One of the things which jumped out at me amongst the fascinating material in The Book of Treasure Spirits (which I transcribed from Sloane MS 3824) is the use of Goetic spirits for locating and retrieving treasure. The seventy-two spirits of the Goetia are a fascinating group of spiritual creatures, with some clearly being derived from old gods, some perhaps more obscurely so. One also has to wonder if some of them were not originally local spirits taken from folklore who became incorporated into the list of spirits.
The spirits were said to be some of those imprisoned by King Solomon, who ironically were released by a fisherman hoping to find treasure in the brazen vessel they had been bound in! They were certainly not the type of treasure he had in mind! It is interesting to note that of the nine Goetic spirits mentioned in connection with finding treasure in The Book of Treasure Spirits, five of them are also mentioned in association with treasure in the Goetia. Thus Andromalius, Asmodai, Barbatos, Seer and Vassago all occur in the Goetia and in Sloane MS3824. Of course one version of the Goetia was bound into Sloane MS3825, which suggests that the copyist or author of Sloane MS3824 would have had direct access to the material, and would thus have known which spirits to select.
Once again we are left wondering how much material has been lost or destroyed and did not make it through the centuries. Ceertainly the hints are that there is a lot still missing that awaits discovery, or will perhaps never be found – unless those treasure spirits are called to help!
