#28
Goetia Spirit · Duke · East
Berith
The 28th spirit of the Lesser Key of Solomon.
The old books set Berith down as a Duke of the Goetia, 28th of the seventy-two, commanding 26 legions and approached from the East. The recorded form: soldier in red riding red horse, golden crown. What follows is what the sources say, and the name of the answer they give.
A note on this material
This is a defensive reference, not an instruction in summoning. Every spirit here is set beside its countermanding angel, the Watcher whose office stands opposite. You are given the name of the answer, never the procedure of the call.
What the Lesser Key records
- Number in the Goetia
- #28 of 72
- Rank
- Duke
- Legions commanded
- 26
- Direction approached from
- East
- Also known as
- Baal-berith, Beal, Bolfri, El Berith
- Appearance recorded
- Soldier in red riding red horse, golden crown
- Domain / Powers
- Gives true answers of past/present/future, turns metals to gold, gives dignities
- Countermanding angel
- Seheiah
- Paired angel number
- 2828
Where the sources differ
Weyer set this spirit 27th in his catalogue of 1577. The Lemegeton, assembled the following century, moved it to 28th and reordered the hierarchy around rank. Neither list is a copy of the other.
The name travels badly. Berith appears variously as Baal-berith, Beal, Bolfri, El Berith — the drift of a name carried through Latin, French and English hands over four centuries.
If this spirit’s domain has touched your life
The domain the tradition assigns to Berith is this: gives true answers of past/present/future, turns metals to gold, gives dignities. If you believe something of that shape is working against you or around you, the older grammar is blunt about the response. You do not address the spirit. You call the angel set against it.
Call on Seheiah. The Watcher whose office stands opposite this domain. Read the full profile and the traditional prayer →
The protection the tradition prescribes
- Name the pattern. Write down, clearly, the specific way you suspect the influence is operating. Vague suspicion gives the influence cover.
- Call on Seheiah by name. Speak or write the call. Do not address the spirit directly.
- Guard the purse. Refuse the sudden windfall that arrives with a condition attached, and the scheme that requires your silence. Where this office works, the money is the hook and not the harm.
- Carry the stone the tradition gives. The medieval lapidary assigns particular stones to particular protections — see the Crystal Directory.
- Repeat for forty days. The tradition is consistent on this duration — long enough to break a settled pattern.
Common questions
Is it dangerous to read about Goetia demons?
No. Reading what a tradition recorded about a spirit's domain is not the same as calling on it, and nothing here gives a procedure for calling. These are the same attributes catalogued in every serious historical and academic treatment of the Lemegeton, set down so that a reader can recognise a pattern and find the protection named against it.
Who is the angel that counters Berith?
Seheiah. The pairing runs through the countermanding tradition, angel set against office. Seheiah's profile, prayer, and paired stone →
How was the Goetia compiled?
The Goetia is the first book of the Lesser Key of Solomon, assembled in the seventeenth century out of older material. Johann Weyer had printed much of the same catalogue in 1577, and Reginald Scot carried it into English in 1584. The lists do not always agree, which is the most useful thing about them.