Grandier was initially charged with immorality by a rival clergyman and had incurred the ire of the infamous Cardinal Richelieu enough to warrant a conspiracy to convict him of maleficia and having made compacts with devils. It is interesting that aside from the familiar names we also finds the sigils of two other spirits from the hierarchy of the Grimorium Verum on the document: the sigil of Silcharde is found at very head of the paper, and a symbol similar to the sigil of Frimost is found amongst the signatures. Frimost is one of multiple spirits in the GV hierarchy who grants him these powers:
"Frimost has power over what concerns men and love. He has power over women and girls, and will help you obtain their use. He can excite or obstruct all human passions, can extinguish or augment the passion of girls, and provoke miscarriage in women." (Kent 61)This is a common area of spirit expertise found through out the grimoire canon. The gifts promised Grandier by the devils include: "the love of women, the flower of virgins, the chastity of nuns, worldly honors, pleasures and riches." (Robbins 378) All things provided by many, many spirits. However, how are we to interpret this in the light of this pact in all likelihood being a counterfeit? Is it merely the Roman Church confirming a devil of its own creation? Clearly this document was intended to be objective proof of demonic spirits that are in league with human sorcerers and it would therefore make all the sense in the world for it to be coherent within it's cultural matrix: the Catholic Satanic narrative. However, without contributing anything new to the conversation, we can say that occult power being attributed agreements with underworld spirits is not unique to Catholic Christianity, merely it has it owns interpretation. However where were the sigils used in pact of Urban Grandier derived from? Whoever did concoct this document clearly had knowledge of actual spirit catalogues, but given the time of the incident with the Nuns of Loudon, that is not a surprise.
Indeed, France could almost be considered an "Unholy Land" so to speak. Grandier is far from being the only French diabolist worth noting in this country's occult history (which includes some of the only historically documented truly black masses in the Affair of the Poisons), but his trial truly made enough of an impact upon later generations. The famous Eliphas Lévi uses him as example of a foul and deplorable sorcerer in his book, Transcendental Magic. Lévi, a major figure in the French Occult Revival of the 19th century would also heavily influence the Victorian English magicians, such as the members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and by way of Aleister Crowley especially, seep into American occultism. Lévi, although obviously terrified by what he termed black magic, was absolutely certain of its veracity, although his terms for its practice are rather amusing, as well as fascinating: "He who affirms the devil creates or makes the devil." (Lévi, Ritual XV)
I do not believe this needs to be interpreted psychologically and I do not take this to be statement on the subjectivity of spirits. I do see it as clever commentary on our cultural interpretation of these spirits. Lévi repeats many times in his writings that the devil is a creation of Catholic thought and this would be repeated again by Crowley in his infamous banned Oxford lecture on the Gilles de Rais. While it can be very easy to assume a purely psychological meaning for this statement and to wander into the belief that demons are subjective portions of the human mind, as it has become popular after Crowley's infamous introduction to his and Mathers' edition of the Goetia of Solomon the King, I personally maintain that goetia and other similar practices deal with very real beings, that objectively exist outside of any individual human. While not every spirit catalog contains the exact same lists of names, it does contain enough of them that are the same, and enough similarities between lesser or subordinate spirits to convince me of their objective reality. This reality is the foundation of the power of magicians, even within the Abrahamic framework. Although permission must be given from the most high God (Adonai, Sabaoth, Tetragrammaton, etc.) it is the spirits themselves that are the vehicles of the power granted the magician, sorcerer or witch in the compact. It is this power which is extracted from hell.
To return to Lévi again, it is worth noting what he is saying between the lines by noticing his contradictions. Although he seems very eager to distance himself from anything resembling black magic and it would be very easy to accept his repugnance for it with statements like: "IN BLACK MAGIC, THE DEVIL IS THE GREAT MAGICAL AGENT EMPLOYED FOR EVIL PURPOSES BY A PERVERSE WILL." (Lévi, Transcendental Magic 135) However, he goes on to explain Baphomet, the goat-headed emblem of the Lord of the Sabbath of the Sorcerers, as a "pious hieroglyph." He continues on in Transcendental Magic, "The old serpent of legend is nothing else than the Universal Agent, the eternal fire of terrestrial life, the soul of the earth, and the living centre of hell." (Lévi, 136) In his Magic: A History of its Rites, Ritual and Mysteries he also says "The devil is not a personality for initiates but a force created with a good object, though it can be applied for evil: it is really the instrument of liberty." Although ever repulsed by him, Lévi at least gives the devil his due.
So why Grandier? Why Lévi? And why this blog post?
Well to be honest I opened my blogger and found this old draft and decided to finish it without remembering where I initially was going with it and decided to run with it, however the reasons for this blog are:
1) to regularly set myself to work putting my own ideas, experiences, studies and opinions into words
2) to grow from having these challenged by those who I'm sure will read this, tell me it's crap, and tell me so.
3) to explore the interconnected worlds of medieval and early modern culture, demonology ceremonial magic and Modern 20th and 21st century occultism and its many themes.
One of those themes is the pact with devil, which has been touched on in this post but will be explored quite a bit more in those to come. The name of the blog, Ecce sortiligius was the latin phrase written upon a sign and hung about the neck of a 16th century English astrologer punished under England's harsh anti-witch laws. It means, "Behold the sorcerer." It seemed a fitting and ironic title for a public journal on a practice that would have gotten me jailed or killed in passed centuries and even today (depending on what country you're in). The contemporary culture holds exhibitionism in high regard amongst the many and varied sites of social media and their is a certain heretical joy I get from breaking the taboo of one culture (secrecy) while glorifying the virtues of another. I will approach many of my topics with anthropological and historical views to demonstrate the narrative matrixes in which both past and contemporary practitioners of magic find themselves. I hope that my work can provide insight, if only to myself in hindsight. And I wish to those who find themselves upon their path, happy hunting.
