Overview#

The Key of Solomon, or Clavicula Salomonis, is a grimoire associated with ceremonial magic and attributed to Solomon. The surviving tradition includes different manuscripts and editorial arrangements. Mathers’s 1889 edition is an influential English presentation of selected manuscript material.[1]

The work is distinct from the Lesser Key of Solomon, or Lemegeton. The latter includes the Ars Goetia among several parts. Their similar English titles have caused frequent confusion.[2]

Preparation and ceremony#

The Key includes prayers, ceremonial preparation, and the treatment of instruments and signs. Its operations are situated within a religious account of the practitioner’s readiness and authority. The book does not present magic as wholly detached from worship or sacred language.[1]

This relationship is also visible in other early modern treatments of magic. Agrippa’s third book gives religious disposition and spiritual authority an important place in ceremonial knowledge. Reading those concerns alongside the Key helps explain the setting of instructions that might otherwise look merely technical.[3]

Manuscripts and editions#

An edition is a particular arrangement of evidence. Its translator or editor may choose among manuscripts, regularize spelling, rearrange material, or supply an image. A reader who records the edition can identify where a detail came from and avoid mistaking the editor’s presentation for a single original text.

This is especially important for diagrams and pentacles. Their graphic features may depend on a manuscript witness or on decisions made during copying and printing. A clean modern reproduction can be easier to read while concealing the uncertain or damaged form behind it.

Difference from the Lesser Key#

The Lemegeton has its own collection history and contents. Its Goetic catalogue of named spirits should not be transferred into the Key simply because both titles invoke Solomon. Comparisons are useful when they name the particular section and edition on each side.[2]

The difference also affects citation. “Solomon says” does not tell the reader whether a statement comes from a narrative, a ceremonial manual, a spirit catalogue, or an editor’s note.

Contemporary reception#

Some modern readers retain the Key’s religious language; others adapt its forms within a different theology. An adaptation should identify the change, especially where the source’s account of spiritual authority has been replaced. The book can be studied as an influential historical work without assuming that every promised result has been demonstrated.

See also#

References

  1. The Key of Solomon, S. L. MacGregor Mathers edition (1889) · Primary ritual manual; use the introduction and Book II for preparation, prayer, and ceremonial equipment. (accessed 2026-10-01) ↩
  2. Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, edited by Joseph H. Peterson · Introduction and contents of the five-part Lesser Key of Solomon. (accessed 2026-10-01) ↩
  3. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book III · Primary text on religious and ceremonial magic; reflects Agrippa’s Christian framework. (accessed 2026-10-01) ↩
Key of Solomontexts

This encyclopedia covers traditions beyond the High Satanic Church. Church doctrine is identified as such when it appears.