A student of the Goetia once summoned a spirit with the name Amon, expecting a ram-headed being. The figure that appeared was a raven-headed man with a serpent belt. The student checked the seal. They had called the wrong Amon. The confusion is not uncommon. Amon (the Goetic marquis) and Amun (the Egyptian king of the gods) share a name and a ram association, but they are separate entities with distinct histories, functions, and origins. The Egyptian god never appeared in a Solomonic circle. The Goetic demon never ruled Thebes.
What Are Amon and Amun, Exactly?
Amon is a Goetic spirit, the seventh spirit listed in the Ars Goetia (the first book of the Lemegeton, compiled around the mid-17th century). He appears as a wolf with a serpent’s tail, vomiting flame, then shifts into a raven-headed man with a serpent girdle. He commands 40 legions of spirits and teaches past and future events, reconciles friends, and causes love.
Amun is the ancient Egyptian creator god, patron of Thebes, later merged with Ra as Amun-Ra. His name means “the hidden one.” He was the supreme deity of the Egyptian pantheon during the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE). He is depicted as a man with a double-plumed crown, sometimes with a ram’s head, and his cult center was the Karnak temple complex.
The shared ram imagery is the primary source of confusion. But the ram of Amun is a symbol of fertility and kingship. The ram of Amon is a beast of smoke and fire.
Where Did the Name Confusion Begin?
The similarity in names is coincidental, not derivative. “Amun” comes from Egyptian jmn, meaning “hidden.” “Amon” appears in medieval grimoire manuscripts as a variant of the Hebrew Amen (so be it) or derived from the Egyptian god through late antique syncretism. We cannot be certain.
The earliest known list of Goetic spirits, the De Praestigiis Daemonum (1563) by Johann Weyer, does not include Amon. Amon first appears in the Lemegeton manuscripts of the 1600s. By that time, classical and Egyptian names had been thoroughly mixed into the Solomonic tradition. The Lemegeton includes spirits named after Canaanite, Greek, and Roman deities (Astarte, Baal, Beleth). Amun was a known name in Renaissance magic — the Hermetic and Asclepius texts mention him. It is plausible that the compiler of the Lemegeton borrowed the name Amun, altered the spelling, and assigned a new function.
But the two entities never shared a tradition. Amun was worshipped in temples with altars, priests, and daily offerings. Amon was invoked in a triangle within a circle, with a brass vessel and a consecrated ring.
How Each Spirit Was Worshipped or Invoked
The difference in practice is more revealing than the difference in name.
Amun: The Hidden King of Thebes
Amun was not a spirit to be summoned and commanded. He was the supreme god of the Egyptian state, especially during the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550–1292 BCE). His cult at Karnak was the largest religious complex in the ancient world. Priests performed daily rituals of purification, offering, and reenactment. The god was carried in a sacred barque during festivals, such as the Opet Festival, where his statue traveled from Karnak to Luxor.
The ram was not his primary form but his sacred animal. The ram-headed sphinxes lining the avenue at Karnak represent Amun as a protector. The god’s oracle was consulted by pharaohs and commoners. Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 BCE) claimed Amun appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to fight. The god’s power was political, not infernal.
Amon: The Goetic Marquis
Amon is invoked in the ceremonial magic of the Lemegeton. The magician prepares a circle, a triangle, and the spirit’s seal. We read the conjurations, which are a mix of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin divine names. Amon is addressed as a marquis, a rank of authority. He is forced to appear and answer questions.
The Lemegeton describes his appearance and his function. He “teacheth all things past and to come, and procureth love, and reconcileth friends and foes.” His seal is a complex geometric figure. He commands 40 legions, which is a high number for a Goetic spirit (the highest is 66, for Bael). That suggests power.
We do not know who first summoned Amon. The Lemegeton does not provide a backstory. Unlike Amun, he has no mythology, no temples, no cult. He is a tool, not a god.
Symbolism Compared: Ram, Raven, and Hiddenness
The ram is the only point of direct overlap. But the ram in each tradition carries different meaning.
For Amun, the ram is a symbol of virility and agency. The ram-headed god Khnum was the potter who created humans on his wheel. Amun’s association with the ram came through his identification with Khnum in the New Kingdom. The ram’s curved horns were echoed in the god’s crown, the atef. The ram was a sacred animal, not a monstrous form.
