Practice · Tools · Key of Solomon
Hyssop and water
Consecrated spring water, salt, and an herbal sprinkler used throughout the Key's preparations.
What the source describes
Chapter XI begins with the sprinkler, then prepares clear spring water in a tin or earthen vessel and blesses salt before combining them. Psalms and a prayer follow. The plant bundle is not textually simple: manuscripts list different herbs, and one witness explicitly substitutes rosemary for what it says 'hyssop' means.
Historical setting
The Key of Solomon survives as a family of manuscripts rather than one authorial master copy. Instrument names, drawings, preparation details and even which tools appear can differ between witnesses, so this page follows the cited edition and records its variants.
Common uses
The sprinkler applies the prepared water to people, places, perfumes, and instruments. The book claims that the sprinkling drives away obstructing phantoms and says the same water is used in all preparations. In practical terms, it is the recurring liquid means by which the text links separate preparation chapters.
Form, materials and reconstruction
Vessel material varies: the Latin witnesses support tin or earthenware, while French readings behind Mathers add varnished lead or brass. Herbal lists can include vervain, fennel, lavender, sage, valerian, mint, basil, rosemary, and hyssop in different combinations. 'Hyssop' itself may mean Syrian hyssop, common hyssop, or—according to Add. 10862—rosemary. The entry keeps that botanical uncertainty visible.
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
This is a compound purification apparatus, not the Golden Dawn Water Cup. The plant identification and vessel material differ among witnesses, so the page does not pick one later recipe and call it original.
Primary account used here
Key of Solomon, Book II, Book II, chapter XI ↗
Further references
- Key of Solomon: introduction and contents ↗Editorial history and an overview of the manuscript-based edition.
- Hebrew Key of Solomon ↗A different witness with its own section on magical instruments and requisites.