The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts
The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts (later called The Book of Ceremonial Magic) is a grimoire of ritual magic written by British occultist A.E. Waite.
Content
The book is an attempt to document various famous grimoires, explain the history behind them (refuting many of the legends surrounding them), discuss the theology contained therein (e.g. raising the question why good angels would be summoned to kill an enemy), and to synthesize many famous grimoires into one system.
Waite delves extensively into the Olympic spirits and Goetic demons, explaining their nature and how to work with them, including numerous rituals for summoning them and other demons.
Waite also hints at the existence of the Ascended Masters.
Necromancy
The book's final chapter concerns "infernal necromancy," which Waite takes pains to separate from the religious practice of spiritualism, which was in its heyday when the book was first written. He viewed ceremonial necromancy as a superior to spiritualist practices, despite being a form of black magic.
Rituals
As a traditional grimoire, this book contains many rituals which were collected by Waite from older books.
- Ritual to Attract a Lover
- Spirit's Chain
- Creation of diabolical pacts
- Invocation for Archangel Uriel
- Rite of Lucifuge Rofocale
Sources
Waite utilized material from a large number of popular books from the European tradition of magical grimoires:
- Grimorium Verum
- Grimoire of Armadel
- Grimoire of Pope Honorius
- The Grand Grimoire
- Lesser Key of Solomon
- Key of Solomon
- Pseudomonarchia Daemonum
- Heptameron
- Book of Abramelin
- Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Publication
It was first published in a limited run in 1898, and distributed more widely under the title The Book of Ceremonial Magic in 1910.