Alongside pious and ardent prayers to angelic messengers and intercessors, the whiff of brimstone can be discerned from many a seventeenth-century grimoire or manual of spirit conjuration: here be demons. Appeals to such wicked or ‘unclean’ spirits can be found in all sorts of operations of early modern European magic: from forcing love on the literal target of one’s affections, to cheating on your liberal arts exams via diabolic tuition, and from healing diseases, to smiting your enemies.

The nigromancies of the pre-modern ages are especially encapsulated in the grimoiric traditions of nefarious spirit conjuration that came to prominence in the early modern period and would birth texts such as The Lesser Key of Solomon. In these catalogues of spirits we may find the demonized: fallen angels and pagan gods, goddesses as well as – yes – actual pagan demons rubbing scaly shoulders with folkloric bogeymen, deadly sirens, lion-faced regents, clans of thieving bird spirits, and many many sinister Others.

Demons were not necessarily limited to only ever appear in the summoning circles of careful conjurors. Examining cases of demonic possession, obsession, and supernatural illness – not to mention the heresiographies of witch-trial claims and counter-claims – shows there is clearly a wealth of evidence to consider how malevolent spirits could summon you right back...

In this class recording, contemporary cunning man and historian Dr Alexander Cummins takes students through detailed study of several operations of early modern demonic magic, sourced from popular grimoires and sorcerous chapbooks, treatises of occult philosophy, the working-books of cunning-folk, historic scrying journals, and accounts by early modern heresiographers and demonologists. In so doing, we examine where the dangerous meets the potent in these diabolic legions and their handling, and – as Solomon before us – consider ways we can understand and employ potentially dangerous or even corrupting spirits towards healthy and stable goals.

This class-bundle consists of:

A two-hour-long lecture recording
The illustrated lecture slide-deck
Bibliography of Further Reading
Dr Cummins’ Current Course List for Further Study

A full table of contents of the lecture runs:

•       On Demonology (of Early Modern Goetia)
•       The Four Kings
•       Offices & Heraldry
•       An Ecumenical Devil
•       An Experiment of Bealphares
•       Notes for Modern Practice