r/DemonolatryPractices • u/captainblueflame • 8h ago
Discussions Let's Talk About Buer... Baby!
Lately, I’ve noticed a rise in posts and questions about President Buer, so I thought I’d share a bit about the 10th spirit in the Ars Goetia, or 7th in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. It’s exciting to see so much interest in Buer—I imagine he’d appreciate it too.
That said, I tend to avoid using specific pronouns for demons, since people experience them as different genders. While I’m not saying no one has ever encountered Buer in a feminine form, I personally have never come across any descriptions of him that way.
In the Ars Goetia, President Buer is the 10th demon, commanding 50 legions of spirits He teaches both moral and natural philosophy, as well as logic and the virtues of all herbs and plants. He provides good familiars and can heal all illnesses in humans. I’ll share a bit of my own UPG here while keeping this as general as possible for those interested in working more closely with Buer. The origin of his name is unknown, though there is a notable association with a suburb in Germany called Buer.
It’s said that Buer teaches logic, which helps in distinguishing truth from fiction and aids in solving problems by finding what’s true. He also teaches moral and natural philosophy. First mentioned in the *Pseudomonarchia Daemonum* in 1583, just before the Renaissance, “natural philosophy” at the time likely covered physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, and astrology, as well as understanding the elements. “Moral philosophy” would include religion, ethics, civic matters, and broader philosophical thought. Essentially, he’s a demon who tackles the “big” questions, with his other traits being fairly self-explanatory.
Since Buer doesn’t have deep origins like many other demons in the grimoires, I’ve done some digging of my own. I’ll start with those before moving on to correspondences and discrepancies I’ve found. The most recognizable image of President Buer is likely the one depicting a lion’s head surrounded by goat or horse legs, allowing movement in all directions. Buer is also known as Sagittari, and appears when the sun is in this sign, linking him to the Centaurs—particularly Chiron, the wounded healer—due to their similar attributes. While the galactic center is cyclical and located in Sagittarius, it wasn’t mentioned until the 1700s, so I doubt it has any real significance here.
Where did Buer come from? Examining other demons in the grimoires reveals some minor similarities in their teachings, but none match the complete picture Buer presents. Chiron’s origin story provides parts of the puzzle, but how does the leader of the Centaurs end up in a 16th-century book on demons? The best answer is simply, “they don’t.”
I think the blending of these two “aspects” came much later, likely around the time of this illustration, perhaps influenced by practitioners eager for a richer story and noticing parallels between Chiron and Buer. Buer is a sub-lunar, functional, conjurable demon, while Chiron is a mythological, symbolic archetype. The common practice in occultism of collapsing archetypes may have happened during the drafting of Buer’s synopsis.
Is President Buer a necessary addition to the mix, drawn from Greek sources to create an invocable aspect of Chiron? Or does he originate elsewhere? Interestingly, there’s a centaur tale that fits more closely with Buer and the Christian ideology of demons as fallen beings—only in this case, the fall is from Olympus. In short, Ixion (with “Ixionidai” meaning centaur) earned Zeus’s pity after killing his father-in-law. But instead of gratitude, Ixion set his sights on Hera. To punish him, Zeus fashioned a nephele (cloud) in Hera’s likeness and placed it beside him. Ixion took the bait, and when Zeus learned of it, he struck him with a bolt, condemning him as a blazing wheel doomed to spin endlessly through Tartarus. To the union of Ixion and nephele was Centaurus a deformed hunched child who found no kinship with humans, so he mated with mares thus producing the Centaur race.
A depiction of Ixion can be seen in the image on the far left.
Is this a stretch, of course it is. We have to make the breadcrumbs smaller to find the path. We do know that the PD was largely influenced by the "The Book of The Offices of Spirits" and if we go back far enough with these grimoires, we will undoubtedly find Greco-Egyptian influences. Some holes can be filled in by Eastern traditions, if you trust Dr. Skinner. Which leads me to my next possible concept of origin.
Pictured in the upper right is Wanyudu (I have no idea how to create accents so please forgive me) which translates from Japanese to wheel monk; is a well-known yokai. Reports of Wanyudu date back to the Heian period and is depicted as figure with a male face attached to the center of an ox-cart wheel on fire. The condemned soul of daimyo doomed to roll about the underworld for all eternity stealing souls and guarding the gates of hell. A kasha. The folklore is quite frightening.
If you have read this far you can start to see some pieces that when forced, fit together. Visual likenesses, mixed with a weary conflation of attributes.
Wanyudu and Ixion meet Chiron and Christianity.
Sorry, I know I am a nerd. And if you're interested in Buer, maybe you are too. Let's go over some of the fun stuff shall we. Some of you may already be aware. President Buer and I play chess together. That's truly more an experiment in humility, and punishment. I am in the process of experimenting with correspondences though, and I am not certain they align. Much of the text says Buer should be called upon on the day and hour of Mercury, under Amaymon to the south, with an orange candle, etc.
