- What Is a Goetic Duke? Alloces in the Ranked System
- Where the Sources Disagree: Alloces in the Pseudo-Monarchia Daemonum
- Alloces and His Goetic Neighbors: Ranks, Rivalries, and Complementaries
- What Alloces Teaches That Other Goetic Spirits Do Not
- The Familiar Connection: Alloces and the Bound Spirit Tradition
- Common Misconceptions About Alloces and the Hierarchy
- The Logic of the Hierarchy
A 17th-century grimoire keeper once wrote that summoning a spirit without understanding its rank was like sending a letter without an address. The letter never arrives. The spirit never comes. That principle governs the entire Ars Goetia, the first book of The Lesser Key of Solomon, where seventy-two spirits are organized by title, function, and planetary correspondence. Alloces — also spelled Alocas, Alocer, or Alloges — is a Duke of Hell, commanding thirty-six legions, and his relationship to other Goetic entities reveals how the hierarchy actually works when you are the one holding the circle.
This article maps Alloces within that structure: where he sits, whom he serves, whom he rivals, and what his specific domain tells us about the logic of Goetic classification.
What Is a Goetic Duke? Alloces in the Ranked System
Alloces appears in the Ars Goetia as the fifty-second spirit. He manifests as a knight mounted on a horse, wearing a lion’s skin and breathing fire. His voice is described as “very great and majestic.” He teaches astronomy, liberal sciences, and the secret of controlling familiars — spirits bound to serve a magician.
The title “Duke” places him in the middle tier of Goetic nobility. Above him sit Kings (four total, including Bael and Paimon) and Princes (including Stolas and Orobas). Below him fall Presidents, Earls, and Knights. Dukes command between twenty-six and thirty-six legions. Alloces commands the maximum for his rank: thirty-six.
That number matters. In Goetic mathematics, legion counts are not arbitrary. They correlate with the spirit’s planetary hour, its sigil geometry, and the number of days required to complete a working. Thirty-six is 6 squared, a number tied to the sun in Solomonic numerology. Alloces operates in solar hours, which distinguishes him from lunar or Saturnine spirits.
Where the Sources Disagree: Alloces in the Pseudo-Monarchia Daemonum
The earliest surviving list of Goetic spirits appears in Johann Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1563). Weyer, a Dutch physician and occultist, compiled his catalog from earlier manuscripts, including what he claimed was a Solomonic grimoire. In Weyer’s version, Alloces appears as “Alocas”, a Duke who “teaches astronomy and the liberal arts, and gives good familiars.”
But Weyer’s list differs from the later Ars Goetia (circa 17th century) in significant ways. The Ars Goetia reorders the spirits, renumbers them, and adds details absent from Weyer. Alloces shifts from number 52 in Weyer to number 52 in the Goetia, one of the few spirits whose position remained stable. That consistency suggests his sigil and attributes were well-established before either text was compiled.
Modern scholars, including Joseph Peterson in his critical edition of The Lesser Key of Solomon (2001), note that Alloces shares attributes with the Assyrian god Alu and the Canaanite deity Moloch. The lion’s skin he wears in manifestation echoes the iconography of Mesopotamian guardian figures. Whether this represents a direct lineage or a later grimoire writer’s borrowing is debated. What is certain: Alloces predates the Goetia as a named spirit.
Alloces and His Goetic Neighbors: Ranks, Rivalries, and Complementaries
The Goetic hierarchy is not a flat list. Spirits are grouped by function, planetary hour, and elemental correspondence. Alloces belongs to the solar class, which includes:
- Bael (King, first spirit, rules the East)
- Paimon (King, rules the West)
- Beleth (King, rules the North)
- Asmoday (King, rules the South)
- Vassago (Prince, shares Paimon’s domain)
Alloces serves under Paimon in some grimoire traditions, though the Ars Goetia does not explicitly state this. The Lemegeton manuscripts, the broader collection containing the Goetia, sometimes assign Dukes to specific Kings. Alloces is consistently placed under Paimon’s authority, which means his workings should ideally be timed to Paimon’s planetary hour (solar, Sunday) and his direction (West).
This matters in practice. A magician summoning Alloces without acknowledging Paimon risks what the grimoires call “disordered spirits”, entities that arrive but refuse to speak clearly. The hierarchy is not decorative. It is operational.
What Alloces Teaches That Other Goetic Spirits Do Not
Alloces’s specialty, the liberal sciences and astronomy, overlaps with several other Goetic entities. But the overlap is not identical.
Stolas (Prince, 36th spirit) also teaches astronomy and the properties of plants and stones. Where Stolas focuses on herbal and mineral knowledge, Alloces emphasizes the mathematical and celestial: planetary movements, astrological calculation, the geometry of the heavens.
