Customer Reviews

The Book of Solomon's Magick

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For those of us who spend a great deal of our time with our noses stuck in volumes of quaint and curious lore, this one is a real eye-opener (and without question...a must have). The first thing aspiring magicians are taught, (or should be taught), is that Magick is an art. Unfortunately, it is also the first thing most of them forget. In this marvelous book Mr. Runyon reveals himself to be not merely a theoretical expert, but a true artist - a master of the "art" of Magick. The Book of Solomon's Magick reads pleasantly, as if the author and you were sitting up late in front of a fireplace telling stories. It's easy to forget, however, that these tales of angels and demons are real (or as real as anything that affects our consciousness). The practice of Magick takes knowledge, skill, imagination, emotional stability, and a profound sense of humor. It is obvious from reading The Book of Solomon's Magick that Mr. Runyon possesses all these qualities plus one that, sadly, too few people today enjoy...the heart of a true romantic.--- LON MILO DUQUETTE, author of "The Magick of Thelema" and "My Life With The Spirits"

In the simplest of terms, Solomon's Magick fills in the blanks. As practitioner of Golden Dawn methods and as one who has a great respect for Franz Bardon's system, I must say that I've always been just a tad confused. G.D. methods assume too much. The practitioner is left wondering if that's all there is to magick. Bardon's methods are great, but take FOREVER--and the assumptions in his book regarding how long it should take a person to reach certain states are more than a little overly optimistic. Runyon presents a in clear terms what the others are missing--even aside from accessing the spirits of the Goetia. On top of it--it's easy. Don't get me wrong...the work must be done, but once done the work really pays off. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this book outlines one of the most workable methods of magickal development on the market. On top of that, Runyon never suggests that a person can achieve these things with no work or with no study...just the opposite in fact.

Let me start by saying, I suspect this will not be a popular review. For some reason the Goetia is one of these subjects that fosters a "fan boy" vibration for any author that writes on the subject. Anyone who produces a book on this material will have no end of reviews stating "This is the real thing!", "Best book of its kind!" and similar phrases of praise, completely devoid of specific or helpful information about the book's content. Never the less, this book makes some glaring errors, and what sort of magickian would I be if I didn't point them out to the novice?

First some of the attributions require the author to change the order of the entities involved. That is to say, the author actually over-rules Solomon, and "corrects" the order in which the spirits are laid out. Since they don't fall in line with his own beliefs, they MUST be out of order. Obviously!

Further, the author follows in the mistakes of Crowley, The Golden Dawn, The Aurum Solis, and Samuel Mathers in attempting to create attributions for the primary 72 djinn of Solomon's work, that have some flavor of symmetry. (please note that almost all of these sources disagree with each other, as well as the author of this book, as I will show later.)

The fact is, Solomon gave the proper attributions by way of their office, and the metal that their seal would be made of. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Western Tradition would be able to pick this out, but I will explain in detail, for the benefit of the novice reader.

Let's have a brief look at how Solomon laid these spirits out, and what his intentions were:

*** Spirits associated with the Sun are called KINGS. There are 9 of these in the text.
Bael, Paimon, Beleth, Purson, Asmoday, Viné, Balam, Zagan, and Belial. Their seals are to be made of gold.

*** Spirits associated with Venus are called DUKES. There are 23 of these, and it should be noted that the more feminine spirits fall here without any jury-rigging required by the Magickian. Agares, Valefor, Barbatos, Gusion, Eligos, Zepar, Bathim, Sallos, Aim, Buné, Berith, Astaroth, Focalor, Vepar, Vual, Crocell, Alloces, Murmur, Gremory, Vapula, Haures, Amdusias, Dantalion. Their seals are to be made of copper.

*** The spirits of Jupiter are called PRINCES AND PRELATES. There are seven spirits in this category.
Vassago, Sitri, Ipos, Gäap, Stolas, Orobas, Seere. These spirits should have their seals engraven on tin.

*** Spirits of the Moon are called MARQUISES of which there are 15.
Samigina, Amon, Leraje, Naberius, Ronové, Forneus, Marchosias, Phenex, Sabnock, Shax, Orias, Andras, Andrealphus, Cimeies, Decarabia. Following the same planetary metal scheme, these spirits are to have their seals imprinted upon sliver.

*** Spirits associated with Mercury are known as PRESIDENTS. There are 14 of these.
Marbas, Buer, Botis, Marax, Glasya-Labolas, Foras, Gäap, Malphas, Häagenti, Caim, Ose, Amy, Zagan, Valac.

*** Then there are a number of spirits associated with BOTH the Moon and Venus. These spirits are called EARLS, or COUNTS. There are nine of these spirits. (Again there is a feminine vibe here. Andromeda for example was the sacrificed daughter of Cassiopeia in Mythology)
Botis, Marax, Glasya-Labolas, Ronové, Furfur, Halphas, Räum, Viné, Bifrons, Andromalius.

*** Spirits of Saturn, oddly, there is only one. He is called a KNIGHT. His name is Furcas and obviously his seal is made of lead.

