THE GRIMOIRE of ARMADEL —— S.L. MACGREGOR MATHERS INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM KEITH CONTENTS INTRODUCTION p7 THE MAGIC OF ARMADEL p15 THE THEOSOPLLY OF QUR FOREFATHERS OF THEIR SACRED AND MYSIIC THEOLOGY BY ARMADFT. p21 [AS REGARDEN| [LIE PLANETS, THE SANIIEDRIN p23 ‘THE CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS AT NAZARETI p24 BY IHE FLOWING OF JORDAN p25 (ON OF ZACIIARIAS INTHE DESERT p25 INTHE HELDS OF UABYLON p27 HE SPIRITOT ELISHA 928 OF LEE LIFE OF ELIIAH 929 THE WISPOMOF SOLOMON 5 UIE EXPLORER ANDLEADER JOSHUA p31 THE VISIONOF MAN’ pz THE RODOPMOSES p33 MOSES INTHE INTERIOR OF THE DESERT pt THE CAVEOF FPARON p35 ‘ORTIICIF ABRATIAM FROM UR OF THE CITALDEES AND FROMHARAN p36 THE WISDOM OF OUR FORKFATHER ADAM p37 te BEIOLDING OF THE SERPENI ps ‘THE VISION OF FORMATION. ADAM p39 TM: CIING THE VISION OF EDEN, OR OF UIE TERRESTRIAL PARADISE pa ‘CONCERNING PHITONF OR THE ABUSES OF NECKOMANCY pi (CONCERNING THE COMMUNICATION OFTHE GENU pi? CONCERNING THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE GENT pts CONCERNING THE NATURE OFTHEGENI pit ‘THE SACRO-MYSIIC THEOLOGY OF OUR PATLIERS p47 CONCERNING HE SCIENCE OF THE REGENERATION OF ADAM. AND HIS CHILDREN BY PEIFCH pay CONCERNING THE DEVILS AND [OW THEY MAY BF BOUND AND. (COMPELLED TO VISIBLE APPEARANCE pa ‘CONCERNING THE DEVILS ANI HOW THEY CAN BECOME VISIBLE CONCERNING THE DEVILS AND HOW THEY MAY BE BOUND ANDIECOME VISIBLE p31 CONCERNING HE WAYS OF KNOWING THE DEVILS ANDO! BANISIIING THEM ps2 (CONCERNING THE DEVILS AND THEIR LIFE p53 CONCERNING THE WAYS OF KNOWING THEGOOD ANGELS, ANDOE CONSULTING THEM pt CONCERNING THE LIFFOFMAN pss: CONCTRNING THE CREATION OF 11k SOULS OF MEN p56 (CONCERNING THE EVANGELICREREILION AND EXPULSION CONCERNING THE LIFE OF THE ANGELS BEFORE THE FALL p58 CONCERNING (HE CREATION OF ALLTIIE ANGEIS p50 CONCERNING GOD, THE PRESERVER, HE DESTROYER, AND TILECREATOR p80 CONCERNING GOD IN HIS TRINE PERSONALITY p61 (CONCERNING GOD THE UNIVERSALLY ONE pe2 CONCERNING THE PATIISOPWISIOM p64 THE RATIONAL TABIF. p67 THE FIRST CHARACIERS ps7 ‘THE VISION OF ANOINTING poo THE VISION OF DUST pm THE PREPARATION OF THE SOUL (1 p74 ‘THE PREPARATION OFTHESOUI. (th) p75 THE CHARACIERSO® MICHAEL p77 ORIGINAL LATINTIILE PAGE p79 FIGURES A. OPERATION OF THE URIBE SKRAPHIM [HE SIG, OF ZADKIEL p23 2 THESIGIL OF THAVABL p2t 3 THE SIGIL OF CAPHAEL p25 4 THE SIGIL OF SAMAEL p2s 5 THE SIGH. OF URIEL p27 6 THE SIGH OF MUCHEAEL p2s 7 THE SIGIL OF GABRIFT. p29 8 THE SIGIL OF RAPHAFI. P30 9 THE SIGILS OF HFTAFI. p31 In THE SIGILS OF VAU-AEL p32 11 THE SIGILS OF ZAINARI. p38 12 THESIGIS OF HEINIATIA p34 18 THE SIGILS OF TETATIATIA p25 14 THE SIGILS OF ALEPTA p26 15 THD SIGHS OF BRTRE. paz 16 THE SIGHLS OF GIMELA p38 17 THE SIGILS OF DALETE p39 ISTHE SIGIS OF PHALET pad 19 THE SIGILS OF SAMAEL pl 20 THE SIGILS OF CAMAEL paz 21 THE SIGUS OF HANIEL pas 22 THESIGILS OF ANAEL pit 23,THE SIGILS OF OPHIEI.p§7 24, 25 THESIGILS OF ASMODE AND LEVIATAN p49 30,31 THESIGILS OF ZADKIEL AND SACTIIEL pst {2,33 THESIGILS OFPHUL AND GABRIEL p55 34 THESIGILS OF ARATRON p56 25,36, 37 TILESIGILS OF LUGIFER, BELZEBUT AND ASTAROT po? 38 THESIGILS OF ZAPHKIEL pss 29 THESIGH SOF OCH 959 40 THE SIGILS OF GABRIEL pan 4 TIESIGILS OF MICHAEL pst 42 TIE SIGILS OF CASSIEL p62 43 THESIGILS OF THE SPIRITS OF FORCE AND COUNSEL pot 44 THESIGILS OF THESPIRIS OF JOY pot 45 THESIGILS OF THE ANGELS OF LOVE AND CHARITY pS 46 THESIGIL OF GOOD FORTUNE per Sent tk va (Opeston of URILL SERAPHIME Repeat INTRODUCTION The Grimoire of Armadel—whose original title is Liber Armadel alae perfectissimn brevissima et infallabilis scéentia tans speculation quam practiqua—was translated by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918) from the original French and Latin of @ manuscript in the Bibliotheque I’Arsenal in Paris (MS 88). Mathers is well known as a cofounder and leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and produced editions of several important magical texts and grimoires including the (Greater) Key of Solomon the King, the Lesser Key of Solomon (Che Goetia), and The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra- ‘Melin the Mage. The Grimoire of Armadel is more recent than these works, comparatively obscure, and was never published in his lifetime. A manuscript copy of Mathers’ translation was later acquired by the British collector Gerald Yorke and published by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1980 in an edition prepared by the late Francis X. King. Since late antiquity, magical texts that claim great antiquity and authority have been viewed with a measure of sceplicism by many serious students of magic. Other branches Introduction works of dubious authorship—even .d—but the problem is particularly The religious and legal proscription many works in manuscript, or when sring fictitious authors and places of ed on the black market. Inability to cl ‘is the mule rather than the exception in this genre. It is possible that some books were ascribed to legendary authorities in order to disguise the true author, who might have taken credit for the work in a more tolerant climate. But there is little doubt that many grimoires were