Modern approaches and a year of study

Your goal in this lesson: to know the main ways people approach the Goetia today, and to plan a calm year of study.

Five modern approaches

Modern Everything here is modern practice, from the late nineteenth century on. I describe these approaches; I do not rank them.

• Traditional Solomonic. Practitioners follow the old manuals closely, with circle, triangle, times and conjurations, and treat the spirits as real and potentially dangerous. Writers such as Stephen Skinner and David Rankine stress the Christian theology of the originals. It is demanding and not a beginner’s method.
• Psychological. In 1904 Crowley argued that “the spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain”. Lon Milo DuQuette developed this in Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia (1992, with Christopher S. Hyatt). It makes the subject approachable, but strong experiences can feel more personal and more disturbing.
• Demonolatry and devotional. Some honor demons rather than command them. S. Connolly’s The Complete Book of Demonolatry (2006) is an early example. Demonolatry is not Satanism, and its practitioners say so.
• Chaos magic. From the late 1970s, writers such as Peter J. Carroll treated belief as a tool and drew on Austin Osman Spare’s sigils.
• A gentle beginner’s approach. The one I describe on this site keeps preparation, a protective circle and a clear opening and closing, and removes command, threats, pacts and blood. You can read it on modern approaches, with which spirits suit a beginner.

Study is complete in itself

You never have to practice. Reading the Goetia as history, literature or a window on early modern fears is a full and worthwhile way to know it. If you decide on any practice later, be 18 or over, sober and rested, and read the safety guide first.

A year of study

A calm plan, one step a month:

1. Read the history of the Goetia slowly.
2. Read King Solomon and the ring.
3. Read Weyer and Scot and look up Scot’s Book 15 in a library or digital edition.
4. Read the Lemegeton and its five books.
5. Read Mathers and Crowley, 1904.
6. Study ranks and offices.
7. Study seals, circle and triangle.
8. to 11. Read six spirits a month in the spirit directory, with three colored pencils.
9. Review modern approaches and the myths, and write what you now think.

If you are struggling right now, call your local emergency number (112 in Europe, 911 in the US and Canada) or see Getting help.

Try this

Today’s exercise: write a twelve-line plan, one line per month, for your own year of study. Then look at the page you wrote in lesson 1. What has changed?

Quick recap

• Modern approaches include Solomonic, psychological, devotional and chaos magic.
• Demonolatry is not Satanism.
• Study alone is a complete way to know the Goetia.
• A year of slow reading turns fear into understanding.

Keep going

You have reached the end of the course. Press “Mark as done”, and when every lesson is done you can open your certificate of completion. Then try another free course in the School, such as Lucifer for Beginners or Witchcraft for Beginners.

Need a refresher? Go back to Safety, ethics and myths or see the whole course.

Sources

• S. L. MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (Boleskine, 1904).
• Lon Milo DuQuette and Christopher S. Hyatt, Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia (Tempe: New Falcon, 1992).
• S. Connolly, The Complete Book of Demonolatry (DB Publishing, 2006).
• Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null (1978).

Go deeper: the Goetia pages on this site

Mark as done