This is the second blog article addressing the topic of working with Goetic spirits. In Part 1, I provided a brief decision of what these spirits are and also provided some basic information about the types of “payment” a person can offer when working with these spirits, and also provided some general information about the attitude the magickal practitioner should take when working with these spirits. In this blog post, I will introduce several spirits of the Goetia, and provide information about their abilities and my impression of their personalities. In Part 3 of this three part blog series, I will discuss how people can actually begin to contact these spirits and start working with them in order to achieve their life goals.
President Botis:
The first Goetia spirit that I seriously worked with is named President Botis. His primary claims to fame are that he can cause reconciliation among both friends and foes. In the process of doing this he can provide the magician with a deep understanding of the minds of others. He also knows, and can speak about the past, present, and future (although in my experience spirits are very reluctant to give humans too much information about their own futures). If you have a good relationship with Botis he can be very protective of you, and he gives excellent advice in respect to interpersonal relationships. He challenges the magician to let go of old grudges. One thing you should know about President Botis is that, either the first time you meet him or sometime early in your relationship, he will try to frighten you in order to test whether you have the strength and courage to work with him. I have found that he continues sometimes to test me in my relationship with him, but at the same time, he is extremely friendly with me. In my experience, most of the time, Botis has the attitude of an old hippy. He is very friendly, has a sense of humor, and he wants people to get along with each other. But at the same time, he encourages the magician to speak his or her mind in a constructive manner if he/she has been wronged by others (in other words, he can help the magician deal with conflict in a constructive manner).
According to traditional sources, his favorite incense is Storax. Unfortunately, it is near impossible to find Storax incense (I couldn’t even find it on Amazon). I like using incense as burnt offerings to the spirits I work with. Botis communicated to me that he also really likes opium incense (the incense, not the drug); although if you don’t have or can’t find opium incense, he will probably appreciate you burning any incense that you have and like the smell of as an offering. But keep in mind that, as I discussed in Part 1 of this series, while these spirits appreciate the offerings people give to them, it is probably more important to the spirits that the people who work with them learn the lessons they have to teach.
Note: I am an Amazon affiliate and receive a commission when people make purchases from Amazon using the links provided on my page.
King Paimon:
I began working with Botis on a specific project that I do not want to describe here (although I will say it was related to helping a friend achieve emotional healing). In the process of working with him, he had me create a non-profit web page, run some google ads, and write specific emails to a specif person. While I was working with Botis, I began the planning process of starting Global Mystery Tradition (this website/business). I had heard a lot of people talking about how helpful King Paimon was, and watched the movie Heredity (which very badly misrepresents the personality of King Paimon in order to make the movie a horror flick); I was sort of getting the getting a feeling that King Paimon was reaching out to me. I was a little bit nervous, and having recently watched Heredity didn’t help, because it is a horror movie that portrays King Paimon in a negative, and inaccurate, light. At this point, my best friend, who has more developed skills as a medium than I do, told me directly that Botis has directly told him that King Paimon wanted to work with me. At that point, I began the process of getting to know this mighty king. Specifically, King Paimon has been working with me on getting this business (Global Mystery Tradition) off the ground, and is giving me guidance throughout the entire process. I need to make it clear, however, that President Botis and Prince Ipos (along with my servitor) have also been working with me (and my friend) on this business (my friend will be joining this LLC as a co-owner once he takes care of some issues in his personal life). So this entire project is a team effort between myself, my (human) best friend, King Paimon, President Botis, Prince Ipos, and my servitor. King Paimon is in a way acting as an overseer of the whole project, giving advice and encouragement along the way. “He” is likely doing work on my behalf and on the behalf of this business (which now has a focus on offering local in person Tarot readings and blogging on occult and spirituality related issues). Notice that when I am talking about King Paimon, I put the pronoun “He” in quotation marks because of a gender ambiguity that I will discuss shortly.
I find King Paimon’s personality to be very wise, kind, and patient; but also very authoritative. “He” wants people to acknowledge “his” title of “King”, and expects to be treated with the respect that you would show to a king. That does not mean “he” is always overly serious, and “he” does have a sense of humor. One ability King Paimon is known for is “giving good familiars”. Along this line, “he” instructed me to create a servitor (a spirit that a magician creates using their own will power and psychic energy) to assist me with both the practical matters of starting a business and bringing in enough money to live comfortably, and to help me learn the occult related skills needed to offer the services I offer. In addition to instructing me to create this servitor, King Paimon also helped oversee the creation of the servitor (by protecting again negative energies), and “he” also took an active role in training my servitor to be effective (President Botis and Prince Ipos have also played an active role in training my servitor, so they deserve credit as well).