Saturn is a "malefic" planet, and has only a single representative. Notice that Mars, which would have a seal made of iron, is completely absent from the list. Mars being the other "malefic" celestial wanderer, this would seem to confirm that there is SOME method to Solomon's list, and that this is not just some scribe's mistake.

Now the REASON Saturn and Mars are under such a tight reign in the List of 72 is one of the Secret Lectures of the K.O.R. and rather than break my oath, I will simply point you in the right direction. For a clue to that mystery, I direct you to review the "Secret Seal of Solomon" as found in the Goetia. After a little meditation, I promise you an "Ah ha!"
Make sure you read how Solomon, himself used this seal. The answer is there in plain sight.

The desire to have a balanced number of Goetic Spirits assigned to elements, planets or the zodiac is natural, and I understand it completely. Unfortunately that isn't how they were laid out, and in fact there is much internal evidence that they are in the correct format, as delivered.

These 72 entities were generally accepted as androgynous. Being neither male or female, but one will note that most of the Dukes are the ones with female qualities, and indeed, the duke's sigils are to be imprinted on copper, the metal of Venus. (Astoroth, is a corruption of Astarte, once worshipped AS Venus!) One can see how I come to the conclusion that they are already sorted properly as to their sponsor planet.
However, there is contention among different occult schools just what any Goetic spirit's attributions should be, and I will briefly give some samples of the varying attributions, using Dantalion as the example spirit:

*** The Golden Dawn & Priscilla Schwei place Dantalion at 20-24 degrees of Pisces. His dates of power would be March 11-15. Planetary association is Mars. His element is water. The proper scent is Honeysuckle. Tarot card affinity is the ten of cups. Candle color for spells: purple.

*** Crowley puts Dantalion in the second decan of Pisces by night. The 777 key scale is 29. Planetary attribution is Venus. His element would be water.

*** Aurum Solis places Dantalion in the third quinance of Cancer. (Note Crowley places the djinn at decanates, and fills them with day spirits, then starts over with an equal number of night spirits. The Aurum Solis simply plots them out on the quinance model, doing away with assigning day and night stations. Also it should be mentioned that the A.S. rather than starting in Ares, starts the attribution in Leo, as was the habit of Mathers. That is all fine and well, if we can be sure Solomon was a student of Mathers. **chuckle**)

Why do all of these respected authorities disagree with each other, and more importantly the author of this book? Because they are all trying to force their own view onto the structure of the Goetia's curriculum, instead of being humble enough to accept the wisdom as it is given. There is a logic to dividing a list of 72 names by 12, and sorting them into neat little cosmic piles. However sometime 72 is just a number.

My personal opinion is that only the planetary attributions are indeed proper. This is how the original text of the Goetia seems to lay them out, and I see little use for attributing them to any of the tarot cards as we know them, or worse yet, to Chinese tri-grams of the I-Ching!

This is an interesting work of speculative Goetia. The Ceremonial procedures are dead on, and you will find them quite effective, however if you are picking this up on the author's claim of having "Corrected" the Goetia, you will led very far astray.

I found this book (and video) invaluable because for the first time, all the pieces for magickal working are assembled in one place. I have studied magick for about five years now and have found the learning curve, until I bought this book, to be some what frustrating. No where could I find a single source that brought all the conflicting, confused and disparate pieces of information together in one cohesive whole from both the historical tradition and current magickal thinking. Mr. Runyon has obviously done his homework and I am now able to go forward with a coherent magickal system that Works rather than having to reinvent the wheel myself.

I have practiced the rituals as outlined by the author and found the results, both of the Angelic Almadel invocations and the Goetic evocations to far exceed my original expectations both in their efficacy and in their deepening of my Understanding. When I first saw this book a while back, I passed it over thinking it was 'just another magick' book. After having cast about fruitlessly for several years, however, I came back to this book, actually read it, and it has made all the difference. There is great richness in this complete system that is revealed through experience, far more than meets the eye.

Runyon's notes on his encounter with the Spirit Ose and his scholarly comments re the Triangle of Art are, in themselves, worth the price of the volume. While this reviewer is not particularly enamored with traditional attempts to command and control the Goetic Spirits -- They are far too powerful and wise to be constrained by vanities! -- the documentation of such efforts by experienced, thoughtful practitioners like Runyon, Savedow, Duquette and others can only deepen one's overall understanding and dedication. The Goetic Spirits require respect and honesty; approaching them demands courage. Try it, and see for yourself!

If you want to be a full-fledged Goetic magician, this is definately a MUST. If you are ecclectic and like to steal ideas and mix them up, I would also recommend this tome which is well researched, logical, and still very original. It doesn't matter one bit if this author is inventing or re-discovering using facial optical distortions in a mirror; if it works for you go for it. It is.....bizarre. Just to experiment, simply turn out your lights, light a candle to illuminate your face from below and squint into a mirror. This psychological /optical illusion works without the occult paraphenalia, but with it and the right mind set, it can be a most potent operation.

