The Solomonic Tradition

The Solomonic Tradition denotes a group of high-medieval and early-modern magic handbooks that trace their authority back to the biblical King Solomon.

Since the Hellenistic late antiquity, Solomon has been regarded as the archetype of the wise magician who subdued demons, commanded the spirits of the elements and knew the hidden things of creation. From this attribution grows a literary tradition reaching from the Sefer ha-Razim through the Clavicula Salomonis to the Lemegeton.

Formation of the Legend

The Hebrew Bible endows Solomon with incomparable wisdom in 1 Kings 4. As early as the 1st century AD, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reports (Antiquitates Judaicae VIII) that Solomon left behind oaths, incantations and a book of healing.

In the pseudepigraphical writings the topos takes shape: Solomon rules over demons with a signet ring, compels them to build the Temple and knows every one of their secrets. From this stem three great lines of magical texts develop.

Testament of Solomon

The Testament of Solomon, probably compiled in Palestine or Egypt in the 1st to 4th century, is the oldest surviving Christian source of Solomonic magic.

In narrative form, the text describes how Solomon, through an angelic gift in the shape of a signet ring, questions demons; each names its name, its sphere of influence and the angel able to compel it. The list comprises 36 decan demons associated with illnesses and afflictions of the soul.

The schema, demon, effect, binding angel, will reappear centuries later in the Goetia.

Sefer ha-Razim

Within the Jewish sphere, the Sefer ha-Razim (Book of Secrets), probably compiled in the 3rd to 5th century, gathers seven heavens and their angelic choirs. The practice uses angelic names for healing, protection and the gaining of knowledge, yet remains bound to strict rules of purity and to the praise of God.

The Sefer Raziel ha-Mal’akh (compiled in the medieval period, printed in Amsterdam in 1701) continues this line and supplies the most important models for later kabbalistic magic.

Clavicula Salomonis

The Clavicula Salomonis (Key of Solomon) emerges in the 14th and 15th centuries on the basis of Greek and Hebrew sources and spreads above all in Latin, Italian and French manuscripts.

It is a practical manual: preparation of the magician (fasting, purification, silence), production of the pentacles on parchment made from virgin animal skin, consecration of the tools (wand, sword, sickle, lamp), invocation of angels and spirits.

At its centre stand 44 pentacles, seven per planet. The Clavicula is a theurgic-ceremonial work: it calls spirits through angelic aid and in the name of God, not through coercion.

Lemegeton

In the 17th century an unknown editor in England compiled five separate manuscripts into the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis: Goetia, Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, Ars Notoria.

The Goetia with its 72 demons is the best-known part and at the same time forms the contrast to the older angel-oriented Solomonic line: here the magician calls demons, compels them with the names of God, attains knowledge and power, and dismisses them respectfully.

The textual basis derives in part from Johann Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577).

Grand Grimoire and Later Forms

In the 18th and 19th centuries, popular editions surface in France and Germany: Grand Grimoire, Grimorium Verum, the German Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

They dilute the Solomonic tradition into treasure-hunting, love magic and pact instructions. Aleister Crowley publishes the English Goetia edition (Lemegeton I) in 1904 on the basis of Mathers‘ translation; with this the Solomonic tradition reaches modern occultism.

Shared Structures

Across the centuries, the Solomonic tradition shares several features: the central place of divine names (Tetragrammaton, Shemhamphorasch), strict preparation of the magician, a clearly demarcated ritual space (circle and triangle), an explicit hierarchy of spirit beings, and the duty of an honourable dismissal.

Whoever works with Solomonic magic moves, whether they perceive it or not, within a theological space that legitimises the working only under the sign of a higher divine authority.

Sources

• Joseph H. Peterson (ed.): The Lesser Key of Solomon, Weiser 2001.
• Stephen Skinner, David Rankine: The Veritable Key of Solomon, Llewellyn 2008.
• Pablo A. Torijano: Solomon the Esoteric King, Brill 2002.
• Owen Davies: Grimoires. A History of Magic Books, Oxford UP 2009.
• Claire Fanger (ed.): Conjuring Spirits. Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, Pennsylvania State UP 1998.