Paimon is one of the most recognizable spirits in the Ars Goetia, the 17th-century grimoire that lists 72 demons ranked within a pseudo-Solomonic hierarchy. He is the ninth spirit, a king commanding 200 legions, and his description is distinctive: a crowned figure with an androgynous, beautiful face riding a dromedary, preceded by a host of …
Amprodias is not ancient. He has no Sumerian tablet, no Greek inscription, no medieval grimoire entry. He appears fully formed in the 1970s, in the work of Kenneth Grant, within the Typhonian current of Thelemic occultism. And yet, for practitioners working the Qliphothic Tree of Death, he is real enough. He is the intelligence of …
1. What This Entity Is Asag is a mountain demon from Sumerian tradition, appearing as the primary adversary of the warrior god Ninurta in the Lugal-e epic (circa 2nd millennium BCE). In Akkadian transmission, the name becomes Asakku and shifts from a specific named demon to a whole class of malevolent forces. In his original form, Asag is territorial. …
1. What This Entity Is Tiamat is the primordial salt water sea personified in Babylonian cosmology, best known from the Enūma Eliš (circa 1100–600 BCE). Her name is cognate with tamtu (Akkadian for “sea”). She is the chaos monster who opposes the younger gods and is slain by Marduk, whose body is then used to create heaven and earth. …
1. What This Entity Is Nergal is a Mesopotamian deity of plague, war, and the underworld, attested from the Old Babylonian through Neo-Assyrian periods (circa 1800–600 BCE). He has a temple (E-Nergal in Cuthah), a priesthood, and a place in the formal pantheon. His planetary correspondence is Mars—one of the few stable astrological mappings in …
1. What This Entity Is Ereshkigal is the queen of the underworld (Irkalla) in Mesopotamian tradition, spanning Sumerian through Neo-Babylonian periods (circa 2100–500 BCE). Her name translates as “Lady of the Great Earth”—a reference to the underworld, not the surface world. In Akkadian sources, she appears as Allatu or Allatum. Her domain, Irkalla, so thoroughly …
She comes through the window. Not the door. The door can be sealed. The door can hold a Pazuzu head. The window is a gap. The roof opening is a vulnerability. The unsealed threshold is an invitation she does not require. Lamashtu is not a demon in the European sense. She does not serve a …
You don’t worship Pazuzu. You don’t offer him incense, pour libations, or pray for his favor. You hang his image on the wall, place his head at the threshold, and hope he does what he does. Pazuzu is not a god. He has no temple, no priesthood, no cult. He is a wind-demon—specifically, the king …