Kings, dukes and princes: ranks and offices in the Goetia

How to read the labels Historical what the old sources say. Later tradition what later writers added. Modern modern practice and my own notes.

Every one of the Goetia’s 72 spirits has a title: king, duke, prince, marquis, earl, president or knight. Every one also has offices, the things it is said to do or teach. These two parts of each entry are where most confusion online begins. This page explains what the ranks meant, how many spirits hold each one, what the text says about metals and hours, and how to read the offices without turning a spirit into a one-line label.

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A court of spirits

Historical The titles are those of a European court. A medieval or Renaissance reader understood at once that a king commanded dukes, that a duke outranked an earl, and that a knight was the lowest noble. Placing demons in a court said that hell, like the world, was ordered, and that the magician, armed with God’s name, stood above that order. It also had a practical side: the text links ranks to hours of working and to metals for the seals.

The ranks come from the seventeenth-century text and, before that, from Weyer’s catalog of 1577. Weyer’s ranks sometimes differ. In Scot’s English, Barbatos is “a great countie or earle, and also a duke,” but only a duke in the Goetia. Sallos is an earl in Weyer and a duke in the Goetia.

The ranks and their numbers

Historical The 1904 edition prints a “Classified List of the 72 Chief Spirits,” which groups them like this.

The counts add up to 79, not 72, because seven spirits appear twice in the list: Vine, Gaap, Zagan, Botis, Marax, Glasya-Labolas and Ronove. If you read the entries themselves, two more spirits also carry two titles: Ipos is an earl and a prince, and Murmur a duke and an earl. The 1904 list also notes that “Prince” and “Prelate” seem to be used for the same rank.

Above the 72 stand the four kings of the quarters, Amaymon, Corson, Ziminiar and Goap. They are not among the 72, and the text says they are to be invoked only to send the spirits under them.

Metals and hours

Historical After the catalog, the Goetia’s “Observations” give each rank a metal for its seal and hours when its spirits “may be bound.” The metals, in the text’s own words, are: “The Chief Kings’ in Sol (Gold); Marquises’ in Luna (Silver); Dukes’ in Venus (Copper); Prelacies’ in Jupiter (Tin); Knights’ in Saturn (Lead); Presidents’ in Mercury (Mercury); Earls’ in Venus (Copper), and Luna (Silver), alike equal.”

The hours are given rank by rank:

• Kings: “From 9 till 12 o’clock at Noon, and from 3 till Sunset.”
• Marquises: “From 3 in the afternoon till 9 at Night, and from 9 at Night till Sunrise.”
• Dukes: “From Sunrise till Noonday in Clear Weather.”
• Princes and prelates: “Any hour of the Day.”
• Knights: “From Dawning of Day till Sunrise, or from 4 o’clock till Sunset.”
• Presidents: “At any time, excepting Twilight, at Night, unless the King whom they are under be Invocated.” The sentence is unclear. Weyer’s older Latin says a president cannot be bound at any hour unless his king is invoked, and not in the evening twilight.
• Earls: “Any hour of the Day, so it be in Woods, or in any other places whither men resort not, or where no noise is.”

The text also says to work only when the Moon is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 days old. It does not say which rule applies to a spirit with two ranks.

Later tradition An unsigned editor’s note in the 1904 edition suggests iron for earls, so that Mars is not left out, and a mixed metal for presidents. That is a suggestion, not part of the manuscripts.

Modern Two of these metals are dangerous. Mercury is a toxic liquid metal: never handle it or try to make anything from it. Lead is also toxic: do not cast, cut or handle it, and do not use old lead pieces or foil. If you want to honor a rank’s metal, draw the planet’s symbol on a paper seal. Modern practitioners use paper, and so would I.

These rules show how the Goetia imagines its spirits: as officials with office hours. You do not need them to read the text, but it helps to know where they come from when you meet them elsewhere.

The offices

Historical The heart of each entry is its list of offices. They fall into a few broad groups.

