Working with Amdusias: Music, the Wild, and Familiars
Who Amdusias is in the Goetia
Amdusias is a Duke in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion gives his offices in a line that sounds, at first, almost like poetry: he commands music to sound of itself and bends the trees of the wild, and he grants familiars. It is worth taking that line apart slowly, because each part points to a different kind of working, and the three together describe a spirit whose domain is sound, living things, and the unseen helpers that attend a practitioner.
Music sounding of itself is not a parlour trick to be demanded. In a working context, it points to music as a force in its own right: sound that moves a room, that changes the state of the people in it, and that carries a working in a way words alone do not. A practitioner who works with music, whether as a musician, a singer, or simply as someone who uses sound in ritual, will recognise what that means. The music is not background. It is part of the rite.
Bending the trees of the wild points to the living world beyond the working room: trees, plants, and the wild places where old magic was often done. It is a reminder that Goetia work did not begin in a tidy study. It began, in part, outdoors, among living things, where the practitioner had to pay attention to weather, season, and place. A working with Amdusias can therefore be a working that reconnects a practitioner with that outdoor attention, even if the rite itself is done indoors.
Granting familiars is the third office, and it is the one that needs the most steady thinking. A familiar, in the old sense, is a helper spirit that attends a practitioner over time, not a pet and not a servant to be ordered about casually. Seeking a familiar is seeking a relationship, and a relationship takes time, attention, and a clear sense of what you are asking for and what you are prepared to offer in return. Be specific about that, in plain words, before you begin.
Sound as a working tool
Most ritual work uses sound, whether or not the practitioner thinks of it that way. Words are spoken, names are vibrated, bells are rung, and sometimes music is played. Sound fills a room in a way that sight does not. It reaches every corner, and it reaches the body as well as the ear. A low note felt in the chest is a different experience from a note merely heard, and a working that uses sound well will use that bodily quality deliberately.
If you work with music, bring that attention into the rite. Choose the music, or the instrument, or the voice, for the working, not at random. If you sing or play, do it as part of the working, not as entertainment before it. If you listen, listen actively, with the petition in mind, rather than letting the music wash over you while your thoughts wander to ordinary business. The discipline is the same as with any other tool: use it with intention, or do not use it at all.
Silence, too, is a use of sound. A working that moves from music into silence, deliberately, gives the silence weight. The contrast teaches attention. If you have never tried it, try it in a simple rite first: a short piece of music, or a single sustained note, followed by quiet, and notice how the quiet feels different after the sound than it did before.
Why incense leads in this work
Incense fills the space where the working happens, and in a working concerned with sound and with living things, the space matters. The smoke rises and spreads, as sound spreads, reaching the whole room. That parallel is worth noticing. You are working with two things that fill a space invisibly: scent and sound. Both change the room without changing its furniture, and both are noticed by everyone present, whether or not they are following the words of the rite.
Incense also does the work of fumigation. Tools, a seal, an instrument, or a candle can be passed through the smoke, so that they too are prepared for the working. An instrument that has been fumigated before it is played in a rite has been through the same preparation as the room and the practitioner. That shared preparation is part of what makes the tools of a working feel like a set.
For a working with a familiar, incense has a further use. A regular working, in a regular place, with the same incense burned each time, builds an association over weeks and months. The scent becomes a signal: this is the time, and this is the place, for this work. Helpers, of whatever kind, are approached through regularity as much as through any single dramatic rite. A steady practice is more inviting than a single grand gesture.
Preparation is most of the work
Start with the room. Clear the space you will use, not just physically, but in the sense of setting it aside for this purpose. Put away the things that pull your attention elsewhere. If you have a regular working space, use it. If you do not, choose one place and use it consistently for this working, so the place itself starts to carry the association.
Then prepare yourself. Bathe, or at least wash your hands and face, and change into clothes you do not wear for ordinary errands. This is not about looking a certain way for anyone else. It is about marking, for yourself, that this time is set apart. Avoid starting a working when you are exhausted, drunk, or already agitated. A clear head is a working tool, just as much as incense or oil is.
Next, prepare the words you will use, and, if music is part of the working, prepare the music too. Do not improvise a whole petition on the spot if you can avoid it. Know what you are going to say, in your own words, and know what you are not going to say. If you will play or sing, know the piece beforehand, so that you are performing it, not struggling through it, while your attention should be on the working.
