Eligos: Warrior Of War

By James Donahue

The old magicians said Eligos, the fifteenth spirit of the Goetia, appears as a knight sometimes riding a ghostly horse and carrying a lance as if prepared for battle. If you look closely at the drawing chosen for this report, there is a serpent curled around the lance and the arm of the rider.

The sigil for Eligos contains a predominant image of a serpent. We suggest that it is possible that it is the serpent and now the armored figure on the horse that is the intelligence known as Eligos.

Death metal artist Dan Seagrave once described this spirit as appearing “in the form of a goodly knight in black armor and riding a dark war-horse. In his right hand he carries a banner on a lance. It bears a legend which cannot be read except from another dimension. In his right hand he holds a curling serpent with ruby scales whose venom is acid.

The old magicians generally agreed that Eligos is a spirit of military energy. He is an advisor to armies and some believe that when called upon, he helps bring them to victory.

Eligos holds the rank of duke and commands  sixty legions of demonic spirits. It is said that he also knows the secrets of the future and can instruct leaders in ways to earn the respect of their soldiers.

There is a legend that Eligos roams the earth planting seeds of discontent among nations and their leaders, thus provoking wars. He is skilled at deception and trickery.

There is even a bizarre legend about the horse that Eligos rides. As the story is told the horse was once a great steed ridden by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After the fall, the horse died from spiritual corruption. Satan resurrected the animal. It stood up, maggots crawling all over its partly decomposed body and fire coming from its nostrils. The horse was then given to Eligos as a gift.