Alloces: astronomy, the liberal sciences, and a seal pendant made to be carried
Alloces, and what working with him is for
Alloces is a Duke in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion entry for him is short and specific: he teaches astronomy and all liberal sciences, and grants good and faithful familiars. That is the work this article is about. It is not about spirit work in general, and it is not about every spirit in the Goetia at once. It is about learning, about the sciences as they were understood in the old books, and about the kind of help a practitioner might seek when study itself is the work in hand. A pendant for Alloces, rather than a ring, changes how that learning is carried, and that change is worth thinking about before you order, because a pendant is worn differently, kept differently, and worked with differently from a ring.
Astronomy, in this context, does not mean only the modern science of the stars. In the liberal sciences, astronomy sits alongside geometry, arithmetic, and music, as part of a disciplined study of order: the order of the heavens, the order of number, and the order that runs through both. To work with Alloces for astronomy is to work for clarity in that study, for a better grasp of the subject, and for the patience to learn it properly, rather than for a shortcut around the learning itself. The same applies to the liberal sciences generally. A spirit who teaches is not a substitute for study. He is, in the old framing, a teacher, and a teacher still expects the student to do the work.
Good and faithful familiars, in plain language
The second part of the entry is about familiars: good and faithful familiars. A familiar, in this tradition, is a helping spirit, granted to assist the practitioner in their work. Good and faithful are the operative words. A familiar that is not faithful is a liability, and a familiar that is not good is a distraction. If you are seeking help of this kind, be clear about what help you actually need, and what you are prepared to do in return, because a working relationship with a helping spirit, like any working relationship, depends on clarity about its terms. What work, exactly, do you need help with? What part of it can you do yourself, and what part do you need help for? What are you offering, in terms of attention, offerings, and proper treatment, in return?
A pendant suits that kind of working in a particular way. A familiar is a companion in the work, and a pendant is a companion object: it hangs where you can feel it, it moves with you through the day, and it can be held in the hand in a moment of study or decision without drawing attention. A seal that lives only on a shelf, or only in a drawer, is not a companion. A seal that is carried, worn, and held, day after day, becomes part of the rhythm of the work. That is not a magical claim. It is a practical claim about how objects work in a practice: the object you actually carry is the object that reminds you of the purpose, and the object that reminds you is the object that keeps the practice alive between formal workings.
A pendant, not a picture of a seal
A seal pendant for Alloces should be a pendant, not a picture of one. That distinction matters, because a pendant is worn on the body, close to the chest, where it can be held, looked at, and carried through ordinary days as well as through formal workings. That bail is not a small detail. It is what turns a disc into a pendant, and a pendant into something you can actually wear, rather than something you have to carry in a pocket or leave on a shelf.
Two inches is a substantial size for a pendant. It is large enough to see clearly, to hold in the hand, and to read the seal on, without a magnifier, and it is large enough to feel its weight when it hangs. That weight is part of the working, in the same way the raised lettering on a ring is part of a ring working: it reminds you, by touch, that the pendant is there, and that the purpose you set when you began is still there with it. If you prefer a smaller seal, other sizes are offered for Alloces on this site, including a 1 inch pendant and rings. This article is about the 2 inch pendant, and it does not pretend the 2 inch pendant is the same experience as a smaller one. It is bigger, heavier, more visible, and more present, and those are reasons to choose it, or reasons not to, depending on how you work.
How this seal is cast
The pendant offered here is made in the same manner as the other Goetia seals on this site: lost wax cast seals, in pure metal actually cast, starting with a wax version. 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, and the metal that remains is a solid, cast object, not a printed shell. You can feel that difference when you hold it, and you can feel it again when you wear it through a day's work.
The ones ready to go take approximately 2 to 3 weeks to get the wax ready and cast. The ones which are not listed, but are under the other option, take 8 weeks, because the waxes for those have not yet been carved. That timing is part of the work, not an inconvenience pasted onto it. A cast seal is not pulled from a shelf. It is made, in wax and then in metal, for the order, and that making takes weeks. If you need a pendant for a working on a particular night, order with that making time in mind, and do not plan a working around a pendant that has not yet been cast.
