15/30 2015

BELETH.--The Thirteenth Spirit is called Beleth (or Bileth, or Bilet). He is a mighty King and terrible. He rideth on a pale horse with trumpets and other kinds of musical instruments playing before him. He is very furious at his first appearance, that is, while the Exorcist layeth his courage; for to do this he must hold a Hazel Wand in his hand, striking it out towards the South and East Quarters, make a triangle, △, without the Circle, and then command him into it by the Bonds and Charges of Spirits as hereafter followeth. And if he doth not enter into the triangle, △, at your threats, rehearse the Bonds and Charms before him, and then he will yield Obedience and come into it, and do what he is commanded by the Exorcist. Yet he must receive him courteously because he is a Great King, and do homage unto him, as the Kings and Princes do that attend upon him. And thou must have always a Silver Ring on the middle finger of the left hand held against thy face, 1 as they do yet before AMAYMON. This Great King Beleth causeth all the love that may be, both of Men and of Women, until the Master Exorcist hath had his desire fulfilled. He is of the Order of Powers, and he governeth 85 Legions of Spirits. His Noble Seal is this, which is to be worn before thee at working.

“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,

fair as the moon, clear as the sun,

and terrible as an army with banners?”

Solomon 6:10

Which is to say my love is sleeping,

do not wake her,

who carries our sweet and sticky wolves

on her back, through grey days

and the world, ever burning,

bottles ghosts and graveyard dirt.

The hungry gather at our table,

leave stronger,

our orphans, our family

crayon a shipwreck, a whale

a flight of birds

you feed the world your sugar

lay hands on the broken

bid the dead speak and

they sing through you.

O shipwreck siren,

swimming now through the half light

of our blanket-covered windows,

o witch who flies up the chimney

with the smoke, o love, my love

my blood-wife, my breath

wreathe me in your hair, your hips

let our broken tangle together,

a bone fire, a burning ground

a bright and sweet obscenity

that death cannot undo.

14/30 2015

SITRI.--The Twelfth Spirit is Sitri. He is a Great Prince and appeareth at first with a Leopard's head and the Wings of a Gryphon, but after the command of the Master of the Exorcism he putteth on Human shape, and that very beautiful. He enflameth men with Women's love, and Women with Men's love; and causeth them also to show themselves naked if it be desired. He governeth 60 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, to be worn as a Lamen before thee, etc.

On Rural Route 3, we burned our trash

in a rusted perforated barrel.

It was my chore

by dint of my masculinity,

to tend to the fire.

The mix of circulars and newsprint

the blue fire of ink

the molten plastics

and foul black smoke

Lightening-split oaks

hung over the shower of sparks

in the tumble of trash

my mother's magazines

slick, glossy

the women greased,

their sexes split and pink

afraid of discovery,

I turned the pages with a stick

in the midst of the flame

the oily bellies and half-mast cocks

the red painted mouths and breasts

the tangle of pubic hair and pink labia

all consumed in fire

13/30 2015

GUSION.--The Eleventh Spirit in order is a great and strong Duke, called Gusion. He appeareth like a Xenopilus. He telleth all things, Past, Present, and to Come, and showeth the meaning and resolution of all questions thou mayest ask. He conciliateth and reconcileth friendships, and giveth Honour and Dignity unto any. He ruleth over 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, the which wear thou as aforesaid.

“ What shall I say of the Cynocephali, whose dog-like head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men? “

St Augustine

They are situated always on an island

or in mountains over the border,

or beyond the last known place

before the kingdom of Prester John

the men with the heads of dogs

rich in sheep, in leather

mute and gentle

or fierce and warlike

blood drinkers, herders

The god of the underworld,

dog headed, jackal headed,

devourers of souls

the not-men of the island of Doctor Moreau

the wolf in grandmother's dress

the men that are beasts

that are fierce, or loyal

or bare their teeth

when we would bid them heel

Saint Christopher, the dog headed saint

became human on his baptism, they say.

and the men of the cities say

bind them and catch them in nets

and wash them in the river

if they have souls

or work them in the fields

until they die, if they have none

and they are not-men

Enkidu & Gilgamesh

Tonto & The Lone Ranger

& the Ghul, the hyena-headed eater of the dead

cannibals and savages and demons

Barnum said a hunter tracked

Fedor Jeftichew and his father

to a cave in Kostroma

(In Russia)(over the Horizon,)

(beyond the rim of the world)

