The Dictionary of Demons, page 34
Hanyey: A demon connected to the planetary sphere of Mercury. He can open locks, appease judges, give victory in battle, and unbind spirits. According to the Book of Oberon, he serves the demon-king Saba and appears as an armed soldier, very attractive, who speaks with a pleasing voice. See also ALVEDIO, BOOK OF OBERON, SABA, YRON.
Harchase: With twenty-six legions under him, this demon named in the Book of Oberon is said to reveal all places that contain hidden treasure. He can also bestow invisibility. He holds the rank of king and appears as a ferocious bear. See also BOOK OF OBERON.
Harex: A demon connected with the element of air, Harex serves in the court of the infernal king Fornnouc, as described in the Driscoll translation of the Sworn Book. According to this text, as a demon of the element of air, Harex is active and lively in nature. He is also capricious, although he makes an excellent tutor for those seeking to learn the secrets of the arts and sciences from a demon. If he is given the proper offerings, he will also function as a healer, preventing infirmities and curing weaknesses. He can be convinced to appear if the proper perfumes are burned in his name. See also FORNNOUC, SWORN BOOK.
Haril: A demon mentioned in the Mathers translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Haril is listed among a vast number of other demons said to serve the four infernal princes of the cardinal directions: Oriens, Paimon, Ariton, and Amaimon. In attempting to identify the origin of Haril’s name, Mathers suggests that it is related to a Hebrew root meaning “thorny.” See also AMAIMON, ARITON, MATHERS, ORIENS, PAIMON.
Hariston: A demon with power over fire. Hariston can enable a person to walk through flames safely and without harm. He serves beneath the demons Hael and Sergulaf in the court of Duke Resbiroth, all named in the Secrets of Solomon, a seventeenth-century grimoire confiscated by the Inquisition in Venice. See also HAEL, RESBIROTH, SECRETS OF SOLOMON, SERGULAF.
Haristum: A demon from the Grimorium Verum, Haristum serves beneath the demons Hael and his partner Sergulath. He has power over living flame and can teach a person the secret to walking through fire safely and without harm. As the Grimorium Verum was most likely derived from the Secrets of Solomon, his name is probably a variation on Hariston. See also GRIMORIUM VERUM, HAEL, HARISTON, SERGULATH.
Harith: A servant of Formione, the king of the spirits of Jupiter named in Joseph Peterson’s translation of the Sworn Book. He can confer favors upon people and promote positive emotions such as gladness and joy. Harith is described as being connected to the east, presumably the eastern winds. See also FORMIONE, SWORN BOOK.
Harkam: In the Book of Oberon, Harkam is king of the spirits of the Moon. He moves like a mighty storm at sea and has skin the color of a dark and brooding cloud. His eyes are watery, his head bald, and his teeth are tusked like a boar. Wherever he appears, a huge rainstorm breaks out. He has the power of silver and secrets, bestowing riches or revealing the most deeply guarded things. He can also transport objects or bewitch horses so they have the speed of the wind. He can take the form of a man or a woman, a cow, doe, or goose. When he is a woman, he appears as a huntress. When he is a man, he takes the guise of a king armed with arrows. He has four helpers: Bylethor, Mylu, Byleth, and Acuteba. See also ACUTEBA, BOOK OF OBERON, BYLETH, BYLETHOR, MYLU.
Harombrub: “Exalted in Greatness.” According to S. L. MacGregor Mathers, this name comes from a Hebrew root. This demon appears in the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, where he is said to serve the infernal prince Ariton. The name is alternately rendered Horasul in the seventeenth-century Peter Hammer edition of the Abramelin work. See also ARITON, MATHERS.
Harpax: A demon associated with the thirty-six decans of the zodiac. According to the Testament of Solomon, he has the power to afflict his victims with insomnia. He can be abjured through the use of the name Kokphnêdismos. In the later McCown translation of the Testament, this name is split into two, Kok and Phedismos. Harpax is accorded the title of Rhyx, or “king,” and his name is spelled Hapax. See also SOLOMON.
