Historical Ritual Archive
The Power Being Addressed
Foras is approached as Thirty-first spirit of the Ars Goetia, a Great President commanding twenty-nine legions.
Foras is strong, practical and exacting. He teaches the virtues of herbs and stones, grants eloquence and invisibility, reveals treasure and exposes enemies' thoughts.
Daemonology profile: Read the complete Daemonology profile of Foras
Why the Rite Exists
The rite creates a controlled threshold between ordinary life and the domain attributed to Foras. Preparation separates the practitioner from ordinary noise. The sigil and name establish the centre. The petition directs the encounter. The offering defines exchange. Dismissal restores the chamber to ordinary time.
A rite without preparation is only demand. A rite without closure is pressure without a boundary.
Personality and Ritual Conduct
Foras is strong, practical and exacting. He teaches the virtues of herbs and stones, grants eloquence and invisibility, reveals treasure and exposes enemies' thoughts.
The practitioner should enter with one clear purpose and avoid contradictory requests. The entity's rank and temperament determine the tone. Respect does not mean submission, and command does not mean theatrical aggression.
The Atmosphere of Manifestation
The room may feel physically grounded. Pale-horse imagery, serpent symbolism, herbal scents and sudden certainty about hidden objects or motives may occur.
Manifestation may begin before any full figure is seen. Sound, temperature, dream, bodily pressure, altered flame, animal imagery or a complete inner sentence may mark the transition from preparation into contact.
Historical Image and Ritual Figure
BLACK PLACEHOLDER — replace with a verified historical image, sigil manuscript or ritual object before publication.
Sigil of Foras
Sigil of Foras. Traditionally drawn on parchment and placed at the centre of the rite as the principal visual focus for the invocation.
The Rite: Full Ceremonial Sequence
The following material preserves the original SatanWorld article's ritual content without omitting its operative details.
Who is Foras?
Foras (also spelled Forcas or Forcas) is a demon described in the Ars Goetia, the first section of the 17th-century grimoire The Lesser Key of Solomon. He ranks as the 31st spirit in the hierarchy of 72 demons and is depicted as a strong man riding a pale horse, carrying a serpent in his hand, with wings like a griffin. According to the text, Foras governs 29 legions of spirits and possesses abilities such as:
Teaching the virtues of all herbs and precious stones.
Making one invisible, wise, and eloquent.
Revealing the location of lost treasures and the thoughts of enemies.
Transforming men into other shapes and granting long life.
These descriptions stem from medieval occult traditions and should be approached as historical or fictional lore, not literal fact.
Historical Method of Summoning Foras
The core steps, drawn from The Lesser Key of Solomon and related sources like the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum by Johann Weyer, are as follows:
1. Preparation and Purity
Timing: Perform during the hour of Mercury (Wednesday, preferably at dawn or dusk). Align with a waxing moon for manifestation.
Fasting and Abstinence: Fast for 9 days prior, avoiding meat, alcohol, and sexual activity. Bathe in consecrated water (salt and herbs like hyssop) daily.
Tools Needed
A magic circle drawn with chalk or flour on the ground (9 feet in diameter, inscribed with the names of God like "Adonai" and angelic seals).
A triangle of art outside the circle for the spirit to appear.
Black-handled knife (athame), virgin parchment, ink made from soot and myrrh.
Incense: Frankincense and myrrh.
Robes: White linen, with a pentacle embroidered on the chest.
The grimoire itself, open to Foras's sigil (seal).
2. Drawing the Sigil and Consecration
Inscribe Foras's sigil on virgin parchment using the consecrated ink. The sigil resembles a complex glyph with intersecting lines and curves (often depicted as a central eye-like shape flanked by hooks).
Hold the sigil over incense smoke while reciting a consecration: "I conjure thee, O Circle of Art, by the virtue of the Highest, that thou be a fortress unto me against all spirits, that they may not enter therein."
3. Entering the Circle and Invocation
Stand barefoot in the circle at the appointed hour. Light candles at the four quarters (white for air, red for fire, etc.).
Recite the Preliminary Invocation (from the Bornless Ritual or similar): "Thee I invoke, the Bornless One. Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens… Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto me."
Then, the specific call to Foras (adapted from the Goetia): "I do invocate and conjure thee, O Spirit Foras, and being with power armed from the Supreme Majesty, I do strongly command thee, by Beralanensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachia, and Apologiae Sedes…" (Continue with the full 19-line conjuration, commanding obedience under threat of divine torment.)
Burn the sigil in the triangle while chanting his name 3 times: "Foras, Foras, Foras, appear visible and friendly!"
4. Manifestation and Command
Foras is said to appear in a form like a strong man on a horse. If hostile, reinforce with the License to Depart: "O thou Spirit Foras, because thou hast diligently answered unto my demands, I do license thee to depart unto thy proper place…"
State your request clearly (e.g., "Reveal the virtues of the emerald stone"). Offer a token gift, like wine poured on the ground.
