Goetic Depression

Ce qui est créé par l’esprit est plus vivant que la matière.
- Baudelaire

The dangers of Goetia are much talked about, many are much exaggerated, but some are quite real.

Not so long ago, perhaps out of my desperation and my folly, or perhaps I intended to experiment it, and maybe influenced by Lon Milo Duquette’s experience on Orobas, I had tried a very simplified version of Goetic working. There was no complex setting; everything was literally done on a piece of paper. I did include simple Enochian calls, as outlined in Duquette’s edition of Goetia, and also LBRP as well.

The result is astonishing, I did get what I hoped to get; well, for most of the part anyway. Everything seems to be a mere coincidence, but perhaps this is like what Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius said, as quoted in Lovecraft’s short story The Festival, efficiut daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen quasi sint, conspicienda hominibus exhibeant.

I am aware of Joseph Lisiewski’s “Old System”, and know his harsh criticism of the over simplified application of Goetia like this, but at least I do see obvious, clear results, though not without side effects. Lisiewski listed a few dreaded consequences of a successful working in his “Old System”, few had occurred to me, and even if they do, the side effects are relatively mild.

The side effect I experienced is mainly depression, sometimes vague, sometimes stronger, and it lasted for weeks.

After considering the factors for my depression, I think that, an over simplified working like this might bring results, but it is still not a proper way and the depression might caused by the “hangover” with insufficient banishing and proper protection.

I am uncertain if the “residual” is also a cause of my minor health problems, like flu, cough, sore throat, lethargy, but perhaps it has nothing to do with Goetia and the bad weather should be blamed for this.

Since then, my depression gradually disappears, and I am doing much better now. While no emotional clinging to the entity, I do feel thankful.

This experience does teach me a lesson; next time if I do really need to conduct a Goetic working, I will do it the more proper, safer way.