The 72 Goetia Demons: Complete List and Meanings

Introduction

The Ars Goetia forms the foundational grimoire of Western demonology. As the opening book of the Lesser Key of Solomon, it catalogues the 72 spirits traditionally said to have been bound by King Solomon, recording for each one its seal, its rank in the infernal hierarchy, the number of legions it commands, and the particular offices it exercises over human affairs. Few texts in the history of Western magic have been copied, annotated, and reprinted with such persistence across four centuries of esoteric practice.

What makes the Ars Goetia remarkable is its systematic character. This is not a loose collection of folkloric warnings; it is an ordered catalogue, complete with graphic sigils that function as the signatures of each spirit, together with instructions for the construction of the magic circle and the instruments of evocation. For the modern student of the occult, it remains the primary reference point for understanding how Renaissance and early modern magicians organized the unseen world into courts, ranks, and offices that mirrored — and parodied — the celestial hierarchy above it.

This guide presents the complete list of the 72 Goetia demons with their traditional ranks and meanings, examines the historical origins of the text, and surveys the structure of the hierarchy and the sigils it describes. As with all content on this site, these figures are treated as elements of grimoire tradition: cultural-historical artifacts whose study reveals how magicians imagined the infernal realms, not as encouragement to attempt any operation described within its pages.

What Is the Ars Goetia?

The Ars Goetia is the first of five treatises gathered in the Lesser Key of Solomon (Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis), an anonymous compilation of magical texts that circulated in manuscript during the seventeenth century. The Lemegeton collects the Ars Goetia, which catalogues the 72 spirits of the infernal hierarchy; the Ars Theurgia-Goetia, which describes the wandering spirits of the cardinal directions; the Ars Paulina, concerned with the angels of the hours and the zodiac; the Ars Almadel, dealing with the angels of the four altitudes; and the Ars Notoria, a book of orations attributed to Solomon himself. Of the five, the Goetia has always been the most famous — and the most feared.

Most of the demon names recorded in the Goetia did not originate with it. They appear, in slightly different form and order, in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum — the "false monarchy of demons" that the physician Johann Weyer appended to his De Praestigiis Daemonum in 1563 — and Weyer's list reached English readers through Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft of 1584. What the Goetia contributes is the full set of 72 sigils, the graphic seals of each spirit that are absent from Weyer's catalogue, along with the detailed instructions for the brass vessel, the circle, and the instruments of the art that made it a working manual rather than a mere list.

The text entered its modern form in 1904, when Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley published The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King. Their edition, drawn from manuscript material in the British Museum's collections, restored the sigils to print in a widely available edition for the first time and added Crowley's own preliminary invocation, the famous Bornless One. It was this edition that carried the Goetia into twentieth-century occultism, and nearly every modern treatment of the 72 demons — from ceremonial magicians to chaos magicians — descends from it in some way.

For readers who want to go deeper into the organization of the infernal courts, the site's companion guide to the 72 Goetia spirits, a complete ranked list examines the ranks and their offices in further detail, while the cabinet classification of the Goetia shows how the catalogue is organized into five presided cabinets.

The Legend of Solomon and the Binding of the Spirits

According to the legend preserved in the grimoire tradition, Solomon received from heaven the power to command the demons and compelled them to labor on the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Goetia describes how, once the work was finished, the 72 spirits were sealed inside a vessel of brass and thrown into a deep lake in Babylon. When the men of that city, believing the lake to conceal treasure, drained the water and broke open the vessel, the demons burst forth and resumed their wanderings across the world — but their names, ranks, and seals had already been recorded, and so they could still be constrained by the qualified magician who approached them with the proper knowledge.

