Foras: logic, ethics, herbs and stones, and a seal pendant made to be carried
Foras, logic, ethics, and the virtues of herbs and stones
Foras is described in the Grimoire Companion notes as a President who teaches the virtues of herbs and stones, logic and ethics, and who grants invisibility, longevity, and finds treasure. That is a wide description, and it is worth narrowing it to the part that fits a pendant, and to the part that fits your own work, rather than trying to cover all of it at once. Logic and ethics are disciplines of clear thinking and right judgement. The virtues of herbs and stones are knowledge of what natural things are good for, and how they are used. A pendant, made from metal, worn on the body, and worked with through holding, through candle work, and through carrying, sits at the meeting point of those two: a natural, material object, used to prepare a person for clear thinking.
Before you think about any tool for Foras work, be clear about what you are actually trying to think clearly about. Logic is not a vague wish to be smarter. It is a practice of distinguishing a sound argument from an unsound one, a relevant fact from an irrelevant one, and a conclusion that follows from one that does not. Ethics is not a vague wish to be good. It is a practice of judging what is right in a particular situation, with particular people, and particular consequences. Write the question you are facing down in one sentence, and write the two sides of it, plainly, without dressing them up. That plain statement is the beginning of logic, and it is the beginning of ethics, and it is the beginning of a Foras working that is honest.
Invisibility, longevity, and treasure, read carefully
Invisibility, longevity, and treasure, in the traditional description, are also worth reading carefully, rather than taking literally at first glance. A pendant is not a cloak, and it does not make a person invisible in the ordinary sense. In a working context, invisibility can mean discretion, quiet, and not drawing attention while you think, study, or act. Longevity can mean steadiness over time, rather than a single burst of effort. Treasure can mean finding what is valuable in a situation, a book, or a place, rather than a chest of gold. This article does not promise any of those things. It presents them as traditional attributions, and it focuses on the part you can actually practise: clear thinking, with a seal carried and worn, before you act.
That reading matters for a pendant in a particular way. A pendant worn openly draws attention, and a pendant worn under clothing, or carried in a pocket, does not. If your Foras work is about discretion, about thinking before you speak, or about acting without drawing unnecessary attention, then how you wear the pendant is part of the working, not an afterthought. Wear it openly when openness serves the work. Wear it hidden, or carry it, when discretion serves the work. And if your work is about finding treasure, in the sense of finding what is valuable, then carry the pendant into the place where the finding is to be done: the library, the market, the negotiation, the archive, the garden, or the workshop, and let it be present while you look, carefully, for what is actually valuable there, rather than for what merely glitters.
A pendant, not a picture of a seal
A seal pendant for Foras 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 weight of a book is part of study: 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 forms are offered for Foras on this site, including a bath and an incense. This article is about the 2 inch pendant, and it does not pretend the 2 inch pendant is the same experience as a smaller seal. 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 think, 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 Foras work. Holding the seal suits a period of quiet thinking, when you want the seal in your hand and your attention on the question 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 away from home, a library, a class, a negotiation, 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.
Herbs and stones, and learning their virtues by handling them
Foras teaches the virtues of herbs and stones, and a pendant is a good place to learn that teaching, because a pendant is itself a worked material object. A herb's virtue, in the old sense, is not a list of properties memorised from a book. It is knowledge of what the herb is for, when it is to be used, and how it is to be prepared, learned by handling it, preparing it, and using it, over time. A stone's virtue is learned the same way: by holding it, by working with it, by seeing how it behaves in a setting, and by noticing what it does and does not do. A pendant, cast in metal, with a seal on it, is not a herb and not a stone, but it is a material thing, made by hand, and working with a material thing teaches you, slowly, how material things behave. That slowness is the point.
If your Foras work is about herbs, then pair the pendant working with actual herb work: grow, gather, prepare, and use herbs, in the way your practice and your local law allow, and keep notes on what you did and what you noticed. If your Foras work is about stones, then pair it with actual stone work: handle stones, learn their names and their uses in your tradition, and keep notes in the same way. The pendant, in that pairing, is not a substitute for the herb or the stone. It is a companion to the learning, a seal carried while you learn, reminding you that the learning itself is the work, and that the virtues of herbs and stones are learned by handling them, not by wishing for them.
Logic and ethics in practice, with a record
Logic and ethics, as disciplines, need a record, just as study needs a record. Keep a short record for each working: date, question in one sentence, the two sides of the question written plainly, what you did with the seal, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. Note the argument, if that is your matter: what was sound, what was unsound, what was relevant, what was irrelevant, and what conclusion actually followed. Note the ethical judgement, if that is your matter: what was right in this particular situation, with these particular people, and these particular consequences, and what you did about it. That record is what lets you tell, weeks later, whether your thinking got clearer, and whether that clarity had anything to do with the work, or simply with the hours you spent writing the question down plainly.
That last point is worth stating plainly. If you write a question down plainly, with its two sides, and sit with it quietly, with a seal in your hand, you will think more clearly about it. That is not a trick. It is how clear thinking works. A pendant does not replace that writing, and a working does not replace it either. What a pendant does, in this kind of practice, is keep the purpose present through that writing, remind you why you are thinking, and mark the thinking 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 thinking too late, the honest first step is to sit down and think, on paper, 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.
Foras cast Daemon Demon seal pendant, 2 inches
If you are doing traditional Goetia work with Foras, for logic and ethics, and for the virtues of herbs and stones, 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: Foras cast Daemon Demon seal pendant, 2 inches, $216 CAD. View the product
I also make the bath and the incense to go with it, for the same work: Foras Goetia bath, $44 CAD, and Foras Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product
#SealPendantCarried #HerbsStones #VirtuesHerbs #CastDaemonDemon #Pendant2Inches #WaxCastSeals #ClearThinking #SealPendant #InvisibilityLongevity #LostWax #Pendant #Seal #Grimoire