Ars Paulina and Ars Almadel: Angelic Books of the Lemegeton

The Ars Paulina and the Ars Almadel are the third and fourth books of the Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon, a seventeenth-century compilation best known for its demonic Goetia. Unlike the Goetia, both are works of angel magic: the Ars Paulina teaches how to call the angels of the hours of the day and night and of the signs and degrees of the zodiac, while the Ars Almadel describes a consecrated wax tablet on which the angels of four heavenly "altitudes" are invoked.

The Lemegeton and Its Angelic Books§

The Lemegeton is known from several manuscripts in the British Library's Sloane and Harley collections, most of them copied in the seventeenth century or around 1700. It gathers five treatises under the name of Solomon: the Goetia, on the seventy-two spirits; the Theurgia-Goetia, on spirits of the compass points; the Ars Paulina; the Ars Almadel; and the Ars Notoria. Some copies add a sixth text, the Ars Nova.

The collection is arranged roughly from the most dangerous spirits to the most exalted. The Goetia deals with demons; the Theurgia-Goetia with mixed good and evil aerial spirits; the Ars Paulina and Ars Almadel with angels; the Ars Notoria with prayers for divine knowledge. Modern editors therefore read the Lemegeton as a ladder of magical practice ascending from the infernal to the celestial, though whether the compiler intended such a scheme is uncertain.

The catalogue entries for the Ars Paulina and the Almadel give manuscript details; the full Lemegeton is described under The Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon.

Medieval Ancestors: Paul's Vision and the Latin Almandal§

The name Ars Paulina (the Pauline Art) alludes to Paul's account of a man "caught up to the third heaven" who heard "unspeakable words" (2 Corinthians 12). A Pauline art of the notory-art type, promising knowledge through prayers said to have been revealed to the apostle, seems to have circulated in the later Middle Ages alongside the Ars Notoria. The Lemegeton text that bears the name, however, is a different and later work that borrowed the prestigious title.

The Almandal has a clearer pedigree. Latin manuscripts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Julien Véronèse, present it as a book of Solomon describing a wax altar on which angels are called. The name probably reflects the Arabic al-mandal, a term for a magic circle or ritual space, and scholars think the work came from an Arabic or Andalusian model. Its rite is already recognisable: a square wax tablet inscribed with divine names, four candles, a censer and a sequence of prayers to angels ruling different heavenly regions. Abbot Johannes Trithemius included a Solomonic Almandal among the magic books he catalogued in 1508 (Antipalus Maleficiorum).

The Ars Paulina: Angels of the Hours and the Zodiac§

The Lemegeton's Ars Paulina is divided into two parts.

Part one: the angels of the twenty-four hours§

The first part assigns a ruling angel to each of the twelve hours of the day and twelve hours of the night, with a host of dukes and lesser servants under each, and gives their seals. Angels named Samael and Anael, for example, govern early hours of the day. The operator is to know the planet ruling each hour, so that the angel is called at the time when its influence is strongest. The names and structure resemble those of Trithemius' Steganographia and of the Heptameron, and scholars generally conclude that the compiler drew on these sixteenth-century sources.

The text also describes a "table of practice", a consecrated table bearing a complex seal, on which a crystal stone is set. Its design closely resembles the holy table and seal used by John Dee in his angel conversations of the 1580s, which helps date the work and shows how quickly Dee's angelic apparatus entered the manuscript tradition; compare Dee's holy table and the Sigillum Dei Aemeth.

Part two: the angels of the signs and degrees§

The second part assigns angels to the twelve signs of the zodiac and to each of the 360 degrees. Its distinctive teaching is that every person has an angel corresponding to the degree of the zodiac rising at his or her birth. By casting a nativity, the operator can find this personal angel and call on it with a prayer that asks God to send it as a guide and teacher. This idea of a personal genius tied to the horoscope parallels the Holy Guardian Angel of the Book of Abramelin, though the two traditions developed separately.

