Working with Agares: languages, runaways, restlessness, and a two-inch seal

Agares, languages, and stilling restlessness

Agares is described in the Grimoire Companion notes as a Duke who teaches all languages and tongues, who returns runaways, and who stills restlessness. That description contains three different kinds of work, and they are connected in a way that is worth thinking about. Languages are how people speak to each other, and how they understand each other. A runaway, in the traditional description, is someone, or something, that has left and needs to be brought back. Restlessness is a state in which a person cannot settle, cannot stay, and cannot listen, because they are already moving on to the next thing. A spirit described as teaching languages, returning runaways, and stilling restlessness is, in plain terms, a spirit for settling, understanding, and bringing back what has wandered.

Before you think about any tool for Agares work, be clear about which of those three you mean. Are you learning a language, or trying to understand a tongue you do not yet speak, in study, in travel, or in a working that uses another language? Are you trying to bring back something, or someone, that has run away, in the ordinary sense of a person who has left, or in the wider sense of a habit, a practice, or a part of yourself that has wandered? Or are you trying to still your own restlessness, so you can stay, listen, and learn, rather than moving on before you have understood? Those are different petitions, and they should not be blurred together. Write the matter down in one sentence, and leave it overnight, to see if it still reads true. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it, and it is itself a small act of stilling restlessness: waiting, rather than rushing to the next thing.

A seal is not a picture of a seal, and a two-inch seal is for holding and for the altar

A seal for Agares should be a seal, not a picture of one. That distinction sounds simple, and it is, but it changes how you work with the thing in your hands. A picture can be looked at. A seal can be carried, anointed, fumigated, placed on an altar, and worked with over time. It has weight, it has a surface you can touch, and it stays with you after the working is over, in a way a printed image does not.

This seal is a pendant, two inches, which is a substantial size, and that size is worth thinking about plainly. A two-inch pendant is easy to hold in the hand during a working, easy to see clearly on an altar, and easy to place under a candle or to fumigate. It is larger than a small daily-wear pendant, and it fits work that is done deliberately, at a set time, in a set place, rather than work that is carried unnoticed all day. For Agares work, where the aim may be to still restlessness, or to learn a language over time, a larger seal kept on an altar and held during study fits the work well, because it gives the working a fixed place to return to, day after day. Think about how you will actually use it before you order: where it will be kept, what cord or chain you trust for it, and whether you will wear it for workings, keep it on an altar, or both.

How a lost-wax cast seal is made

The seals offered here are lost wax cast seals of the Daemon Demons of the various grimoires. In lost-wax casting, the seal is first worked in wax, then cast in metal from that wax form. The wax is lost in the process, which is where the name comes from, and the metal that remains is a solid, cast object, not a printed shell. You can feel that difference when you hold it: a cast seal has weight, it has a surface that shows the hand work, and it does not have the layered texture of a printed object.

That process also explains why a cast seal is made to order, and why it takes time. A seal that is already listed takes about two to three weeks, while seals that are not listed, but are under the other option, take eight weeks, because she still has not carved their waxes yet. That is a practical detail, and it is worth knowing before you order, because it affects how the pendant hangs and how it will wear over time.

Working with a seal: holding, anointing, carrying, wearing, showing

Working with a seal, in the general guidance given for seal articles on this site, includes holding it, putting it under a candle, putting oil on it, carrying it with you, wearing it as a pendant, and showing it to the desired person, specific to each seal and spirit. For Agares, those ways take particular forms. Holding the seal, before you study a language, or before you speak in a tongue you are learning, is a way of marking that study time as set apart. Putting it under a candle, while you study, is a way of keeping the working present while you work. Putting oil on it, anointing it deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words, is a way of marking it for that purpose, with a matching oil if your practice calls for one.

Carrying it, and wearing it as a pendant, are the most ordinary and the most constant ways of working with a seal, and for a two-inch pendant they fit workings and study sessions, and time on an altar, rather than unnoticed daily wear. A seal carried while you travel, while you study, while you speak to people in another language, or while you wait for something to return, is a seal that is part of that life, not a seal that sits at home while you live without it. Showing it to the desired person, in this context, means letting the seal be seen, in the course of a meeting, rather than hiding it, when showing is appropriate and when you are willing to be seen showing it. That openness is part of the work, not a trick, and it should only be done when the situation calls for it. Anointing and fumigating are companion practices: passing the seal through incense smoke, to start a working, and for fumigating the tools and talismans that will be used in it, and anointing it with oil, deliberately, rather than quickly.

Preparing to work with a seal, and a simple working order

Preparation is most of the work, and with a seal that preparation starts before the seal arrives. Be clear about why you are working with Agares, what language, runaway, or restlessness you mean, and what you are prepared to do yourself, including the ordinary-world work: studying the language, speaking it, even badly, every day; looking for what has run away, in the places it might be; and practising stillness, by sitting, listening, and staying, rather than moving on. If you cannot state the matter in one clear sentence, write it down, leave it overnight, and come back to see if it still reads true.

When the seal arrives, do not start by wearing it everywhere at once. Take time to look at it, to hold it, and to set it aside in a clean place that is used for your working tools. If your practice calls for cleansing or consecration of a new tool, follow the instructions you already follow in your system. A general article like this one is not a substitute for proper teaching in the system, and it should not be used to invent a consecration rite for a seal you have not been taught to consecrate. The following is a general order, not a fixed script. First, prepare the room and yourself. Second, set out the seal, and any oil, incense, or candle you will use. Third, anoint or fumigate the seal, if your practice calls for it, deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words. Fourth, speak your petition, clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses its shape. Fifth, sit quietly for a time and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words. Sixth, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the seal away in its proper place, or wear it, as your practice directs.

Language, and the ordinary study that goes with the seal

For language work in particular, it is worth being plain about what the seal can and cannot do in a working. A seal held during study does not replace study. It marks study time as set apart, it gives you a fixed point to return to, and it keeps the working present while you work, but the language itself is learned by speaking, reading, listening, and making mistakes, every day. A language you never speak, read, or listen to, every day, is a language you are unlikely to learn, seal or no seal. That is not a criticism of the seal. It is a description of how language learning works, in the ordinary world, and a working that ignores the ordinary world tends to be a working that avoids the real task.

Use the seal to structure that ordinary work. Hold it before a study session, put it under a candle while you study, and put it away properly when the session is over, so that study itself becomes a ritual with a beginning and an end, rather than a task that drifts. Keep a short record of study alongside your working record: what you studied, for how long, and what you noticed, in plain language. Over weeks, that record will show you whether you are settling into the language, or whether restlessness is still pulling you on to the next thing before you have finished the last one. That record, not a single working, is what tells you whether the work is holding.

Care for a cast pendant, and knowing when to stop

Care for a cast metal pendant is practical, not mystical. Pure cast metal will show wear over time, especially if it is worn often, against skin, against clothing, and against other objects. That wear is normal for a working tool, and it is not a sign that the seal has stopped working. It is a sign that it has been carried. Keep the pendant in a clean, dry place when you are not wearing it, away from other metal objects that could scratch it, and clean it gently, with a soft cloth, without harsh chemicals, unless you know, for the specific metal involved, that such a cleaner is safe.

If the bail loosens, or if the pendant shows damage, stop wearing it until it can be repaired properly. A tool that is falling apart is a distraction in a working, and a safety risk if it can fall off unnoticed. Keep a short record for each working, and do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force a result. Do the work properly, once, observe, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different approach, or no further working is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise.

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