The communion with angels and demons is a core trait in modern esoteric magic but how does it really feature in these traditions and why? We’re here to figure this out.

Hello everyone I’m Angela and welcome back to my channel. Your online resource for the academic study of magic and magic-practising religions and traditions.

Today’s video is part of a special collaboration with my friend and fellow scholar Justin Sledge who has a YouTube channel called Esoterica. He will tackle the Goetia in ancient and medieval history while I will cover [the] Goetia and theurgy in the contemporary world. So go check out his video first, along with his fascinating channel.

Dr Sledge has studied the history of hermetic philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and holds a PhD in philosophy he specializes in the intersection of esotericism and philosophy and his current research is on the influence of philosophy on early Kabbalah. So now let’s move on to our topic, shall we?

As I addressed in a previous video on the etymology of magic, the anglicised word Goetia comes from the Greek γόης (góēs, ‘sorcerer’), γοητεία (goēteía, ‘sorcery’), the Greek word for magic which got eventually overthrown by μαγεία (mageía, ‘magic’) as the root for the English ‘Magic’.

During the Renaissance, Cornelius Agrippa used magic as an umbrella term for all the occult arts while endorsing a subdivision between Goetia as the branch more related to the superstitious and popular beliefs and theurgy, which in Greek would be θεουργία (theourgía) meaning work or deed of God, which would be the branch of magic engaging with the religious (Hanegraaff, 2016, p. 93).

Samuel Liddell ‘McGregor’ Mathers, one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the cornerstone of modern esoteric magic, gave a significant contribution to western esotericism through the publication and translation of several texts; one of which was the Key of Solomon, the Clavicula Salomonis. Another important text edited by Mathers was the Goetia, the Lesser Key of Solomon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t published by him at the time, as apparently it was stolen and published by Aleister Crowley as part of a longer text called Lemegaton(Silva, 2016, pp. 248–249).

The original versions of these two grimoires are attributed to King Solomon and appeared in numerous different versions and in different languages since the middle ages. (Rohrbacher-Sticker, 1995)

The Greater Key and the Lesser Key of Solomon epitomize the aforementioned distinction between theurgy as religious magic connected to the divine versus Goetia as magic more related to the mundane and earthly needs. in the Greater Key of Solomon, we find, in fact, sigils, pentacles, and rituals to call upon planetary and divine entities, whereas in the Lesser Key of Solomon, we find the legion of the 72 demons and how to summon them (Crowley and Mathers, 2016).

What emerges here is a dichotomy between magic deemed more religious or spiritual in nature and another kind of magic, more connected to achieving tangible changes in daily life.

But let’s now see how contemporary ritual magic has been affected by these two grimoires.

As Egil Asprem highlights, facts such as the Greater and the Lesser Key of Solomon along with others, like hearts Almadel and the Heptameron constitute an influential set of sources for ritual magic. The way these older sources were received by 19th-century occultism was shaped by a post-enlightenment, rationalistic worldview which needed a sound framework for practitioners to build upon (Asprem, 2016, p. 383).

As I always say, esotericism – as an outlier as it may seem – is still embedded in the wider cultural milieu and it is affected by the changes that occur in society at large. In this case, the re-collection and compilation of old texts in a coherent and sound apparatus were nicely matched by the rise of the rational mind prompted by the new scientific discoveries, which were entering the popular discourse and, somehow, moulding what then progressively became the contemporary understanding of ritual magic

Scientific novelties such as Mesmerism, Electromagnetism, the Ether in Physics and the discoveries of the subconscious, the archetypes and the collective consciousness in Psychology (Asprem, 2016, p. 383) – all factor into providing that cultural framework and, to a certain extent, to offer a sensible foothold to rationalise magical workings.

As Asprem writes,
“In a sense, Doctor Faustus meets Doctor Frankenstein, and the result is a modern synthesis of magic understood as a practice between science and religion, equal parts ‘technology’ and ‘ritual’”(Asprem, 2016, p. 383).

This has definitely shaped how the Goetia was received and interpreted. For instance, in the introduction to his 1903 edition of the Goetia, Crowley argues that the spirits found in the Goetia are portions of the human brain. And, later, in the “Liber O Vel Manus et Sagittae”(Book O, or the Book of the Hand and the Arrow), an instruction manual for the A.:A.: Crowley says it’s irrelevant whether gods and spirits exist or not as they are immaterial either way. He then adds that what matters is that people will get a certain result by following a set of practices (Davis, 2016, p. 334). The more contemporary Lon Milo DuQuette, on the same line, states in the very title of his book that everything is just in your head, you just don’t know how big your head is (DuQuette, 2010).

