A student of the Goetia once spread three seals on the table: Bael, Paimon, and Ipos. The first two were familiar circles with bold central stars. The third was different: a dense ring of Hebrew letters wrapped around an angular figure that seemed to shift under the candlelight. The Seal of Ipos is a unique circular sigil that combines Hebrew divine names, crosses, and a central star-like pattern, making it one of the more complex and symbolically dense seals in the Ars Goetia. By comparison, most Goetic seals share a basic structure of concentric circles, but Ipos’s seal stands out for its layered interior and the precision it demands from the practitioner.
What Makes the Seal of Ipos Different from Other Goetic Seals?
The Seal of Ipos is the 22nd seal in the Ars Goetia, the first book of the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis (Lesser Key of Solomon). It represents Ipos, a Prince and Earl of Hell who commands 36 legions and appears as a lion-headed angel with a goose’s foot. The seal’s design is a circular diagram containing three concentric rings: the outer ring bears the name of the spirit in Hebrew, the middle ring contains divine names (Iehovah and Adonai), and the inner space holds a central cross with four dots and an angular star-like figure. This dense layering contrasts sharply with the simpler seals of demons like Bael (first spirit), whose seal is a single circle with a bold pentagram, or Marbas (fifth spirit), which uses a more open line drawing.
The seal is not decorative. It is a binding key: the arrangement of names and symbols is meant to constrain the spirit within the triangle of art during evocation. Each element has a precise function, and the seal must be drawn exactly as specified in the manuscript — not approximated.
Where Did the Seal Designs Originate?
The earliest known manuscript of the Ars Goetia is the Harley MS 6483 (circa 1600–1650) held by the British Library. In this manuscript, the seal of Ipos appears on folio 21r, drawn in brown ink with a single surrounding circle and fewer internal details than later versions. A second key manuscript, Sloane MS 3824 (mid-17th century), shows a more elaborate seal with double circles and additional Hebrew characters, probably a later scribe’s elaboration.
S.L. MacGregor Mathers produced the first English edition of the Ars Goetia in 1888, based on Sloane 3824. Mathers standardized the seals into the forms most modern readers recognize. Aleister Crowley published a version in 1904 under the title The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King, revising Mathers’s plates. Crowley’s edition introduced minor variations: the seal of Ipos lost one ring in some printings and gained a more prominent central cross.
The design principles, however, remain consistent across manuscripts. Every Goetic seal relies on the Seal of Solomon (the hexagram) as a foundational template. The practitioner’s name of God, the spirit’s name, and the binding formula are always present. What changes is the complexity: spirits of higher rank (kings like Paimon or Asmoday) tend to have more rings and characters; presidents and earls like Ipos fall in the middle tier.
What Each Part of the Seal Means
The seal of Ipos encodes three layers of meaning, each tied to the ritual function.
The outer ring bears the spirit’s own name in Hebrew letters. This is the “call” element: it draws the spirit into the material world during evocation. Without it, the seal cannot be activated.
The middle ring carries the divine names Iehovah and Adonai. These are the binding names. They remind the spirit of its subordination to the creator and prevent it from deceiving or harming the practitioner. Compare this to the seal of Paimon (king of the Goetia), whose middle ring contains the tetragrammaton YHVH four times, reflecting his greater authority and the stronger binding required for a king.
The inner space contains a cross with four dots and an angular star. The cross is not a Christian symbol here but a cosmic one: it represents the four cardinal directions and the four elements over which Ipos claims dominion. The four dots (sometimes called “points of restriction”) anchor the spirit to the material plane. The star at the center is unique to Ipos among the seventy-two seals. Its angular shape (often a distorted pentagram) is said to relate to Ipos’s gift of foresight — he can see past and future, a power the seal channels back to the practitioner.
How the Seal Is Used in Practice
In traditional Goetic evocation, the practitioner draws the seal on virgin parchment (parchment from a young animal that has never been used) with a quill and black ink. The seal is placed within the triangle of art, a larger triangular frame drawn on the ground with iron or consecrated chalk. The triangle itself has its own system of seals around its perimeter, but the central seal is the spirit’s own.
We fold the parchment so the seal faces outward and set it on a black square of silk. The ritual proceeds: the practitioner recites the Conjuration of the Spirit from the Goetia, calling Ipos by name using the seal as a focal point. The seal’s exact replication is critical. A misdrawn seal is not just inefficient — it can invite a different spirit entirely. The historical record bears this out. In the Lemegeton instructions, the warning appears: “If thou err in the seal, thou callest the wrong spirit or none at all.”