King Paimon has also assisted and advised me in other ways (in addition to instructing me to create a servitor to help me with this business venture and any future business ventures I may undertake). King Paimon is know for teaching all arts, sciences, and secret things. Along this line, “he” (together with my servitor) is helping me to both learn more about occultism, and is helping me learn the technical and business skills that I will ultimately need to be successful in this venture. Interestingly, when I communicate with King Paimon about material and practical matters, “he” is very straightforward. However, when I ask “him” questions about the nature of “himself” and other spirits, and things of that nature, “he” often speaks in riddles. King Paimon is also known specifically for helping to give people a good reputation in business (which is obviously relevant to me; although “he” won’t do all the work for me, it us up to me to put in the legwork). And “he” also is known for helping people deal with others in positions of authority.
As mentioned above, there is a gender ambiguity when discussing King Paimon. In Part 1 of this three part blog post, I mentioned that some of the Goetic spirits were worshiped as gods and others as goddesses in the ancient middle east, but in the Lesser Key of Solomon, they were all portrayed as masculine (thus ignoring an important aspect of the nature of these spirits). The movie Heredity (which, as I mentioned, badly misrepresents King Paimon) played on this gender ambiguity, but again did so in a way that does not represent the true nature or personality of King Paimon. In the movie a cult following King Paimon was upset that the original host body they were dedicating to King Paimon was female, and sought to find a suitable male body for King Paimon to use.
Various texts have described the appearance of King Paimon to be somewhat gender ambiguous (such as describing “him” as having a masculine body and either a female face or an effeminate male face). The texts that describe the appearance of King Paimon also pretty much universally describe “him” as riding a dromedary (a type of camel) and wearing a magnificent crown. Carroll “Poke” Runyon (a famous occultist who is very familiar with the Goetic spirits) speculates that King Paimon was worshiped as a pagan goddess (suggesting a possible connection with the Egyptian goddess Isis), while others have speculated there is some connection between King Paimon and the entity know as Azazil. Part 3 of this blog series will discuss communication and interaction with these spirits, but for now I just want to share that King Paimon directly told me that “he” was once worshiped as a goddess (“he” did not tell me which goddess). I asked “him” about “his” gender, and what “he” told me was that “he” is both male and female, but either way the title King should be used. Based on this communication with “him”, going forward in this blog entry (and also in part 3), I will stop putting the gender pronoun “him” in quotation marks, and will use masculine gender pronouns for him as a matter of convenience (it would be awkward using female gender pronouns along with the title “King”). However, it should be remembered that his energy seems to have both a masculine and feminine nature. I honestly don’t know how relevant it is talking about the gender of a spirit because they do not reproduce in the same way as humans do, and whether they are considered to be “male” or “female” has more to do with how the spirits chose to revile themselves to humans. That being said, some definitely seem to have a more “masculine” feel while others feel more “feminine”.
Another frequently noted aspect of King Paimon’s personality is that he is very loyal to Lucifer, more so than the other Goetic “Kings”. Again, I want to emphasize that I do NOT understand Lucifer as being “The Devil”. I see Lucifer as a powerful Mesopotamian entity, the Light Bringer (and being the equivalent of the entity from Greek mythology known as Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and delivered it to the human race). Despite intellectually understanding that Lucifer is NOT the devil (I don’t find the concept of a “devil” to be useful), I believe there is still some deep conditioning from my Christian upbringing that makes me somewhat fearful of working with Lucifer (see my blog entry “Traumatized from Being Raised Christian” to get a better understanding of where I am coming from). As mentioned in Part 1, Lucifer is not part of the Goetia hierarchy (i.e. he was not mentioned in the Lesser Key of Solomon); and I personally do not have a strong relationship with Lucifer. But the relevant point here is that, because of his loyalty to Lucifer, I asked King Paimon if I was ready to work with Lucifer. He told me that I am not yet ready (likely because of some of the conditioning I was subjected to when I was being raised in a Christian household), but he informed me that he is preparing me to eventually work with Lucifer.
