Working with Zagan: wisdom, wit, and turning base metal to coin

Zagan, and why this article is about transformation

Zagan is a King in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion entry for him is direct: he makes the wise wiser and fools understanding, and he turns wine to water and base metal to coin. That is the point of working with Zagan, and it is what most people will be working with him on. This article is not about spirit work in general. It is about Zagan work in particular, and about wisdom, understanding, and transformation as serious, specific matters, not as vague wishes.

Transformation is the thread that runs through that entry. Making the wise wiser is a transformation of understanding: a person who already thinks clearly, thinking more clearly still, seeing further into a matter, and judging it better. Making fools understanding is the other side of the same transformation: a person who has been dull to a matter, or confused by it, or misled about it, coming to understand it plainly. Turning wine to water, and base metal to coin, are the same pattern in material terms: a thing of lesser value, or of a different nature, becoming a thing of greater value, or of a different use.

That is why this article keeps coming back to preparation and to a clear, single-sentence purpose. With Zagan, be specific about which transformation you mean: wisdom deepened, understanding gained, a material matter turned from base to valuable, or a situation turned from one kind into another. Those are different petitions, and they should not be blurred together. A petition that asks for transformation in general, with no matter named, is hard to read afterwards, and a clear petition is easier to work with.

Starting with the work, not with the tool

Spirit work is not shopping, and a seal pendant does not do the work for you. Before you wear anything, be clear about why you are doing this working, what you are asking for, and what you are prepared to do yourself. If you cannot state the matter in one clear sentence, write it down, leave it overnight, and come back to see if it still reads true. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it.

With Zagan, that clarity has an ordinary side that should not be skipped. If the petition concerns wisdom, ask yourself what matter you actually need to understand better, and what you have already done, in study or in inquiry, toward understanding it. If it concerns a material transformation, ask yourself what the base matter actually is: a skill, a resource, a situation, a sum of money, a piece of work that is not yet in its finished form. A working that is not matched by ordinary effort, and by ordinary attention to the matter itself, is a working built on sand. Ritual work is not a substitute for study, for honest accounting, or for the work of turning a thing from one state into another by your own hands.

If you are working in the Goetia system, work from the instructions and teaching you already follow in that system. A general article like this one is not a substitute for proper teaching, and it should not be used to invent a purpose for a spirit you have not studied.

A small pendant, worn close

A seal pendant is worn differently from a seal kept only in a ritual room, and that difference changes the work. A pendant hangs close to the body, and can be tucked away, taken off, or held in the hand. It is present through the ordinary day, as well as through the working, and that suits Zagan work in a particular way. Wisdom and understanding are not matters that happen only in a ritual room, on a single night. They happen, or fail to happen, in ordinary life: in reading, in conversation, in decisions, in the way you judge a situation as it unfolds, day after day.

The pendant offered here is 1 inch across, as its title states. That is a smaller pendant than the 2 inch form, and the difference is worth choosing deliberately. A 1 inch pendant is discreet, light, and easy to wear daily without it drawing attention or getting in the way of ordinary work. It is large enough for the seal to be held and seen clearly when it is taken in the hand, and small enough to be worn close, and kept present, without announcement. If you want a pendant for daily wear, through study and through ordinary decisions, that smaller size fits the life you actually live.

Before you order, ask yourself whether you want that daily presence, or whether you would rather keep the working separate from ordinary life. Both are legitimate, but they are not the same choice, and ordering one when you meant the other leads to a pendant that is either worn with discomfort, or left in a box. Choose deliberately, and choose the form that fits the life you actually live.

How a lost-wax cast seal is made

The seals offered here are lost wax cast seals of the Daemon Demons of the various grimoires. They are pure metal which is 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, which is where the name comes from, and the metal that remains is a solid, cast object, not a printed shell. You can feel that difference when you hold it: a cast seal has weight, it has a surface that shows the hand work, and it does not have the layered texture of a printed object.

That is the form offered here: a cast seal made to be worn, with the means of wearing it built into the object itself. That process also explains why a cast seal is made to order, and why it takes time. Zagan is a listed pendant, so the shorter timing applies to it in principle, but timing can change with the work queue, and it should be settled at ordering, not assumed from an article.

Preparing to work with Zagan

Preparation is most of the work, and with Zagan that preparation starts with the matter itself. Know what you are going to say, in your own words, and know what you are not going to say. A petition that tries to cover every possible outcome usually covers none of them well. Keep it direct, keep it honest, and keep it to the matter at hand. If your practice calls for a formal form of address, use the form you have been taught. If it does not, plain, direct words said once, clearly, are better than a long improvisation that loses its shape halfway through.

Then prepare yourself in the ordinary sense. Bathe, or at least wash your hands and face, and change into clothes you do not wear for ordinary errands, when you are doing a formal working. This is not about looking a certain way for anyone else. It is about marking, for yourself, that this time is set apart. Eat simply beforehand if you can, and avoid starting a working when you are exhausted, drunk, or already agitated. A clear head is a working tool, just as much as a seal or oil is, and with Zagan work, where understanding is the matter itself, a clear head is the first tool of all.

When the pendant arrives, do not start by wearing it everywhere at once. Take time to look at it, to hold it, and to set it aside in a clean place that is used for your working tools. If your practice calls for cleansing or consecration of a new tool, follow the instructions you already follow in your system.

Working with the seal, in the general way seals are worked

With Zagan, each of these has a particular fit.

Holding the seal, when you are studying, or when you are trying to understand a matter that has confused you, is a way of bringing the working back to attention at the moment it is needed. Putting it under a candle is a way of keeping it present through a working, set beneath the flame, in the space where the work is done, for the duration of the rite. Putting oil on it is anointing: marking it deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words, with an oil made for that kind of work. The Zagan oil and the Zagan incense, both offered on this site, are the matching companions for this pendant, for the same work with Zagan.

Carrying the pendant, and wearing it, keep the working present in the study, the conversation, and the decision where wisdom and understanding are actually tested. Showing it to the desired person is mentioned in the general guidance, and it deserves a plain word: showing a seal is not a trick, and it is not a substitute for speaking plainly to the person concerned. If your practice calls for showing the seal, do it openly, as part of a working you understand.

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. First, prepare the room and yourself, as above, and be clear about the transformation you mean. Second, set out the pendant, and any oil, incense, or candle you will use. Third, anoint or fumigate the pendant, if your practice calls for it, deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words. Fourth, speak your petition, clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses its shape. Fifth, sit quietly for a time and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words. Sixth, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and keep the pendant on, or put it away in its proper place, as your practice requires.

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. With Zagan work, note the ordinary record alongside it: what you understood, what you decided, what you made or turned from one state into another, and what changed in the matter itself, in plain terms. If nothing changes, that is also information. 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.

Zagan seal pendant, 1 inch, and the oil and incense to go with it

If you are doing spirit work with Zagan, for wisdom deepened, understanding gained, or a matter turned from base to valuable, the pendant is for wearing and working with, not for show.

I offer this as: Zagan cast Daemon Demon seal pendant 1 inch, $108 CAD, lost wax cast, made to order. View the product

I also make the companions for the same work: Zagan Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD, and Zagan Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product

I make no promise about what any of these will do for you, only that the seal is cast by hand, for this work, and not mass produced.

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