Other seals follow the same logic but differ in materials and placement. The seal of Bael is often inscribed on a copper plate because Bael rules over material wealth. The seal of Vassago is drawn on the palm of the left hand so the practitioner can point with it. But Ipos’s seal, being denser, is almost always done on parchment because metal surfaces make the fine lines nearly illegible.
How the Seal of Ipos Compares with Three Other Seals
Let us compare Ipos with three neighboring spirits in the hierarchy.
Bael (Spirit 1): Bael’s seal is the simplest in the Goetia: a single circle with a pentagram at center, no Hebrew lettering. Bael is a king, so his authority is assumed without lengthy binding names. The simplicity reflects a different relationship: Bael is called and commanded by the power of his name alone. Ipos, a lower-ranked prince, needs more names to ensure compliance.
Paimon (Spirit 9): Paimon’s seal has three rings like Ipos, but the outermost ring contains twenty-one Hebrew letters, an invocation of the twenty-one final judgments. Paimon’s seal is drawn on a gold or silver plate because he is a king of the day hours. The dense lettering reflects his command of many legions (200 versus Ipos’s 36). Ipos’s seal, while similarly layered, uses fewer letters and is always on parchment.
Vassago (Spirit 3): Vassago’s seal is nearly identical to Ipos’s in structure: three rings, divine names, a central cross. But Vassago’s inner cross has a circle at its intersection, not a star. This small difference determines function: Vassago is a prince of prophecy like Ipos, but his seal is said to reveal hidden things, while Ipos’s seal governs the past and future. The circle under the cross indicates a “round” or cyclical view of time; the star indicates a linear, branching view.
These comparisons show that the Goetic system is not arbitrary. Each seal’s design is a coded specification of the spirit’s rank, jurisdiction, and the type of knowledge it can impart.
Common Misconceptions about Goetic Seals
A persistent error is that the seal itself grants control over the demon without any accompanying ritual. This is false. The seal is a component of a larger ceremony involving purification, the drawing of the circle, the triangle of art, and the conjurations. Without the full structure, the seal is inert, a drawing, not a key.
Another misconception: the seal is a protective talisman. Some modern occultists wear Bael’s seal as an amulet for ambition or Ipos’s seal for foresight. Historically, seals are never worn during evocation and are destroyed after the ritual. They are not defensive; they are restrictive. The spirit does not enter the seal; the seal pins the spirit in the triangle.
A third error concerns the cross in Ipos’s seal. It is often mistaken for an inverted cross or a Christian image. It is neither. The cross is a transdimensional gate in Solomonic magic, derived from the Seal of Solomon’s cross-bar geometry. The four dots represent the four rivers of paradise in Kabbalistic lore, grounding the spirit in the material world.
FAQ
1. Can I use the Seal of Ipos as a standalone amulet?
Not as intended in the Goetia. The seal is part of a ritual framework. Using it alone is considered ineffective and, by some traditional accounts, dangerous because the spirit is not properly constrained.
2. Why does Ipos’s seal have a star while other Goetic seals do not?
The star is unique to Ipos among the 72. It likely represents his role as a revealer of past and future, with the star’s points symbolizing different temporal directions.
3. Are there modern reinterpretations of the seal?
Yes. The Peterson edition (2007) of the Lemegeton reconstructs the seals from the earliest manuscripts, showing Ipos’s seal with fewer rings than the Mathers/Crowley version. Some modern occult orders use the Peterson standard for authenticity.
4. Which manuscript version of the seal should I follow?
If you are reconstructing historic practice, use the Harley MS 6483 version as the earliest. For practical evocation, most practitioners default to Mathers’s 1888 plates because the ritual texts in modern use assume that design.
The Seal of Ipos is a specific key among seventy-two, each unique yet part of a system. Its density of symbols, its star, and its layered Hebrew names tell a precise story: this is a spirit of intermediate rank, bound thoroughly, accessed for his knowledge of time. To understand the seal fully is to see the logic of the entire Goetic catalog. Explore the other seals, compare Bael’s simplicity, Paimon’s royal abundance, Vassago’s hidden circle, and the system becomes a language rather than a list of curiosities.
For further study, visit our Demonology & Goetia hub, explore the meaning of individual Goetic symbols in the glossary, or read our guide on how to draw and consecrate a Goetic seal.