A grimoire keeper once told us that the Ars Goetia reads like a criminal registry, and he was right. Seventy-two demons, each with a title, a seal, and a specialty, and among them sit two figures whose names are often confused in modern practice: Valefor and Ixion. The confusion is understandable. Both are associated with theft, both appear in the same lineage of grimoire texts, and both have been flattened into the same warning label by internet occultism. But the difference between them is not cosmetic. It is structural.
What Are Valefor and Ixion?
Valefor is a Duke of Hell who governs thievery and the corruption of friendships, while Ixion is a fallen angel bound to a burning wheel, a figure of punishment rather than patronage. Valefor appears in the Ars Goetia as the fifth spirit, commanding ten legions. Ixion does not appear in the Ars Goetia at all. He is a figure from Greek mythology, a mortal king punished by Zeus, who was later absorbed into Christian demonology as a cautionary image. One is a demon you summon. The other is a story you are told.
Where Do These Two Figures Come From?
Valefor’s earliest surviving appearance is in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577), compiled by the Dutch occultist Johann Weyer. Weyer, a student of Agrippa and a physician who argued against the persecution of witches, catalogued demons in a way that was both scholarly and skeptical. Valefor appears there as “Valefar,” a duke who tempts people into theft and leads them into “the danger of being hanged.” He is also called Malaphar in some manuscripts, a name that appears in the earlier Livre des Esperitz (c. 1500s), a French grimoire that predates Weyer’s work.
The Ars Goetia, the first book of the Lesser Key of Solomon, was compiled in the mid-17th century, drawing heavily on Weyer. In that text, Valefor is described as appearing “in the shape of a lion with an ass’s head,” and he is said to be “good to make a man steal.” The text also warns that Valefor will corrupt the summoner’s friendships, a detail that sets him apart from other thieves in the Goetic roster.
Ixion’s origin is older and entirely different. He is first attested in Pindar’s Pythian Odes (c. 474 BCE), where the poet describes his crime: Ixion, king of the Lapiths, attempted to rape Hera, the wife of Zeus. Zeus substituted a cloud, Nephele, in Hera’s shape, and Ixion coupled with it. From that union was born Centaurus, the ancestor of the centaurs. For his hubris, Zeus bound Ixion to a fiery wheel that spins eternally through the sky. The myth is retold by Hyginus in his Fabulae (c. 1st century CE) and by Diodorus Siculus in his Library of History (c. 60 BCE).
The Christian absorption of Ixion came later, through medieval commentators who read Greek myths as prefigurations of hell. The burning wheel became an image of the damned, and Ixion’s name entered demonological lists as a fallen angel. He appears in Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal (1863), where he is listed among the demons of punishment, but he was never part of the operative grimoire tradition. He is a myth that became a moral, not a spirit you can conjure.
What Does Each Figure Actually Represent?
Valefor represents the mechanics of theft as a social crime. He does not simply make you steal. He makes you steal well, and he makes you enjoy it. The Ars Goetia’s warning that he corrupts friendships is central to his symbolism: theft is not just the taking of objects, it is the breaking of trust. A thief who steals from strangers is a criminal. A thief who steals from friends is a traitor. Valefor governs both, but his specialty is the second kind.
In practice, Valefor is often invoked in folk magic for justified theft, the recovery of stolen goods, or the disruption of a thief’s network. Some modern practitioners treat him as a patron of those who have been robbed, asking him to turn the tables on the original thief. This is a reading that emerges from the grimoire text itself: if Valefor can make a man steal, he can also make a thief return what was taken.
Ixion represents the consequence of overreach. His crime was not theft but hubris, the attempt to take what belonged to a god. His punishment, the wheel, is a symbol of eternal repetition, the same desire cycling into the same failure forever. In esoteric reading, Ixion is the image of the soul that cannot learn from its own error. He is not a demon you summon. He is a warning you carry.
How Are They Used in Practice?
Valefor is one of the more approachable Goetic spirits for practical work, which is not the same as saying he is safe. The grimoire tradition is clear: you do not summon Valefor without preparation. The standard method, drawn from the Ars Goetia, involves drawing his seal on virgin parchment, placing it within a triangle of art, and reciting the appropriate conjurations from the Lesser Key. Practitioners often pair this with a protective circle, and many add a specific offering, traditionally a small amount of alcohol or a coin, placed outside the circle and never inside it.
