Furcas and the One-Inch Seal Pendant

A knight of learning

Furcas is a knight in the Goetia tradition, and the Grimoire Companion material gives his office as a teacher: he teaches philosophy, astrology, rhetoric, logic, and divination by hand and fire. That is a curriculum, not a single gift, and it is worth reading as one. Philosophy trains how you think. Logic trains how you argue. Rhetoric trains how you speak. Astrology trains how you read a pattern in the heavens. Divination by hand and fire trains how you read a sign in the moment, in a palm or in a flame.

A practitioner who approaches Furcas for one of those subjects, without the others, can still do good work, but the office as a whole suggests a broader practice: learning to think clearly, to speak clearly, and to read clearly, in three different registers. A mind trained only to argue will argue well and read badly. A mind trained only to read signs will read eagerly and argue poorly. Furcas, as a teacher, belongs to the whole curriculum, and a working with him is stronger when the practitioner knows which part of it they are studying, and which parts they are neglecting.

Start, then, by naming the subject. Are you studying philosophy, or astrology, or rhetoric, or logic, or divination? Are you preparing to speak in public, to write, to teach, or to read for others? A petition that names the subject, in one sentence, gives a working something to hold onto. A petition for general cleverness gives it only fog.

Rhetoric and logic, as working skills

Rhetoric and logic are often treated as old subjects, fit for a classroom and not for a working room. That is a mistake. A practitioner who cannot state a petition clearly cannot work clearly, because the petition is the working, in words. Logic is what lets you tell whether your petition says what you mean, whether it hides two petitions inside one sentence, and whether it asks for a result that contradicts itself.

Rhetoric is what lets you speak that petition well: in a clear order, with the right emphasis, and without filling every silence with more words. A working spoken in a rush, with the petition repeated until it loses its shape, is a working spoken badly, and it will be heard, by yourself if by no one else, as a rush. A petition spoken once, clearly, and then left to stand, is a different act altogether.

Practise both, outside formal workings as well as inside them. Write a petition, read it back, and ask whether it says what you mean. Speak it aloud, alone, and listen to where it stumbles. Revise it, once, and then use the revised form. That revision is not a delay in the work. It is the work, in its preparatory form, and it is the part of Furcas work that most practitioners skip.

Divination by hand and fire

Divination by hand and fire is the most hands-on part of the office, and it deserves a plain description. Divination by hand is reading in the hand: in its lines, its shape, and its movements, as a record of a life and its tendencies. Divination by fire is reading in flame: in its movement, its colour, its steadiness or restlessness, as a sign in the moment of a working. Both are readings, not certainties, and both require the same discipline: observe first, interpret second, and write down both, separately, so that you can tell afterwards where observation ended and interpretation began.

That separation is the discipline that makes divination useful. A practitioner who writes down only the interpretation will, weeks later, remember the interpretation as if it were the observation, and will then wonder why the record does not match what happened. A practitioner who writes down the observation, in plain language, and then the interpretation, as a separate note, can return to the observation later and read it again, with fresh eyes.

Do not treat a divination reading as a verdict. Treat it as counsel: a reading of a tendency, a warning, or an encouragement, to be weighed alongside ordinary knowledge, ordinary inquiry, and ordinary judgement. A reading that contradicts what you know from records and from plain conversation should prompt further inquiry, not blind obedience.

Philosophy and astrology, as steady study

Philosophy and astrology, in this office, are steady studies, not quick workings. Philosophy asks you to examine the ideas you live by: what you believe about fate and freedom, about cause and effect, about the spirits you work with and your own place among them. Astrology asks you to learn a language of patterns: planets, signs, houses, and aspects, and how they have been read, in tradition, as signs of tendency and timing.

Both repay slow work. Set aside time, after a formal working, for reading, for practice, and for the correction of your own errors. Keep a study record: what you read, what you practised, what you understood this week that you did not understand last week. A spirit may open a door to learning, but you still have to do the reading, the repetition, and the correction on the other side. The pendant and the incense set the room. They do not do the study for you.

Be specific about what you want, in your own words, before you begin a study working. Are you asking to understand a text, to master a technique, to prepare for teaching, or to read a chart or a hand with more confidence? Each of those is a different petition, and each leads to a different working and a different way of observing what follows.

Working with a seal pendant

This pendant is a one-inch cast seal pendant for Furcas. A pendant, as opposed to a disc kept only on an altar, is worn: it sits close, it travels with you, and it is part of your daily dress while a working or a course of study is under way. That closeness is the point, and it is also the reason to be deliberate about wearing it.

A seal pendant is used in several simple ways, and a practitioner will usually settle on one or two that fit their system. You can hold it during a working, so that your hands have something steady to attend to while you speak. You can put it under a candle, so that the light of the working burns above the figure through the whole operation. You can put oil on it, anointing the seal itself as part of preparing the working. You can carry it with you, so that the working travels with you into ordinary life. You can wear it as a pendant, where the seal sits close and is part of your daily dress. And where your practice prescribes it, you can show it to the desired person, as part of presenting the work outwardly rather than keeping it only inward.

These seals are lost wax cast seals of the daemons of the various grimoires. They are pure metal, actually cast, starting with a wax version, which is much higher quality than the three-dimensional printed versions, using metal powder and plastic, that you find around the internet. They are pictured as just discs, and you can get them like this if you prefer, but a bail is either cast onto them or soldered on, depending on the metal used, so you can use the seal as a pendant. That bail is what turns a disc into a pendant, and it should be checked, when the piece arrives, as part of the piece: strong, clean, and fit for the cord or chain you will wear it on.

Making time, and preparing while you wait

Order with that time in mind. A study working that needs a pendant tomorrow is not a working that can be served by a cast pendant, and it should not be forced into that shape.

Use the waiting period for preparation. Read the subject you intend to study. Write the petition you intend to speak. Practise the divination method you intend to use, in its ordinary form, so that the formal working, when the pendant arrives, is not your first attempt at the method. The pendant arrives into a practice that is ready for it, rather than into a hurry, and that readiness is part of the working.

When the pendant arrives, treat its arrival as part of the working. Open it in the working space, handle it with clean hands, set it out, fumigate it if your practice calls for it, and anoint it if your practice calls for that. The first handling of a seal pendant sets the tone for how it will be handled afterwards.

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, and write your subject and petition in one sentence each. Second, set out the pendant, with whatever else your practice requires, and the incense and oil if they are part of the working. Third, hold the pendant, or set it under the candle, and speak your petition clearly and once. Fourth, sit quietly for a time and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words. Fifth, do the study or the reading that belongs to the working, in the same sitting if your practice calls for it. Sixth, close the working properly, in the manner your practice requires, and put the tools away in their proper place, wearing the pendant afterwards if that is part of your practice.

Afterwards, write down what you did, when you did it, and what you noticed, in plain language. Not what you hoped would happen, but what actually happened. Over weeks, that record, kept alongside your study record, is what lets you tell whether a subject is being learned, whether a method is improving, and whether the working is serving the study it was made for.

Furcas cast seal pendant, one inch

If you are doing Goetia work with Furcas, for philosophy, astrology, rhetoric, logic, and divination by hand and fire, a cast seal pendant gives that work a form you can hold, set out, and wear.

This pendant is the Furcas cast seal pendant, one inch, offered at $108 CAD. View the product

For workings where incense is part of the room, the matching Furcas Goetia incense is also offered, at $44 CAD.

It is made by hand, for this work, and blessed by me 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.

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