Practice · Tools · Key of Solomon
Magical circle
A measured and inscribed working enclosure built from concentric circles, quarter marks, pentagrams, nested squares, and censers.
What the source describes
Book II does not begin with a ready-made diagram. It begins with a centre: the quill knife is fixed in the ground, a cord sets the radius, and a blade marks the first circumference. Four regions are then marked East, West, South, and North. Further concentric circles, pentagrams containing divine names, and two interlocking squares expand the figure outward, while openings aligned to the North allow entry and are closed once the party is inside.
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 circle orders bodies, tools, text, light, and direction. The master and disciples enter, close the gaps, place their materials, set burning censers around the outer squares, and begin the spoken work from within. The book claims this enclosure provides safety; historically, the more concrete point is that it scripts where every participant and object belongs.
Form, materials and reconstruction
The received manuscripts disagree about size: one Latin reading gives a four-and-a-half-foot cord for a nine-foot diameter, while other witnesses support a nine-foot radius. The circumference may be marked with the sword or black-hilt knife, and the chapter's figures also differ among Add. 10862, Sloane 3847, and Harley 5596. The illustration here is therefore schematic rather than a claim to reproduce one original circle.
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
There is no single uncontested diagram: measurements, instruments, lettering, and surviving drawings vary by witness. Modern circles copied from later printed compilations should be identified by edition rather than passed off as the whole Key tradition.
Primary account used here
Key of Solomon, Book II, Book II, chapter IX ↗
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.