Working with the seal: holding, candle, oil, carrying, wearing
Working with a seal begins with holding it, looking at it, and setting it aside in a clean place used for your working tools, before you start wearing it everywhere at once. When the working itself begins, hold the seal in your hand, and let it be present through the whole working, not only at the moment you first pick it up. You can put it under a candle during a working, so the candle burns above the seal while you study, write, or speak your petition. You can put oil on it, a small amount, deliberately, with the purpose in mind, if your practice calls for anointing a seal. You can carry it with you through the day, in a pocket or a pouch, when you need the reminder close but do not want to wear it openly. And you can wear it as a pendant, on its bail, when you want it present, visible to you, and close to your chest through study and through ordinary work alike.
Each of those ways of working suits a different part of Alloces work. Holding the seal suits a period of quiet study, when you want the seal in your hand and your attention on the book or the chart in front of you. Putting it under a candle suits a formal working, when the candle marks the time set apart. Oil on the seal suits a preparation, when you are setting the seal aside for a particular working. Carrying it suits a day of study away from home, a library, a class, or a journey, when the pendant would be impractical but the reminder is still wanted. Wearing it as a pendant suits a day of steady work, when you want the seal with you, openly, through the hours. Choose the way that fits the work in hand, and do not try to do all of them at once. A seal worked with in one clear way is a seal worked with well. A seal fumbled with in five ways at once is a seal that has not been worked with at all.
Study work, and the discipline it needs
Alloces work, as described here, is study work, and study work has its own discipline. Set a regular time for it, in a place set aside for it, with the materials you need to hand before you begin. If you are studying astronomy, have the book, the chart, or the instrument ready. If you are studying another liberal science, have the text and your notes ready. Fumbling for materials after you have begun breaks the attention that the working is meant to hold. Keep a record, too, for each period of study: date, subject, what you worked on, what you understood, and what still resists you. That record is what lets you tell, weeks later, whether anything changed, and whether that change had anything to do with the work, or simply with the hours you put in.
That last point is worth stating plainly. If you study for hours, with or without a pendant, you will learn something. That is not a trick. It is how study works. A pendant does not replace those hours, and a working does not replace them either. What a pendant does, in this kind of practice, is keep the purpose present through those hours, remind you why you are studying, and mark the study as set apart, rather than as just another task squeezed between other tasks. If you are tempted to order a pendant because you have left the study too late, the honest first step is to sit down and study, and then, if you still want a pendant, to order it from a position of having begun, not from a position of having avoided the beginning.
When Alloces is not the right working
Sometimes the right answer is not a spirit working at all. If the matter in hand is a formal course of study, an examination, or a professional qualification, deal with that matter through ordinary study and teaching as well. A spirit who teaches the liberal sciences is not a substitute for a teacher, a textbook, or a course, and a familiar, however good and faithful, is not a substitute for doing the work yourself. If you are unsure whether a working is appropriate, wait, ask a teacher you trust, or choose a simpler study practice first and see how that sits.
It is also worth asking whether the pendant is the attraction, or the study is. A beautiful cast seal, 2 inches, worn as a pendant, is an attractive object, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if the object is the whole point, and the study is an afterthought, then the pendant will become ordinary jewellery, however well it is cast, and the working will fade with it. If the study is the point, and the pendant is a companion to that study, then the pendant will stay set apart, because the study itself stays set apart. The difference is not in the metal. It is in the practice, and the practice is yours to keep.
Alloces cast Daemon Demon seal pendant, 2 inches
If you are doing traditional Goetia work with Alloces, for astronomy and the liberal sciences, and for good and faithful familiars, a seal pendant made to be carried and worn is the form this article has been about.
I make these seals myself, as lost wax cast seals in pure metal, starting with a wax version, and I bless each piece myself before it is sent out. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is cast by hand, for this work, and not mass produced.
If you want the pendant for that work, this is the one I offer: Alloces cast Daemon Demon seal pendant, 2 inches, $216 CAD. View the product
I also make the oil and the incense to go with it, for the same work: Alloces Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD, and Alloces Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product
#SealPendantCarried #LiberalSciences #DemonEvocation #AllocesCastDaemon #DaemonDemonSeal #Pendant2Inches #WaxCastSeals #FaithfulFamiliars #SealPendant #InchPendant #LostWax #Pendant #Seal