Book

The Sorcery of Solomon: A Guide to the 44 Planetary Pentacles of the Magician King

The Key of Solomon hands down forty-four planetary pentacles, the seals by which the Magician King is said to have commanded spirits, won favor and shut doors. Sara L. Mastros takes them one at a time, all forty-four, and none skipped. Each gets its planetary temperament, its traditional uses, its versicle and its hazards, with the psalm verses the seals are built on quoted and examined rather than recited. Around them the book teaches the working apparatus: how seals are consecrated, how timing is chosen, how a personal book of pentacles is made and kept, and how the business of command is squared with ethics. The old text is honored without being fossilized; this is magic meant to be worked, not curated. The scholarship is visible throughout. Hebrew names are read with attention to what the letters can bear, Egyptian instruments appear where the current of influence runs, and a substantial bibliography points toward the academic study of the grimoire tradition. The voice is warm, blunt and occasionally irreverent, careful with the material's sharp edges and unwilling to pretend the old texts were safe. This is a practitioner's manual as much as a study. The pentacles are presented as tools to be made and used, with the understanding that anyone who does so accepts the responsibility that comes with them. Readers of ceremonial magic, and students of the Key of Solomon tradition who want to see the seals handled by working hands rather than behind museum glass, will find this a complete and modern companion.

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