So, what is the difference between invoking or evoking a daimon through the Grimorium Verum and doing so through a modern demonolatry book?
What practical or spiritual difference would it make if the practitioner personally killed and skinned the goat? In 2026, do people truly need to follow such medieval methods in order to forge a pact with a Goetic deity—or with any other daimon?
What happens if someone is neither willing nor capable of killing a goat? Would the daimon simply reject them or refuse to establish a relationship with them? That makes no sense whatsoever to me. Why would an ancient, non-human intelligence care whether a modern practitioner had personally slaughtered an animal?
That’s not really the point of my post. My point is that people start believing these entities are their friends and become empathetic toward them. I don’t agree with that. You can absolutely practice magic without a circle, triangle, wand, or any of the other traditional apparatus. You can summon something, or something that presents itself as that entity, and have it perform the work for you. You can call that demonolatry or whatever you want, but that isn’t Solomonic magic.
The grimoires have you prepare everything yourself because they place a lot of emphasis on the purity and preparation of the materials. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to manufacture every object from scratch. I’ve used paper I bought from a store and then consecrated it myself, and it worked perfectly fine. The important part is that you consecrated it and incorporated it into the operation. You are the magician; you are responsible for preparing, consecrating, and maintaining your tools.
Where I strongly disagree is with the idea that threatening the spirit is pointless. Within the logic of the Goetic system, it isn’t pointless at all. The coercive aspect is important both for the magician and, within that system, for the spirit.
If you wanted $10,000 but settled for $6,000, did you actually want the $10,000 badly enough? Or were you prepared to insist on the original demand? If you’re not willing to stand your ground with the spirit, then why perform a coercive Goetic operation in the first place? You should perform the ritual when you know you want the result strongly enough that you’re willing to summon a demon and command it to obtain that result for you.
The spirit is also supposed to recognize your authority and, in the logic of the tradition, have reason to fear disobedience. Otherwise, the whole hierarchy starts falling apart. These entities are portrayed as extremely good at persuasion, deception, and getting the operator to change their mind.
Take the Goetic ring, for example. Do you really think the ring is literally going to protect you from a dragon breathing fire through its mouth? Obviously not. Its purpose can be understood as helping you maintain your composure, remember your authority, and stay focused on the request instead of allowing yourself to be intimidated or persuaded into abandoning it.
There are also plenty of philosophical discussions about spirits that predate the grimoires. I’ve found some of Iamblichus’ descriptions of spiritual beings interestingly consistent with what the grimoires describe, at least regarding some of the lesser entities.
And this is where I have trouble with the idea that the spirits are simply your supernatural friends. If these beings are intelligent enough to deceive the magician, why would they be incapable of recognizing ritual authority? They can be fooled by a paper crown, some utilitarian cosplay, and a magician declaring himself to be Solomon or one of the prophets, You wouldn’t even fool a child with that.
So either the entire system is being interpreted incorrectly, or the ritual objects and titles are literally “tricking” an entity into thinking you’re someone you’re not. The traditional Solomonic framework makes much more sense to me as a system of authority, preparation, coercion, and maintaining control over the operation. Whatever I don’t hold the universal truth, I just relate the way I do things and why