PREFATORY NOTE

This translation of the First Book of the "Lemegeton"^a (now for the first time made accessible to English adepts and students of the Mysteries) was done, after careful collation and edition, from numerous MSS. in Hebrew, Latin, French and English, by G. H. Fra. D.D.C.F.,^b by the order of the Secret Chief of the Rosicrucian Order.¹ The G. H. Fra., having succumbed unhappily to the assaults of the Four Great Princes^c (acting notably under Martial influences), it seemed expedient that the work should be brought to its conclusion by another hand. The investigations of a competent Skryer into the house of our unhappy Fra., confirmed this divination; neither our Fra. nor his Hermetic Mul. were there seen; but only the terrible shapes of the evil Adepts S.V.A.² and H., whose original bodies having been sequestered by Justice, were no longer of use to them. On this we stayed no longer Our Hand; but withdrawing Ourselves, and consulting the Rota ^d, and the Books M. and Q. did decide to ask Mr. Aleister Crowley,³ a poet, and skilled student of Magical Lore, and an expert Kabbalist, to complete openly that which had been begun in secret.⁴ This is that which is written: "His Bishoprick let another take." And again: "Oculi Tetragrammaton." This is also that which is said: "Nomen Secundum refertur ad Gebhurah; qui est Rex Bittul atque Corruptio Achurajim Patris et Matris hoc indigitatur."

And so saying we wish you well.

Given forth from our Mountain of A.,
this day of C.C. 1903 A.D.

Note a: The Lemegeton is the name of a compound grimoire made up of five books, the first of which is the Goetia. The other four works in this collection are the Theurgia Goetia, the Pauline Art, the Almadel of Solomon, and the Artem Novem. These books are related only in that they all concern the evocation and use of spirits. The fifth book is not as cohesive as the first four, but consists of only a few pages that mainly deal with the exposition of the meanings of divine names. The text of Mathers' edition of the Lemegeton corresponds with the text of this book in the British Library manuscript Sloane 2731. The manuscript is in English -- despite Crowley's assertion that the work is a "translation" it is really a transcription, although Mathers did refer to other manuscript copies of the Goetia. Mathers integrated the text of the Artem Novem into the end of the Goetia. -- Tyson

Note b: George Samuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers (1854-1918), the primary leader of the Rosicrucian Society known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. His personal motto for his attainment of the 7=4 Adeptus Exemptus grade of the Second Order, the order of the Golden Dawn known as the Roseae Rubae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and Golden Cross), was Deo Duce Comite Ferro (With God as My Leader and the Sword as My Companion). He was sometimes referred to within the Golden Dawn as Frater (Brother) D.D.C.F, and this is how Crowley refers to him in his preface to the Goetia. -- Tyson

Note 1: Mr. A. E. Waite writes (Real History of the Rosicrucians, p. 426): "I beg leave to warn my readers that all persons who proclaim themselves to be Rosicrucians are simply members of pseudo-fraternities, and that there is that difference between their assertion and the fact of the case in which the essence of a lie consists!"

It is within the Editor's personal knowledge that Mr. Waite was (and still is probably) a member of a society claiming to be the R.C. fraternity.

As Mr. Waite consistently hints in his writings that he is in touch with initiated centres, I think the syllogism, whose premises are given above, is fair, if not quite formal. -- Crowley

Addendum: The "Secret Chief of the Order" may be Christian Rosencreutz himself, the supposed founder of Rosicrucianism; or it may be a reference to Hugo Alverda, the eldest of three semi-mythical Rosicrucian adepts who were asserted to have ascended to a higher plane of being after extraordinarily long lives, and to guide the progress of the Order of the Golden Dawn. It is not clear whether these three Secret Chiefs were purely spiritual beings who had died after living holy lives, physical men who had been transported to a higher spiritual realm while still alive, or beings of a mixed spiritual and physical nature. Mathers claimed to have met with them individually on several occasions to receive their teachings, and wrote that they appeared to him to be flesh and blood.

Arthur Edward Waite was another member of the Golden Dawn. He served as one of its leaders when the Order began to fragment under Mathers' absent rule -- Mathers and his wife tried to continue running the English branch of the Order after moving to Paris in obedience to the directive of the Secret Chiefs, and as a result lost control of the Order in England. Waite was pompous, arrogant, and narrow-minded. All of these personal defects clearly reveal themselves in his voluminous writings about occult and esoteric subjects. Crowley despised Waite, and seldom missed an opportunity to ridicule him. -- Tyson

