Reading the grimoires without getting lost in them: the Practical Grimoire of Goetic Magick

Why the old manuscripts are hard to use

The original manuscripts of the Goetia are quite confusing. It is a specific problem, with a specific shape. The manuscripts were not written as textbooks for a modern reader. They were written, copied, and recopied over centuries, in different hands, with different assumptions about what the reader already knew, and with instructions that sometimes assume a whole practice that is never spelled out on the page. A modern practitioner who opens one, expecting a clear, step by step manual, will often find something else: a text that jumps, that repeats itself, that leaves steps out, and that uses terms whose meaning has shifted since the manuscript was written.

That confusion is not a sign that you are a poor reader. It is a sign that you are reading a text that was never meant to be read in the way you are reading it. The manuscripts expect a reader who already works in the system, who has a teacher, or who at least has a working knowledge of the ritual forms of the time. Without that background, the text reads as a puzzle, and the temptation is to fill in the gaps by guessing, or by borrowing a step from a different system, or by inventing a step that feels right. Guessing, in Goetia work, is a poor foundation, and it is the foundation on which many confused workings are built.

What this book sets out to do

This book shows how to work with the various Grimoire Daemons, most especially the ones from the Lemegeton Goetia. It does so in two ways, and the two ways matter, because they are different, and they should not be confused. Either by using the methods outlined in the actual grimoire, or by some alternate methods which work quite well. That second clause is doing important work. It tells you, honestly, that the book does not pretend every working must follow the grimoire literally, word for word, and it does not pretend that the alternate methods are the grimoire's own methods. They are presented as alternates, which work well, in the author's experience, and that distinction is worth keeping clear in your own mind as you read.

That is a different task from simply reprinting the manuscripts, and it is a different task from writing a new system and calling it Goetia. It is an interpretive task: taking a confusing text, and showing, in order, what it is asking the practitioner to do, what each step is for, and how the steps fit together into a working that can actually be performed. For a practitioner who has tried to read the manuscripts directly, and has come away confused, that step by step discussion is the book's main value, and it is the value this article keeps returning to.

Working with Daemons, most especially the Goetia

The book's focus is the various Grimoire Daemons, most especially the ones from the Lemegeton Goetia. That focus matters, because Goetia work is often treated, in modern writing, as if it were the whole of grimoire work, and it is not. The grimoires contain many spirits, many systems, and many methods, and a book that claims to cover all of them, in the same depth, is usually covering none of them well. A book that says, plainly, that its main focus is the Lemegeton Goetia, while also touching on the various Grimoire Daemons more broadly, is making a manageable promise, and a manageable promise is one you can actually judge, when you have read the book and tried its methods.

Working with Daemons, in this context, means spirit work in the grimoire tradition: preparation, a formal working, a petition or request, and a closing, done according to a system you understand, and with a purpose you can state plainly. It does not mean casual contact, it does not mean collecting names, and it does not mean treating a spirit as a source of favours to be called on without preparation or respect. If you are new to this kind of work, this book is not a substitute for a teacher, and it should not be used to invent a working for a spirit you have not studied. If you have some experience, and you are stuck on the manuscripts themselves, this book is aimed, precisely, at the place where you are stuck.

The grimoire methods, and the alternate methods

It is worth pausing on the difference between the two kinds of method this book offers, because the difference is easy to blur, and blurring it leads to confused practice. The methods outlined in the actual grimoire are the methods as the manuscripts present them, discussed step by step, so that you can see what the text means you to do, in order, and why. Those methods may be demanding: they may call for preparations, timings, tools, or forms of address that are difficult in a modern life, and they may call for a level of formality that feels unfamiliar at first. That difficulty is part of the system, and it should not be smoothed away without understanding what is being smoothed, and why.

The alternate methods, by contrast, are methods which work quite well, in the author's experience, but which are not presented as the grimoire's own methods. They are alternates, and they should be judged as alternates: by whether they work, in your practice, for your purpose, and by whether they preserve the essential shape of the working, rather than replacing it with something else entirely. A practitioner who cannot tell, in their own working, which method they are using, and why, is a practitioner who cannot learn from the working, because they cannot tell which part of it to change next time. Keep the two kinds of method distinct, in your notes, as well as in your head, and you will learn faster, from both.

How to read a book like this

A book that discusses manuscripts step by step should be read slowly, and with the manuscript beside you, if you have access to it. Read a chapter, then read the corresponding passage in the grimoire itself, and see whether the book's discussion makes the passage clearer, or whether it raises questions the book does not answer. Both outcomes are useful. Clarity is useful, because it lets you proceed. Questions are useful, because they show you where your understanding is still thin, and where you need a teacher, or further reading, or simply more time with the text, before you attempt the working it describes.

