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The Goetia of Dr Rudd
The Angels and Demons of Liber Malorum Spirituum seu Goetia, Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina and Ars Almadel.

By Stephen Skinner and David Rankine

RRP £40, 448 pages, ISBN 978-09547639, HB
First published, July 2007; Published by Golden Hoard Press

SOLD OUT - ORDINARY EDITION

If you are interested in an ordinary HB edition of The Goetia of Dr Rudd, please check out Amazon marketplace for copies. We still have a small number of full leather edition (limited to 250 copies) available. For details & photograph see bottom of this page, or order a copy now use the Paypal button provided below:

The Goetia (Lemegeton) is the most famous grimoire after the Key of Solomon. This volume contains a transcription of a hitherto unpublished manuscript of the Lemegeton which includes four whole grimoires:

* Liber Malorum Spirituum seu Goetia
* Theurgia-Goetia
* Ars Paulina (Books 1 & 2)
* Ars Almadel

This was owned by Dr Thomas Rudd, a practicing scholar-magician of the early seventeenth century. There are many editions of the Goetia, of which the most definitive is that of Joseph Peterson, but here we are interested in how the Goetia was actually used by practising magicians in the 16th and 17th century, before the knowledge of practical magic faded into obscurity.

To evoke the 72 demons listed here without the ability to bind them would be foolhardy indeed. It was well known in times past that invocatio and ligatio, or binding, was a key part of evocation, but in the modern editions of the Goetia this key technique is expressed in just one word ‘Shemhamphorash’, and its use is not explained.

This volume explains how the 72 angels of the Shemhamphorash are used to bind the spirits, and the correct procedure for safely invoking them using dual seals incorporating the necessary controlling angel, whose name is also engraved on the breastplate and Brass Vessel.

This volume is a transcription of Harley MS 6483, the Lemegeton. Unlike other copies of the Lemegeton, Rudd included the use of the 72 angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash as controlling spirits for the demons of the Goetia, transforming the practice of Goetic magic. He also included far more of the material from Peter de Abano’s Heptameron, the source of much of the grimoire tradition. Material from Rudd’s other major work, Harley MS 6482, is also included to set the context of the work with the Shem ha-Mephorash angels.

Although much work has been done on the Lemegeton, Skinner and Rankine trace component parts of the grimoire back further than has previously been done, and include other relevant manuscript material not previously available. This includes proto-Goetic material from Sloane MS 3824, such as a Spirit Contract, invocations of the Wandering Princes and Ruling Demons. The Goetia of Ebenezer Sibley, found in Wellcome MS 3203 is also included to show a later derivative version and complete the range of available Lemegeton material in the public forum.

"There is also a discussion of ‘why another book on goetia’ and the significant details that sets this one apart from others - its being part of an operative diary of the work, as well as the inclusion of materials not previously seen with goetia, such as the Heptameron, suggesting a direct link between the two. While of interest to the armchair magician and academic occultist, it is practical magicians that will benefit the most from this work, as well as the previous two vols in the series - Practical Angel Magic of Dr. Dee’s Enochian Tables, and Keys to the Gateway of Magic: Summoning the Solomonic Archangels and Demon Princes, also a rare Rudd manuscript. I cannot speak highly enough of these works and am indebted to the editors for making them available and look forward to future additions to the series."
Mark Stavish, Institute for Hermetic Studies

"This book is a “must have” for anyone who is seriously interested in Solomonic ceremonial magick, from either a scholarly or a practical point of view. It is on a par with Joseph Peterson’s Lemegeton — which it complements and amplifies with a wealth of previously unpublished authentic 17th century materials from the noted magician Thomas Rudd (see A Treatise on Angel Magic, McLean 1982). Rudd was no slavish follower of ancient texts. He had even attempted a synthesis of Dr. John Dee’s 16th century Enochian system and the Goetia…"
Poke Runyon, Author of The Book of Solomon’s Magic

There is also a leatherbound edition of The Goetia of Dr Rudd available, limited to just 250 copies. We are now making available the last few of these collector editions from our UK stock available at £99.00 (exclusive of P&P).

We currently still have a very small number of this edition available, you can order one of these for your own collection by using the PayPal button provided below.

If your country is not listed above, or if you plan on purchasing more than one title from the Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic series, please email liberavalonia@gmail.com for a postage quotation.