The same tradition also explains the composition of the hierarchy itself. Many of the 72 spirits are described as fallen members of the angelic orders — Powers, Virtues, Thrones, and the rest — who descended with Lucifer or fell afterward through pride. The catalogue records these former allegiances with care, and later commentators made much of them, tracing in the infernal court a mirror image of the celestial hierarchy it was said to have abandoned. This dual character — both angel and demon, both fallen and remembered — is one of the features that has kept the Goetia fascinating to students of esoteric history for centuries.

The Structure of the Infernal Hierarchy

The 72 demons are arranged into seven ranks, each with its characteristic duties and its place in the infernal court. The source manuscripts classify them as follows:

• Kings — the eight sovereigns of the catalogue: Bael, Paimon, Beleth, Purson, Asmoday, Vine, Balam, and Belial. Each commands large legions and exercises dominion over wide regions of human affairs.
• Dukes — the largest rank in the hierarchy, numbering twenty-three spirits, whose offices generally concern knowledge, war, love, and the revelation of hidden things.
• Princes — five spirits: Vassago, Sitri, Stolas, Orobas, and Seere, several of whom give true answers concerning the past and the future.
• Marquises — fifteen spirits whose offices often lean toward battles, building, and the discovery of treasures, and several of whom are said to hope for eventual readmission to heaven.
• Presidents — fourteen spirits, many of them teachers of the arts and sciences, including logic, rhetoric, astronomy, and philosophy.
• Earls (Counts) — six spirits associated with metals, storms, and the treasures of the earth.
• The Knight — a single spirit, Furcas, teacher of philosophy and the arts of divination.

Beyond their rank, each demon commands a stated number of legions — in some cases a handful of companies, in others as many as two hundred — and holds a defined office, from teaching languages and healing infirmities to sowing discord and destroying cities. It is this combination of rank, legion, and office that gives the catalogue its bureaucratic precision, and it is why the Goetia reads less like a book of nightmares and more like a directory of an infernal civil service, complete with job descriptions for each of its officers.

The 72 Demons: The Complete List

The list below follows the sequence of the Goetia as published in the Mathers–Crowley edition of 1904, recording for each spirit its number, its rank in the hierarchy (including the dual ranks several spirits hold), and its traditional nature as described in the source text. It is presented as a catalog of grimoire tradition, for study and reference.

Kings of the Goetia

• 1. Bael — the first King, who appears as a cat, a toad, a man, or all three forms at once, and speaks with a hoarse voice; he teaches the art of invisibility.
• 9. Paimon — a King depicted as a crowned man riding a dromedary, attended by musicians whose instruments sound wherever he goes; he teaches all arts and sciences and can reveal the thoughts of others.
• 13. Beleth — a terrible and mighty King who commands eighty-five legions, and whose evocation, the text says, must be approached with courtesy and a hazel wand in hand.
• 20. Purson — a King who appears as a lion-faced man riding a bear and carrying a vicious serpent; he knows hidden things, earthly treasures, and the affairs of past and future.
• 32. Asmoday (Asmodeus) — a King with three heads — those of a bull, a man, and a ram — riding a dragon; he teaches arithmetic, geometry, and all handicrafts, and makes men invisible.
• 45. Vine (Vinea) — a King and Earl appearing as a lion mounted on a black horse and holding a viper; he destroys cities, uncovers witches and hidden things, and raises storms.
• 51. Balam — a King with three heads — bull, man, and ram — and the tail of a serpent, riding a bear; he gives true answers of past, present, and future, and makes men invisible and witty.
• 68. Belial — a King created next after Lucifer, who distributes senatorships and favors, and reconciles friends and enemies.

