Practice · Tools · Ars Goetia
Triangle of art
The Goetia's designated appearance-place, set outside the circle and turned toward the quarter assigned to the spirit.
What the source describes
The Sloane 3825 text calls this the triangle into which Solomon commanded disobedient spirits. It is placed two feet from the circle and made three feet across. More importantly, its position is directional: it should stand in the quarter to which the spirit belongs. The edition warns that many such directional attributions are missing from this textual line and should not be guessed.
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
The conjurations direct an appearing spirit into the triangle, making it the ritual location for encounter and response while the operator remains within the circle. Several catalogue entries treat entry into the triangle as a condition for reliable speech. Those are claims of the ritual text, not evidence that the figure produces an objective effect.
Form, materials and reconstruction
The manuscript diagram includes inscribed divine names and a central circle, but its geometry should be copied from a named witness rather than reconstructed from the many simplified modern versions. Our SVG shows only the basic relation of triangle and inner circle; it deliberately omits manuscript lettering it cannot reproduce faithfully at thumbnail size.
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
Later Goetia editions relocate or redraw the triangle, often without stating which manuscript they follow. It is not the Key of Solomon's whole circle system and not a Golden Dawn elemental triangle.
Primary account used here
Lemegeton, Ars Goetia, The magical circle and triangle ↗
Further references
- Lemegeton: manuscript introduction ↗Places the Goetia within the larger five-part compilation and identifies the manuscripts used.
- Key of Knowledge, Add. MS. 36674 ↗A related Solomonic witness for comparing circles, instruments and ritual layout without treating the texts as identical.