The purpose of the working matters. Valefor is not a spirit for idle curiosity. If you ask him to recover stolen property, the tradition holds that he will do so, but the method may not be gentle. Some practitioners report that the thief is caught, others that the property simply reappears, and others that the thief suffers a misfortune that makes the theft meaningless. The grimoire does not promise a clean outcome. It promises an outcome.
Ixion has no such operative tradition. He is not in the Goetia, and no grimoire gives instructions for summoning him. His use is meditative and symbolic. In modern esoteric practice, some work with Ixion as a figure for breaking cycles, particularly cycles of compulsive behavior. The image of the wheel, which punishes by repetition, can be turned into a tool for recognizing repetition in one’s own life. You do not summon Ixion. You contemplate him.
A concrete example: a practitioner struggling with a repeated pattern of betrayal, either as the betrayer or the betrayed, might light a candle before an image of the burning wheel and recite the myth of Ixion aloud. The practice is not about asking for help. It is about seeing the pattern clearly. The wheel spins, and the point is to step off it.
How Do They Compare to Other Figures?
The closest analogue to Valefor in the Goetic corpus is Bune, a Duke who is also associated with wealth and the dead, and Dantalion, who reads minds and can reveal hidden things. But Valefor’s specific niche, theft and the corruption of friendship, is unique. No other Goetic spirit is described in precisely those terms. This makes him a specialist, and specialists in the Goetia are treated with a particular caution.
Ixion’s closest analogue is Prometheus, another figure punished by Zeus, but the contrast is instructive. Prometheus stole fire for humanity and was punished for it, and his punishment was read as noble. Ixion stole nothing. He attempted to take, and his punishment was read as deserved. The difference between the two is the difference between theft for others and theft for oneself. One is a culture hero. The other is a cautionary tale.
In Christian demonology, Ixion is sometimes conflated with Abyzou, a female demon of miscarriage, or with Lilith, both of whom are associated with punishment and the liminal. But these conflations are late and unreliable. Ixion’s wheel is his defining feature, and no other demon in the Western tradition is bound to a wheel in the same way.
What Do People Get Wrong About Valefor and Ixion?
The most common error is treating them as interchangeable. Valefor is a demon of theft. Ixion is a myth of punishment. They are not the same category of being, and conflating them obscures both. A second error is assuming that Valefor’s association with theft makes him evil in a simple sense. The grimoire tradition does not work that way. Spirits are tools, and the ethics are in the use, not the spirit.
A third error is the claim that Ixion is a Goetic demon. He is not. He appears in no edition of the Ars Goetia, and his presence in demonological dictionaries is a matter of mythological absorption, not operative practice. If you see a list of “Goetic demons” that includes Ixion, the list is wrong.
A fourth error, common in modern pop culture, is the idea that Valefor’s lion-and-ass form is a sign of stupidity. It is not. The ass in medieval symbolism was a creature of stubbornness and endurance, and the lion was royalty. The form is a combination of persistence and power, which is exactly what a thief needs.
FAQ
Can Valefor be summoned safely? Yes, with proper preparation including a protective circle and his seal, but the grimoire tradition warns he will test your boundaries.
Is Ixion a demon? He is a mythological figure absorbed into Christian demonology as an image of punishment, but he was never part of the operative grimoire tradition.
Why are Valefor and Ixion confused? Both appear in lists of spirits associated with theft and punishment, but they come from different traditions and serve different functions in practice.
The Distinction That Matters
Valefor is a spirit you work with. Ixion is a story you work through. One is a tool in the grimoire tradition, the other is a mirror held up to the soul. The confusion between them is not harmless, because it blurs the line between operative magic and moral reflection. Both have their place, but the place is not the same. Keep them separate, and both become useful. Merge them, and you lose the precision that makes either one work.
For a deeper look at the full roster of the Ars Goetia, start with our guide to demonology and the Goetia. If you want to understand the symbolism of wheels, fire, and punishment, the glossary entry on the wheel will take you further. And for the practical side of working with Goetic spirits, our guide to summoning and protection covers the ground that every practitioner needs before they draw a single seal.