What is the relationship between Malphas and other demons?

A raven-faced demon sits at a crossroads in the Ars Goetia. He builds towers, destroys enemy fortifications, and receives sacrifices willingly. But Malphas does not operate in isolation. The relationship between Malphas and other demons is defined by rank, function, and the careful architecture of infernal hierarchy — a system that governs who commands, who obeys, and who competes for the same offerings.

What Is Malphas?

Malphas is a Great President of Hell who commands forty legions of spirits, appearing first as a crow then taking human form with a raucous voice. He builds houses and high towers, throws down enemy fortifications, finds good familiars, and receives sacrifices willingly but deceives the sacrificer if not properly constrained. His position among the seventy-two Goetic spirits is precisely defined by rank, function, and the medieval grimoire tradition that codified it.

Where Does Malphas Appear in the Primary Sources?

The earliest known description of Malphas appears in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577) by Johann Weyer, a Dutch physician and demonologist who compiled his catalogue from earlier manuscripts. Weyer placed Malphas among the “Princes and Presidents” of hell. Ten years later, Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) reproduced Weyer’s list in English, giving Malphas his first vernacular audience.

The definitive text comes later. The Lesser Key of Solomon (Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis), compiled from seventeenth century manuscripts but claiming Solomonic authorship, organizes Malphas into a rigid hierarchy of 72 spirits. He is the thirty-ninth spirit, a Great President, ruling forty legions. The Goetia, the first book of the Lemegeton, provides his seal, his appearance as a crow, and the warning that he receives offerings but will deceive the magician who fails to bind him correctly.

S.L. MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley published an edition of the Goetia in 1904, cementing Malphas in modern occult practice. Crowley’s commentary added little about Malphas specifically but placed him within a working system of evocation that continues to influence practitioners today.

How Does Malphas’s Rank Define His Relationships?

The Goetia assigns every spirit one of five ranks: King, Duke, Prince, Marquis, or President. Malphas is a Great President. This rank determines his authority over other spirits, his relationship to the hierarchy above him, and the protocols a magician must use to command him.

Presidents in the Goetic system occupy a middle tier. They command legions but answer to Kings and Dukes. Malphas’s forty legions place him near the middle of the presidential ranks. By comparison, Buer (President, fifty legions) holds slightly more authority, while Forneus (Marquis, twenty-nine legions) holds less.

The practical consequence for the magician: Presidents require focused constraint. Weyer noted that Malphas “receives willingly the sacrifice offered to him, and then deceives the priest.” This characteristic shapes how Malphas interacts with other spirits in a working context. A magician who summons Malphas alongside a higher-ranking spirit like Bael (a King) or Paimon (a King) must navigate competing authorities. Protocols from the Ars Goetia require establishing which spirit holds precedence in the triangle of manifestation.

What Are Malphas’s Competitors?

Competition among Goetic spirits is not a matter of personal animosity. It is structural. Spirits with overlapping functions create tension for the magician who must choose which to invoke.

Malphas builds towers and houses. Stolas teaches astronomy and knows the properties of plants and stones. On the surface, no conflict. But both spirits are used in works of construction and revelation. The magician seeking to understand the foundations of a building might call either. Bathin, a Duke who knows the virtues of herbs and precious stones, overlaps with Malphas’s function of finding familiars. Bune, a Duke who changes the dead and enriches the poor, competes for similar offerings of wealth and service.

The most direct competitor is Balam, a Great King who appears with three heads and answers questions about the past and future. Balam rules forty legions, the same number as Malphas. Both spirits give true answers when properly bound. A magician working toward divination might choose either — but Balam’s royal rank commands more respect in the circle.

How Does Malphas Relate to Infernal Kings?

The Goetic hierarchy places Kings above Presidents. Bael, the first spirit, is a King who rules over sixty-six legions and can make men invisible. Paimon, the ninth spirit, is a King who teaches arts and sciences and must be addressed with respect. Belial, the sixty-eighth spirit, is another King who gives influence and favors but demands proper offerings.

