38. Halphas: an earl of the Ars 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.

Spirit 38 of the Ars Goetia is Halphas. The 1904 edition by S. L. MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley calls him an earl ruling 26 legions, and the first office it gives him is this: Halphas builds up towers and furnishes them with ammunition and weapons.

His entry shows how one misread word can change a spirit’s whole image, and his office is purely military. Each part below carries a label for its layer, explained in how to read a spirit page.

At a glance

The 1904 entry

Historical The full entry from the 1904 edition, with footnote numbers and the dash after the heading left out and the heading set in ordinary type:

Halphas, or Malthus. The Thirty-eighth Spirit is Halphas, or Malthus (or Malthas). He is a Great Earl, and appeareth in the Form of a Stock-Dove. He speaketh with a hoarse Voice. His Office is to build up Towers, and to furnish them with Ammunition and Weapons, and to send Men-of-War to places appointed. He ruleth over 26 Legions of Spirits, and his Seal is this, etc.

The entry is short and practical. Halphas appears as a stock-dove, a wild pigeon, “with a hoarse Voice”, and his office is “to build up Towers, and to furnish them with Ammunition and Weapons, and to send Men-of-War to places appointed”. “Men-of-War” here means soldiers, not warships, as Mathers notes. A dove that arms fortresses is an odd pairing, and the comparison with Weyer below explains it: the dove was once a stork.

Appearance

Historical Halphas “appeareth in the Form of a Stock-Dove. He speaketh with a hoarse Voice.”

Offices in the Ars Goetia

Historical The offices of Halphas, in the order the 1904 text gives them:

• Builds up towers and furnishes them with ammunition and weapons.
• Sends men of war to places appointed. Reported as history; not taught here.

Source comparison: Weyer and Scot

Historical Weyer, in Scot’s English, gives “Halphas” as “a great earle,” who “commeth abroad like a storke, with a hoarse voice.”

He “notablie buildeth up townes full of munition and weapons” and “sendeth men of warre to places appointed.” Weyer’s stork becomes the Goetia’s stock-dove, a kind of wild pigeon. The same change happens with Shax (44). Both give 26 legions.

Historical Weyer’s Latin has “similis ciconiæ”, like a stork, and he “insigniter ædificat oppida ampla armis plena”, notably builds large towns full of arms. Weyer also says “bellum movet”, he stirs up war, which the Goetia drops. Joseph Peterson, the modern editor of the manuscripts, notes that only Sloane MS 2731 keeps “towns”, while Sloane 3825, Sloane 3648 and Harley 6483 read “towers”, the reading Mathers printed. (About Weyer and Scot.)

Name and etymology

Historical The 1904 text gives Malthus, Malthous and Malthas as other names. Their meaning, and why they sound so close to Malphas, the next spirit, is not known. Crowley could not resist a footnote on the first of them: “But Malthus is certainly in heaven”, a joke at the economist Thomas Malthus.

Seal and images

Historical The seal above is Halphas’s as printed in 1904, and by the rules of the Observations it would be made in copper and silver, the metals of his rank. Why seals were worn, why editions draw them differently and how to study one are explained in seals, circle and triangle.

Later tradition and modern practice

Later tradition The confusion of stork and stock-dove may come from the Latin ciconia, stork, misread or misunderstood by an English copyist, but this is a guess.

Modern Modern writers sometimes present Halphas as a spirit of defense and protection. That is a modern reading of a military office.

Lore about Halphas’s personality, likes or chosen people is modern, not grimoire material; modern approaches explains where such claims come from.

Beginner’s quick reference

Before you burn or handle anything listed for Halphas, read incense, plants and offerings.

Practical notes

Halphas’s offices are military. He falls outside the beginner criteria, and I do not teach any work related to weapons or war. His entry is a good example of how a single word can change between versions: compare the stork and the dove.

In the directory, Halphas is not among the 30 spirits that fit the beginner criteria.

Try this: one question to study

Find two words in this entry, stork and towns, that changed between Weyer and the 1904 text, and write down how each change alters the picture.

What next

To compare Halphas with other spirits of his rank, read Raum and Furfur.

Later tradition In the Golden Dawn scheme of the decans, Halphas is the night spirit of the second decan of Aries, which belongs to the Three of Wands; the day spirit of the same decan is Agares (spirit 2).