Invoking and Summoning Spirits
The Hermetic manuals speak more often of summoning and controlling demons than of repelling them. This can be seen in the De XV stellis. Each of its Latin versions mentions demons in almost exactly the same location.
The biggest difference is that the De XV stellis of Hermes ascribes the force that affects the demons to stones, while the other versions ascribe it to ritually manufactured rings. The stone (crystal) or ring of the second star (Pleiades), for example, has the power to bring together demons and spirits of the dead, assemble the winds, obtain knowledge and reveal secrets. The virtues of the ring of the eighth star can, among other things, both attract and repel demons:The eighth star is Alpha Corvi... Its nature is Saturnian and Martian. It has plentiful various bad meanings and is full of everything malevolent.... The stone of this star is onichius [probably onyx]; its colour is black, and sometimes it is striped like a hoof. Its virtue is to make a man furious, brave, inconsiderate and ineloquent. It can also make demons to flee or bring them together whenever it wants.[821] [822] [823] As this story from Enoch's version continues, if a leaf or a root of the herb of the star, sorrel (lapatia) and the tongue of a frog are placed under the onyx stone in a ring, then the ring will be very powerful indeed against enemies, demons and malevolent winds. Ultimately, the ring should be decorated with the image of a black man, a black raven or a snake wearing black clothes. The same anti-demonic virtues appear again later. The stone (or ring) of the thirteenth star expels demons and those of the fourteenth star can horrify demons (in Hermes' version) or affect spiritual beings in general (in the other versions).25 Although the three Latin versions of the text differ slightly from each other in their attitude to demons (the version attributed to Hermes is the most negative), both protective and utilitarian viewpoints are present in the De XV stellis tradition. Demons are, in general, connected to harmful and ‘evil' planets and are mentioned together with the adversaries of mankind, and they are clearly seen as a potential danger. Other sources offer more cases in which demons or other spiritual beings are summoned, invoked or prayed to in order to derive benefits. The two horo- logical Hermetic treatises mentioned above identify the propitious moments for collaborating with demonic or spiritual beings. According to De imaginibus et horis, the first hour of the day of Venus is suitable for love affairs, the second hour for works of Mercury, and the third hour for works of the Moon and for operating with demons?6 De viginti quattuor horis makes two references to demons. The first hour of the night is dedicated to colloquia of demons and is a propitious moment for making images and conjuring spirits for works of silence and love. During the fourth hour of the night, the spirits of the dead and demons roam the streets and, disguised as wind, shadow, goat or dog, tempt human beings. This hour is said to be appropriate for making talismans and for conjuring up hatred, but it is also a time ‘against [the] afore-mentioned phantasmas’.21 The horological texts in question generate a classical vision of shadowy ghosts wandering about at night and, disguised as animals, tempting mankind, but they also contain the aspect of summoning demons for collaboration. Unfortunately, both the De XVstellis texts and the horological texts are meagre in their accounts, and they seldom offer specific explanations for why demons, which are largely seen as a potential danger, are summoned. The reference to gaining knowledge and revealing secrets in De XVstellis might, however, indicate that demons were used as intermediaries for transmitting information. There are also other sources in which demons are summoned for this particular reason, as we shall see in the next section.