Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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."

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.

"The Goetia, the Lesser Key of Solomen the King" is instrumental in the practice of High Magick. This book gives the demonic order of the other planes. Originally compiled with the help of Alisteir Crowley, the infamous Ritual Magician, and undoubtably used in his ceremonies. This is definitely one of the Occult references to have in your library. It is not a work of fiction but considered by Occultists as a serious magickal work. This book will only be of interest to serious students of Ritual Magick.

Of all the thousands of grimoire circulating out there, this one is an okay source. I recommend getting both Keys of Solomon and also have a lot of previous study in the Ceremonial Arts before performing these exercises.

The information in this particular grimoire is not difficult, but one should not start trying the exercises in here fresh without any occult knowledge at all, for there are hazards. I would rate this higher, if not for the fact that some of it is difficult to understand and the preface and begining portion has nothing to do with the history of the grimoire, but goes on to tell of a battle between Mathers and Crowley in which, I for one, really don't care. What these men had against each other has nothing to do with the book or it's contents and I believe it detracts from the book.

It is a good book for those who are interested in the wisdom of King Solomon, but should be handled with care, but not with kid gloves. Some of the writing is archaic and I don't believe the entire manuscript is opened for the reader. I would recommend buying the Legementon over this book in particular. Otherwise, it is great for those interested in evocation.

I'm a student of an Esoterical Order, I study the magical arts for several years. This book is NOT a Black Magick book as many may think. One should understand the conjurations and see that the magician order upon the demons, and never ever worship them. The power of God allows man to summon and order upon the demons. The use one gives to the power will define the kind of Magick one is working with. The Magick that respects ALL the Superior Laws, of the White Brotherhood (this is not a Physical Group of people with the same name, but the Brotherhood of the Ascended Masters like Jesus Christ, Gautama Siddharta, Moria, Kuthumi,etc.)is White, the Magick that fails in just one Law is Black. This is a High Magick work, not recomended for beginers, this work should be preceded of theroretical and practical study of Magick. The book is a must for the advanced Magician. EXECELENT WORK. Read also the Key of Solomon the King. Mathers,S.L. MacGreagor You find it here in Amazon. (What dont you find here?!!)

I got this version of the Goetia before the Henson edition was released. At the time this was the best version out there that I could find. I now have the Henson book and find it MUCH more useful. The Mathers version is not the complete Lemegeton and it also has some pretty heavy alterations done to it. This version does provide some interesting historical information, however, which is not available in other editions.

This is one of those books that make up the required reading of any serious student of the occult. It is must have for anyone's magickal library. Also, the introduction notes about the history of this translation is worth the price of the book alone.

Overall the book was ok,the illustrations of the demons were especially good,but it did not give info about the robes,sword etc.etc. For anyone who really liked this book I recommend Goetic Evocation:The Magicians Workbook Vol.2

Another important work on magic, translated by S.L. MacGregorMathers and edited by Aleister Crowley, the two most importantmagicians of the modern era. This book should be in the library of every student of magic and the occult, and is particularly useful in conjunction with _The Key of Solomon [the King_, also translated and edited by Mathers. This is, of course, the definitive work on Goetic invocation and the conjuration of specific spirts. A must for any conjurer.