The Key of Solomon

What the Key of Solomon is for

The Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis), often called the Greater Key of Solomon, is a ceremonial magic grimoire attributed to King Solomon. It is not the same book as the Lesser Key / Lemegeton, and it is not only a manual for calling the 72 Goetic demons.

Its purpose is practical magical operation under divine authority. The operator is instructed to purify himself, prepare tools and pentacles, and then perform conjurations so that spirits will carry out specific tasks.

Main aims of the work

Book I focuses on operations such as:

• summoning and constraining spirits of the dead and other spirits
• compelling them to obey the magician’s will
• finding stolen items
• becoming invisible
• gaining favour, love, and similar practical results

Book II focuses on the supporting system:

• purification of the operator
• clothing and preparation
• construction of magical implements
• the wider rules that make the operations valid within the system

It also places heavy emphasis on pentacles and talismans made for particular purposes, used with planetary timing and divine names.

The Key of Solomon is a general handbook of Solomonic ceremonial magic. It teaches how to prepare the magician and the tools, how to make pentacles, and how to call and direct spirits for concrete results.

The later Goetia section of the Lesser Key is more narrowly concerned with the catalogue and calling of the 72 spirits. The Greater Key is broader: spirit work, talismanic magic, and the full ritual apparatus needed to operate as a Solomonic magician.

A lot of us who learned ceremonial magic before there were many public options learned how to perform this kind of ritual to a high standard. The system can work. People have gotten results from it for a long time. What often gets understated is how many small details the method depends on. This is not a ritual you can approximate loosely and still expect the same outcome. The precision is part of the engine.

That is one of the real challenges with the Goetia. The large pieces are obvious: circle, triangle, seal, conjurations. The smaller conditions are where operators get careless, and those smaller conditions matter.

Take a basic example: the difference between a male and a female operator in the traditional instructions.

Much of the older material is written as if the magician is a man. The purity rules, the abstinence requirements, and some of the preparatory conditions are framed that way. A man is told to remain clean inwardly and outwardly, to abstain from sexual intercourse for a set period, and to prepare certain seals under those conditions. A woman working the same system has to decide how to interpret requirements that were never properly written for her body, her cycle, or her role in the text. That is not a minor modern complaint. It is a practical problem inside a system that claims exactness.

The same pattern appears elsewhere. Timing by rank of spirit, the exact quarter for the triangle, the metal of the seal, the condition of the parchment, the state of the moon, the testing of incense before the rite begins. Each one looks small on its own. Together they are the difference between a formal operation and a partial imitation.

On the tools and the question of substitution

Over the years one of the most common questions people ask

• Can a tool can be swapped for something easier to obtain.
• Can another metal stand in.
• Can a different cloth replace the linen.
• Can a simplified ring replace the one described.
• Can a painted circle replace a properly constructed one.

If you want the working to perform as the book itself states it will perform, then the honest answer is that you need to do what the book requires. The Goetia is not a minimalist system. Its tools are part of the method, not optional decoration. Once you begin substituting the major items, you are no longer running the operation as written. You are running a revised version of your own, and you should be clear with yourself about that.

Some of us who have gone through this route have taken the trouble to find the tools properly. That process can take a very long time. It can also be expensive. Materials are obscure. Some items are difficult to source ethically or legally. Others require skilled making rather than a quick purchase. Accumulating a complete working set is a project in itself, and that is one reason many people either abandon the traditional form or begin rewriting it.

RITUAL: The Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis),

Full Ritual on Esoteric Archives

For contacting Solomon’s demons of the Goetia

The ritual of the Lesser Key of Solomon is elaborate and specific. The tools required to perform the ritual continue to be one of the main obstacles to practice, is that the materials are obscure. Anyone having success with this ritual, and there have been many, have obtained the tools as required. To substitute a particular item is one of the first steps taken toward stripping the system of its integrity. You may also find yourself in harms way if you should being the ritual without the correct tools. One report states, “… the spirits took it upon themselves to give me some personal affliction.”

The list of tools required is listed below:

Anointing oil
Brass vessel
Hexagram of Solomon
Linen
Lion skin
Names of God
Pentagram of Solomon
Protective circle
Ring of Solomon
Scepter
Secret Seal of Solomon
Sword
Triangle of Solomon

The success from this ritual is derived from the precise making of the tools. To read more information on how to make and prepare these tools for ritual use  – http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/sl3847.htm#chap8

If you are new to reviewing this area of study, you will become quickly overwhelmed, and quite disappointed to find the many interpretations of this ritual.

The chief differences relate to the power and placement of the spirits, and to the ritual procedures and tools. These are critical elements in all the books, and this is why many authors (like Waite) throw up their hands in confusion and despair when trying to fit them together as a system comprehensible beneath one philosophical umbrella.

