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The Veritable Key of Solomon
If your country is not listed above, or if you plan on purchasing more than one title from the Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic series, please email liberavalonia@gmail.com for a postage quotation. Other Editions
A hardback with dustjacket, black and white interior
edition of this book was published with Llewellyn.
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The
Key of Solomon is the most famous and infamous of all the Grimoires
and books of magic ever produced. Yet amazingly only one version
of it has ever been published, which was compiled from diverse
sections drawn from seven different manuscripts in 1889 by S.L.
MacGregor Mathers, the occult scholar who was one of the founders
of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Stephen Skinner and
David Rankine have explored the labyrinthine trail of manuscripts
of the Key of Solomon around the world, and after studying dozens
of manuscripts, decided on the two which best represent this grimoire
tradition to provide the widest range of material in their new
work, The Veritable Key of Solomon. The book reproduces the Keys
from Wellcome MS 4669 and MS 4670, two previously overlooked French
manuscripts scribed for a French aristocrat in 1796, and here
translated into English for the first time. They are not the earliest,
but they are the most detailed,containing three separate Keys
which cover a wealth of material not found in the Mathers’
edition. These Keys are The Keys of Rabbi Solomon, The Key of
Solomon King of the Hebrews and The Universal Treatise of the
Keys of Solomon. One of these manuscripts was the one referred
to by Bulwer-Lytton in his classic nineteenth century magical
novel of initiation, Zanoni, and another one contains an early
version of the material later found in the Grimorium Verum.
The
fame of the Key of Solomon probably stems from the fact that it
was the closest thing available to a manual for the aspiring or
practising magician wishing to evoke angels and demons during
the Renaissance. Everything from how to construct the magic circle,
how to determine the most auspicious times, what perfumes were
most conducive to burn, how to prepare your tools, what prayers
and conjurations should be used, how to make and use the pentacles
which acted as magical foci for the appropriate intent, indeed
all aspects of the process and practices were included. The Veritable
Key of Solomon shows the influence of the Heptameron on these
practices more clearly than the previous Mathers text, through
such elements as magic circles, perfumes, seals and including
all the planetary circles for the seasons. It is illustrated in
colour, with more than twice as many talismanic pentacles as were
produced in the nineteenth century text, and also is more inclusive
of earlier material such as the Olympic Spirits, Planetary Intelligences
and Spirits. These Keys contain the most comprehensive collection
of practical planetary grimoire material ever seen in a book and
greatly expand the scope of information available to students
and practitioners.
The
Veritable Key of Solomon also features a commentary on the provenance
of the different families of Key of Solomon manuscripts, tracing
their use through Renaissance Europe, and exploring the effects
they had on society around them as they were copied and transmitted
into ever wider circles. The Introduction includes commentary on
all the families of manuscripts including the earlier Greek manuscripts,
as well as a study of the other books attributed to Solomon. The
appendixes include a list of the known Key of Solomon manuscripts
and incorrectly attributed manuscripts. The huge number of extant
manuscripts (more than 120) clearly demonstrates that the Key of
Solomon was the most significant magical book for several hundred
years from the late sixteenth through to the nineteenth century,
and this work finally restores the Key of Solomon tradition back
to its place in the heart of the magical revival.
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