Working with Valefor: a bath for familiar work, with both sides of the entry kept

Valefor, both sides kept

Valefor is the sixth spirit in the Ars Goetia, a mighty Duke over ten legions. The old books say he appears in the shape of a lion with an ass's head, bellowing. He is a good familiar, but he tempts those he is a familiar of to steal. Both sides are kept together here, because dropping the second half would make a tidier, but different, spirit. A Valefor article that only kept the good familiar half would mislead a reader about the very text it claims to describe. The Grimoire Companion entry, in shorter form, calls him a ready and willing familiar spirit to the practitioner, and that readiness is the good side of the same pairing.

A familiar, in this tradition, is a spirit kept close, worked with over time, and relied upon. That closeness is the good side of the entry, and it is also why the second side matters so much. A spirit kept close has more opportunity to influence the practitioner than a spirit met once, in a single working. If the text says such a spirit tempts his familiars to steal, then a practitioner who works with Valefor needs to be clear, from the start, about what stealing means in their own life, and about where their own boundaries sit, before any bath is taken.

Why a bath, and why three days

A bath works differently from incense or oil, and that difference is the point. Incense fills a room. Oil marks a person or a tool. A bath covers you. You step into it, you sit in it, and the water, with the roots and herbs in it, touches skin over the whole body at once. For familiar work, that whole-body quality matters, because a familiar is not met only in thought. A familiar is kept close to a life, to a body, to a daily routine, and a bath addresses the working at that bodily level, not only at the level of words.

That repetition is not filler. One bath can mark a beginning. Three baths, on three consecutive days, make a small discipline: you return to the same matter, in the same prepared state, three times, and you notice what changes between the first day and the third. If you take one bath and then forget the matter for a week, you have not done the working as described. Plan the three days before you start, and keep them clear of anything that will pull you out of the work halfway through.

What is in the bath, and what is not

The baths offered here use only pure roots, herbs, and sometimes essential oils. No synthetics are used. The roots and herbs are the working material, and the water is the carrier. If a bath were made from synthetic scent, it might smell pleasant, but it would not be the same working, and this article does not pretend otherwise.

Treat the bath as a ritual preparation, not as a cosmetic one. Do not add shower gel, bath oil, or scented products to it on a whim, and do not mix it with another working's materials halfway through the three days. If your practice calls for other preparations, do them in their proper place, and keep this bath as it is described: roots, herbs, sometimes essential oils, water, and the matter you bring to it. If you have sensitivities to herbs or essential oils, or skin conditions that react to plant material, be careful. Test your tolerance in the ordinary way, and if the bath irritates your skin, stop and reconsider how you use it.

Preparing the bath, step by step

To use any of these baths, you simply add them to a pot of water, approximately one litre or so. That pot is where the preparation happens, before the bath itself. Heat the water as you would for a bath, add the bath material, and let it steep as a preparation, rather than tipping dry material straight into a full tub and hoping for the best.

That is a practical detail, and it is there for a reason: nobody thinks clearly while picking herb pieces off their skin, and nobody closes a working well while unblocking a drain. Strain the bath, or net the pieces out, as part of the closing, and leave the bathroom clean when you are done. Closing a working includes closing the room.

Boundaries, stated before the three days

Before the first bath, state your boundaries in the same plain way you state your petition. Name, in one sentence, what kind of familiar work you mean, and name, in the same sentence, what you will not do, even if tempted, in the course of it. That sentence is not a moral performance. It is a practical boundary, written down before the working, so it can be checked afterwards against what actually happened. With Valefor, that check is the point of keeping both sides of the entry together: a familiar kept close, and a temptation named in advance, so it can be recognised when it appears.

Keep a record for each of the three days, separately, rather than writing one summary at the end. Note what you noticed on each day, what you did afterwards in ordinary terms, and whether any boundary was tested. The difference between day one and day three is often where the useful information sits, and a single summary written afterwards tends to smooth that difference away.

A bath for a close working, carried into ordinary life

A Valefor bath, done as described, is a beginning of a close working, not the whole of it. The three days prepare the practitioner, bodily and in record, for a relationship that is meant to last longer than a single session. What follows the baths is ordinary life, lived with the boundaries stated beforehand, and with the record kept honestly. That is the discipline the bath serves: a body prepared, a matter stated plainly, a temptation named in advance, and a life that is watched, day by day, to see whether the familiar work is being carried well.

After the three days: continuing a close working

The three baths are a beginning, not the whole of a familiar working, and what follows them deserves the same plainness as the baths themselves. After the third day, decide, in writing, what the continuing working will be: how often you will work with Valefor, with what tools, and with what record. A familiar kept close is worked with regularly, and regularity without a plan soon becomes either neglect or obsession, with long gaps followed by frantic catch-up workings. A simple plan, a short working at a stated interval, with a short record each time, keeps the relationship steady and readable. The companions for this work, the Valefor oil for anointing and the Valefor incense for fumigation and for marking the working space, fit that continuing pattern: oil for the tool or the person, incense for the room, and the bath returned to when a fresh beginning is needed, in its three-day form, rather than as a single bath taken casually. That pattern, repeated and recorded, is what turns three baths into a practice, and a practice into a familiar relationship that can be judged by its ordinary fruits over time.

Valefor Goetia bath

A bath is not a scented soak. It is a working preparation, made from pure roots and herbs, sometimes with essential oils, and no synthetics.

I make these baths for magick work with Valefor, to be taken each day for three days in a row, as described in this article. 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 bath for that work, this is the one I offer: Valefor Goetia bath, $44 CAD. View the product

Companions for the same work: Valefor Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD, 1/2 oz bottle, and Valefor Goetia incense, $44 CAD, made in small batches when you order. View the product

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