I’d like to start a series of posts that dig deeper into the practical aspects of Solomonic magic. It’s a form of magic that seems to be frequently mischaracterized in some modern circles, as needlessly adversarial or coercive towards spirits. I find that view to be somewhat shallow. Solomonic magic has a tremendous amount to offer modern practitioners. The overall structure of spirit conjurations has been fairly consistent for nearly two millennia, and this structure is preserved in Solomonic texts. Rather than viewing it as a product of Abrahamic religion, we can view it as a bridge that links us back to techniques of spirit work that first rose to prominence in Greece, Egypt, and the near east at the beginning of the common era. It also works phenomenally well, which is ultimately the standard by which we should be judging our practice.
Before we go further, we should define what we mean by Solomonic magic. Solomonic magic is a tradition of magic, primarily based in spirit conjuration, that draws on imagery associated with the biblical figure of King Solomon. In the bible, the figure of Solomon appears as a king, both devout and renowned for his wisdom. The apocryphal legends surrounding Solomon go further – that he was provided by God with a magic ring and was granted power over demons. Through his command of these demons, he was able to accomplish great feats such as the building of the temple at Jerusalem. For magicians who wanted to perform spirit conjurations in the context of Christian society, the figure of Solomon provided a convenient role-model to point to – the pious magician who traffics with unclean spirits, but is not tainted by them.
Because of these legends, huge numbers of historical grimoires claim to contain the secret techniques of King Solomon, or to have been authored by his hand. These attributions are universally spurious, but still combine to create a large corpus of magical writing in the “Solomonic” tradition.
Solomonic texts generally have a few elements in common:
- They deal with magic that operates by the agency of spirits. This often revolves around the explicit conjuration of spirits, but may involve the creation of pentacles or talismans that are implicitly powered by spirits instead.
- They are generally Abrahamic in their theology and the powers upon which they call.
- They often make reference, to a greater or lesser extent, to the figure of King Solomon.
The spirit conjuration rituals they contain also tend to follow a similar overarching structure. Understanding this structure lets us work much more fluently with texts in the Solomonic tradition. Such an understanding lets us categorize parts of rituals as doing particular things. It makes much clearer when particular texts are corrupted, out of order, or otherwise missing important instructions. It also lets us break rituals up into modular pieces, to facilitate the combination or adaptation of multiple sources into our own personal practice.
Dr. Stephen Skinner gives an outline of the structure of Solomonic ritual, which we will use as a basis for further discussion.1 It consists of six different steps that comprise the overall effort of spirit conjuration:
- Consecratio Dei – Literally “consecrations to God”, this is the first – and generally the longest – step of the operation. It consists of collecting, creating, and consecrating a variety of magical tools and materia. It also covers purification of the self by fasting, confession, or chaste behavior. As well as the cleansing and consecration of ritual space. All of which together works as a sort of spiritual sterilization, a “clean room” free from psychic debris, into which the desired influences can be effectively conjured.
- Invocatio – The second step involves the invocation of higher powers to aid you in your operation and invest you with the authority required for the summoning of a spirit. This generally includes invocations to ultimate godhead, but can also feature other powerful god names, angels, or spiritual patrons you want to aid you in your work.
- Evocatio – The meat of the conjuration. This consists of calls directed to the spirit you are actually trying to conjure. These calls often start more amicably, and escalate to become increasingly adversarial and coercive if the spirit doesn’t appear, until you are actively cursing the spirit and doing things like roasting its seal with sulfur over hot coals. This is where the conception of Solomonic magic as adversarial comes from, but it’s worth noting that not every conjuration is expected to go through all (or even most) of this escalation. At any point during this stage you may opt to call it quits and continue or shut down the ritual, instead of escalating.
- Constrictio – Once the spirit appears, you put some constraints on its behavior in your presence. This can involve instructions like putting on a form that isn’t monstrous or frightening, not departing before the end of the ritual, and not harming anything as it comes or goes.
- Ligatio – This is where the magic actually happens, in a negotiation with the spirit once it has been summoned. This can involve asking the spirit questions or making petitions of it, as well as the negotiation of protocols or pacts. It can also involve making offerings, such as incense or libations, to the spirit.
- Licensia – The conclusion of the ritual, giving the spirit license to depart back to its normal abodes, giving thanks to the powers that aided you in, and any other shutdown procedures required to return everyone back to their normal modes of operation.
Other occult authors have split up conjuration rituals along slightly different lines. Aleister Crowley, in his Magick in Theory and Practice, splits the first stage into: Banishings, Purifications, Consecrations, and Oath & Confession. Banishings is mostly relevant to those working in a Golden Dawn or Thelemic context, but there is some value in differentiating between purifications, consecrations, and confession, as the function of each is slightly different.
In future posts we’ll dive much more deeply into the function and structure of each of these stages, but for now a high-level understanding of the framework turns out to be hugely useful. It helps expose the modularity of Solomonic rituals, and how those modules can be shifted and recombined. If a grimoire presents the invocations to God after the evocations of the specific spirit, an understanding of this structure suggests that we might want to try them the other way around. If a particular source is missing a license to depart, it gives us a hint that we likely want to import one from some other source. The pieces begin to fall into place.
There’s one final objection you often hear when the topic of Solomonic magic comes up: that it’s unnecessary. Why go to all this trouble, the argument goes, when meditating on a spirit’s seal or chanting a demonic enn is just as effective?
The obvious counterpoint being that this argument nearly always comes from people who haven’t tried Solomonic methods. Is meditation as good? That’s a question for each individual practitioner to decide for themselves – but until you have experienced both, how could you possibly know? In this, as in everything else, personal experimentation is king.
This post is part of a series on Solomonic magic. You can find the next post here.
- See his works Techniques of Solomonic Magic and The Goetia of Dr. Rudd. ↩︎