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Practice · Tools · Ars Goetia

Brass vessel

The legendary container of the seventy-two spirits, closed with the Secret Seal of Solomon and reproduced as part of the Goetia's ritual mythology.

Simple orientation drawing representing Brass vessel
Modern orientation drawing—not a reconstruction of a manuscript design.

What the source describes

The Lemegeton tells how Solomon confined the spirits and their legions in a brazen vessel, sealed it, and cast it into a deep lake. Later material supplies an image of the vessel and a separate brass lid bearing the Secret Seal. Peterson notes an important textual fault line: Weyer's Latin source says a glass vessel, while 'brass' appears in the English transmission through Scot and the Lemegeton.

Historical setting

The Ars Goetia is the first part of the seventeenth-century Lemegeton compilation. Its diagrams and implements belong to that textual setting; attribution to Solomon is part of the work's traditional frame, not a historical authorship claim.

Common uses

Within the narrative it is a prison and proof of Solomon's command. A ritual direction also allows a spirit to be directed to a vessel instead of the triangle in a specific circumstance. These are two related textual roles, not archaeological evidence for an historical Solomonic object.

Form, materials and reconstruction

The Lemegeton calls the body brass and says the Secret Seal was made in brass to cover its top. The illustrated lettering draws on a planetary-angelic scale also found in Agrippa. Because the glass/brass discrepancy predates the compilation, a reconstruction should identify whether it follows Weyer, Scot, or a particular Lemegeton manuscript.

Element: No fixed element

This source does not assign this particular instrument a fixed element. Its materials or effects should not be turned into an elemental correspondence without a named source.

Sources and variations

Earlier Latin material has glass where the English line has brass. The vessel is not the Golden Dawn Water Cup: one is a legendary container and occasional appearance-place, the other a blue-and-orange elemental weapon.

Primary account used here

Lemegeton, Ars Goetia, The brass vessel and conjurations ↗

Further references