Quick Question About Solomon Options

What did he did exactly in order to dishonor God, in the Bible.

I doubt it was the magic because the magic was given to him by God and the angels themselves.

I haven't read about it, but I'll put forth my guess out of pure common sense, it is possible that he advocated prostitution in some way or another for the sake of his own gains.

I keep hearing he also idolatress other gods and goddess.

Not that he was doing magick or Goetia and others...

What did he did exactly in order to dishonor God, in the Bible.

I doubt it was the magic because the magic was given to him by God and the angels themselves.

You might find 1 Kings, the eleventh chapter, somewhat illuminating.

The general consensus is that Solomon was persuaded by his wives into idolatry. This may be more than the weakness for women elsewhere described in regard to Solomon. One of the reasons Solomon ruled in relative peace was the fact that his wives included the daughters of important dignitaries elsewhere in the region. It is probable that they had hoped to secure a place in the newly-established kingdom through ties to the throne, and that effort in and of itself implies a certain pride among those tribal chiefs and national leaders.

Three deities are mentioned by name.

One is Ashtoreth, otherwise Astaroth, goddess "of the Sidonians," and probably the oldest deity mentioned in the Bible. This shrine had special importance at the time, since it was in the "House of Ashtoreth" that the armor of Saul had been kept. See Samuel 31. making a shrine to Ashtoreth was a great way to say "you folks helped establish this kingdom, and now you will continue to have a part in it."

Another deity mentioned is Molech, which is probably correctly translated as "king." Later in the Bible the name is associated more with the rites of the same name and less with the entity to which they were dedicated. It is apparent from Biblical and some very limited archaeological evidence that this rite involved infanticide. Consider the number of abortions performed today, and imagine that abortion was comparatively rare, and you can see the "rationale" behind having institutionalized infanticide. The abomination of Moloch was destroyed eventually, after having become so terrible that thousands of years later it continues to be considered the model of Hell itself.

There is also mentioned Chemosh, otherwise Shammash, the Sun. This deity is elsewhere gven human sacrifices in the scriptures, but that is probably an exception to the rule for the routine of this cult. It is no surprise to find Sun-worship in the ancient middle east. This sort of establishment was probably also a matter of public pressure, with shrines erected to preserve the idea of legitimacy in the ruler. If you have something like fifteen million people and half of them want to perform solar rituals - we call them holidays - you are pressured to cave-in and let them have a place for such festivals.

The Koran exonerates Solomon of idolatry, essentially claiming that he made those sanctuaries but retained his personal faith. The Testament of Solomon, and later rabbinical texts, suggest that it was not Solomon who became corrupt, but Asmoday who had stolen Solomon's ring and adopted the exact likeness of the king, banishing him into the Orient to live as a wandering cook. So the story goes, Solomon happened to rediscover his stolen magic ring in a fish, and was able to banish Asmoday and reclaim the throne at last.

The magic, as you say, was a gift of the angels. Specifically it was the gift of Raziel, who brought speech to Adam and religion to Abraham. This view of the ring, and of the magic it represents, suggests that the spiritual authority of magic is on par with the revelations of speech and prayer, conferring tremendous status and a mark of significant development. The ring worked wonders, but its true vitrue was only revealed when at long last Solomon was stripped of his worldly gains and discovered genuine love, without which he was not fit to rule even himself.

You might find 1 Kings, the eleventh chapter, somewhat illuminating.

The general consensus is that Solomon was persuaded by his wives into idolatry. This may be more than the weakness for women elsewhere described in regard to Solomon. One of the reasons Solomon ruled in relative peace was the fact that his wives included the daughters of important dignitaries elsewhere in the region. It is probable that they had hoped to secure a place in the newly-established kingdom through ties to the throne, and that effort in and of itself implies a certain pride among those tribal chiefs and national leaders.

Three deities are mentioned by name.

