The 72 spirits of the Ars Goetia: a structured directory

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

This is my directory of all 72 spirits of the Ars Goetia, in the order of the 1904 Mathers and Crowley edition. It is a reference, not a book to read straight through. Every row gives the facts from the old text first, so you can see what the Goetia itself says before you meet what later writers added.

If you are struggling right now, call your local emergency number (112 in Europe, 911 in the US and Canada) or see Getting help.

How to read the directory

Historical Each row has seven columns.

• No. The spirit’s number in the 1904 order.
• Name. The name as printed in 1904.
• Variant spellings. Other forms of the name from the 1904 text, Scot’s 1584 translation of Weyer and well-known manuscript forms. Names shift between copies, so a spirit you know as Gamigin or Barbas may be listed here as Samigina or Marbas.
• Rank. The title the entry gives the spirit. Some entries give two. See ranks and offices for what the titles mean.
• Legions. The number of legions the 1904 text says the spirit rules. Other editions sometimes differ. The best-known case is Belial: the 1904 printing gives 80, as Weyer and Scot do, but the 1916 de Laurence reprint and the online transcriptions based on it give 50.
• First office. The first thing the 1904 text says the spirit does or teaches, in paraphrase or short quotation. Most spirits have several offices, often mixed, so this is a starting point, not a summary of the spirit.
• Fits the beginner criteria. Whether the spirit meets the three criteria explained below.

Each name links to that spirit’s own page, where you will find every office, the seal, the comparison with Weyer and Scot, and what later writers added.

How to read a spirit page

Every spirit page follows the same plan, so you can compare spirits side by side. The facts table and the seal come first, then these sections:

• The 1904 entry. The full public-domain text of the Mathers and Crowley edition, followed by a close reading that glosses old words such as “lamen”, “familiar” or “liberal sciences”.
• Appearance and offices. What the spirit looks like and every office, in the order the text gives them. Offices of harm or compulsion are part of the historical record, and reporting them is not endorsing them.
• Source comparison. What Johann Weyer’s Latin catalog (1577) and Reginald Scot’s English translation (1584) say, and where the Goetia changed, added or dropped something. More in Weyer and Scot.
• Name and etymology. Spellings across the sources and what the name may mean. Guesses are marked as speculation.
• Seal and images. The 1904 seal and, where one exists, Louis Le Breton’s engraving for the 1863 Dictionnaire infernal.
• Later tradition and modern practice. What later books and modern practitioners added.
• Beginner’s quick reference. The rank’s metal and hours, the Golden Dawn planet and decan with its tarot card, and the colors, incense and offerings that modern sources commonly list. Read incense, plants and offerings before you use any of them.
• Practical notes, a study question and what next. Whether the spirit fits the beginner criteria, one question to take to the texts, and the spirit’s partner in the decan scheme.

Three labels mark the layers. Historical means the old texts themselves: the Goetia, Weyer, Scot. Later tradition means what nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers added, such as Collin de Plancy’s dictionary or the Golden Dawn’s decans and Crowley’s 777. Modern means present-day practice, including personal experience (often called UPG, unverified personal gnosis). Personalities, favorite foods, signs that a spirit has “chosen” someone and birth demons belong to this last layer; see the online tradition.

If a spirit interests you, start with study, not ritual:

1. Read the offices in order and write each one in your own words.
2. Compare the 1904 wording with Scot’s English in The Discoverie of Witchcraft (Book 15, chapter 2), which is free to read online.
3. Copy the seal by hand, slowly, and note anything you missed at first glance.
4. Keep a two-column log: what the text says on the left, and what you have read online or feel about it on the right.

The beginner criteria

Modern If you are reading the directory to choose a spirit to study more closely, a spirit “fits the beginner criteria” when it meets three conditions:

1. It is not a king.
2. At least one of its offices is teaching.
3. Its entry does not center on harm, deception or compulsion.

30 of the 72 meet them. Even then, read the whole entry. Nearly every spirit in the Goetia has mixed offices, and the choice is always yours. A “No” is not a judgment that a spirit is evil, and a “Yes” is not a promise that anything is safe. It only describes what the seventeenth-century text says.

The 72 spirits

Spirits 1 to 18

Spirits 19 to 36

Spirits 37 to 54

Spirits 55 to 72

Rank rules from the Observations

Historical After the catalog, the Goetia adds short “Observations” that give each rank a metal for its seal and hours when its spirits “may be bound.” Kings are given gold, marquises silver, dukes copper, princes and prelates tin, knights lead, presidents mercury, and earls copper and silver “alike equal.” Each rank also has its own hours, from “Sunrise till Noonday in Clear Weather” for dukes to “any hour of the Day” for princes. The text adds that work should happen only when the Moon is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 days old, and it does not say which rule applies to a spirit with two ranks. I quote every rule in full on ranks and offices.

Modern Mercury is a toxic liquid metal and lead is toxic too. Never handle either. If you want to honor a rank’s metal, draw the planet’s symbol on a paper seal instead.

What the directory leaves out

Later tradition You will not find colors, incenses, days, planets or tarot cards in this table. The seventeenth-century Goetia does not give them. Planets and decans come from the Golden Dawn and Crowley’s 777 (1909), and colors, incenses and offering lists come from modern books and websites that often copy one another. The spirit pages gather those later additions in one place, each labeled by layer, so no one system looks more authoritative than it is. To see which decan, card and spirits that later system gives your own birthday, try my birth demon calculator.

The directory also leaves out personalities. The old text gives each spirit a few lines. It describes appearance and office, sometimes voice, and only rarely temperament: Vassago is “of a Good Nature,” Beleth is “very furious at his first appearance,” and Seere is “of an indifferent Good Nature.” Anything more is later.

A note on harm

Historical Many entries include offices that cause harm: wounds, sickness, death, storms, discord or love by compulsion. They are part of the historical record, and the table reports them where they come first. Reporting them is not endorsing them, and I do not teach any practice to bring them about. In the Goetia’s own world, the magician could command a spirit not to harm. Focalor, whose office is to drown men and sink ships, “will not hurt any man or thing if he be commanded to the contrary.” That is the text’s belief, not a guarantee.

A note on gender

Historical The 1904 text calls every spirit “he,” even Gremory, who appears as a beautiful woman with a duchess’s crown. Modern Many practitioners today speak of some spirits as female or beyond gender. I follow the 1904 text when describing what it says, and I note modern usage on each spirit’s page.

A note on fear

If reading these names frightens you, stop. You do not need to read all of them, or any of them. The names are not spells, and reading a name does not call a spirit. If you find yourself unable to stop thinking about a name, or afraid to close the page, please read Goetia safety, ethics and mental health, which includes a section on getting help.

Where to go next

For the story behind the list, read the history of the Goetia and Weyer and Scot, whose 1577 and 1584 catalogs hold 68 of these 72 names. For the printed edition this directory follows, see the 1904 Goetia. Everything else starts from the Goetia hub.