Belial and the oil: dignities, high office, favour, and familiars

Belial, a King, and what that rank means in practice

Rank in the Goetia is not decoration. It tells you something about the scale of the work, and about the manner in which it should be approached. In the Grimoire Companion entry, Belial is a King who grants dignities and high office, wins the favour of friends and foes, and gives excellent familiars. A King, in this system, is not approached casually, and a working for dignities and high office is not a working for a small, private wish. It is a working about standing, position, and how you are regarded by people who have power to grant or withhold those things.

That scale is worth taking seriously before you begin. A practitioner who wants a promotion, an appointment, a position of trust, or a hearing before people in authority is dealing with a public matter, not a private one. The working will be judged, in the end, by what happens in that public world: whether you are heard, whether you are trusted, whether you are given the position, and whether you can hold it once it is given. A ritual that does not lead to conduct worthy of the position is a weak ritual, however well it is performed.

Approach, therefore, should be deliberate and respectful, in the manner of approaching a King: prepared, clear, properly dressed, and with a petition that is honest about what you have done, what you can do, and what you are asking for. If you cannot state those three things plainly, you are not ready yet, and that is useful information in itself.

Dignities and high office, taken seriously

Dignities and high office, in the older language, mean honours and positions: a title, an office, a post of responsibility, a place in a hierarchy. In modern terms, that may be a promotion, an appointment, a leadership role, a professional recognition, or a position of trust in a community or organisation. The form changes. The substance does not: someone else must decide to grant it, and they will decide on the basis of what they know of you, what others say of you, and how you present yourself when it matters.

A working for such a matter should therefore be paired with honest preparation. What is the position, exactly? What does it require? What have you done that qualifies you for it, and what gaps remain? What will you do, if it is granted, that justifies the trust? Write those answers down, in plain language, before you anoint anything. A petition that asks for a position without naming what the position is, or what you will do with it, is a vague petition, and a vague petition is hard to judge afterwards.

Be specific about what you want, in the sense this whole project keeps returning to: a clear, single-sentence purpose, honestly stated, is easier to work with than a vague wish for advancement in general. Advancement in general is not a position. A particular office, a particular role, a particular hearing, is something you can work for, and judge when it is over.

Favour of friends and foes

Winning the favour of friends and foes is the second office, and it is closely tied to the first. Friends, in this context, are those already inclined toward you, whose favour needs to be kept, deepened, or turned into active support. Foes are those inclined against you, whose opposition needs to be softened, answered, or at least prevented from blocking the matter at hand. Both kinds of favour matter for high office, because a position is rarely granted by one person alone. It is granted by a group, a board, a community, or a hierarchy, in which friends and foes both have a voice.

Working for favour should not be confused with working to deceive. Favour that is won by a false impression will not hold, and it will damage reputation when it fails. The honest form of this work is: present yourself clearly, speak truthfully, deal fairly with opponents as well as friends, and let the working support that conduct, not replace it. If there is a particular foe whose opposition is based on a misunderstanding, a clear word may mend it. If it is based on a real clash of interests, that clash should be faced honestly, not wished away.

Note, in your record, who the friends and foes actually are, in the particular matter, not in general. A general list of allies and enemies is not a petition. A particular hearing, a particular decision, a particular group of people whose favour matters for that decision, is something you can work with.

Excellent familiars

Excellent familiars, in the Companion's terms, are spirits given to serve and assist the practitioner. That is a serious claim, and it should be handled with care. A familiar, in the grimoire sense, is not a pet, and it is not a tool to be used and discarded. It is a spirit bound to service, with its own terms, and a practitioner who asks for one should be prepared for a relationship, not a single transaction.

This article does not invent terms, names, or instructions for obtaining a familiar, and it does not present a general article as a substitute for proper teaching in the system. If you work in a system that teaches familiar work, follow the teaching you already follow, and the instructions of your teacher. If you do not, do not use a general article about an oil as a manual for familiar work. Use the oil, if you use it at all, for the anointing and spirit work it is made for, with Belial, and let the question of familiars be a matter for proper teaching, not for improvisation.

What can be said, plainly, is that a practitioner who wants assistance in a position of responsibility should first be clear about what assistance they actually need, and what they are prepared to give in return, in attention, in observance, and in conduct. A vague request for help in general is not a petition. A clear statement of the work, and the help needed for it, is.

How this oil is made

The oils on this site are hand made by Athena from only pure essential oils, roots, and herbs. Sometimes there is the odd gemstone thrown in as well. No extraneous ingredients or fillers are used, and no synthetics are used.

