Overview#

Buer is a named spirit in European magical literature. The Dictionnaire infernal assigns him the rank of president and connects him with philosophy, logic, the properties of plants, and healing. Its illustration makes him one of the most visually recognizable figures in printed demonology.[1]

The figure also appears in the Ars Goetia and in Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. These catalogue appearances provide the textual setting for many later descriptions.[2][3]

Learning and natural knowledge#

The offices assigned to Buer place intellectual and practical knowledge together. Logic and philosophy concern understanding; knowledge of plants concerns their supposed properties and uses. The catalogue’s healing claims then bring those forms of knowledge into a promised capacity to affect bodily life.[1]

That arrangement is significant for the history of magic. A catalogue of spirits is also a catalogue of desired abilities. Its entries reveal what compilers and readers considered worth seeking: instruction, command of language, knowledge of nature, or relief from illness.

Descriptions of Buer’s healing office document a religious or magical claim. They do not supply evidence of clinical effectiveness, and a historical article should not turn that office into a medical recommendation.

The radial image#

The nineteenth-century illustration gives Buer a lion-like head and several outward-facing legs. The result suggests a body able to move in different directions. Its unusual symmetry has helped the picture circulate independently of the entry.[1]

An image of that kind is evidence for an artist’s solution to representing a difficult form. It need not be the earliest description or the only acceptable religious image. A modern reproduction should credit the edition rather than label the drawing simply “ancient Buer.”

Reading across editions#

Weyer and the Goetia belong to a related catalogue history, but a reader should still compare the individual passages. Offices and appearances can be copied, translated, or reinterpreted. The date of a modern edition does not by itself date the origin of every detail within it.[2][3]

In present-day practice, Buer may receive meanings that emphasize study, herbal knowledge, or religious healing. Those interpretations belong to the practitioners who describe them. A source-conscious account can acknowledge that devotion while keeping the historical catalogue and its promises in view.

See also#

References

  1. Jacques Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire infernal, 6th ed. (1863), Buer · Nineteenth-century description and illustration of Buer. (accessed 2026-10-01) ↩
  2. Lemegeton, Part 1: Goetia, transcribed by Joseph H. Peterson · Primary grimoire text with manuscript variants. Spirit descriptions are claims made by the text. (accessed 2026-10-01) ↩
  3. Johann Weyer, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum (1577), edited by Joseph H. Peterson · Latin text and historical English translation of the spirit catalogue, with editorial notes. (accessed 2026-10-01) ↩
Buerspirits

This encyclopedia covers traditions beyond the High Satanic Church. Church doctrine is identified as such when it appears.