The Lesser Key of Solomon (The Goetia): which edition to buy
The Lesser Key of Solomon, or Lemegeton, is a seventeenth-century grimoire in five books; its first book, the Ars Goetia, lists the 72 spirits. Most editions sold as "The Goetia" reproduce the 1904 translation by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, edited by Aleister Crowley, which covers only that first book.
12 editions in stock from 9 publishers · Hardcover, Paperback · $8.01 to $75.00
How to choose
For the Goetia as modern magicians know it, the Mathers and Crowley text is the standard, and Weiser's illustrated second edition (1995), edited by Hymenaeus Beta, is the most carefully produced version of it.
For the whole grimoire, choose Joseph H. Peterson's The Lesser Key of Solomon (Weiser, 2001), which edits all five books from the British Library manuscripts with notes. It is the edition scholars cite.
For a practitioner's version with angelic correspondences, Stephen Skinner and David Rankine's The Goetia of Dr Rudd (2007) presents a manuscript that pairs each spirit with a controlling angel.
Inexpensive reprints of the 1904 text are fine for reading the spirit catalogue, but check that the seals are printed clearly before relying on them.