One is Ashtoreth, otherwise Astaroth, goddess "of the Sidonians," and probably the oldest deity mentioned in the Bible. This shrine had special importance at the time, since it was in the "House of Ashtoreth" that the armor of Saul had been kept. See Samuel 31. making a shrine to Ashtoreth was a great way to say "you folks helped establish this kingdom, and now you will continue to have a part in it."

Another deity mentioned is Molech, which is probably correctly translated as "king." Later in the Bible the name is associated more with the rites of the same name and less with the entity to which they were dedicated. It is apparent from Biblical and some very limited archaeological evidence that this rite involved infanticide. Consider the number of abortions performed today, and imagine that abortion was comparatively rare, and you can see the "rationale" behind having institutionalized infanticide. The abomination of Moloch was destroyed eventually, after having become so terrible that thousands of years later it continues to be considered the model of Hell itself.

There is also mentioned Chemosh, otherwise Shammash, the Sun. This deity is elsewhere gven human sacrifices in the scriptures, but that is probably an exception to the rule for the routine of this cult. It is no surprise to find Sun-worship in the ancient middle east. This sort of establishment was probably also a matter of public pressure, with shrines erected to preserve the idea of legitimacy in the ruler. If you have something like fifteen million people and half of them want to perform solar rituals - we call them holidays - you are pressured to cave-in and let them have a place for such festivals.

The Koran exonerates Solomon of idolatry, essentially claiming that he made those sanctuaries but retained his personal faith. The Testament of Solomon, and later rabbinical texts, suggest that it was not Solomon who became corrupt, but Asmoday who had stolen Solomon's ring and adopted the exact likeness of the king, banishing him into the Orient to live as a wandering cook. So the story goes, Solomon happened to rediscover his stolen magic ring in a fish, and was able to banish Asmoday and reclaim the throne at last.

The magic, as you say, was a gift of the angels. Specifically it was the gift of Raziel, who brought speech to Adam and religion to Abraham. This view of the ring, and of the magic it represents, suggests that the spiritual authority of magic is on par with the revelations of speech and prayer, conferring tremendous status and a mark of significant development. The ring worked wonders, but its true vitrue was only revealed when at long last Solomon was stripped of his worldly gains and discovered genuine love, without which he was not fit to rule even himself.

One more question for you, is the King Solomon from the Bible the same who wrote "The lesser key of Solomon" grimoires?
I would like to read everything regarding his biography and how he received the wisdom of all this magic, where did it all came from... God?

I will appreciate if you could help me with all you can so I have an excellent knowledge of this historical figure.

Oh and the Solomon's grimoires I own are those edited by Aleister Crowley, not to happy about that.

Thank you.

This post has been edited by Harkadenn: Sep 14 2011, 02:13 AM

The traditional attribution of the grimoire to King Solomon the Wise is not supported by any evidence whatsoever, and neither is the actual existence of King Solomon. He is a scriptural figure, not a historical person.

It may be that the grimoire is the product of a "rabbi Solomon," which is not terribly far-fetched since there are many rabbis of that name. Some copies of the Key are explicitly the work of a rabbi Solomon, yet the implication is that it is the work of the king for the benefit of his son.

It may be that the Lemegeton is atttributed to King Solomon of Brittany, mentioned in tales of Charlemagne. When questioned on the matter of the book's origin, the spirits themselves have described the book as being 500 years old, based on works nearly 800 years older, which would put it roughly in the time of Charlemagne.

There is also the persistent idea that the original book was a complicated and confusing tome found in the tomb of Solomon by Babylonians, who forced a Jew to translate the work and make it user-friendly. Unable to do so, two of the spirits supplied the "missing" information, making the resultant product (and subsequent revisions) less secure and less powerful than the original work.

The Crowley text includes only the Goetia and part of the Artem Novem, and excludes three other sections of the Lemegeton. It was originally the copied work of Samuel Mathers, who was presumably preparing the manuscript for publication. It was stolen by Crowley during the fragmentation of the Golden Dawn society, and published along with extraneous rituals and other information. The invocation of plague and death against Mathers, appearing in Greek in the front of the book, was effective enough: Mathers died along with some 30 million others as a result of the Spanish Flu epidemic.