Meeting the Goetia is more common than you think

I have been struck in the last few weeks since I started this blog by the fact that the people who have contacted me regarding the Goetia have already had knowledge of them! This leads me to the conclusion that Goetic experience is far more common than generally realised. Why should this be so? Well, it suggests that the Goetia are more friendly and willing to communicate with mankind, but we have not seen the signs. They have not been recognised for several reasons. One is the belief that they are only contactable via the Abra-Melin ritual, which takes at least six months. The ordeal of such a ritual, and the intense inimical response of the Goetia to the magician who performs this ritual, leads to the conclusion that the Goetia are in some way evil. Occultists have a lot to answer for!

Abra-melin is not necessary

The good experiences of people who have had visitations from the Goetia have been dismissed, because they are not a member of an Esoteric Order, they are not ‘high enough’ in the order, they have not performed the rituals, and they have had good experiences from the spirits. All this mitigates against seeing the Goetia as themselves. The identification of the Goetia with the Qlippoth or Shells is another issue. Let me make this abundantly clear – far from being anything to do with evil, the Goetia are not qlipphothic, and as they are sentient beings, is it not surprising that they act in such a sullen manner? The mis-appropriation of the Goetia to the Tree of Life is another difficulty.

Problems with the Tree of Life

With  occultism, magick and mysticism, the Goetia do not fit on the Tree of Life, but that does not stop Kabbalists trying to do so! The mindset of Kabbalists and the Tree of Life. If the spirit fits on the Tree, it is Good. If the spirit does not fit on the Tree it is Bad. This is fine if the Tree really does represent some kind of cosmological model of spiritual excellence, but unfortunately it doesn’t. The Tree represents law, order, and ‘logic’, so those aspects that do not fit on the Tree are obviously unlawful, illogical, and disorderly. If the Tree was truly inclusive, this problem would not arise.

The Tree would not look like it does, hanging in mid-air, with no relation to its surroundings. If someone treats you as ‘evil’, how are you going to act to that person? If that treatment continues, I am sure you will act as to how you are portrayed. When you are insulted to do you give your best? Do you act willingly to fulfil any requests? I doubt it. This mindset of ‘if its not on the Tree it must be evil’ extends throughout Christianity and western occultism. For example, the ‘aliens’ seen by good Christian folk in the wilds of the USA are consistently regarded as evil, and from another planet, doing terrible experiments after being abducted to the Mother Ship.

Identification problems with Spirits

Part of the problem is that in the West we are brainwashed to think that Angels have to have wings, and wear white dresses. Angel is a Greek word that means ‘messenger’, and it is has no connotation of the appearance of the spirit. Since these spirits do not have wings, and therefore no visible means of ascension, they cannot be angels, and therefore the logic of the brain tells us that they must be aliens. How do you identify a spirit? Well, first of all it has to be invoked or evoked at the appropriate time and the appropriate place using the right magical weapons, etc. This all takes time.

As you have probably realised by now, Goetic experience does not require invocation or evocation, so they turn up when they like. Each Goetic spirit is easily recognisable because each Goetic spirit looks different – not only that, but their name will often appear in the head of the Magician. Identifying other spirits is far more problematic, especially if they are ‘angels’ on the Tree of Life, so the Golden Dawn came up with the concept of Telesmatic images, where the colours of the astrological aspects of the Hebrew letters are used. This is an ingenious system, but unfortunately it doesn’t work! Since the Goetia do not fit on the Tree, but they cannot be ignored, this suggests to me that the Goetia are far older than previously thought. Furthermore, they are easy to identify (the appearance does not infer character), and are willing to work with the Magician.