This project represents a work of LOVE. All texts so far gathered, as well as all future gatherings aim at exposing interested students to occult information. Future releases will include submissions from users like YOU. For some of us, the time has come to mobilize. If you have an interest in assisting in this process - we all have strengths to bring to the table. email : [email protected] Complacency serves the old gods. THE LESSER KEY OFSOLOMON LEMEGETON CLAVICULA SALOMONIS Detailing the Ceremonial Art of Commanding Spirits Both Good and Evil Joseph H. Peterson, Editor ®WEISERBoOKS York Beach, Maine, USA First published in 2001 by Weiser Books P.O. Box 612 York Beach, ME 03910-0612 www.weiserbooks.com Copyright © 2001 Joseph H. Peterson All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced or trans­ mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Weiser Books. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clavicula Salomonis. English The lesser key of Solomon lemegeton clavicula Salomonis / Joseph H. Peterson, editor p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57863-22o-X (alk. paper);ISBN 1-57863-256-0 (pbk, : alk. paper) 1. Magic-Early works to 1800. 2. Magic, Jewish-Early works to 1800. 1. Peterson, Joseph H. II. Title. BF1601.C4313 2001 133.4'3-dc21 00-068529 MV Typeset in 12 pt. Adobe Caslon Cover design by Ed Stevens Printed in the United States ofAmerica 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 8 7 6 5 432 1 The paper used in this publication meets all the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (RI997). CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Abbreviations i.x Introduction xi Preface from Harley 6483 3 Part I: Ofthe Arte Goetia 7 Part II: The ArtTheurgia Goetia 57 Part III: The Art Pauline ofKing Salomon 109 Part IV: Salomon's Almadel Art 147 Part V: Ars Notoria: The Notary Art ofSalomon 155 Appendix 1: Addenda found in Sloane 2731 and 3648 221 Appendix 2: Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarcbia daemonum 227 Appendix 3: Comparison of Goetia with Weyer 261 Appendix 4: Other examples of some ofthe drawings 263 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the British Museum for allowing me to study the manuscripts firsthand, and for their help in preparing microfilm copies. I am particularly grateful for the high quality negative ofSloane 3825, which they prepared specially. ABBREVIATIONS C A. Crowley [and S.L. Mathers], The Goetia (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1995). H Harley MS 6483, British Library. MS(S) Manuscriptis). P Paracelsus, Archidoxes ofMagic, translated by Robert Turner (1656, reprint New York: Samuel Weiser, 1975). r Recto. sec. man. secunda manu, i.e., written in a different handwriting. S1 Sloane MS 2731, British Library. S2 Sloane MS 3648, British Library. S3 Sloane MS 3825, British Library. T Johannes Trithemius, Steganographia (Darmbstadii, 1621). v Verso. W Johann Weyer, Pseudomonarcbia daemonum, In Opera Omnia (Amstelodami, 1660, pp. 649-666). English translation in R. Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584, reprint New York: Do­ ver Publications, 1972, pp. 217-227). [ ] Alternate wording or explanation < > Makes an error or accretion in the text that should be disre­ garded. INTRODUCTION The Lemegeton is a popular handbook of sorcery known from the 17th cen­ turyl in more or less the same form as I will present it. Most ofthe mate­ rial, however, is found in varying forms in earlier manuscripts, and some of the material dates back as early as the 14th century or earlier.s In a 1531 list of magical texts, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa mentioned three of the books of the Lemegeton in the same breath, Ars Almade!, Ars Notoria, and Ars Paulina) The relevant passage is found in a chapter titled "Theurgia,"4 and the chapter which precedes it is titled "Goetia."5 Goetia and Theurgia Goetia are the names ofthe remaining books of the Lemegeton. This list was repeated by Agrippa's student, Johann Weyer (a.k.a. Wier, or Wierus), in 1531. Reginald Scot, who relied to some extent on Weyer, does Iikewise.« The date 1641 occurs in the text and may indicate that its present form dates from then. 2 To this period has been dated an important text of the Solomonic literature, Liber furatus, or The Sworn Book ofHonorius, which has important connections with our present work. De incertitudine et vanitate omnium saentarum et artium (Paris, 1531, folios 54v-56v): "Eius itaque scho1ae sunt, ars Almade1,ars Notoria, ars Paulina, ars Reue1ationum, & eius modi superstitionum phira, quae eo ipso sunt pernicisiorum, quo apparent imperitis diuiniora," (Ofthis school therefore is the Art Almade1,the Notary Art, the Pauline Art, the Art of Revelations, and many similar superstitions, which are so much the more pernicious, by how much they seem the more divine to the ignorant.) 