For Amon, the ram appears as a wolf-snake hybrid, then shifts into a raven-headed man. The raven is a bird of prophecy and death. The serpent tail is a chthonic detail. Amon’s shape is deliberately unsettling, a sign of his infernal origin. The raven head also connects him to the Roman god Mercury (who guided souls) and to the Celtic god Lugh (who had ravens). But the Lemegeton gives no explanation. We must read the form as a cipher.
The name “hidden one” applies to both, but differently. Amun was hidden because his true nature was unknowable, invisible even to the gods. Amon is hidden because he is a spirit of the air, unseen until summoned. The hiddenness of the Egyptian god is a theological mystery. The hiddenness of the Goetic spirit is a practical condition.
Common Misconceptions
They are the same entity. No. The Egyptian god Amun was never a Goetic demon. The name was borrowed, but the function, origin, and practice are entirely different. Amun was worshipped in a state religion. Amon was invoked in a private ritual.
Amon is a fallen version of Amun. This is a popular claim in modern occult circles, but it has no historical basis. There is no evidence that medieval magicians considered Amun a demon. The Lemegeton does not mention Egypt. The connection is modern speculation, not traditional lore.
Amon is the same as the demon Aamon. In some grimoire editions, the spirit is spelled Aamon or Ammon. The Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577) lists “Amon” as a marquis. The spelling varies. But Aamon is not a separate entity. It is the same Goetic spirit with a variant spelling.
Amun is a demon. Amun was not considered demonic in his own culture. In Egyptian religion, he was a benevolent creator. In Christian demonology, Egyptian gods were sometimes classified as demons (by Augustine and others). But that classification is a later theological overlay, not an original trait.
Notable Texts and Figures
The primary source for Amon is the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis (The Lesser Key of Solomon), found in manuscript form from the 17th century. The earliest printed edition is by S. L. MacGregor Mathers (1904), though he used a copy from the British Library. The grimoire is attributed to King Solomon, but modern scholarship (Owen Davies, 2009; Joseph Peterson, 2001) dates it to the 17th century.
For Amun, the key texts are the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400–2300 BCE), the Coffin Texts (c. 2100 BCE), and the New Kingdom hymns and rituals, especially the Great Hymn to Amun from the Papyrus Leiden I 350 (c. 13th century BCE). The historian Jan Assmann (1995) wrote extensively on the theology of Amun. The god’s prominence declined after the Amarna Period (c. 1350 BCE) when Akhenaten suppressed his cult, but it was restored under Tutankhamun.
The Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) used the name Amun in his De Vita Coelitus Comparanda (1489), describing a spirit of the sun. That is a Neoplatonic interpretation, not the Goetic spirit. The confusion between the two was already present in Renaissance magic.
FAQ
Can I summon Amon using the same methods as for Amun? No. Amun was not summoned; he was worshipped. The ceremonial method for Amon is specific to the Goetia: a circle, a triangle, and the correct seal. Attempting to invoke Amun as a goetic spirit is a category error.
Is Amon evil? The Lemegeton does not label spirits as evil. The grimoire treats them as forces to be bound and commanded. Amon teaches and reconciles. Whether that is evil depends on the practitioner’s intent.
Why does Amon have a raven head? The Lemegeton does not explain. Ravens are associated with prophecy, death, and the god Odin in Norse tradition. The raven-headed form may be a remnant of Egyptian imagery (the god Thoth had an ibis head, but not a raven). Alternately, it is a medieval invention.
Does Amun appear in the Goetia? No. The name Amun does not appear in the Lemegeton. The Goetic spirit is Amon, spelled with one ‘u’ in most manuscripts. The Egyptian god is absent from Solomonic magic.
The Two Paths Converge in the Library
The confusion between Amon and Amun teaches us something about the nature of occult transmission. Names travel faster than their meanings. A name can be lifted from one tradition and dropped into another, acquiring a new function and a new form. The Egyptian god of hiddenness becomes the Goetic marquis of revelation. The ram of Thebes becomes the raven of the circle.
We keep both figures in the library, but we do not mix their shelves. The book on the Goetia is here. The entry on Amun is in the glossary of Egyptian deities. And for those who want to explore the specific seal and conjuration of Amon, we have a guide on the 72 spirits. Each name deserves its own context. The confusion is a reminder: names are not definitions. The spirit answers to the name you call, but only if you know which one you are calling.