The Seventy-Two Spirits · 46

Bifrons

Also recorded as Bifreus, Bifrovs

Teaching astrology, geometry and other sciences and the virtues of stones and woods, moving dead bodies, and lighting seeming candles on graves. [1]

Goetia 1904

Spirit profile

Rank: Earl [1]
Attributed Office: Teaching astrology, geometry and other sciences and the virtues of stones and woods, moving dead bodies, and lighting seeming candles on graves. [1]
Legion Count: 6 legions. Mathers proposes 60 in a footnote. [1]
Description of the Entity: A monster, afterwards a man; the monster's anatomy is not specified. [1]

Illustration of Bifrons — **Artistic interpretation** Bifrons · Goetia 1904.

Bifrons, First-edition plate 2, figure 52, attributed to Bifrons — **Source reproduction** Bifrons · First-edition plate 2, figure 52, attributed to Bifrons.

The earlier English account

Scot’s Bifrons teaches astrology through the mansions of the planets, geometry and measurement, and the virtues of herbs, stones and woods. The Goetia condenses the learned subjects and retains stones and woods. Scot gives twenty-six legions; the 1904 body gives six, with a note proposing sixty. Three different totals accompany the closely related descriptions. [2][1]

Both passages begin with an unexplained monster which assumes human form. They then describe moving dead bodies and seeming to light candles on graves. Bifrons’s teaching of planetary mansions, geometry and measurement accompanies this activity in burial places, placing the positions of celestial bodies and the relocation of human remains within the same notice. [2][1]

Sources and editions

The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King — entry 46: Bifrons
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile supplied by Keep Silence. Shemhamphorash, numbered catalogue entry 46, Bifrons; facsimile PDF page 21 (PDF index includes three preliminary plates)
Full passage · accessed 2026-10-10
The Discoverie of Witchcraft — Bifrons
Reginald Scot (1584); Brinsley Nicholson’s reprint of the first edition (1886), Project Gutenberg transcription. Book XV, chapter II, Bifrons; 1886 reprint page(s) 323.
Full passage · accessed 2026-10-10

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Spirit profile

The earlier English account

Sources and editions