• Knowledge and teaching. Many spirits teach the liberal arts and sciences, the seven arts of the medieval university: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Others teach the virtues of herbs, stones and birds, languages, philosophy or mechanical arts. Paimon “can teach all Arts and Sciences, and other secret things.”
• Divination. A large number “tell all things Past, Present, and to Come,” discover hidden things, find lost goods or reveal thieves.
• Treasure. Many reveal or guard hidden treasure, a real concern in early modern England, where buried coin hoards existed and treasure hunting with spirits was a crime.
• Favor and dignity. Spirits give honors and offices, win the favor of friends and foes, or reconcile enemies.
• Love. Several cause love between men and women. In the period this usually meant compelling desire in someone. I report it as history and do not teach it.
• Familiars. Many “give good familiars,” spirit servants.
• Transformation and illusion. Some change men into other shapes, make them invisible, carry them from country to country, or make the sound of music or water where there is none.
• Harm. Some cause storms, earthquakes, wars, wounds, diseases, drowning, death, discord or the destruction of cities. I report these as history and do not teach them.

A single spirit often holds offices from several groups. Marbas teaches mechanical arts, “causeth Diseases and cureth them,” and changes men into other shapes. Glasya-Labolas “teacheth all Arts and Sciences in an instant, and is an Author of Bloodshed and Manslaughter.” The text does not sort its spirits into good and bad. It treats all of them as dangerous and all of them as useful under God’s command.

So when you read that “Sitri is the spirit of love” or “Stolas is the spirit of astronomy,” remember the old entries are more mixed than that. My spirit directory gives the first office from the 1904 text, and each spirit page lists all of them.

Legions

Historical Every spirit “ruleth over” a number of legions, from 3 (Ose) to 200 (Paimon), most between 20 and 60. The legion was the main unit of the Roman army, and the Gospel of Mark has a possessed man say, “My name is Legion: for we are many” (Mark 5:9). The numbers express rank and power, not data, and they vary between sources. Scot gives Focalor 3 legions where Weyer’s Latin says thirty, and the 1904 text prints 30. The Goetia gives Bifrons 6 where Scot and Weyer give 26. Mathers notes that Ose’s 3 “should probably be 30.”

Voices, angelic orders and other details

Historical Some entries add more. Bael “speaketh hoarsely,” and Phenex has “the Voice of a Child.” Several name the order of angels a spirit belonged to before the fall, following the nine choirs of Pseudo-Dionysius: Agares and Barbatos were of the Virtues, Paimon of the Dominations, Beleth of the Powers. Marchosias, Phenex and Focalor hope to return to the “Seventh Throne” after 1,200 or 1,000 years. A few entries give special instructions, and three, Paimon, Belial and Malphas, mention offerings.

What came later

Later tradition Online, every spirit has a planet, a decan, a tarot card, a color and a day. The seventeenth-century text gives only the rank metals, directions for a few spirits (Bael and Agares are “under the Power of the East,” Paimon is “observed towards the West”) and the zodiac for a few more (Barbatos, Buer and Leraje are linked with Sagittarius). The pairing of the 72 with the 36 decans, one by day and one by night, was printed in Crowley’s 777 (1909) from Golden Dawn material. Planets for each spirit mostly follow the rank metals.

Modern Colors, days, incenses, crystals, foods and personalities come from twentieth and twenty-first century books and websites, which often copy each other. Agreement among them shows how far a claim has spread, not that it is old.

Reading an entry critically

When you read any spirit’s entry, here or elsewhere, ask five questions.

1. Which source is this? If none is named, treat the claim as modern.
2. What does the old text actually say? The entry is short. Read every office, in order.
3. What changed between versions? Aim’s third head is a calf in the Goetia and a cat in Scot’s Weyer.
4. What was added later? Decans, planets, tarot, colors and offerings almost always were.
5. What does it mean for you? An office of harm does not make a spirit “evil,” and an office of teaching does not make it “safe.” Decide what you will and will not do from your own ethics and from Goetia safety and ethics.

For the story of how the catalog came together, read the history of the Goetia, or browse all 72 spirits.