#31 · President
Foras
The 31st of the seventy-two, a president. Teaches logic and ethics. In the language of this path, Foras is a shadow pole — worked only with its angel, Lecabel.
| Rank | President |
| Number | 31 of the 72 |
| Legions | 29 |
| Direction | South |
| Also called | Forras · Foraii · Forcas (often conflated, though Forcas/Furcas #50 is a distinct spirit) |
| Angel (light pole) | Lecabel — Shem #31 |
What the grimoires say
In the 1904 Goetia, Foras is a President governing 29 legions. Teaches logic and ethics; invisibility, long life; finds lost things.
Weyer/Goetia describe him as a Mighty President who shows himself as a robust man in ordinary human form. Nothing beastly or winged is attributed to him in the grimoire tradition.
“The Thirty-first Spirit is Foras. He is a Mighty President, and appeareth in the Form of a Strong Man in Human Shape. He can give the understanding to Men how they may know the Virtues of all Herbs and Precious Stones. He teacheth the Arts of Logic and Ethics. He can make a Man to become Invisible, and to Live long, and to be Eloquent. He can discover Treasures and recover things Lost. He ruleth over 29 Legions of Spirits. (Mathers/Crowley, Goetia, 1904 — public domain)”— Mathers & Crowley, The Goetia (1904), public domain
The shadow it carries
Stripped to the bone, Foras's traditional office turns on study aid for herbalism and the properties of stones/crystals. Read plainly, that is a real human force; in the language of this path its raw, unowned form is a shadow pole. Its shadow is what that force does when it runs you from the dark; its gold is the same force — seen, owned, governed.
You never reach for it alone. Its light pole is the angel Lecabel; met together, behind protection, Foras becomes a disowned part of yourself approached while the light is already in the room.
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 | 5 of Swords | Golden Dawn decan system / Crowley 777 (Aquarius decan 1 = Venus in Aquarius) |
| Zodiac/decan | Aquarius 0-10 degrees (1st decan, day) | Golden Dawn decan mapping of the 72 spirits |
| Planet | Mercury | modern correspondence (rank-based: President = Mercury) |
| Day | Wednesday | modern correspondence (follows Mercury) |
| Element | Earth | modern Demonolatry (Connolly-lineage tables) |
| Metal | Mercury (quicksilver) | modern correspondence (follows planet) |
| Candle colour | Orange | modern correspondence tables |
| Incense | Storax | modern correspondence tables |
| Plant | Herbs / all plants generally (he teaches the virtues of herbs) | grimoire-derived theme; no single fixed plant, modern sources vary |
| Animal | None fixed in the grimoire (human-form spirit) | grimoire (no animal form); modern tables vary |
| Date-window | Jan 20-29 | Golden Dawn decan calendar (derived from Aquarius decan 1) |
Its modern Enn — a chant from the Demonolatry current, not found in any grimoire:
“Kaymen vefa Foras" — MODERN Demonolatry enn”
Making a connection
Gathered from what practitioners report, put plainly — a starting point, not a rule:
- Sit with the seal above as the first meeting-place: trace it, hold it in the mind’s eye, and let impressions arrive without grabbing at them.
- Set a gentle frame. Keep it simple — a orange candle, a wednesday, a little incense, a moment of quiet. If you work the Demonolatry current, chant the Enn softly — more like settling than commanding.
- Bring the real theme. Practitioners associate Foras with clear reasoning: logic, ethics and structured thinking, recovering lost objects and uncovering hidden resources. Name what you actually want, and ask — don’t demand.
- Journal before and after, and treat everything as your own experience, not fixed doctrine.
Rank, legions, direction and office are from the public-domain grimoires (Weyer 1577; Mathers & Crowley, The Goetia, 1904). Images are public domain: the 1904 seal. The Enn and the planet/day/colour/tarot correspondences are modern attributions (Demonolatry and compilations), flagged as such; sources disagree, and no copyrighted description or artwork is reproduced. Angel pairing per the Rudd tradition. Take the technique, never the tribe.
“Live rightly and quietly, and the years stop counting against you.”