The Grand Grimoire

The Grand Grimoire is a black magic grimoire that claims to date back to 1522. It is widely suspected that it was written some time in the 19th century. It was ostensibly published in Cairo by a person known as Alibek the Egyptian. Also known as "The Red Dragon", this book contains instructions purported to summon Lucifer or Lucifuge Rofocale for the purpose of forming a pact. Sections of it are found in Waite's "Book of Ceremonial Magic" and in Hyatt and Black's "Pacts with the Devil".

The book is called "Le Veritable Dragon Rouge" ("The True Red Dragon") in Haiti, where it is revered among many practitioners of Vodou and Santeria.

The Grand Grimoire divides with the Grimoire of Honorius the darksome honour of an intelligible and unmutilated Ritual of Black Magic. Each after its own kind is indeed an exceedingly curious work. In the first is contained what is probably the only printed method of making pacts; the second is remarkable, firstly, on account of its pretended origin and the elaboration with which it is set forth, secondly, for the ecclesiastical complexion of its process, which can scarcely have failed to impose upon some credulous and priestly sorcerers of the illiterate kind, and assuming their willingness to disgrace the vows of ordination.

It will be remembered that the operator, or Karcist, as he is termed in the Grand Grimoire, is recommended continence, fasting and similar privations for an entire quarter of the moon, such quarter coinciding with that of the luminary. On the morning which scucceeds the first night of the quarter, he must repair to a druggist's, and purchase a blood-stone, called Ematille (id est, Haematites), which must be carried continually about him for fear of accident, and in expectation that the spirit whom it is proposed to compel and bind will henceforth do all in his power to overwhelm the operator with terror, so as to incite him to abandon the enterprise, hoping in this manner to escape from the wiles which are beginning to be woven about him.

The Grand Grimoire is the most fantastic of the cycle and is introduced with great pomp by its pretended editor, Antonio Venitiana del Rabina, a personage whose name indicates the Italian origin of the work. By reason of its rarity and the great request in which it is, we are informed that it must be regarded as the veritable Magnum Opus -- a view which may appear inconsequential, but for which the authority of Rabbinical writers is cited. It is to these authors that we owe the priceless treasure which innumerable charlatans have endeavoured to counterfeit, but have never succeeded in discovering. The copy made use of by Antonio in preparing his edition was transcribed from the genuine writing of the mighty King Solomon, which were obtained by pure chance...

The Grand Grimore is regarded as one of the most atrocious of its class; it has a process in Necromancy which is possible, say some occult writers; in the genialty of a lucid interval -- only to a dangerous maniac or an irreclaimable criminal... Eliphas Levi says that it pretends to confer the Power of Projection, the great Mystery of the Sages...

There is, of course, no question that the Grand Grimoire is a book of Black Magic, and it is contrary to the nature of things that a book of Black Magic should be otherwise than diabolical... The first part of the Grand Grimore, like the Grimoriusm Verum, is simply a process for the evocation of evil spirits to obtain the enorced surrender of hidden treasure. In the second part the magician is certainly expected to give himself, body and soul, to the demon who serves him meanwhile, and there can be no hesitation in admitting that this creates a sharp distinction, not only between the Grand Grimoire and all the Composite Rituals, but also between the Grand Grimorie and the other Liturgies of Black Magic. It is only a palliation to say that the compact is worded as a subterfuge, and in reality gives nothing to the demon, who here, as so frequently in folklore, is bamboozled, receiving the shadow in place of the substance."

-- A.E. Waite, "Of Black Magic and Of Pacts", from the Introduction to "The Grand Grimoire", Seattle: Trident Books, 1996.

In Popular Culture

Sword and Sorcery author Lin Carter routinely used the term "karcist" as a synonym for "magician", "sorcerer" in several of his works. In "Thongor in the city of Magicians" he actually uses it to indicate a mage requested to serve as "controller" of a magic ritual enacted by a cabal of his colleagues.

In the video game "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance", the Grand Grimoire is a magical book that was once on Noah's Ark, and somehow was thought of as nothing and put into a used book shop. It is bought by one of the main characters, Mewt.

In the 1989 motion picture, "Warlock," actor Julian Sands plays a warlock trying to find The Grand Grimoire, which purports to contain the name of God and eventually gives it as "Raziel". In the story, the book had truly supernatural properties and was therefore separated into three sets of pages so as to prevent its evil power from being misused.

Dutch metal band "God Dethroned" have an album called The Grand Grimoire (1997).

In the video game Vagrant Story, the story revolves around a quest by multiple characters to discover and obtain the Gran Grimoire (spelled Gran, not Grand, but is an allusion to the Grand Grimoire); which is a Grimoire of incredible power. It is discovered in the story that the Gran Grimoire is actually the entire city of Leá Monde; having the literary contents of it inscribed all over the stone walls, floors, and ceilings of the city.

ee also

*Grimoire
*Faust
*Satanism