The Book of Solomon

The Court of Seventy-Two

Crowned riders, changing beasts, teachers and treasure-finders fill the Goetia’s seventy-two notices. Their recorded forms, offices and companies of spirits differ from one name to the next. [2]

Goetia · the numbered catalogue

A crowned man watches mounted figures with horns and animal features while a star-like apparition shines above them. — **Artistic interpretation** Mounted figures and a radiant apparition before Solomon.

Arrivals and transformations

Bael opens the catalogue with a hoarse voice and appearances as a cat, a toad, a man or all three at once. Paimon rides a dromedary under a glorious crown, preceded by spirits with trumpets, cymbals and other instruments. Asmoday has three heads, a serpent’s tail and goose-like feet, and rides an infernal dragon while carrying a lance and banner.

[2]

Other arrivals unfold through a change of form. Marbas first appears as a great lion, then becomes human at the caller’s request. Amy begins as a flaming fire; Decarabia as a star in a pentacle. Both later assume human shape. Murmur arrives as a warrior on a gryphon, wearing a ducal crown, with trumpet-bearing ministers before him. [2]

The notices do not describe every body with the same precision. Vassago’s office is recorded without a bodily appearance. Barbatos comes with four noble kings and their troops. Buer’s shape is associated with Sagittarius, while Gusion is called a Xenopilus, a term the notice does not explain. [2]

What the spirits are said to do

The offices range from philosophy and handicrafts to hidden wealth, healing and the voices of nature. Buer teaches moral and natural philosophy, logic and the virtues of plants; Barbatos gives understanding of birds and other creatures. Marbas causes disease and cures it. Amon raises feuds and reconciles disputes between friends. [2]

Even similar pursuits have different objects. Raum steals treasures from royal houses and carries them where commanded. Andromalius, the final spirit, brings back a thief and stolen goods, exposes underhand dealings and punishes wrongdoing. Paimon’s teaching reaches the earth and what supports it in the waters, the nature and location of mind, and the arts taught by his familiars. [2]

Titles and the written characters

Kings, dukes, princes, marquises, presidents, earls and a knight bear the offices. Some have paired titles: Botis is President and Earl, Ipos Earl and Prince, Murmur Duke and Earl. The separate classified list places Ipos among the princes and Murmur among the dukes without repeating either among its earls. [2][3]

The seventy-two names are accompanied by eighty printed seal figures, with alternative forms for eight spirits. The numbering of those figures gradually diverges from the numbering of the notices. After Andromalius, the catalogue’s separate descriptions give way to a collective story: Solomon confines the company and their legions in a vessel of brass. [2][1]

Sources and editions

Goetia — binding and release of the seventy-two
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile. Paragraph immediately following entry 72; printed page 31, facsimile PDF page 28. Pride, four chiefs, Babylon, release and Belial’s image.
Goetia — Shemhamphorash catalogue of seventy-two
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile. Numbered notices 1, 3, 5, 7–11, 17, 22, 32, 40, 54, 58, 69 and 72; printed pp. 12–15, 17–18, 20–21, 23, 26–27 and 30–31. Compare the original seal plates: eighty figures accompany seventy-two spirits.
Goetia — Classified List of the 72 Chief Spirits
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile. Classified List, printed pp. 32–33; PDF pp. 29–30. Ipos under Princes, Murmur under Dukes, and the Earls list.

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