Dukes of the Goetia

• 2. Agares — an old man riding a crocodile with a goshawk on his fist; he teaches languages, causes earthquakes, and makes those who stand still run and those who flee return.
• 6. Valefor — a good familiar spirit with the head of a lion and that of an ass, who tempts his companions toward theft.
• 8. Barbatos — a bowman who, the text says, appears when the sun is in Sagittarius; he understands the singing of birds and the voices of other creatures, hunts out hidden treasures, and reconciles friends and rulers.
• 11. Gusion — who shows the true meaning of all questions of past, present, and future, reconciles enemies, and dispenses honors and dignities.
• 15. Eligos — a knightly figure bearing a lance, a banner, and a serpent, who discovers hidden things and knows the outcomes of wars.
• 16. Zepar — a soldier in red attire who inflames women with love for men and, in the tradition, is associated with causing sterility.
• 18. Bathin — a strong man with a serpent's tail riding a pale horse, who understands the virtues of herbs and precious stones and transports men swiftly between countries.
• 19. Sallos (Saleos) — a gallant soldier riding a crocodile, whose office is to incite love between men and women.
• 23. Aim (Aym) — who sets cities, castles, and great places on fire, and appears with three heads: that of a serpent, a man bearing two stars on his forehead, and a calf.
• 26. Bune (Bim) — a dragon with three heads who raises the dead, changes their places at will, and makes men wise, eloquent, and rich.
• 28. Berith — a red soldier riding a red horse and wearing a golden crown, who turns all metals into gold and gives true answers of past, present, and to come.
• 29. Astaroth — a great Duke appearing as an iniquitous angel riding a dragon-like beast and carrying a viper in his right hand; he knows past, present, and future and discloses the sciences and hidden treasures.
• 41. Focalor — a man with the wings of a griffin who commands the winds and the seas and is said to drown men and sink the ships of war.
• 42. Vepar — who appears in the form of a mermaid, guides the waters and the ships laden with arms, and is associated with putrefying wounds.
• 47. Uvall (Vual) — a mighty dromedary who procures the love of women and tells of things past, present, and to come.
• 49. Crocell (Crokel) — an angelic figure who teaches geometry and the liberal sciences and is said to warm waters and discover baths.
• 52. Alloces (Allocer) — an armed soldier with the face of a lion riding a red horse, who teaches astronomy and the liberal sciences.
• 54. Murmur (Murmus) — a Duke and Earl appearing as a soldier riding a griffin and wearing a ducal crown, who teaches philosophy and constrains the souls of the dead.
• 56. Gremory (Gamori) — a beautiful woman riding a camel, who shows treasures, tells of past, present, and future, and procures the love of women, especially of maidens.
• 60. Vapula — a lion with the wings of a griffin who teaches philosophy and the handicrafts.
• 64. Flauros (Haures) — a terrible leopard who, when commanded, takes human form; he burns the magician's adversaries and tells of past, present, and future.
• 67. Amdusias (Amdukias) — who appears as a unicorn, causes trees to bend and fall, and gives musical harmonies whose instruments are heard but not seen.
• 71. Dantalion — a man of many countenances, both of men and women, holding a book in his right hand; he knows all human thoughts and can change them at will.

Princes of the Goetia

• 3. Vassago — whose nature is to declare things past and future and to discover all that is hidden or lost.
• 12. Sitri — with the head of a leopard and the wings of a griffin, who inflames men and women with love for one another.
• 36. Stolas (Stolos) — who appears as a raven or as a crowned man, and teaches astronomy, the virtues of herbs, and the values of precious stones.
• 55. Orobas — who appears as a horse, gives true answers, procures dignities, and protects the magician from the malice of enemies.
• 70. Seere (Seir) — a beautiful man riding a winged horse, who travels with incredible swiftness across the earth and finds lost and hidden things.

