Grimoires and other books in Latin?

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
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Seferoth
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Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:18 am

Grimoires and other books in Latin?

Post by Seferoth »

So i am currently studying and learning Latin and wanted to ask what are the best and most easily available grimoires/occultic/esoteric books written in Latin? Any suggestions are appreciated.
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Nefastos
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Re: Grimoires and other books in Latin?

Post by Nefastos »

It seems that the same ancient great webpages which helped me so much in the early days of the internet are still there:

Esoteric Archives: Twilit Grotto: Archives of Western Esoterica
Adam McLean's Alchemy page, including many classic texts also in Latin (in case I remember correctly after all these years)

Good luck with your Latin studies, Seferoth! I used to be a Latin major student, but ended up changing language studies to comparative religion.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Grimoires and other books in Latin?

Post by Polyhymnia »

Seferoth wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 9:05 pm So i am currently studying and learning Latin
Hey, me too! And it is a nightmare 8-) But it sure sounds nice.

Thanks for the links, Nefastos, and for the idea, Seferoth. I hadn't considered attempting to read any of these, but I'm certain they'll be better for my brain (and definitely spirit) than learning anymore about Scintilla and Horatia and their dog, Argus (as per the Oxford Latin book's subjects of choice).

Good luck with your studies! Hope you're faring better than I am.
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
Seferoth
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Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2021 12:18 am

Re: Grimoires and other books in Latin?

Post by Seferoth »

Thank you for the links and well wishes! So far so good, i have wanted to learn Latin for the longest time and i finally decided to start learning it. Also thinking of buying this pretty cool Bible which has Douay-Rheims & Clementina Vulgata translations in it on opposite pages. Will cost me a pretty penny but i think it would be of great help. Also i found out that someone actually translated the "Alice in Wonderland" to Latin, might buy that one as well. :D

https://www.amazon.com/Douay-Rheims-Cle ... 1905574444
https://www.adlibris.com/fi/kirja/alici ... 1782012122
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Nebenkheperu
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Re: Grimoires and other books in Latin?

Post by Nebenkheperu »

The thing about Latin is, as likely anyone who has studied it knows, that there are more than one "Latin language" when it comes to grammar, style and even syntax.
In academia the Classical form is taught and Church Latin is perhaps touched upon in passing. This was at least the case for myself when I completed the study of Latin as my second foreign language, back in my university days.

BTW, for some reason the reconstructed Classical pronounciation is often NOT taught in academia, opting instead for much influence from Medieval Latin, e.g. not pronouncing "ae" and "oe" as written, but incorrectly replacing these with a long "e" sound. See for example this YT channel for much information on the language (also on Ancient Greek - another tongue which should probably be learned by the serious occultist) and its various forms & historical stages.

Reading medieaval and later Latin grimoires requires familiarity with Church/Monk Latin and also the ability to read handwritten/printed Gothic Fraktur, along with the contraction marks and such orthographical conventions often used in such texts.
Hmm...perhaps the Picatrix would be a nice tome to start with? Fortunately the grimoires usually feature grammatically quite simple Latin.
Ἐθεώρουν τὸν Σατανᾶν ὡς ἀστραπὴν.
"Animus risu novatur."
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