The demons of the goetia derive from many disparate sources and traditions, many utterly lost to us. We know that some were plainly pagan deities changed to demons in the imagination of Early Modern Europe. Occultists speculate that they may be spirits of the dead, or more popularly cthonic spirits hearkening to some lost folk tradition analogous to the faeries of legend or the loa gods of the Carribean syncretic religions. Whatever the case they surely do not arise from a Christian theological view of the world.

  Although the demons themselves and their ranks vary wildly between the surviving magical tomes, they are always presented as within a feudal hierarchy: kings, princes, dukes, barons, that sort of thing. In spite of this consistent arrangement their relationship to each other is only explicitly established in the Verum. The demons must be summoned in descending hierarchy of rank.

  First the magician must summon Scirlin. Scirlin is not some high king, but the intercessor spirit of the Grimorium Verum. The one who must be conjured before all others to establish a connection with the infernal realms. First I made his seal and added my initials into the spaces as I've shown below:

  Next comes one of the three kings who reign over the demons: Lucifer, Belzebuth, and Astaroth. Lucifer ruled over the demon I was planning to conjure, so I drew the seal of Lucifer in the West underneath Scirlin:

  

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  Next comes Aglierap, a deputy of Lucifer, whose two seals with the likeness of beastly lions I drew underneath the previous two:

  

  

  The next was Duke Syrach, but I could find no seal in his likeness, so continued to my desired.

  Finally there was Lord Frimost, the spirit I wished to call upon.

  

  

  Lord Frimost was a spirit said to hold power over passions, women, especially, but I presume this had more to do with the writer of the grimoire than the chauvinistic limitations of his power. Frimost was the patron of the cojuring wand, the supposed supervisor of the Verum's compiling, and said to be the most respectful of the spirits. The conjurer, it was said, would be remiss not to offer him the first stone that they found after evoking him. I drew his seal permanently beneath all the others.

  Next I was to write out a contract with the spirit. There was no such advice on what sort of a contract to actually write, so I thought I'd try to be diplomatic...

  "I hereby petition Lord Frimost that he should enter into a partnership with Silvana Smith, wherein both parties shall offer tribute and cooperate in the fulfillment of each other's goals, insomuch as they deem reasonable, for the length of one year."

  I signed the parchment and collapsed in my chair with a sigh of relief. I had done it all. All the preparations were made. Now I just had to get through a shift at work.