so deeply, it triggered the Inquisitions and mass book burnings. What we know of Solomonic mysticism today comes largely from the grimoiric manuscripts that survived. After the Inquisitions, the Age of Enlightenment dawned in Europe. The surviving grimoires had vanished into private collections and museum archives - mostly guarded by the Masons as occult curiosities. There was the odd scholar or quasi-Masonic group (most of them students of Hermeticism) who discovered the texts and made use of some of the material. You might recognize many of the names - Elias Ashmole, "Dr. Rudd", Francis Barrett, MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley are just a few. However, few of them practiced the texts on their own terms. The more pagan elements of the grimoires vanished, and the mark of Masonic lodge-style magick was eventually imprinted upon them. mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 2 of 23 Today, there are many ceremonial groups that make limited use of the Solomonic material - most of them descended from or influenced by a late Victorian quasi-Masonic lodge called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There have even been a number of modern Orders [4] that focus entirely on the grimoires, though even they are influenced by post-Golden Dawn magickal methodology. Toward the end of the 20th Century, several books were released that present methods for summoning Angels and spirits based upon (or influenced by) Golden Dawn techniques.[5] While the modern ceremonial systems may draw names, sigils and talismans from the medieval grimoires, the techniques they utilize are no older than the late 1800s - and in some cases are even younger. The grimoires are not composed of lodge-style ceremonial magick. You'll find no "Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" in the Key of Solomon the King. You will not see instructions in the Goetia to inscribe geometric figures in the air. No Tarot-based Elemental Weapons or Lotus Wands are found anywhere in the vast corpus of medieval Solomonic literature. At the time I wrote my book on grimoire magick, I was operating under the impression that the "living grimoiric tradition" - as recorded by the medieval mages themselves- had long-since ceased to exist. I focused strictly upon the historical European Solomonic tradition, along with suggestions for following a similar path in the modern world. (In fact, I was hoping my book would help to re- ignite the Solomonic tradition, and provide a textbook – grimoire - for it.) However, over the past several years, I have discovered that I was fundamentally wrong about the passing of the "living grimoiric tradition." It was not stamped out by the Church, nor has it been dead and buried in Masonic vaults for the past 400 years! Indeed, it survived the inquisitions, migrated to the New World with European immigrants, and - true to its shamanic nature - mutated to a new form. It has been with us right here in America for nearly as long as the nation has existed - and it is currently becoming part of a larger occult revival. I have been shocked to discover just how many people are currently out there really working with this material! Their procedures may or may not differ from what I describe in my book. I may or may not always agree with their philosophies about the magick. Yet, one way or the other, they are using the old methods and getting results. Thus, contrary to what you may read in my previous work, the Solomonic tradition is alive and growing today. In this essay, I will trace this slightly mutated "grimoiric" trend from Europe to the New World (both New England and the American South), and finally discuss how it is currently affecting aspirants searching for the Solomonic path. Overall, I hope to give the reader a solid impression mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 3 of 23 of what it means when someone - right here in the modern world - calls him or herself a "Solomonic magician." European Folk Magick in the New World The medieval Solomonic grimoires are, in fact, a sub-set of a larger literary genre - the folkloric "receipt-book." (The word "receipt", used in this sense, is an archaic form of the word "recipe.") A receipt-book was a hand-written journal of family and local folklore, passed down from generation to generation. The typical receipt-book contained such things as agricultural lore, cleaning tips, beauty aids and "home remedy" medicinal secrets. For an example of such domestically-useful content, take this recipe for a plaster that aids healing: [6] A Very Good Plaster. I doubt, very much whether any physician in the United States can make a plaster equal to this. It heals the white swelling, and has cured the sore leg of a woman who for eighteen years had used the prescriptions of doctors in vain. Take two quarts of cider, one pound of bees-wax, one pound of sheep-tallow, and one pound of tobacco; boil the tobacco in the cider till the strength is out, and then s train it, and add the other articles to the liquid: stir it over a gentle fire