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Demonic sigils in handy form

Cory Doctorow at 10:00 am Tue, Sep 4, 2012

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Here's all the demonic summoning symbols you're likely to use on a daily basis, in handy flashcard form. All you need to do is print it up and stick it over your monitor, so it's handy when you need it.

A List of Several Demons and Their Sigils of Summoning

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Vengefultacos

    They’re so busy, they need two demons of war, eh?

    Sadly, sounds about right.

    • Ashen Victor

       They need one for each side!

  • Nonentity

    Is it safe to have these inscribed in my monitor’s pixels, let alone print it out?  I have enough troubles with daemons on my computers as it is!

    I would think this would be NSFW, if only for the security concerns of bringing demonic influences into the controlled network…

    • echolocate chocolate

      Fortunately we don’t use vector displays; little known fact but these sigils were the real cause of images “burning in” to phosphors. CRT monitors work using micro-sigils, which only burn in slightly as their summoning ability is very minimal. However, they still accumulate malign daedric energy and so “screen savers” were invented, literally to “save” the screen from hellish entities–this is in fact why an early example had angelic flying toasters: each toaster was individually blessed by a purification algorithm written by a practitioner of Light Programming.

    • MadRat

      Say, doesn’t this mean that Cory simultaneously summed all the demons of Hell?

  • Jorpho

    “Amnixiel, Demon of the Lines” sounds most appropriate for coding, given the lack of “Hell’s Electorate Parenthetical”.

    Notice how “Surgat, Who Opens All Locks” looks oddly like a pound sign?

    • GawainLavers

      The hashtag of hell.

  • jandrese

    Demon symbols apparently look like circuit diagrams.

    I find it interesting that all demons use a fairly similar style.  You would think they would each want to do their own thing, maybe add some shading or some feathering here or there.  Maybe some dotted or dashed lines.  I guess whomever came up with these way back when wasn’t as creative as he thought he was. 

    Also, Amnixiel looks like a butt. 

    • EvilTerran

      I’d guess they’re optimised for engraving in your altar. Or carving into the flesh of your sacrifices or whatever.

      • jandrese

        Wow, hell demons sure are considerate. 

    • bleeeker

      Most of these symbols seemed to have been made-up by the person who created the image.

      http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/oqyr1/demons_and_their_sigils_of_summoning/c3jdfgj

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop

        I was wondering about that.  Some of them are obviously derived from The Goetia (those tend to be the ones that look like circuit diagrams, coincidentally), but others are clearly modern and for entities that weren’t ever part of traditional demonologies.

      • RaidenDaigo

        I thought so because many of the names are angel names (usually suffixed with “EL” though there are many fallen angels too) and the sigils are too neat for demons.

    • John Fleming

      Yup.  I wonder if he used one of these to draw them?

      • IronEdithKidd

        This, a couple triangles, a french curve, a circuit template (you’ve got the flow chart template shown) and a Leroy.

        Never underestimate a bored drafter.

    • http://profiles.google.com/jon.scott Jonathan Scott

      i summon JFET, lord of the infernal gates

    • petertrepan

      Since “demon” means “wise,” they have agreed on a rational specification for how their symbols should be drawn. But since it’s Hell, the official file format may only be viewed in Internet Explorer.

      • RaidenDaigo

         Demon means “thing of a divine nature, possibly coming from daiesthai :to divide, but usually just a spirit.

    • RaidenDaigo

       That’s because Angels and Demons are celestial robots, King Solomom had their sigils programmed into his micro-proto-computer ring so he could rebuild the Temple.

    • KBert

      Play with the resulting equations at your own risk.
      Laundry.

  • presleydent

    CS Lewis gets it right:
    “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight”.

    • petertrepan

      TLDR; Famous apologist says you should believe in demons but not think too hard about it.

      • RaidenDaigo

         You are confusing study with obsession.

  • corydodt

    The demon “Abyss” apparently hails from Antioch.

    • Shibi_SF

      It’s HELL out there in Antioch.  

    • RaidenDaigo

       Abbadon (Destruction) is the Angel of the Abyss. There is no demon called Abyss (Sheol) in the Abrahamic traditions.

    • corydodt

      This may have been too subtle.

      • http://twitter.com/Loungebeast Brad Bartram

        Nah, I was just thinking the sigil looked like a globus cruciger.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    These symbols are printed on the circuit boards of voting machines. If you vote for Obama, you’re summoning a  demon who will make congress increase government spending, make your kids gay, give away free abortion coupons and teach evolution in the local public school.

    Note: Above is satire, but is as equally well sourced as many other wingnut attack lines, and is therefore true!

