The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis or simply Lemegeton, is an anonymously authored grimoire on sorcery. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials several centuries older. It is divided into five books: the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria. It is based on the Testament of Solomon and the ring mentioned within it that he used to seal demons.
Etymology
The text is more properly called , or, The little Key of Solomon. The title most commonly used, The Lesser Key of Solomon, does not in fact occur in the manuscripts. A. E. Waite, in his 1898 Book of Black Magic and of Pacts does use the terms "so-called Greater Key" and "Lesser Key" to distinguish between the Clavicula Salomonis and Lemegeton, so he may have been the first one to coin it. The Latin term refers to the evocation of demons or evil spirits. It is derived from the Ancient Greek word () meaning "charm", "witchcraft", or "jugglery".
In medieval and Renaissance Europe, was generally considered evil and heretical, in contrast to (theurgy) and (natural magic), which were sometimes considered more noble. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, writes "Now the parts of ceremonial magic are goetia and theurgia. Goetia is unfortunate, by the commerces of unclean spirits made up of the rites of wicked curiosities, unlawful charms, and deprecations, and is abandoned and execrated by all laws."
Sources
The most obvious source for the is Johann Weyer's in his . Weyer does not cite, and is unaware of, any other books in the , suggesting that the was derived from his work, not the other way around. The order of the spirits changed between the two, four additional spirits were added to the later work, and one spirit (Pruflas) was omitted. The omission of Pruflas, a mistake that also occurs in an edition of cited in Reginald Scot's The Discovery of Witchcraft, indicates that the could not have been compiled before 1570. Indeed, it appears that the is more dependent upon Scott's translation of Weyer than on Weyer's work in itself. Additionally, some material came from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, the by pseudo-Pietro d'Abano, and the Magical Calendar.
Weyer's , which is likely related to a 1583 manuscript titled The Office of Spirits, appears to have ultimately been an elaboration on a 15th-century manuscript titled (30 of the 47 spirits are nearly identical to spirits in the ).
In a slightly later copy made by Thomas Rudd (1583?–1656), this portion was labelled , and the seals and demons were paired with those of the 72 angels of the which were intended to protect the conjurer and to control the demons he summoned. The angelic names and seals derived from a manuscript by Blaise de Vigenère, whose papers were also used by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918) in his works for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887–1903). Rudd may have derived his copy of from a now-lost work by Johannes Trithemius, who taught Agrippa, who in turn taught Weyer.
This portion of the work was later translated by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and published by Aleister Crowley in 1904 under the title The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King. Crowley added some additional invocations previously unrelated to the original work (including some evocations in the Enochian language), as well as essays describing the rituals as psychological exploration instead of demon summoning.
The Seventy-Two Demons
The demons' names (given below) are taken from the , which differs in terms of number and ranking from the of Weyer. As a result of multiple translations, there are multiple spellings for some of the names, which are given in the articles concerning them. The demons Vassago, Seere, Dantalion, and Andromalius are new additions in that are not present in the that it is based upon, whereas the demon Pruflas appears in the but not in .