Google "Grimoires" and you get the usual results that invariably include the Key of Solomon, The Arbatel of Magick, The Lemegeton and many others after that style. Have you noticed that they almost always use Christian and Jewish symbolism and iconography? Even when you add the word 'pagan' to your search, you will be hard pressed to find an ancient Grimoire that is not stuffed full of prayers and supplications to Jesus, Adonay, Elohim, Arch angels and more heavenly hosts than you ever knew existed! I'm sorry but these texts just don't say 'pagan' to me at all. I understand that the further back in time you go the scarcer people capable of authoring Grimoires or books of shadows become but, surely there must be SOME purely pagan texts available! I wonder if the scarcity of ancient and exclusively pagan texts is the reason so many people gravitate toward Egyptian magick, for example. The Egyptians left much writing about their mystical traditions.
Evoking Eternity by EA Koetting |
There is much talk of the witch's Book of Shadows, the burning times and how these individuals kept their book secret but, where are these texts? Were they destroyed by relatives after the witch's death or buried with them? Why are there so few surviving records? To listen to neo-pagans you would think a BOS was standard equipment for any self-respecting witch, wizard or magician. To the contrary, its beginning to look like witches writing a BOS was not a common practice at all. Honestly, I would be delighted to be proven wrong on this point. How lovely it would be to know that we today are following in the foot steps of the witchy folk of days gone by! Be that as it may, I suppose the proliferation of modern books of shadows and Grimoires will be the legacy, the 'ancient texts' of centuries to come.
Does anyone know of ancient Grimoires, magickal texts and tomes that are NOT steeped in the mythology of Christianity and Judaism? Let me know!
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