Note c: The Four Great Princes mentioned by Crowley may be the four kings of the elements of the Golden Dawn system of magic -- Djin, the king of Fire, Nichsa, the king of Water, Paralda, the king of Air, and Ghob, the king of Earth. However, it seems to me more likely that Crowley intended the four Enochian kings of the Watchtowers, which in the Golden Dawn version of Enochian magic are -- Bataivah, king of the Watchtower of Air; Iczhhcal, king of the Watchtower of Earth; Raagiosl, king of the Watchtower of Water; and Edlprnaa, king of the Watchtower of Fire. Note that these Golden Dawn versions of the names are not strictly correct, but they are based on the forms of the Enochian magic squares called Watchtowers, and the elemental associations for those squares, that were employed by the Golden Dawn. In the Golden Dawn Tarot, and also Crowley's own Thoth Tarot, the places of the Kings and Knights in each suit are inverted, and the elevated Knights are called Kings, while the demoted Kings are referred to as Princes. This might explain why Crowley used the term princes when he meant kings. -- Tyson

Note 2: It was owing to our Fra. receiving this S.V.A. as his Superior, and giving up the Arcana of our Fraternity into so unhallowed a power, that We decided no longer to leave Our dignity and authority in the hands of one who could be thus easily imposed upon. (For by a childish and easy magical trick did S.V.A. persuade D.D.C.F. of that lie.) -- Crowley

Addendum: Mathers was deceived into passing over the secrets of the Golden Dawn to an American fraudulent medium and con artist known as Mrs. Horos, who also went under the names Mrs. Dutton, Mrs. Johnson, and Marie Louise of the Commune. Her magical motto was Swami Vive Ananda, so she was known among Golden Dawn members as Soror (Sister) S.V.A.

Mrs. Horus learned a smattering of Golden Dawn lore from members living in New York, and was able to use it to persuade the credulous Mathers that she possessed the Order rank of 8=3, Magister Templi, which was one grade higher than Mathers' own rank. The 7=3 rank of Mathers was the highest level that could be attained in the Second Order, so Mrs. Horos was claiming to belong to the Third Order of the Golden Dawn, the Argentum Astrum (Silver Star). At that time, the Third Order had no existence on the earthly plane (Crowley would later use the name for one of his own organizations). Indeed, Mrs. Horos claimed to be none other than Fraulein Anna Sprengel, the German adept who was the supposed establishing authority of the Golden Dawn in England, and the link with the mystical Secret Chiefs, spiritual beings who provided the Golden Dawn with its occult teachings and its legitimacy as a Rosicrucian order. Mathers felt obliged to pass over secret Second Order documents, which Mrs. Horos and her two associates promptly stole.

This woman, described by those who had met her as being about sixty years of age, extremely fat, with a gracious and attractive manner, was aided by her husband (whether legal or common law is not clear), who went under the name Theo Horos -- the "H." mentioned by Crowley -- and another man calling himself Dr. Rose Adams. Mrs. Horos and her husband were eventually arrested. As an explanation for her corpulent body, Mrs. Horos claimed that she had absorbed the spirit of Madame Blavatsky, the leader of the Theosophical Movement, at the death of Blavatsky. Such was Mathers' willingness to embrace the miraculous that he did not dispute this assertion. Hence Crowley's expression of disgust with the childlike credulity of his former teacher and leader. -- Tyson

Note d: The Tarot. After the example of Eliphas Levi, it was the practice of Papus, Wirth, Mathers, Crowley and other occultists of the nineteenth century to place the first four letters in the word Tarot on the four spokes of a wheel, and read in circles around the wheel in four different ways: Taro, Rota, Orat, Tora. The meanings of these words are somewhat obscure, but they might have been understood by Crowley to signify, respectively, the Way, the Wheel, the Word and the Law. Here, Crowley is using the word Rota as a synonym for Tarot. -- Tyson

Note 3: The task of editing the MSS. thus placed in my hands has proved practically a sinecure. The original translator and editor had completed his work so efficiently that very little was left for me to do beyond undertaking the business transactions connected with it, reading the proofs, and deciphering, with transliteration from the Enochian characters, the "Angelic" version of Perdurabo, from the priceless MS. entrusted to me. -- Crowley

Addendum: The author of the preface is, or course, Crowley, even though he refers to himself in the third person. Crowley's primary magic motto was Perdurabo (I Will Endure to the End). This was how he was known while he was a member of the Golden Dawn studying under Mathers and other senior members.

Crowley appears to be paying Mathers a kind of compliment, although he cannot resist slyly getting in a dig at Mathers indicating that whereas Mathers has done all the work on this book, it is Crowley who intends to reap all the profit in the form of royalties. Crowley stole this work from Mathers, who probably considered it too dangerous to publish.

The Enochian words in this edition of the Goetia are not a part of the original text, nor is the ritual known as the "Bornless Ritual." Both the Enochian language and the "Bornless Ritual" were used extensively by Crowley in his own magic, and it is to be assumed that Crowley applied them to demonic evocation when he experimented with the Goetia as a young man, while still a member of the Golden Dawn. To an extent, this version of the Goetia presents Crowley's own manner of demonic evocation, which he proved to his own satisfaction to be effective through repeated experiment. -- Tyson

Note 4: He that is appointed to complete in secret that which had been begun openly is RR., and to be heard of at the care of the Editor. -- Crowley