Raising Hell Read Online Free PDF

particular areas over which the spirit held sway, and the times and places at which it could be most successfully invoked.
    The object was to get each spirit first to manifest itself and then to autograph the book, as it were. Once a spirit had done that, it could be recalled whenever the magician wanted it. In The Magus, Francis Barrett included a specimen from a book of spirits, showing the demon Cassiel Macoton riding a dragon onthe left-hand page and the magician’s invocation on the right: “I conjure thee, Cassiel, by all the names of the Most High Creator . . . that thou shalt hearken instantly unto my words and shalt obey them inviolably as the Judgments of the Last Day. . . .”
    Once the magician had compiled his personal book of spirits, he had to consecrate it with a powerful, all-inclusive conjuration. In the Grimoire of Honorius, this conjuration was followed by a command, which began, “I conjure and I command you, O Spirits, however many of you may be, to agree to this Book with alacrity, in order that when we may read it, since it is acknowledged to be in order and potentised, you will be compelled to appear when you are commanded, in a proper and human shape, as the reader of the Book shall desire.”
    It went on to warn the spirits not to interfere with the body or soul of the magician, or to stir up any unnecessary storms or trouble. And if the spirits weren’t able to fulfill their obligations for some reason—a prior commitment, possibly—then they were required to “send other spirits, who have been empowered to act for you, and they, too, shall swear equally to perform everything that the reader of the Book may command: you are all thus now compelled by the Holiest Names of the All-Puissant and Living God: Eloym, Jah, El, Eloy, Tetragrammaton!” There was even a final clause that threatened the spirits with “torture for a millennium” for any recalcitrance or unwillingnesss to perform the magician’s will.
    When all of this was done, the signs written, the conjurations made, the book was sealed, and only opened again when the magician was standing inside a pentagram or magic circle and protected from the demons the book would invoke. It was then that he recited the Conjuration of the Spirits, in which he called upon “all the Spirits of the Hells” to appear before him, place their marks upon the book, and do his bidding forever more.

    THE UNHOLY PACT
    Without a doubt, the sorcerer’s trade was a dangerous one; dealing with demons was like juggling hand grenades that could explode any moment. But the most dangerous element of all was the black, or unholy, pact that many demons insisted the sorcerer sign before they would do his bidding. Although the terms and wording varied, the general agreement was that the demon would deliver the goods—riches, women, forbidden knowledge—for a period of time (usually twenty years) but that at the end of that period the demon would claim, in return, the soul of the sorcerer for all eternity. Hard as that bargain seems, many a wizard apparently agreed to it.
    In a grimoire known as Le Dragon rouge (which was largely based on the two Keys of Solomon), the contract was offered in the following form:
Emperor Lucifer, master of all the rebellious spirits, I beseech thee be favorable to me in the calling which I make upon thy great minister Lucifuge Rofocale, having desire to make a pact with him. I pray thee also, Prince Beelzebub, to protect me in my undertaking. O Count Ashtoreth! be propitious to me, and cause that this night the great Lucifuge appear unto me in human form and without any evil smell, and that he grant me, by means of the pact which I shall deliver to him, all the riches of which I have need. O great Lucifuge, I beseech thee leave thy dwelling, in whatever part of the world it may be, to come and speak with me; if not, I will thereto compel thee by the power of the mighty words of the great Clavicule of Solomon, whereof he made use to