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The Brass VesselThe Seventy-Two Spirits · 13
Also recorded as Bileth, Bilet
Music precedes a furious king on a pale horse. Beleth’s encounter demands firmness, a triangle and a silver ring, yet the same king must be received with the courtesy his royal company expects. [1]
Goetia 1904
Beleth is a mighty, terrible king, preceded by trumpets and other instruments as he rides a pale horse. His first appearance is furious. The Goetia’s account responds with a hazel wand directed towards the south and east and a triangle outside the circle, into which the exorcist commands him through the bonds and charges of spirits. [1]
If the threats fail to bring him into the triangle, the bonds and charms are repeated until he yields. Obedience does not dispense with ceremony: the king is then received courteously and given homage, like the kings and princes who attend him. A silver ring on the left hand’s middle finger is held against the face; the accompanying note identifies its purpose as defence against the enraged spirit’s flaming breath. [1]
Beleth’s office is to cause love between men and women until the master exorcist’s desire is fulfilled. He belongs to the order of Powers and rules eighty-five legions. His seal is worn before the caller during the working. Bileth and Bilet are alternative names printed in the same notice. [1]
Scot’s Bileth shares the pale horse, music, fury, ring and royal courtesy. His longer account includes a bowl of wine where the site will not admit an external triangle. It also reports a hope of returning to the seventh throne, then calls that hope not altogether credible. The 1904 notice retains the Powers affiliation but does not include this heavenly expectation. [1][2]
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile supplied by Keep Silence. Shemhamphorash, entry 13 and ring footnote; printed p. 16, PDF p. 13
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584); Brinsley Nicholson’s reprint of the first edition (1886), Project Gutenberg transcription. Book XV, chapter II, Bileth; Nicholson’s 1886 reprint, pp. 316–317.
