Can a sigil of the Ars Goetia secretly be a map? The demonologist John R. King IV argues that the seal of the 26th spirit, Bune, is a cartographic representation of Cyprus. We investigated that hypothesis in depth talking to the author himself and examining the maps without assuming in advance that he is either right or wrong. Here is what we found.
A note on method. This is a piece of critical research into a modern hypothesis, not a «revelation» about Bune nor a refutation our data do not support. Throughout, we keep separate what is documented, what is interpretation, and what remains unresolved.
1. The hypothesis
In his article «Secret Treasure Maps of the Ars Goetia» (2023), King proposes that several of the 72 seals are not purely magical signs but literal maps hidden in plain sight. Of Bune's seal he writes:
Bune's seal in the Sloane 2731 manuscript (17th c.), the source of the seals of this Goetic list. Public domain.
2. Who King is, and what he argues
John R. King IV (who signs online as imperialarts) is the author of The Faculty of Abrac and Imperial Arts, and has spent decades on the study of demonology and ceremonial magic. His thesis is not that the seals are drawings revealed by the spirits, but the opposite: that they are deliberately constructed visual artifacts. In his own words, replying to a reader in the comments of his article (12 June 2023):
The chronology matters here, because it is exactly where a hasty reading can go wrong. Neither in his 2023 article nor in this June 2023 comment does King name the 1616 Hondius map or speak of a «line that bisects the island»: in 2023 he describes mines, coastlines, routes, a port and an arrow, and concedes «imperfect matches». That specific cartographic reference Hondius, 1616, p. 698, and the line appears for the first time in his reply of 7 October 2026, when we asked him directly (next section). To confuse «it is not in the 2023 article» with «King never said it» would be a mistake: he did say it, but later, and at our prompting.
3. We asked the author
So as not to reconstruct his interpretation second-hand, we wrote to him directly in the comments of his article (our public account is grimorium_lat). King answered generously. We reproduce the essential exchange verbatim, with dates:
This last answer is what makes the hypothesis falsifiable: there is a named map and a precise feature to look for in it. From here, the question stops being «does the seal resemble Cyprus?» and becomes «does that 1616 map actually show a horizontal line bisecting the island?».
4. The seal and its variants
Before the map, the seal itself. King works from a retouched facsimile («retouched xerox-like facsimile») of Sloane 2731 (fol. 104r) made by Wade Long. When that facsimile is collated against the original manuscript, a detail crucial to the «line» appears: where the manuscript draws a pronounced lower curve (a «boat»-like shape), the modern reproduction straightens it into a horizontal line. In other words, part of the «horizontality» attributed to the seal belongs to the reproduction, not necessarily to the old stroke. There are, moreover, markedly different versions in circulation (Waite, Crowley, White, Peterson), and King himself warns that these copies differ from one another.
5. Investigating the cartographic source
With the source King names Hondius, 1616, p. 698 we located the primary atlas (the complete digitized copy of Pieter Bertius's Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, printed by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam, 1616) and confirmed that p. 698 is indeed the map titled «CYPRUS» / «DESCRIPTIO CYPRI». No geographic feature of the map was used to identify it: the identification was purely bibliographic (title page + printed pagination + cartouche title).
The map King names: «DESCRIPTIO CYPRI», engraved by Jodocus Hondius in the Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum (Bertius), Amsterdam, 1616, p. 698. Public-domain facsimile (copy held by the Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa).
To examine the supposed «horizontal line bisecting the island» without bias, we applied a deliberately blind protocol: we asked three independent examiners and three different models, without mentioning King, Bune or the hypothesis, to describe and classify the linear marks on the map. We added an algorithmic control for straight lines (collinearity detection) with parameters frozen in advance, and collated three witnesses of the same lineage and one independent (two copies of the 1616 plate and Ortelius's Cyprus of 1573).
6. What we found
(a) The figure King published uses a modern map. The illustration in his article the seal drawn in black over a map of Cyprus is not made over the 1616 plate but over a modern map (post-1974): one can read the legend «National capital / Road / District boundary», the «United Nations Buffer Zone», the scale in kilometres and miles, and the official disclaimer «Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative». It is important not to conflate the two: King uses a modern map to illustrate the correspondence, whereas the historical source he posits is the 1616 Hondius map.
Figure published by J. R. King, reproduced here as a quotation for critical analysis (© John R. King IV). The black drawing is the seal overlaid; the base map is modern (note the legend «National capital / Road / District boundary» and the «United Nations Buffer Zone», 20th-century elements).
(b) In the 1616 map King names, we do not find a «non-geographic line bisecting the island». The three blind examiners agree, without any prompting: the marks inside the island are rivers fine, sinuous, branching, running down to the coast; the only long continuous straight lines are the map's frame (the double border rule) and the band of degree graduations. The algorithmic control confirms it: in the central band of the island there is no long straight line.
