The Book of Solomon

The Temple and the Angelic Notes

The Lemegeton introduces another account of Solomon’s learning: prayers at the Temple altar, Michael’s revelation and notes written by the divine hand or finger. [2]

Lesser Key · parallel introductory descriptions

A crowned man kneels at an altar before a luminous winged figure holding a sheet, between tall Temple columns. — **Artistic interpretation** Michael reveals the art of learning at the Temple altar.

Michael at the Temple

The Lesser Key begins a different account from the Greater Key’s buried-book story. Its introductory descriptions place Solomon at the Temple altar, using prayers and orations. Michael reveals an art of learning and brings brief notes attributed to the divine hand or finger. Through those notes, Solomon gains knowledge of arts and sciences, both good and bad.

[2]

The description headed The Whole Lemegeton or Clavicula calls the notes the work of the Hand of God and places Michael’s revelation in thunder and lightning. Two other descriptions give the Finger of God and claps of thunder. They call the fifth part Ars Nova, the New Art; The Whole Lemegeton also names it Ars Notaria, the Notary Art. The explanation links that name to the notes through which Solomon learned. [2]

Most of the introductory descriptions count five books, ending with these prayers and orations. A version headed The Key of Solomon counts four and closes with the statement that its sacred mysteries were revealed to the king. Michael’s Temple teaching belongs to these Lesser Key accounts; the Greater Key’s Additional introduction gives Homadiel’s courteous answer to a prayer before sleep. [2][1]

The books surrounding Goetia

The introductions first describe Goetia as a book of evil spirits, explaining how Solomon bound them and used them in different matters. Theurgia-Goetia follows with aerial spirits of mixed good and evil natures. The Whole Lemegeton distinguishes those that stay in one place from those that wander. [2]

Ars Paulina, the Pauline Art, concerns planetary hours and spirits allotted to degrees of the zodiac, signs and planets within signs. Ars Almadel concerns the four altitudes; some descriptions also give the three hundred and sixty degrees of the zodiac, and the four-part version names twenty chief spirits. The Pauline and Almadel books are described as concerning good spirits to be sought through the divine. [2]

The 1904 volume publishes Goetia alone. The introductory columns preserve the outlines of its neighbouring books, ending with prayers and learned notes in the five-part versions. The spirit catalogue that follows therefore opens one part of the larger Lemegeton. [2]

Sources and editions

Greater Key — Introduction from Additional MS 10862
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, The Key of Solomon the King (1889), manuscript introductions attributed to British Library Additional MS 10862 and Lansdowne MS 1203. Introduction from Additional MS 10862, printed p. 2; PDF p. 9. Homadiel’s appearance before sleep.
Lesser Key — parallel introductory descriptions of the Lemegeton
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile. Brief Introductory Description, printed pp. 7–10; PDF pp. 5–8. The Whole Lemegeton or Clavicula description in the second parallel column; Finger/Hand and thunder/lightning variants on p. 9; four/five-book outlines and p. 10 publication note.

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The Temple and the Angelic Notes

Michael at the Temple

The books surrounding Goetia

Sources and editions