Book Discussion Peter Vermeeren - Grimoire of Azazel

[Rowena]

This has to be the most D&D occult book cover I've ever seen, I had to look it up to check it wasn't a late April fools joke:

 

[HoldAll]

Like I said in the Book Discussion thread about "Lucifer and the Hidden Demons": This is hardly the way to open a discussion about a book - you're just displaying its (admittedly atrocious) cover and don't say anything about its content. Does it contain anything worthwhile? What about the style, M.O. or philosophy of magic the author proposes? Is the book as stereotypical edgy as the artwork suggests? That's what I would like to read here.

Post automatically merged: Apr 6, 2024

Come to think of it, this would be an entertaining topic for a journal in the Journal, Thanksgiving and Success Stories section - "Post the most lurid cover art you've ever came across here!" as you can almost always judge an occult book by its cover. I probably should have handed out a warning for this post since it's anything but a book discussion, people click such threads because they want to learn about the content of a given book, so merely posting its faux sinister cover is simply misleading and also pretty cheap as literary criticisms go.

 

[dosintheshell]

This book is slightly better than the Wikipedia article

This is the most mindless "book curse" I've ever seen.
"This is a copyrighted grimoire but it is also protected by a magical ritual. This means that the manual can only be used by it's rightful owner. When you purchase a copy, the manual is activated for you and you can use all the rituals ands magical spells contained in it. If you received a copy from someone, both the original as well as the copy will be deactivated "

 

[Taudefindi]

When you purchase a copy, the manual is activated for you and you can use all the rituals ands magical spells contained in it. If you received a copy from someone, both the original as well as the copy will be deactivated

Bet that Mammon is the one behind this paywall.
Not even a gifted book is spared this, huh?

It's strange though, I tried to seek this book both on Amazon and Goodreads to see what others were saying about it, but so far it all came up empty, it's as if no one even bothered to read it.

I see that the author seems to have a lot of books about different demons.Can someone that deals with the LHP tell me if it is common for someone to deal with so many demons like that, specially the "heavy hitters"?

Ok, I gave it a read but since I'm completely out of my depth here since I don't deal with demons, this is what I can say about the book(as I understood):

• There are some grammar mistakes here and there, but that's fine, you can still understand what's written.It just seems to take away some of the seriousness of the book in my opinion.It's as if no one bothered to check the book before publishing it.
• Hmm...I won't lie, I'm a bit weirded out to see some terms/words used in certain games making an appearance in a book that should be serious.
• "Correct pronunciation is not important"...I don't deal with demons, angels and the sort, but isn't correct pronunciation a demand when calling their names and saying the needed words?
• There is a constant change of fonts and the layout of the book itself is...iffy.
• For some reason there is a ritual of Astaroth in the middle of it.I don't know if it was used as example(which is weird, why not use Azazel then?) or if they put the bit of Astaroth's book in the Azazel's by mistake.
• Maybe it's just because I like to learn new languages, but it isn't explained what exactly the person is chanting while doing the chants, so for all one know they can be saying a bunch of non-sense or something bad and not know it.I'm of the mind that if you're going to teach someone something dangerous like dealing with demons, the least you could do is giving them all the information they'll need before they do anything.Explain things meticulously.But then again, maybe that's just my detail-oriented side speaking louder.
• I can't speak of the rituals themselves since I don't deal with such beings so I wouldn't realistically know if the rituals are legit or not.The feeling it gives me though is that some of them seem to be more "developed" while others seem to be on the "just do this small thing" vibe.
• Seeing strange names in the end like "Mystacor"(which is a place in the Dreamworks' She-ra show) and other fantasy/sci-fi sounding names didn't inspire much confidence in me to believe in the book.

Look, I won't pretend to know about rituals but I have at least the very little understanding of how something should go.As in, the bare minimum or the bare minimum.

Spoiler: Rant

Maybe the rituals in this book can work but the way everything is presented(from cover to the writtings to the whole layout) makes it all seem like the lazy attempt of someone just seeking to cash out on an easy to write book.Maybe the content of the book is valid and I'm just an idiot that cares too much about presentation of knowledge than I should, I don't know.It feels like if you're a serious magician you shouldn't bother much with what's in here because you not only know it already, but also might know the proper ways or better ways to do it.

Just my two cents though, don't let me stop you from having fun.

 

[HoldAll]

Bet that Mammon is the one behind this paywall.
Not even a gifted book is spared this, huh?

It's strange though, I tried to seek this book both on Amazon and Goodreads to see what others were saying about it, but so far it all came up empty, it's as if no one even bothered to read it.

It may be because E.A. Koetting already wrote a book about this demon so the author probably didn't have anything new to say about him (or didn't have the imagination to make it up).

Post automatically merged: Apr 10, 2024

This book is slightly better than the Wikipedia article

This is the most mindless "book curse" I've ever seen.
"This is a copyrighted grimoire but it is also protected by a magical ritual. This means that the manual can only be used by it's rightful owner. When you purchase a copy, the manual is activated for you and you can use all the rituals ands magical spells contained in it. If you received a copy from someone, both the original as well as the copy will be deactivated "

Lame, just lame.