How the incense is made here
I hand make each batch of incense when you order it, unless a batch has just recently been made. The incenses I make are of a quality that I use them myself for magical work. They work well enough that I use them successfully for spirit work, work for clients, as well as my own spellwork.
That made-to-order point matters. It means the incense has not been sitting, opened and closed, through other people's orders. It is made for your order, and then blessed by me myself before it is sent out. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this work, and not mass produced. That is about the magical result, not about delivery dates for physical items.
Store incense as you would any working material: dry, closed, and set apart from ordinary household scents. Do not leave it open on a shelf where it picks up other smells, and do not burn it casually, as room scent, if you want it to keep its association with the work. The association is built by use, and casual use builds a different association.
Oil, and why oil and incense go together here
Oil and incense do different jobs in the room. The incense fills the space and sets the atmosphere for the working itself. The oil marks and anoints: the hands, the forehead, or a tool, seal, or candle that will be used in the working. Used together, they cover both the space and the point of contact.
The Amdusias oil offered here is hand made in the same way as the other oils I make: from only pure essential oils, roots, and herbs, with no extraneous ingredients or fillers, and no synthetics. Sometimes there is the odd gemstone thrown in as well.
If you are doing a full working, use both. Light the incense first and let the room settle, then anoint, deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words. If music is part of the working, anoint the instrument, or your hands before you play, as your system directs, and let the fumigation and the anointing be part of the same preparation, not two unrelated gestures.
A simple working order, to adapt to your own practice
The following is a general order, not a fixed script. Adapt it to the system you already work in, and to the instructions you already follow for Goetia work. Do not treat a general article as a substitute for proper teaching in the system.
First, prepare the room and yourself, as above. Second, set out the seal, tool, or instrument you will use, and the incense and oil. Third, light the incense and let the space settle. Fourth, anoint, deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words. Fifth, speak your petition, or begin the music, clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses its shape. Sixth, sit quietly for a time and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words or more sound. Seventh, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the tools away in their proper place.
Afterwards, write down what you did, when you did it, and what you noticed. Not what you hoped would happen, but what actually happened, in plain language. With music and with familiars especially, the record matters, because both are matters of subtle change over time, not of a single dramatic night, and memory is quick to reshape a subtle change into something grander than it was, or to miss it altogether.
Working with the seal
Amdusias's seal is a working tool in its own right. In practice, a seal can be held in the hand during a working, placed under a candle, anointed with oil, carried with you, worn as a pendant, or shown to the person you have in mind, according to the working and your own system. Each of those uses keeps the seal, and the purpose it carries, present through the work.
If you work with music, you might hold the seal while you play, or place it where you can see it while you work, so that the seal and the sound are part of the same rite. If you work outdoors, or with plants and trees, you might carry the seal with you into that place, and bring it back to the working room afterwards, so that the two places are linked by the same tool. Let your system, and your own judgement, guide the detail.
When this is not the right work
Sometimes the right answer is not a spirit working at all. If the matter at hand is a practical musical matter, such as practice, training, or finding a teacher, do that ordinary work first, or at the same time. Ritual work can support a craft, but it does not replace the hours of practice a craft requires. The same is true of a familiar: a helper is not a substitute for your own study, discipline, and attention.
If you are unsure whether a working is appropriate, wait, ask a teacher you trust, or choose a simpler practice first and see how that sits. A working begun in haste, for a familiar you have not thought through, or for music you have not yet learned to make, will teach you less than a slower beginning, and may leave you with an expectation you cannot meet.
Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop
Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, incense and oil used, what you did, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. 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.
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. With familiars above all, regularity matters more than repetition: a steady, modest practice, kept over months, will teach you more than a frantic week of workings.
Amdusias incense, and Amdusias oil to go with it
If you are doing spirit work with Amdusias, the incense is for the room and the working itself, not for scenting a room casually.
I hand make Amdusias incense myself, in small batches when you order, and I bless it myself before it is sent out. It is made for spirit work and spellwork with Amdusias, and I use the same kind of incense myself for magical work. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this work, and not mass produced.
If you want the incense for that work, this is the one I offer: Amdusias Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product
I also make the oil to go with it, for anointing in the same work: Amdusias Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD, 1/2 oz bottle. View the product
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