A review of The Sorcery of Solomon: A Guide to the 44 Planetary Pentacles of the Magician King by Sara Mastros, published by Red Wheel / Weiser.
As someone who professionally makes pentacles, I was delighted when I heard that Sara Mastros was writing about them, and then delighted again to read her book.
Grimoire scholars know there are many ways to make and consecrate pentacles, many versions of the designs, and many ways to use them. Mastros’ work continues this tradition with a fresh look at the most famous set of pentacles- from Mathers’ Clavicula Salomonis (The Key of Solomon) and provides comprehensive instructions for creating a magical book to contain them.*
My favorite part of the book is the description of the pentacles and their uses. Mathers’ version of the Key of Solomon has little to say about the use of the pentacles and his editor notes often only include an English translation of pentacles with Hebrew inscriptions. This leaves practitioners to work out what each does from an examination of the phrases and imagery, field testing, and directly questioning spirits. Mastros takes the time to address each pentacle individually and provides invaluable insights as a practitioner. If you have ever wanted a resource that explains the uses for these pentacles in plain language, this book is what you need.
The Sorcery of Solomon is suitable for readers with no experience that would like to learn to make pentacles as well as veteran pentacle crafters and collectors.
*I have my own method for making and consecrating pentacles so I have not yet created the book described in The Secrets of Solomon as of writing this review, but making magical books with seals that are used to contact spirits is common in magic.
In The Sorcery of Solomon, Sara Mastros has written a comprehensive and unique system suitable for beginners that blends mathematics, operative sorcery, and Jewish magic with the clarity of a professional teacher and the insight of a professional practitioner.
Alison Chicosky, author of The Secrets of Helios and proprietor of Practical Occult
Read a guest article by Sara Mastros about the First Pentacle of the Moon:
Sara L. Mastros is the author of The Big Book of Magical Incense, Orphic Hymns Grimoire, and The Sorcery of Solomon: A Guide to the 44 Planetary Pentacles of the Magician King. Recognized by her peers as a brilliant and original thinker, an engaging and inspiring teacher, a compelling and clever writer, and a generally decent human being, Sara spends a lot of time dreaming, thinking, enchanting, writing, and teaching about witchcraft, magic, and myth. But, her true passion is raising up an army of inspired, educated, empowered witches prepared to weave weird new ways of Being in a world that desperately needs us. You can find all her stuff, including links to socials, at www.WitchLessons.com
Author: Alison Chicosky
Alison Chicosky is a scholar and practitioner of a variety of forms of thaumaturgy with a focus on results-based magic. While especially interested in both Solomonic magic and the Graeco-Egyptian magic of the Greek Magical Papyri, she is also well versed in soul-flight and psychic magic of various kinds. The founder and force behind Practical Occult (www.practicaloccult.com), she strives to provide pentacles and other enchanted items drawn from a broad background of rigorously studied ancient arts, leveraging the systems of the past for practical modern use.