King

Johann Weyer, whose 1577 Pseudomonarchia Daemonum is the direct ancestor of the ranked catalogue used in the later Lemegeton, compiled his list as part of a broader argument against the witch persecutions of his own time, holding that those accused of consorting with demons were more often deluded or mentally ill than genuinely guilty of the crimes charged against them. The elaborate hierarchy of named, ranked spirits he catalogued was meant, in that original context, to satirise and undercut inflated claims about demonic power rather than to hand practitioners a working manual for invoking it. Later readers largely inverted that purpose, stripping away Weyer's sceptical framing and reprinting his catalogue, and the derived Goetia that grew from it, as straightforward magical reference works.

Some manuscripts of the Lemegeton also assign four of the ranked Kings specifically to the cardinal points of the compass, generally given as Amaymon in the east, Corson in the south, Ziminiar in the north and Paimon in the west, an internal geography layered onto the catalogue that has no equivalent for the Duke, Prince or other lower ranks, which are differentiated by the number of legions each spirit commands rather than by any directional assignment.

Sources De Praestigiis DaemonumJohann Weyer with Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis (The Lesser Key of Solomon)Anonymous (unidentified compiler)

Counted across the seventy-two spirits of the Ars Goetia as this atlas records them, nine hold the rank of King. They command 634 legions between them, an average of just over seventy each, which is the highest average of any rank in the catalogue.

The averages conceal a wide spread, and the spread is the interesting part. Paimon commands 200 legions, far more than any other spirit at any rank. Beleth has 85 and Belial 80. At the other end, Purson, a King, commands 22, and Zagan 33, both of which are below what several Dukes and Presidents are given. A reader who assumed that the title predicted the force would be wrong about a third of the time.

That matters for how the catalogue should be read. Rank and legions are two independent columns, not one fact stated twice. Rank appears to record precedence and the manner of address, the protocol of the conjuration, while the legion count records something closer to reach. A spirit can be high and small, or low and large.

The kings are also where the catalogue is at its most inconsistent about titles. Vine is given as a King and an Earl together in the Ars Goetia text, and this collection files him under the first of the two, as it does with every spirit carrying a compound rank.

The nine are Bael, who opens the catalogue, Paimon, Beleth, Purson, Asmoday, Vine, Balam, Zagan and Belial, who is very nearly the last of the seventy-two and is described in terms that make him the most dangerous entry in the book.