The Goetia- From the Lemegeton
The Goetia is actually a two part text known as the Lemegeton, that contains the Arte Goetia as its first part, and the Arte Theurgia Goetia as its second. The first Text is a complete text within itself dealing with the 72 Spirits evoked and constrained by King Solomon of the Jews. It jumps straight into the
description of the 72 Spirits, and ends with notes on the Magick- Conjuration, Constraint, Cursing of unfriendly or unwilling Spirits, Welcoming, and License to depart of all of the Spirits, with Special Notes for special circumstances. The second part is a similar treatise on the 31 Aerial Spirits evoked and constrained by Solomon. The form of this is far more structured than the first part, outlining Directions, Seal, Dukes and Conjuration Beginnings, as I have done with the first part's text. It again ends with notes to conjurations, albeit much shorter than the first part's, and lacks any diagrams, possibly because one is to use the same instruments as with the first part.Since I have re-structured the presentation of the texts from their Grimore form into a classification-type form, I have included
notes on how the form was derived and how it differs from the original texts. Since there is more than one MS from which these came from, I have needed to incorporate both of these. For more information of the specifics, see my notes on part one and part two.The Spirits referred to in both texts are very powerful entities. In the first part, many of them refer to their own and other Spirit's "falls" as we are accustomed to the "fall" of the Devil Lucifer ("Angel of Light"), and should be treated with great caution as I have noted in my notes to the first Part. Also of note in regards to these spirits is in an editor's note for the second part, in the source from where I obtained my copies of these texts from. It states that many of the spirits and sigils in these texts are found in Trithemius' famous text Steganographia, which, although seemingly a complex treatise on angels and demons, was in fact a treatise on codification. Dr John Dee of the Enochian System fame was said to have obtained a copy of this before his works on the Enochian System. What needs to be sorted out here, by the reader and not by me, is which text came first- Steganographia or the Goetia. If the antiquity of each is not in question, the Goetia came first, which meant that Trithemius simply used a real system to codify something else. If the opposite is true, and the Goetia came after, we would have no doubt in saying that it is simply a fraud. This question has split many a Magickian's view on the Goetia, and will remain an enigma currently, so you will need to delve into both works, and maybe into the Enochian System to work out for yourselves what is real, fake and just plain off the track totally.
King Solomon of the Jews was reported to have captured all of the 72 spirits of the first part of the Lemegeton, i.e. the Goetia, as is explained at the end of the first Part in:
"These be the 72 Mighty Kings and Princes which King Solomon Commanded into a Vessel of Brass, together with their Legions. Of whom BELIAL, ASMODAY, and GAAP, were Chief. And it is to be noted the Solomon did this because of their pride, for he never declared other reason why he thus bound them. And when he had thus bound them up and sealed the Vessel, he by Divine Power did chase them all into a deep Lake or Hole in Babylon. And they of Babylon, wondering to see such a thing, they did then go wholly into the Lake, to break the Vessel open, expecting to find great store of Treasure therein. But when they had broken it open, out flew the Chief Spirits immediately, with their Legions following them; and they were all restored to their former places except BELIAL, who entered into a certain image, and thence gave answers unto those who did offer Sacrifices unto him, and did worship the Image as their God, etc."
and this is what the actions described at the end of the first Part revolve around. All of the instruments used by Solomon are described in great description.
In regards to the actual sigils and characters of this work, I will draw your attention to only a few parts, but on further exploration will create a further understanding of the links that I am drawing here. Compare the Secret Seal of Solomon shown in the first part here, with some of the seals and writing outlined in the Clavicula Salomonis, otherwise known as the Greater Key of Solomon. The central motif is obviously a representation of the vessel Solomon used to trap the Spirits, but the structure of the Seal as a whole, and the characters in the outer ring, are undoubtedly in the same vein as the Seals used in the Greater Key. Also note the use of the planets and metals in the first part, which directly align themselves with the final table in the Introduction to the Greater Key, with the exception (as noted in an Editor's note on my copy) of Mars/ Iron being absent in this text. The next section of the Goetia describes when the Spirits should be invoked, and arrange themselves around the sunrise, sunset, and hours after Midnight (i.e. the time system we use where 1am= 1 hour after midnight). These two forms of time usage are outlined in the first table of the Introduction to the Greater Key, but is a far more rigorous use of both systems than the one employed here. All of the cross over information provided- as I have stated here- is however very common knowledge when it comes to the occult. The characters used in the Seal of Solomon are actually from scripts used by Jewish Mystics to codify their texts from prying eyes. They are really just different characters to represent the exact Hebrew alphabet. There has been a use of Time and Planets so far back it's not funny, and so drawing a link between the two texts using only this is also a tenuous job. When we do a comparison between the Greater Key and the Goetia in terms of antiquity, we come to a strange place. Both of the texts are of questionable antiquity, and of questionable genuineness. Again, the reader must wade through some great works to decide for themselves what is true, and what is feeding off of something else.
In an example where we see similar concepts used terribly, we can view the Necronomicon. To the reader, I recommend you grab a hold of one of these books and have a quick read. It's really not worth paying for it, even if it is cheap from a Second Hand Bookstore! It has to be the worst attempt to fake something and pass it off as true. Firstly, it claims a date which sets it well before these texts, and uses terribly simplified sigils/seals. If you read this, you will be better equipped to spot a fake text, and maybe even better equipped to wade through these texts to find some sort of truth.
Of a final note, is that much of the popularity of the Goetia is attributed to Aleister Crowley, and I have even used his versions of the Seals here. I caution everyone using Crowley's work to be cautious of being a believer of it. His work was great, but always questionable. I won't try and bias the reader further than that, but do question his work, and mine, because I have used some of it!
Please enjoy the texts that I have presented here. I hope, at best, it entertains you for a little while, or maybe even informs you well in your working of Magick.