File:First Pentacle of the Moon.png

Summary

The "First Pentacle of the Moon" from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_of_Solomon" class="extiw" title="en:Key of Solomon">Key of Solomon</a> (Clavicula Salomonis).

Serves "to call forth and invoke the spirits of the moon, and further serveth to open doors, in whatever way they may be fastened."

Note from editor (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Liddell_MacGregor_Mathers" class="extiw" title="en:Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers">Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers</a>): The Pentacle is a species of hieroglyphic representation of a door or gate. In the center is written the Name IHVH. On the right hand are the Names IHV, IHVH, AL, and IHH. On the left hand are the Names of the Angels: Schioel, Vaol, Yashiel, and Vehiel. The versicle above the Names on either side, is from Psalm cvii. 16:– "He hath broken the Gates of brass, and smitten the bars of iron in sunder."

This is a retouching by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fuzzypeg" class="extiw" title="en:User:Fuzzypeg">Fuzzypeg</a> of a 1999 free internet edition by Benjamin Rowe, which reprints (with some text removed) the 1916 American edition published by L.W. deLawrence.

I'm not completely sure of the copyright status of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/books/greaterkey/greaterkey_pentacles.pdf">Rowe online edition</a>. There is no copyright notice, but there are suggestions included in the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/books/greaterkey/greaterkey1.pdf">first part of the book</a> for the most pleasing method of printing to hard copy. Clearly it is intended to be freely distributed. I also think my retouching is significant (the image was quite speckly), and it is only a small image from the book, which is itself a facsimile of a book that was published in the US before 1923. That book in turn reproduced its drawings from S.L. MacGregor Mathers' 1889 edition, which in turn provided drawings that were substantially equivalent copies of original 17th century diagram, with no artistic or creative elements added.

For these reasons I believe it is reasonable to place this image in the public domain.

Licensing

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