4 Agrippa classified these three magical books as belonging to "theurgia," that category of magic which works through the agency of the good angels and God. S According to Agrippa, Goetia is the other major category of ceremonial magic. He believed that goetia works through the agency of "unclean spirits." 6 Reginald Scot, Discooerie ofWitchcraft (1584, reprint New York: Dover Publications, 1972), Book 16, chapters 31 and 42. xu INTRODUCTION Weyer included a text closely related to the Goetia.' Thus the bulk of the materials were possibly collected together before 1531. The name Lemegeton was probably naively invented because of the compiler's ignorance of Latin. He or she was no doubt familiar with the Clavicula Salomonis (Key ofSolomon)8 and wanted to title this work the Little Key ofSolomon; this became Lemegeton Clavicula Salomon is. The major texts used for this edition have all been from the British Library Manuscript collection. They include Harley MS 6483, and Sloane MSS 2731,3825, and 3648. Harley 6483 is cataloged as Liber Malorum Spirituum. Its description reads as follows: A Qgarto, containing all the Names, Orders, & Offices ofall the spirits Salomon ever conversed with: the Seals & Characters belonging to each Spirit; & the manner of calling them forth to visible appearance. - Some ofthese spirits are in Enoch's Tables described in the former volume, but their seals & characters how they may be known are omitted, which are therefore in this book at large set forth.? Harley 6483 is probably the latest manuscript and contains much addi­ tional material, with extracts from de Abano's Heptameron replacing much ofthe instructions included in Book 1 ofthe other manuscripts. It is hand­ somely written, with circles drawn around the sigils, and Hebrew lettering supplied in many places.l'' It is dated 1712-1713. Note that Harley shares many readings with Sloane 3648. In fact, a dependence ofboth on a com­ mon ancestor can reasonably be established. Given the number of devia­ tions from the majority, Harley 6483 is among the least reliable ofthe manu­ scripts. Sloane 2731 is cataloged as Clavicula Salomonis. It is important because it has been compiled from multiple versions, including Sloane 3648. This text is, Weyer, De Praestigiis Daemonum. Scot, Discouerie ofWitchcraft, includes an English translation in Book 16, chapter 2. See below and Appendix 2 of the present volume. For Latin examples of the Key ofSalamon, see British Library Additional MS 10862 (17th century) and Sloane 2383. For an English translation, see The Key of Solaman the King (Clavicula Salamonis), first translated and edited from ancient manuscripts in the British Museum by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers (London: George Redway, 1889. Reissued, York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 2000). British Museum. Dept. of Manuscripts, A Catalogue ofthe Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. III (London: G. Eyre and A. Strahan, 1808-12), p. 369. 10 For examples, see Appendix 3. Mathers judged these to be "manifestly incorrect in orthography," but includes them anyway, "such as they are." INTRODUCTION XU! unfortunately,incomplete, makes arbitrary rearrangements in the text, has many careless mistakes, and omits all ofBook 5. It is dated January 18, 1686. Sloane 3825 is cataloged as Treatise on Magic and includes two articles, ]anua Magica reserata (fol. 1 ff.) and Clavicula Solomonis, The Little Key of Solomon (fol. 100r ff.). Carefully written and legible, it is also a more com­ plete and internally consistent text. It has the most consistently reliable readings of the available manuscripts as well and is interesting in that it contains a shorter version of The Notary Art, to which has been added the remaining portions as found in Robert Turner's translation.U Sloane 3648, a collective codex, also contains pieces of Agrippa and Parace1sus. This manuscript also dates from the 17th century and was ap­ parently used by the writer of Sloane 2731. It is carelessly written, with poorly executed drawings. I have followed Sloane 3825 for this edition, except for the Ars Notoria. For the latter, the manuscripts are clearly dependent on Robert Turner's translation. I have therefore used his 1657 printed edition as my primary source. Variants from other manuscripts are noted in square brackets []. Also in square brackets are the folio numbers from Sloane 3825. I have resisted the temptation to modernize the language. PARTS OF THE LEMEGETON Goetia Goetia is a Greek term more or less synonymous with magic, but with nega­ tive connotations, as distinguished from the more elevated Theurgia ("work­ ing of a god"). The compiler of the Lemegeton certainly recognized this distinction. The first book, Goetia, corresponds closely with the catalog of demons published by Johann Weyer as Pseudomonarchiadaemonum, included as an appendix to his De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563).12Weyer referred to his source manuscript as Liber qjJiciorum spirituum, seu Liber dictus Empto.