The books do have some common elements:

1. The magician acts as an agent of God.

2. The magician acts through spirits.

3. The spirits respond to specific rituals.

In almost all cases, the magician must undergo a period of purification, followed by a consecration of the tools and/or area of practice, and finally the verbal conjuration of the spirit. In most, but not all cases, the spirit must comply under penalty of pain or forfeiture of some of its power. The specific terms, including the names of God and the elements of the other tools of practice, relate vaguely to what one might call Kabbalah, but the connection is weak and usually very corrupted from its original form.

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The Tools

THE MAGICAL CIRCLE & TRIANGLE

The Magical Circle is to be made 9 feet across, and the Divine Names are to be written around it, beginning at EHYEH, and ending at LEVANAH, Luna.

The Magical Triangle, into the which Solomon did command the Spirits. It is to be made at 2 feet distance from the Magical Circle and it is 3 feet across.  Note that this triangle is to be placed toward that quarter where the Spirit belongs. And the base of the triangle is to be nearest unto the Circle, the apex pointing in the direction of the quarter of the Spirit.

Colors

The space between the outer and inner circles, where the serpent is coiled, with the Hebrew names written along his body, is bright deep yellow.

The square in the centre of the circle, where the word “Master” is written, is filled in with red.

All names and letters are in black.

In the Hexagrams the outer triangles where the letters A, D, O, N, A, I, appear are filled in with bright yellow, the centres, where the T-shaped crosses are, blue or green.

In the Pentagrams outside the circle, the outer triangles where “Te, tra, gram, ma, ton,” is written, are filled in bright yellow, and the centres with the T crosses written therein are red.”

For the triangle…

Triangle outlined in black; name of Michael black on white ground; the three Names without the triangle written in red; circle in centre entirely filled in in dark green

THE HEXAGRAM OF SOLOMON.

Colors.

Circle and pentagram outlined in black. Names and Sigils within Pentagram black also. “Tetragrammaton” in red letters. Ground of centre of Pentagram, where “Soluzen” is written, green. External angles of Pentagram where “Abdia … .. Ballaton, Halliza, “ etc., are written, blue.

THE VESSEL OF BRASS.

THIS is the Form of the Vessel of Brass wherein King Solomon did shut up the Evil Spirits, etc.

Somewhat different forms are given in the various codices. The seal in Figure above was made in brass to cover this vessel with at the top. This history of the genii shut up in the brazen vessel by King Solomon recalls the story of “The Fisherman and the Jinni “ in “The Arabian Nights.” In this tale, however, there was only one jinni shut up in a vessel of yellow brass the which was covered at the top with a leaden seal. This jinni tells the fisherman that his name is Sakhr, or Sacar.

Sword

The Athame or “ritual dagger” “black handled ritual knife” is used to point to the 4 directions and invoke the 4 Crowned Princes of Hell. It is used to direct energy and the will. It is associated with the element of air. It is also phallic and symbolizes the male energies of the rite.

Cloak

  A long white robe of linen, such as this stunning cloak!

The Lion Skin

The girdle of the vestment is described as a lion skin three inches broad, with the names written from the perimeter of the circle. Maybe you need to find a lion skin rug and cut it up to make the girdle.

Also perfumes, and a chafing-dish of charcoal kindled to put the fumes on, to smoke or perfume the place appointed for action; also anointing oil to anoint thy temples and thine eyes with; and fair water to wash thyself in.

The Burning Bowl should be made of stainless steel or silver. It is of the element of fire and is used to burn papers that contain written prayers/requests during ritual. A separate bowl is not necessary, but can be used to burn poppets, personal belongings or effigies of a hated one for use in destructive [black] magickal workings.

Candles are representative of the element of fire. Candles for a Standard Satanic Ritual should be black, but if black is unavailable, blue or red or any other color including white [for white magick] can be used.

The Chalice represents the element of water. It is used to drink wine or some other beverage during a formal ritual.

The Incense Burner is used to perfume the air and to create a favorable atmosphere for ritual and magickal workings. Incense and resin is also pleasing to the Demons.

One should always sample the burning of new incense. This is because once a ritual has begun; it is too late if the incense is substandard. Cheap or foul smelling incense can be a major embarrassment and can also be insulting to the spirits one is trying to summon.

Oils

• King Solomon Oil, can aid you in contacting divine powers.
• Hyssop Oil

The Magick Seals

You also need all the talismans for all the Goetic Spirits with their varying designs as well as the Hexagram of Solomon and Ring of Solomon as a disc used by the ancient magi for controlling the spirits.While you can draw them yourself, it is better to buy them ready made, and save yourself the time and frustration.

“I do not believe the size, production procedure, or exact replication of the style is as important as getting the elements of the design presented and the seal made in the correct material. “

 

 

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