3000-Year Genealogy of Magic Books Visual Encyclopedia Revealed How to Manipulate Demons and Angels

From “Harry Potter” to “Dragon Quest,” magic is a natural part of the world of movies, manga, games, and other creative works, but its basic source is a grimoire that appeared in medieval and early modern Europe. The basic source of this is the grimoire, a book of grimoires.

In a narrow sense, a grimoire is a book that describes how to summon demons, spirits, and angels, as well as designs for magic circles and the like.

This “Visual Illustrated Guide to the History of Magick” (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) covers everything from protective charms and amulets to full-scale manuals for summoning spirits, from the ancient Middle East and China to the American continent after colonization. In the Middle Ages, ritual magic was treated as a subject to be studied as a general education. In an age when the boundaries between art, science, and magic were blurred, “grimoires” were a culmination of the best of “knowledge” and “art. This book introduces such “grimoires” from the East and West with abundant photographs. Some of them are introduced here.

The Book of the Dead” written on papyrus

One of the earliest grimoires was written on papyrus, which was used in ancient Egypt from BC. The famous “Book of the Dead,” a burial tablet found in ancient Egyptian tombs, contains prayers and incantations for resurrection.