This remarkable book is the companion volume to an equally remarkable documentary video THE MAGICK OF SOLOMON. What makes the book and the video so exceptional is that unlike so many works on 'Magick' which are cut-and-pasted from earlier 19th century sources, this author has discovered (or re-discovered) the most effective method for summoning spirits to visible appearance in the dark mirror: he uses the phenomenon of facial reflection-distortion to conjure Solomon's 72 "Spirits of the Brass Vessel"--and it works!
But the author doesn't stop there. He goes on to offer an integrated "Master Mandala' for the first time linking the 72 angels of the Shemehamphorash to the 72 Goetic Spirits in a system which balances Angelic and Demonic forces. Using his knowledge of the Golden Dawn (he is also the author of a book on the G.D. Cypher Manuscript) he describes the the true nature of magical colors and how to use them. "Earth Pentagrams" should be projected in "green," not "blue" as some people had previously thought. The justification for these "blue" Earth Pentagrams was the confused and dubious idea that the "Pentagram" was related to the "red" of Geburah-Mars (actually in this sense it relates to the pentagram as the Sign of Man)-and this Martian "red" needed to be "balanced" with the "blue" of Gedulah-Jupiter on the other side of the Tree of Life! Such illogical trains of thought have never been satisfying. The author cuts through such murky conceptions to explain the real dynamics of magical color. Agreeing with Israel Regardie, Runyon uses the more efficent "unicursal hexagram" as a Tipareth symbol.
The author tops off his remarkable innovations with the first fully developed Qabalistic straight-line Chakra system based on the secret of The Flaming Sword from the Tree of Life. This adds a whole new dimension to the practice of Western Magick! All considered: this book is a must for the serious student of practical and theoretical High Magick.

The word to describe this book, if you have the power to speak after trying it, is WOW! Caroll Runyon really did a number on me with this fine creation of COMPLETE creation. To be honest, the book was on my shelf for about 6 weeks before i attempted the first evocation. I was speechless. I read the entire book before trying anything, and I was impressed by the chronological order, the fine descriptive narration and extreme profession the writer displayed. Moreover, I was somewhat sceptical about the whole Solomon manuscript and the 72 spirits. Then, all of a sudden, the power of trial imposed belief on me. IT WORKS! and I was stupid and silly to doubt that since the roots of this 'magick' go back a long time and are witnessed in many constructed religions. Before personal belief took place, there is history, and this time im sure anyone who simply reads this books will be amazed by the degree of information provided, and whoever attempts one of the evocations will not be disappointed. It's no conventional magick, it's a new spice and something that is spiritually tangible in a way and focuses on the bright side of humanity. I simply loved it, this will be held in the sacred place of my library!

Overall, I feel this is a decent book. The Angelic Invocations required before one goes onto the Evocations are beautiful. But, even with that you start with the LIRP as presented in the author's stylized way. The way he presents two parts of the ritual really bug me...because it appears to me he may have "re-discovered" too little, or hasn't bothered to study the ritual properly. I will quote some of his directions:

"Because these are Earth Pentagrams they must be visualized in bright, neon green"1

Then it directs you to the endnote:

"This is bound to confuse and upset some 'authorities' and their students who insist that Earth Pentagrams should be visualized in an astral electric blue color...The G.D. color scales are NOT what we see on the astral, they are what we project and impose in order to accomplish our purpose. You are creating Earth Pentagram, not skrying one that's already there--so, don't make 'blue' water Pentagrams for the Earth Quadrant. Make 'um green."

He gives some true statements about the projection of color. However, he seems unaware of the reasons behind using a blue pentagram in the ritual. Water has nothing to do with the usage of the pentagram in this ritual. Very little research will show that the reason it is blue(not green, which would be the flashing color of Fire seen on Michael)is that the pentagram is a symbol of Geburah. Geburah is related to martian influence and color is red...opposite the tree is Geburah(which is blue). One purpose of the ritual is to create a balanced space, so with the fiery symbol of Geburah we balance it with the color of Gedulah. This is the reasoning behind the blue pentagram. My other major dislike of this book is the six-pointed star he uses...the energy of the unicursal star is quite different from the one originally used. The difference I will let the read discover for him/herself, but you need to know it is a different energy pattern.

From these points alone I am led to question the rest of the book's "discoveries". Such as the redone Master Mandala. I realize the Order he is involved in is not exclusively G.D., but a mix of that and Paganism. Which could be his reasoning for the pentagram color change as in modern Wiccan and such the Earth's color is usually seen as green.

This is a decent book however, and he seems sincere in wanting the reader to succeed with his system. Therefore, that is encouraging and he has a list of reccomended reading which has many good titles for the student to learn from.

I would just say to whoever buys this book as I did. Use common sence when reading about anyone's new found "knowledge". Don't blindly trust anyone...do research on your own and come to your own conclusions. ....

770!

Mr. Runyon is truly an artist. His dramatic and eloquent presentation of the art of Goetic evocation really leaps off the page. It certainly inspired me! Immediately upon acquiring the book, I proceeded to build the altar and triangle, practice the yogic and self-hypnotic techniques, and within a couple of weeks I was staring into the face of Mystery. This is a good presentation of an alternative system to the Golden Dawn style of magick. Highly recommended!