A grimoire is a book or manuscript containing magical knowledge, ritual procedures, charms, conjurations, talismans, spirit catalogues, astrological instructions, prayers, or other techniques intended to produce supernatural or occult effects. The term is most strongly associated with European magic, but scholars use it within a much wider history of magical books and written ritual technologies.
Prayer is intentional communication addressed to a deity, spirit, sacred power, or ultimate reality. It can include praise, petition, confession, thanksgiving, lament, dedication, silence, repetition, or simple direct speech. In theistic Satanism, prayer usually means addressing Satan or another spiritually real being rather than speaking only to oneself or performing a purely symbolic exercise.
Occultism and Western esotericism provide an important historical and intellectual background for many forms of modern Satanism, but neither term is a synonym for Satanism. Western esotericism is an academic field encompassing currents such as Renaissance Hermetism, alchemy, astrology, Christian theosophy, Kabbalistic reception, Rosicrucianism, ceremonial magic, spiritualism, occultism, and later…
Belial appears in biblical religious language and later spirit catalogues. These uses should be distinguished rather than treated as one unchanged biography.
Beelzebub and related spellings appear in distinct biblical contexts. Later demonological interpretations should not be retroactively read into each earlier occurrence.
Tarot developed as playing cards before becoming an influential tool of occult interpretation. The history of the cards differs from later claims about their hidden origins.
A Goetic earl associated with fortification and military supply, often confused with Malphas.
A Goetic duke with griffin wings, associated with winds, the sea, and shipwreck.
A Goetic president associated with learned subjects and transformations that alter a person's understanding of identity.
A modern esoteric society with stated aims of fraternity, comparative study, and investigation of nature and human capacities.
The religious and philosophical tradition associated with Aleister Crowley and The Book of the Law.
The three-chapter revelatory text at the center of Thelema, also titled Liber AL vel Legis.
The second part of the Lemegeton, arranging aerial spirits through princes, directions, and wandering hierarchies.
An angelic art in the Lemegeton, using a wax tablet, candles, and a hierarchy of heavenly altitudes.
Agrippa’s Renaissance synthesis of natural, celestial, and religious magic.
A grimoire of angelic conjuration organized around the seven days of the week.
A Renaissance author whose Three Books of Occult Philosophy became a major source for Western magical systems.
The scryer associated with John Dee’s recorded spirit conversations and later alchemical pursuits.
A founder and major author of the Temple of Set, associated with the modern Setian interpretation of Xeper.
A Mesopotamian harmful female power represented on amulets and plaques intended to repel her.