Goetic Justice

As he read through the conversations and discussions, one subject stood out to him, one name that kept coming up wherever he looked. The Ars Goetia. He eventually tracked down a thread that was filled with instructions on how to draw runes and sigils, summoning circles and rituals that must be performed in order to invoke a spirit, extensive and detailed lists of Goetic demons and their associated seals. As he pored over the information, he began to realize that these were not winged beasts with pitchforks whose only purpose was to do evil, but that each demon had a realm of expertise and was said to bestow help or services upon the summoner. Some taught skills or arts, while others revealed hidden truths. There was a demon here for every conceivable need.

One could summon Eligos to predict the outcome of a war, the creature appearing before the summoner as a ghostly specter riding a skeletal horse. There was Vaul, who could cause women to fall in love with his summoner, but who only spoke in broken Egyptian. There was Bifrons, who would teach the arts and sciences. Foras would teach logic and ethics, making men eloquent and well-spoken. Stolas took the form of a crowned owl and would teach his conjurer the secrets of astrology. It was a veritable shopping list of demons, seventy-two of them to be precise, along with the necessary knowledge concerning their summoning. The Ars Goetia, the source material was called -- a Medieval text that detailed the exploits of one King Solomon.

There was so much information here, sources ranging from the seventeenth-century text all the way back to Biblical figures mentioned in scripture. Was this some collective insanity? Surely the sheer volume of information available lent some credence to its authenticity?

Ryan quickly realized that trying this out would not be as simple as drawing on his floor in sharpie and then lighting some candles. If he was going to do this, really commit to it, then he needed to do the proper research. He had to pick one of these Goetic demons, choose one that suited his problems as closely as possible, and then figure out what he needed to do in order to invoke it.

He looked at the clock on his taskbar, noticing that several hours had passed. He had been so engrossed in his research that he hadn't even noticed. After a moment of consideration, he elected to sleep on it. If he still felt like doing this when he was sober in the morning, then he'd make some serious plans.

***

Ryan awoke the following morning with a renewed desire to see the project through, his sober mind now more convinced than ever that this was the right course of action. With no job to go to and no social obligations to eat up his time, he resolved to spend the entire day researching the subject.

He began his search on the forum, quickly discovering that the source material for these Goetic demons was split into several different tomes and grimoires. Some were ancient scriptures said to have been written by Solomon himself, pre-dating the advent of Christianity by a thousand years. Others were Medieval texts, and still more were relatively modern adaptations of the works that were overall easier to parse. He decided to start his investigations with one of those, the most famous of which was The Lesser Key of Solomon, a collection of transcriptions of ancient manuscripts.

He downloaded a PDF file of the book but soon became discouraged as he scrolled through the document. There was a lot of detailed information here, along with lengthy descriptions of the demons and their sigils, but it was too overwhelming. It was full of meandering invocations and chants that would let one greet or banish the spirits. Without knowing where to start, what he needed was a how-to.

After returning to the archives and sifting through the posts, he eventually found exactly what he required. Aleister Crowley's Illustrated Goetia. The book detailed the man's own tentative explorations into the art of summoning, along with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions. There was even a blow-by-blow account of what had occurred when the spirit had been invoked. All the better, it had been published in 1904 and so was not fraught with Ye Olde English and Latin incantations. There was no better place to start. He downloaded a scanned copy of the book, then transferred it to his phone and began to devour its pages.

Immediately, he was struck by the narrator's situation, so similar was it to his own that he felt chills crawl up his spine. Crowley had lost everything, jobless and contemplating thoughts that he described as too dark to entertain, he had turned to the Goetia in his time of need. In an attempt to turn his life around, he had chosen to invoke demon number fifty-five -- Orobas. The entity was described as being trustworthy, and was able to grant the favor of friends and foes. Ryan admitted to himself that he didn't understand precisely what terms like prelacies and true answers of divinity really meant, but Crowley had found Orobas perfectly suited to the task, and who was Ryan to question the choice?

