Vepar
Vepar is the forty-second of the 72 spirits catalogued in the Ars Goetia, the first section of the Lemegeton. He is described with the title of Duke, and his name is also spelled Separ in some editions of the catalog.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
In Mathers' edition (1904), Vepar is described with the appearance of a mermaid. The manuscript attributes to him the governance of the waters and the guiding of ships laden with arms and ammunition, as well as the ability, at the operator's request according to the text, to make the seas rough and stormy and to make them appear covered with ships. The text also records, as an attribute of the spirit, the ability to cause men's death within three days through the putrefying of wounds and the breeding of worms in them — a documentary description in the manuscript regarding the nature attributed to the spirit, not an indication of procedure.
Interpretation — Solomonic Tradition (Mathers/Crowley, 1904)
In Mathers' edition, published with commentary by Aleister Crowley, Vepar holds the catalog's forty-second position and is described as a great and strong Duke, commanding 29 legions of spirits according to the text. He is listed with the attributes of governing the waters, guiding vessels, and influencing sea conditions.
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 Vepar, 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 Vepar 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), read the Ars Goetia's 72 spirits as archetypal forces internal to the practitioner rather than external entities subordinate to a divine hierarchy — the Solomonic model. In this key, Vepar's mermaid form, a creature dwelling at the threshold between the surface and the depths of the waters, is read as a symbol of the unconscious and the hidden layers of the practitioner's psyche. His dominion over rough and stormy seas is reinterpreted as a metaphor for the emotional turbulence encountered in the process of self-knowledge, while the attribute of putrefying wounds and breeding worms in them — described in the manuscript as a power of the spirit — is read symbolically as an image of the dissolution (the alchemical putrefactio) of obsolete aspects of the self, a stage considered necessary, in this reading, for the practitioner's renewal and self-development.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Are Vepar and Separ the same spirit?
- Yes. Mathers' own text (1904) records 'Vepar, or Separ' as variant spellings of the same name within the catalog of 72 spirits.
- What domain does the text attribute to Vepar?
- According to Mathers' edition, Vepar governs the waters, guides ships laden with arms and ammunition, and can make the seas rough and stormy, among other attributes described in the manuscript.
- Is the Luciferian reading of Vepar 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).