Historical Ritual Archive
The Power Being Addressed
Shax is approached as Forty-fourth spirit of the Ars Goetia, a Great Marquis commanding thirty legions.
Shax is deceptive, evasive and dangerous precisely because he is useful. He is said to steal money, horses, sight or hearing, reveal hidden treasures and disclose secrets, yet his words are unreliable unless constrained.
Daemonology profile: Read the complete Daemonology profile of Shax
Why the Rite Exists
The rite creates a controlled threshold between ordinary life and the domain attributed to Shax. 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
Shax is deceptive, evasive and dangerous precisely because he is useful. He is said to steal money, horses, sight or hearing, reveal hidden treasures and disclose secrets, yet his words are unreliable unless constrained.
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 hollow, as though sound has been removed. A hoarse birdlike voice, stork imagery, missing objects and sudden lapses in hearing or attention may gather around the manifestation.
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
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Sigil of Shax
Sigil of Shax. 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.
Shax (also spelled Shaks or Chax) is the 44th spirit described in the Ars Goetia, a grimoire from the 17th-century Lesser Key of Solomon. He is depicted as a stork-like bird with a hoarse voice, commanding 30 legions of demons. Shax is said to provide knowledge of hidden treasures, make people blind or deaf, steal money or horses, and reveal secrets, but he is known for deceitfulness and may lie unless compelled truthfully.
Historical Method of Summoning
Preparation
Timing and Location: Perform during the hour of Mercury (Wednesday, dawn or dusk). Choose a secluded, purified space (e.g., a circle drawn with chalk or flour in a room). Fast for 24 hours prior and bathe in ritual herbs like hyssop.
Tools Needed
A magic circle (9 feet diameter) inscribed with protective names of God (e.g., Tetragrammaton).
A triangle of art outside the circle for the spirit to appear.
Black-handled knife (athame), incense (frankincense and myrrh), a virgin parchment with Shax's sigil drawn in blood or ink.
Lamen (protective talisman) worn around the neck, engraved with the seal of Solomon.
Shax's Sigil
The sigil is a key focus for invocation. It resembles a stylized bird or abstract lines
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(Draw this precisely on parchment; exact designs vary slightly in manuscripts.)
The Ritual Steps
Purification and Entry: Enter the circle naked or in white robes. Recite a preliminary invocation for protection, such as the Bornless Ritual or Psalm 91.
Conjuration: Light incense and hold the lamen. Chant the general Goetic conjuration three times, adapted for Shax:
"I do invocate and conjure thee, O Spirit Shax; and being with power armed from the Supreme Majesty, I do strongly command thee, by Beralanensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachia, and Apologiae Sedes; by the most Powerful Princes, Genii, Liachidae, and Ministers of the Tartarean Abode; and by the Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion, I do invoke thee, and by invocating conjure thee. And being armed with power from the Supreme Majesty, I do strongly command thee, by Him Who spake and it was done, and unto whom all creatures be obedient… Appear thou now before this Circle in a fair human shape, without any deformity or tortuosity. Come thou peaceably, visibly, and affably, now and without delay, manifesting that which I shall desire."
Specific Invocation for Shax: Once the spirit is "bound" (you may sense a presence), use his unique call:
"O thou Shax, the Forty-fourth Spirit! Thou who art a Great Marquis, appearing like a Stork with a hoarse voice! I conjure thee by the power of the Seal of Solomon, appear before me in the triangle, truthful and obedient, revealing all treasures and secrets as I command!"
Compulsion if Resistant: If no appearance, use the spirit's curse or chain (symbolic iron links) while reciting:
"By the power of these names: Adonai, El, Elohim… I bind thee, Shax, to truth and service, or suffer torment in the Lake of Fire!"
Communication and Dismissal: Ask your questions (e.g., "Reveal the location of [treasure]"). Command truth with the words "Veritas" or the lamen. Once done, license to depart:
"Go thou, Shax, to thy place, harming none, and be thou friendly as before. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, depart!"
Warnings from the Texts
Shax is "ill-natured" and may deceive; always use the triangle to contain him.
Exit the circle backward; burn the sigil afterward to banish.
Failure to follow protections could lead to "madness or harm," per the grimoires.
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 Shax. 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 Shax 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 Shax 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
Shax can make every answer uncertain. The seeker may obtain a secret while losing trust in perception itself.
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 Shax 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
Shax can make every answer uncertain. The seeker may obtain a secret while losing trust in perception itself.
Do not leave the altar active indefinitely. Do not continue chanting after dismissal. Do not add a second petition during closure.
When the Rite Is Truly Complete
A ritual is not complete because the candles have burned down. It is complete when the petition has reached a defined result, the promised exchange has been honored and ordinary life is no longer suspended around the operation.
If no result arrives, the record must still be closed. An unanswered petition should not become a permanent altar.
The Weight of the Name
The name of Shax is repeated because repetition changes the relation between sound and meaning. At first it is a word. Later it becomes atmosphere, pressure and a point around which expectation gathers.
The rite becomes dangerous when that point remains active after dismissal. Extinguishing, washing, recording and leaving the room are therefore part of the operation.