To sum it up, Theurgy is seen as a divine and more spiritual kind of magic whereas the Goetia is perceived as more earth-bound and linked to the physical world. The two approaches are well epitomised by the Greater Key of Solomon – for the Theurgy – and the Lesser Key of Solomon – for the Goetia. The two grimoires were compiled and re-organised in a more coherent way by MacGregor Mathers in the 19th century, to meet the rising need for a more structured and rationally compelling form.

These two grimoires and the way they have been perceived in ritual magic also tell us how different entities are seen as belonging to different states or realms of existence, as deities, angels, and planetary intelligence are perceived to be linked to the spiritual realm and religious endeavour whereas demons embody the most carnal and physical desires, binding their field of action to the material side of our existence.

Scientific novelties such as Mesmerism, Electromagnetism, the Ether in Physics and the discoveries of the subconscious, the archetypes and the collective consciousness in Psychology (Asprem, 2016, p. 383) – all factor into providing that cultural framework and – to a certain extent – to offer a sensible foothold to rationalise magical workings.

This has definitely shaped how the Goetia was received and interpreted. For instance, in the introduction to his 1903 edition of the Goetia, Crowley argues that the spirits found in the Goetia are portions of the human brain. And, later, in the Liber O Vel Manus et Sagittae, an instruction manual for the A.:A.: Crowley says it’s irrelevant whether gods and spirits exist or not as they are immaterial either way. He then adds that what matters is that they will get a certain result by following a set of practices (Davis, 2016, p. 334). The more contemporary Lon Milo DuQuette, on the same line, states in the very title of his book that everything is just in your head, you just don’t know how big your head is (DuQuette, 2010).

To sum it up, Theurgy is seen as a divine and more spiritual kind of magic whereas the Goetia is perceived as more earth-bound and linked to the physical world. The two approaches are well epitomised by the Greater Key of Solomon – for the Theurgy – and the Lesser Key of Solomon – for the Goetia. The two grimoires were compiled and re-organised in a more coherent way by MacGregor Mathers in the 19th century, to meet the rising need for a more structured and rationally compelling form.

There you have it, we’re done with Goetia and Theurgy – for now! Don’t forget to let me know in the comment section which part of the video you’d like the most and whether that’s something you’d like me to expand more on in a future video.

Do check out the marvellous channel “Esoterica” and say hi to Justin on my behalf. Also a shout out to my new patrons Bill Hamm, Andromeda Spark, Sebastian, Prognosis Omega, JT Payne and Jennie. Thank you so much for pledging to my Patreon guys. I’m really happy to have you in our Inner Symposium. We’re having a lot of academic fun in our Discord community and just had a fantastic Zoom talk yesterday, and I really look forward to each and every one of our online conversations. So thank you again to those who just pledged and to those who stay pledged.

This is it for today’s video. I hope you liked it and if you did, smash the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate the notification bell so that you will be always notified as soon as I upload a new video and as always stay tuned for all the academic fun.

Bye for now

REFERENCES

SECONDARY SOURCES

Asprem, E. (2016) ‘Contemporary Ritual Magic’, in Partridge, C. (ed), The Occult World, 1 edition., London, Routledge, pp. 382–395.

Davis, E. (2016) ‘Robert Anton Wilson’, in Partridge, C. (ed), The Occult World, 1 edition., London, Routledge, pp. 331–335.

Hanegraaff, W. J. (2016) ‘Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’, in Partridge, C. (ed), The Occult World, 1 edition., London, Routledge, pp. 92–98.

Rohrbacher-Sticker, C. (1995) ‘A Hebrew Manuscript of Clavicula Salomonis, Part II’, The British Library Journal, British Library, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 128–136.

Silva, F. S. (2016) ‘Samuel Liddel Mathers’, in Partridge, C. (ed), The Occult World, 1 edition., London, Routledge, pp. 247–249.

PRIMARY SOURCES

Crowley, A. and Mathers, S. L. M. (2016) The Lesser Key of Solomon, Place of publication not identified, Mockingbird Press.

DuQuette, L. M. (2010) Low Magick: It’s All in Your Head …You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head is, 1st Edition edition., Woodbury, Minn, Llewellyn Publications, U.S.

Mathers, S. L. M. (2016) The Key of Solomon the King, Mockingbird.