Phenex: the Phoenix voice, wonderful sciences, and a seal ring made to be worn
Phenex, and why the first thing you meet is a voice
Phenex is the Thirty-Seventh Spirit in the Goetia, a great Marquis, and he appears like the Bird Phoenix, having the voice of a child. That is not a small detail to skip past on the way to the rest of the entry. In most Goetia descriptions, the form comes first and the voice is an afterthought. With Phenex, the voice is the warning, the test, and the gift, all at once. He sings many sweet notes before the exorcist, and the old books are blunt about what to do with that singing: do not regard it. Do not listen to it as entertainment, do not follow it where it leads, and do not let it set the terms of the meeting. Bid him put on human shape, and then, the books say, he will speak marvellously of all wonderful sciences.
That order matters for anyone thinking about working with Phenex. The sweet notes come first, and the marvellous speech comes second, and only after the practitioner has insisted on the second. A working that stops at the first stage is a working that has been charmed, not a working that has been done. A working that moves through it, calmly and without being drawn in, is a working that has a chance of getting to the part that matters: speech about the sciences, poetry, and requests performed willingly. If you cannot imagine yourself holding that line, politely and firmly, in the middle of something beautiful, then Phenex is not the spirit to start with. Beauty that asks for nothing is easy to accept. Beauty that asks you to forget your purpose is a different thing, and the old books knew the difference.
Wonderful sciences, and an excellent poet
Once he has taken human shape, Phenex speaks marvellously of all wonderful sciences, if required, and he is described as a poet, good and excellent, willing to perform thy requests. Wonderful sciences, in the old sense, does not mean one subject. It means the whole field of learned knowledge as the grimoires understood it: the sciences, the arts, and the hidden order behind them, spoken of by someone who knows them from the inside rather than from a textbook. A practitioner who comes to Phenex with a vague wish to be clever will get less from that description than a practitioner who comes with a real question. What science, what art, what body of knowledge are you actually studying? What point in it has you stuck? What would a marvellous answer even look like, in words you could write down afterwards and check?
The poet part of the entry belongs with the sciences part, not apart from it. An excellent poet is not only someone who makes pretty verses. In this tradition, poetry is a way of knowing: a way of putting a difficult thing into words that hold together, that can be remembered, and that can be spoken aloud without falling apart. If your work involves writing, speaking, teaching, or composing, Phenex is the spirit the old books place for that side of learning as well. Bring a poem, a speech, a lesson, or a piece of writing that is not yet right, and be ready to say what is wrong with it in plain language. A spirit who speaks marvellously is still, in the old framing, a teacher, and a teacher expects the student to have done the reading first.
The hope of return, and what it tells you about Phenex
Phenex also has hopes to return to the Seventh Throne after 1,200 years more, as he said unto Solomon, and he governs 20 legions of spirits. That hope is worth sitting with, because it changes the tone of the whole entry. Phenex is not described as a spirit who is settled, satisfied, and simply waiting to be called. He is described as a spirit who remembers a higher place, who counts the years toward it, and who still does the work in the meantime: singing, speaking, teaching, and performing requests. There is a patience in that picture, and also a distance. A practitioner who treats Phenex as a servant to be ordered about has missed the shape of the entry. A practitioner who treats him as a learned, exiled figure, spoken to with the courtesy due to a Marquis, is closer to the old books.
That patience is also a warning against hurrying a Phenex working. If the spirit in question counts in centuries, a practitioner who cannot wait through a single evening of preparation, or who wants an answer before the question is properly formed, is working at the wrong speed. Prepare the question, prepare the room, prepare yourself, and then be prepared to listen for longer than feels comfortable. The marvellous speech, when it comes, is not a slogan. It is speech that needs to be heard, remembered, and written down accurately, and that takes time and quiet after the working as well as during it.
A ring, not a picture of a seal
A seal ring for Phenex should be a ring, not a picture of one. That distinction matters, because a ring is worn on the hand, and the hand is what you write with, gesture with, and work with. A seal that is only looked at stays at a distance from the work. A seal ring that is worn stays with the work, through the hours of study, through the writing, and through the practice that follows the study. Raised lettering adds to that point. The seal on a ring with raised lettering is not printed flat onto a surface. It stands up from it, under the finger, where it can be felt as well as seen. When you are thinking, writing, or speaking, the ring is there, in contact with your hand, reminding you of the purpose you set when you began.
Wearing a seal ring is also a discipline in itself. A ring worn every day, for every purpose, quickly becomes ordinary jewellery, and ordinary jewellery does not carry a working. A ring worn for the working, kept in a clean place with your other working tools when it is not in use, and put on deliberately when the work begins, keeps its association. If your practice calls for cleansing or consecration of a new tool, follow the instructions you already follow in your own system. This article does not invent a consecration for you. It only makes the practical point: a tool that is treated as set apart stays set apart, and a tool that is treated as ordinary becomes ordinary, whatever its seal may be.
How this ring is cast
The ring offered here is made in the same manner as the other Goetia seal rings 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 ring 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 ring for a working on a particular night, order with that making time in mind, and do not plan a working around a ring that has not yet been cast.
Working with the ring: holding, wearing, and showing
Working with a seal ring 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, wear it on the hand you work with, and let it be present through the whole working, not only at the moment you first put it on. You can hold the seal in your hand during a period of quiet study or writing, letting the raised lettering remind you, by touch, of the purpose you set. The point is the same either way: the seal stays with the work, and with you, through the work, rather than sitting on a shelf while you work without it.
If your practice calls for anointing a seal, a small amount of the matching oil, on the seal itself, is the ordinary way to do that, and if it calls for fumigation, the matching incense can be used to fumigate the ring at the time you prepare it. Do those preparations deliberately, with the purpose in mind, rather than quickly and then putting the ring away. After the working, put the ring back in its proper place, and write down what you did, when you did it, and what you noticed, 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.
When Phenex is not the right working
Sometimes the right answer is not a spirit working at all. If the matter in hand is a formal course of study, an examination, or a piece of writing with a deadline, deal with that matter through ordinary study and teaching as well. A spirit who teaches the sciences is not a substitute for doing the reading, and a spirit who is an excellent poet is not a substitute for drafting, revising, and learning the craft of writing. If you are tempted to call on Phenex because you have left the work too late, the honest first step is to sit down and do the work, and then, if you still want a working, to do it from a position of having begun, not from a position of having avoided the beginning.
It is also worth asking whether the sweet voice is the real attraction. If what draws you to Phenex is the singing, the beauty, and the idea of being charmed, rather than the sciences and the poetry that come after the human shape is bid, then you are drawn to the first stage of the entry, and the old books warn against stopping there. Wait, study the entry again, and come back when the question you want answered is clearer than the song you want to hear. A clear question, a prepared room, and a ring worn for the work are a better beginning than a beautiful sound with no question behind it.
Phenex Goetia ring with raised lettering
If you are doing traditional Goetia work with Phenex, for the wonderful sciences and for poetry, a seal ring made to be worn is the form this article has been about.
I make these rings myself, as lost wax cast seals in pure metal, starting with a wax version, in copper, brass, bronze, steel, or silver, 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 ring for that work, this is the one I offer: Phenex Goetia ring with raised lettering, $216 CAD. View the product
I also make the oil and the incense to go with it, for the same work: Phenex Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD, and Phenex Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product
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