Liber Salomonis

Book excerpt: The Liber Salomonis, referred to in its own composition as the Sepher Raziel, claims to be a book given directly to King Solomon by a mysterious prince and sorcerer from the East. Actually written in the Renaissance or perhaps as early as the Medieval period, it synthesizes Kabbalistic and Hermetic lore together and is divided into seven treatises. The subject matter ranges from the high occult of invocation and the names of angels and of the Judeochristian god, to herbal medicine and the creation of incense for the calling of spirits, to the categorization of twenty four beasts and stones to coincide with the hours of the day. With the entire core of the work ruled over by seven angels and seven celestial bodies, the philosophy behind its somewhat apocryphal historical content is nonetheless of extreme interest and is here presented in modernized English for the modern audience. 82 pages.