King Paimon seems to have a very good understanding of where people are in their spiritual development, and acts as a guide in developing spiritual awareness. Along the same lines as telling me that I am not ready to work with Lucifer, King Paimon instructed me that at this point in my spiritual development, it would be counterproductive and potentiality dangerous for me to be working with more than three spirits (excluding servitors that I created using my own energy). At the time that he gave me this advice I had been contacting many Goetic spirits, so I had to put off the goal of getting to know some of these spirits until I am ready. Because of this advice, I am currently limiting my work with Goetic spirits to King Paimon, President Botis, and Prince Ipos. Because I take King Paimon’s advice seriously, I had to temporarily suspend my work with another spirit known as Duke Sallos (I will briefly discuss him later), and it was sad having to do this because I really like Sallos’s energy; but part of working with spirits is learning to heed their advice. When I suspended my work with Sallos, I thanked him (Sallos) for giving me the time of day, and told him that I was looking forward to working with him again in the future.
Because of his diverse abilities, his friendliness, and his patience with beginners, I would say that for many people, King Paimon would be the best choice when deciding which spirit to work with first. He can begin to teach the magician the ins and outs or working with spirits, and help the magician develop the skills needed to work with other spirits. I discussed payments to spirits in Part 1 of this series of blog posts. With King Paimon specifically (this may be true for many or most of the Goetic spirits, but it seems especially relevant to King Paimon), he seems to like working with people who are willing to spread his name and sigil in the physical world. I hope this rather lengthy discussion about his nature pleases him. His favorite incense is Frankincense (so burning it can be used as an offering when summoning or invoking him). He also seems to want the people he is working with to be willing to be transformed and to put in the effort on their own part to achieve the goals people ask him to help them achieve (again, this is probably true of many of the Goetic spirits).
Prince Ipos:
As I just mentioned, I am only currently working with three Goetic spirits because King Paimon has told me that at this point in my development working with more than three would be counterproductive or dangerous. The third Goetic spirit I am working with is Prince Ipos. The way Prince Ipos works with me is quite a bit different than the way King Paimon and President Botis work with me. Both King Paimon and President Botis find ways of communicating with me (how to work with and communicate with these spirits will be discussed in Part 3), Prince Ipos does not directly communicate with me, but rather lends me his energy. I can feel his energy when I gaze at his sigil, but I have never received any direct instructions or advice from him. Prince Ipos’s primary claim to fame is helping people with social skills. Specifically, he can help people come across as confidant, clever, charming, and persuasive. I am on the autism spectrum, and dealing with people has always been difficult for me. But Ipos is helping me learn the social skills I will need both in running this business and in life in general. Because both King Paimon and President Botis also aid in interpersonal communication and relationships, the three work together very well as a team. But for people focusing primarily on gaining social confidence and improving their general social skills, Prince Ipos is probably one of the best, if not the best, Goetic spirit to work with. His favorite incense is Sandalwood.
Duke Sallos:
While I am currently only working with King Paimon, President Botis, and Prince Ipos, there are a couple other Goetic spirits that deserve honorary mention. I really like Duke Sallos. Although I had to suspend my work with him before I accomplished the goals I was working toward with Sallos because of King Paimon’s advice that I should only be working with three spirits at this time (King Paimon implied that he, Botis, and Ipos could continue working with me on the project that I had been working on with Sallos), I really loved the energy of Sallos, and am looking forward to working with him again. Sallos’s main claim to fame is aiding people in romantic issues. I was working with Sallos on trying to find a romantic partner who would be a good match for me and help me grow spiritually (I am continuing to try to achieve this goal with the three Goetic spirits that I am currently working with). Sallos can both help people find love, and can help people maintain healthy romantic relationships and working through problems in their relationships. He is known for encouraging fidelity between romantic partners. He also has the ability to cause a named person to take a romantic interest in the magician (although I suspect that in many or most cases he will only grant such a request if the magician and the named person would actually be a compatible couple).
