Goetia - Holy Order of the Golden Dawn Canada

In the c section the fifth of the voces magica is OÖÖ not DÖÖ; similarly OÖ not DO after
SABRIAM in the final section. The miscopying occurred in the execrable de Lawrence piracy of
the Goëtia and has been perpetuated by other writers, probably because in the blackletter typeface
used by Crowley capital D and O were similar (this e-text uses JSL Blackletter, designed by Jeff
Lee, which is very similar to the face used in the 1904 edition, differing only in a few letters e.g.
capital Z). Similarly the lower-case x and r are very similar, so de Lawrence miscopied Abrasax
as Abrasar in the third and sixth sequences of voces magica.
The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic.
This essay was reprinted in the notes to Crowley’s Sword of Song and in turn reprinted in vol. ii
of his Collected Works. Additional footnotes from the latter publication have been included.
Preliminary Definition of Magic.
Crowley scholar Martin Starr (cited in an editorial note to Crowley’s Magick: Book 4 Parts I-IV,
Weiser, 1994) has sourced this to a 1656 English translation of Themis Auræ, a Rosicrucian work
by Michael Maier.
Brief Introductory Description.
The Lemegeton is a 17 th -century English compilation of magical texts attributed to Solomon. The
Goëtia is itself composite: the praxis appears based partly on the Fourth Book of pseudo-Agrippa
and partly on the Key of Solomon; the conjurations are closely or identically worded to those in
Robert Turner’s English translation (pub. 1655) of the Heptameron, a 16 th -century Grimoire of
planetary magick (falsely attributed to Peter of Abano) which was bound up with the Fourth
Book, and the catalogue of spirits is an adaptation of the “Book of the Offices of the Spirits”
published by Wier in 1563 as Pseudomonarchia dæmonum from a magical MS. in his possession.
This latter had 69 spirits; the compiler of the Goëtia added some to bring the number up to 72 in
accordance with the legend in the Pseudomonarchia which speaks of the 72 chief spirits bound up
in the brazen vessel by Solomon. Further, as Petersen points out, the fourth spirit in Wier’s list,
the Prince and Duke Pruflas or Bufas, is omitted in the Goëtia, and was also omitted in the
version of the Pseudomonarchia published by Scot in Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), from a
MS. collection of magical rituals in English compiled by one “T.R.” The Goëtia also perpetuates
a few other errors or oddities from that translation.
The Theurgia Goëtia lists 31 principal spirits and enumerates an astronomical number of
subordinates of whom relatively few are named; of the 31, 20 are referred to the points of the
compass and the other 11 are said to wander and have no fixed place. It is possible that the
Theurgia-Goëtia was partly based on the Steganographia of Trithemius by someone who did not
realise that the latter was primarily a work of cryptography. The apparently oxymoronic title
(historically gohteia was used as a term of abuse by those who claimed to practice qeourgia for
what other magicians did) is accounted for by the mixed nature of the spirits (and the fact that the
words had shifted somewhat in meaning by the Renaissance).
The Ars Paulina contains a catalogue of Angels for the 12 hours of the day and night, and for
the 12 signs and 360 degrees of the Zodiac; they are also attributed to the seven classical Planets.
The Ars Almadel is probably of medieval origin: it divides up the powers it summons into
four “Altitudes”, seemingly referred to the cardinal points of the Zodiac. Both the Pauline Art
and Art Almadel (alongside the Notary Art and “Art of Revelations” concerning which latter I
have no further information) were denounced by Agrippa in his de Vanitate.
The Ars Nova is a kind of appendix which appears in one MS. (BL Sloane 2731) where it
occupies one and a half sides of a single folio leaf: it comprises an extended prayer associated
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