Ose
Ose is the fifty-seventh 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 Oso or Voso.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
In Mathers' edition (1904), Ose/Oso is described as initially appearing in the form of a leopard, taking human shape after some time according to the text. The manuscript attributes to him the gift of making those who deal with him knowledgeable in the liberal sciences, and of giving true answers about divine and secret things. The text also describes an ability to alter a person's perceived shape, as narrated in the manuscript — a documentary description of the text itself, not an instruction.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, published with commentary by Aleister Crowley, Ose holds the catalog's fifty-seventh position and is described as a President, commanding a number of legions of spirits according to the text. He is listed with the attributes of conferring knowledge in the liberal sciences and answering on divine and secret matters, as described 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 Ose, 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 Ose 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), reinterpret the catalog's 72 spirits not as external powers commanded by a higher divine authority but as archetypal masks for faculties already present within the practitioner's psyche, to be awakened in service of self-deification. In this reading, Ose's transition from leopard form to human form is read as the archetype of the integration between wild instinct and conscious reason, and his mastery of the liberal sciences is reframed as the ideal of intellectual self-development as an initiatory path. The manuscript's description of an ability to alter a person's perceived shape, meanwhile, is reinterpreted symbolically as the fluidity of persona — the initiate's recognition that perceived identity is malleable rather than fixed.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Are Ose, Oso, and Voso the same spirit?
- Yes. These 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 form does the text attribute to Ose?
- According to Mathers' edition, Ose initially appears as a leopard, taking human shape after some time.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Ose 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).