The Lesser Key of Solomon Paperback – September 15, 2016

“The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton - Clavicula Salomonis Regis, Book 1” by S.L. MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley is a companion to the former author’s “The Key of Solomon the King: Clavicula Salomonis” published in 1888.The crux of MacGregor Mathers and Crowley’s magic is binary opposition. For example, a single male deity (in this case, the Abrahamic God) and Lucifer. The authors focus primarily on seals and sigils and the 72 “chief spirits of the Goetia.”Like MacGregor Mathers’ 1888 volume, the authors claim that the Goetia and the seals originated with the Israeli King Solomon, but an investigation has revealed that this knowledge was actually produced about two hundred years prior. According the authors, King Solomon placed the seals in a vessel of brass and, like Pandora’s Box, it was opened by the unwitting.The lack of antiquity doesn’t negate the seals’ importance as part of a magical ritual, however, as it is acknowledged by many Pagans that spiritual beings continue to gain power over time through collective use. Likewise, with gods and goddesses, the power of belief is accumulated over time. In fact, that is why eregores are often destroyed after tasks are completed by practitioners of chaos magic(k).The Goetia are all arranged according to a European, and particularly British, form of hierarchy of which both authors were familiar (e.g., kings, princes, dukes, marquises, and etc). What I found interesting is that the authors included the more democratic and non-aristocratic title of “president” as well.For individuals inclined to ritualized magic(k) based upon the Keys of Solomon, I would recommend Konstantinos’ “Summoning Spirits: The Art of Magical Evocation.” For those interested in similar forms, including the use of both seals and sigils but minus the highly ritualized forms, I would recommend chaos magic(k).

Good book. Supposed to be the best version available

shipped fast, as shown in photo, came with no damage!

I’ve gotten interested in demonology recently, and heard that The Lesser Key of Solomon is a good starting point for learning about this stuff. And after reading It, I agree that it’s a decent book to start learning about demonology, IMHO.The book jacket is adequate but not great: it’s a little oversized, all the graphics on the cover are still legible/visible but they’re slightly blurry on the edges; the book jacket is functional and looks nice, but it’s nothing like a high quality leather bound book.Last but most important, the contents of the book: I loved it! I read it cover-to-cover on the same day I received it! In the first part of this book, it contains some of Aleister Crowley’s and S. L. Mathers’ thoughts on demonology & The Lesser Key, which was fairly interesting to read. Then obviously there’s the Ars Goetia, which was riveting! The Goetic sigils are some of the most beautiful symbols I’ve seen; and reading about the different demons was just fascinating! Overall, it was a very satisfying book to read.The Lesser Key of Solomon doesn’t contain everything about demonology, but I think it’s a good starting point. And this particular hardcover version makes it a decent introductory book: it’s a budget hardcover, but it’s durable and pretty for its price.10/10 would recommend!

Bought this for my husband because he said it could be a good read. We love knowledge in our house and I thought maybe I could get him to pick up a book instead of his phone lol But he hasn’t finished it yet. He said if he ever figures out to pronounce some of the words in this book he’s afraid of what he might summon 🤣

I would most definitely buy again

I opened this book last night and just looked through it and the next morning I went to the bathroom and apparently blacked out and passed out on the floor, someone found me and woke me up and I had a really bad nose bleed that last a long time, when I finally started cleaning the blood off my face I realized skin was hanging off in the middle of my face, I have no idea what I could feel on to cause that. But I really don’t think this book is safe to read without some type of protection amulet. It felt like I had been in a fight.

The book itself is very easy to pick up and read about a few spirits, look at very nice looking artwork associated with them. Goes over how to summon said spirits although not in extreme detail as the greater keys do. This work is good for both those interested in the subject matter and also for those interested in general writing yourself, both in the terms of if you need nice sounding names for a fiction that also has external meaning but also seeing the wonderfull emblems riddled throughout the book. While it is 260 pages a lot of them are 50% illustrations so don't be to discouraged by the length (a much easier read than the greater key of solomon!). The edition itself is 5 stars but the subject matter of the book goes down 1 simply because it wasn't what i was expecting and skims over some potentially interesting details.