Working with Agares: language, return, and restlessness, and the seal ring I cast for that work

Agares, from the Grimoire Companion seal set.

Agares is a spirit of language and return

Agares is listed in the Grimoire Companion as a Duke, and his character is unusual among Goetia spirits, because it is quieter than most. He teaches all languages and tongues, he returns runaways, and he stills restlessness. That is a particular kind of work, and it should not be blurred into general spirit work. A working with Agares is not a working for wealth, or for victory, or for love. It is a working for understanding, for return, and for stillness: three things that belong together more closely than they first appear.

The Companion tags Agares with knowledge, eloquence, and travel, and those tags help to make sense of the office. Language is knowledge made usable: the ability to speak, to understand, and to be understood. Return is travel in reverse: a person, a thing, or a state of mind coming back to where it belongs. Restlessness is what happens when neither of those is in place: the feeling of being unable to settle, unable to stay, unable to be still. Before you work with Agares, be clear about which of the three is yours, because they are different petitions, even when they arrive together.

Languages and tongues: what that means in practice

Teaching all languages and tongues does not mean, in any useful sense, that a seal will do your studying for you. It means the work is aimed at the capacity itself: the ear for a language, the memory for words, the courage to speak badly before you speak well, the understanding of a text or a speaker that goes beyond the dictionary meaning. If you are learning a language, working with a text in a language not your own, or preparing to speak in a place where you will be judged on your words, that is the kind of petition Agares work addresses.

Eloquence belongs here too. Eloquence is not fancy speech. It is speech that lands: the right words, in the right order, at the right time, spoken steadily. A person who knows what they want to say but cannot say it under pressure is a person with an Agares problem, in the old sense of the word. Be specific about the situation: which language, which text, which speech, which conversation? 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.

Runaways and restlessness

The return of runaways is the second part of the office, and it should be understood in its widest honest sense. A runaway can be a person who has left, a thing that has gone missing, an opportunity that slipped away, or a state of mind that has wandered off and not come back. The petition is for return: that what belongs should come back to where it belongs, rather than drifting further away.

Restlessness is the third part, and it is the one most people recognise first in themselves. Restlessness is the inability to settle: to a place, to a practice, to a decision, to a life. It feels like movement, but it is not progress, because it has no destination. A working for stilling restlessness is a working for settling: not for giving up, but for being able to stay where you have chosen to stay, and to work from there, rather than from constant motion. If you are working in the Goetia system, work from the instructions and teaching you already follow in that system. A general article like this one is not a substitute for proper teaching, and it should not be used to invent a purpose for a spirit you have not studied.

Starting with the work, not with the tool

Spirit work is not shopping, and a seal does not do the work for you. Before you take up a seal, be clear about why you are doing this working, what you are asking for, and what you are prepared to do yourself. That last part matters more than usual with Agares, because language and stillness both reward practice. Are you studying the language, or only wishing you knew it? Have you done the ordinary-world work of looking for what is lost, or of deciding where you want to settle? Ritual work is not a substitute for dealing with a legal matter, a safety matter, or a medical matter in the ordinary world. If any of those apply, deal with them first.

Know what you are going to say, in your own words, and know what you are not going to say. A petition that tries to cover every possible outcome usually covers none of them well. Keep it direct, keep it honest, and keep it to the matter at hand. A seal ring is worn daily, and a daily object deserves a clear purpose, not a vague hope.

A seal should be a seal, not a picture of one

These are lost wax cast seals of the spirits of the various grimoires. They are pure metal which is actually cast, starting with a wax version, which is much higher quality than the 3D printed versions, using metal powder and plastic, that you find around the internet. A cast seal has weight, depth, and a surface made by a human hand working wax, then metal. A printed imitation has the shape without the making.

How a seal ring is worked with

A seal ring is worked with the way seals are worked with in this kind of practice: holding it in the hand while the purpose is stated, placing it under a candle during a working, anointing it with oil where oil is part of the practice, carrying it on the person, wearing it as a ring, or showing it to the desired person where the working calls for that. A ring is with you through ordinary days, not only on ritual nights, and that means the purpose travels with you into the situations where it matters: the classroom, the conversation, the journey, the decision.

When you first receive the ring, take a quiet moment with it before you wear it out into the world. Hold it, state the purpose in your own words, and be clear about which part of the office is yours: language, return, or stillness. Then wear it, and let the ordinary days do their part. Prepare yourself for any working you do with it the way you would prepare for any working: wash your hands and face, change into clothes you do not wear for ordinary errands, and give yourself a few quiet minutes. Avoid starting a working when you are exhausted, drunk, or already agitated. A clear head is a working tool.

Oil and incense to go with the seal

Oil and incense are often used together with a seal in Goetia work, and Agares work is no exception. The oil marks and anoints. The incense fills the space and sets the atmosphere for the working itself. If you are anointing the ring, or a candle, or your own hands for the working, the matching Agares oil is the companion for that, made in the same way as the other oils on this site: from only pure essential oils, roots and herbs, with no synthetics and no fillers, sometimes with the odd gemstone thrown in, in a 1/2 oz bottle, unless otherwise stated.

If you are fumigating the ring or the tools for a working, the matching Agares incense is the companion for that, hand made in small batches when you order, unless a batch has just recently been made, of a quality Athena uses herself for magical work. Use them deliberately, with the purpose in mind, rather than as decoration. Anoint first, with a clear purpose, then light the incense and let the room settle before you speak your petition. Give the room a moment to change, and give yourself a moment to notice that change.

Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop

Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, what you did, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. With Agares, watch the record for the quiet signs, not only the dramatic ones: a word remembered that used to escape you, a conversation that went more smoothly than usual, a night when the urge to leave simply did not arrive, a message from someone who had drifted away. Those are part of the working, not separate from it. Note the ring itself in that record too: how it wears, how it feels on the hand, whether wearing it daily changes how you carry yourself.

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. If nothing changes, that is also information. It may mean the petition was unclear, the timing was wrong, the work was not appropriate, or simply that the situation needs a different approach.

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