The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King

Aleister Crowley & founder member of the Golden Dawn S. L McGregor Mathers were without a doubt the most famous and accomplished magicians of their day and they collaborated on this version of the Goetia, making the text more understandable, clearer, editing out a lot of the nonsense and 'red herrings' and redrawing the signs so they are clear and easy to copy and use. Whats more, this version has some very impressive (but not definitive) pictures of the demons themselves, including Crowley’s rather infantile sketches of them.
Judge for yourselves which version of the Goetia you would prefer !

Both (and more) copies of both books are available on various websites and I would urge anyone struggling to decide on which version to get to look there first. Joseph H. Peterson's version is there in its entirety and you'll see what I mean !!


A poor and flawed edition of a valuable text   February 22, 2005
 10 out of 15 found this review helpful

The Lesser Key, and the goetica in particular is a very valuable magical text for the occult student or initiate alike. Other reviews outline the contents of the text well enough that I need not go into them.
This is a somewhat inferior edition however, with several notable flaws and innaccuracies. Seek out if you can, Joseph H. Peterson's "The Lesser Key of Solomon: Detailing the Ceremonial Art of Commanding Spirits Both Good and Evil" as it is a much more accurate and concise study of the text.
In it the flawed symbols of this edition are corrected shown alongside their flawed counterparts and the FULL text (parts I - V) of the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis is given.

The edition reviewed here will serve the interests of the merely curious, but I recommend Peterson's edition to the serious practical occultist.


72 spirits under your command   June 4, 2004
 3 out of 13 found this review helpful

This book is really a must have for any serious sorcerer and gives
them the power over all 72 spirits. The incantations are superbly vast and endless and you can even torture the spirits
for disobedience by curses and stuff. Overall it gives you all the sources nessesary to have complete control.
If you are a sorcerer you must get it but it might not be the best choice for beginners.


Deep, strong magick, only worthy for the use of the good.   February 15, 2002
 12 out of 31 found this review helpful

i am an eclectic wiccan by faith, i'd heard about this book but beleived it to be nonsense, if demons really did exist why hadn't we heard more about them? i read the book (with a dictionary handy as the old english is heavy)and i now feel humble as my knowledge of magick is not as vast as i originally beleived. This is a fantastic book, but should only fall into the hands of experieced witches, dabblers stay away and do not forget that evil begets evil.


A Must Have for Those Lonely Nights of Re-Runs   July 21, 1999
 25 out of 28 found this review helpful

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."