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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems
"The Goetia" is the most famous grimoire after the Key of Solomon.
This volume contains a transcription of a hitherto unpublished
manuscript of the Lemegeton which includes four whole grimoires:
"Liber Malorum Spituum seu Goetia"; "Theurgia-Goetia"; "Ars
Paulina" (Books 1 & 2); and, "Ars Almadel". This was owned by
Dr Thomas Rudd, a practising scholar-magician of the early
seventeenth century. There are many editions of the "Goetia", of
which the most definitive is that of Joseph Peterson, but here we
are interested in how the "Goetia" was actually used by practising
magicians in the 16th and 17th century, before the knowledge of
practical magic faded into obscurity. To evoke the 72 demons listed
here without the ability to bind them would be foolhardy indeed. It
was well known in times past that invocatio and ligatio, or
binding, was a key part of evocation, but in the modern editions of
the "Goetia" this key technique is expressed in just one word
'Shemhamaphorash', and its use is not explained. This volume
explains how the 72 angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash are used to
bind the spirits, and the correct procedure for safely invoking
them using special seals incorporating the necessary controlling
angel, whose name is also engraved on the breastplate and Brass
Vessel.
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