(c) The closest thing to «a horizontal line» is a real feature. The only long, nearly straight line running westeast within the island is the Kyrenia mountain range (the town of Cerines/Kyrenia sits right on it): a real mountain chain, drawn as a long relief that separates the narrow northern coastal strip from the main body. It is genuine geography, not an invented stroke, and it runs along the north: it does not «bisect» the island into two halves.
Detail of the island. The long E–W line in the north (over Cerines = Kyrenia) is the Kyrenia range, a real geographic feature. The other inland marks are sinuous rivers reaching the coast. There is no non-geographic straight line bisecting the island.
Limits of this finding. We examined the plate King cites and two further witnesses, not the exact copy he had in front of him; at the available resolution a faint stroke in another state or reproduction cannot be excluded. Our result is local to the witnesses examined: it does not prove the absence of such a line in every map of the period.
7. Our verdict
The investigation has not proven that Bune's seal represents a map of Cyprus, but it has not refuted it either. What it has done is clearly separate three levels:
8. What it would take to prove it
A rigorous test of the thesis would have to fix, before examining any correspondence (an honest preregistration):
Sources and acknowledgement.
We thank John R. King IV for his willingness to answer our questions. Dialogue cited: public comments on (imperialarts, LiveJournal, 2023–2026). Historical map: Jodocus Hondius / Pieter Bertius, Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, Amsterdam, 1616, p. 698 (public-domain facsimile, Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa). Seal: Sloane 2731 (17th c.). King's figure is reproduced as a quotation for critical analysis.
A note on method. This is a piece of critical research into a modern hypothesis, not a «revelation» about Bune nor a refutation our data do not support. Throughout, we keep separate what is documented, what is interpretation, and what remains unresolved.
1. The hypothesis
In his article «Secret Treasure Maps of the Ars Goetia» (2023), King proposes that several of the 72 seals are not purely magical signs but literal maps hidden in plain sight. Of Bune's seal he writes:
The association has a historical logic: Cyprus whose name is tied to copper was a major source of that metal in the Bronze Age.
Bune's seal in the Sloane 2731 manuscript (17th c.), the source of the seals of this Goetic list. Public domain.
2. Who King is, and what he argues
John R. King IV (who signs online as imperialarts) is the author of The Faculty of Abrac and Imperial Arts, and has spent decades on the study of demonology and ceremonial magic. His thesis is not that the seals are drawings revealed by the spirits, but the opposite: that they are deliberately constructed visual artifacts. In his own words, replying to a reader in the comments of his article (12 June 2023):
King pictures the historical maker of the seal copying maps of his own time «maps produced between 1505 and 1638» and choosing places tied to King Solomon or to the domains of empires.
The chronology matters here, because it is exactly where a hasty reading can go wrong. Neither in his 2023 article nor in this June 2023 comment does King name the 1616 Hondius map or speak of a «line that bisects the island»: in 2023 he describes mines, coastlines, routes, a port and an arrow, and concedes «imperfect matches». That specific cartographic reference Hondius, 1616, p. 698, and the line appears for the first time in his reply of 7 October 2026, when we asked him directly (next section). To confuse «it is not in the 2023 article» with «King never said it» would be a mistake: he did say it, but later, and at our prompting.
3. We asked the author
So as not to reconstruct his interpretation second-hand, we wrote to him directly in the comments of his article (our public account is grimorium_lat). King answered generously. We reproduce the essential exchange verbatim, with dates:
We asked how he established the Cyprus correspondence, and by what criterion he separates the «cartographic» marks from the rest of the seal.
His method, in sequence: he evoked the spirit → his impression associated it with forced-labor copper mining → he learned Cyprus was a copper source → and then he laid the seal over a map of Cyprus, where he «revealed» features, mines and the arrow. That is: the impression came first; the map, afterwards.
We asked for the specific map/overlay he used, so as to document it rather than reconstruct it after the fact.
Here King names a concrete source: the map by Jodocus Hondius in the 1616 Tabularum Geographicarum, p. 698. And he makes a testable claim: that this map shows «a distinct horizontal line bisecting the island, like the Bune seal, but this bisection does not exist in reality». Hence his belief that the seal was composed from it.
This last answer is what makes the hypothesis falsifiable: there is a named map and a precise feature to look for in it. From here, the question stops being «does the seal resemble Cyprus?» and becomes «does that 1616 map actually show a horizontal line bisecting the island?».
4. The seal and its variants
Before the map, the seal itself. King works from a retouched facsimile («retouched xerox-like facsimile») of Sloane 2731 (fol. 104r) made by Wade Long. When that facsimile is collated against the original manuscript, a detail crucial to the «line» appears: where the manuscript draws a pronounced lower curve (a «boat»-like shape), the modern reproduction straightens it into a horizontal line. In other words, part of the «horizontality» attributed to the seal belongs to the reproduction, not necessarily to the old stroke. There are, moreover, markedly different versions in circulation (Waite, Crowley, White, Peterson), and King himself warns that these copies differ from one another.
