The Lemegeton, also known as the Clavicula Salomonis Regis or Lesser Key of Solomon, is one of the most quoted and least actually read grimoires. Its name often appears next to the Clavicula Salomonis, but it is a different work, with a structure and history of its own. Understanding how it is put together helps dispel many clichés.
A seventeenth-century anthology
The Lemegeton is known above all through seventeenth-century English manuscripts, now kept at the British Library in the Hans Sloane collection. It is not a text written by one author at one time: it is a collection bringing together five treatises of different origins and periods, some of which had already circulated separately for centuries. The meaning of the word Lemegeton itself remains obscure, and there is no agreed explanation.
The five parts
In the order in which they appear in the manuscripts, the parts are these:
| Part | Main content |
|---|---|
| Ars Goetia | a list of seventy-two spirits with names, seals and characteristics |
| Ars Theurgia-Goetia | spirits of the cardinal points, of mixed nature |
| Ars Paulina | angels of the hours of day and night and of the degrees of the zodiac |
| Ars Almadel | operations with a wax tablet called an almadel |
| Ars Notoria | prayers to obtain wisdom and memory |
The Goetia
The first part is the most famous. The word goetia comes from Greek and in antiquity referred to a form of magic regarded as inferior and suspect. In the Lemegeton it designates a catalogue of seventy-two spirits, each with a rank, an appearance, a number of legions and a graphic seal.
This catalogue has a precise precedent: the Pseudomonarchia daemonum that the physician Johann Weyer published in 1577 as an appendix to his work on the illusions of demons. Weyer reported the list in order to denounce it, not to spread it, but the result was paradoxical: his list became one of the main sources of the Goetia. The two lists largely coincide, though with differences in order and number.
The Theurgia-Goetia
The second part describes spirits linked to the cardinal points and the directions of the world, presented as partly good and partly evil. It derives to a large extent from the Steganographia of Trithemius, the German abbot who hid systems of cipher writing beneath the guise of invocations.
The Ars Paulina
The Ars Paulina takes its name from the apostle Paul, to whom one tradition attributed knowledge of this art following his rapture to the third heaven. It deals with the angels who govern the hours and those associated with the degrees of the zodiac, according to an astrological conception of the angelic world.
The Ars Almadel
The Almadel is an operation centred on a wax tablet bearing divine names and signs, accompanied by candles and a seal. The text describes four "altitudes" or choirs of angels to be invoked at different times of the year. The Almadel is medieval in origin, and the name already appears in sources earlier than the seventeenth century.
The Ars Notoria
The last part is a version of a much older medieval text, the Ars Notoria, which offered prayers and contemplative figures for acquiring the liberal arts and an extraordinary memory. In many Lemegeton manuscripts this part is incomplete or differs from the medieval versions.
The 1904 edition
The modern fame of the Goetia is due to the English edition published in 1904, with the translation attributed to Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and an introduction and notes by Aleister Crowley. That edition covered only the first part, and ever since many readers have identified the entire Lemegeton with the Goetia alone. The other four parts long remained less known and were published in full only in more recent editions.
Why read it with caution
The Lemegeton is often presented as a very ancient text or as the secret heart of Solomonic magic. In reality it is a late compilation reworking diverse sources, some of which are works critical of magic, such as Weyer's, or cryptographic texts, such as Trithemius'. This does not lessen its historical interest; on the contrary, it shows how the modern magical tradition took shape through accumulation, reuse and reinterpretation.
For anyone studying it today, the book's value lies mainly in three aspects:
- it documents the reception of medieval material in seventeenth-century England;
- it shows the fusion of angelology, demonology and astrology;
- it illustrates how a text written to denounce a body of knowledge can end up transmitting it.
In short
- The Lemegeton is an anthology of five treatises, known from seventeenth-century English manuscripts.
- Its parts are the Goetia, Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel and Ars Notoria.
- The list of seventy-two spirits in the Goetia depends largely on Weyer's 1577 Pseudomonarchia daemonum.
- The Theurgia-Goetia derives to a large extent from Trithemius' Steganographia.
- The 1904 edition covered only the Goetia and shaped its modern fame.
