Goetia (Greek: wizardry or sorcery)

The Lesser Key Of Solomon original: "Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis," a 17th-century grimoire or book of magic

THE INITIATED INTERPRETATION OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC.

It is highly amusing to the student of Magical literature who is not a fool—and such a combination is rare!—to observe the criticism directed by the uncultured original: "Philistine," referring to someone hostile or indifferent to culture and arts against the fortress of his science. Truly, since our childhood has ingrained into us not only a literal belief in the Bible, but also a substantial belief in the One Thousand and One Nights original: "Alf Laylah wa Laylah," the classic collection of Middle Eastern folk tales, and only adulthood can cure us, we are far too likely—in the rush and energy of our youth—to roughly and recklessly reject both of these classics. We tend to regard them both on the same level: as interesting documents from the perspective of folklore and anthropology, and nothing more.

Even when we learn that the Bible, through a deep and precise study of the text, may be forced to reveal Qabalistic (referring to the Kabbalah, a system of Jewish mysticism) secrets original: "arcana" of universal scope and importance, we are often too slow to apply a similar recovery to the companion volume, even if we are the lucky owners of Burton’s Sir Richard Francis Burton, the 19th-century explorer who produced a famous, unexpurgated translation of the Arabian Nights authentic edition.