5. Investigating the cartographic source
With the source King names Hondius, 1616, p. 698 we located the primary atlas (the complete digitized copy of Pieter Bertius's Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, printed by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam, 1616) and confirmed that p. 698 is indeed the map titled «CYPRUS» / «DESCRIPTIO CYPRI». No geographic feature of the map was used to identify it: the identification was purely bibliographic (title page + printed pagination + cartouche title).
The map King names: «DESCRIPTIO CYPRI», engraved by Jodocus Hondius in the Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum (Bertius), Amsterdam, 1616, p. 698. Public-domain facsimile (copy held by the Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa).
To examine the supposed «horizontal line bisecting the island» without bias, we applied a deliberately blind protocol: we asked three independent examiners and three different models, without mentioning King, Bune or the hypothesis, to describe and classify the linear marks on the map. We added an algorithmic control for straight lines (collinearity detection) with parameters frozen in advance, and collated three witnesses of the same lineage and one independent (two copies of the 1616 plate and Ortelius's Cyprus of 1573).
6. What we found
(a) The figure King published uses a modern map. The illustration in his article the seal drawn in black over a map of Cyprus is not made over the 1616 plate but over a modern map (post-1974): one can read the legend «National capital / Road / District boundary», the «United Nations Buffer Zone», the scale in kilometres and miles, and the official disclaimer «Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative». It is important not to conflate the two: King uses a modern map to illustrate the correspondence, whereas the historical source he posits is the 1616 Hondius map.
Figure published by J. R. King, reproduced here as a quotation for critical analysis (© John R. King IV). The black drawing is the seal overlaid; the base map is modern (note the legend «National capital / Road / District boundary» and the «United Nations Buffer Zone», 20th-century elements).
(b) In the 1616 map King names, we do not find a «non-geographic line bisecting the island». The three blind examiners agree, without any prompting: the marks inside the island are rivers fine, sinuous, branching, running down to the coast; the only long continuous straight lines are the map's frame (the double border rule) and the band of degree graduations. The algorithmic control confirms it: in the central band of the island there is no long straight line.
(c) The closest thing to «a horizontal line» is a real feature. The only long, nearly straight line running westeast within the island is the Kyrenia mountain range (the town of Cerines/Kyrenia sits right on it): a real mountain chain, drawn as a long relief that separates the narrow northern coastal strip from the main body. It is genuine geography, not an invented stroke, and it runs along the north: it does not «bisect» the island into two halves.
Detail of the island. The long E–W line in the north (over Cerines = Kyrenia) is the Kyrenia range, a real geographic feature. The other inland marks are sinuous rivers reaching the coast. There is no non-geographic straight line bisecting the island.
Limits of this finding. We examined the plate King cites and two further witnesses, not the exact copy he had in front of him; at the available resolution a faint stroke in another state or reproduction cannot be excluded. Our result is local to the witnesses examined: it does not prove the absence of such a line in every map of the period.
7. Our verdict
The investigation has not proven that Bune's seal represents a map of Cyprus, but it has not refuted it either. What it has done is clearly separate three levels:
- Cartography. In the Hondius 1616 map (p. 698) that King names, a non-geographic horizontal line bisecting the island is not confirmed. The prominent E–W feature is the Kyrenia range (real); the rest are rivers. Result local to the witnesses.
- Provenance. The figure King published is built over a modern map of Cyprus, not the 1616 plate. The 1616 plate is the historical source he posits, not the one he drew on.
- King's thesis. Open. His qualitative proposal (mines, coastlines, routes, port, arrow) is not accompanied by a legend assigning each mark of the seal to a specific place, so it cannot yet be put to a rigorous test.
8. What it would take to prove it
A rigorous test of the thesis would have to fix, before examining any correspondence (an honest preregistration):
- the universe of candidate maps and islands, with inclusion and exclusion rules;
- an explicit legend linking each mark of the seal to a specific geographic element;
- an independent criterion for the seal's orientation and for the «arrow's» destination;
- a null hypothesis and controls measuring how many coincidences would arise by chance;
- a predefined treatment of retrospective selection and of the multiplicity of comparisons.
Sources and acknowledgement.
We thank John R. King IV for his willingness to answer our questions. Dialogue cited: public comments on (imperialarts, LiveJournal, 2023–2026). Historical map: Jodocus Hondius / Pieter Bertius, Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, Amsterdam, 1616, p. 698 (public-domain facsimile, Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa). Seal: Sloane 2731 (17th c.). King's figure is reproduced as a quotation for critical analysis.