Working with Belial: favour, office, and a cast seal ring
A King, and what that means in practice
Belial is a King in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion entry for him is direct: he grants dignities and high office, wins the favour of friends and foes, and gives excellent familiars. Those three phrases are worth unpacking slowly, because each of them can be misunderstood if it is read as a promise, or as a vague wish for importance.
Dignities and high office, in the old language, mean standing, responsibility, and a place from which work can be done. They do not mean a title for its own sake. A dignity that carries no work with it is an empty honour, and a high office with no competence behind it is a burden, not a blessing. If you are working with Belial, ask yourself, plainly, what office you are actually fitted for, and what work you would do in it, day after day, once the novelty wore off. That question is part of the working, not a distraction from it.
Favour of friends and foes is a subtler phrase. Favour from friends is welcome, and easy to understand. Favour from foes is harder, and more useful: it means being dealt with fairly, heard out, and given a hearing, even by people who do not agree with you. It does not mean that enemies become friends overnight, or that opposition vanishes. It means the ground of the dealing changes, so that a matter can be settled on its merits, rather than on spite or habit.
Excellent familiars complete the entry, and the adjective matters. Excellent, here, means fitted to the work, steady, and sound in it, not flashy or dramatic. A familiar of that kind is given to a practitioner who can actually use help, and who will use it for work that matters, rather than for display.
Being specific about what you want
Before any working with Belial, be specific about what you want, in your own words, and in one clear sentence. Reflection about being specific is not a formality. It is how you tell, afterwards, whether anything changed, and whether that change had anything to do with the work.
Write the sentence down. Name the office, the standing, or the favour you are asking about, as concretely as you can: which position, which decision, which relationship, which hearing. Then name what you will do yourself, in ordinary terms, to meet that matter halfway. A petition that asks for high office while naming no work you will do in it is not a petition. It is a daydream, and daydreams are hard to read afterwards, because any outcome, or no outcome, can be fitted to them.
Also name what you are prepared to give up. High office costs time, privacy, and ease. Favour costs the comfort of being able to blame the other side for everything. If you are not prepared to pay those costs, say so to yourself now, rather than discovering it after a working has begun to move a matter forward.
If you cannot state the matter in one sentence, leave it overnight and come back to it. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it.
A seal ring, made to be worn and worked with
A seal ring is not a picture of a seal, and it is not only jewellery. It is a working tool that is worn on the hand, and that difference changes how it is used. A seal kept in a drawer can be forgotten. A ring on your hand is present through the day, in ordinary dealings as well as in formal workings, and that presence is part of its function.
The Belial ring offered here is a lost wax cast seal ring. These are lost wax cast seals of the Daemon Demons 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. 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 ring has weight, it has a surface that shows the hand work, and it does not have the layered texture of a printed object. It is made to be handled, worn, and worked with over time, not filed away as a reference image.
A seal that is already listed takes about 2 to 3 weeks in those notes, while seals that are not listed, but are under the other option, take 8 weeks, because she still has not carved their waxes yet. That timing is a plain consequence of hand casting: a wax must be carved before it can be cast, and carving takes time.
Working with a seal: holding, anointing, and wearing
When the ring arrives, do not start by wearing it everywhere at once. Take time to look at it, to hold it in your hand, 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.
Holding the seal is itself a practice. Hold it, turn it in your hand, and learn its weight and its surface, so that it becomes familiar before it is ever worn into a difficult dealing. Putting it under a candle, in the course of a working, is another way of working with it: the seal is set in place, under light, for the duration of the working, and then put away properly afterwards, rather than left lying about.
Putting oil on a seal is a way of marking it for a purpose. In practice, oil is applied deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words, and a matching oil, where one exists for the same spirit, is the natural companion for that anointing. Belial has a matching oil and a matching incense, both for spirit work with Belial, and this article mentions them only as companions to the ring, not as a second article in themselves.
