Is American Goetia Dangerous?

Anonymous asked if American Goetia is dangerous. S/he has heard that regular Goetia is dangerous. I have to answer that on several levels.

Is the Lesser Key of Solomon, commonly referred to the Goetia, dangerous?

As a book no, it pretty much just lays there. I have never been attacked by it. The Lesser Key has not done so much as fall off a shelf in my presence.Working that magick in that book can be a different story. Warning, I am going to say stuff other magicians are going to disagree with. Put on your asbestos shorts.

People tend think of these guys as serial killers. This is not true for all of them. Some of them even try to help. Think of your crazy aunt that decides you are dating the wrong man and pushes you to go on just one date with a man she thinks is just perfect for you. Every time she sees you she pushes you to date Charlie. You finally relent. The date with Charlie is a disaster. Your beau finds out and drops you. You are miserable but you have survived your encounter with a demon of Venus.

How much better would life be if you put your aunt to work for you? What if your crazy aunt was instructed to help you and your man learn to cook healthier meals for each other? In this manner your love life improves, your health improves and you are happier. Isn't this what your aunt wanted in the first place?

Some spirits may as well be Charles Manson. An astute person may have noticed he only killed a select few. I'd rather deal with any goetic spirit over Dick Cheney. At least I'd have a chance with a demon. Cheney can shoot a man in the face and the man had to apologize for getting in the way!

The trick is attitude.

1. Check your ego at the door. If you run into Dick Cheney, RUN. Actually, banish and get the 'hell' out of there. You've discovered something you cannot handle. Come back when you're better, stronger, faster than you were before. Just make sure you do come back.
2. Your job as a magician is NOT to control the demon. Your job is to help him help the universe instead of acting like a crazy aunt. Fortunately for you, the first lesson you give it just happens to be useful to you.
3. Be prepared to go on an adventure. You will make your own animal sacrifice but losing part of your animal self. If you fight that, you're doomed.The blogosphere has seen one such magician go through a heroic ordeal. Dare, I say, he is the better for it.

Fortunately, I haven't had to face much more than a hidden wallet in my ordeals with these guys. I have a few theories as to why. All of them may be true or none of them.

1. Aside form building a spirit box for them, I made them no offerings. The first thing these guys want is for you to make a deal. I advise against that. Well, I did send some energy to one once to help him out on a project. It didn't seem like it made any difference. These guys can build Solomon's temple. Do they really need my energy?
2. I got lucky by picking the spirits I did or happening to land them on a good day.
3. I am a poor magician and maybe only got a little bit of them. Over time that little bit manifested the good parts and not the bad. 
4. As a worker of initiatory traditions, I've seen initiatory fall out happen before the initiation. This may have happened with my first one. I once asked him why he never interfered with my current teacher. In answer to that, he apologized for fucking with me and my first 'teacher'. You haven't lived until you've been apologized to by a demon. Then he said, he couldn't mess with the second relationship because, "Neither of you would let me."
5. One of my few natural magical talents is being willing to learn a lesson. I don't actively try to fight them. I may get hopelessly confused. I may fail to learn but I am always willing to learn. Once you've taken the Oath of the Abyss, you have no choice in things like that. 
6. The first words out of my mouth when the spirit appears is, "I do not want any animosity between me and thee." You can feel them relax at that point. Wouldn't you after a few centuries of being called up by pompous windbags calling you fowl things and ordering you about like some slave?

American Goetia, Is it Dangerous?


From what I've been told Goetia isn't a term a that means demon invocation. It means an evocatory method of magick or some such thing. I'm sure someone will point out the exact meaning for me. That said, culturally the term has some dangerous connotations. I am sure being given that name implies a level of danger. 

Here are the signs of danger ahead:

1. No one has worked with these spirits before. There is no way to prepare myself for them through study.
2. The Solomonic formula I know may not apply. It likely doesn't except in the most rudimentary ways.
3. I have no idea how powerful the forces are that I am about to wake up. 
4. I have been flat out told through spirit communication that there are some things one cannot do with this system as they are absurdly dangerous.
5. I have been told the warning signs for dangerous spirits that I will encounter.
6. I have no idea what danger I may face. Therefore, I can only rely on my own experience to prepare for whatever it may be.

 My goal is to create a workable system that isn't dangerous for others. At the very least, I will establish a safety protocol. I am reasonably sure I will not get through this completely unscathed. Adventure is afoot!

As for another opinion, a magician I know that has done things that I find incredibly dangerous in his experimentation said, and I quote, "And people say I'm dangerous."

Questions from the Nutty Professor

S/he asked if I would be working the system myself. Yes. I will be evoking as many spirits as I can over an extended period of time. This is a very long term project. The system yields and extraordinary number of spirits. I am pretty sure I will not be able to evoke them all in a lifetime. At some point, I will have to publish the system as I learned it and let others contribute.

S/he asked what the Orobas 'wants from me' and says that the spirit sounds pretty vague.

I am not sure that Orobas wants anything. He simply revealed a system. Revealing this particular system does fit with some tasks that I suppose fits in line with my HGA's instructions when I first had knowledge and conversation. For that reason, I will work this system. Given that I am 100% sure of my HGA contact, I can say this is within the realm of my tasks generally speaking. That said, as real as that contact was, I never fully solidified it. Therefore, American Goetia work will necessitate allowing my HGA manifest more directly.

That said, I published only the first communication on the American Goetia site. When I went back through my old notes, I found discussions spanning over months. I do have concrete information to work with.