The True Grimoire
Encyclopædia Goetica · Volume I
by Jake Stratton-Kent
The first volume of Jake Stratton-Kent’s Encyclopaedia Goetica is a reconstruction of the Grimorium Verum from the corrupted Italian and French versions of the grimoire. The True Grimoire comprises a coherent and eminently workable system of goetic magic, with extensive commentary and notes by a practicing necromancer.
The second edition appears thirteen years after the True Grimoire was first published, in which time it has become a critical and foundational work of the current magical revival. As Dr Alexander Cummins observes in his Foreword, the True Grimoire ‘spearheaded a particular renaissance in grimoire studies towards more informed historical analysis and more engaged mythopoetic ritual praxis, all the while centring the realities of hands-on cunning.’
In his introduction and notes to the grimoire, Stratton-Kent elucidates the importance of this concise and comprehensive text to magicians and students of magic alike:
“The grimoire deals with significant themes that other, often larger, texts have lost, omitted or obscured. […] It enables the persistent seeker to see, essentially, what many have failed to see, that underlying goetic magic is a hidden tradition of great depth and significance. It possesses a traditional methodology that confronts and deals directly with the same primal realities faced by our most remote ancestors; in which all later magic and religion had their original impetus, but which in the West is primarily preserved in goetic magic alone.”
We are given insights across the grimoire tradition into allied texts such as the Grand Grimoire and Red Dragon, the Key of Solomon, the Lemegeton, Abramelin, Honorius and the Black Pullet. This is a treasure trove for the student of magic. Stratton-Kent reveals a grimoire tradition with roots in the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri and the necromancy of the goês.
The True Grimoire is an elemental and chthonic grimoire of conjuration, pact-making and spell-working. It clearly and concisely explains how to contact and build a relationship with the spirits, and the primary role of the intermediary spirit, whom Stratton-Kent characterises as ‘akin in a real sense to the Holy Guardian Angel in the Abramelin system.’ The text provides the timing, tools and conjurations for what is an attainable and practical system of magic.
The new edition is augmented by two previously published and out of print essays by the author: ‘The Spell for Success’ gives a comprehensive analysis of a key part of the Grimorium Verum ritual, which it shares with a number of other Solomonic works, but which originates conceptually in pre-Solomonic magic; and ‘The Conjuration of Nebiros’, which details a complete conjuration from the author’s personal work, illustrating the entire process and contextualising it.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface to the Second Edition
I · INTRODUCTION
The Importance of the True Grimoire
Goetia and Sigils
The Context of the Grimoire
The Art Armadel
II · THE TRUE GRIMOIRE
Introduction
Preamble
The First Part
The Second Part
The Third Part
The Cabala of the Green Butterfly
III · NOTES TO THE GRIMOIRE
Notes on the First Part
Who Are the Spirits?
Notes on the Second Part
Comment on the Second Part
On Constructing Verum Spells
Notes on the Third Part
The Ritual Procedure of the Grimoire
Planetary Days and Hours
IV · SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
The Spirits of the Seven Days of the Week
On the Cabala of the Green Butterfly
The Cabala of the Black Pullet
Astaroth: Lady of the Crossroads
Goetia and the New World
The Grimoirum Verum & the Brazillian Cult of Quimbanda
The Prayer for Success
The Conjuration of Nebiros
Postscript
Bibliography
Index
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Necromantic emblems by Artem Grigoryev
Paperback Edition
280 pages. Sewn paperback printed on 120 gsm paper, black cover with design in bronze metallic ink and black foil.
ISBN: 978-1-912316-88-5
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Press, reviews, endorsements
“Jake Stratton-Kent’s Encyclopædia Goetica is a monumental achievement, but more than that it is of vital importance for practicing occultists, pagans, and all those who fall into both categories. A work spanning three official volumes stretched across five actual books, it is an invaluable addition to occult history, theory, and practice.”
Sul Books, reviewing the entire Encyclopædia Goetica series - read the full review here
Book Review by Foolish Fish - watch on YouTube here
Interview with Jake Stratton-Kent on the Rune Soup channel - watch on YouTube here
Eulogy for a Necromancer by Scarlet Imprint; a beautiful and heartfelt essay discussing the importance of Jake Stratton-Kent’s contributions to the modern occult revival - read it here
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About the Author
The late Jake Stratton-Kent (1956–2023) has been called the most notorious necromancer in England, and described himself as a ‘very late Late Pagan.’ He died on 17th January 2023, having made a significant contribution to the current magical revival. He championed a spirit centred approach and the importance of the grimoires for the western magical tradition. He will always be associated with the Grimorium Verum, the book which was central to his practice for over forty years.
He wrote numerous articles, pamphlets and books since the mid 1970s. With Scarlet Imprint he published the Encyclopædia Goetica, a three volume work comprising: The True Grimoire, a reconstructed and extensively commented edition of the Grimorium Verum; Geosophia, an extensive two volume survey of the Greek origins and mythic background of goetia; and The Testament of Cyprian the Mage, an analysis in two volumes of the roots of the grimoires and their spirit hierarchies in Late Antiquity.
His background in the youth radicalisation and free festival movements of the 1970s never entirely left him.
