As research for a piece of fiction, I've been reading about European magic. The extant manuscripts of the various Grimoires of Black Magic in the British Museum date from the 15th century onwards, though may have been written earlier. Black magic is strange, or to paraphrase the author of the book I've read, it is a mixture of the grotesque and the imbecilic.
The Grimoires teach that through the glory and power of God, one can summon and control infernal spirits. In popular culture we think of black magic as a godless deal with demons - it is strange to think those who practiced it believed themselves holy. There's a Jewish legend about King Solomon: God gave him the power to control demons, and he used demons to build his temple and help him out whenever he wanted. There are also Christian and Islamic versions of this legend - in the Islamic version, Solomon also has a magic carpet. Many of the Grimoires claim to be based on the magical writings of King Solomon, who shared the secrets of demon-control.
In Jewish mythology, demons are not fallen angels - they are creatures God abandoned bodiless and unfinished at sunset on the 6th day, to mark the importance of ceasing work to rest on the Sabbath. They are not inherently evil, though are jealous and spiteful of humanity's completeness. Thus demons are another of God's creatures on Earth, over which man is supposed to be the ruler, and so in Jewish magic systems the wizard sorcerer chap is hoping for God's assistance in placating one of his subordinate creatures - analogous to praying that your horse will carry you to your destination without rearing up and maiming you.
(I have a separate book on Jewish magic which I have not read yet.)
The Solomon-inspired magic was adapted to a Christian setting and audience. The wizard sorcerer chap calls on the power of God to help him summon and enslave a fallen angel to do his bidding. Jesus commands demons in the gospels (the Pharisees think he is in league with Satan because the demons obey him so quickly), and so a devout Christian should also be able to to command demons with Jesus' support. As the Pharisees thought Jesus was bad for his command over the demons, the Church authorities think the sorcerers are evil for their command over the demons. So the reasoning goes.
(While most Grimoires claim to originate with King Solomon, a few others claim to be the work of a Pope, who was holy enough to have been taught the magical arts by an angel of light.)
Most of the rituals concern personal and material gain: summoning a demon so it can lead you to treasure, or make a woman love you, or harm an enemy. Very cliche and selfish objectives. Not very holy. I was trying to imagine the sort of person who - hundreds of years ago - would have turned to such rituals. Poor, lonely, awkward, and yet with an ego big enough to think they were holy and great enough to get God's assistance in enslaving a fallen angel. I pictured a modern-day Internet Troll living in the pre-modern world.
In preparation for a ritual, the sorcerer is supposed to fast, refrain from social contact with other humans, and sleep as little as possible for so many days, presumably so by the time they carried out the ritual their mental state was sufficiently ruined hallucinations came very easily. Specific prayers must be repeated throughout the fasting days, and at the sorcerer must bathe in holy water and bless every item to be used in the ritual - his robes (white linen, embroidered with certain symbols depending on which ritual is being performed), the incense, the parchment or vellum, the candles, the magic circle, etc.
There is only one extant ritual which calls for a blood sacrifice for the sake of blood sacrifice. I'll spare you the details, but it involves killing both a black hen and a young lamb. A few others feature human body parts in their reagents list -
the author notes that human bodies would have been easyish to find back then, when mortality was high, life expectancy low, and the death sentence was a punishment for many crimes.
Curiously, the cliche of sorcerers sacrificing a goat as part of their rituals comes from a misunderstanding: the Grimoires teach that the magic circle should be drawn on virgin kidskin which has been carefully prepared. Sorcerers could not rely on the local tannery for this, and so would prepare their own. Obviously, since the goat's tanned hide was to be used in the ritual, the sorcerer would bless the goat repeatedly - before, during, and after slaughtering it - and so to any casual observer, it would look like blood sacrifice for the sake of blood sacrifice.
In case it's not obvious, I think this magic stuff is bollocks. At best a historical curiosity, at worst a way of seriously damaging your mental health. I tried to imagine how I would react to it, living hundreds of years ago. I found myself feeling sympathetic towards the Inquisition. If your worldview takes the existence of evil demons as a fact, and your holy books warn against greed and lust and malice, it is so easy to imagine these Grimoires having been forged by demons to trick the poor, lonely, and egotistical down a dark path. They are like the pre-modern equivalent of scam e-mails, promising 'EARN $5000 PER DAY - SUMMON A TREASURE-FINDING DEMON' or 'THE ONE TRICK WOMEN CAN'T RESIST - INFERNAL SPIRITS WOO 4 U', but rather than making you lose the contents of your bank account, you lose your soul too.
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