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CHAPTER VII The Method of Honorius THE Grimoire of Honorius is perhaps the most frankly diabolical of all the Rituals connected with Black Magic, and yet, as we have already seen, its enormities have been much exaggerated. It suffers comparison, for example, with the Key of Solomon, and it is preferable to the Lemegeton because it is less disguised. Its most evident objections are: 1. Profanation of the mysteries of religion. 2. A bloody sacrifice, characterised by details of a monstrous kind. A less manifest objection is the superstitious nature of some of its ordinances. It must be confessed that such a charge seems fantastic, having regard to the innumerable offices of vain observance with which I have been dealing. But a vain observance, it should be remembered, is not necessarily superstitious. To assume that a virtue is resident in parchment prepared from the skin of an animal which has not engendered, and that such virtue is wanting in the skin of one which has reproduced its species, Click to view MYSTIC FIGURES FROM THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE "GRIMOIRE OF HONORIUS" may have no foundation in fact, and may be eminently foolish, but it is not a superstitious assumption. It has been well pointed out by Éliphas Lévi that the term superstition signifies survival; that is to say, it is the sign surviving the idea. Thus, the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, in its open theological sense, may or may not be true doctrine, but in neither case can the worship of the consecrated elements be superstitious, because such worship draws directly from the idea which has created the outward sign. If a time could be supposed when the Elements should continue to be worshipped after the doctrine itself had passed away, that would be a superstitious observance. But the etymological conception of superstition connects also with the idea of redundance. Thus, a double consecration of the Eucharistic elements would be a superstitious observance, as well as blasphemously absurd, because the first consecration is effectual by the theological hypothesis. But the repetition of the Angelical Salutation in the devotion of the Holy Rosary is not superstitious, because the first recitation is not necessarily effectual by the devotional hypothesis. So also the magical practice which consists with the magical hypothesis will not be superstitious, though it may not consist with reason. The slaughter of a kid with a view to securing a virgin parchment is not a superstitious but a precautionary or assumptive measure. The conversion of this slaughter into a sacrifice is not superstitious, because it has a purpose which consists with the magical hypothesis, namely, the increase of virtue by the consecration of the religious motive. The importation into such sacrifice of ceremonies which are not precautionary, and do not, by the hypothesis, increase the virtue, are redundant and so far superstitious. Such offices do not occur in the Grimoires, with the exception of that of Honorius, in which Ritual they are further characterised by brutal features. The slaughter of a black cock and the extraction of the eyes, tongue and heart, which must be reduced into powder, and that powder subsequently sprinkled on the lambskin, is a redundant and monstrous observance. Were I therefore an occultist, with a belief in the efficacy of magical rituals, I should say that the Grimoire of Honorius must be avoided, but it should be unnecessary at the present day to warn any one against practices to which no one is likely to resort, which belong to the foolish mysteries of old exploded doctrines, and are interesting assuredly, but only as curiosities of the past.