Although I did not work with Sallos long enough to achieve my goal (I suspect the spirits I am currently working with are waiting for the appropriate time for me to find a long term romantic partner), when I was working with Sallos I could feel myself being transformed into a warmer and more loving person. In fact, it was either Botis or King Paimon who informed me that the reason Sallos was attracted to working with me was because I have a strong loving and compassionate side to my personality, and thus a big part of my personality is very similar to the personality of Sallos (to some extent, while the magician decides which spirits to work with, the spirits also decide which people they want to work with and find ways of reaching out to people). Although I was working with Sallos on a specific project, I think what really drew me to him was his energy and personality. His energy just feels so warm, soft, bright, and loving. Of all the spirits I have worked with, Sallos is the one who’s energy feels most “angelic”. One thing that is interesting is that as soon as I suspended my work with Sallos, I started feeling some anger and bitterness toward someone from my past that I believe Sallos was suppressing. His personality is such that he greatly favors peace, kindness, and love between people rather than hostility. I am very much looking forward to the time when I am further along in my spiritual development when I will be able to work with Sallos again. I suspect that the spirits I am currently working with will help me make the changes in my life necessary to find a romantic partner, and once I am in a romantic relationship I will be able to start working with Sallos again for the purpose of maintaining a healthy relationship and being a better partner to my future significant other. I also hope to eventually work with Sallos in order to help clients with issues relating to their love lives. Sallos’s favorite incense is Sandalwood. For anyone who wants to work with a spirit specifically on issues related to romantic love, and also wants to work with a spirit with just about as kind, soft, and gentle a personality as possible, then I would highly recommend Duke Sallos.
Prince Sitri:
Another spirit I would like to mention is Prince Sitri. As a disclaimer, I have not really worked closely with this spirit before, but I have summoned him and experienced his energy. In fact, he was the fist Goetic spirit I ever directly contacted. At the time when I summoned him, I can say looking back that I was not really ready to work with him, and I think he knew it. I was younger, less experienced in occultism, and had a lot of other issues going on in my life, so I think Sitri just decided to show up when I called him, but was either unable or unwilling to help me because of my level of development and the other issues in my life at the time. Also, there is a chance that Sitri understood that what I truly wanted (a meaningful romantic relationship) was different from what he tends to offer. While Sallos focuses on helping people find romantic partners, and helps people in a relationship to maintain a healthy relationship, Sitri helps people get laid. He is known for filling men with lust for women and women with lust for men, and causing them to appear naked before each other. It should be noted that the traditional texts were written at a time when homosexuality was not generally accepted, but I have heard specifically that Sitri can also help people find same sex sexual partners if that is what they desire. From my understanding, he can either help people get in bed with a named person, or he can simply help people easily find sexual partners. He has a good reputation with helping people accomplish these goals. Again, although I have summoned Sitri, I never really had a strong relationship with him and cannot speak much to his personality. It is also up to the magician to determine if they are morally comfortable with asking a spirit to help them seduce a specific person (some may consider this overly manipulative, but even if the magician does not want to ask Sitri for help seducing a specific person, they can simply ask him to help them find a sexual partner). Sitri’s favorite incense is cedar.
Additional Things Goetic Spirits Can Help With:
The five spirits described above are just a small subset of the Goetic spirits. There are many others, with a diverse range of abilities. Abilities other Goetic spirits have include healing physical disease, easing mental anguish, helping with money matters, teaching people to understand the "language" of animals, teaching divination skills, and many others. Some of the spirits also have a somewhat darker side. Some of the spirits can either be totally benevolent, or can, at the request of a magician, curse another person. I absolutely do NOT engage in cursing others, but each person has to decide for themselves what they consider to be morally acceptable. And remember, if you ask a spirit to harm another person, you are just as morally responsible for what happens to the person as you would be if you physically assaulted the person yourself. I am done with the "moral lecture" because I don't believe in absolute "good" and "evil"; but I do try to live in a way conducive to producing the type of world I would like to live in. Because part of my goal for running this website/business is to produce a more spiritually aware world, I refuse to discuss cursing people (either with spells or by asking spirits to do so). Because I have never been into curses, I would not be the person to ask about how to do this anyway. I encourage interested readers to read into the abilities and characteristics of all the spirits of the Goetia. Additionally, I encourage curious readers to also research other Jinn that are not included in the Goetia hierarchy. In the same spirit, I also encourage curious readers to research gods and goddesses in a variety of pantheons (this would involve the reader studying the mythologies of a variety of cultures). While the Goetic spirits have a wide range of abilities and tend to be easy to contact, they are certainly not the only spiritual entities humans can benefit from interacting with.
Conclusion:
In Part 1 of this three part blog series on working with Goetic spirits, I provided a general introduction to the topic of working with the spirits of the Goetia and discussed the issue of “payments”. In this entry (Part 2), I introduced several specific spirits that aspiring magicians can work with, and also discussed the personalities and abilities of these spirits. In the next and final part of this series (Part 3), I will discuss how to begin actually working with Goetic spirits.