Marchosias
Marchosias is the thirty-fifth 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.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
According to Mathers' edition, Marchosias manifests initially in the shape of a wolf with griffin's wings and a serpent's tail, vomiting fire from his mouth; when he assumes human form upon request, he is described with the appearance of a soldier. The text states that he gives true answers. A notable detail recorded in the text is the claim that Marchosias belonged, in part, to the Order of Dominations (Dominions) among the angels, and that he hoped to return to the seventh throne after a period of 1,200 years — an unusual narrative peculiarity in Mathers' edition that sets his description apart from most other spirits in the catalog.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, Marchosias holds the catalog's thirty-fifth position and is described as a Great Marquis, commanding 30 legions of spirits according to the text. The text associates him with the truthfulness of the answers he gives and records the narrative of his angelic origin and expectation of return, an unusual element of mythological continuity within the catalog.
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 Marchosias — 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 Marchosias; 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), reinterpret the catalog's 72 spirits not as external entities subordinate to a higher divine authority, but as archetypes of aspects of the practitioner's own consciousness, to be integrated in service of self-deification. In this key, the narrative recorded in Mathers' edition about Marchosias' angelic origin and his expectation of returning to the seventh throne after 1,200 years is read as an echo of the Luciferian myth itself — of a once-exalted being, exiled, and destined for eventual restoration — an archetype of fall and return applied to the practitioner's own inner journey toward self-exaltation.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- What unusual narrative detail does Mathers' edition record about Marchosias?
- The text states that Marchosias belonged, in part, to the Order of Dominations among the angels and hoped to return to the seventh throne after 1,200 years — an uncommon narrative peculiarity among the catalog's spirits.
- What title and how many legions are attributed to Marchosias?
- He is described as a Great Marquis, commanding 30 legions of spirits according to Mathers' edition (1904).
- Is the Luciferian reading of Marchosias 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).