Harthan: A demon whose name appears in the Driscoll translation of the Sworn Book. He is described as the king of the element of water, and therefore he is also associated with the direction west. According to the text, when he manifests he has a large and ample body with a mottled complexion. He has a witty and agreeable nature. He is also observant and prone to jealousy. He can bestow strength and resolve to those who require it. He avenges wrongs and provides darkness when needed—presumably to help someone hide something. Along the same vein, he is also capable of moving things from place to place. In Peterson’s translation of the same material, Harthan is named as the king of the spirits of the Moon. In this text, he is said to have the power to change people’s thoughts and help with journeys. See also SWORN BOOK.
Hauges: A demon from Mathers’s translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Hauges is said to serve the demon-kings Amaimon and Ariton. Mathers tentatively connects the name of this demon with a Greek word meaning “brilliance.” A variation on the spelling of this demon’s name is Harog. See also AMAIMON, ARITON, MATHERS.
Hauros: Also Hauvos. In the Book of Incantations, a cunning-man’s grimoire from nineteenth-century Wales, Hauros is a great duke who appears at first like a mighty leopard. In his human form, he has fiery eyes and a terrible countenance. If commanded to appear within a triangle drawn upon the floor, he will answer truthfully, but if these precautions are not taken, he will lie about all things. He will gladly talk of divinity, of the creation of the world, and of the fall of spirits, including himself. He destroys and burns all your enemies if commanded. Once you have begun working with Hauros, he will jealously guard you from the temptations of other spirits or entities. Thirty-six legions of lesser spirits serve him. See also BOOK OF INCANTATIONS.
Hebethel: A demon in the hierarchy of king Harthan, who rules the element of water. Hebethel can provide darkness and move things from place to place. He assists in the avenging of wrongs and helps others to achieve strength and resolve. His manifest form tends to be corpulent with a mottled appearance. By nature, he is described as being both witty and agreeable, but also somewhat jealous. According to Driscoll’s edition of the Sworn Book, he can be summoned with the aid of the appropriate perfumes. In Peterson’s translation of the Sworn Book, Hebethel remains connected to the demon Harthan, but here Harthan is identified as the king of the spirits of the Moon. See also HARTHAN, SWORN BOOK.
Hegergibet: A demon who guards the cardinal directions. He is paired with the demon Sathan in the Munich Handbook. Sathan is a variation on Satan. The two infernal powers are invoked in association with the north. See also MUNICH HANDBOOK.
Hekesha: A name attributed to the demon Lilith. Demons of the Lilith-type were thought to attack people at night, particularly going after infants in their cribs. As a form of Lilith, Hekesha is tied to night and darkness. Her name is one of many that once were scribed upon special amulets to protect against her attacks. This name is recorded in a 1966 collection by author T. Schrire entitled Hebrew Magic Amulets. See also LILITH.
Heme: According to the Ars Theurgia, Heme is a demon in the court of the infernal prince Usiel. He serves during the hours of the day, and he holds the rank of duke. Forty ministering spirits serve him. Heme has the power to either obscure or reveal treasure. This name may be derived from the medical term heme, used to describe the iron-rich pigment in blood. See also ARS THEURGIA, USIEL.
Hemis: In his 1898 translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Mathers reads this name as being directly related to the Greek word hemi, meaning “half.” This demon appears in a list of infernal servitors of the arch-fiend Magoth. He is also said to serve Kore, but this name only appears as a leader of the demonic hierarchy in the version of the Abramelin material from which Mathers was working. In the other extant versions of the Sacred Magic, the name of this demon appears as Somis. See also KORE, MAGOTH, MATHERS.
Hemostophilé: This curious name appears in the Mathers translation of the Grimoire of Armadel. It is very probably a corruption of the traditional name Mephistopheles, although the prefix hemo- would seem to also link this demon’s name with blood. According to the text, Hemostophilé can show how to conjure devils and can help people to acquire infernal servants. He is a demon of deception that can change a person’s shape as well as that person’s passions. Perhaps because of his mastery of illusion, the text warns against summoning this demon. See also MATHERS, MEPHISTOPHELES.