Marquises of the Goetia

• 4. Samigina (Gamigin) — who appears as a small horse or ass, teaches the liberal sciences, and recounts the souls of those who died in sin.
• 7. Amon — who appears as a wolf with a serpent's tail breathing fire, or as a man with the teeth of a dog; he knows past and future, procures love, and reconciles controversies.
• 14. Leraje (Leraie) — an archer in green attire who causes great battles and contests and aggravates wounds made by arrows.
• 24. Naberius (Naberus) — who appears as a black crane, restores lost honors and dignities, and makes men cunning in all arts and sciences.
• 27. Ronove (Ronové) — a Marquis and Earl who teaches the arts of languages and rhetoric and provides good servants acquainted with the tongues of men.
• 30. Forneus — who appears as a sea-monster, teaches rhetoric and the languages, and makes men beloved and renowned.
• 35. Marchosias — a wolf with the wings of a griffin and the tail of a serpent who breathes fire; the tradition says he hopes to return to heaven after twelve hundred years.
• 37. Phenex (Phoenix) — who appears as the bird of that name with fiery-red plumage and a voice like a child; he likewise hopes, the text says, to return to heaven after twelve hundred years.
• 43. Sabnock (Sabnac) — an armed soldier with the head of a lion riding a pale horse, who builds high towers and camps and arms them with weapons.
• 44. Shax (Shaz) — who appears as a stock dove with a hoarse and subtle voice, who takes money from the houses of kings and, once commanded into the triangle, fetches treasures long lost.
• 59. Orias (Oriax) — a lion riding a horse with a serpent's tail, who teaches the courses of the stars, transforms men, and distributes dignities and honors.
• 63. Andras — an angel with the head of a raven riding a black wolf and carrying a sharp sword, whose office is to sow discords and contentions.
• 65. Andrealphus — who appears as a peacock with great noise, teaches geometry and astronomy, and can transform men into the likeness of birds.
• 66. Cimeies (Kimaris) — a valiant warrior riding a black horse, who teaches grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and discovers lost and hidden things.
• 69. Decarabia — who appears as a star in a pentacle, knows the virtues of birds, and takes human form to serve as a familiar.

Presidents of the Goetia

• 5. Marbas — a mighty lion who knows the mechanical arts, changes men into other shapes, and heals or causes diseases.
• 10. Buer — who appears in the form of a wheel and teaches philosophy, both natural and moral, along with the virtues of herbs; he heals all infirmities.
• 17. Botis — a President and Earl who appears as an ugly viper and then as a man with great teeth and horns; he reconciles friends and tells of past and future.
• 21. Marax (Morax) — an Earl and President who teaches astronomy and the liberal sciences and provides wise and intelligent familiars.
• 25. Glasya-Labolas — a President and Earl appearing as a dog with the wings of a griffin, who teaches the arts and sciences instantly, causes bloodshed, and foretells things to come.
• 31. Foras (Forcas) — who teaches logic and ethics, the virtues of herbs and precious stones, and makes men invisible, wise, eloquent, and long-lived.
• 33. Gaap — a President and Prince who teaches philosophy and the liberal sciences, transports men swiftly between countries, and governs amatory affairs.
• 39. Malphas — who appears as a crow, builds high towers and palaces, reveals the desires of enemies, and — the text warns — receives sacrifices with deceit.
• 48. Haagenti — a bull with the wings of a griffin who transmutes all metals into gold and turns water into wine.
• 53. Caim (Camio) — who first appears in the form of a bird called a thrush in the source text, and afterwards as a man carrying a sharp sword; he understands the voices of birds, cattle, and dogs, and gives true answers.
• 57. Ose (Oso) — a leopard who makes men witty or, when unbound, mad, and can transform the appearance of any man into that of another.
• 58. Amy (Avnas) — who appears as a flame of fire, teaches astrology and the liberal sciences, gives treasures, and hopes — the tradition says — to return to heaven after twelve hundred years.
• 61. Zagan — a bull with the wings of a griffin who makes men witty, turns water into wine, blood into oil, and metal into the coin of that metal.
• 62. Valac (Volac) — a small boy with the wings of an angel riding a two-headed dragon, who reveals serpents and finds hidden treasures.

