Compiled from original manuscripts and fragments in the British Museum Library, Joseph Peterson's new presentation is the most complete and accurate edition of this famous magical grimoire.
A widely respected scholar and archivist of occult texts, Peterson establishes the provenance of each part of The Lessor Key of Solomon, and possible derivative works, including critical analyses of major variations, utilizing fresh translations of earlier magical texts such as Johann Trithemius's Steganographia, The Archidoxes of Magic by Paracelsus and newly discovered Hebrew manuscripts of the original Key of Solomon.
The book includes reproductions of the original magical circles, tools and seals of the spirits with variations of certain drawings from various sources and notae missing from earlier editions.
This definitive edition includes:- Goetia - The ritual invocation of evil spirits and Solomon's devices for binding them
- Theurgia Goetia - Studies spirits that are partly good and partly evil
- Ars Paulina - Outlines the good spirits or angles governing the hours of the day and the signs of the zodiac. The text includes "The Conjuration of the Holy Guardian Angel."
- Ars Almadel - attributed to an Arab of the same name, describes 20 beneficial sprits that govern the zodiac