Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

LEMEGETON (aka Lesser Key of Solomon)

The Lemegeton, also known as the Lesser Key of Solomon or the Goetia, is attributed to King Solomon (as is the Greater Key of Solomon). This is highly unlikely. The Lemegeton is unrelated to the Greater Key of Solomon, the name merely being an attempt on someone's part to try to give it some of the mystery of the Greater Key of Solomon.

The earliest surviving examples are French and date back to the 17th century AD.

There are several English translations, also dating to the 17th century, in the Sloane Collection of the British Museum. Like its counterpart, the Greater Key of Solomon, it is possibly derived from the apocryphal Hebrew Testament of Solomon and from other pseudepigraphal texts.

While the Greater Key of Solomon is doctrinal, the Lemegeton is primarily concerned with listing the names and offices of seventy two demons, including Lucifer, Ashtaroth, Bel, and citing the rituals for their invocation.

The Lemegeton has four parts:

The Goetia (which had appeared in print having been copied into the De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563) of the 16th century German demonologist Johann Weir),
The Theurgia Goetia,
The Pauline Art, and
The Almadel.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc