The Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis)
← all texts · Grimoires · c. 14th–15th c. (oldest fragment 1380–1410)
What this is
The central Solomonic grimoire, and the source of the imagery most people picture when they think "ceremonial magic": the drawn circle, the planetary hours, the pentacles, the days of purification. Book I is theory and operation — hours, circle, confessions, conjurations, pentacles, and the experiments. Book II is preparation — fasting, bathing, garments, the knife and the burin, incense, virgin parchment, wax and silk.
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The gods & things in it
No figures catalogued in this text yet.
Companion reading path
What to read alongside it, and why.
The Testament of Solomon
Grimoires
Read first: the Greek ancestor the whole cycle is named after.
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Grimoires
The Key assumes Agrippa's correspondences; its later pentacles are built out of them.
The Lesser Key of Solomon (Lemegeton)
Grimoires
A DIFFERENT book despite the name — 17th century, and mostly a catalogue where the Key is a method.