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Rituals · Liber XXVIII · Solomonic Magic
The Goetic Conjuration Sequence
Goetia, "Observations" and the conjurations from "The Adoration at the Bath" to "The License to Depart" (Mathers–Crowley 1904)
The operator first bathes with a short adoration and puts on the white linen robe, girdle and other requisites, anointing the temples and eyes and lighting charcoal for perfume. Standing in the circle with the spirit's seal as a lamen in the metal of its rank, he recites the first conjuration, then a second, stronger one if the spirit does not come. Further steps escalate in order: the constraint, the invocation of the spirit's king, the "Spirits' Chain" curse, the conjuration of the fire in which the seal is threatened, and the greater curse. When the spirit appears it is addressed, welcomed and given its charge, and finally released with the license to depart. Times of day depend on rank.
Purpose
The sequence is the Goetia's method for calling one of its seventy-two spirits into the triangle, questioning or commanding it, and dismissing it.
Timing
- Moon
- Waxing (increasing in light)
The Goetia's "Observations" permit work only when the Moon is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 days old, i.e. on even days of the waxing half of the lunar month. Rank times: Kings 9am–noon and 3pm–sunset (seal of gold); Marquises 3pm–sunrise (silver); Dukes sunrise–noon in clear weather (copper); Prelates any hour (tin); Knights dawn–sunrise or 4pm–sunset (lead); Presidents any time except twilight (mercury); Earls any hour in remote woods (copper and silver).
Materials
- white linen robe
- charcoal and perfumes
- anointing oil
- clean water
- lamen of the spirit's seal in the metal of its rank
Tools
- sceptre or sword
- mitre or cap
- girdle inscribed with names
- magic circle and triangle
- hexagram, pentagram and ring of Solomon
Omitted
The text calls for a girdle of lion's skin, and in the conjuration of the fire the spirit's seal is threatened in a fire of foul-smelling substances; these details are recorded for historical understanding only. The text's own metal for Presidents, quicksilver, is toxic and should not be handled.
Fire safety; the text's sulphurous fumigations produce toxic fumes.