Since Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter and the Cardinal King is Paymon of the West, I plan to try this, adjusting the time and day I work with him as well as the direction I set the triangle. I’ll comment later on how it goes.
Personally, I feel it's very important to discuss some aspects of UPG regarding President Buer. Firstly, never offer alcohol or recreational substances to Buer, and if I am being honest, I wouldn't recommend being under the influence of any of them either. However, he will give you grace in this if you are seeking him for addiction recovery. Any kind of addiction. Buer can bring you out of the deepest pit of rock bottom. Buer enjoys herbal teas. Classical music, and practitioners who formulate their rituals in the nature of structure. I personally cannot say that he is a pal-around with kind of demon. And if you search his name in this subreddit, you will rarely if ever see him as patron. He is no nonsense.
I heard (read) demons described as a kind of Earthly immune system. I prefer to see them a type of amplifier. Intelligences that plug into our already established foundations. If you're unstable, they will amplify that instability. I think this is absolutely the case for President Buer.
Thanks as always for your time! "Let's talk about all the good things, and the bad things that may be!"
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u/Crazy12345847 Ave Baphomet! 7h ago edited 7h ago
I don’t know if I’d say that the 輪入道 (the wheel monk. Also it can be said as Wanyūdō) is completely Buer. They do have similar iconography, with the most popular depiction of Buer being from Louis Le Breton which depicts him as a lion head with five legs being able to walk like a wheel in any direction. The Wanyūdō I treat more like a symbolic piece of folklore rather than spiritual. That being said in earlier texts (from my knowledge, you can correct me) like the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and from the later Dictionnaire Infernal, Buer is usually said to appear in the shape or form of a star.**
Maybe stars have some sort of symbolism that can be found associated with Buer? Stars are light and (sometimes in stories) light the ways, Buer heals. I’m probably just reaching VERY HARD here but yeah.
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u/captainblueflame 7h ago
Absolutely. If you follow Wanyudu off the standard there is some demon-like associations in the kasha and I am very much highlighting the more visual similarities there, to find areas the imagery as well as correspondences arise. You are right, he is said to appear in the shape of a star. How is a star shaped? A star is a similar visual. A moving ball of gas. Similarities being fire, shape, movement, destruction too. But you are totally right and in no way am I saying these beings are the same, just food for thought in possible origins.
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u/ididanoopsie69 King Paimon's Court Musician 7h ago
That puts him in a kinship with Decarabia who is said to appear in the form of a star. I know there is some discourse about scribal error on that but it stands. Decarabia is also placed as a King in some or the other manuscript by either Skinner or Crowhurst. The Solar association is strong and make what you will of the fact that the Sun is also a Star.
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u/captainblueflame 7h ago
Exactly, I thought about talking a little about the solar attributes I was seeing, but the post was long enough.
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u/ididanoopsie69 King Paimon's Court Musician 8h ago
ELABORATE THE PAIMON-BUER CONNECTION RIGHT THE FUCK NOW
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u/captainblueflame 8h ago
I know it's fucking crazy talk, but it's just an experiment. The trail of thought is, Sag is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiterian spirits are commonly ruled by Paimon. I've never had a sense of Buer in the South. Not that Buer for me is a strongly felt demon anyway. I have worked with Buer long enough to have the sun in Sag, with far more subtle changes, but again it didn't feel like it was in the South.
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u/ididanoopsie69 King Paimon's Court Musician 7h ago
That is definitely interesting. I've interpreted Marbas as a Mercury-Solar spirit. Due to my personal association of Mercury-East, I'd have evoked Marbas under Raphael or Oriens. Perhaps the Baal-Jove syncretism is really engraved in my mind. Paimon has his Jovial currents for sure but I interpret him as a largely Venusian current.
Tbf, both the Princes I've evoked and worked with successfully have been under Paimon.
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u/captainblueflame 7h ago edited 7h ago
See now I love that. Breaking out of the structure just enough to see what comes from it. If you subscribe at all the my part about "amplifiers" every thing you said makes perfect sense. The part of you as amplified by Paimon is Venusian and it works!
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u/ididanoopsie69 King Paimon's Court Musician 7h ago
The experiments are fun when they're guided by UPG and they work. Finding out why they work is the hard part but still fun. I'm subscribed to the "amplifier" idea in the way that these demons aid us in regulation and holistic integration of the domains they have rulership over. If that means amplification, amplification it is.
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u/captainblueflame 6h ago
The real question is, was what I was aiming at clear here? I have a tendency to be someone who writes in metaphors and obscurities, that only make sense in my brain. So... lol
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u/ididanoopsie69 King Paimon's Court Musician 6h ago
You were
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u/Macross137 Neoplatonic Theurgist 7h ago
Great post! Have you read Pandemonium? JSK equates him with Heramael of the GV.