Do not read this book as a catalogue of spirits to be worked with, one after another, in the order they appear. Read it as a book about method: about how a grimoire working is put together, what each part is for, and how the parts fit. The spirits themselves, their domains, their seals, and their particular requirements, are matters for the grimoire entries, and for your own study, and a book about method should not be asked to replace that study. If you find yourself skimming the method chapters to get to the spirit descriptions, stop, and go back. The method is the book, and the spirit descriptions are only useful once the method is understood.

Preparation, and the part most readers skip

Preparation is most of the work in Goetia practice, and it is the part most often skipped by readers who are eager to get to the evocation itself. Preparation means being clear about why you are working, what you are asking for, and what you are prepared to do yourself. It means preparing the room, preparing yourself, and knowing what you are going to say, in your own words, before you begin. It means, in the grimoire context, preparing the tools, the space, and the forms of address that your system requires, and understanding why each preparation is required, rather than performing it as an empty gesture.

A step by step book is particularly useful here, because it can show you which preparations the manuscript actually calls for, and which preparations are later additions, or common practice, or the author's own preference. That distinction matters, because it lets you decide, honestly, what you can adapt, and what you should not, without guessing. If a preparation is part of the grimoire's method, adapt it only with understanding, and with a reason you can state. If it is an alternate, or a modern convenience, you have more freedom, and you should use that freedom deliberately, not casually, and note what you changed, so that your record afterwards is honest about what you actually did.

A simple order for working with this book

The following is a general order, not a fixed script, and it should be adapted to the system you already work in. First, read the book's discussion of a working, straight through, without trying to perform it as you read. Second, read the corresponding grimoire passage, and note where the book clarifies it, and where questions remain. Third, settle your purpose, in one sentence, and decide whether this working, by this method, is the right working for that purpose, at this time. Fourth, prepare the room, yourself, and the tools, according to the method you have chosen, grimoire or alternate, and note which you chose, and why.

Fifth, perform the working, following the step by step order you have studied, rather than improvising a new order on the night itself. Sixth, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the tools away in their proper place. Seventh, write down what you did, when you did it, what method you used, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. That record, kept honestly, is what turns a book about method into a practice, because it lets you compare, over time, the grimoire methods with the alternate methods, in your own work, and learn which serves which purpose, for you.

What this book cannot do

This book cannot make the manuscripts simple, and it should not be asked to. The manuscripts are confusing for reasons that are historical, textual, and practical, and a book that pretended otherwise would be misleading you. What it can do is discuss, step by step, how the manuscripts mean the workings to be carried out, and that discussion, if it is honest, will sometimes leave you with a harder working, not an easier one, because you will now understand what the manuscript actually asks for, and you will no longer be able to pretend it asks for less.

This book also cannot replace a teacher, and it cannot tell you, for your particular purpose, whether a Goetia working is appropriate, or whether the timing is right, or whether there is ordinary-world work that should be done first. If the matter is a legal matter, a safety matter, or a medical matter, deal with that matter in the ordinary world first, or at the same time. Ritual work is not a substitute for a lawyer, a doctor, or for leaving a dangerous situation, and no book, however practical, changes that. If you are unsure whether a working is appropriate, wait, ask a teacher you trust, or choose a simpler practice first, and see how that sits.

Keeping a record, and learning from it

Keep a short record for each working you attempt after reading this book: date, purpose in one sentence, spirit, method used, grimoire or alternate, what you did, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. If nothing changes, that is also information. It may mean the petition was unclear, the timing was wrong, the work was not appropriate, or simply that the situation needs a different approach. Note, in particular, whether the grimoire methods and the alternate methods feel different, in your practice, and whether they produce different kinds of result, or different kinds of difficulty, because that comparison is the learning this book is designed to make possible.

Do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force a result. Do the work properly, once, observe, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different approach, or no further working is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise, and it is noise that a step by step book, honestly used, should help you avoid, because it gives you a clear order to follow, and a clear record to judge, rather than a vague impression to repeat.

Who should, and should not, pick this up

This book is for a practitioner who has tried the manuscripts, or who wants to try them, and who has found them confusing, and who wants a step by step discussion of how they mean the workings to be carried out, rather than another reprint, or another new system dressed in grimoire language. It is for someone who is willing to read slowly, to compare the book with the manuscript, and to keep an honest record of which method they used, and what followed. That reader will get a great deal from it, whether they end up preferring the grimoire methods, or the alternates, or a deliberate combination of the two, used with understanding.

It is not for a reader who wants a quick catalogue of spirits, or a shortcut around preparation, or a promise about what a working will do. It makes no such promise, and this article makes none, either. What it offers is plainer, and more useful: a way into texts that are, by their nature, confusing, discussed step by step, by someone who has worked through that confusion herself, and who has written down, in order, how the workings are meant to be carried out.

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