(under contract in the french circus)

made Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy

Juliana Pastrana, from Sinaloa Mexico

Bought from her mother,

by Theodore Lent

who taught her to sing, to dance

exhibited her throughout Europe

her hair covered face,

her double-row of teeth

Lent filled her belly with a child

who was born with a thick black pelt

and died, and took his mother with him

(that psychopomp, that weigher of hearts)

Lent stuffed his wife and child

and exhibited their bodies

in a glass case ,the wonder of the age

Lent then remarried, another fur covered woman

named her Zenora Pastrana

after Julia, grew rich from his traveling wonder-show

died in a madhouse,

and Julia, unburied,

a faithful taxidermied curiosity

gathered dust in the museum in Norway

Where the pale, smooth, white faced men of Oslo

gawked at her glory, that wonder, that sign,

That demonstration of what it means to be civilized.

12/30 2015

BUER.--The Tenth Spirit is Buer, a Great President. He appeareth in Sagittary, and that is his shape when the Sun is there. He teaches Philosophy, both Moral and Natural, and the Logic Art, and also the Virtues of all Herbs and Plants. He healeth all distempers in man, and giveth good Familiars. He governeth 50 Legions of Spirits, and his Character of obedience is this, which thou must wear when thou callest him forth unto appearance.

Fatherless boys take such mentors as they find,

men with the bodies of beasts,

with poison blood

maddened by their own arrows

jabbed into the arm

these old soldiers, these sages

learn the ways of plants,

how to make a bowl of foil

how to crush a pill on a headstone

stoner apothecaries and junkie professors

This is what it is to be a hero,

to be a pupil of monsters

to learn at the feet of the dying

how to drink, to bluster, to fight

to fix, to die, to hustle

to be a monster is to be god-tainted

to be a sign, made flesh

a cautionary specter, set among the stars

arrow forever cocked at the scorpion's heart

the boy with addled brains, hit by a train

the old man with his head full of purple ghosts

the drunks behind the liquor store

who will buy a case for a bottle

 all my teachers gone to dust

11/30 2015

 PAIMON.--The Ninth Spirit in this Order is Paimon, a Great King, and very obedient unto LUCIFER. He appeareth in the form of a Man sitting upon a Dromedary with a Crown most glorious upon his head. There goeth before him also an Host of Spirits, like Men with Trumpets and well sounding Cymbals, and all other sorts of Musical Instruments. He hath a great Voice, and roareth at his first coming, and his speech is such that the Magician cannot well understand unless he can compel him. This Spirit can teach all Arts and Sciences, and other secret things. He can discover unto thee what the Earth is, and what holdeth it up in the Waters; and what Mind is, and where it is; or any other thing thou mayest desire to know. He giveth Dignity, and confirmeth the same. He bindeth or maketh any man subject unto the Magician if he so desire it. He giveth good Familiars, and such as can teach all Arts. He is to be observed towards the West. He is of the Order of Dominations. 1 He hath under him 200 Legions of Spirits, and part of them are of the Order of Angels, and the other part of Potentates. Now if thou callest this Spirit Paimon alone, thou must make him some offering; and there will attend him two Kings called LABAL and ABALIM, and also other Spirits who be of the Order of Potentates in his Host, and 25 Legions. And those Spirits which be subject unto them are not always with them unless the Magician do compel them. His Character is this which must be worn as a Lamen before thee, etc.

And we have sought [to reach] the heaven but found it filled with powerful guards and burning flames. Surah 72:8

In Persian, meaning 'pact” or “promise”

The black djinn of Solomon

who bound those subject to him

to build the temple, to raise the stones

to bind the others,

those hole-dwellers, bone eaters

the 32 invisibles,

and al Khidir, the green one

The undying, eternal other

roaring and roaring

in the godless dark

when the moon was eclipsed,

I drank beer in my backyard

and watched a translucent crescent

cut through the clouds

above the mound-city

above Wright Patterson airforce base

In winter, we climbed atop the hill

with flashlights, and the stars swung about

and flashed in return, a great triangle of light

and one was there, and went away, and returned

the stars themselves holes, pierced in a bowl

beyond which a smokeless fire, forever burning

the planets pushed round their tracks

by the angels

the earth set in the darkness of the firmament

or upheld by a tree, a beanstalk

round which the saucers zip merrily

the hollow earth and secret city

the ladder betwixt earth and heaven

saw once, on state route 139

a great blood bell of a thing

sitting on the highway in the fog

in the desert,

I saw black helicopters hover over the highway

chasing glowing, hovering lights

the cars pulled over to watch

I have climbed the hills at night

to greet the secret kings of the earth

and heard their breath,

tapped tables with the dead

my grandfather saw a man, with a book

at the foot of his bed

a whirl of glowing light in the forest

a green deer

my father, a fish the size of a truck

I have sung myself sick with

things that cannot be true.

