Forneus

The 30th spirit of the Lesser Key of Solomon.

The old books set Forneus down as a Marquis of the Goetia, 30th of the seventy-two, commanding 29 legions and approached from the North. The recorded form: great sea monster. 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: #30 of 72
Rank: Marquis
Legions commanded: 29
Direction approached from: North
Appearance recorded: Great sea monster
Domain / Powers: Teaches rhetoric and languages, causes men to be loved by foes
Countermanding angel: Omael
Paired angel number: 3030

Where the sources differ

Weyer set this spirit 25th in his catalogue of 1577. The Lemegeton, assembled the following century, moved it to 30th and reordered the hierarchy around rank. Neither list is a copy of the other.

If this spirit’s domain has touched your life

The domain the tradition assigns to Forneus is this: teaches rhetoric and languages, causes men to be loved by foes. 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 Omael. 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 Omael by name. Speak or write the call. Do not address the spirit directly.
Guard the affections. Name plainly who or what you have been drawn toward against your own judgement, and put distance between yourself and the occasion of it. The tradition treats a disordered attachment as a door left standing open.
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 Forneus?

Omael. The pairing runs through the countermanding tradition, angel set against office. Omael'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.