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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Extant Edition, July 18, 2002
This review is from: The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis Regis) (Paperback)
When Samuel Liddel MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley collaborate on a work of such magnitude as the Goetia, you know you're in for something big.Written by an unknown author in a relatively unknown time (but at some point during the Renaissance), Goetia is the first text of a series of five known as "Lemegeton", which some people have suggested was originally the name of a magician. The idea that this books was "translated" is inaccurate, as Mathers simply transcribed the existing English manuscript which can be found in the London museum. No editions in Hebrew or Latin are known to exist. The book contains 72 demons, which were supposedly summoned by Solomon the King (hence the title) into visible appearance, following out the instructions in the text. Aleister Crowley does a masterful job editing the text, and his essay in the beginning of the text describing his theory on the operations of Ceremonial Magick is unusually clear and easy to read. Mathers' transcription of the manuscript makes the whole ensemble just as simple to understand. There is also an insightful introduction written by Hymenaeus Beta, the current Frater Superior of the O.T.O. His description of the climate of the Golden Dawn, and the competitive nature of the two men Mathers and Crowley, makes for an interesting backdrop to the text itself. The sigils are just wonderously drawn, and the reprint of the ritual in the back of the book (which includes the Enochian reading in both the Golden Dawn phonetic pronunciation and the Enochian language itself) is a nice addition. To those who seek Solomonic grimoires, you don't have a better option than this text.
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by King Solomon
by Joseph H. Peterson
by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers
by S. L. MacGregor Mathers
See all 31 books this book cites
