#44 · Marquis

Shax

The 44th of the seventy-two, a marquis. Takes and restores sight, hearing and understanding. In the language of this path, Shax is a shadow pole — worked only with its angel, Yelahiah.

What the grimoires say

In the 1904 Goetia, Shax is a Marquis governing 30 legions. Takes and restores sight, hearing and understanding; finds hidden things.

A Great Marquis appearing as a stock-dove (wild pigeon) and speaking in a hoarse yet subtle voice. He can take away the sight, hearing or understanding of any man or woman on command, and steal money from the houses of kings (returning it after long ages). He fetches horses or other things, discovers hidden matters, and gives good familiars. The Goetia warns he is a deceiver who tells many lies unless first commanded into the magic triangle. No confirmed public-domain figure engraving exists (the Wikimedia 'Shax.jpg' is filed under the Dictionnaire Infernal / Le Breton category).

“The Forty-fourth Spirit is Shax, or Shaz (or Shass). He is a Great Marquis and appeareth in the Form of a Stock-Dove, speaking with a voice hoarse, but yet subtle. His Office is to take away the Sight, Hearing, or Understanding of any Man or Woman at the command of the Exorcist; and to steal money out of the houses of Kings... But he must first be commanded into a Triangle, or else he will deceive him, and tell him many Lies... He giveth Good Familiars, and governeth 30 Legions of Spirits.”— Mathers & Crowley, The Goetia (1904), public domain

The shadow it carries

Stripped to the bone, Shax's traditional office turns on glamour, illusion and misdirection: clouding an adversary's sight, hearing or understanding. 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 Yelahiah; met together, behind protection, Shax 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:

“Ayer Avage Shax aken”

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 grey, black or silver 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 Shax with stealth and covert action; recovering lost, hidden or stolen things, uncovering hidden truths and secrets. 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 and Louis Le Breton’s Dictionnaire Infernal engraving (1863). 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.

“He can take a sense and hand it back sharper. Loss teaches the eye.”