Hepath: In the Clavicula Salomonis de Secretis, or Secrets of Solomon, Hepath is named among eighteen powerful servitors of the demonic Duke Syrach. A demon of teleportation and manifestation, Hepath has the power to cause people to appear at will, from armies to emperors to lost loved ones. Whether these are people he is transporting from physical locations or beings he calls back from the grave is unclear. See also SECRETS OF SOLOMON, SYRACH.
Hephesimireth: In the Testament of Solomon, Hephesimireth is named as one of thirty-six demons associated with the decans of the zodiac. A demon of disease, he can torment his victims by visiting upon them a lingering illness. To drive this demon away, one has only to invoke the names of the Seraphim and Cherubim. In the Conybeare translation of this text, Hephesimireth is associated with the thirty-first decan of the zodiac. In a later translation by McCown, widely accepted as more accurate, he appears as the demon of the thirtieth decan of the zodiac. His name changes as well, adding the title of Rhyx, or king, and spelling it Physikoreth. See also SOLOMON.
Hepoth: A demon of illusion named in the True Keys of Solomon, Hepoth reputedly has the power to cause any man, woman, or child from any distant region to seem to appear across that distance. According to the grimoire where his name appears, Hepoth is a servant of chief Sirachi, who himself is a servant of Lucifer. See also LUCIFER, SIRACHI, TRUE KEYS.
Sacrificial Victims
Child promised by his parents to the Devil. From Geoffrey Landry’s Ritter vom Turn, printed in 1493 by Michael Furter.
Throughout the Middle Ages, there were persistent beliefs that demons sought children as sacrifices to the Devil. Early biblical demons, such as Moloch, certainly set the stage for a belief in child sacrifice, but the beliefs may also have been perpetuated by a certain style of divinatory magick popular from Hellenic Egyptian times onward. Traditional spells involving bowl and lamp divinations called for a young, virgin boy to participate in the magick—not as a sacrifice, but as a spirit medium. The fear and sensationalism surrounding the magickal arts, however, allowed essentially harmless practices like this to inspire a variety of superstitious tales. One such tale recorded by Nicholas Remy involved the demon Abrahel. Remy worked as procurer-general of the duchy of Lorraine during the sixteenth century. According to Remy, the manipulative demon Abrahel first appeared to a young goatherd in a form that resembled a girl from his village. The goatherd, whose name is only given as Pierron, was from the village of Dalhem, located between the Moselle and Saar rivers. The demon seduced Pierron and, after she had won his affections, she then demanded that Pierron sacrifice his only son to prove his devotion. Pierron naturally had reservations about this, but the demon assured the naive young goatherd that the boy would be fine as long as he followed her orders. With a heavy heart, Pierron acquiesced to the demands of the demon. Once the boy was dead, Abrahel reportedly brought the child back to life. Pierron decided that he had gotten the bad end of the deal only after his son’s behavior and personality changed radically following this infernal death and resurrection. At this point, Pierron finally sought help from the local clergy to rid himself of the demon. Reportedly, his son died again about a year later. Remy’s account is quoted by theologian and historian Dom Augustin Calmet, in the 1746 work The Phantom World.
Heptameron: This work, traditionally attributed to Peter de Abano, was published nearly two hundred years after his death in 1316 CE. For this reason, many scholars dispute the claim that Abano authored the text. Occult scholar Joseph Peterson suggests that the earliest version of this text was produced in Venice in 1496. A part of the rich grimoiric tradition of the Renaissance, the Heptameron served as a main resource for Agrippa in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy. The Heptameron also has some details in common with grimoires such as the Sworn Book of Honorius. For example, one of the “angels” said to reign on Friday in the Heptameron is called Sarabotes. This name is suspiciously close to the Sworn Book’s demon, Sarabocres. Although some of its names seem to be identified as demons elsewhere, the Heptameron very specifically identifies all of the spirits presented in the text as angels and not of the fallen variety. Many of its spirits are ascribed positions in one of the seven heavens. The schema of seven heavens was originally derived from Jewish sources and later adapted to the seven planetary spheres. Although the Heptameron is a tremendously influential magickal text, because the spirits contained within are expressly identified as angels, none of their names have been included in this book—even though variations of some of those supposedly angelic names appear in the Sworn Book as demons. See also AGRIPPA, SWORN BOOK.
