The Grimoire of Armadel [Hardcover]

S. L. MacGregor Mathers (Editor, Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

Translated from a 17th century manuscript stored in Paris, this is an ancient but still useful book of popularized Christian magic. It is illustrated with intricate sigils.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French, Latin

From the Inside Flap

Original Language: French, Latin --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 79 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser; Revised edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877288399
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288398
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advice/Help, August 14, 2002

By 

"andyross7" (Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grimoire of Armadel (Paperback)

This book can help you to understand spirit/demon evocation. Simple as that.

This helps you to understand the principles of these beings and guides you to invoke therir power to you.
Short, but helpful, this is a must for the beginner-advanced magician, but also well-rounded for the non-denominational invocational magician or no matter what your preferences are, this book is still a must for your collection of texts and a great addition to your library of related matter.

My advice is to get this book if you are interested in this subject at all and should be read fully before invoking spirits.

If this doesn't suit you, i suggest the Goetia in conjunction with this, or seperately a book called "Goetic Evocation: A Magician's Workbook".

This book goes along with this subject and is very helpful to even the most advanced magician, mainly due to it's addition of the rarely seen "Testament Of Solomon" along with this book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the hidden side of the Western Tradition. The use of the Mandala, September 17, 2006

By 

M. Stone "Frater Iustitia Omnibus" (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Grimoire of Armadel (Paperback)

Many working occultists view this work as beautiful, but shallow. I think I can show that the truth lies a little deeper than that.

First of all, Mathers only worked on the most useful texts when resurrecting works of the past. Why then would he have spent so much time on this volume? Why would he have held this piece in such high regard, when so many other manuscripts remained outside the reach of the average occultist?

A piece of the answer lies in the heavily veiled sex magic couched in the ambiguous descriptions of "The Visions".
I direct you to the vision of Gimela, for case in point:
"The Beholding of the Serpent that tempted Eve."

The Visions make up a large part of the content of the text in this piece. These visions are revealed by virtue of the proper use of the seals, and are described in detail. That makes this a rare manuscript on the act of Mandela Meditations in the Western Tradition, and the oldest recorded use of "Path Working" we have. This inovation (path working) is often credited to the Golden Dawn. Clearly this is a mistake. This book suddenly becomes much more ground-breaking, when viewed in its historical context. I will grant you, the Christian bent of the text puts the tradition at a relatively later date than the Goetia, and many of the works attributed to Solomon.

Another facet of this literary gem is the spirito-historical context. Almost every spirit mentioned in the text is put in context with Biblical personalities that the reader would be familiar with. For example:

"Gabriel, the spirit that did teach the Prophet Elijah the Mysteries of Divinity..."

It is an exhaustive laundry list of "who did what" from the Fall to the Crucifixion.

As for the actual evocation and banishing portion that gets so much flack, hey, you can find the same format in dozens of other books, but do yourself a favor and don't throw the baby out with the bath-water. Anyone exploring the rich tradition of Western Occultism should give this volume a good look.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book to start, April 13, 2000

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[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grimoire of Armadel (Hardcover)

Its a good book to start with anyone interested in grimoires,the work itself is quite brief but it was the popular book of choice in france where mathers lived the remainder of his life. Many may find the book to be to simple, but I think that it is really potent...And besides there must be a very good reason why this book caught the eyes of mathers.