till all is dissolved. Or this recipe for curing fatigue: [7] Another Remedy for Weakness Take Dittany and St. John's wort, and put them in good old rye whiskey. To drink some of this in the morning before having taken anything else, is very wholesome and good. A tea made of the acorns of the white oak is very good for weakness of the limbs. The receipt-books also contained occult lore - in the form of incantations, spells and simple conjurations. Depending on the source, this occultism is variously known as European folk magick, witchcraft or "collections of local superstitions." For example, here is a folk remedy for the fever: [8] How to Banish the Fever. Write the following words upon a paper and wrap it up in knot-grass, (breiten megrich,) and then tie it upon the body of the person who has the fever: mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 4 of 23 Potmat sineat, Potmat sineat, Potmat sineat. Or, how about this helpful hint for ranchers: [9] Another Way to Make Cattle Return Home. Feed your cattle out of a pot or kettle used in preparing your dinner, and they will always return to your stable. There are also more involved spells, which should sound very familiar to any student of the Solomonic tradition: To Prevent Bad People From Getting About the Cattle. [10] Take wormwood, gith, five-finger weed, and assafœtida; three cents' worth of each; the straw of horse beans, some dirt swept together behind the door of the stable and a little salt. Tie these all up together with a tape, and put the bundle in a hole about the threshold over which your cattle pass in and out, and cover it well with lignum-vitæ wood. This will certainly be of use. This kind of magick was a hold-over from the paganism that existed in Europe before the domination of the Church. While the pagan religions themselves may have been destroyed, local and family traditions and folklore often survived. Many of them simply adapted to the new Christian environment. By the time the receipt-books were penned, Biblical scripture and prayers to Jesus and Saints had become intermixed with the older pagan material: [11] Another Well-Tried Charm Against Firearms. Blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ was born; blessed is the hour in which Jesus Christ has arisen from the dead; blessed are these three hours over thy gun, that no shot or ball shall fly toward me, and neither my skin, nor my hair, nor my blood, nor my flesh be injured by them, and that no kind of weapon or metal shall do me any harm, so surely as the Mother of God shall not bring forth another son. + + + Amen. mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 5 of 23 At the same time, aspects of Judeo-Christian occultism (such as we see in the Solomonic grimoires) were incorporated into the receipt- books. Perhaps the best example of this is the famous SATOR/ROTAS magickal square: S A T O R A R E P O T E N E T O P E R A R O T A S We have seen this square on Solomonic talismans, and a (slightly [12] altered) version even appears in the Book of Abramelin. Meanwhile, the lesser-known receipt-books grant this talisman various powers. If written on either side of a plate and cast into a fire, it can extinguish the flames without water. If written on paper, ground up and added to cattle's feed, it will protect the beasts from evil witchcraft. If built into the structure of a door or window, it will keep evil spirits from entering.[13] Another folk remedy for the fever should be familiar to students of European occultism: [14] To Banish Convulsive Fevers. Write the following letters on a piece of white paper, Pew it on a piece of linen or muslin, and hang it around the neck until the fever leaves you: A b a x a C a t a b a x A b a x a C a t a b a x A b a x a C a t a b a A b a x a C a t a b A b a x a C a t a A b a x a C a t A b a x a C a A b a x a C A b a x a A b a x A b a A b This talisman is obviously adapted from the "Abracadabra" formula, which adopts its principal from Qabalistic philosophies on the power of words. The fever is symbolically linked to the word "Abracadabra" (or, in this case, "Abaxacatabax"), and should diminish as the letters of the word are reduced one by one. (Most folks are familiar with "Abracadabra" because stage-magicians in the early 1900s - who sometimes claimed real occult power - adopted the mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 6 of 23 word into their acts.) The receipt-books were grimoires in every sense of the word- and were sometimes known as "wonder-books." In fact, it could be said that the Solomonic grimoires were merely the receipt-books (or wonder-books) of one group of medieval Christian mystics. Once the Inquisitioners had finished searching for grimoires on the shelves of their clergy, they began seeking out the local healers and midwives who often had receipt-books of their own. (From this grew the legends of "witch-burning" that characterize the Inquisition to this day.) It was this atmosphere of religious persecution throughout Europe that prompted many individuals and entire communities to seek their fortunes in the New World. Those whose faiths were labeled (or bordered upon) "heresy" migrated especially to the colony of Pennsylvania, which had been founded (in 1681 CE by the Quaker William Penn) on the principal of religious freedom. It quickly became a haven for Quakers, Mennonites, Anabaptists and other obscure (and often mystical) religious sects. By 1683, German settlers had established the community of Germantown near Philadelphia - and they brought their receipt-books with them.