Grimoire of Armadel

From Occult Encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Grimoire of Armadel is an 18th-century French grimoire.

It should not be confused with British Library manuscript Lans. 1202 titled The Key of King Solomon by Armadel (Clavicules du Roi Salomon, Par Armadel).

Content

Sign of Archangel Camael

The book mostly deals with Kabbalistic magic and intrepertations of ancient Jewish texts, including various books of the Bible. It further gives instructions for conjuring spirits, predominantly angels, demons, archangels, Olympic spirits, as well as energies such as joy, love, and charity.

Grimoire of Armadel is the primary source for certain summoning sigils for many archangels, including:

The sigils given for the demonic entities Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Astaroth are unknown outside of the Armadel tradition.

Publication history

Several manuscripts of the Grimoire of Armadel exist in the archives of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, and it could be argued that the grimoire represents a unique French branch of the traditional Key of Solomon.

Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers translated one of the Armadel manuscripts into English in July 1897. However, because of the financial disaster following the publication of his previous grimoire, The Book of Abramelin, he declined to offer his translation to any publishers. His version of the grimoire was not published until 1980, long after his death.