Hermes Trismegistus: The Abrahamic Inversion (Glasya-Labolas)

author: Temple of Zeus Ministries

This study reads the winged dog of Weyer's catalogue, Glasya-Labolas, as one of the masks forced on Hermes Trismegistus. Masks made to slander the Original Gods are not worn in prayer: invoke Him only as Hermes, by His legitimate and eternal name.

Glasya-Labolas

Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia daemonum of 1577 is the first secure witness to the Daemon whom the grimoires came to call Glasya-Labolas. Boudet's comparison table is the control here: it marks Glasyalabolas, alias Caacrinolas or Caassimolar, as Weyer number 18, without assigning the entry to the Cambridge Livre des esperitz, the Munich list or the Florence Plut. 89 sup. 38 list. There may have been an older Officium spirituum behind Weyer, but the first recoverable text by this name is Weyer's printed Latin catalogue.^1,2

Glasyalabolas, al. Caacrinolas vel Caassimolar, magnus præses, 36 lég. W18.

This catalogue note says everything necessary for first attestation: Glasyalabolas, also Caacrinolas or Caassimolar, is a great president with thirty-six legions in Weyer. It is not evidence of an earlier French Vipos-type ancestor like Ipos had, nor of a Florence Bonoreae-type ancestor like Ronové had. His trace begins in the Weyer complex itself.^1,2

Weyer says his demon-list comes from a book of the offices of spirits, but his own note also says he cut the material so that the work could not be used as a complete conjuring manual. That matters here because it prevents a false certainty: Glasya-Labolas may have stood in a manuscript source before 1577, but unless that source is identified and readable, the honest first citation remains Weyer.²

Glasya labolas, aliàs Caacrinolaas vel Caassimolar magnus Præses: qui progreditur ut canis habens alas gryphi. Artium cognitionem dat, interim dux omnium homicidarum. Præsentia & futura intelligit. Tam amicorum quàm inimicorum animos demeretur: & hominem reddit invisibilem. Imperium habet triginta sex legionum.

The Latin says that Glasya Labolas, otherwise Caacrinolaas or Caassimolar, is a great president who comes forth as a dog with the wings of a griffin. He gives knowledge of the arts, and at the same time is the leader or captain of all murderers. He understands present and future things, wins or captures the minds of friends and enemies, makes a man invisible, and has command over thirty-six legions.²

This is not a simple animal demon. The dog body gives the hound, tracker and corpse-side symbolism; the griffin wings give a high predatory hybrid; the arts and present-future knowledge place him in an intellectual office; but Weyer immediately stains that office with homicide. The result is knowledge coupled to bloodshed, the quick reception of arts coupled to the captaincy of killing.²

Reginald Scot's 1584 English transmission repeats Weyer's form closely. Scot gives Glasya Labolas, alias Caacrinolaas or Caassimolar, as a great president, dog-shaped, with wings like a griffin. He gives knowledge of arts, is captain of manslayers, understands present and future things, gains the minds and love of friends and foes, makes a man invisible, and rules thirty-six legions. Scot therefore gives the first major English doorway into the later Goetic spelling tradition, not a new origin.^2,3

The later Ars Goetia standardises him as the twenty-fifth spirit, Glasya Labolas. The office remains almost Weyerian: he is a mighty president in the form of a dog with griffin-like wings, teaches all arts instantly, is author of bloodshed and manslaughter, tells past and future things, causes the love of friends and enemies, makes a man invisible, and commands thirty-six legions. Joseph Peterson notes the Weyer and Scot forms and records Folger's variant Gloolas.⁴

The main name-line should therefore be kept in order: Glasya labolas in Weyer, with aliases Caacrinolaas and Caassimolar; Scot's English Glasya Labolas; later Goetic Glasya Labolas or hyphenated Glasya-Labolas; and minor manuscript or index variants such as Gloolas. Classyalabolas and Glassia-labolis are later spelling debris unless tied to a specific manuscript or printed witness.^2,3,4

In Dr. Rudd's Goetic angelology, Glasya-Labolas is opposed by Nith-Haiah, also written Nithaiah or Nithhaiah. Rudd's system takes the seventy-two Shem-ha-Mephorash angels and places them over the seventy-two Goetic spirits as answering or restraining powers. Since Glasya-Labolas is the twenty-fifth Goetic spirit in the Ars Goetia order, the corresponding angel is the twenty-fifth angel, Nith-Haiah, Hebrew נתהיה, of the order of Dominions.^5,6

The exact psalm attached to Nith-Haiah is Psalm 9:1 in common English and Hebrew numbering, the same first verse of Psalm 9 used in Lenain and Papus. I do not quote it here. Its indication is whole-hearted praise and the proclamation of divine wonders. Against Glasya-Labolas, whose knowledge of arts is joined to bloodshed and manslaughter, the angelic key is wisdom directed upward, not technique turned into killing.^5,6,7,8

Lenain gives the practical-cabala profile of Nith-Haiah in 1823. He calls the angel's attribute "God who gives wisdom," gives the holy name Orsy according to the language of the Magi, places the ray from the 121st to the 125th degree of the sphere, assigns the thirteenth decan and the genius Charcumis, and places the angel under Saturn. He also says Nith-Haiah and the angels down to the thirty-second belong to the fourth order, called the choir of Dominions.⁶

Lenain says Nith-Haiah serves to obtain wisdom and to discover the truth of hidden mysteries. He dominates all occult sciences, gives revelations in dreams, especially to those born under his presidency, and influences wise men who love peace and solitude, seek truth and practise the magic of the wise, which he calls the magic of God. His contrary genius rules black magic, understood as the pact of the evil principle, renunciation of God and the desire to harm men, animals and the products of the earth.⁶

Papus repeats the same material in compressed form: Nith-Haiah is "Dieu qui donne la Sagesse," placed at 121 to 125 degrees, attached to Orsy and the first verse of Psalm 9, used for wisdom and the discovery of hidden mysteries. Papus abbreviates the domain as occult sciences, dream revelation and the magic of the sages, with the contrary genius reduced to black magic. This is a very direct angelic counterweight to Glasya-Labolas: the lower spirit gives arts and bloodshed, the angel gives hidden wisdom and the discipline of sacred magic.⁷

Ambelain later preserves the same practical-kabbalistic line under Nith-Haiah. His value is not as a first source for Glasya-Labolas, but as a twentieth-century witness to the Lenain-Papus angelology that later occultists used when reading the Rudd correspondence. The first attestation of the demon remains Weyer, and the later angelic opposition belongs to the Rudd-Shem framework placed over the Ars Goetia order.^5,6,7,9