[15] Once in the New World, the lore we find recorded in the books combined with Native American herbalism. (The immigrant cunning-folk and healers would have wanted to learn about the local plant life as soon as possible, in order to make necessary medicines and potions.) The information then began to appear in published works in the late 1700s and 1800s. Thanks to mass distribution [16] through mail-order catalogues, books like the Farmers Almanac, and John Hohman's Pow-Wows, or the Long Lost Friend (first published in German, in 1820, as Der Lange Verborgene Freund) became the foundation of the New England folk tradition. This New England folk tradition is sometimes called Hexcraft - though this may be a modern convention. Alternately, it has been called braucha in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, speilwerk in the German, or "Pow-wow" after the title of John Hohman's book. (He had simply borrowed an Algonquian word for "shaman.")[17] Practitioners of Pow-wow magick were known by the German term Hexenmeisters (spell-masters). Besides their spells and conjurations, they were most famous as herbologists and healers. In most cases, the tradition could only be handed down from a male to a female, or from a female to a male - especially from mother to son. (Modern students of Wiccan history may find that information of interest.) Receipt-books had been kept within families since the invention of mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 7 of 23 paper and bound books, and they continued to appear even as late as 1950s America. Eventually, the advent of the Industrial Age and the nuclear family destroyed the transmission of such folk wisdom from the older generations to the younger, and the receipt-book finally [18] disappeared. Today, it is unclear how many hexenmeisters are left, or whether or not the tradition will be handed down to another generation. Nonetheless, Mr. Hohman's book eventually became the quintessential American grimoire, and was the principal (but not the only) source of spells for Pow-wowing. (In fact, all of the above examples of receipt-book folklore were taken from The Long Lost Friend.) Another text of importance was Egyptian Secrets, (supposedly) by Albertus Magnus, which was one of the main sources for Hohman's book. Even more interesting for us here, there were several classical grimoires that made it through the Inquisition and across the sea to America. The most important to the Pow-wow tradition were the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, the Black Pullet and possibly the Goetia as well. The hexenmeisters were not very interested in the purification rites and conjuration ceremonies. Instead, they merely adopted the elaborate seals and sigils - which they charged according to their own tradition. For instance, merely placing a grimoiric seal inside a Bible for seven days was often enough to make it magically viable. Unfortunately, these classical grimoires were often associated with "black-magick" by Pow-wow healers. Even owning such a book was seen as an indication of satanic influence- and they were strictly avoided by those who wished to present Pow-wow magickal lore as lawful within Christian dogma.[19] The Magick Moves South: The Hoodoo Tradition While the European immigrants were bringing their religions and folk magick with them to New England, the slaves were bringing theirs to the South. In places like Cuba, the Caribbean and the American southern states (like Louisiana), we find a strong presence of the African Diaspora religions - such as Santeria, Palo and Voodoo (or Voudoun). These initiatory shamanic faiths were themselves combinations of the original African religions and elements from religions in the New World. Santeria adopted much from Catholicism, so that Saints were invoked as indistinguishable from the African Orishas (gods). Both Santeria and Palo drew from Allan Kardec's Spiritism (an offshoot of Spiritualism) to replace their lost ancestral worship- resulting in the mesa blanca (white table) séances. It would also appear that, unlike the New England hexenmeisters, the mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 8 of 23 Diaspora faiths had no compunction against making use of the [20] European grimoires. For example, at some point, several of the seals from the Goetia and related texts were adopted by the Voodoo priests as veves (sigils) for the African Loas (gods).