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p. 65
for seventy-two chief devils and their ministers, with an account of their powers and
offices. The second part, or Theurgia Goëtia, deals with the spirits of the cardinal points
and their inferiors. These are mixed natures, some good and some evil. The third book is
called the Pauline Art, for the significance of which name I am unable to account, it
concerns the Angels of the Hours of the Day and Night and of the Zodiacal Signs. The
fourth part, or Almadel, enumerates four other choirs of spirits in a somewhat obscure
manner. There is one significant point about the entire work--the powers resident in the
offices of Infernal Spirits are minutely set forth, but the Ritual is almost silent as to the
special benefits which may be expected from intercourse with the higher classes of
intelligence; it is, therefore, obvious to whom the magician would have recourse if he had
a definite end in view. It is, indeed, by no means improbable that the first or Goëtic
portion constitutes the true Lemegeton, and that the other sections, apparently unknown to
Wierus, are additions of a later date. This division, in either case, is not only expressly
connected with Black Magic, or rather exclusively devoted thereto, but it indubitably
divides with the so-called Greater Key the forbidding honour of having been the chief
inspiration of all the later handbooks of infernal ceremonial. Devoid of any doctrinal part,
it has nothing which calls for citation in this place, but as no Grimoire can pretend to
completeness without it, all its hierarchic tabulations and all its evoking processes will be
given in the Second Part.
I should state in conclusion that the Little Key is ascribed sometimes to Solomon the King
and sometimes to a Rabbi of that name. It should be distinguished, however, from the
Key of Rabbi Solomon proper, which is more especially concerned with
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the composition, consecration and use of planetary talismans. It pretends to deal only
with "good Genies," but it includes the blood sacrifice, and there is the usual anxiety in
respect of the form and aspect in which the intelligence may appear. It is, however,
especially provided that no seal, pentacle or character shall be applied to the injury of
another, and more especially a student of the art. The art, in fine, does not involve any
compact, "implicit or explicit." I suppose that this production is later than others of the
cycle.
64:1 See Part ii. c. 1 of the present work.
Footnotes
64:2 It is the Greek word γοητεία, i.e. Witchcraft.
§ 3. The Pauline Art