The Magical Treatise of Solomon, or Hygromanteia is the ultimate grimoire--the absolute foundation of ceremonial magic. The true source of the Key of Solomon, it is arguably the most significant magical text in the world. For the first time ever, this extraordinary work has been translated from the original Greek into English, allowing magic scholars worldwide to finally access its treasures. The translator, Ioannis Marathakis, is a native born Greek academic with an extensive knowledge of ceremonial magic. Unlike the abridged Latin translation, this groundbreaking work is the complete text, now arranged in its proper order.

This book explores a series of powerful artifacts associated with King Solomon via legendary or extracanonical textual sources. Tracing their cultural resonance throughout history, art historian Allegra Iafrate delivers exciting insights into these objects and interrogates the ways in which magic manifests itself at a material level. Each chapter focuses on a different Solomonic object: a ring used to control demons; a mysterious set of bottles that constrain evil forces; an endless knot or seal with similar properties; the shamir, known for its supernatural ability to cut through stone; and a flying carpet that can bring the sitter anywhere he desires. Taken together, these chapters constitute a study on the reception of the figure of Solomon, but they are also cultural biographies of these magical objects and their inherent aesthetic, morphological, and technical qualities. Thought-provoking and engaging, Iafrate’s study shows how ancient magic artifacts live on in our imagination, in items such as Sauron’s ring of power, Aladdin’s lamp, and the magic carpet. It will appeal to historians of art, religion, folklore, and literature.

One of the lengthier grimoires of the medieval period, the Ars Notoria, commonly referred to as the Notary Art of Solomon, promises the reader a series of orations, prayers, and invocations, which may be used to secure the favor of the christian god, enhancing the memory, eloquence, and general academic capability of the one performing such rituals. Originally its own text, based on even older sources not yet fully documented, this text is commonly wrapped up into the Lesser Keys of Solomon along with such works as the Ars Goetia- some editions of the latter omit this work. Prayers contained herein invoke not just the god of christianity, but Jesus Christ and various angelic powers as well.

Limited leather quarter bound collector's edition. Solomonic magic is a major part of the grimoire tradition. This volume is about the methods of Solomonic magic used in Alexandria and how they have been passed via Byzantium (the Hygromanteia), to the manuscripts of the Latin Clavicula Salomonis and its English incarnation as the Key of Solomon. Jewish techniques like the use of pentacles, oil and water skrying were added along the way, but Solomonic magic (despite its name) remained basically a classical Greek form of magic. Amazingly, this transmission has involved very few changes and the technology of magic has remained firmly intact. The emphasis in this book is upon specific magical techniques such as the invocation of the gods, the binding of demons, the use of the four demon Kings, and the construction of the circle and lamen. The requirements of purity, sexual abstinence, and fasting have changed little in the last 2000 years, and the real reasons for that are explained. The use of amulets, talismans and phylacteries or lamens is outlined along with their methods of construction. The structure of a Solomonic evocation puts into perspective the reasons for each step, the use of thwarting angels, achieving invisibility, sacrifice, love magic, treasure finding, and the binding, imprisoning and licensing of spirits. The facing directions and timing of evocations have always been crucial, and these too have remained consistent. Practical considerations such as choice of incense, the timing of the cutting of the wand, utilisation of rings and statues, use of the Table of Evocation, or the acquisition of a familiar spirit are also explained. Techniques of Solomonic Magic is thus a follow on book from Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic. This volume is based on the magicians own handbooks rather than the opinions of theologians, historians, anthropologists, sociologists or legislators. The emphasis is on what magicians actually did and why. Tools used by magicians in 7th century Alexandria, 15th century Constantinople and 19th century London are very much the same. More than 70 illustrations (many in colour) of magical equipment like the wand, the sword, wax images and magical gems, drawn from a wide range of manuscripts are reproduced and examined. This is the most detailed analysis of Solomonic magic, from the inside, ever penned.

Gateways Through Light and Shadow is the second book by Bryan Garner, known to his fellow ceremonial magicians as Frater Ashen Chassan, and in it we are again offered the illuminating opportunity to observe and learn from a practicing magus engaged in his Work. Once more he offers instruction in the processes of grimoric ceremonial magic and shares the insights he has gained from his ongoing research and operations. However, what may be most extraordinary about Gateways is that it allows us access to the detailed magical journal records of the communications received by Ashen Chassan and his gifted scryer, Benn mac Stiofán, during the evocations of such profound Spiritual beings as the seven Planetary Archangels, the seven Olympic Planetary Spirits, the four Spirit Kings of the Cardinal Directions, and the Supercelestial Angels Sandalphon and Metatron. Gateways Through Light and Shadow is illustrated throughout with two-color line art of the talismanic magical implements used in the evocations, including sigils, seals, lamens, pentacles, and magic circles, along with new implements created by the magician under the guidance of the Archangels, as well as new portraits of the evoked Spirits. "This book is a major contribution to the study and practice of Western ceremonial ritual magic. This is a book that no serious practitioner of magic should be without." --from the Foreword by Dr. Stephen Skinner

The Book of Wisdom is a short Greek magical text that survives in eight manuscripts, the earliest of which date to the 15th century. Although spuriously attributed to the Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonius of Tyana and dated by many scholars to the 5th, 4th or even 3rd century, it was probably composed in Constantinople in the late 12th century CE. Its sources include the Testament of Adam (an Old Testament pseudepigraph) and traditions about the telesmata of Apollonius preserved by various Byzantine chroniclers; also possibly the Picatrix, the Book of Enoch and a lost work of the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus on Chaldean theurgy.The Book of Wisdom lists the magical names of the four seasons and the twenty-four hours; also, the different names of the sun the moon, heaven, earth and the four quarters during each season. It is said that through the power of these names one could enchant and control natural phenomena, plants, animals and even human beings, causing love or discord. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the various apotelesmata (talismans) did not survive in the Greek text, with the exception of a short fragment. But, to an extent, they can be traced in its Latin and Arabic renditions. These talismans were usually metallic statuettes with the form of the creature one seeks to control.The text first appeared in Western Europe in the early 13th century, after the sacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, when parts of it were paraphrased in Latin as De Viginti Quattuor Horis, De Imaginibus Diei et Noctis and De Discretione Operis Differencia. These paraphrases later became the source of many other magical books, such as the Liber Lunae, the Book of Raziel, the Heptameron, the Steganographia of Trithemius and the Ars Paulina. The Book of Wisdom was also a source of the Arabic Great Book of Talismans.A fragment of the Book of Wisdom was published by the Christian Cabbalist Gilbert Gaulmin as early as 1615. It is interesting that this fragment later fell into the hands of Eliphas Levi, who used it ceremonially, in order to evoke the spirit of Apollonius. Levi included the Greek text as a supplement to the Rituel de la Haute Magie, together with an imaginative "translation".The present publication contains a detailed introduction, comparative translations of the two versions of the Book of Wisdom, a translation of the Great Book of Talismans from Paris BNF Ar. 2250 and appendices with parallel texts, including a translation of a Latin paraphrase. The manuscript page on the frontispiece is artwork created by the author.

The aim of the present work is to study the esoteric characterization of King Solomon that became popular in certain currents of Judaism and Christianity of Late Antiquity and to establish a typology of it. Representative texts are analyzed, first to establish precisely the development of the different esoteric traditions linked to King Solomon, and then to show how these texts and traditions are placed in relation within the broad context of Magic and Religion in Late Antiquity. The book provides data for a better understanding of magic and its role in the Mediterranean Oikumene, suggests the necessity for a better categorization of the magical discipline, and furthers the discussion on the transmission and importance of esoteric traditions withing Judaism and Christianity .