Gaap
Gaap is the thirty-third of the 72 spirits catalogued in the Ars Goetia, the first section of the Lemegeton. He is described with the dual title of President and Prince according to the text.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
Gaap is one of the few spirits in the catalog described with a dual title — President and Prince simultaneously. According to Mathers' edition, he manifests in human form when the Sun is in the southern signs, going before four mighty kings. The text associates him with teaching philosophy and the liberal sciences, and describes him as able to make men insensible or ignorant, to stir up love or hatred, and to carry people swiftly from one kingdom to another. He is also described as able to deliver familiars out of the custody of other operators.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, Gaap holds the catalog's thirty-third position and is described with the dual title of President and Prince, commanding 66 legions of spirits according to the text. The text also associates him with the consecration of objects belonging to the dominion of Amaymon, one of the elemental kings mentioned in the work.
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 Gaap — 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 Gaap; 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), read the catalog's 72 spirits not as external powers summoned under command of a higher divine authority, but as psychological currents within the practitioner, to be recognized and integrated in service of self-deification. In this key, Gaap's dual title — President and Prince — is reinterpreted as the archetype of integrated duality within the self, and his power to swiftly transport people between kingdoms is read as the initiated mind's capacity to move between different states of consciousness; his association with delivering familiars from the custody of other operators is interpreted as the liberation of parts of oneself previously subordinated to external influences.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does Gaap have two titles?
- Mathers' edition describes him with the dual title of President and Prince — an uncommon feature among the 72 spirits in the catalog, most of which receive only a single hierarchical classification.
- How many legions does Gaap command according to the Ars Goetia?
- According to Mathers' edition (1904), Gaap commands 66 legions of spirits.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Gaap 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).