As he read on, the narrator recounted the experience of his first summoning, along with the steps and preparations that he had taken. It was a veritable roadmap to anyone interested in trying it out for themselves. He had anointed himself in oils and then had created an improvised temple in his son's bedroom, drawing a summoning circle on the floor using masking tape. He had used easily obtainable incense burners and candles, no arcane artifacts of any kind, and there had been no gruesome sacrifices or bloody rituals of any sort. When laid out like this, the whole affair seemed almost mundane, pedestrian.

Ryan had pictured a man in lavish robes sacrificing a goat with a ceremonial dagger before some complex and intricate sigil, but a Goetic summoning could apparently be carried out with common household items. The elaborate and lengthy incantations detailed in Solomon's Key seemed to be unnecessary, too. They were used more to put the summoner in a meditative state than as any kind of code that would cause the demon to appear. The author had not performed them, and there had been no dire consequences. As the story went on, Crowley detailed his first attempt at a summoning. It had been clumsy and almost comically inept, yet it was successful in invoking the demon. Becoming frustrated with his initial lack of success, Crowley had cursed out the spirit with a slew of profanities, which had caused it to reluctantly appear. In his surprise, he had rubbed cinnamon oil in his own eyes by accident. Ryan was fairly confident that he could do better, if not in the ritual itself, at least in his composure.

The demon had appeared to him in the form of a tiny horse with a miserable expression, seen not with the eyes, but as one sees an idea formed in their mind. A series of almost hysterical threats and promises had kept the creature under control, and after some back-and-forth between the two parties, a sort of contract had been formed. Orobas would use the spirits under its command to help Crowley get his life back on track, and according to him, it had worked as advertised. He had seen positive results that very same day in the form of an old friend appearing on his doorstep and giving him a car that he had desperately needed for transport. By the end of the afternoon, he had found a new job in the classifieds section of a newspaper.

Coincidence, some claimed, but the author was adamant that it was Orobas who had orchestrated his sudden streak of good luck.

The only real problem was that the author had not started out on the same footing as Ryan. Crowley had been educated in what he referred to as High Magick under the tutelage of a more senior Magician. Would Ryan be able to accomplish the same feats without that careful guidance? Fuck it, this was the information age. He could obtain anything that he needed to know online. The worst-case scenario was that it just didn't work and made him feel foolish. What harm was there in giving it a go?

Ryan resolved to follow the instructions laid out in the book. He would obtain the necessary information and tools, then attempt to summon his own Goetic demon.

CHAPTER 2: SUMMONING FOR DUMMIES

"Hi, do you have, uh...Myrrh Oil?" Ryan stammered, the shop assistant giving him a strange look as he read from his shopping list of ingredients. He was in a holistic medicine store, the only place that he could find that might have the component oils required to make the Oil of Abramelin described in Crowley's Goetia, which was apparently necessary for the ritual.

"We do," she replied, leading him towards one of the shelves in the cramped building. There were dreamcatchers and charms hanging from the ceiling, little porcelain models of fairies and dragons behind glass cabinets, and the walls were lined with jars containing all manner of plants and herbs. "What do you need it for? It's great for treating fungal and bacterial infections, and new studies have shown that it has anti-cancer properties."

Ryan choked back a derisive snort. He couldn't stand these new-age types, but he quickly realized that attempting to summon a demon was hardly a more credible use for the essential oil than treating athlete's foot.

"I need some other things, too," he said as he showed her his list. She paused for a moment, reading the crumpled piece of paper, then handed it back to him.

"We do carry cinnamon oil and galangal, but you'd have to get olive oil from a supermarket or maybe a general store. What's this for, if you don't mind my asking? I might be able to make some suggestions if I know more."

"Oh, my girlfriend loves this stuff," he said. "Got any candles? Maybe some incense burners? It's her birthday, and I want to treat her to a relaxing bath."

