A grimoire lies open on a reading desk in the British Library. The hand is 17th-century, the ink iron-gall, and the name written under the twenty-first seal is Marax — not Morax, not Mirax. Beside it, a modern practitioner’s notebook spells the same seal Mirax with a question mark. Which spirit answers to which name?
Marax is the 21st spirit of the Ars Goetia, a great earl and president who teaches astronomy and gives familiars. Mirax is a modern variant — appearing in no classical grimoire — likely a typographical drift from older manuscripts or a separate entity in contemporary demonolatry.
Where the Name Marax Comes From
The earliest extant list of the seventy-two spirits, the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577, Johann Weyer), records the twenty-first spirit as Morax. Weyer describes him as “a great earl and president, appearing as a bull with a human face.” His office: to teach astronomy and all the liberal sciences, and to provide good familiars.
When the compilers of the Lesser Key of Solomon (17th century) translated and expanded Weyer’s work, they copied the name as Marax in several manuscripts, including British Library Harley MS 6482. S.L. MacGregor Mathers, preparing his 1904 edition of the Goetia for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, followed that manuscript tradition. In print, Marax became the standard English spelling for most of the twentieth century.
The shift from Morax to Marax is a single vowel change, likely a scribe’s eye skipping a letter. No classical source gives Marax a different role or legions. He rules thirty-six legions of spirits, according to Weyer, thirty-six in the manuscripts, but some later editions print thirty.
Mirax has no comparable paper trail. The first appearance we can trace is in late-20th-century internet demonologies and self-published grimoires. It may have arisen from a misreading of “Mirach” (a spirit in the Grimorium Verum associated with causing disputes) or from a simple letter transposition in a scanned text. No manuscript of the Ars Goetia, Lemegeton, or Dictionnaire Infernal uses the name Mirax.
What Each Figure Represents
Marax: The Bull-Faced Teacher
Marax’s form, a bull’s head on a human body, ties him to chthonic strength and agricultural fertility. The bull in Renaissance demonology often signifies stubbornness and raw power, but Marax’s human face suggests reason and the capacity for instruction. He is listed among the “presidents” of Hell, a rank that governs both discourse and obedience.
His specific domain is astronomy (not astrology in the divinatory sense, but the calculation of celestial movements) along with the liberal arts. A practitioner who summons Marax historically sought training in these disciplines or requested a familiar, a spirit in animal form that would serve as a perpetual assistant.
Mirax: A Name in Search of a Role
Because Mirax lacks historical documentation, his attributed roles vary widely. Modern sources sometimes describe him as a demon of deception, of contracts, or of hidden knowledge. Others conflate him directly with Marax, using the name interchangeably. No consistent iconography exists. In the absence of primary texts, every claim about Mirax is a modern reconstruction.
If we treat Mirax as a distinct entity, as some contemporary demonolaters do, he belongs to no known hierarchy, commands no attested legions, and appears in no traditional seal. His identity is entirely reader-defined.
How You Spoke to Each
Summoning Marax follows the standard goetic procedure. The magician works within a consecrated circle, bearing the brass seal of the spirit, a design of concentric circles and interlocking lines preserved in the Ars Goetia. The timing traditionally favors the hour of Mercury or Jupiter, matched to the planetary day. Marax is said to respond calmly, without the violent appearances attributed to some kings and dukes.
For Mirax, no medieval instructions survive. Practitioners who work with him typically adapt the same goetic framework or adopt methods from New Age demonolatry, altar work, meditation on a designed seal, and chanted evocations. The results are personal and undocumented.
Why the Confusion Matters
The slip between Marax and Mirax is not trivial. It illustrates how textual corruption generates new spirits. A single misread vowel in a 19th-century reprint produced a name that thousands now treat as authentic. The same process created Bael from Baal, Aim from Haborym, and Orobas from Oribas. Each time, the new name acquires its own tradition, its own attributions, its own believers.
We are not here to declare one spelling “correct.” The practice of demonology has always involved wholesale borrowing and re-interpretation. But if a practitioner wants to reach the spirit that a 17th-century magician called, the name is Marax, or Morax, depending on the manuscript you follow. That spirit has a fixed seal, a fixed number of legions, and a fixed list of competencies.
Mirax may yet develop those features. For now, he remains a placeholder, waiting for a tradition to solidify around him.
FAQ
Are Marax and Mirax the same spirit?
Sources disagree. Some modern texts treat them as a single entity with variant spellings. No historical grimoire links the name Mirax to the twenty-first goetic spirit.
What does Marax teach?
Marax teaches astronomy and the liberal sciences. He also gives the practitioner a familiar, a spirit in animal form that performs tasks at the magician’s command.
Does Mirax appear in the Ars Goetia?
No. The Ars Goetia lists Marax (or Morax) as the twenty-first spirit. Mirax does not appear in any manuscript of the Lemegeton or in Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.
Which name should I use in ritual?
If you work from the traditional goetic corpus, use Marax (or Morax) and his attested seal. If you treat Mirax as a separate being, no confident method exists, you are building the spirit’s path from scratch.
The distinction between Marax and Mirax mirrors a larger tension in occult study: fidelity to primary sources versus the living evolution of practice. Both have value, but they are not the same conversation. For the magician who wants the spirit that thirty-six legions have answered, the name stands in the margin of a 17th-century manuscript. For the one who writes a new name in that margin, the work begins there.
Explore the full hierarchy in our guide to goetic demonology, read about the symbolism of goetic seals, or follow the path of another bull-faced spirit, Morax.