Earls, Counts, and the Knight

• 22. Ipos — an Earl and Prince appearing as an angelic figure with the head of a lion, the feet of a goose, and the tail of a hare, who makes men bold and witty.
• 34. Furfur — a hart with a fiery tail who commands the winds and causes storms, but speaks only lies unless constrained within a triangle.
• 38. Halphas — a stork who builds towers and cities and supplies them with weapons, and sends men-of-war to their appointed places.
• 40. Raum — a crow who steals treasures from the houses of kings, carries them where commanded, and destroys the reputations of the great.
• 46. Bifrons — who appears as a monster and then as a man; he teaches astrology, geometry, and the virtues of herbs and stones, and moves corpses to other places while lighting candles upon their graves.
• 72. Andromalius — the last of the 72, a man holding a great serpent in his hand, whose office is to catch thieves, recover stolen goods, and punish all wickedness and deceit.
• 50. Furcas — the single Knight of the hierarchy, a cruel old man with a long beard and a hairy head riding a pale horse, who teaches philosophy, rhetoric, and the art of palmistry.

The 72 Demons by Classification

The Goetia catalogue is also organized in the classification used across this site's Goetia series and in the Arcana Goetia app: five cabinets — Jet, Eth, Oth, Phe, and Dof — each governed by a presiding officer and grouping together the demons that share a cabinet's character. In this framework the five presidents — Bune, Vine, Bifrons, Balam, and Alloc — preside over their respective cabinets, each of which contains approximately fourteen to fifteen of the 72 spirits.

Reading the catalogue through this framework gives it a second axis of organization. The first axis is rank: a demon's place in the hierarchy of Kings, Dukes, Princes, Marquises, Presidents, Earls, and the Knight tells you its traditional authority. The second is cabinet: the Jet, Eth, Oth, Phe, and Dof grouping describes the temperament and correspondences a demon shares with its fellows. Together the two axes turn a list of 72 names into a structured map of the infernal court — and they echo, deliberately or not, the older frameworks of occult correspondence in which the cosmos itself was organized in fives, from the classical elements plus spirit to the five points of the pentagram.

Notable Demons of the Ars Goetia

Bael

Bael stands first in the Goetia's catalogue, and his description is among the most striking in the text: he appears as a cat, a toad, a man, or all three forms at once, and he speaks with a hoarse voice. He commands sixty-six legions, and his office is to teach the art of invisibility. Later commentators read his triple form as a deliberate mockery of the Trinity, an inversion typical of the way the grimoire tradition imagines the infernal realm parodying the celestial one. As the first name in the list, Bael has become emblematic of the whole catalogue — the gatekeeper of the Goetia itself.

Paimon

Paimon is among the most powerful figures in the Goetia, depicted as a crowned man riding a dromedary, preceded by musicians whose instruments sound wherever he goes. The text assigns him two hundred legions, more than almost any other spirit, and describes him as more obedient to Lucifer than any other King. His office is omniscient in scope: he teaches all arts and sciences, and can reveal the thoughts of other men — and, if pressed, bind them to the magician's will. The elaborate ritual instructions the Goetia attaches to his evocation, including the demand that the summoner's companions remain silent and attentive while he speaks, have made Paimon one of the most recognized names in the entire catalogue, and the site's profile of King Paimon, Goetia demon examines his traditions in depth.

Astaroth

Astaroth is a great Duke who appears as an iniquitous angel riding a dragon-like beast and carrying a viper in his right hand. He knows past, present, and future, discloses all the sciences, and reveals hidden treasures — but the text is careful to warn that he will not willingly speak the truth of his own nature. Scholars of esoteric history have long noted that his name echoes Astarte, the ancient Phoenician goddess, a reminder that many figures in the grimoire tradition carry the memory of older deities transformed by centuries of monotheistic rewriting.

Asmoday

Asmoday — the Asmodeus of the Book of Tobit, where he appears as the jealous spirit who slew the seven bridegrooms — commands seventy-two legions as a King of the Goetia. He appears with three heads, those of a bull, a man, and a ram, riding a dragon and bearing a lance. His office is to teach arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and all handicrafts, and to make men invisible. The fusion of the biblical Asmodeus with the Goetic King illustrates how the catalogue absorbed and transformed figures from scripture, folklore, and older magical texts into a single coherent hierarchy.

