Regarding Our Work and the Goetia

There is something which, as awkward as it is to address, we feel that we should probably clarify. If nothing else, we are doing so for the sake of posterity, so that if this particular misunderstanding comes up again at some point in the future, we can simply point people towards this post rather than having to explain the same thing repeatedly.

As some of you may be aware, some time ago we released a podcast episode in which we dissected the Goetia to some degree. More recently, we also published a blog post dealing with one of the spirits listed therein, once again examining it rather than merely repeating what the grimoire says. We have done similar things before as well, if memory serves, and the Goetic spirits have naturally appeared from time to time throughout some of our books and other writings.

They are by no means the sole focus of those works. Quite the opposite. We discuss a great many spirits, systems, traditions, hierarchies, and methods of evocation, many of which have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Goetia. Nevertheless, because the Goetic spirits are occasionally mentioned, analysed, compared, criticised, or otherwise discussed by us, a few people appear to have gained the impression that we personally work with them.

So, to make this perfectly clear: no, we do not.

Many years ago — and when we say many years ago, we quite literally mean more than fifteen years ago — we did work with a number of them. We approached them for much the same reason that we have approached numerous other spirits, systems, and traditions throughout our years of practice: we wanted to see for ourselves what they were capable of. We wanted to know what they could offer, how they behaved in practice, what sort of results they produced, and, frankly, what all the fuss was about.

We were curious. We investigated. We worked with them. And, personally, we found them wanting.

That is not intended as some grand declaration that nobody else should ever work with them, nor are we interested in trying to convince those who are drawn to particular Goetic spirits that they should abandon them. If somebody works successfully with them, wonderful. Carry on. It makes absolutely no difference to us.

Our own conclusion, however, was very simple. They did not offer us anything that justified continuing to work with them when compared with the vast number of other spirits and intelligences available to the practitioner. For us, they were simply not useful enough to warrant further attention in practical work.

And when something proves useless to us, we move on.

That may sound blunt, but there is little point dressing it up as something more complicated than it is. Practical spirit work should, at some stage, actually be practical. If a spirit, system, method, or tradition consistently fails to offer something worthwhile, we see no reason to continue working with it simply because somebody else considers it important.

Which naturally raises the obvious question:

If we do not personally work with the Goetic spirits, why do we continue writing about them?

The answer is almost painfully simple. Because they are popular. That is it.

To our greatest dismay, and with no small amount of annoyance on our part, the moment many people hear words such as “evocation,” “spirit work,” “demonology,” “summoning,” or even simply “entities,” their minds seem to leap immediately towards the Goetia.

For us, this is the mental equivalent of nails scraping across a chalkboard.

Not because the Goetia should never be studied. It absolutely should be studied, particularly if one is interested in Western ceremonial magick, grimoire traditions, or the development of modern (western) occult practice. The problem is the disproportionate importance it has somehow acquired within contemporary occultism.

The Goetia is one relatively small body of spirits within an enormous landscape of spirit traditions.

Yet, judging by much of modern occult discourse, one could easily come away with the impression that Western practitioners discovered seventy-two spirits several centuries ago and promptly decided that they no longer needed to investigate anything else.

There are innumerable other spirits, hierarchies, intermediary beings, actual demons, angels, infernal intelligences, planetary spirits, chthonic beings, wandering spirits, tutelary spirits, dead, local spirits, grimoiric entities, folkloric beings, and other classes of intelligence recorded throughout history...not even to mention those NOT recorded. There are entire magickal traditions containing spirits that the average modern practitioner has never even heard of.

And yet somehow we repeatedly circle back to the same seventy-two. Why? We genuinely have no idea.

Perhaps people assume that these are simply “the spirits” available to practitioners. Perhaps beginners encounter the Goetia first and never realise how much more exists beyond it. Perhaps social media has created a feedback loop in which certain names become fashionable, people begin posting about them, others see those posts and assume those spirits must therefore be especially important, and the cycle continues indefinitely.

Perhaps people are influenced by the endless stream of amateur occult material online in which every second person appears to have entered into some deep and profound relationship with Bael, Paimon, Asmodeus, or whichever spirit happens to be fashionable that month.

Perhaps it is simply familiarity. Perhaps it is inexperience. Perhaps people like systems containing neat lists, titles, ranks, seals, and clearly defined offices.

We have asked ourselves this question repeatedly over the years, and we still do not have a particularly satisfying answer.

Whatever the reason may be, however, the fact remains that people are interested in them. People search for them, ask about them, read about them, purchase books about them, listen to podcasts about them, and very often use them as their first point of reference when discussing evocation.

And because our work involves teaching, writing about, experimenting with, and discussing spirit work, we cannot simply pretend that the Goetia does not exist merely because we personally have very little interest in using it.

So yes, we will occasionally write about Goetic spirits. We may dissect their traditional descriptions.

We may examine their symbolism. We may compare the claims of the grimoires with later occult interpretations. We may discuss the historical development of particular spirits. We may examine the strange mythology that has accumulated around certain names online. We may even explain how somebody might approach one of them.

None of this means that we personally work with them. Studying something and using it are two very different things.

Likewise, discussing a spirit does not constitute devotion to that spirit, recommending that spirit, or suggesting that we consider it especially important. Sometimes something is worth discussing precisely because it is popular, misunderstood, historically interesting, or surrounded by enough nonsense that somebody should probably take it apart and examine what is actually there.

The same principle applies to our professional work. The only circumstance in which we would ordinarily employ a Goetic spirit within work performed for a client is if that client specifically requested one.

If somebody approaches us and specifically says that they want a particular Goetic spirit involved, then naturally we can take that request into consideration. If they do not request one, however, we do not reach automatically for the Goetia. We do not consider it our default catalogue of spirits. We do not regard it as the pinnacle of evocation. And we certainly do not recommend a Goetic spirit merely because that happens to be the name most people recognise.

We would instead choose whatever spirit, intelligence, method, or system we believe is best suited to the particular operation being performed. That may come from a grimoire tradition. It may come from a completely different magickal system. It may be something with which we have worked for many years.

It may belong to a class of spirits that receives almost no attention whatsoever in popular occultism.

What matters to us is suitability and effectiveness, not popularity.

So, hopefully, this settles the matter.

We discuss the Goetia because people are interested in the Goetia. We write about Goetic spirits because people recognise them, search for them, ask about them, and associate them — rightly or wrongly — with the broader subject of evocation. We occasionally analyse them because there is often something worthwhile to say about how they have been interpreted, misunderstood, mythologised, or presented.

But no, they are not spirits with whom we personally maintain an active working relationship.

They are not our preferred spirits. They are not the spirits we automatically recommend. And unless a client specifically asks us to employ one, they are very unlikely to enter into our practical work at all.

Nothing more mysterious is hiding behind it. People like the Goetia. We write about things people want to read about. That is really all there is to it.

---

All of our writings, including our blog posts, are copyrighted to us (Rheiner and Vanessa Le Roux under the pseudonyms of Baron and Baronessa Araignee) and our business Araignee Arcane Services. Our writings are original and not copied content.

If you like any of our posts and would like to share them, feel free to do so by selecting one of the sharing options below. If you would like one of our blog posts to be on your website or blog (and for us to be guest bloggers) simply reach out to us via email.

Plagiarism is an extremely damaging and annoying thing – and by plagiarizing our work (or another’s) you are not just stealing – you are damaging your own name, as things like this always come to light. Don’t be a typical human.