The Goetia (Lemegeton, Book One)

The Goetia is the first and most famous book of the Lemegeton. Its core is a catalogue of seventy-two spirits, each given a rank such as king, duke, prince, marquis, president, earl or knight, a description of the form in which it appears, a list of the services it can perform, the number of legions under its command, and a personal seal. The catalogue is closely related to the list Johann Weyer printed in 1577 as the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, which itself drew on an earlier manuscript tradition, and many names have medieval or biblical antecedents. Around the catalogue the compiler placed the apparatus of a Solomonic operation: the circle and triangle, the hexagram and pentagram of Solomon, the brass vessel in which the spirits were said to have been confined, and a sequence of conjurations, constraints and curses rising in severity, followed by a licence to depart. The legend of the brass vessel echoes the Testament of Solomon and Islamic traditions of Solomon's control over the jinn. The Goetia reached a wide modern audience through the 1904 edition translated by S. L. MacGregor Mathers and published by Aleister Crowley, which added a preliminary invocation and Crowley's own commentary. Since then it has become a central text for contemporary ceremonial magicians, demonologists and fiction writers alike. Peterson's 2001 edition restored the manuscript text with variants, and Skinner and Rankine's Goetia of Dr Rudd presents a version pairing each spirit with a controlling angel.

What it contains

• Catalogue of seventy-two spirits with ranks and legions
• Appearance and powers of each spirit
• Seals of the spirits
• Circle, triangle, hexagram and pentagram of Solomon
• The brass vessel legend
• Conjurations, constraints, curses and licence to depart