Artemis: The Abrahamic Inversion

The divine archer Artemis was made, in the grimoires, into the archer Lerajie. One must not invoke the Gods by blasphemous names: these were slander against the Original Gods. Approach Her through Her legitimate and eternal name, Artemis.

The Medieval Progression

In the medieval context, the most of what was known of Artemis in the Roman form of Diana to the few literate was transmitted by Isidore of Seville, who spoke of her as a virgin huntress associated with the Moon. The Third Vatican Mythographer (12th century) says explicitly that Diana rules hunters and that she carries the bow and arrows because hunters use these weapons. Of all the goddesses sans Hecate, Diana was perhaps the least obscure. Virgil's recollection of the Actaeon tale was known to some monks.^1,2,3

Outside of the above contexts, the picture is unclear. Martin of Braga around 574 claimed the demons expelled from heaven went into the woods and seas "in silvis Dianas". The passion of St. Killian mentions enthusiastic worship of Diana around the eighth century. Most famously, the women of the Canon Episcopi from 906CE were described as alleged participants in a supernatural nocturnal procession led by a female figure whom Regino of Prüm, an abbot, identified as Diana.^4,5,6,7,8,9

The women were said to believe that during the night they rode with Diana, whom the text explicitly calls Diana paganorum dea, “Diana, goddess of the pagans.” However, Regino also dismissed any idea this being was real. Burchard of Worms, in the Decretum 10.29 and Corrector 19.5, describes the same thing around one hundred years later, adding Herodias into the context.¹⁰

In the Middle Ages, the wife of Herod whose intrigues condemned John the Baptist, Herodias, was increasingly subjected to a legend where it was alleged she was condemned to wander the skies forever as a spectral figure, and by the Middle Ages, she was considered to be one of the nymphs accompanying the demon Diana. This name entered the common European lexicon as Erodiade, Aradia, Araja or Araya. Possibly this name is one of the sources for Oray or Lerajie.

From the mid 13th century onwards, more prohibitions seem to occur against Diana worship among women in France, such as the inquisitorial record of Stephen of Bourbon in 1250 or the edict by the Bishop of the diocese of Couseran in 1283 condemning any woman riding with Diana, Herodias or 'Bensozia'. In Trier, in 1310, again a motion was passed by a synodic council condemning any such activities.^11,12,13,14

Giovanni de Matoclis of Verona, writing in 1310, stated that many laypeople believed in a nocturnal society presided over by a queen whom some called Diana and others Herodias. Ten years later, the Fasciculus morum from England complains of 'superstituous wretches' seeing Diana dancing with elves. Jacopo Passavanti three decades later claimed women in his time go with Diana with a company called the tregenda. In the 1380s, Sibillia Zanni and Pierina de’ Bugatis testified to inquisitors in Milan that their supernatural mistress 'Madonna Oriente' came into houses and taught them divination. Zanni was executed as a heretic in 1390.^15,16,17,18

What these incidents reveal is an unusual escalation of a similar theme across the entire Middle Ages of people, mostly women, apparently worshipping Diana, Herodia and Herodiana, a context in which the archer spirit Vorax suddenly appears.

Vorax

The earliest presently identifiable ancestor of Lerajie is a spirit called Vorax in the Summa Sacrae Magicae of Berengar Ganell, a work compiled in 1346, but stated to be made up partially of much older materials. The entry occurs in Book II, folio 30 of the Kassel manuscript. It describes him as a king and marquis who appears as an archer¹⁹:

Vocatur Vorax rex et marchio. Apparet ut sagittarius… Summa Sacrae Magicae

The manuscript continues by referring to his quiver, although the following words are difficult to read securely in the surviving writing. This spirit may also refer to Apollo.

Loray to Lerajie

Loray or Oray next appears in Johann Weyer's work the Pseudomonarchia daemonum²⁰:

Loray, aliàs Oray, magnus Marchio, se ostendens in forma sagittarii pulcherrimi, pharetram & arcum gestantis:
author existit omnium præliorum, & vulnera putrefacit quæ à sagittariis infliguntur, quos obijcit optimos tribus diebus. Triginta dominatur legionibus.

He is seen as a great marquis in the form of a handsome archer carrying quiver and bow; the author of all battles, and like Vepar, causes wounds to putrefy, but this time through archery. It is said the ones who cause these wounds are put forth as the best of his archers for three days, but the Latin 'quos' is rendered in a way that made subsequent translators claim he makes a wound fester for three days.

The author of all battles may be a reference to the pledged sacrifices to Artemis Agrotera before the Battle of Marathon by the Athenians which Xenophon references and Plutarch describes in his On the Malice of Herodotus.^21,22

Possibly the three-day symbolism relates to the explanation of Servius that Diana appears as a crescent, half-moon and full moon, or Porphyry's that she represents the new moon, moon ascending in light, and the full moon. Otherwise it may reflect the explanation of Servius that Diana is Lucina (brings into the light), Diana (life) and Hecate (death). Horace described Diana as a goddess whom women in childbirth invoke three times^23,24,25:

ter vocata audis adimisque leto,
diva triformis

The Goetic rescension of the text is preserved in manuscripts including the British Library manuscript of Sloane MS 3825. Here, Leraye appears clad in green for the first time. The three days detail disappears entirely, and he becomes the fourteenth instead of thirteenth spirit. Le Grand Grimoire assigns him to Sargatanas. Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire infernal adds the detail that Oray throws javelins.^26,27,28

In Dr. Rudd's Goetic angelology, Lerajie is opposed by the Shem-ha-Mephorash angel Mebahel or מבהאל. Rudd's schematic from Agrippa places the seventy-two angels above the seventy-two Goetic spirits as restraining or answering powers. Since Lerajie is the fourteenth spirit in the later Ars Goetia order, he is answered by the fourteenth angel, Mebahel.^29,30

The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

The exact psalm assigned to Mebahel is Psalm 9:9. Against Lerajie's office of battles and putrefying arrow-wounds, the angelic key is therefore protection, justice and refuge from violence, a characteristic of Artemis of Ephesus in being the goddess of asylum and presiding over the asylia elsewhere.³¹

Mebahel has an attribute called "Dieu conservateur" by Lazare Lenain; the divine name is "Dios" in Spanish; the ray extends from the 66th to 70th degrees of the sphere, the five days are assigned for it, and Lenain states that the correct hours are 4:20 to 4:40 to invoke. Within the Cherubim group in Lenain's angelic hierarchy, Mebahel resides^32,33

He states that Mebahel is called upon as an adversary by anyone attempting to usurp the fortune of another. He presides over justice, truth and freedom. He releases the oppressed and the prisoner, with duties similar to those of Artemis and Diana. He defends innocence, possibly relating to his dominion over youth, and he also reveals truths. As a result of the influence of this planet in natal chart, one has an affinity for jurisprudence and typically attains distinction at the bar. The contrary spirit governs slandering, lying witness, and litigation (lawsuits) or legal procedure.^32,33,34