All colognes, perfumes, and oils are in a half-ounce bottle, about twice as large as those little health food store essential oil bottles, unless otherwise stated. That size is a practical point. A half-ounce bottle, used a drop or two at a time for anointing, lasts through many workings. It is not a bottle to be poured out freely. A little, used deliberately, is the whole practice of anointing.

This oil belongs to that use: an oil made for spellwork and spirit work, not a perfume made for ordinary wear, though it is made with the same care as the perfumes and colognes on the site.

Anointing in practice

Anointing is a simple act, and it should stay simple. Put a small amount of oil on your hands, and rub them together, or anoint a candle from the centre outward, or anoint a seal, according to the practice you already follow. Name the purpose in your own words, once, clearly. Do not repeat the petition until it loses its shape. One clear statement, made deliberately, is better than a long improvisation.

If you are anointing before a hearing, a meeting, or a presentation in which a position will be decided, do it in the preparation period, not in the meeting itself. Anoint, dress properly, gather your papers, rehearse what you will say, and then go to the meeting with your attention on the meeting, not on the oil. The oil marks the preparation. The meeting itself should be met with a clear head.

If you are anointing a seal, put the oil on it with care, and wipe away excess, so the seal is not left sticky or stained. Working with a seal, in Athena's general guidance, includes holding it, putting it under a candle, putting oil on it, carrying it, and wearing it as a pendant. Anointing is one of those ways, not the whole of the work. Hold the seal, state the purpose, anoint it, and then put it away properly, or carry it deliberately, as your practice directs.

Do not anoint everything in sight. Choose the one or two points that carry the working, and anoint those, deliberately.

Oil and incense together

Oil and incense do different jobs in a working, and Belial work is a good place to learn the difference. Oil marks and anoints. Incense fills the space and sets the atmosphere for the working itself. Used together, with a clear purpose, they reinforce each other: the oil marks the person or tool, and the incense marks the room and the time.

If you are doing a full working, rather than simply anointing before a meeting, use both. Anoint first, with a clear purpose in mind, then light the incense and let the room settle before you speak your petition. Do not rush from anointing to speaking. Give the room a moment to change, and give yourself a moment to notice that change.

Belial also has a matching incense, for spirit work with Belial, and a matching bath and seal pendant and ring as well. This article is about the oil, so it does not turn into a second article about those companions, but it is worth knowing they exist, because a working that uses oil, incense, and a seal together, each in its proper place, is a fuller working than one that relies on a single tool alone.

A simple working order, and a record

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 for any Goetia working, and write the position, hearing, or matter down in one clear sentence, with what you have done and what you will do. Second, set out the oil, and any incense, seal, or candle you will use. Third, anoint, deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words. Fourth, light incense, if you are using it, and let the space settle. Fifth, speak your petition, clearly and once. Sixth, sit quietly and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words. Seventh, close the working properly, and put the tools away.

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. For a position, note what happened at the hearing or decision, as far as you can honestly tell, and what you did to prepare. For favour, note what was said, by whom, and what changed, if anything. That record, over weeks, is what tells you whether the working is helping, or whether you are simply enjoying the ritual and calling it advancement.

Do not burn incense in a room where it is unsafe to do so, and do not leave a burner unattended. Use a safe burner, on a heat-proof surface, away from curtains, papers, and anything that could catch, and stay with it for the whole working.

Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop

Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, oil and any 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 position requires more preparation, better conduct, or 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.

A dignity, once granted, has to be held. That holding — by conduct, by competence, by fairness to friends and foes alike — is the real test of the working, and it lasts longer than any single night's ritual. Prepare for that holding, not only for the granting, and let your record show both.

Belial Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil

Oil marks the person, the tool, or the act, and this one is made for anointing and spirit work with Belial.

I hand make this oil myself, from only pure essential oils, roots, and herbs, with no synthetics and no fillers, sometimes with the odd gemstone thrown in, in a half-ounce bottle. I bless each one 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.

If you want the oil for that work, this is the one I offer: Belial Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD. View the product

I also make the incense to go with it, for the same work: Belial Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product

#BelialOil #DemonEvocation #HalfOunceBottle #FavourFriends #GrimoireDemonEvocation #BelialGoetiaGrimoire #EssentialOilsRoots #OddGemstoneThrown #PositionTrust #OilMarks #ExcellentFamiliars #BelialGoetia #Oil