#38 · Earl

Halphas

The 38th of the seventy-two, an earl. Builds towers, furnishes them with weapons, sends men-of-war. In the language of this path, Halphas is a shadow pole — worked only with its angel, Haamiah.

What the grimoires say

In the 1904 Goetia, Halphas is an Earl governing 26 legions. Builds towers, furnishes them with weapons, sends men-of-war.

The 1904 Goetia gives him as a Great Earl who manifests in the shape of a stock-dove (a wild pigeon) and speaks in a hoarse, rough voice. He has no confirmed public-domain figure engraving; he is a builder-of-war spirit, said to raise fortified towers, stock them with weapons and munitions, and dispatch armed men where needed.

“The Thirty-eighth Spirit is Halphas, or Malthous (or Malthas). He is a Great Earl, and appeareth in the Form of a Stock-Dove. He speaketh with a hoarse Voice. His Office is to build up Towers, and to furnish them with Ammunition and Weapons, and to send Men-of-War to places appointed. He ruleth over 26 Legions of Spirits.”— Mathers & Crowley, The Goetia (1904), public domain

The shadow it carries

Stripped to the bone, Halphas's traditional office turns on building and fortification: raising strong structures, whether literal projects or defensive 'towers' in one's life. 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 Haamiah; met together, behind protection, Halphas 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.

Its modern Enn — a chant from the Demonolatry current, not found in any grimoire:

“Erato Halphas on ca secore”

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 red candle, a tuesday, 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 Halphas with strategy and readiness for conflict: mustering resources, weapons and allies before a confrontation, protection and defense of what has been built. 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.

“Build the tower if you must — but know who you are arming, and against whom.”