Heramael: This demon, named in Peterson’s Grimorium Verum, is apparently a walking marvel of medicine. One of four great spirits serving the demon Satanachia, Heramael teaches how to cure diseases. He is able to instruct the magician on the nature of all plants and herbs, revealing their habitats, their powers, and the best times at which to gather them. He can then teach precisely how these are to be prepared in order to produce the most potent and miraculous cures. The Secrets of Solomon offers Heramuel as an alternate spelling of his name. See also SECRETS OF SOLOMON, SATANACHI, SATANACHIA, GRIMORIUM VERUM.
Heresiel: A mighty duke who has two thousand two hundred lesser spirits under his command. Heresiel himself owes fealty to the demon Icosiel, the sixth wandering prince of the air described in the Ars Theurgia. Heresiel and his fellow dukes all are reportedly drawn to private homes, where they are allowed to manifest during specific times of the day. In the case of the demon Heresiel, the hours and minutes of his appearance fall in the fourteenth portion of time if the day is divided into fifteen equal parts. See also ARS THEURGIA, ICOSIEL.
Herg: In his presentation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Mathers suggests that the name of this demon comes from a Hebrew root meaning “to slay.” Herg belongs to a hierarchy of demons who are believed to serve only the arch-fiend Astaroth. In the 1720 version of the Abramelin material kept in the Dresden library, the name of this demon is presented as Hirich. See also ASTAROTH, MATHERS.
Hergotis: The name of this demon may be derived from a Greek root meaning “laborer.” Hergotis appears in the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, where he is said to serve the infernal king Amaimon. In the versions of the Abramelin material kept at the libraries in Dresden and Wolfenbüttel in Germany, the name is spelled Cargosik. See also AMAIMON, MATHERS.
Hermiala: In the Mathers translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Hermiala serves the demons Astaroth and Asmodeus. In another version of the Abramelin material kept at the Wolfenbüttel library in Germany, the name of this demon is spelled Ermihala. See also ASTAROTH, ASMODEUS, MATHERS.
Hermon: One of ten infernal dukes who serve in the hierarchy of the wandering prince Uriel. Hermon, despite his rather mundane-sounding name, typically manifests in the form of a serpent with a human head. He is unrepentantly evil and anyone interacting with him should take care, as he has a reputation for being dishonest in all of his dealings. His name and the seal that can compel him both appear in the Ars Theurgia. According to the same text, he has six hundred and fifty lesser spirits who serve beneath him. See also ARS THEURGIA, URIEL.
Hethatia: In the Mathers translation of the Grimoire of Armadel, this demon is said to teach the science and wisdom of Moses as well as the secrets of the Egyptian Magi. He is reputed to have the power to grant perfect happiness and to teach how to strike fear into the hearts of men. See also MATHERS.
Hiepacth: Listed as the eleventh demon under Duke Syrach in Peterson’s Grimorium Verum, Hiepacth has the ability to whisk any person away and cause them to appear instantly before the magician. See also GRIMORIUM VERUM, SYRACH.
Hifarion: The name of this demon appears in connection with the Holy Guardian Angel working in the Mathers translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. Mathers suggests that the name means “little horse.” Hifarion is supposedly a servant of the demon Asmodeus, but this name only appears in the fifteenth-century French manuscript of the Abramelin material sourced by Mathers. See also ASMODEUS, MATHERS.
Himacth: A demon named in the True Keys of Solomon. According to this text, Himacth serves as one of three chief spirits beneath the arch-fiend Belzébut, a variation of Beelzebub. See also BEELZEBUB, TRUE KEYS.
Hinbra: According to the Book of Oberon, Hinbra speaks in such a quiet voice that it is nearly impossible to hear him. Perhaps appropriately, he tells secrets. He can also acquire friendships and earn fame for the person who summons him. Despite his tiny voice, he manifests as a giant. Hinbra, along with eleven others, serves at the will of Egin, king of the north, and is among that demon’s highest-ranking ministers. See also BOOK OF OBERON, EGIN.
