The Threefold Coercion of Hell

The Black Raven: Doctor Johannes Faust's Miracle and Magic Book
or The Black Raven or also called The Threefold Coercion of Hell
Translated into English Language by Karl Hans Welz

So, last night I had the obligatory, beginning of the school year, meet n greet, back to school night event for my 9 year old daughter. Considering that my wife is a teacher at the same school, I was also obligated to be on campus an hour early, just in case my help was needed. (You would never have the slightest clue that I knew even the first thing about the Black or Free Arts by looking at me these days, I have learned it is easier for me to get by if I disappear in the crowd instead of sticking out and drawing excess attention.) As I was running out of the house, packing the kids in the care, I remembered I had downloaded the pdf of Dr. Faust's The Black Raven the night before, so I dropped it on my Nook and headed over to the school...

Clocking in at a mere 31 pages, many of which displayed overtly pixelized sigils, The Black Raven reads like a classic piece of grimioric demon summoning. Drenched heavily in the sheer fire and brimstone and even some bat's blood is called into the mix later down the line. With multiple different invocations, conjurations, bindings and such for likes of those evil demons in the Koetting youtube video variety shortly after the "Do Not Read These Out Loud Without a Circle Cast, Warning", I started to question whether or not I wanted to go on this journey while physically in the company of so many parents and elementary students I didn't know and hopefully was never going to have too meet. Nonetheless, I flipped around and found Faust's recommended method of creating a circle, gave it a read and then dove in.

"This main circle is much needed for all citations. With it, you are capable to bind the whole infernal army and to coerce and overpower it as well. This is so because this circle is so powerful that no spirit is capable to withstand it no matter how strong the spirit may be. The other three circles have already been described in previous chapters. On the place where you intend to erect the circle, you need to trace it with a sword with which no human being has been hurt. In the hour of Saturn, you t race a cross through it. Then you make the circle with a narrow piece of paper that you lay around the circle. After you have made the circle in such a way, you go into it walking backwards, and you stand on the star. Be sure to make everything in the right size so that you do not miss. Remember well that you need to speak loudly and clearly when you do the summoning."

Regardless of the often times nonsensical translations of the invocations, their patterning of vibratory phrases and the countless spelling errors throughout the pdf that I had acquired, I felt a great deal of heat and sickness coming from within the rituals. As I read through the summonsing and directives for certain lines of communication with the seven Grand Dukes, I could feel the energies tickling at the back of my throat, as if something was taunting my vocal chords to just mumble the verses. My salivary glands began to swell slightly and became extremely tender to the touch, even right now I can still feel the residual "taste" in my mouth and my glands are inflamed. Not an experience I had ever encountered before and I am not sure which demon was knocking, but it opened my eyes to the possibilities I was seeing between the lines and verses. Dr. Faust systematically went through the various summonings and conjurations, following with a perceptively exhaustive collection of floggings, fumigations, dismissals etc. to follow and implement when necessary. Often times the author would hide little threats and sarcastic pieces of advice to avoid certain movements too soon because of an obvious trial and error approach that had to have existed upon the grimiore's inception. Through the following segments of the book, a bunch of "secret" sigils of various degrees of intricacy, value and result are displayed and expounded upon. Most of them being far too intricate and generally too hard to read because of the low pixel jagged line look my file had and all require the symbols to be carved into and draw with less than ordinary items, at a specific time on a certain day of the week, in order to clean areas of evil entities, bring buried treasure, cause fear and everything in between. Even one of the sigil rituals comes to closure with blood left from the demons upon the sigil. Bad ass!

The book winds its way through the darkest alleys of hell and leaves the unlucky operator to be with a veritable laundry list of places for things to go wrong. With the translation often times in too literal of a sense, the lines often times read like the lyrics of a Ukrainian black metal band trying to write in English, certainly not for the lack of sincerity and fortified existence of reaction of the part of the original current though, the journey is a rather impressive in it's utilization of specific cause and effect invocations that appears to be a very psychologically straining ride for whoever chooses to take the oath.

The Infernal Empire is as follows:
1. LUCIFER, the Emperor
2. BELIAL, Viceroy
3. SATAN, Governor
4. BEELZEBUB, Governor
5. ASTAROTH, Governor
6. PLUTO, Governor

The following are the seven Grand Dukes of the Infernal Empire:
1. AZIEL
2. MEPHISTOPHILIS
3. MARBUEL
4. ARIEL
5. ANIGUEL
6. ANISEL
7. BARFAEL (Barbuel)

These are the Grand Ministers and secret Infernal Counsels
1. ABBADON
2. CHAMUS
3. MILEA
4. LAPASIS
5. MERAPIS

These are the Spiritus Familiares of the Infernal Empire
1. CHINICHAM
2. PIMPAM
3. MASA
4. LISSA
5. DROMDROM
6. LOMHA
7. PALASA
8. NAUFA
9. LIMA
10. PORA
11. SAYA
12. WUNSOLAY

Let it be known, I don't claim to have the deepest encyclopedic concordance filed mind, I have to take notes on what I am reading in order to truly import the information into my head sometimes. I am completely open with the fact that I almost always, even in moments of near certainty, cross reference the information extensively. I do this form of study with all things I research in life. The above listed pantheon of Infernal demons for example; I spent a good 45 minutes reading up on these characters after finishing the book, straight through the school principal's slide show in the cafeteria in fact. So, after all announcements and preliminary jargon was handled and we were dismissed to go check out our kid's classrooms, I couldn't help but feel that the sense recognized reality I was feeling for and of these demons and their intrinsically devastating states of pure evil was radiating from my very being. Whereas I knew I had not even temped any of the aforementioned beasts to manifest themselves in any form whatsoever, I could just tell that legion was easily woken up and the lower class ranks of demons and spirits were more than easily entertained and tickled with the slightest interaction. Nothing really came of the slight shifts in energy and mentally locating of specific lines of power, (well except these damn salivary glands still being sore, but I'm going to need ask for some guidance on this one.) but all in all I feel that in the one and a half total hours I spent with this grimiore and the related cross referencing, I received the keys to many different doorways, just in case I ever come across a true need to open one.