Sitri
Sitri is the twelfth of the 72 spirits catalogued in the Ars Goetia, the first section of the Lemegeton. He is described with the title of Prince, with a hybrid appearance documented in the text.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
In Mathers' edition (1904), Sitri is described as appearing at first with a leopard's head and griffin's wings; when he takes human form, the text describes him as becoming very beautiful. The text associates him with the power to inflame passion and desire between men and women, and states that, if requested, he causes people to strip off their clothes.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, published with commentary by Aleister Crowley, Sitri holds the catalog's twelfth position and is described as a Prince, commanding a number of legions of spirits according to the text. He is listed with the attribute of enflaming love between men and women, and of revealing the secrets of women, causing them to show themselves naked if requested.
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 Sitri, 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. The precise identification of the angel associated with Sitri in the Rudd manuscript is 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 Ars Goetia's 72 spirits not as external entities summoned by the authority of a higher divinity, but as archetypal masks for psychological currents of the practitioner's own consciousness, integrated in service of self-deification. In this reading, Sitri's hybrid appearance — a leopard's head and griffin's wings, transforming into a human form of great beauty — is reinterpreted as a symbol of integrating instinctual force with conscious expression of desire, while his power to inflame passion is read not as an effect produced upon others, but as an archetype of the individual's own capacity to strip away social masks and reveal their most intimate authenticity.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the Ars Goetia text describe Sitri's appearance?
- According to Mathers' edition, Sitri appears first with a leopard's head and griffin's wings, later taking, if requested, a human form described as very beautiful.
- How does Dr. Rudd's manuscript describe Sitri differently from Mathers' edition?
- Rudd's manuscript, predating Mathers' edition, adds to each spirit, including Sitri, a corresponding angel drawn from the Shem HaMephorash system — a layer of Kabbalistic correspondence absent from the better-known Mathers/Crowley version.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Sitri 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).