The woman clapped her hands together gleefully, apparently pleased by his reply.

"Of course, and you'll be wanting some relaxing bath salts as well. We have some lavender bubble bath that's just lovely. Might I recommend a CD, also? There's a recording of rainforest sounds that will just release all of that negative energy, you know?"

"Oh yeah, negative energy. Can't be doing with that."

Before long, he was leaving the store with a biodegradable carrier full of oils and candles. He didn't necessarily need a lot of the soaps and salts, but Crowley had taken a lengthy bath in order to cleanse himself before the summoning, so he should too. Next stop was the general store to pick up some olive oil, a Goodwill to pick up some clothes that he could use as robes, and then a hardware store for the metal plate that he would need to engrave the demon's sigil onto.

Although Crowley's first summoning had been somewhat makeshift, Ryan had decided on following at least some of the more detailed instructions listed in Solomon's Key. Chiefly, the use of wards and protections, which would serve to confine whatever entity he managed to invoke and protect him from any harm that might befall him. He also kind of just wanted to draw on things, and making occult robes would be a lot of fun.

***

Ryan had cleared out the small living room in his apartment and had ended up with a space of roughly eight by eight feet of hardwood flooring, the furniture pushed up against the walls to make as much space as possible. It was on the small side, and the book stated that nine feet was necessary, but it would have to do. The grimoires didn't account for magicians living in apartment blocks.

He was hard at work drawing sigils on pieces of card, intending to attach them to a bathrobe that he had acquired from the used clothing store. It wasn't quite a wizard's robe, but it was more than Crowley had available when he had summoned his first demon. Ryan was copying the elaborate drawings from Solomon's Key, doing his best to replicate them. These were not necessary to bring the demon forth but rather to ensure the optimal containment of it and the protection of the summoner. It was all quite elaborate, and once again, the sheer quantity of information gave the whole affair credence.

First, there was the Solomon's Sexangle, a figure that resembled a Star of David contained within a circle, decorated with writing and runes. He would find a way to hang the card from the cloth belt of the bathrobe. It was intended to be flashed at the demon when it appeared, which would supposedly compel it to be obedient and to take a humanoid form.

Next, he would make a Pentagonal Figure of Solomon. It was a pendant to be worn around the neck with a ward used to protect the user on one side and the sigil of the chosen demon on the other. He could use some string and thread it through a hole in the paper. Nowhere did it state that these had to be made from any specific material like metal or wood.

The final piece of his costume would be a Ring of Solomon, a circular ward containing odd writing that would be worn on or near the face to protect him from acrid fumes -- sulfur and brimstone and all that. He would draw it on a piece of card and staple it to a sweatband. Easy. There was one more ward listed, the Secret Seal of Solomon, but that was to be used for containing the entity within a brass vessel like a Genie in a lamp. Ryan had no such vessel, nor did he have any desire to attempt to confine a demon should he succeed in invoking one.

He had chalk for drawing the magick circle, which was going to be an absolute bitch, along with the Triangle of Solomon that was used to confine disobedient spirits -- a sort of time-out for naughty demons. The circle was going to take the most time to make by far, as it was full of Hebrew writing that he didn't understand and sigils within sigils that looked especially hard to reproduce.

He had fashioned a wand from a stick by shaving away the bark with a pocket knife, and he had all of the candles and incense that he had bought on hand, unsure of what scents a demon might prefer.

There were a few other complications. Some demons could only be summoned at certain times of the month depending on their rank in Hell's armies, and some of the invocations required that the summoner hath not defiled himself by any woman in the space of a month. That last part wasn't going to be an issue, and for a moment, he considered asking the demon to make it so that Becky ended her days in the company of two dozen cats.

