Andras
Andras is the sixty-third of the 72 spirits catalogued in the Ars Goetia, the first section of the Lemegeton. He is described with the title of Marquis according to the text, and is among the spirits in the catalog whose reputation is recorded as particularly dangerous in the primary source itself.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
In Mathers' edition (1904), Andras is described with the form of an angel with the head of a black night raven, riding upon a strong black wolf, and brandishing a bright, sharp sword aloft. The text attributes to him the office of sowing discords. He is one of the few spirits in the catalog whose description includes an explicit warning about danger to the operator — a detail documented in the primary source itself, not usage guidance.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, published with commentary by Aleister Crowley, Andras holds the catalog's sixty-third position and is described as a Marquis, commanding 30 legions of spirits according to the text. The manuscript records, as part of its textual description, that 'if the exorcist have not a care, he will slay him and his fellows' — a warning phrase present in the primary source, cited here as a historical curiosity about how the text characterizes this particular spirit, one of the few described with this kind of risk note.
Interpretation — Dr. Rudd's Tradition (manuscript, c. 1650)
The manuscript attributed to Thomas Rudd, predating Mathers' edition by roughly two and a half centuries, pairs each of the 72 spirits in the catalog — including Andras — with a corresponding angel drawn from the Kabbalistic Shem HaMephorash system (72 divine names), as a structural restraining/governing counterpart, an element absent from Mathers' edition. The consulted sources offer no reliable confirmation of which specific angel name Rudd assigned to Andras; the general pairing practice, however, is well documented in Joseph Peterson's research on the Rudd manuscripts.
Interpretation — Luciferian Tradition (modern interpretation)
Modern Luciferian authors, chiefly Michael W. Ford (in works such as The Luciferian Goetia), propose that the catalog's 72 spirits be understood not as external forces to be commanded under a higher divine authority, but as archetypes of psychological aspects within the practitioner. In this symbolic reading, Andras's association with discord and his martial iconography — raven's head, black wolf, upraised sword — are reinterpreted as the archetype of the chaotic shadow-self, the part of the psyche that breaks down rigid structures and generates the rupture necessary for growth. The primary source's own textual warning about danger to the operator is read in this modern tradition purely as symbolic reinforcement that this shadow aspect demands careful recognition and conscious integration, not as practical handling guidance — the reading remains strictly interpretive, never instructional.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the Ars Goetia text really describe Andras as dangerous?
- Yes, this is a documented feature of the primary source: Mathers' edition includes, in Andras's description, a textual warning about danger to the operator and his companions. This entry reports that passage as a historical fact of the text, not as practical guidance.
- What office is attributed to Andras in the Ars Goetia?
- According to Mathers' edition, his office is to sow discords, and he is described as commanding 30 legions of spirits.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Andras 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).