The Grand Grimoire
Grimoires are one of my favorite astonishing things to explore. At their core, grimoires (despite their spooky name) are simply textbooks of magic and spells. However, some grimoires are black magic grimoires and imbued with evil and power...like the one we’re talking about tonight. The Grand Grimoire, also known as the Red Dragon, focuses its content primarily on how to communicate with the Devil, specifically how to summon a demon (or the devil) and instructions on making pacts with demons. Additionally, it does provide some of your basic spells for love, talking to the dead, and making oneself invisible.
According to legend, it was said to be written around the 16th century but didn’t surface until the 18th century during the grimoire boom in France during this time in which is was reproduced. Furthermore, the original Grand Grimoire is said to be kept in the Vatican’s Secret Archives and the Church does claim official ownership of this strange relic. The original Grand Grimoire is said to have supernatural powers in and of itself...it is said that it cannot be burned, torn, or in any way damaged or torn apart.
Speaking of the original, it was first discovered in Jerusalem in 1750, somewhere in the tomb of Solomon. It was written in Biblical Hebrew and/or Aramaic. However, the book itself is inscribed with a date of 1522. Some theorists believe that the manuscript was copied orally or from a different original source and that the first version was created as early as the 1200s (though, obviously, little to no proof exists of this timeline) but there is a link to Honorius of Thebes. Honorius, like many occult figures, has not had his existence concretely proven...or disproven. Some people believe he may have been Pope Honorius III, others believed he is the author of the Sworn Book of Honorius (which the Grand Grimoire takes a lot from).
It is believed that at one point, Honorius was either Satan wearing a human suit, or that he was possessed by Satan himself. This is especially compelling if Honorious was a pope because what better way to send a finger to the almighty than possessing one of his most important vessels? If you go the possession route, it is believed that Honorious wrote grimoires under the instruction of Satan himself so that they could be spread throughout the world.
The specific spells for summoning, restraining, and making a deal with Satan is what makes this grimoire so potent and so powerful all these centuries later. The tools needed to summon Satan are various - some of them, like blessed candles, can be found easily while others seem near impossible to find. In addition to Satan, several other high demons are mentioned such as Beelzebub and Astaroth. The three of these demons make up the evil trinity.
If you have any interested in learning more about the Grand Grimoire...or reading a copy of a copy of a copy, you can do so here. Be forewarned, Astonishing Legends does not support, condone, or suggest one carry through any of these rituals.
The above image is from Flickr user theilr and is liscensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).