The Seal of Solomon

The Seal of Solomon is the six-pointed star attributed in medieval and Renaissance magical tradition to the legendary biblical king whose wisdom gave him power over spirits, demons, and the forces of nature. The seal appears throughout the grimoire literature of European and Islamic magick as the foremost symbol of magickal authority, the device by which Solomon himself compelled spirits to serve him and by which magicians working in his tradition claim similar authority.

Whether Solomon is understood as a historical figure, a mythological archetype, or a theological metaphor, his seal functions as a key to an entire tradition of magickal operation. Solomonic magick is one of the most extensively documented streams in Western occultism, and the seal stands at its center.

History and origins

The figure of Solomon as the master of spirits appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition. The Testament of Solomon, a Greek text of uncertain date (estimates range from the first to the fifth century CE), is among the earliest documents describing how Solomon commanded seventy-two demons to help build the Temple in Jerusalem. This narrative seeded a long tradition of grimoires operating under Solomon’s authority, the most influential being the Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis), compiled in its surviving manuscript forms during the medieval and Renaissance periods, and the Lesser Key of Solomon or Lemegeton, compiled in the seventeenth century.

The hexagram as Solomon’s seal appears in Islamic amulet and talisman tradition as well, where the khatemul-Sulayman (seal of Solomon) was used extensively in protective magick from the early medieval period. The symbol spread through medieval Europe partly through Jewish and Islamic contacts with Christian scholarship and partly through the shared grimoire manuscript tradition that crossed these cultural boundaries.

In Freemasonry, Solomon’s Temple is the central symbolic architecture, and the Seal of Solomon appears in lodge symbolism and in the regalia of higher degrees, particularly in the Royal Arch degree where it carries specific initiatory meaning.

In practice

In ceremonial magick the Seal of Solomon functions as a statement of authority. It is placed in the ritual space to assert the magician’s right to command, protect, and operate at the intersection of the seen and unseen worlds. In formal Solomonic practice, which involves extensive preparatory purification, circle-drawing, and the evocation of specific spirits from the Lemegeton’s lists, the seal is central to every stage of the working.

For practitioners who are not engaged in formal spirit evocation, the Seal of Solomon functions as a general symbol of divine authority, protection, and the integration of opposites. Like the hexagram with which it shares its form, it represents “as above, so below” and the balanced union of opposing forces.

The seal can be incorporated into talismans, particularly for works requiring protection and mastery of a situation. It can be drawn on the floor of a ritual space as a protective figure, painted on tools, or worn as an amulet. Its connection to the tradition of Solomonic magick means it carries the weight of a long and coherent magickal lineage, even when used in isolation from that lineage’s full ritual apparatus.

In myth and popular culture

Solomon’s legendary command over spirits permeates the literature of three major religious traditions. In Islamic lore, the Quran describes Suleiman as a prophet given the ring by which he commanded the jinn; later Islamic tradition elaborated this into an extensive magical literature including the manuscripts known as the Shams al-Ma’arif. The Testament of Solomon, a Greek-language pseudepigraphical text, describes in considerable detail how Solomon interrogated each demon he bound and forced them to help build the Temple in Jerusalem. This text, circulated in early Christian and Byzantine contexts, shaped European grimoire tradition for over a millennium.

In the Jewish kabbalistic tradition, the hexagram became associated with the House of David and subsequently with Solomon, serving as a protective symbol on amulets and in household magic across Eastern European Jewish communities. The symbol appears prominently in synagogue decoration from the medieval period onward and was adopted as the Magen David by the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century. In Freemasonry, Solomon’s Temple provides the central symbolic architecture for the initiatory degrees, and the Seal figures in the Royal Arch degree.

Popular culture has returned to the Seal of Solomon repeatedly. M. Night Shyamalan’s film “The Sixth Sense” (1999) alludes to Solomonic protective tradition, and the Seal appears throughout horror and fantasy literature as a device for binding demons. The British television series “Supernatural” uses Solomonic seals and binding circles extensively. Dan Brown’s novel “The Solomon Key” and Robert Langdon franchise drew considerable public attention to Masonic Solomonic symbolism in the early 2000s.

Myths and facts

Several persistent misconceptions attach to the Seal of Solomon and its history.

• Many people assume that the Star of David and the Seal of Solomon are the same symbol with the same history. The hexagram is used in both contexts, but the Magen David as a symbol of Jewish communal identity is a relatively recent development, becoming widespread from the seventeenth century onward; the grimoire Seal of Solomon belongs to a distinct magical tradition that crosses Jewish, Islamic, and Christian manuscript culture.
• The Seal of Solomon is sometimes presented as an ancient Egyptian or pre-biblical symbol. The hexagram does appear in various ancient contexts, but its specific identification with Solomon and with the binding of spirits is a late antique and medieval development, not an ancient Egyptian one.
• A common belief holds that carrying or displaying the Seal of Solomon guarantees protection from all spiritual harm. Grimoire tradition is more nuanced: the Seal provides authority and protection within a specific ritual context and practice; it is not a passive amulet with automatic power.
• The Seal is frequently confused with the pentagram. While some medieval sources use “Seal of Solomon” and “pentagram” interchangeably, the primary grimoire tradition distinguishes between the hexagram (Solomon’s Seal) and the pentagram (Solomon’s Pentacle), attributing different but complementary protective functions to each.
• Some sources claim that the Seal of Solomon predates all other six-pointed star symbols. Hexagrams appear in ancient Hindu and Buddhist contexts entirely independently; the symbol is not uniquely Solomonic in origin but acquired its Solomonic associations in a specific late antique religious and magical context.