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

SOLOMON, Testament of

An apocryphal book of the Old Testament, the only known source of which is written in Greek and which ostensibly relates the discovery by Solomon that the building work on his temple was being frustrated by the demon, Ornias. It narrates Solomon's subsequent dominion over the 72 demons whose labours he harnessed to complete the construction.

The underlying beliefs demonstrated in the Testament correspond closely to those of the Greek magickal papyri and it was probably written less as a sermon on the dangers of demonolatry than as a discourse on popular demonology and Magick.

The work appears to be based on a mixture of Judaic, Pagan and Gnostic elements and includes, although is by no means limited to, a collection of magickal formulae.

One edition of the Testament, that of C C McCown (1922), derived from 15th or 16th Century manuscripts, places the work as a Jewish oral tradition which was adapted by an unknown Greek Christian writer at sometime during the 3rd Century AD.

With the Book of Enoch (see also ENOCHIAN MAGIC) the Testament of Solomon was frequently employed by medieval European magicians and wizards, and Solomonic incantations were regularly employed to cast out or invoke spirits of both benign and malevolent persuasions. The credentials of these manuscripts relied on the Hermetic belief that the knowledge of all things in the natural world, lost by Adam at the Fall, was nonetheless inherited by the great figures of Jewish Biblical history.

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