A seventeenth-century grimoire lists a demon called Furcas who teaches philosophy, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, and divination. A modern website calls him Furas, a Grand President of Hell who commands twenty legions. They are the same entity, and the difference between the spellings is a story of scribal error, printer’s ink, and the slow drift of occult tradition.
Furcas and Furas are two spellings of the same Goetic demon, a knight and president of Hell who appears in the Ars Goetia and teaches the liberal arts. The name “Furas” is a corruption that entered the tradition through a mistranscription of the original text, and both forms now circulate in modern practice.
Where does the name come from?
The earliest known appearance of Furcas is in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, compiled by the Dutch physician and occultist Johann Weyer in 1577. Weyer, who wrote in Latin, spelled the name “Furcas” and described him as a knight who teaches philosophy, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, and the art of divination using “the burning glass, the crystal, and the green stone.”
The Ars Goetia, the first book of the Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon, followed in the seventeenth century. The manuscript tradition of the Lemegeton is messy, and the date of its composition is debated, but the earliest surviving copies date to the 1600s. In these manuscripts, Furcas appears as the fiftieth spirit, a knight who commands twenty legions of spirits and holds the rank of president.
The spelling “Furas” appears to be a later corruption. The letter “c” in “Furcas” was easily misread as an “s” in the cramped handwriting of seventeenth-century scribes, and once the error entered print, it stuck. By the nineteenth century, both spellings circulated in English-language occultism, and the confusion has never fully resolved.
What does Furcas actually do?
Furcas is a teacher. His listed domains are the liberal arts: philosophy, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, and divination. In the Ars Goetia, he is described as appearing as a “cruel man with a long beard and hoary head,” riding a pale horse and carrying a sharp spear.
The emphasis on teaching sets Furcas apart from many of his fellow Goetic spirits, who are more often associated with material gain, love, or destruction. He is one of the few demons in the Ars Goetia whose primary function is intellectual. Practitioners who work with him historically sought his aid in scholarship, debate, and the interpretation of omens.
His rank is president, which in the Goetic hierarchy places him below kings and dukes but above counts and knights. The Ars Goetia assigns him twenty legions, a modest command compared to the sixty or seventy legions held by some of the more powerful spirits. The number of legions is a point of variation between sources: Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum does not give a legion count, and some later editions of the Lemegeton differ on the details.
Why do the two spellings matter in practice?
For the working occultist, the spelling is not a trivial detail. The name of a spirit is a tool, a handle by which the practitioner grasps the entity. Calling a spirit by a corrupted name is not necessarily ineffective, but it changes the texture of the work.
The Lemegeton itself is explicit about the importance of names. The instructions for evocation require the practitioner to “call forth the spirit by his name,” and the names are given in a specific order and form. Whether “Furcas” or “Furas” is the “correct” form depends on which textual tradition you follow. The older manuscripts favor “Furcas.” The corrupted form “Furas” appears in later printed editions and in the popular imagination.
Modern practitioners are divided. Some insist on “Furcas” as the authentic form, pointing to Weyer and the earliest Lemegeton manuscripts. Others use “Furas” without concern, noting that the spirit answers to both. The distinction is less about efficacy and more about textual fidelity. If you are working from a specific grimoire, use the spelling that appears in that grimoire. If you are working from memory, either form will do.
How does Furcas fit into the Goetic hierarchy?
The Ars Goetia lists seventy-two spirits, each with a rank, a number of legions, and a specific function. Furcas is the fiftieth spirit, a president who commands twenty legions. His position in the sequence places him among a cluster of spirits associated with knowledge and craft.
His nearest neighbors in the list are instructive. The forty-ninth spirit is Bael, a king who appears in three forms and commands sixty-six legions. The fifty-first spirit is Balam, a great king who answers questions about the past, present, and future. Furcas sits between a king of deception and a king of prophecy, a president whose domain is the disciplined study of the arts.
The rank of president carries specific connotations in the Goetic system. Presidents are said to be spirits of the “air” or the “earth,” depending on the source, and they are generally considered more tractable than kings or dukes. They are invoked for knowledge, for the revelation of hidden things, and for the acquisition of skill. Furcas embodies the intellectual dimension of the presidential rank.
What do the grimoires actually say about him?
The primary sources for Furcas are few but consistent. Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577) gives the earliest description: “Furcas is a knight, and cometh forth in the form of a cruel man with a long beard and hoary head, riding on a pale horse, with a sharp spear.” Weyer adds that Furcas teaches philosophy, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, and divination by the burning glass, the crystal, and the green stone.
The Ars Goetia repeats this description with minor variations. The “green stone” of Weyer’s account becomes “the green stone” in some manuscripts and “the stone of the green” in others, a variation that has puzzled translators for centuries. The most likely reading is that the green stone is a scrying tool, a piece of green beryl or emerald used for crystal gazing.
The Dictionnaire Infernal of Collin de Plancy (1818) includes an entry for Furcas, describing him as a demon who teaches the liberal arts and appears as a bearded old man on a pale horse. De Plancy, a French Catholic writer, was compiling a catalog of demonology rather than a practical grimoire, but his entry helped cement Furcas in the European demonological tradition.
What do people get wrong about Furcas?
The most common error is the assumption that “Furcas” and “Furas” are different demons. They are not. The two spellings refer to the same spirit, and the difference is purely orthographic.
A second error is the claim that Furcas is a “Grand President” of Hell. The Ars Goetia gives him the rank of president, not grand president. The title “Grand President” appears in some modern sources, but it has no basis in the primary texts. The inflation of his rank is a modern phenomenon, likely the result of sensationalized retellings of the Goetic hierarchy.
A third error is the association of Furcas with fire. The similarity between “Furcas” and the Latin “furca” (fork) or “furcifer” (fork-bearer) has led some writers to connect him with the fork of a fire or the pitchfork of popular demon imagery. There is no basis for this in the grimoires. Furcas is a teacher, not a fire demon, and his attributes are the spear, the horse, and the book.
FAQ
Is Furcas a demon or a devil? Furcas is a demon in the Goetic tradition, one of the seventy-two spirits listed in the Ars Goetia. He is not a devil in the sense of a supreme evil being, but a subordinate spirit with a specific function.
Can I work with Furcas safely? The Goetic tradition includes detailed instructions for evocation, including the use of protective circles and the proper timing of rituals. As with any spirit work, caution and preparation are advised.
Does Furcas answer to both spellings? Practitioners report success with both “Furcas” and “Furas.” The older and more textually authentic form is “Furcas,” but the corrupted form has been in use for centuries.
What is the green stone mentioned in the grimoires? The green stone is most likely a scrying tool, possibly a piece of green beryl or emerald used for crystal gazing. The exact identity of the stone is debated among scholars.
The distinction between Furcas and Furas is a lesson in how occult traditions evolve. A scribe’s slip, a printer’s error, and a century of copying turned one name into two, and both now carry the weight of tradition. The spirit himself remains what he always was: a teacher of the arts, a president of Hell, a figure who rewards the patient scholar.
For a deeper look at the seventy-two spirits and their ranks, consult our guide to the Goetic hierarchy. If you are interested in the symbols associated with the spirits of the Ars Goetia, see our glossary of demonic sigils. And for the broader context of demonology in the Western esoteric tradition, begin with our overview of demonology and the Goetia.