Customer Reviews

Papal Magic: Occult Practices Within the Catholic Church

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The reason I give this book 3 stars is because it has a decent translation of the Grimoire of Pope Honorius. That part is interesting and it also rather hard to get a copy of that text.

The Grimoire is only half of the book though and the first half is not that interesting. Mostly some well known facts mixed with "what if" scenarios. Any person with some knowledge of the occult already will know about all of the material in the first part.

Even the translation of the Grimoire of Pope Honorius could have been much better since it has no notations or anything in it. Still I find the price to be cheap enough to get a version of the Grimoire in print to be worth buying it.

SImon is known also as Peter Levenda, writes other paranoid tomes and has a clumsy website devoted to conspiracy. He tends to think everything is a conspiracy. He probably thinks the negative reviews he obtains are part of that vast conspiracy. Too.

For a telling of Simon in full, google Alan Cabal and the article "The Doom That Came to Chelsea" and you will discover the proper story of this man.

"Simon" is trying to make money from your ignorance.

It appears that this book was originally intended to be a fairly straight translation of the 1670 edition of the Grimoire of Honorius. This section seems to be fairly accurate, though someone better at French than I should look over it.

The remainder of the book appears to have been poorly researched and quickly dashed off. The basic point about the use of magic by Catholic clergy is well-established, but Simon seems not to be familiar with such fundamental works as Magic in the Middle Ages (Canto) or Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (Magic in History). To fill out even the small number of pages allotted here, Simon must conflate legends about Catholic magicians, politically-motivated sorcery prosecutions, and cases where the practice of magic can actually be demonstrated. He very clearly wants to date the Grimoire to the same period as its supposed papal author, even though it contains material that obviously originates from centuries later.

If you want to see the Grimoire of Honorius, this will serve as a cheap translation. If you want to know about magic in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, the first book mentioned above will be more to your tastes.

Fascinating and completely believable history of the practice of magic within the Catholic Church. Readers of Malachi Martin's Windswept House will find here validation of his description of the desecration of St Paul's in Vatican City, and why it was so powerful. Others will at least be surprised at the extent that Catholic clergy used its sacramental powers for secular and evil ends.

Unfortunately, Simon has tainted his reputation dramatically by publishing his "translation" of the necronomicon. Long story short: The necronomicon was invented by H.P. Lovecraft. If it ever existed beyond his imagination, we have no proof.

Therefore, with Simon publishing this Grimoire of Honorius, we should be skeptical. I would not be able to tell if the translation is genuine, as proper copies of the grimoire itself sell for roughly $1,300.00! So, even if Simon's translation is not reliable, it's worth the chance for such a less expensive alternative.

That being said, its worth a look but I wouldn't take it seriously as an occultist.

When I got the book I thought this could actually be something about the underground clerical mages of the past. But all I got was Conspiracy stuff that does not belong in a book that makes itself to be some kind of serious occult literature. Either way it is a horrible book that goes into the catholic church, freemasons, and all that conspiracy stuff that makes good novels and movies but not about magick.

I was hoping to see something with meat on the bone but all I found was garbage that has no scholarship to it.

I should of known better, it was Simon after all.

PAPAL MAGIC (2007)

by "Simon"

It is well known that several pagan practices have been incorporated into various Christian rituals. As a matter of fact there is a very large body of work on the subject, starting with Alexander Hislop's (extremely controversial) 'the Two Babylons'. Now Simon has written a book about "sorcery" in the Catholic church. Simon is the author affiliated with the popular Necronomicon paperback.

The book is made up of two sections. The first is Simon's fragmented account of dark Catholic history while the next section is a translation of the "Grimoire of Pope Honorius III". This is a book allegedly written or used by Pope Honorius III in order to educate bishops on how to understand and control demonic forces. It should be pointed out that Honorius was Pope in the 13th century and the gimoire wasn't published until 1670. The grimoire is the centerpiece and is worth a look because it is the only widely available english translation of the text. It is quite scarce otherwise, and definitely a bizarre find regardless of its authenticity. I do not personally believe that it was written by the Pope, but I don't really have a dog in that fight.

As for the rest of Papal Magic, there are several little subsections that talk about various controversies such as the Vatican's connection to the Propaganda Due/P2 Masonic Lodge or certain clergymen who are said to have held membership in the Ordo Templi Orientis occult organization. There are also subsections on several different priests who supposedly made pacts with the devil, collaborated with occult groups or utilized occult techniques. None of these subsections is very thorough and most are under ten pages. When I read the chapters at the beginning, it felt like Simon had originally written an introduction to the grimoire but decided that it wasn't enough. So he split up the introduction and peppered its fragments into different chapters about scandals in Catholic history. It would've been much more helpful if the information regarding the grimoire had simply been written as a single chapter and perhaps some of the rest of the material could have been incorporated as footnotes.

I felt like there were so many things that Simon could've included but didn't. There are a lot of books on this subject matter from writers of all different backgrounds. There are protestants who are criticizing the Catholic church, "messianics" who are criticizing Christianity, atheists who are criticizing monotheism, and even Traditional Catholics who are saying that the Vatican has strayed. I myself believe that Darrell Conder's Mystery Babylon the Great (first volume only) is the best account of how pagan rituals have been repackaged as Christianity. Conder's book does not only analyze Catholicism but Christianity at large. I might add that I am a Christian myself and feel that it is important to read this sort of material in order to weed out the deception and confusion surrounding religion in general.

The book is not bad but it really doesn't go deep enough for me. This might be a good place to start if you need something to follow 'the DaVinci Code' or if Madonna peaked your interest in the Kabbalah. But if you've read ANY literature on the early Christian church, Gnosticism or Freemasonry then I'd say the only reason to buy this book is the grimoire.

This book is a joke. Simon actually takes "The Da Vinci Code" as legitmate history and then rehashes a bunch of otiose conspiracy theories about P2 freemasonry and the Vatican Bank. And what does this have to do with magic? To my mind, absolutely nothing, but according to Simon, money laundering and mafia business *are* black magic, which is his reason for padding this ridiculous book with 50+ pages telling us what we already know: there are bad men in the Catholic Church. Big deal. Oh, and here's a grand revelation: medieval churchmen practiced sorcery! A fact that's been generally known since ... the middle ages maybe? How about trying to make a worthwhile contribution to occultism for a change, Simon? For those reading this, if you want a translation of the Grimoire of Honorius, get it elsewhere. Don't line Simon's pockets with your cash.