Sigils and Seals

Each demon possesses a unique sigil printed in the Goetia, and these seals are the most visually recognizable part of the entire grimoire. In the logic of the text, the sigil is the signature of the spirit: the graphic mark by which it is known, summoned, and constrained. The Goetia instructs the practitioner to draw the seal upon parchment or wax during the proper hour, to consecrate it, and to hold it as a focal point for evocation and meditation. Whatever one makes of the metaphysics, the sigils function as a complete graphic system — 72 distinct, geometrically inventive marks that have influenced occult art from Renaissance woodcuts to modern album covers.

For modern practitioners, the seals serve primarily as focal points for study and meditation on each demon's nature and correspondences. Those who want to explore the graphic side of the tradition further can experiment with the site's Chaos Sigil Generator, which applies the same principles of graphic condensation to the practitioner's own stated intent, or read the site's guide to Goetia seals and sigils, which walks through the traditional seals in detail — the same craft of turning desire into mark that underlies both the Goetia's seals and the sigil magic of the chaos magick current.

Working with Goetian Demons

Traditional methods for working with the Goetia include evocation, talismanic work, and meditation on their respective seals. In the classical protocol, the magician stands protected within the consecrated circle while the spirit is called into the triangle of art set outside it — a geometry that keeps the operator at a controlled distance from what he invokes. The Goetia adds its own apparatus: the brass vessel, the black-handled knife, the waxen seal, and the proper hours of the day assigned to each rank. The full protocol, as the text presents it, demands months of preparation, memorization, and a tolerance for ceremonial density that few modern practitioners possess.

Modern approaches tend toward leaner paths. The psychological reading popularized by the chaos magick current treats the 72 as archetypal forces of the psyche rather than external beings — the King as sovereignty, the Duke as knowledge and strategy, the President as the teacher of arts — and works with their sigils as images for meditation and focus. Whether one approaches the catalogue as ceremonialist or as psychologist, the practice always begins the same way: with study. The Goetia rewards the reader who knows its history, its structure, and the traditional descriptions of each spirit before any ritual consideration begins.

Ethical Considerations

The Goetia demands respect, discipline, and knowledge. Preparation is essential before any interaction, and the text itself is full of warnings: Malphas receives sacrifices with deceit, Furfur speaks only lies unless bound within the triangle, and Paimon must be treated with the deference his rank demands. The grimoire tradition that produced the catalogue was never casual about its material; it surrounded the 72 spirits with circles, hours, and licenses to depart precisely because it regarded them as dangerous officers of a hostile court.

For the modern reader, the safest and most rewarding approach to the 72 demons is study. Read the source text and understand its history — a seventeenth-century compilation drawing on Weyer's 1563 catalogue, transformed by Mathers and Crowley in 1904 into the standard modern edition. Treat the sigils as graphic artifacts of a magical worldview and the descriptions as cultural history, and the Goetia becomes what it is for scholars and practitioners alike: one of the strangest and most complete documents of the Western esoteric tradition, a catalogue of 72 names that has outlived every attempt to dismiss it. This site presents the material in that spirit — as reference, as history, and as a window into the way magicians have always organized the unseen world — and the site's guide to Goetia ethics and safety expands on this spirit of responsible engagement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Goetia demons real?

They exist as archetypal forces within the Western occult tradition, whether viewed as literal entities or psychological correspondences.

Can anyone summon a Goetia demon?

Traditional sources emphasize the need for rigorous preparation, knowledge, and ethical grounding.

References

• Lesser Key of Solomon — https://example.com/lesser-key-solomon
• Sacred-Texts.com Goetia — https://sacred-texts.com/gs/goetia.htm

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