Both are called “necromancy”, though Forbidden Rites focuses primarily upon the evocation of demons. Here Professor Kieckhefer makes a distinction between the conjuration of the dead and of infernal spirits. The introductory chapter finishes with some discussion of the art of necromancy in medieval Munich. He explains how a grimoire must be consecrated and kept as a magickal tool in its own right - as something of a familiar to its author.

Meanwhile, Kieckhefer shares medieval anecdotes about grimoires that scream when burned, or spirits who accost the unwary who merely open such a book. Of course, there are plenty of books about the contents of the grimoires, but there is precious little that explains the books themselves as living magickal beings.

I found this information absolutely fascinating, as it is a neglected subject in nearly all modern studies of Solomonic mysticism. Professor Kieckhefer begins Forbidden Rites with an essay on the magick-book in medieval occultism. In every chapter, Kieckhefer draws from an array of related medieval records - most of them anecdotes about magick, and even Inquisitorial court records - to illustrate the culture within which our anonymous German mage worked. As the Professor leads us through the spells of the Munich Handbook, we get to learn something about the life and shifting interests of a working medieval mage. I find the scope of this book reaches far beyond one simple manuscript. Kieckhefer simply refers to it by its catalogue designation: Codex Latinus Monacensis 849 (CLM 849), or the more romantic title The Munich Handbook of Necromancy. Because the first couple of pages are missing, the name of the grimoire, as well as its author, is lost to history. Instead, the Professor dedicated Forbidden Rites to a single, and very obscure, German manuscript. Professor Kieckhefer's book is unique in that it does not attempt to gather and cross-compare a large number of medieval grimoires, which is the more common method - as we see in texts like Waite's Book of Ceremonial Magic or my own work on the Solomonic cycle.

Whether you are a scholar examining the esotericism of medieval Europe, or a practitioner following a similar modern tradition, you will benefit immensely from a study of this book. I have enjoyed reading each book in the series - not the least of which is Professor Kieckhefer's Forbidden Rites. Without a doubt, Penn State Press' Magic in History series is the finest line of books on medieval occult literature produced to date.

Forbidden Rites by Richard Kieckhefer