  • Bokonon

    I was freaked out a little when I saw this because this is what my doodles have been looking like lately.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Duanburge/100000313244887 Mark Duanburge

    What’s the sigil to summon Antinous ?

    • petertrepan

      Just type something in all-caps. For an extra speedy summoning, make it about RON PAUL.

    • Mister44

      I dunno what it is – but I must include it in my posts a lot.

  • OldBrownSquirrel

    Gotta catch ‘em all!

  • theophrastvs

    For my money Dr Seuss’s alphabet shows more compact artistry:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Beyond_Zebra!
    just look at “Thnad”, just look at it.

    (hmm.. in meta-sigils-land i didn’t know one could have an exclamation point in an URL)

  • http://twitter.com/el_otro_vladi Vladi

    What? no Joe Demon anywere? If I’m gonna summon a demon, might as well be a familiar name. Dont trust a demon with an a-hole name ;)

    • nachoproblem

       What about Cornholio? (The Great One)

  • Lilah

    Nice to see that among all the chaos and despair, the demons took time to set up an organized society. I guess things would be a real drag without Apadiel keepin’ it funky down there.

    I’m confused about Tephros though. “Fever Curer” doesn’t really seem like a demonic occupation. Maybe he/she/? only cure’s demons’ fevers? Do demons get sick?

    • Dapper Swain

      Considering he’s also the ashmaker, maybe he’s more about burning the plague-ridden? Cures the Hell out of (into?) fever. Considering they also have an “electorate  physician”, it seems more likely.

      On that note, wonder what it’s like to be Hell’s physician? Lots of work, or very little?

  • http://www.cruft-private-janitorial.com/ Michael Johnson

    Can’t help but think daemons, especially the “open source-y” names… oh crap, did we upgrade from Befafes to Babalel?  Is that v2.61 or v2.01?  Crap, what the heck is befafes taking up 60% of my middle-east CPU… erg.  Wonder if I can banish Befafes without causing some other kind of crash…  damn, is it 3am?  let’s see:

    > sudo banish Befafes -p TetraGrammatron
    Remove LARP wargaming, which depends on Befafes?  N
    > sudo diminish Befafes
    Reducing Befafes priority
    > sudo conjour Ambriel -p
    Installed.
    > sudo service Ambriel start; Ambriel transmorgify Befafes to Babalel
    Working ….. Done.

  • Ryan Lenethen

    Poet Demon? Truely terrifying!

    “No, No more….”

    • Antinous / Moderator

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_McKuen

    • nachoproblem

       The poet demon’s name should be “Vogon.”

    • http://www.iandicomputing.com Clifton

      “O beautiful bridge over the silvery river Tay,
      Which has caused the Emperor of Brazil to leave his home so far away,
      Incognito in his dress,
      And he will pass this way on his journey to Inverness.
      …”

       - The demon Macgonagel

  • relawson

    More at the source shows one that looks like the burning man effigy as the sigil to summon “an unholy power” haha!

  • http://www.markcrummett.com crummett

    Are there keyboard shortcuts for these? That would be a real time saver.

  • niktemadur

    Okay, none of these correspond to Zeppelin’s “IV” (or “Zoso”).
    Guess it’s cool to summon my “Black Dog” MP3 right now, then.

  • http://twitter.com/enkiv2 John Ohno

    It looks like these are from the Simon Necronomicon, at least from the names. A nice mish-mash of goetica, hermetica, lovecraftian names, and a few token and horribly mangled sumerian/akkadian/babylonian names.

  • Susanna King

    Is it just coincidence that these look like something out of an electrical engineering diagram?

    • nachoproblem

       It’s because they’re all spawn of the demon “Killroy.”

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Killroy.png

  • http://boardgamegeek.com/user/mcdrunk McDrunk

    Yay!  Off to graffiti the local fundie Baptist church!  Heil Santa!

  • echolocate chocolate

    This looks like it was originally printed using a plotter, meaning that someone was working on automated demon summoning. Just scale up the plotting coordinates and replace the ink with goat’s blood and you have a computer-controlled demon summoner–and since computers can summon at a much faster than human rate you can dynamically optimize your demon usage depending on your operational needs.

  • http://www.tumblr.com/blog/whamoblam RKS

    Which one says “Purple Rain?”

  • stedge

    Luckily they cannot ignore SIGKILL. Just make sure you get their PID or you are screwed.

  • Mark Dow

    FEYNMAN
    Joker of quantum field theory

  • http://twitter.com/db2fred Fred Sobotka

    Which Unicode block has these symbols?

