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process for the evocation of evil spirits to obtain the enforced 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 Grimoire 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. 1
Footnotes
101:1 This alteration of the fallen Light-Bearer into Fly-the-Light does not seem to occur
in magical literature preceding the Grand Grimoire. It was afterwards adopted by Lévi,
by whom it has been made popular among occultists, who are, for the most part, quite
unaware of its source, as they usually are in such cases.
103:1 Compare the droll history of the Devil and his Dam, and that concerning the course
of Black Magic delivered by the Prince of Darkness at the University of Salamanca.
§ 4. The Grimoire of Honorius
Despite the iniquities of the Pacta Conventa Dæmonum, the Grand Grimoire has failed,
however, to invoke upon itself such severe condemnation as the Grimoire of Honorius
the Great, otherwise Honorius the Third. It is scarcely too much to say that almost every
accusation preferred against this remarkable work is false generally and specifically, the
chief distinction between them being that some are the misrepresentations of ignorance
and others the false interpretations of prejudgment. The French occultist, Papus, alone
seems to take the middle view, though he speaks with some vagueness when
p. 104
he says that the sorcery of this Grimoire is more dangerous for weak experimentalists
than for the enemies of the sorcerer. Éliphas Lévi observes that the work is not without
importance for the students of occult science. 1 At first sight it seems to be nothing but a
tissue of repulsive absurdities, but for those who are initiated in the signs and secrets of
the Kabalah, it is said that it becomes a veritable monument of human perversity. There
was seldom a statement for which there was less foundation; there was never a magical
work which less connected with Kabalism; the relation in so far as it exists, and it is
confined to a few words which occur in the Conjurations, is common to all Ceremonial
Magic, and this is the one Grimoire which is most permeated with Christian elements.
Those, however, who are well acquainted with the principles of interpretation which
obtain in the writings of Lévi, will not take a charge seriously which depends upon the
significance of Kabalistic words or signs, for it is notorious that with the French occultist
they meant many things according to his humour, and that he did not know his subject.