The second spirit of the Ars Goetia and the first Duke of the hierarchy. Agares appears as a fair old man riding upon a crocodile, carrying a goshawk upon his fist. He teaches all languages and dialects, causes those who have run away to return, makes the earth shake, overthrows dignities and causes titles of nobility. A spirit of remarkable linguistic and seismic range.
Agares appears as a fair old man — not frightening or monstrous but ancient and dignified, a being of accumulated wisdom who presents himself in the form of elder authority. He rides upon a crocodile and carries a goshawk upon his fist. This image is carefully constructed: the old man represents depth of time and the authority of accumulated knowledge; the crocodile represents the primal, ancient, water-dwelling force upon which he has mastery; the hawk represents precision, focus and the trained hunting intelligence directed by his will.
The crocodile is one of the oldest living animals — unchanged for tens of millions of years, a survivor of the age of dinosaurs, a creature of pure ancient force. A spirit who rides a crocodile rather than a horse or bear is demonstrating mastery over the most primordially enduring of earthly forces. The crocodile also inhabits the boundary between water and land — the threshold between two worlds — appropriate for a spirit whose powers include the movement of people across boundaries (returning runaways) and the crossing between languages and cultures.
He appears at sunrise — the Dukes of the Goetia are traditionally called during daylight hours, and Agares specifically is associated with the moment of first light, of beginnings, of the first crossing from darkness into day.
The Second Spirit is a Duke called Agares. He is under the Power of the East, and cometh up in the form of a fair Old man riding upon a Crocodile, carrying a Goshawk upon his fist, and yet mild in appearance.
— Ars Goetia, Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, 17th centuryAgares governs an unusual combination of powers — linguistic mastery, seismic force and the return of those who have fled. These three capacities are connected by a single underlying principle: the movement of things across boundaries. Languages are the boundaries between peoples; earthquakes are the movement of the earth's own boundaries; the return of runaways is the reversal of a boundary crossing. Agares is a spirit of threshold forces — of what happens at and across edges.
Agares's linguistic gift is more significant than it might initially appear. In the Western magical tradition, language is not merely a communication tool — it is the operative medium of magic itself. The ability to speak and write correctly is the ability to invoke, to command, to bind and to release. A spirit who teaches all languages is teaching all possible modes of magical operation.
The connection between Agares and the Reality as Code principle is direct: if language is the syntax through which reality is addressed, then a spirit who teaches all languages is a spirit who teaches all syntaxes — all possible ways of issuing commands to the underlying structure of reality. In the Kabbalistic framework, the divine names are themselves a special language, and mastery of language in general is a step toward mastery of the divine names specifically.
Agares has historically been invoked by scholars, translators, travellers and diplomats — those whose work requires the ability to move between linguistic worlds, to carry meaning across the boundaries that separate peoples and cultures. His old man form is appropriate: the master of all languages is necessarily ancient, having had the time to learn them all.
Agares and the Tower of Babel: the biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel — in which the unified language of humanity was divided into many tongues as divine punishment — is the negative image of what Agares offers. Where the Babel event scattered linguistic unity into division, Agares offers the reverse: the restoration of access to all tongues, the ability to cross all the linguistic boundaries that the Babel event created. A spirit who teaches all languages is, in this reading, a spirit who undoes Babel — who restores to the individual conjurer the unified linguistic access that humanity collectively lost.
In modern practice, Agares is sought by those working with language — writers, translators, linguists, those learning difficult languages, and those who need to communicate across significant cultural barriers. His return-of-runaways power is worked with for the restoration of estranged relationships, missing persons or situations that have escaped control. His dignity-granting power is relevant for those seeking recognition, promotion or social elevation.
His mild appearance is worth noting — many Goetia spirits arrive in terrifying or overwhelming forms. Agares comes as a fair old man, gentle in presentation. This mildness does not indicate lesser power but a different mode of authority: the authority of deep wisdom rather than raw force. He is approached respectfully as an elder, not commanded as a subordinate.