The word Goetic refers to a particular genre of magic. All too often in today's occult realm, "Goetia" means only the one little grimoire included in the Lemegeton, the Lesser key of Solomon. However, "Goetia" comes from the Greek word meaning, 'howling, moaning or lamenting'. It is the form of magic used by the Goets, the magicians that conjured the spirits and it refers to the sounds they made during the conjuration process.
This style of magic has roots that go back beyond the dimly recalled times of neo-platonic philosophy. It was performed by the average magician long before the celestial hierarchies were instituted, and resembles shamanism a great deal more than it resembles Golden Dawn style ceremonial magic.
Rooted in the terrestrial systems of magic, this system put the magician in touch with the spirits of nature, the spirits of the terrestrial sphere. This sphere included what ceremonial magicians now refer to as "elemental" spirits, but also the spirits of the departed, spirits of the local trees and rivers and the general Genius Loci, spirits that were assigned ruler-ship over the local lands. In ancient times, it was understood that all people who died became spirits that could protect the living, if the living in question knew the secret words. The term Goetia refers to the methods of working with these spirits, whether they were spirits of the dead or spirits of nature.
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