#2 · a Great Duke of the East
Agares
The second of the seventy-two, a mild old duke. He teaches every tongue and brings back what has run away. In this path he is the shadow face of speech and return — the part of you that went quiet, or ran off, and needs calling home.
| Rank | Great Duke, under the Power of the East |
| Number | 2 of the 72 |
| Legions | 31 (the 1904 Goetia; the older Livre des Esperitz gives 36) |
| Direction | East |
| Also called | Agreas · Aguares · Agarus · Agaros |
| Angel (light pole) | Jeliel — Shem #2 |
What the grimoires say
The 1904 Goetia makes Agares a Great Duke under the Power of the East, over thirty-one legions, and his offices are unusually human: he teaches every language and tongue; he brings back runaways and makes the one who has fled stand still (and, they add, makes the standing run); he throws down dignities, worldly and spiritual; and he causes earthquakes.
His manner is gentle. He comes as a fair old man riding a crocodile, a goshawk on his fist — and Le Breton's 1863 engraving draws him exactly so.
“The Second Spirit is a Duke called Agreas, or Agares. He is under the Power of the East. He cometh up mildly in the likeness of a fair Old Man, riding upon a Crocodile, carrying a Goshawk upon his fist… He bringeth back runaways, and maketh them to stand still that run. He teacheth all Languages or Tongues presently.”— Mathers & Crowley, The Goetia (1904), public domain
The shadow it carries
His offices read like one thing: the traffic of speech and belonging. The tongue you can't find; the word you swallowed; the part of yourself that ran away and won't come back; the standing-still that should be moving. Its shadow is silence and flight. Its gold is eloquence, the calm to call the strayed thing home, and a gentleness that doesn't need to force.
His angel is Jeliel — love, harmony, the will to stay. So the polarity is exact: the part that flees or falls mute, met by the part that stays and speaks with warmth. Worked with Jeliel, Agares is the meeting with your own silences — while holding your own capacity to say the thing, kindly.
Correspondences
A word of honesty first: almost none of the table below is from the old grimoires. The rank, legions, direction and office are traditional; the planet, day, colour, tarot, incense and the Enn are modern attributions (mostly 20th–21st-century Demonolatry and correspondence compilations), and the sources openly disagree. Use them as a working frame, not as law.
| Correspondence | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Tarot | 3 of Wands | Golden Dawn decan system (modern) |
| Zodiac / decan | Aries, middle decan (10–20°), Sun-ruled | corrected to match the 3 of Wands (modern) |
| Planet | Venus (some tables say Sun or Mars) | modern — sources disagree |
| Day | Friday (if keyed to Venus) | modern, derived |
| Element | Earth (Fire where keyed to Aries) | modern — varies |
| Metal | Copper | modern (Venus) |
| Candle colour | Green | modern Demonolatry (Venus) |
| Incense | Sandalwood or myrrh | modern compilation |
| Plant | Carnation | modern Demonolatry |
| Animal | Crocodile & goshawk | traditional — from the grimoire image |
| Date window | 31 March – 10 April (sources differ) | modern Demonolatry calendar |
Its modern Enn — a chant from the Demonolatry current, not found in any grimoire:
“Rean ganen ayer da Agares”
Making a connection
Gathered from what practitioners report, put plainly — a starting point, not a rule:
- Sit with the seal as the first meeting-place; trace it, hold it in the mind's eye, and let impressions arrive gently. His own manner is mild, so meet him mildly.
- Keep it soft. A green candle and a simple offering; a Friday if you want the Venus frame. Chant the Enn quietly, more like settling than commanding.
- Bring him the real theme: a language you're learning; words you can't find; something — a habit, a person, a part of yourself — that has drifted away and you'd like to call back. Ask, don't demand.
- Journal before and after. Note what shifts in the days that follow; treat it all as your own experience, not fixed doctrine.
Rank, legions, direction, office and appearance are from the public-domain grimoires: Weyer (1577) and Mathers & Crowley, The Goetia (1904). Images are public domain: the 1904 seal and Louis Le Breton's Dictionnaire Infernal engraving (1863). Planet/day/element/colour/tarot/incense/plant and the Enn are modern attributions (Demonolatry and compilations), flagged; sources disagree (the decan/tarot corrected to the Sun-ruled middle decan of Aries so the 3 of Wands is coherent). No copyrighted prose or artwork is reproduced. Angel pairing per the Rudd tradition. Take the technique, never the tribe.
“Call it gently by its name, and even what fled from you turns back to listen.”