Path: typhoon.sonic.net!pants.skycache.com!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!news.maxwell.syr.edu!upp1.onvoy!onvoy.com!news7.onvoy.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <38F92397.B725F415@means.net> From: "Joseph H. Peterson" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.magick Subject: Lost demon of the Goetia Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 64 Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 02:20:25 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.9.88.70 X-Complaints-To: abuse@onvoy.com X-Trace: news7.onvoy.net 955851625 206.9.88.70 (Sat, 15 Apr 2000 21:20:25 CDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 21:20:25 CDT Organization: Onvoy Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick:189072 Here's one for your goetic milk cartons! A lost demon, missing for over 400 years, may have much to tell about the Lemegeton, one of the most famous of magical handbooks (Grimoires). It has long been recognized that the first book of the Lemegeton, Goetia, corresponds closely with the catalog of demons published by Johann Weyer as Pseudomonarchia daemonum, included as an appendix to his De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563). Weyer referred to his source manuscript as Liber officiorum spirituum, seu Liber dictus Empto. Salomonis, de principibus & regibus dæmoniorum ("Book of the offices of spirits, or the Book of sayings of Empto. Solomon concerning the princes and kings of the demons") It includes variations in the names of many of the demons, showing that it had been redacted by the time Weyer obtained it, so it was evidently much older than 1563. In Weyer’s text there are no demonic seals, and the demons are invoked by a simple conjuration, not the elaborate ritual found in the Lemegeton. The most striking difference between Weyer’s text and the Goetia is the order of spirits. I see no explanation for the difference; it’s almost as if a stack of cards got scrambled. There are also four additional spirits in the Goetia (number 3, and the last three). Another anomaly may be of more significance: The fourth spirit in Weyer’s text, Pruflas alias Bufas, was accidently left out of Reginal Scot’s English translation (found in his highly rational 1584 Discovery of Witchcraft), or was already missing from the edition of Weyer used by Scot. It is also the only spirit from Weyer’s list that is not found in the Lemegeton. If a specific edition can be found which introduced this defect, it may thus be possible to fix the date of the composition of the Goetia in its present form. Here is the text in question (apologies for my rough translation): § 4. Pruflas, alibi invenitur Bufas, magnus Princeps & Dux est cujus mansio circa turrim Babylonis, & videtur in eo flamma foris, caput autem assimilatur magno nycticoraci. Autor est & promotor discordiarum, bellorum, rixarum & mendaciorum. Omnibus in locis non intromittatur. Ad quærita respondet abunde. Sub sunt huic legiones vinginti sex, partim ex ordine Throni, partim Angelorum. (4) Pruflas, otherwise found as Bufas, is a great prince and duke, whose abode is around the Tower of Babylon, and there he is seen like a flame outside. His head however is like that of a great night hawk. He is the author and promoter of discord, war, quarrels, and falsehood. He may not be admitted into every place. He responds generously to your requests. Under him are twenty-six legions, partly of the order of Thrones, and partly of the order of Angels. Weyer was a firm believer in magic, and was in fact a student of one of the most famous occultists of all time, H. C. Agrippa. His Praestigiis Daemonum was basically a point-by-point rebuttal of the hateful witch hunter's handbook, Malleus Maleficarum. His book includes interesting reports of Faust, Agrippa, and Trithemius from a contemporary witness. I'm trying to track down early editions of Weyer to see what happened to this generous but elusive demon, but in the meantime I would appreciate any leads from the demon spotters among us. I will add the complete Latin text, along with translation, to my website (http://www.avesta.org/esoteric) as soon as I get a chance. -JHP