Valac
Valac is the sixty-second 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 Valak or Valu — one of many spelling variations common to the catalog's names.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
In Mathers' edition (1904), Valac is described with an appearance notably distinct from most spirits in the catalog: the text presents him in the form of a child with angel's wings, riding upon a two-headed dragon. While many other spirits are described with hybrid forms of fierce animals or warrior figures, Valac is one of the few catalogued with a child-like appearance. The manuscript attributes to him knowledge of the location of hidden treasures and of serpents.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, published with commentary by Aleister Crowley, Valac holds the catalog's sixty-second position and is described as a President 'mighty and great,' commanding 38 legions of spirits according to the text. He is listed with the office of giving true answers of hidden treasures, of telling where serpents may be seen, and of bringing them to the operator, per the text, without the use of force.
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 Valac — 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 Valac; 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 Ars Goetia's 72 spirits not as external entities commanded under a divine hierarchy, but as archetypal currents internal to the practitioner, to be recognized rather than summoned from outside. In this key, Valac's child-like appearance — paired with angel's wings and a two-headed dragon — is reinterpreted as the archetype of an as-yet-unconditioned consciousness, capable of holding both innocence and primal force at once. His knowledge of hidden treasures and serpents is read symbolically as the capacity to locate, without force, undeveloped inner potentials and latent instinctual energies within the self.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Are Valac and Valak the same spirit?
- Yes. Valac, Valak, and Valu 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.
- Why is the appearance described for Valac considered unusual in the catalog?
- Because the text describes him as a child with angel's wings, riding a two-headed dragon — a childlike form, in contrast to most spirits in the catalog, who are frequently described with hybrid appearances of fierce animals, warriors, or monstrous figures.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Valac 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).