    • Cynical

       Well, duh. U+0666.

  • Antinous / Moderator

    No distinction between fallen angels and common demons?  Tyro.

  • Mazoola

    So were these used by hobos to indicate which demons had been invoked by the residents of a house? “Good pie / You can sleep in barn / sacrifices children to Astaroth.”

  • http://www.facebook.com/RyanFLeonard Ryan Leonard

    Am I the only one who looked for Korrok?

    • Dapper Swain

      “The best trick the devil pulled was convincing us there were only 90 of him.”

  • Mike The Bard

    I find it interesting that the sigil for Aciel looks extremely similar to the alchemical symbol for “compose”, but the sigil for  Anael looks nothing like the symbol for “anneal”.

    Just a bit of random occult observation.

  • Shibi_SF

    Cassriel “the poet” looks alarmingly like:  Pregnant lady down!

  • Donald Petersen

    I’m having trouble taking Bornogo seriously, when his sigil so closely resembles a blissfully slumbering Trix Rabbit.

  • snagglepuss

    This STILL won’t get John Constantine to be your Facebook friend.

  • http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

    Could somebody make this as a font?  Pandemonium.otf .  Also might look nice on a border.

  • pbterry

    excellent

  • oasisob1

    Seems like it would be incredibly dangerous to just print this. That or a great way to make sure your party is well-attended…

  • nachoproblem

    I see there’s “The Quick One”  but I’m still trying to find sigils for “The Cute One” and “The Funny One.”

  • Wingnut

    Those sigils look remarkably like crop circles. Expect cursed wheat products.

  • Lyle Hopwood

    Isn’t Blisdon that station on the Central Line where half the trains used to stop and turn round, making you wait overground in the cold, after you thought you’d got on one that was going all the way to Ongar?

  • viadd

    Whatever you do, don’t print these on an HP printer.

    Who could have guessed that Carly Fiorina’s decision to fill inkjet cartridges with the blood of the innocent would have unintended consequences?

  • http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie

    This one was missing:

    To summon TransfatEl, Demon of obscene obesity.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/McDonald%27s_Golden_Arches.svg/200px-McDonald%27s_Golden_Arches.svg.png

  • Wingnut

    The most fearsome one of all:

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Deckman/100000169991669 Jason Deckman

    List fails without Crowley.

  • dr_awkward

    Elder Sign chaser?

  • http://www.facebook.com/Muneraven Karen Sylte

    I think these are obsolete, rather like rotary telephones.  You can’t call individual demons anymore.  The system wasn’t working.  Everyone called the wish-granting guy, and the sorrow demon just sat around headquarters playing Mine Sweeper over and over and over (always picking the wrong square at the very last minute, of course).    Hell switched to a call-center format.  Now you just put in a general call, you get put on hold and are forced to listen to a hideous versions of  songs you never much liked anyway, and then whatever demon is available will be there to assist you.

    Assist you . . . bwahahahaha!

  • miasm

    I seem to have been excluded from this list.

  • http://www.iandicomputing.com Clifton

    I had to get my Lemegeton Goetia off the shelf and check all of these, out of curiosity, to see how this list compares. (Because I’m compulsive.  Shut up.)  There’s surprisingly little overlap. 

    Most of the demon names don’t appear in the Goetia.  Those which do are as follows:

    Furtur in this list is probably supposed to be the Earl Furfur, who can summon storms; this sigil is similar but much simplified compared to the Goetia.  Forcas should be the President Foras who can teach the Virtues of all Herbs and Precious Stones and also teaches Logic and Ethics (funny, I don’t remember hearing about him in Civics class); not much resemblance between the sigils.  Ipos, Earl and Prince, is in both, with a sigil that looks almost exactly like his sigil from the Goetia, but slightly simplified; ditto for Marchosias and  Malphas. Naberius and Orias are in both lists, but with no visible similarity between their designs. The King Paimon is in both lists; his sigil here looks somewhat like the one from the Goetia, but partly simplified and partly altered.  The sigil for Ronove, the infernal IT department, is very close to an exact match. Raum/Rauym – no real resemblance.  Sabnock (Sabnac), Sallos (Saleos), and Sitri (Sytri) have matching sigils but might be unhappy to have their names misspelled or mispronounced.  Valac is a good match. Vepar’s sigil is again much simplified. Zepar mostly matches up.

    I’m no longer sure what the original point of this post was, but will post it in case anybody else was idly curious.  By the way, there is a demon Zagan according to the Goetia.  It doesn’t say whether he promotes atheism and secularism, but he maketh Men Witty, and he can even make Fools Wise.  Good for him.