The Seventy-Two Spirits · 31

Foras

Teaching the virtues of herbs and precious stones, logic and ethics, eloquence and longevity, discovering treasure and lost things, and making people invisible in the main reading. [1]

Goetia 1904

Spirit profile

Rank: President [1]
Attributed Office: Teaching the virtues of herbs and precious stones, logic and ethics, eloquence and longevity, discovering treasure and lost things, and making people invisible in the main reading. [1]
Legion Count: 29 legions. [1]
Description of the Entity: A strong man in human shape. [1]

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

Foras, First-edition plate 2, figure 36, attributed to Foras — **Source reproduction** Foras · First-edition plate 2, figure 36, attributed to Foras.

The earlier English account

Scot names Foras or Forcas and gives him a strong human form and twenty-nine legions. He teaches the properties of herbs and stones, logic and ethics; the same subjects appear in the Goetia. The earlier passage also includes wit, eloquence, long life, treasure and the recovery of lost things. [2][1]

Scot explicitly lists invisibility. That reading agrees with the main 1904 text, although the Goetia’s editorial note raises invincibility as an alternative. This small difference changes the nature of the attributed gift: concealment from sight in one reading, and resistance to defeat in the other. [2][1]

Sources and editions

The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King — entry 31: Foras
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 31, Foras; facsimile PDF page 17 (PDF index includes three preliminary plates)
Full passage · accessed 2026-10-10
The Discoverie of Witchcraft · Foras
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584); Brinsley Nicholson’s reprint of the first edition (1886), Project Gutenberg transcription. Book XV, chapter II, Foras; 1886 reprint page 320
Full passage · accessed 2026-10-10

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Spirit profile

The earlier English account

Sources and editions