fabricated to satisfy a commercial demand for works bearing the authorship or title of a legendary book; this still goes on in France, where several fabricated books by “Aleister Crowley” have appeared. Some of these works were probably newly-written, but others were created by borrowing parts from other works; some of these sources were themselves originally fabrications or composites. Scholars only began to collect these works and establish a tentative chronology in the mid-nineteenth century, beginning with Scheible, and frequently disagree on the ‘provenance of particular works There is another approach beside the textual that is close to one adopted by some anthropologists and folklorists in studying semiliterate cultures, and is well expressed by Sayed Idries Shah. In his discussion of the Grimoirium Verum," he expresses his opinion that this work hhas gone through innumerable hands, been edited and re- edited, and translated in many cases two to three times between different languages. Hence, when for example we find that some of the processes in the present work are closely allied to or are identical with some part of the Key "ima Versi ei 1817, repose Sot Trident Pr, 1988) 8 Introduction of Solomon as we know il, we are not justified in saying: ‘Here is something interpolated from the Key of Salamon, a later addition; this is a composite ritual.’ In the present state of magical knowledge we would be equally at liberty—and even more justified—in saying that tor all we know the Grimoirium Verum is more original than the Key: or that it is one of the original books of the Library of Hermes, or even the magical libraries of the Babylonians. No, the Grimoires should be studied from any point of view but that of bibliographical criticism: for here we have absolutely no criteria to apply, and the confused attempts by various commentators to judge the Grimoires from a semi-scientific standpoint serve only to make their work more ridiculous than they believe the Grimoires themselves to be? There is some truth in what Shah says. Ceremonial magic as a field of inquiry seems to have been studiously avoided by serious scholars for over five centuries. Its practitioners were persecuted, and even its sympathizers sometimes fell obliged fo issue denunciations in order to reaffirm their orthodoxy, which of course meant the end of meaningful scholarly discourse. Magical manuscripts and books were at times seized and destroyed, rarely collected by the early libraries of Europe, and eventually vigorously suppressed by the Inquisition, making a meaningful bibliographic survey a chancy business due to the small sampling of surviving, examples. Vastly different books going by similar or identical titles have proliferated, the originals probably long lost, which makes it very difficult for scholars to reliably establish which version, if any, gave rise to the others. Even Shah's suggestion that ancient Greek or Babylonian magical material may have survived in this literature is possible, although very likely Sayed Mees Shah he Saves Jam of Maes Bes fe 1956) pp. (New ark: Cine Introduction unprovable, as Arabic magical literature drew on earlier sources and may well have entered mediaeval Europe via Spain. Certainly the legends of Solomon and other magicians who evoked and controlled the genii made their influence felt. Many modern Christians who think nothing of taking their children to see Disney's Aladdin would doubtlessly recoil with horror on reading a Solomonic grimoire, but they share common origins in legend. The Grimoire of Armade! should not be confused with the Almudel,? one of the few examples in this confused class of literature that may be reliably dated to the mediaeval period through references by early students and critics of magic like Roger Bacon. Nor should it be confused with the Arbatel of Magic,* although both belong to the same class of so-called “transcendental” or “white-magical” texts—Christian grimoires that eschew the frank demonology of their black magical cousins by invoking only beneficient spirits, even when doing so under the names of Beelzebub, et al, Like The Grimoire of Armadel, the Arbutel was almost certainly a fabrication. Armadel even borrows its opening conjuration and license to depart from the Arbalel of Magic, unless (as is possible) both borrowed from another work. Whether or not a person by the name Armadel ever existed, or whether any of the several works issued under that name are authentic, will probably never be established. The name itself may be a corruption of Almadel or Arbatel. Several unrelated works dating to the seventeenth century are attributed by their anonymous authors to Armadel. This suggests that the name enjoyed a brief celebrity as an authority 2. penton ofthe Amal eventually hocame the tart hook ofthe Lenape, ‘Atha Pe Magis Voter (Hcl 1378), The name Abate penbably decves om Gnostic sourees Aptis rb’) vores inthe Grek mail apy (ep the London Dapyrin a the name APBAGE i ier ita ancient raedal An one bublcothague Natale (Cable 2228). Th farmer name eve, ound in Hsbeew Quablistic wera Fferatore. eh rames are fica corrupt Erne Bart forename ers the Atal a" Akin Mapes C18 10