Bellerophon: The Abrahamic Inversion

Malaphar is one more form of the name the catalogues pressed on Bellerophon. Like every name made to slander the Original Gods and Their heroes, it has no place in invocation; the hero is honoured as Bellerophon.

Malaphar

Malaphar, Malephar, Valefar, Valefor, Valafar: none of the names this Daemon was later given has a certain precursor in the lists compiled by Jean-Patrice Boudet. In Boudet’s list comparing catalogs he appears only in the Weyer column as Valefar, alias Malaphar. Other spirits including Malphas, Volach, Forcas and others can be identified as having been present in earlier witnesses from Munich, Florence, France etc. Therefore, on the currently available documentation, the first reliable exact-name attestation of Malaphar is Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum published in 1577.¹

The name was given by Weyer in a dual form and thus Malaphar is an original alias printed in addition to being a modern alteration of Valefar. The entry is much shorter than many of the surrounding spirits.²

Valefar, alias Malaphar, Dux est fortis, forma leonis prodiens & capite latronis.
Familiaritatem parit suis, donec laqueo suspendantur. Decem praesidet legionibus.

Literally, Valefar or Malaphar is a strong duke who comes forth in the form of a lion and with the caput latronis, the head of a robber or thief. He establishes familiarity with his associates until they are suspended by a noose, and he presides over ten legions. The entire office is built around treacherous familiarity ending in hanging. The later formula that he "tempts" his familiars to steal is an English-Goetic development.²

The term capite latronis resulted in some of the more interesting textual variations in the Goetic tradition. Reginald Scot interpreted it literally as "the head of a theefe".3 The seventeenth century Ars Goetia manuscripts however varied between a lion with a man's head lowered, a man's head "lowing", and similar versions; the Mathers-Crowley version finally fixed upon a lion with an ass's head. Joseph Peterson points out that there seems to be little reason for the variation except in how Weyer worded it in Latin and how it was transmitted. Thus, the well-known donkey-headed Valefor is not what Weyer wrote.⁴

Reginald Scot transmitted the demon into English only seven years after Weyer's fifth edition. His spelling is Valefar, alias Malephar.³

Valefar, alias Malephar, is a strong duke, comming foorth in the shape of a lion, and the head of a theefe, he is verie familiar with them to whom he maketh himself acquainted, till he hath brought them to the gallowes, and ruleth ten legions.

The Ars Goetia: Valefor

In the seventeenth-century Ars Goetia, Valefar becomes the sixth demon and is usually referred to as Valefor or Valefar. Both rank and number remain conservative: he remains a powerful duke and continues to command ten legions. However, his functions become changed. Unlike Weyer’s Valefar who became friendly with people until they ended up at the gallows, he is described as tempting those with whom he has a friendship to commit theft.⁴

The 6th spirit is Valefar ... he is a Mighty Duke, & appeareth in ye form of a Lion with a mans head Lowring, he is a good femiliar, but tempteth those he is femiliar with to steale, he governeth 10 Legions of spirets.

Peterson provides apparatus indicating considerable manuscript variation with Valefar's appearance and so on. Some witnesses read a man’s head “lowring”, or “lowing”. A later version reads “bellowing.” Mathers-Crowley ultimately fixes upon the now-standardized lion with an ass’s head. This represents a true evolution of the text and not an image that may safely be transferred back to 1577.⁴

In Dr. Rudd’s classification of the seventy-two Goetic spirits arranged against the seventy-two Shem-ha-Mephorash angels, Valefor is listed as the sixth spirit and is restrained by the sixth angel Lelahel.⁵

Lazare Lenain gives the sixth angel as Lelahel, "Dieu louable" or "Praiseworthy God." He assigns the divine name Abgd according to the Ethiopians, the ray from the twenty-sixth through thirtieth degrees, the third decan and the genius Asentacer. The favorable invocation interval is 1:40 to 2:00. Lenain says Lelahel is invoked to acquire illumination and to cure illnesses, borrowing from Bellerophon's healing faculty.⁶

Lenain's indicated verse is: Psallite Domino, qui habitat in Sion: annuntiate inter gentes studia ejus, "Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion; proclaim among the nations his deeds." Lelahel governs love, renown, the sciences, the arts and fortune. The person born under the influence is inclined toward knowledge and distinction, whereas the contrary genius governs ambition, excessive desire and other corruptions of these qualities, perhaps paralleling the control and vanity narrative of the Bellerophon myth.^6,7

Collin de Plancy includes a remarkable corruption under Valafar ou Malafar in his Dictionnaire Infernal. While Weyer described Valafar as having a lion’s body and a thief’s head with ten legions; de Plancy reports that Valafar may appear as an angel and also as a lion with a goose-like head and feet and a hare-tail, understands past and future, grants genius and boldness and commands thirty-six legions..⁸

Those details do not derive from Weyer's Valefar at all, but belong more to his tradition of Ipos and Ayporos.^2,8

The Mathers and Crowley version established by their publication in 1904 created perhaps the most recognizable modern image for English-speaking occultists.⁹