Black Magick Spell Book

What is a practitioner without a spell book?

Popular belief in fandom is that to practice black magic one must have a source of power to draw upon. As previously discussed, that outside to draw power from should be invoked somehow, by using the spoken word to arouse its senses and coerce it into doing what is desired. But, where to these spoken incantations come from? Did they ever really exist, or was it just Hollywood building on a popular belief?

The Munich Manual, known as the grimoire of demonic magic, was written in the fifteenth century. Its contents mainly focus on demonology and necromancy, two of the darkest arts that exist within the realm of black magic. It’s said that this particular text was the foundation of many spells case during a lost era. Users would seek it out and test its limits.

Does it sound like a movie? As hard as it may be to believe that something like this didn’t come out of the mind of a Hollywood producer, the Munich Manual is as real as anything else on this planet. In fact, there are many grimoires in existence from many different countries and languages.

The Munich Manual was written in Latin, and in 1998, a partial translation was released in English. Practitioners eagerly gobbled up the partial translation of this insipid text, hoping to garner power from its pages. One of the more in depth parts of the Manual focuses on astrological magic.

Astrology is considered one of the three Hermetic sciences. The Munich Manual primarily discusses on the seven images of the seven days, which are mainly caricatures associated with the days of the week. Oddly, there are many different references to the Christian God and his angels.

Does this mean that black magic can be associated with Christianity? Again, as previously discussed in another essay of this series, the Church logically must have studied black magic. However, the Munich Manual is not a text condoned by the Church, neither is it used in any type of studies that are considered curriculum. The idea of the Christian God presented in the Munich Manual is one of abstraction: the themes present in the Bible are there, but they are hollow references without any substance. It is more informational than anything else.

In fact, the text talks about conjuring these angels to do the readers bidding. That is decidedly not part of the Christian values that are still preached to this day. Binding and controlling another entity is a distinct characteristic of black magic, and while the Munich Manual may acknowledge the Christian God the way an adult acknowledge belief in Santa Claus, there is little reverence actually given within the confines of the context.

Many of the so-called magic texts are filled with such literary devices. Acknowledgement is given in due course, however the text often twists the Christian beliefs into what users may think of as inferior roles to their own. There are constant remarks about binding, controlling, and capturing heavenly spirits.

This negative correlation between Christianity and spell books did not begin with the Munich Manual, however. As far back at the sixteenth century there was a text published entitled Clavis Salomonis, or The Greater Key of Solomon. The Solomon of which is referenced is none other than the legendary Biblical character King Solomon. The text claims to speak of conjurations and rituals attributed to the Christian king.