Malphas answers to these Kings in the structure of hell. When a magician evokes Malphas, the spirit may defer to a higher authority if the working involves matters reserved for royal spirits. The Ars Goetia instructs the magician to command spirits “by the power of the King” when resistance occurs. This is not metaphor. The text assumes an operational chain of command.

Crowley’s The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King includes the seals and prayers that invoke King Paimon’s authority to compel lesser spirits. A magician who cannot control Malphas might call on Paimon to force compliance. The Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt symbolic correspondences that Crowley assigned to Goetic spirits further define these relationships. Malphas, associated with the volatile principle of Mercury, relates to King Bael’s fixed principle of Salt through the alchemical operations of separation and binding.

What Historically Happened When Magicians Worked with Malphas and Others?

The grimoire tradition records no single working that paired Malphas with another named spirit. But the practice is documented in the Lemegeton’s instructions for multiple evocations.

Ebenezer Sibly, an English astrologer and occultist, published A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology (1784), which included Goetic material. Sibly’s system used planetary hours and astrological elections to determine when specific spirits could be evoked together. Malphas, governed by Mercury, could be called during the hour of Mercury on a Wednesday. A spirit like Vepar, a Duke who governs waters and is ruled by the Moon, would require a different hour. The astrological compatibility of spirits mattered as much as their rank.

Modern occult orders like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn systematized these relationships further. Mathers developed a complex table of correspondences that linked each Goetic spirit to a specific Sephirah on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Malphas corresponds to Hod, the Sephirah of Mercury, splendor, and intellect. This places him in relationship with spirits of other Sephiroth through the paths of the Tree. A magician working through the Golden Dawn’s grades would encounter Malphas at the grade of Practicus (5=6), where Hod is the central sphere of operation.

What Are the Common Misconceptions About Malphas’s Relationships?

The first misconception is that Malphas operates independently of the Goetic system. He does not. The seventy-two spirits are a closed set with established hierarchies, seals, and constraints. Malphas cannot be evoked outside this framework without risk of deception. The grimoires are explicit: break the circle, skip the binding, or use the wrong seal and the spirit will offer a sacrifice, then lie.

The second misconception is that Malphas’s willingness to receive sacrifices makes him safer than other spirits. It does not. “He receives willingly the sacrifice offered to him, and then deceives the sacrificer” is the precise warning from Weyer. The deception is part of the contract. Other spirits like Marquis Andras, who kills the magician who calls him carelessly, are more dangerous but more honest. Malphas’s relationship to the practitioner is adversarial by design.

A third misconception concerns the crow. Malphas appears as a crow, then assumes human form. Some practitioners assume this means he is a “crow spirit” or connected to Celtic raven deities. The Ars Goetia’s descriptions are not comparative mythology. Malphas’s avian form is a function of the Goetic system’s symbolism: crows and ravens appear throughout the grimoires as messengers of the infernal orders.

FAQ

Can Malphas be summoned alongside Bael? Yes, but Bael’s royal rank requires that the King be addressed first. The magician must establish which spirit holds authority in the triangle.

Does Malphas answer to Paimon? Yes. As a President, Malphas falls under the jurisdiction of Kings including Paimon. The Lemegeton instructs the magician to invoke King Paimon’s power if Malphas refuses to obey.

Is Malphas stronger than Balam? Both rule forty legions. Balam holds the rank of King, two levels above President, making him structurally superior in the Goetic hierarchy.

What happens if Malphas offers a sacrifice? Accepting the sacrifice without proper constraint invites deception. The grimoires instruct the magician to command the spirit by the pentacles and names of power before receiving any offering.

The Chain That Holds

Malphas sits in a precise position in a hierarchy that has remained stable since the sixteenth century. His rank as President, his forty legions, his Mercury correspondence, and his placement on the Kabbalistic Tree define every relationship he has with other spirits. The magician who understands this architecture works with clarity. The magician who ignores it works with a crow who may answer — but not honestly.

For deeper study of the Goetic system, see our guide to demonology and the Goetia, the glossary of infernal ranks, and how to prepare the circle for multiple spirits.