The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton - Clavicula Salomonis Regis, Book 1 [Paperback]

Aleister Crowley (Editor), Hymenaeus Beta (Editor), Samuel Liddell (Translator), MacGregor Mathers (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

Provides a clear and detailed account of the preparations and precautions necessary for the successful evocation of 72 spirits, which are described in detail. Mathers' introduction discusses the numerous manuscripts from which he made this translation

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

About the Author

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a magus, poet, sexual athlete, mountaineer, traitor, drug fiend, and Prophet of a New Eon. He has been dubbed "The Wickedest Man in the World." Author of 777, Diary of a Drug Fiend, and Book of Lies, as well as many other books, Crowley, with Freida Harris, also created the bestselling Thoth Tarot Deck.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087728847X
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288473
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad!, April 2, 2005

By 

Frederick L. Wagner "Vinea" (Southern United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton - Clavicula Salomonis Regis, Book 1 (Paperback)

I actually own three versions of The Lesser Key of Solomon, including this one so, I thought I'd give my opinions of them all. It might save some poor demonologist out there a few bucks.

The Henson "Lemegeton" by Metatron Books is my favorite. All of the magical symbols have been reworked and they are by far the best done of the three versions. The down side is that the fifth book, The Ars Notoria, has been left out. The editor states: "Both the content and the context of Ars Notoria show no affinity for the listings of spirits that mark the bulk of the material contained in The Lesser Key of Solomon. For this reason I have refrained from including it in this new edition." He is correct in this statement and I have not found its omission to be detrimental to the book in any way but; would it have really been that difficult for him to have included it and let us decide for ourselves if it would have been useful?

The Peterson "The Lesser Key of Solomon" by Weiser Books does include the "Ars Notoria", making it the most complete version. It is also the only one available in hard cover. Its downside is that the magical symbols have been photocopied from original texts and some of them are illegible. If they had taken the time to rework the magical symbols, as in the Henson version, this would have been the best of the three. As it is, it comes in second.

The Mathers/Crowley "The Goetia" also by Weiser Books, is actually only the first book of The Lesser Key of Solomon. It is only worth mentioning because of the fascinating illustrations by Louis Breton. The inept drawings by Aleister Crowley detract somewhat, however. If you are one of the lucky ones that picked up Trident's "Demonographia" when it was available or actually own a nineteenth century copy of the "Dictionnaire Infernal" then this book will be of no interest to you. Otherwise, It's worth getting just for the engravings.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for Those Lonely Nights of Re-Runs, July 20, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton - Clavicula Salomonis Regis, Book 1 (Paperback)

Why bother with re-runs, 108 cable channels with nothing good on them and psychic hotlines that wipe out your wallet?

Go straight to the source - adopt-a-devil. It is your choice, with or without protective circle. If you use the protective circle, they will deftly affect your mind anyway (they have that in common with advertising). If you choose to go circleless and engage in a little chat time, they may never leave! But then, Taisha Abelar referred to her familiars (allies, as she terms them) as merely friendly pets, little spots of light that would occasionally follow her around. Just visitors from another dimension - the twilight zone. These _are_ twilight zone denizens, as the drawings scrawled by Crowley in his personal copies of this book, and reproduced here, prove. To really get a feel for them, the Duquette Goetia book is highly recommended as well. But be sure to have this one! Besides Crowley's drawings and notes, it is well annotated by an excellent Crowley scholar.

M

PS: This is not to be confused with black magic. Crowley used the Goetia to attain his HGA, Holy Guardian Angel, and the invocation to the HGA herein contained, and later reproduced in Regardie's groundbreaking popularization, is indispensable. Otherwise known as the "Bornless One."

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, in many ways., April 10, 2000

By 

"the_sinister_shadowmage" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King: Lemegeton - Clavicula Salomonis Regis, Book 1 (Paperback)

Greetings,

First off, I'd like to state that using this work isn't half as dangerous as many pseudo-magi would have you believe, anyone who is reasonably stable should be completely safe, the only danger is obsession.

This book is very useful, considered by many as the "ganddaddy" of all grimoires it gives access to a reasonable amount of "entities" (for lack of a better word) to work with, if these are truly demons or merely archetypes of things inside your own personality depends wholly on one's paradigm, but I digress.

The operations are quite beautiful, and very interesting to perform. The one thing that slightly flaws them is that physical impracticalities of the system, expect to be using a lot of time and money making the preparations (magickal equipment, working space etc.) this is why I've rated it at 4 rather than five stars. It should be noted that the writing is a bit hard, it may take more then one read to take in the technique.

I highly recommend it to the practical magus, results are quite easily obtained with practise.

Enjoy.