Speaking of which, he still hadn't decided which Goetic demon he was going to attempt to summon. He couldn't continue much further without choosing one, as its sigil was required for several of the wards. The problem was that there were so many to pick from, and the archaic language used in Solomon's Key made many of their attributes vague at best. How the hell was he supposed to know what he changeth ye dead bodyes and putteth them into one another's places actually equated to? Fortunately, Crowley's Illustrated Goetia contained just that -- illustrations of all of the demons along with some brief descriptions in modern English.

As he examined the extensive list, he began to realize how arbitrary some of their stated powers and areas of expertise were. If you wanted to bend trees for some reason, then you could summon number sixty-seven, Amduscias. He was your guy when it came to tree bending, and that seemed to be about all that he did. Number thirty-one, Foras, could make you invisible and also lecture you on logic and ethics. Many of them seemed to have artistic or academic pursuits that they would teach you, from foreign languages to philosophy and painting. Perhaps risking your immortal soul was preferable to dealing with student loan collectors.

He was somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of demons that could allegedly be summoned. It was like going through a list of goddamned Pokemon. They could do everything from transmuting metals to gold to making women fall in love. They could even teach people to speak to dogs. He had to think hard about what would actually solve his problems, as the author of the Illustrated Goetia had been very specific about only asking for things that you actually needed from the demons, as if they would somehow be able to tell if your motivation was greed or lust. Ryan was confident that his own needs were severe enough to warrant the intervention of a demon, and so he wasn't too worried about that part. As long as he chose his invocation wisely, it shouldn't be a problem.

Perhaps he should just go with Orobas, the one that had been summoned in the story that he had read. It was a fairly low-level demon, and it was described as being loyal and reliable. It had helped Crowley get out of a similar pickle. No, he needed to make the right choice. He needed a demon that perfectly suited his needs.

***

Ryan had finally narrowed it down to three demons. Dantalion, Gamori, and Orobas. He rubbed his eyes, checking the clock on his phone. It was already past midnight. He had spent the whole day researching demons and preparing his ritual.

Dantalion was number seventy-one, a genderless creature that appeared to the summoner as a mass of shifting heads. Its domain was teaching arts and sciences, it had the ability to read minds and to relay the thoughts of others to the summoner, and it could also cause women to fall in love. Those were all useful to Ryan. He could learn a profession that might land him a job, know the thoughts of employers in order to influence them, and it seemed that he could have any woman of his choosing. He wasn't sure how he felt about that last part, it seemed a little too close to brainwashing, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

Gamori was the fifty-sixth demon listed in the Goetia, and she appeared before the summoner as a beautiful woman riding on a camel. Her area of expertise was predicting the future. The power of prescience would help him in all manner of pursuits, from job searching to dating, and again the demon appeared to grant the love of any woman that he desired. As much as he did indeed desire the love of a woman, he wasn't sure if he needed it so severely as to invoke a demon. He was perfectly capable of dating on his own.

If he asked for something that wasn't urgent or too difficult for him to achieve by himself, it seemed as if bad things would happen. There was nothing explicitly forbidding it that he could find, but everything pointed to it being at best a faux pas and at worst a grievous offense. Better to just keep things simple. Asking for invincibility and riches would surely backfire in some ironic way, and any demon that could bestow such things was of high rank and no doubt beyond his ability to control.

Lastly, there was Orobas, as described in Crowley's first summoning. This demon appeared in the form of a horse. He could grant dignities and prelacies, though Ryan wasn't quite sure what those were yet, and he could grant the favor of friends and foes. He could see the past, present, and future, and he was described as being especially loyal.

Fuck it, Orobas it was. He would begin carving his sigil into the metal plate that he had purchased at the hardware store, and start drawing it onto the back of the Pentagonal Figure of Solomon. That should be everything. There was some nonsense about astrology and planetary hours and all kinds of other minutia mentioned in the guides that he had found online, but Crowley had not bothered with that, so neither would he. There would be no chants or prayers, no meditation, none of the intricate and overly complex steps that would draw this out for longer than he had the patience for.