{"id":3902,"date":"2012-03-02T22:05:43","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T05:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3902"},"modified":"2012-03-02T22:05:43","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T05:05:43","slug":"the-top-ten-grimoires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3902","title":{"rendered":"The Top Ten Grimoires"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British newspaper The Guardian<\/em> spins an article off historian Owen Davies’ recent book, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

But newspapers and magazines love “top ten” list stories, and here is The Guardian’s<\/em>.<\/a> (Obviously, I missed the original publication.)<\/p>\n

Number one on the list?<\/p>\n

1. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses<\/em><\/p>\n

Although one of the more recent grimoires, first circulating in manuscript in the 18th century, this has to be number one for the breadth of its influence. From Germany it spread to America via the Pennsylvania Dutch, and once in cheap print was subsequently adopted by African Americans. With its pseudo-Hebraic mystical symbols, spirit conjurations and psalms, this book of the secret wisdom of Moses was a founding text of Rastafarianism and various religious movements in west Africa, as well as a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre in post-war Germany.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But a certain American writer from Providence, Rhode Island, gets a shout-out too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British newspaper The Guardian spins an article off historian Owen Davies’ recent book, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. But newspapers and magazines love “top ten” list stories, and here is The Guardian’s. (Obviously, I missed the original publication.) Number one on the list? 1. The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses Although one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[72,7],"class_list":["post-3902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-magick","tag-publishing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-10W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12219,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12219","url_meta":{"origin":3902,"position":0},"title":"Free Download: The Materiality of Magic","author":"Chas S. 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(Adding films, archival materials, sound recordings, etc., boosts the total to more than 1,500.)The Widows of Eastwick is at the top\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0307269604","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4323,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4323","url_meta":{"origin":3902,"position":3},"title":"“Essential” Pagan Books","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The trouble with book lists \u2014 like this list of \"27 essential Pagan books\" \u2014 is that no two readers' lists are the same. On the other hand, I am pretty pleased with number 16. And I am happy to see Michael Strmiska getting some recognition too.","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7432,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7432","url_meta":{"origin":3902,"position":4},"title":"Wiccan Ghost-Hunting in India","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are of a certain age \u2014 or if you hang around the \"occult\" section in used-bookstores \u2014 you might remember the ghost-hunting team of English witch Sybil Leek (1917\u20131982) and American parapsychology author Hans Holzer (1920\u20132009). 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