Journal any visions, sounds, or sensations—traditional accounts describe a chill wind or metallic scent.
5. Closing and Banishment
Thank the spirit and banish with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram: Trace pentagrams in the air while vibrating "YHVH" (Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh).
Dismantle the circle counterclockwise, thanking guardian angels.
Destroy all materials (burn parchment remnants) to seal the working.
Variations and Modern Interpretations
In Chaos Magic: Practitioners like those in Peter Carroll's Liber Null simplify by visualizing the sigil during meditation, charging it with personal energy instead of full ritual.
Thelemic Approach: Aleister Crowy's Magick in Theory and Practice adapts Goetic calls with Enochian elements, emphasizing will over fear.
Skeptical View: Modern occult scholars (e.g., in Owen Davies' Grimoires) see these as psychological archetypes for self-exploration, not literal summoning.
Ritual Architecture
Separation
Bathing, silence, fasting, abstinence, darkness or isolation signal that ordinary time has been left behind. The preparation should be coherent rather than assembled from random gestures.
Construction of the Chamber
Candles, incense, circle, salt, water, metals, herbs, stones and offerings organize the room around the office of Foras. Each item should perform one function.
Establishing Contact
The sigil, name, chant or enn becomes the visual and verbal axis of the operation. Repetition narrows attention until the chamber feels organized around one intelligence.
The Petition
The petition should contain one principal request, one boundary and one completion condition. Ambiguous wishes invite expansion.
Recognition of Presence
The central phase begins when the atmosphere changes in a sustained way. Pressure, heat, cold, altered flame, internal speech, animal forms or dreamlike imagery may mark the crossing.
Offering and Exchange
The offering represents reciprocity. It may carry the entity's color, office, appetite or symbolic domain. A promise should never be made casually.
Dismissal and Return
The operation ends only when Foras is thanked or dismissed according to the preserved method. Candles are extinguished safely, the chamber aired where appropriate and the result written before sleep or distraction changes memory.
Instruments and Their Symbolism
The sigil acts as the visual body of the name. The candle establishes color, rank and duration. Incense gives density to the air. Salt or the circle defines limits. Water reflects and carries emotional force. Metal, stone, herb or coin embodies office.
More objects do not automatically create more power. A crowded altar can divide attention.
Timing and Correspondence
Where several systems appear, one coherent system should govern the operation.
Manifestation Signs
Signs associated with Foras include:
- a sustained shift in the chamber's emotional pressure;
- dreams repeating the spirit's form or office;
- unusual candle movement without a matching draft;
- sounds, smells or bodily sensations consistent with the entity;
- a complete phrase arising inside thought;
- external events beginning to mirror the petition;
- fear, attraction or resistance intensifying at the moment of contact.
A repeated pattern across chamber, dream and aftermath carries greater weight than one isolated sign.
The Frightening Edge of the Rite
Foras can turn practical knowledge into relentless utility. People, plants and stones may begin to seem valuable only for what can be extracted from them.
The deepest danger is transformation that feels useful. The practitioner may begin to imitate the spirit's temperament, organize life around the petition or interpret every event as part of the operation.
Failure Patterns
Failure appears when preparation is abandoned, the request changes repeatedly, symbols are mixed without purpose, panic replaces attention, impossible offerings are promised or the practitioner refuses to close because no dramatic apparition appeared.
Failure can also appear as excess success: the requested current enters ordinary life faster than expected.
Boundaries of the Petition
The petition should state what is requested, where the result may operate, what form the result may take and what event marks completion. Knowledge can destroy innocence. Protection can become isolation. Transformation can become instability. Treasure can become obsession.
The wording is therefore part of the danger.
Completion and Aftermath
The rite is complete when the petition has been spoken, the exchange acknowledged, the presence dismissed and the chamber returned to ordinary order.
Record the date, timing, preparation, tools, words, signs, dreams, first external movement, emotional changes and fulfillment of any promised offering.
The aftermath belongs to the rite. Results may arrive as opportunity, conflict, warning, sudden knowledge, disappearance of an obstacle or an intensification that reveals the true shape of the request.
The Inner Ordeal
The rite of Foras is also an ordeal of resemblance. The chamber reveals where the spirit's office already exists inside the seeker's life.
The frightening moment is often recognition rather than apparition. The seeker discovers that the request has already shaped behavior before the first candle was lit.
The Return to Ordinary Life
After closure, eat, drink, wash, change clothing, step outside or speak with another person. These acts declare that ritual time has ended.
Do not repeat the operation immediately because silence feels uncomfortable.
Final Warning
Foras can turn practical knowledge into relentless utility. People, plants and stones may begin to seem valuable only for what can be extracted from them.
Do not leave the altar active indefinitely. Do not continue chanting after dismissal. Do not add a second petition during closure.