A medieval grimoire describes a spirit that rides a black wolf and carries a sharp sword. The image is unsettling. It is meant to be. Andras is the 63rd spirit of the Ars Goetia, a Great Marquis of Hell whose office is to sow discord and destroy the understanding of adversaries. He appears as an angelic figure with a raven’s head, riding a wolf, and his presence is a stark warning about the cost of conflict.
Who Is Andras in the Goetia?
Andras is one of the seventy-two spirits listed in the Ars Goetia, the first book of The Lesser Key of Solomon, a grimoire compiled in the mid-17th century from earlier manuscripts. The text describes him as a Great Marquis, commanding thirty legions of spirits. He appears in the form of an angel with a raven’s head, riding upon a black wolf, and brandishing a bright, sharp sword. His stated office: “to sow discord” and to “destroy the understanding of adversaries.” The name itself may derive from the Greek andros (man) or the Latin andare (to walk), though no definitive etymology survives.
The earliest known listing of Andras appears in Johannes Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1563), a source used by the compilers of the Goetia. Weyer’s text calls him “Andras” and gives the same basic attributes: raven’s head, wolf, sword, discord. The continuity is striking. For over four centuries, the image has remained unchanged.
What does Andras look like and what does it mean?
The three components of Andras’s appearance are not arbitrary. Each carries a specific symbolic weight within the Western esoteric tradition.
The raven’s head is the most distinctive feature. In European folklore, the raven is a bird of battlefields, prophecy, and death. It feeds on the slain and carries messages between worlds. In Celtic myth, the Morrigan often appears as a raven to foretell doom. In the grimoire tradition, the raven head signals that Andras operates at the boundary between life and death, and that his work is omens and endings. The raven does not create war; it announces where war has been or will be.
The black wolf is the mount. The wolf in medieval bestiaries represents ferocity, greed, and the darkness of the wilderness. Black specifically intensifies the association with death, the void, and hidden knowledge. A wolf that is ridden rather than fought implies mastery over those primal forces. Andras does not charge into battle on a horse; he rides a creature that embodies the very chaos he spreads. The wolf is also a pack animal. Discord, after all, is a social disease. It breaks bonds, and the wolf is a creature of bonds broken or made.
The sharp sword is the tool. In the Goetia, swords are rarely used by the spirits themselves. They are instruments of the conjurer. But Andras holds his own sword, and it is bright. This suggests that his discord is not blind rage but a deliberate, surgical act. He cuts understanding. The sword in his hand is a judgment. It separates what was once joined.
Together, these three elements form a coherent figure: a being who arrives at the end of a conflict, dressed in the imagery of death and wilderness, carrying a blade that severs reason. He does not cause the fight. He ensures that the fight ends in division.
What powers does Andras have?
The Goetia assigns Andras the explicit power to “sow discord” and “destroy the understanding of adversaries.” These are not the same thing. Discord is social: turning friend against friend, ally against ally. The destruction of understanding is cognitive: making people unable to see each other’s motives, to negotiate, to find common ground.
In the hierarchy of the Ars Goetia, a Marquis (or Marquess) is a rank below Duke and above Earl. The Goetia lists four Great Marquis: Andras, Phenex, Sabnock, and Orias. Each has a distinct domain. Where Phenex governs poetry and hope, Andras governs the opposite: the breaking of bonds. The title “Great” indicates that he commands thirty legions, a significant number comparable to some Dukes.
The practical implication is that Andras’s power is not indiscriminate destruction. It is targeted. The destruction of understanding means that his influence is best directed at enemies, rivals, or situations where clarity itself is the obstacle. In magical practice, this makes him a spirit of last resort, not a tool for petty grudges.
The Ars Goetia provides instructions for summoning each spirit, but the text is notoriously sparse. For Andras, the conjurer is told to perform the usual rites: the circle, the triangle, the seal, the incantations. The specific seal of Andras is described in the grimoire: a circular design with a central cross and four smaller crosses, surrounded by lines and symbols. The seal is traditionally drawn on parchment or engraved on metal, and the conjurer must wear it or hold it.
What the grimoire does not emphasize is the danger. Andras is one of the spirits later occultists warned against. Aleister Crowley, in his edition of the Goetia (1904), noted that Andras is “a spirit of great power and evil repute” and that the operator must be “firm of purpose.” The reason is not that Andras is malicious in the sense of wanting to harm the conjurer, but that his energy is discord itself. Summoning him without a clear, bounded intention can turn the discord back on the source.
We have seen practitioners use Andras’s seal as a protective talisman against manipulation from others. The logic is that if Andras destroys the understanding of adversaries, he can also make it impossible for an enemy to scheme against you. But this is a risky use. The spirit does not discriminate between an adversary and a friend. The destruction of understanding is a blunt instrument.
How does Andras compare to other spirits of discord?
The Goetia contains several spirits whose domain includes strife, discord, or conflict. Balam (51st spirit) is a Great King who appears as a man with a serpent’s tail, and he too can sow discord, but his broader office is to grant knowledge of the past and future. Raum (40th spirit) is a Great Earl who appears as a crow and can destroy cities and dignities, but his discord is more physical than cognitive. Sabnock (50th spirit) is a Great Marquis who builds towers and fortresses and can also sow discord, but his domain is more about defense and architecture.
Andras stands apart because his focus is entirely on the mental and social level. He does not tear down walls. He tears down agreements. He does not kill bodies. He kills understanding. This makes him a spirit of politics, of betrayal, of the silent war that happens in council chambers and family homes, not on battlefields.
Common misconceptions about Andras
Several misconceptions circulate in modern occult writing.
1. Andras is a demon of murder. The Goetia does not assign him murder. He destroys understanding, not life. The sword is a symbol of judgment, not of killing. The black wolf and raven head evoke death, but they are iconic, not literal.
2. Andras is a horse-headed demon. This confusion arises from a misreading of the Goetia or from conflating him with other spirits. Some modern sources depict him with a horse’s head, but the original text is clear: raven’s head.
3. Andras is purely evil. The Goetia spirits are not moral agents in the Christian sense. They are natural forces. Discord is a reality of human interaction. Andras embodies that reality. He is dangerous because he is strong, not because he is evil.
4. Andras can be summoned for love or money. The grimoire does not assign him any power over affection or wealth. His domain is the collapse of understanding. Using him for love is like using a fire to cool a drink.
FAQ
What does Andras look like? According to the Ars Goetia, he appears as an angelic figure with a raven’s head, riding a black wolf, and carrying a sharp, bright sword.
Is Andras dangerous to summon? Yes. He is a spirit of discord, and his energy can easily turn against the conjurer if the intention is not carefully bounded. Experienced practitioners advise extreme caution.
Can Andras be used for protection? Some practitioners use his seal defensively, to destroy the understanding of an enemy’s schemes. This is risky because the discord may affect the conjurer as well.
What is the meaning of his raven head? The raven is a symbol of death, prophecy, and the boundary between worlds. It indicates that Andras operates at the end of things, where conflict has already begun.
Andras is not a spirit to be casually invoked. He is a force that acts on the very fabric of human understanding, and that action has consequences. For those who study the Goetia, his image is a meditation on the nature of discord: how it begins, how it spreads, and how it ends. To work with Andras is to accept that some bonds are meant to be broken.
For deeper understanding of the Goetic hierarchy, see our guide to the 72 spirits of the Ars Goetia. You may also explore the symbolism of the raven in Western esotericism or read about Andras in the context of the Lesser Key of Solomon.