In the last few weeks, I’ve done a great deal of research on the idea of sealing spirits into brass vessels, a common thread in Solomonic grimoires. Most people, including myself, first encounter the story of Solomon’s sealing spirits into a brass vessel within the text of Goetia. It is also present in its precursor, Weir’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, though in Goetia it is given special note after the listing of spirits, where in Weir’s work it is given within the listing of spirits itself.
As the story goes, Solomon sealed all 72 of the spirits in a vessel of brass and threw it into a deep pit or well. (The idea of a lake, repeated in later manuscripts, appears to have been introduced by Scot in The Discoverie of Witchcraft, though Weir’s text reads a great pit or well: puteum grandem valde.) The author notes that his master never said why Solomon bound the spirits, but nonetheless the vessel was discarded. However, the Babylonians, thinking that there was a treasure therein, recovered the vessel and opened it, once more releasing the spirits into the world.
This story is repeated in one form or another in many places, and not only works that are (ostensibly) Hebrew in origin. The famous collection of Arabic folk tales, One Thousand and One Nights has a story entitled “The City of Brass”. In this story, a group of sailors are blown off course deep into Africa and are greeted by a local tribe, the leader of which happens to speak Arabic. In resting at this seaside village, the sailors are amazed that the fishermen of that place routinely bring up brass vessels sealed in lead from the depths of the ocean. Upon opening these vessels, a spirit escapes! Inquiring of the chieftain, they are given the answer that this is indeed quite common and that the vessels belonged to King Solomon, who sealed spirits in the vessels by impressing them with his signet.
What is interesting here – at least to me – is that the ring of Solomon becomes the seal used to contain the spirits, rather than a distinct seal mentioned in Goetia. In Arabic, the word “khatam” refers to a ring or signature, since in earlier times one’s signature was (or could be) literally the “seal” of the signet ring. It would certainly make sense that the ring, connected in The Testament of Solomon with his ability to compel spirits, would be the item used to constrain them in the vessel. So was the discrete seal given in Goetia a later invention of someone ignorant of the use of the ring in this context?
This is where I get to say, “We’ll never know.” … but I lean toward that theory. However, there is a catch: if one were making an impression in lead of Solomon’s ring (used as a signet), which is made of silver (or gold, or silver and iron, or some similar), wouldn’t that deform the soft metal of the ring just as much as the lead? Wax is all fine and good, but making an impression of one metal into another usually requires some force, which usually means the “stamping” metal must be relatively hard. Here’s the counter-point: if it were being used to compel the spirits “away” into the vessel, then the ring would have been iron – silver was only used to make them do things for you – which is more than study enough to make an impression in the soft leaden seal.
And Solomon, stop throwing lead into our oceans. It’s not good for anyone, but I suppose if you’re willing to make seals out of mercury, I can’t expect much.