Amy
Amy is the fifty-eighth of the 72 spirits catalogued in the Ars Goetia, the first section of the Lemegeton. He is described with the title of President according to the text. In several editions and manuscripts his name also appears spelled Avnas.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
In Mathers' edition (1904), Amy/Avnas is described as initially appearing in the form of a great flame of fire, taking human shape after some time according to the text. The manuscript attributes to him notable knowledge in astrology and the liberal sciences, as well as the ability to indicate treasures guarded by other spirits. The text adds an unusual note of origin among the 72 spirits: it describes Amy as belonging partly to the Order of Angels and partly to the Order of Potestates (Powers), hoping to return to the seventh throne after a period of 1,200 years — a passage the manuscript itself qualifies as a deceived hope.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, published with commentary by Aleister Crowley, Amy holds the catalog's fifty-eighth position and is described as a President, commanding 36 legions of spirits according to the text. He is listed with the attributes of conferring astrological and liberal-science knowledge, giving good familiar spirits, and revealing treasures hidden by spirits, as narrated in the manuscript.
Interpretation — Dr. Rudd's Tradition (manuscript, c. 1650)
The manuscript attributed to Thomas Rudd, predating Mathers' edition by roughly two and a half centuries, documents a related but distinct version of the catalog — in it, each of the 72 spirits, including Amy, is paired with a corresponding angel drawn from the Kabbalistic Shem HaMephorash system (72 divine names), a restraining/governing structural element absent from Mathers' edition. No reliable record of the specific angel name Rudd's manuscript assigns to Amy was found among the sources consulted for this entry; the general pairing practice is documented by researchers such as Joseph Peterson.
Interpretation — Luciferian Tradition (modern interpretation)
Modern Luciferian authors, chiefly Michael W. Ford (in works such as The Luciferian Goetia), read the catalog's 72 spirits not as external powers subordinate to a celestial hierarchy but as archetypal currents within the practitioner's own consciousness, to be recognized and integrated in service of self-deification. In this reading, Amy's form as a great flame of fire is reinterpreted as the archetype of the inner fire — the spark of illumination and transformation the practitioner cultivates within — and his mastery of astrology and the liberal sciences is read as the ideal of knowledge pursued on one's own merit. Amy's angelic origin story, meanwhile, with its hope — qualified in the manuscript itself as deceived — of returning to the seventh throne after 1,200 years, is reframed in this reading as a symbolic critique of the longing for reintegration into a subordinate divine hierarchy: the Luciferian path proposed instead is one of autonomous sovereignty, not a return to a throne belonging to another.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Are Amy and Avnas the same spirit?
- Yes. Amy and Avnas are variant spellings of the same name, found in different manuscripts and printed editions of the Ars Goetia — a spelling variation common to several of the catalog's 72 spirits.
- What does the text say about Amy's origin among the angelic orders?
- Mathers' edition describes Amy as belonging partly to the Order of Angels and partly to the Order of Potestates, with a hope — described in the text itself as deceived — of returning to the seventh throne after 1,200 years.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Amy as old as the Mathers and Rudd traditions?
- No. It's a modern interpretation, developed mainly from the 2000s onward by Luciferian authors such as Michael W. Ford, who reframe the Ars Goetia's spirits as psychological archetypes for self-development — a contemporary symbolic reading, not a historical manuscript like Mathers' or Rudd's.
Sources
- S. L. MacGregor Mathers (trans.), Aleister Crowley (ed.). The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King (1904).
- Joseph H. Peterson (ed.). The Lesser Key of Solomon (2001).
- Thomas Rudd (manuscript), ed. Adam McLean. Dr. Rudd's Treatise on Angel Magic (c. 1650 (2007 ed.)).
- Michael W. Ford. The Luciferian Goetia (2007).