The Ars Almadel: Wax Tablet and the Four Altitudes§

The Ars Almadel describes the making of the almadel itself: a square tablet of wax inscribed with divine names and geometrical figures, set up with four wax candles at its corners and a small earthen censer beneath it. A seal of precious metal inscribed with divine names is placed upon it. Incense, usually mastic, is burned in the censer so that its smoke rises about the tablet.

The heavens are divided into four "altitudes" or "choras", each ruled by several angels who govern a quarter of the zodiac. The first altitude is headed by angels named Alimiel, Gabriel, Barachiel, Lebes and Helison; the others have their own princes. The manuscripts specify a different colour of wax for each altitude and particular days for the work. The operator prays to God and calls the chief angel of the relevant altitude, who is expected to appear in the smoke in the form of a beautiful angel and answer questions. The text advises courtesy and requests that are reasonable and lawful.

The site's ritual entry for the Almadel of Solomon summarises the procedure as the manuscripts describe it.

Prayer, Timing and Piety in the Angelic Books§

Both books reflect a recognisable theology of angel magic. The operator is not presented as commanding the angels but as praying to God, in the name of Christ or the divine names, to send them. Purity of life, fasting and clean garments are expected. The Ars Almadel stresses that the angels serve God and will only do what is lawful; the Ars Paulina calls the personal angel a teacher and guardian. This pious tone links them to the medieval tradition of theurgy described by Claire Fanger and Frank Klaassen, in which clerics sought knowledge and vision through angelic mediation.

Timing is equally important. The Ars Paulina depends on planetary hours and astrological calculation, which tie it to astral magic and the planetary angels of Agrippa and the Heptameron. The Almadel links each altitude to a part of the year. Readers can see how such hours were reckoned on the planetary hours page.

Historians note that the books present these rites as practised by their authors; there is no record of their results beyond the claims of the texts and later practitioners.

Reception from Mathers to Modern Practitioners§

Interest in the Lemegeton revived in the late nineteenth century. Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers prepared a translation of the Goetia, which Aleister Crowley published in 1904, but the angelic books remained in manuscript. Partial transcriptions circulated in the early twentieth century, and Joseph H. Peterson's critical edition of the whole Lemegeton (2001) made the Ars Paulina and Ars Almadel widely available for the first time, alongside Stephen Skinner and David Rankine's editions of related seventeenth-century material.

Modern ceremonial magicians often treat the Almadel as a gentle, devotional alternative to goetic evocation, and the Ars Paulina's birth-angel as a version of the Holy Guardian Angel. Historians, for their part, value both books as evidence of how medieval angel rituals, Renaissance angelology and Dee's innovations were fused in seventeenth-century England. For the broader story, see angel magic: a complete guide.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the Ars Almadel?§

The Ars Almadel is the fourth book of the Lemegeton. It describes a consecrated wax tablet, the almadel, with four candles and a censer, used to call the angels of four heavenly altitudes, who are expected to appear in the incense smoke and answer the operator's questions.

Why is it called the Ars Paulina?§

The title claims that the art was revealed to the apostle Paul when he was taken up into the third heaven. Medieval writers knew a Pauline art of this kind, but the Lemegeton text is a later work that adopted the famous name.

Are the Ars Paulina and Almadel demonic?§

No. Unlike the Goetia, both are addressed to angels and frame their rites as prayers to God. Medieval and early modern churchmen nonetheless treated all such books with suspicion, since they held that spirits responding to ritual calls might be demons in disguise.

How old is the Almadel?§

The Almadel tradition goes back at least to fourteenth-century Latin manuscripts of the Almandal, which probably derive from an Arabic source. The English Ars Almadel in the Lemegeton dates from the seventeenth century.

Sources and further reading§

• The Lesser Key of Solomon: Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis — Joseph H. Peterson (ed.), 2001
• L'Almandal et l'Almadel latins au Moyen Âge — Julien Véronèse, 2012
• The Goetia of Dr Rudd — Stephen Skinner & David Rankine, 2007
• Grimoires: A History of Magic Books — Owen Davies, 2009
• Invoking Angels: Theurgic Ideas and Practices, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries — Claire Fanger (ed.), 2012
• The Transformations of Magic: Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance — Frank Klaassen, 2013