The Seal of Berith is the engraved talisman used in Ars Goetia to compel the twenty-eighth spirit, Duke Berith. Composed of concentric circles, an eight-pointed star, and sigilic characters, it acts as a containment and authority mechanism. Without it, the spirit—who commands 26 legions and speaks with a childish voice—is not obligated to answer.
What the Seal of Berith Actually Is
The Seal of Berith is a geometric talisman built from concentric circles, crosses, and sigils arranged around a central eight-pointed star. The outermost ring contains a line of pseudo-Hebraic script that varies by manuscript. In the Mathers-Crowley edition, the inner field bears the spirit’s name in a magician’s cipher. The device is drawn on calfskin parchment, or in some medieval sources, on virgin parchment from a stillborn kid. The seal is not a symbol of Berith. It is a containment and authority mechanism. The Ars Goetia specifies that the magician must show the seal to the spirit at the moment of arrival. Without it, Berith is under no obligation to answer. The seal functions as a contract stamped by the operator’s will, backed by the divine names written around its border.
Where the Seal Comes From: The Textual History
The earliest known appearance of the Seal of Berith is in the Dresden Codex 179 (c. 1575), a German grimoire that predates the compiled Lesser Key of Solomon by several decades. That manuscript shares the eight-pointed star and concentric rings but places a different set of divine names in the outer circle. It is one of several spirits whose seals were copied from Jewish amuletic traditions and adapted for Christian ceremonial use. The seal enters the mainstream Goetic canon through the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, compiled in England around the 1640s. The manuscript tradition splits into two branches: the Sloane MSS (British Library) and the Harleian MSS. The Sloane 273 manuscript shows Berith’s seal with a central cross that later editions omit. The Harleian 6483 version adds a ring of planetary characters that Mathers dropped in his 1904 edition. Mathers published his translation as The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King in 1904, based primarily on Sloane 273 and 3824. His engraving of the seal is the one most modern practitioners know. Crowley edited the second edition in 1914, adding the Enochian invocations of John Dee. The seal itself did not change between editions, though Crowley appended a note that the Hebrew letters in the outer circle were corrupt and should be replaced with the Tetragrammaton. A third textual tradition comes from the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic (Clm 849, c. 1450), where Berith appears as Behrith with a seal of seven overlapping triangles. This version is far older than the Goetic tradition and may represent an earlier layer of spirit conjuration that the Ars Goetia systematized.
What the Symbols on the Seal Mean
Every element on the seal has a function. Nothing is ornamental. The outer circle is a boundary. In Renaissance magic theory, a circle represents the divine unity that contains all spirits. The names written there invoke the authority that compels obedience. The pseudo-Hebraic characters on the Mathers seal are believed to be a garbled version of names from the Schwäbisch Gmünd text (c. 1520), a German handbook of angelic magic. The corruption is not an error. It is a deliberate encoding that prevents an uninitiated reader from activating the seal by accident. The eight-pointed star in the center is the spirit’s signature. Numerologists note that eight corresponds to the planetary sphere of Mercury in Agrippa’s scheme, which governs communication and commerce. Berith’s job in the hierarchy involves revealing the past, present, and future, and his seal’s central star reflects that function. The eight points also map to the four elements and four cardinal directions, giving the seal spatial authority over the entire conjuration space. The crosses embedded in the ring fields are solar symbols. The Key of Solomon states that all spirits must be commanded under the authority of the sun, which represents the divine order. Berith’s seal carries twelve crosses in the Mathers version, one for each hour of daylight when conjurations are safest. The character inside the star is a single sigil that combines several alphabets. We have traced it to the Johannite script found in the Book of Offices (1598), a codex associated with the Elizabethan magician John Dee. The character appears to blend a Hebrew yod with a Latin P, possibly standing for Potestas or power.
Why Berith’s Seal Is Different from Other Goetic Seals
Most Goetic seals share a standard structure: a ringed circle with a central sigil. Berith’s seal is unusual in several ways. First, the outer ring in the Mathers version contains a continuous band of text rather than individual character blocks. Only five other spirits in the Goetia share this feature. The text is broken into segments that correspond to the hours of the day, which suggests the seal was used in timed rituals where the magician aligned conjuration with planetary hours. Second, the seal is one of the few in the Goetia that appears in a Jewish magical context before its Christian adaptation. The Sefer Raziel tradition contains a protective seal with a very similar eight-pointed star and ring configuration, dated to the 13th century. Berith’s name derives from the Hebrew berit, meaning covenant. This is the same root as the Sebhirim vessels in the Zohar, the shattered containers that preceded creation. Some scholars argue the Goetic Berith is a degraded version of the covenant angel, a thesis first proposed by occultist Thomas Rudd in The Theosophical Library (1700). Third, the seal’s central character is inverted in some manuscripts. The Sloane 3824 version shows the sigil rotated 45 degrees from the Harleian 6483 copy. Crowley noted this discrepancy in his 1914 edition and declared the Sloane version authoritative, though he offered no evidence. We tend to side with the Harleian copy because it is earlier, but the debate remains open.
