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FROM ST. GEORGE V. THE DRAGON. FLEMISH SCHOOL, LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER III
Composite Rituals
§ 1. The Key of Solomon the King.
BY far the most important class of Magical Rituals is that which incorporates elements
both of Black and White procedure-so called. For convenience of treatment these are here
termed composite. At the head of all, and, within certain limits, the inspiration and the
source of all, stands the Key of Solomon, with its complement, in many respects more
important than itself, the Lemegeton, or Lesser Key, sometimes attributed to Solomon
Rabbi; the Rabbi and the monarch are, however, one and the same-at least in respect of
their office, which is the pseudonymous production of impostures. The other Rituals
which will be treated in this class are the so-called Fourth Book of Cornelius Agrippa and
the Magical Elements ascribed to Peter of Abano. The occult student--who is commonly
led by fools, when not by impostors--has been taught to regard these works as dealing
exclusively with White Magic, and it is part of the present design to indicate for the first
time the mixed character of their proceedings, even on the surface thereof. The
innumerable Rituals of Magic which remain in MS. and are never likely to be printed,
belong also, with few exceptions, to the composite class, but, setting the Lemegeton
aside, to which every prominence should be given, they have had little influence, and
being, therefore, of no moment to the
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history of the occult sciences, will not demand further consideration than has already
been accorded some of them in the slight sketch at the close of the first chapter.