Correspondences:
Dates: 22 Dec – 30 Dec
Direction: South
Tarot: Two of Pentacles
Planet: Venus
Metal: Copper
Element: Fire
Color: green
Plant: heliotrope
Incense:  sandalwood
Zodiac: 1-10 Capricorn

ENN: Hoath redar ganabal Berith

From the Goetia:
“He hath two other Names given unto him by men of later times, viz.: BEALE or BEAL and BOFRY or BOLFRY. He appeareth in the form of a Soldier with Red Clothing, riding upon a Red Horse, and having a Crown of Gold upon his head. He giveth true answers, Past, Present and to Come. Thou must make use of a Ring in calling him forth, as is before spoken of regarding Beleth. He can turn all metals into Gold. He can give Dignities and confirm them unto Man. He speaketh with a very clear and subtle Voice. He is a Great Liar and not to be trusted unto.”

Connelly says, “Berith prefers the magician to come to the correct answer on his own and will often impart mistruths to impart lessons. This seems to be a method of instruction, rather than something done underhandedly.”

Bereth is possibly a trickster. You will find that tricksters will lie to you or mislead you or lie about themselves in order to create a scenario or something wherein you are forced down a particular path. By doing that it leads to something gained, kind of breaks you out of your shell so that you can go on and gain this skill or knowledge or whatever it is, or to impart a lesson.

Tricksters are very important in the magical traditions. I just found it funny that in the Goetia it says he is a great liar, but previously says he gives true answers, but just bare that in mind that Berith is probably a trickster if you are going to work with him. It can be valuable to your own progress.

Connelly also states Daemon of Alchemy, which is referring to turning metal into gold. Can teach a magician to help himself. When we speak of alchemy, it can be spiritual alchemy. It doesn’t need to be metallurgical, material or anything in that nature. You’re not necessarily taking nickel coins, turning them into gold and then going to sell them for a fortune. With spiritual alchemy you can turn yourself into gold, but in reference to anything pertaining to finances, that really is the base metal aspect which then becomes gold through the alchemical process.

You’ll find that this is also symbolic. As an example, you may start a business. It’s really tough at the beginning. You want to really work on it. You don’t get much profit for the first six months, but as you keep at it, keep growing it, keep adding to it and keep pushing it, then it gets bigger and bigger and you start seeing profits coming in, and that profit continues to grow.

This is the kind of symbolism of taking something, a base metal, and turning it into gold. We are taking a base idea and turning it into gold. A symbolic alchemical process.

Don’t think you’re going to call Berith with a bunch of coins and say please turn them into gold. That’s probably not going to work, but you can probably ask for alchemical advice.

In The Goetia Ritual book it says that red is associated with military, masculine images. In this context it symbolises vengeance, ferocity, cruelty & bloodlust.

I don’t particularly agree with that. I get the association with red, and you’ve got a soldier, in red clothing, on a red horse which does suggest Martial imagery. We have that Martial or Mars influence in here, even though the ruling planet is said to be Venus, but we have this Martial aspect and therefore there is that kind of warlike symbolism to it.

However, I don’t particularly think it needs to be vengeance, ferocity, cruelty and bloodlust. Ferocity maybe, because if we take the business example, you sometimes need to be ferocious. But the bloodlust together with vengeance and cruelty is where things tend to go a bit astray in my viewpoint.

The Goetia Ritual also state Berith “reveals the invisible worm of the night and uncoils its dark secrets.” I have absolutely no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but I thought I’d include that because it seemed quite interesting.

I suppose if you were to consider it the invisible worm, serpent-like, it could be the serpentine or draconic energy of the night and its dark secrets could refer to Kundalini if you really, really, really stretch the interpretation, but I don’t know. I’m not sure what they were talking about there.