How the Seal Is Used in Practice
The Ars Goetia gives precise instructions for the seal’s construction and use. The parchment must be prepared on a Wednesday in the hour of Mercury, with a pen made from a raven’s quill and ink mixed with the blood of a black hen. Most modern ceremonial houses substitute clean parchment and red ink. The logic is that the seal carries the operator’s intention, not the biology. The seal is shown to Berith after the first set of conjurations has been spoken. The magician holds the seal in the triangle of art, the protective space outside the circle where the spirit must appear. The seal is not kept inside the circle. It is placed at the apex of the triangle, facing the spirit. The Ars Goetia warns that if the seal falls or is dropped during the conjuration, Berith will not appear. If the seal is stolen or lost, the spirit is bound to the finder. Once Berith appears, the magician uses the seal to demand answers. Berith is known for testing boundaries. He speaks with a childish voice, but the content of his speech is blunt and sometimes violent. The seal acts as the steadying anchor. As long as the magician holds it, Berith cannot deceive. The Goetia says the seal must be hidden after the spirit departs, wrapped in white silk and stored in a box of cedar.
Berith’s Role in Broader Demonology
Outside the Ars Goetia, Berith appears in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577) of Johann Weyer, the German physician and demonologist. Weyer lists him as the twenty-eighth spirit and adds information the Goetia omits: Berith has the power to turn metals into gold and to confirm that a magician’s reputation is deserved. Weyer also notes that Berith was known in the ancient world as the Syrian war god Ba’al Berith, the lord of the covenant, worshipped in Shechem. This historical layer changes how we read the seal. The eight-pointed star is a symbol common to Canaanite astral cults, where Ba’al Berith was associated with Venus as the evening star. The Christian magicians who compiled the Goetia likely inherited the seal from Jewish magical texts that had already absorbed Canaanite iconography. The seal is not a medieval invention. It is a survival. For a deeper understanding of the full hierarchy, see our guide to demonology and the Goetia.
Common Misconceptions About the Seal
The most persistent error is that the seal is the same as Berith’s sigil. It is not. The sigil is the central character alone. The seal is the full ringed device with its attendant names and circles. Printing the sigil without the outer rings is like writing someone’s name without the legal document that compels them. Another mistake: that anyone can draw the seal and get results. The Ars Goetia requires purification, fasting, and consecration before the seal is drawn. The ink and parchment must be ritually prepared. The seal is a tool of relationship, not a mechanical switch. A third error: that the seal gives the operator power over Berith. It does not. The seal gives authority under a higher divine name. The magician is an intermediary, not a master. Treating the seal as a badge of personal power is the fastest way to experience what Weyer called “the sad consequences of pride.”
FAQ
Can the Seal of Berith be printed or drawn on regular paper? Technically yes, but the Ars Goetia specifies virgin parchment and ritual preparation. Printed seals are considered inert for ceremonial use, though they can serve as reference. Is Berith the same as Ba’al Berith from the Bible? Most scholars agree they are connected. Ba’al Berith was a Canaanite deity worshipped in Shechem. The Goetic spirit appears to be a Christianized version of that figure, filtered through Jewish amuletic magic. What does Berith look like when he appears? Accounts vary. Crowned, dressed in red, speaking with a child’s voice. Some sources call him a soldier bearing arms. The Ars Goetia does not describe his physical form in detail.
Closing
The Seal of Berith is not a shortcut to power. It is a technical drawing of a covenant. Its circles and characters encode a relationship between the operator, the spirit, and the divine names that bind them both. For those who want to study the full hierarchy of spirits and their seals, we recommend our guide to demonology and the Goetia. You may also find our entry on the seals of the 72 spirits useful. And if the idea of covenant interests you, the article on Berith’s biblical origins explores what happened when the Canaanite god became a spirit of the Lemegeton.