10/30 2015

(8.) BARBATOS.--The Eighth Spirit is Barbatos. He is a Great Duke, and appeareth when the Sun is in Sagittary, with four noble Kings and their companies of great troops. He giveth understanding of the singing of Birds, and of the Voices of other creatures, such as the barking of Dogs. He breaketh the Hidden Treasures open that have been laid by the Enchantments of Magicians. He is of the Order of Virtues, of which some part he retaineth still; and he knoweth all things Past, and to come, and conciliateth Friends and those that be in Power. He ruleth over 30 Legions of Spirits. His Seal of Obedience is this, the which wear before thee as aforesaid.

““What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”

When the warble fly or Hypoderma lays its eggs

the host animals tongue scoops up the gestating larvae

they travel through the stomach

and rise, to the surface

they leave, in their wake a substance called

“butcher's jelly”

and the larvae poke breathing holes

through the skin.

The Cymothoa exigua crawls inside the fishes mouth

extracting blood from the tongue

till it withers then it replaces the tongue,

and lives, in its place

in the fishes mouth.

acts as surrogate

living on blood and the fish's meals.

shitting it's own blood

into the dark hall of the fish's throat

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis

a fungus, takes over the ant's brain

and drives it up into the canopy,

till it clings to a leaf, and dies

and a fruiting body bursts through the head.

to be eaten by birds

In response, ant colonies have evolved

some sense of the possessed,

carry it far from the city

that no other is inspected with this spore

allow it to climb and die alone.

Toxoplasma gondi,

present in the shit of cats

in the brain of rats

makes them bolder, madder

more inclined to be eaten

less afraid of the smell of cat piss

crazed, inspired, schizophrenic

the god lives in the animal

brought before the horned altar

in the butterflies and blood and ergot-black bread

and the god is death

toxoplasmi gondii lives in the brains of men

they are filled with god

until they cannot hold him anymore

the birds tell them the secret name

till the dogs speak affably, seductively

and the flies sing hosannas

Birds sing blenders,

sing cellphone

sing bad starter in a 67 Malibu

sing grocery store checkout laser

sing shotgun

Dogs howl down the moon.

9/30 2015

AMON.

--The Seventh Spirit is Amon. He is a Marquis great in power, and most stern. He appeareth like a Wolf with a Serpents tail, vomiting out of his mouth flames of fire; but at the command of the Magician he putteth on the shape of a Man with Dog's teeth beset in a head like a Raven; or else like a Man with a Raven's head (simply). He telleth all things Past and to Come. He procureth feuds and reconcileth controversies between friends. He governeth 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this which is to be worn as aforesaid, etc.

In St. Liborius, in the interminable afternoons

the dust motes singing, illuminated

by the soft gore of the saints

the pale chipped paint of the heavens,

and gilt spangled stars,

the carpeted kneelers.

we sang your name.

Unknown, invisible god of the desert

patron of the poor, sun below the horizon

ram-horned sun

did you know, then

all things to come?

The house on fire,

my fathers hands,

the thronging of dead

on the shore of your black river?

Your storm-sewer, your hidden sun?

All things before?

Wolf and serpent, crow and dog

housefire and truck.

We poor, supplicated you,

the end of every plastic prayer

the mystery of mysteries

secret name of the nameless

through him, with him, in him

in the unity of the holy spirit

all glory and honor is yours

almighty father, amen

you the blue-painted funeral

you the ram horned god of the dark

you invisible, you avenger

you sower of discord and harmony

you unopening door.

8/30 2015

 VALEFOR

The Sixth Spirit is Valefor. He is a mighty Duke, and appeareth in the shape of a Lion with an Ass's Head, bellowing. He is a good Familiar, but tempteth them he is a familiar of to steal. He governeth 10 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, which is to be worn, whether thou wilt have him for a Familiar, or not.

In the military PX, my stepfather

in uniform, is flirting with the cashier

(not my mother)

he leans, casually against the counter

and is laughing (not his real laugh)

while his left hand is filling

his cargo pockets

with chocolate bars.