Carrying the seal, and wearing it as a ring, are the everyday forms of this work. Wear it when you are working, and when you are in the dealings the working concerns, and put it away properly when you are not, rather than leaving it in a pocket with keys and loose change. A tool that is treated carelessly tends to be worked with carelessly, and that shows in the record you keep afterwards.
Showing the seal to a desired person is another form named in Athena's seal-working guidance, and it belongs to workings where a person is directly concerned: the seal is shown, deliberately, as part of a working, not flashed about casually. Use that form only where it fits the working you have actually planned, and where your practice calls for it.
Preparation for a Belial working
Preparation is most of the work, and with Belial it starts with the sentence you wrote about what you want, and what you will do yourself. Clear the space you will use, and set it aside for this purpose. Bathe, or wash your hands and face, and change into clothes you do not wear for ordinary errands. That change marks, for yourself, that this time is set apart.
Know what you are going to say, in your own words, before you begin. 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. If the matter is a position you seek, name it. If it is favour in a particular dealing, name the dealing, and the people in it, as far as your practice allows. If it is a familiar, name the work the familiar would help with.
Do not begin a working when you are exhausted, drunk, or already agitated. A clear head is a working tool, just as much as a seal, oil, or incense is, and a working done in the heat of anger often reads, afterwards, as something you wish you had phrased differently. Wait until you can state the matter calmly, even if the matter itself is serious.
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. First, prepare the room and yourself, as above, and have your one-sentence matter written down. Second, set out the ring, and any oil, incense, or candle you will use. Third, hold the ring, and anoint it 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 ring away in its proper place, or wear it onward as the working requires.
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. That record is what lets you tell, weeks later, whether anything changed, and whether that change had anything to do with the work. Note the ring itself in that record: when you wore it, when you put it away, whether you anointed it, and what you noticed on days when you wore it compared with days when you did not.
Ordinary work, alongside ritual work
Sometimes the right answer is not a spirit working alone. If the matter is a position, prepare for it in the ordinary world as well: learn what the position requires, do the work that qualifies you for it, and be ready to be judged on that work. If the matter is a dealing with other people, deal with them fairly in the ordinary world, in speech and in writing, as well as in ritual. Ritual work is not a substitute for competence, for honesty, or for showing up prepared.
That point is especially important with Belial, because dignities and favour are, by their nature, matters that play out among other people. A working that asks for favour while the practitioner continues to deal unfairly, or asks for office while doing nothing to become fit for it, is working against itself. The ritual and the ordinary action should point the same way, or neither will carry much weight.
Care for a cast ring
Care for a cast metal ring is practical, not mystical, and it is worth stating plainly. Pure cast metal will show wear over time, especially if it is worn every day, 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 ring in a clean, dry place when you are not wearing it, away from other metal objects that could scratch it. Clean it gently, with a soft cloth, and do not use harsh chemicals or abrasive cleaners on it, unless you know, for the specific metal involved, that such a cleaner is safe.
If the ring loosens, tightens, or shows damage, stop wearing it until it can be dealt with properly. A tool that does not fit, or that you are worried about losing, is a distraction in a working, and a distraction is a poor companion to a clear petition.
Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop
Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, ring and any oil or incense 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, in the ordinary world as well as in ritual.
Do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force a result. Do the work properly, once, observe, act in the ordinary world as the matter requires, 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.
Belial cast seal ring
A seal ring for Belial should be a ring made to be worn and worked with, not a picture of one.
I make these as lost wax cast seals, cast from a wax version in pure metal, one at a time, and I bless each one myself before it is sent out. This one is Belial, as a cast seal ring, made for traditional Goetia work with Belial, to be held, anointed, carried, and worn. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is cast by hand, for this work.
If you want a Belial seal made in this way, this is the one I offer: Belial Goetia cast seal ring, $216 CAD. View the product
Belial also has a matching oil and a matching incense, both at $44 CAD, for spirit work with Belial, for anointing and fumigating the ring where your practice calls for it.
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