The Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon, Rabbi and King, is a work of far more exalted pretensions, which deploys all the hierarchies and evokes spirits by milliards. About its antiquity there is no need for serious dispute; it claims to be translated from the Hebrew, but its earliest perfect examples are in French of the seventeenth century, and no one has heard of the original. It must have existed, however, in a much earlier form; it is the subject of continual reference by demonologists like Wierus, under the style of the sorcerer's Liber Spirituum, and it is from this source that the scornful sceptic who was the pupil of Agrippa, derived his Pseudomonarchia Dæmonum, with, however, significant variations from the known copies.
The Lemegeton is divided into four parts, which control the offices of all spirits at the will of the operator, from whom the ordinary conditions are exacted. 1 With the exception of the first part, which gave materials to Wierus, this curious, and in many respects memorable, work has never been printed, although it has been taxed surreptitiously for contributions by most makers of Rituals and Grimoires. It deals,. as I have said, with the evocation of all classes of spirits, evil, indifferent and good; its opening Rites are those of Lucifer, Bel, Astaroth and the whole cohort of Infernus; it is entitled Goëtia, which sufficiently explains itself, 2 and contains the forms of conjuration
64:1 See Part ii. c. 1 of the present work. 64:2 It is the Greek word γοητεία, i.e. Witchcraft.
Footnotes