Here is a knife, I got it somewhere

here is a sword, a book on magic

here is a deck of tarot cards

a cow's skull, a black candle

He is climbing through the window

of the projection booth

of the shuttered theater

and I am carrying a flashlight

that dimly lights

the last spool of Rambo,

still in the projector,

the darkened house,

behind the screen, the storeroom

of old pornographic posters,

of projector bulbs

a leaf blower, assorted memorabilia

here is a guitar, I got it

out of the back of a truck

here are some records

here is Metal Hurlant,

Eerie, Creepie, Vampirella

here is a box of books

In the dark drawer, here is a pistol

here is a magazine, with a woman

bound, upside down

here is a bottle of whiskey

an ancient hit of blotter acid

Here is the backseat of the car

soaked in blood and the slow fat flies

here is a glass pipe, a broken lip

here is death, and death and death.

7/30 2015

 MARBAS.--

The fifth Spirit is Marbas. He is a Great President, and appeareth at first in the form of a Great Lion, but afterwards, at the request of the Master, he putteth on Human Shape. He answereth truly of things Hidden or Secret. He causeth Diseases and cureth them. Again, he giveth great Wisdom and Knowledge in Mechanical Arts; and can change men into other shapes. He governeth 36 Legions of Spirits. And his Seal is this, which is to be worn as aforesaid.

The engines of Hell and East Chicago

melt steel, stones, slag

without rest.

shower Sulpher, Benzene, Hexane

secret apothecaries of the virulent air

The mouthless doctors rain radiation

on the tubers and growths

of that terrible forest
this is called curing

like meat hung in smoke

these subtle engines,

lenses and knives

this unlight and it's images
hellebore and henbane

to cease the blossoming of black threads

in the blood, unravel the knot

tied by the malicious, the greedy

the bezoar stones,

the jewels from the toad's head.

This terrible garden

in the sterile rooms, they cut away

the heart,the lungs, the rotten Pith

the opening of the mouth

is called healing

time is a physician, and death.

what shapes  will we inhabit

when we have been shaped,

by what they have cut away,

by the bone and sinew we have lost

the blood and marrow freely given

what faces we will wear?

walking head upright, 

in the marshes

the going forth by day

6/30 2015

SAMIGINA, or GAMIGM

The Fourth Spirit is Samigina, a Great Marquis.

He appeareth in the form of a little Horse or Ass,

and then into Human shape doth he change himself

at the request of the Master.

He speaketh with a hoarse voice.

He ruleth over 30 Legions of Inferiors.

He teaches all Liberal Sciences,

and giveth account of Dead Souls

that died in sin.

Tell here of Chuck

in the gas station bathroom

of Tim at his table

of George, at the intersection

of the drunks, the pillhead funerals

of the carcrash and heroin

those who dies in sin.

Your unfinished bottles,

your water beds and pickups

your floor in the center of the party

Here is a horse,

to find you in the secret house

to call you back into the day,

you dust-eaters, you toilers

to call you to the edge of the fire

and bid you sing.

Sing.

Here is hell and the mountain

here each finds his bed,

these wrecks, drifting into the deep

the sunken town, it's church-bell ringing

in the lake

here is a house forever on fire,

a chapel of disbelief,

a river of crime

an orchestra of bones

of the other place,

say nothing.

that bright silence

that swallows children

without apology.






According to Wierus, he summons into the presence of the exorcist the souls of drowned men and of those detained in Purgatory, called magically Cartagra--that is, the affliction of souls. They assume an aërial body, are visible to sight and reply to questions. Another version says that Gamygyn tarries with the exorcist till he has accomplished his desires.

5/30 2015

Vassago

The Third Spirit is a Mighty Prince, being of the same nature as Agares.

He is called Vassago. This Spirit is of a Good Nature, and his office is to declare things Past and to Come, and to discover all things Hid or Lost.

For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road,

at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen:

He will cast lots with arrows, he will consult his idols, he will examine the liver.

Ezekiel 21:21

The world is a dice-box,

a bag of stones

a deck of cards is a book

we shake, shuffle, rewrite

The suicide king,

Jack with one eye

the queen of spades

collide, run through

a forest of shovels,

of cudgels,

of bloody hearts

and stones.