[21] For example, compare the following two sigils. One is from the Goetia, representing the spirit Gomori. The other is the Voodoo sigil for the Loa Ezili-Freda: The next example is also from the Goetia - the seal of the spirit Marbas. Compare this to the sigil of the Loa Ibo: I'll give one final example here - this time the seal is from the grimoire called the Grimoirum Verum, representing the spirit Frucissiere. Corresponding to this, we have the Voodo sigil of the Loa Papa-Legba: mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 9 of 23 As one should expect, these African-descended religions also brought with them a rich tradition of African folk magick. Crossroads magick, "foot track" magick, "laying down tricks", crossing and uncrossing, gris-gris or mojo bags, ritual sweeping and bathing are all African survivals. And, as usual with folk traditions, these things were not strictly contained within the Diaspora religions. Instead, during the late 19th century, they disseminated among the lay-people as well - intermixing freely with the folklore and occultism of surrounding cultures. Included in the mix were Native American herbalism, Spiritism, European folk magick (especially Pow-wow), and the medieval grimoires. This new southern American folk tradition was eventually labeled [22] Hoodoo - also known as root-working and conjure sorcery. Because of its close ties to Voodoo, Palo, etc, it is often mistaken as a Diaspora religion in its own right. However, Hoodoo is not a religion, nor does one have to be an initiate of any of these religions to practice. Like the Pow-wow tradition, it was taught and practiced by common folk within families or close-knit communities. (Pre- WWII blues music is known for references to Hoodoo - such as Crossroads Blues by Robert Johnson and Hoodoo Lady by Memphis Minnie.) Of course, for this essay, we are most interested in the influence of European folklore and occultism on Hoodoo. The southern rootworkers (or root-doctors) were great fans of what they considered "Jewish Kabbalistic" works like Hohman's The Long Lost [23] Friend, Magnus' Egyptian Secrets and grimoires like The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, The Black Pullet, The Key of Solomon the King and The Goetia. In fact, there is some speculation that the term "Hoodoo" may descend from the Latino word Judio, pronounced "hoo-dee-oh", and meaning "Jewish." It could easily have come into the culture via Palo, within which is a path named Palo Judio. If this is the origin of the word Hoodoo, then it is likely the practice was named for its association with so-called "Jewish magick"; the medieval grimoires. However, much as we see with New England folk magick, the southern rootworkers were not interested in the grimoires' ritual instructions - they wanted books with lots of seals and words of mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007 Modern Grimoire Magick - Aaron Leitch Page 10 of 23 [24] power associated with them. These seals were then drawn on paper and placed in sachets, buried in pathways, built into doors, placed upon wounds, etc. - similar to the manner in which the SATOR square is used. They could be empowered via several simple methods such as intonation of their words of power, anointing with oil, recitations of scripture and/or enclosure within a Bible for seven days. Another European magickal tradition adopted into Hoodoo was the use of the Biblical Psalms as spells or conjurations in their own right. [25] This was largely (but not entirely) thanks to the publication of a text called Secrets of the Psalms: A Fragment of the Practical [26] Kabala by Godfrey Selig. (Possibly based upon a medieval Jewish book entitled Shimmush Tehillim - On the Use of Psalms.) Selig's book described the Qabalistic philosophy that the Psalms (especially those attributed to King David) contain hidden "seed syllables" that will produce magickal affects if pronounced aloud. In practice, however, the use of Psalms in Hoodoo magick is much like the conjurations of the Solomonic tradition. The magickal effect produced by the scripture is directly related to the subject-matter of the passage- rather than to Hebrew "seed-syllables."[27] For instance, if one wants to bring fortune to his home, one might recite Psalm 61 which says: Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever, I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. If one has need to travel by night, one might invoke protection via Psalm 121 which says: I will look up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. For headaches or backaches, one can recite Psalm 3 (traditionally used in exorcism) which contains the line: Thou, o Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter of my head. In this manner, Secrets of the Psalms outlines Psalms for numerous uses- such as release from prison, business success, safe childbirth, success in court, defeat of enemies, general protection from evil and more. Psalm magick remains central to Hoodoo practice to this very day. Hoodoo reached its greatest popularity during the early 1900s - mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\James\Desktop\veve\Modern_Grimoire_Magick.... 9/17/2007