Table Of ContentTHE 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