The railroad bible,

the thrown bones

and cowry shells

burnt oferings and the flight of birds

the counting of days

of arrow staves

haruspicy and bloody mirrors

return to us what is lost

the dead boys from the river

the girls from the soft black dirt

the days and hours that the clock has eaten

the boy I was, who threw the bones

to see through the mirror, darkly,

my son now, in the halls of the shadow,

this future, out of all possible

the lives I won in the house of knives

this unanswered riddle

going forth by day

here is a shrouded figure,

here a drowned man

here is the skull of a parricide.

A black cockeral, a hangman's rope

here is a garden, the river.

A full house.

4/30 2015

Agares

He...cometh up in the form of an old fair Man,

riding upon a Crocodile, carrying a Goshawk upon his fist,

and yet mild in appearance.

He maketh them to run that stand still, and bringeth back runaways.

He teaches all Languages or Tongues presently.

He hath power also to destroy Dignities both Spiritual and Temporal,

and causeth Earthquakes. He was of the Order of Virtues.

Old men and memory

runaways and deserters

what good these nobles of hell

their menageries?

Say it is a memory house.

The crocodile is the sewer

where we crawled into the hill

listening for rising water

the great dusty room under the levy

the dim sunlight streaming in a single shaft

the fear and panic of the lower brain

on his fist,

the hawks that circled in the thermal air

in the river-valley bowl

the hilltop above the trainyards

where the names of the dead are spraypainted

one atop the other

where the ashes of old fires

shelter under the overcropping rock

where the wind bites clear of breath

Who then, the old man?

Is it Moon, arguing with the angels

his hands jammed in his pockets

or spread out, gingerly

on a pawnshop piano?

His head filled with purple?

Or myself,

greyer each day

each day closer to my own private dark

these are the tongues I teach.

these are the runaways I return

those run down into the dark beneath the hill

those names painted where the hawks circle

this is the earth I shake.

3/30 2015

Bael or Baal.

He appeareth in divers shapes,

sometimes like a Cat,

sometimes like a Toad,

and sometimes like a Man,

and sometimes all these forms at once.

He speaketh hoarsely.

In the Dictionaire Infernal, he is first

The King of the East, three headed

a sad, crowned head,

a goggle-eyed frog

a sweet-faced domestic cat,

conjoined in an amorphous body

a mock trinity

perched atop skittering spider legs.

Once god in Canaan, Baal-Hadad

lord of thunderstorms and the marriage bed.

Once title, meaning “master,

owner, keeper, husband”

Baal-Hamon, god of the fire

of the doomed city of Carthage

whence came Aeneas, his father on his back

and toppled the queen down to hell

from whence came Hannibal,

and shook the gates of Rome

of which St Augustine, says

To Carthage I came

where sang all around me...

a cauldron of unholy loves

Ba'al Ze'bul
lord of the high place

of the lofty dwelling

(of flies, and pestilence)

(of the contract, of the covenant)

He is the toppled king,

the bad dad,

the usurped prince.

The kingdom of rebellion,

of insurrection,

of stone circles

and the bones of pigs.

In the chalked circle,

on a basement floor we called him,

we fatherless boys.

We dared him, we prodded

And he came, to glower in the dark

at the names in circles,

from the dark of the sump-pump well

from the black cat's head,

the charcoal'ed gate

left his smear on the stones,

red wax and rotten luck,

a whiff of bad chemistry.

now my son knocks on his door

and thinks he sees something past the candlelight

that squats, that pretends to obey

a lord of flies, of lies

I throw salt over my shoulder, for luck

get thee behind me

at the end of each shift, 

I cap the bottles against vinegar flies

scrub sugar from the rails

clean drains and floor

charms against corruption.

Come home to the dark house

where I am master, keeper,

owner, husband.

To be a father is to be a devil,

to be the villain in someone's story.

to be a god that falls, again and again.

Still to come when you are conjured.

2/30 2015

ANCHOR; AMACOR; AMIDES; THEODINIAS; ANITOR

Adorn us in thrift-store leather,

in Botanica saints and hieroglyphs

in heavy metal gift shop tee shirts

in such Sigils as we have wrought,

in black robes and bedsheets

in crowns of thornwood,

in upside-down cross earrings

and pentacles on black shoelace

in wax and oil, in shaven heads

and headbanging hair.

I will clothe me in the armor of the Most High

Wrap us in arrogance

in heads filed with mysteries

with alien architects and dime bags

gird us in the enlightenment of

paperback magick and blotter acid epiphanies

in the shoplifted tarot,

the black candle basements.