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A grimoire is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination, and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, deities, and demons. In many cases, the books themselves are believed to be imbued with magical powers, although in many cultures, other sacred texts that are not grimoires (such as the Bible) have been believed to have supernatural properties intrinsically.

The primary contents found in a grimoire would be information on spells, rituals, the preparation of magical tools, and lists of ingredients and their magical correspondences. The ancient Egyptians also employed magical incantations, which have been found inscribed on amulets and other items. The Egyptian magical system, known as heka, was greatly altered and expanded after the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great, invaded Egypt in 332 BC.

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The Cary Sheet

• ... that tarot cards on The Cary Sheet are unnumbered?
• ... that archangel Daniel taught signs of the Sun to mortals?
• ... that bloodstone is a variety of jasper?
• ... that Hod corresponds to Hermes Trismegistus?
• ... that ancient Egyptians believed Geb caused earthquakes by laughing?
• ... that the demon Purson arrives with the sound of trumpets?
• ... that King James' book Daemonologie inspired parts of Macbeth?
• ... that Mammon entered popular culture through the book The Faerie Queene?

This month in history Jan Hus being burnt at the stake 2 July - French seer and mystic Nostradamus dies. (1566) 3 July - Folk saint and shaman Don Pedro Jaramillo dies in Brooks County, Texas. (1907) 6 July - Jan Hus is burned at the stake for heresy. (1415) 10 July - Czech occultist and author Franz Bardon dies from pancreatitis while in police custody. (1958) 14 July - The New Horizons spacecraft completes the first-ever flyby of Pluto. (2015) 12 July - French author Jean-Baptiste Pitois, who coined the terms Major Arcana and Minor Arcana, dies. (1877) 13 July - John Dee, court astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, is born. (1527) 17 July - The last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, dies. (1918) 19 July - Date of the heliacal rise of Sirius used to begin the Egyptian calendar. (3000 BC) 19 July - Accused witch Rebecca Nurse is executed by hanging. (1692) 19 July - Australian cannibal murderer Alexander Pearce is executed by hanging. (1824) 19 July - Occultist Aleister Crowley begins his 40 day seclusion on Esopus Island. (1918) 22 July - Elizabethan astrologer Simon Forman marries 17-year-old Jane Baker. (1599) 26 July - Argentine folk saint Eva Perón dies. (1952) 28 July - Accused witch Lilias Adie is arrested for witchcraft. (1704)

Featured image Alchemy is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries CE. Using the Emerald Tablet as their fundamental Hermetic text, Islamic and European alchemists developed a basic set of laboratory techniques, theories, and terms, some of which are still in use today. They did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is composed of four elements, and they tended to guard their work in secrecy, often making use of cyphers and cryptic symbolism. Author: Unknown (More Images)

Featured Quote "Remember that the Tarot is a great and sacred arcanum. Its abuse is an obscenity in the inner and a follow in the outer." - Jack Parsons

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