In a 1685 manuscript now held at the British Library, a scribe copied two lists of spirits into the same leather-bound volume. On one side, seventy-two demons bound by King Solomon and organized into ranks. On the other, a smaller catalog of planetary angels, intelligences, and the hours they ruled. He drew no title page, no explanation. Only a thin horizontal line separated the two sets of instructions. That line marks the boundary between the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Greater Key of Solomon, two distinct grimoires that govern entirely different hierarchies of spirits and demand different methods from the operator. Meta description: The Lesser Key of Solomon and the Greater Key of Solomon are separate grimoires: one commands seventy-two demons, the other works with planetary angels and talismanic magic—here we compare their origins, spirits, and practices. The Lesser Key of Solomon, also called the Lemegeton, is a 17th-century compilation of five books (Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria) that provides instructions for conjuring and commanding demons and spirits of various orders. The Greater Key of Solomon, or Clavicula Salomonis, is a 15th–16th-century grimoire focused on the preparation of pentacles, talismans, and the invocation of planetary and angelic forces for material and spiritual ends. They share a claimed author, King Solomon, but their actual histories, contents, and uses diverge sharply.
Where the two keys come from
The Greater Key survives in the earliest manuscripts. The oldest known copy, housed at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (MS. 366), dates to the late 15th century. It was written in Latin and Italian dialects, and internal evidence suggests it was compiled from earlier Jewish, Arabic, and Greek magical traditions that had filtered into medieval Europe through Iberian translators. No single author is named, but the text claims to be a transcription of a Hebrew original written by Solomon himself. Scholars like Joseph H. Peterson (who produced the most reliable modern edition in 1989) trace its pentacles and conjurations to the 13th-century Picatrix, the Sefer Raziel, and the Liber Juratus. The Lesser Key is younger. Its earliest complete manuscript, Sloane MS. 3648 in the British Library, was copied around 1695. But its components are older: the Ars Goetia derives from Johann Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577), which itself drew on earlier grimoires like the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic (15th century). The Ars Paulina and Ars Almadel have 14th-century predecessors. What the Lesser Key’s compiler did was assemble these into a coherent system and add the Ars Notoria, a set of prayers for intellectual enhancement. The first printed edition of the complete Lemegeton appeared only in 1885, edited by a Scottish manuscript dealer named William Wier (no relation to Johann Weyer).
What each key actually commands
The distinction in spirit hierarchies is the first rule every practitioner learns. The Greater Key works with a fixed set of planetary intelligences: the spirits of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Each planet has its own ruler, its angels, its planetary hours, and a set of pentacles engraved on specific metals. The magician does not command these spirits by force. He petitions them through divine names, purifications, and the authority of the celestial hierarchy. The spirits are not bound—they are invited into consecrated talismans. The Lesser Key operates on a different principle. Its core text, the Ars Goetia, lists seventy-two demons: Beleth, Bune, Paimon, Astaroth, and the rest. Each has a rank, a sigil, a number of legions, and a specific office they perform when compelled. The magician does not petition. He threatens, uses the names of God to constrain, and draws the circle of protection so the spirit appears within a triangle outside it. The demons are not partners. They are hostile forces that must be forced to obey.
How the rituals differ in practice
A Greater Key working begins with a three-day purification: fasting, confession, and the preparation of tools (a consecrated knife, a wand, a pentacle, a robe). The magician must be in a state of grace. The pentacles are drawn on virgin parchment or engraved on the correct metal during the appropriate planetary hour. They are then charged by exposing them to incense, sprinkling them with holy water, and reciting the seven psalms of David. The final step is to seal them in a clean cloth and wear or place the talisman for its intended effect: protection, invisibility, love, wealth. There is no visible spirit manifestation. The result is the material object carrying the celestial virtue. A Lesser Key evocation is theatrical. The magician draws a circle about nine feet in diameter, inscribes it with divine names, and sets up a brass vessel or crystal stone at the north of the circle for the demon to appear in. He holds the spirit’s sigil on parchment and reads the conjuration from a prepared script. The spirit usually appears in a terrifying or obscene form. The magician must not step outside the circle, must not show fear, and must command the spirit to swear loyalty before releasing it. The entire process takes about an hour but can stretch overnight if the demon resists.
Why the two grimoires became confused
Casual readers often assume the Lesser Key is a sequel or companion to the Greater Key. The names encourage it. But no manuscript tradition treats them as one work. The 1685 scribe who copied them into the same volume was unusual, not standard. The confusion grew in the 19th century. S.L. MacGregor Mathers prepared a translation of the Greater Key for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, but it was not published until 1903, after his death. At the same time, Aleister Crowley prepared an edition of the Lesser Key’s Ars Goetia (1904) and included his own commentary, which treated the demons as aspects of the psyche. Crowley’s version became the most widely known text of the Lemegeton, and its popularity overshadowed the Greater Key. Modern occultists often encounter the Lesser Key first, and then mistakenly assume the Greater Key is a more complete or more powerful version of the same system.
Common misconceptions
“King Solomon wrote them.” Both grimoires claim Solomonic authorship, but no historical evidence places them earlier than the medieval period. Solomon is a literary attribution, like the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha. The rituals and spirit lists reflect medieval Jewish, Christian, and Islamic magical traditions, not 10th-century BCE Judah. “The Lesser Key is dangerous; the Greater Key is safe.” Both require rigorous discipline. The Greater Key’s fault is that the talisman, if improperly consecrated, can attract hostile spirits meant to be avoided. The Lesser Key’s danger is psychological exhaustion and the risk of obsessive fixation on a demonic contract. Neither grimoire is a child’s manual. “You can use the spirits from one key to control the spirits from the other.” There is no traditional warrant for this. The planetary intelligences of the Greater Key are not part of the demonic hierarchy of the Lesser Key. Attempting to cross-reference them is a modern innovation with no textual basis. “The Seals of Solomon on the Greater Key can bind Goetic demons.” The famous hexagram or pentagram seals found in the Greater Key are for planetary pentacles, not for binding demons. The Goetic demons have their own individual sigils, which are drawn from the Ars Goetia and are never shared with the Greater Key.
FAQ
Can the Lesser Key and Greater Key be used together? Some practitioners adapt elements from each, but no historical manuscript describes a combined operation. The two grimoires assume different cosmologies and different relationships between the operator and the spirit. Which grimoire is more difficult to learn? The Greater Key requires greater ritual precision (planetary hours, metalwork, engraving), but the Lesser Key demands stronger psychological control during evocation. Both are demanding in their own ways. Do the seals from the Greater Key work as protections during Goetic evocation? Traditional sources never use them that way. The standard protective circle in the Lesser Key contains divine names and Hebrew letters derived from the Ars Goetia itself, not from the Greater Key’s pentacles. Why is the Lesser Key more popular today? Crowley’s 1904 edition made the Ars Goetia widely available and linked it to modern occult movements. The Greater Key had no comparable early 20th-century revival until Peterson’s 1989 edition reintroduced it to serious practitioners.
The line that was always there
The 1685 scribe drew a horizontal line between the two keys. That line is not an arbitrary bibliographic quirk. It represents a real division in the occult tradition: whether the operator works with angels through material virtue or with demons through binding compulsion. We still respect that line. Understanding which grimoire serves which purpose is the first step toward using either with clarity. For a deeper look at the seventy-two demons and their offices, see our guide to the Ars Goetia. To understand the planetary pentacles and their heavenly correspondences, the Greater Key of Solomon in practice awaits. And for a concise visual reference to the key seals, the glossary entry for the Seal of Solomon provides the necessary diagrams.