Orobas (Prince, 55th spirit) gives knowledge of past and future and the nature of divinity. Alloces does not claim prophetic or theological insight. His domain is empirical, measurable, teachable.
Buer (President, 10th spirit) teaches natural and moral philosophy, logic, and the virtues of herbs. Buer’s knowledge is applied, how to heal, how to reason. Alloces’s knowledge is theoretical, how the cosmos is structured, how to calculate its motions.
The distinction is fine but real. A magician seeking a cure for fever calls Buer. A magician seeking to cast an astrological chart calls Alloces.
The Familiar Connection: Alloces and the Bound Spirit Tradition
One of Alloces’s most distinctive attributes is his power over familiars. The Ars Goetia states he “gives good familiars.” In Solomonic magic, a familiar is a spirit bound to a specific vessel, often a crystal, a ring, or a bottle, that the magician can call upon at will without performing the full summoning ritual each time.
Few Goetic spirits share this function. Vassago (Prince, 3rd spirit) can declare past and future and discover hidden things, but the grimoires do not list him as a giver of familiars. Sabnock (Marquis, 43rd spirit) builds towers and fortifications but does not bind spirits to objects. Andromalius (Earl, 72nd spirit) recovers stolen goods and punishes thieves but has no familiar-granting power.
Alloces’s ability to provide familiars places him in a small subset of Goetic spirits that includes Purson (King, 20th spirit) and Marbas (President, 5th spirit). This makes Alloces particularly valuable for practitioners who want a permanent working relationship with a spirit rather than a one-time consultation.
Common Misconceptions About Alloces and the Hierarchy
Misconception: Alloces is a demon of destruction.
The Ars Goetia does not assign him destructive powers. He does not kill, burn, or ruin. His fire-breathing manifestation is symbolic, the lion’s skin and flame represent solar energy, not malice. Confusing him with destructive spirits like Belial (King, 68th spirit) or Flauros (Duke, 64th spirit) misreads the text.
Misconception: Dukes are weaker than Kings.
Rank in the Goetia does not correspond to raw power. It corresponds to authority and domain. A Duke commands fewer legions than a King but may have more specialized knowledge. Alloces’s thirty-six legions equal the maximum for any Duke and exceed the legions of some Kings (Bael commands sixty-six, but Beleth commands only eighty-five, a difference of nineteen, not orders of magnitude).
Misconception: Alloces is interchangeable with other solar spirits.
Solar spirits in the Goetia include Sitri (Prince, 12th spirit), Gusion (Duke, 11th spirit), and Bathin (Duke, 18th spirit). Each has a different specialization. Sitri inflames passion. Gusion resolves disputes. Bathin moves things between places. Alloces teaches. A practitioner who calls the wrong solar spirit for the wrong purpose wastes the working.
FAQ
Is Alloces dangerous to summon?
No more than any Goetic spirit. The grimoires prescribe the same protective circle, triangle, and consecrated tools for all seventy-two. Alloces is described as “mild” in temperament compared to spirits like Zepar or Andras.
Can Alloces be summoned without a King’s permission?
Some grimoires say yes, some no. The Ars Goetia does not explicitly require a King’s authorization for Dukes. In practice, many Solomonic magicians open with a general invocation of the ruling King (Paimon for Alloces) before calling the Duke.
Does Alloces appear in any non-Goetic grimoires?
Yes. Alloces appears in the Dictionnaire Infernal (1818) by Collin de Plancy, though the entry adds little beyond the Goetia. He also appears in the Grand Grimoire and the Grimorium Verum, where his attributes shift slightly, in the Verum, he is associated with Venus rather than the Sun.
What planetary hour should I use for Alloces?
Sunday, solar hour. The first planetary hour after sunrise on Sunday is the strongest. Some practitioners also use the hour of Jupiter for expansion of knowledge.
The Logic of the Hierarchy
Alloces occupies a specific slot in a system that is neither random nor purely symbolic. The Goetic hierarchy follows a logic of function, planet, and direction. A Duke who teaches astronomy and grants familiars sits where he does because the system requires a spirit with those attributes at that rank. Replace him, and the structure collapses.
That is why the grimoires list seventy-two spirits and not seventy-one. Each one fills a role the others do not. Alloces fills the role of the teacher who stays, who gives you a familiar so you do not have to summon him again. That is his place. That is what makes him distinct.
For a deeper understanding of how Alloces fits into the broader system, see our guide to the Goetic hierarchy. For the specific sigil and planetary correspondences used in summoning, consult the Goetic sigils glossary. And for the complete list of spirits and their legions, read our Ars Goetia overview.