The Philosophical Merlin: Available Now on Amazon

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The second of the second slew of grimoire editions is finally here; the Philosophical Merlin, produced originally in 1822 in what was then the rising British Empire.

The book(let) itself was mostly overlooked in its time period, overshadowed by numerous French cycle grimoires (The Black Pullet comes from the same time period) and thus attempted to market itself by claiming Napoleonic lineage. While this is likely untrue, and it was of primordial British manufacture, I did note its similarity to the I-Ching and other systems from the East (which were being contacted by the British at the time) and in this manner it is hardly much different from the Turkish and Arabic systems encountered by the expanding French empire around the same time.

Its content is not so much that of a standard western folk magick grimoire, nor an abrahamized treatise of kaballah or similar systems derived thereof, so much as a divinatory manuscript with references to the celestial and to standard horoscopes and astrology. Through the use of this system, the reader is able to denote their general nativity under this selfsame system and proceed with divining their possible future insofar as marital bliss, power, wealth, and possible dangers to their health are concerned.

It should be duly noted that at the time of manufacture, the average literate Englishman was of at least middle class stock, with most of the lower class being functionally illiterate to a great degree; the fixation on wealth, travel, and so forth, present in this work, is a sign of the time and place in which it was made. It also fixates upon the concept of the rites of Venus, Venus here representing sexuality and lust, and makes numerous cryptic references to the acts of Venus here, which is merely the polite, upper class British manner of saying "sexual intercourse" in the early 19th century.

The only other edition present anywhere on the web is a poorly made scan of the original 1822 edition with no additional notes or introduction to explain the text and its context in history, and which has retained all errors in the original material; my own edition is also half the price of this other cheaply produced crap.

Grimorium Verum Now Available

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After some time acquiring new occult materials in order to release editions of yet more grimoires, the first of a half dozen or so works is now complete; the infamous Grimorium Verum, one of the more diabolical works within the sphere of such modest-length occult works from the Renaissance through the early 20th century.

Also known as the "True" grimoire, this specific work contains a strange mix of typical angelic or white workings (numerous allusions to the power of Adonay and other divine or angelic names) as well as a limited amount of astrological material mixed in with several rather dark rituals; one involving animal sacrifice, the other involving the decapitated head of a human being and some beans, used to summon a spirit for divinatory purposes.

The work is fully illustrated and edited; I have removed archaic language and modernized it, with a few exceptions for continuity, and simplified the first three illustrations which apparently serve no purpose except to illuminate the topic at hand, because the three marks (or sigils) given for, respectively, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Astaroth, are not directly used in any of the summoning herein. The work can be taken as an extremely interesting mixture of traditional and folk magick, or else as a steganographic work which I explain to some depth in the introduction. Strangely at least one other edition has a fifth section tacked onto the end from the OTO, the Book of the Black Serpent, which is of an entirely different occult school and which no serious occultist would consider as having anything to do with Crowley's nonsensical treatment of older traditions. This edition, obviously, omits this and other occasional attempts by the dishonest to cheapen the work. I have also finally corrected the all-too-obvious problem within the human head ritual, which calls for seven black beans but only accounts for five; the solution is simple- the original passage apparently forgets to notify the operator that not one but two beans are to be place in each eye. This otherwise minor oversight would be a severe problem for anyone actually attempting to use the work in a ritual form (I obviously do not condone the attempted use of decapitated human heads in rituals.)

Forthcoming Occult Titles

Over the course of the coming months, presumably before spring has sprung and I can once again occupy myself with a bit of work outdoors, I plan to release a slew of new occult titles, within the same general scope as the edited works I have already released; with "Sonic Occultism" now done and awaiting its final edit and cover art, and with another fairly short work I plan to release in December or January underway, the time is ripe for stage two of the occult manuscripts I need to release editions of. I will summarize them here briefly.

Grimorium Verum

A long-ish grimoire (compared to most similar works) dwelling largely on black magick more diabolical than even the Red Dragon and probably the result of an occultist familiar with the latter. It claims to date to the 15th century but is almost certainly of 18th century manufacture. I finally obtained the old english translation needed to release it, after not being able to find it for some time.

The Picatrix

Many are familiar with the Warnock translation of this text but as far as I can tell some of the content there is fancy; I possessed an older version some time ago, as I did the Grimorium Verum, before a computer crash destroyed the files, and was unable to re-obtain it similarly. This mixture of magick dwells on what we would generally term alchemy, the talismanic arts, and some black magick as well as white magick in standard form. It is one of the more important occult works of the world, nonetheless only generally available in potentially flawed form.

The Grimoire of Turiel (Or Secret Grimoire of Turiel)

A rather odd work which may largely plagiarize Waite but which shows enough differences to be re-edited into a properly understood work. It contains a series of prayers, sigils, and benedictions. I may or may not choose to release this due to its controversial nature and potential legal gray-area status as a copyrighted work.

Sepher Raziel

Similar to the Sepher Yetzirah and Sepher Bahir in being gnostic-influenced Hebraic magick of a sort. It is more philosophy than spellwork, but is still philosophically valuable for those on a kabbalists' or gnostic path.

Aradia: The Witches' Gospel

A sort of Victorian era work of slightly dubious nature that nonetheless must of necessity be included in any comprehensive release of magickal content. It heavily influenced latter-day wicca. The work is fortuitously out of copyright due to an apparent public domain placement some time ago.