PRESIDENT BUER
THE WHIRLING PRESIDENT BUER, one of the most distinct and iconic spirits of the Goetia– sporting five
legs and a lion’s face… Buer is the only spelling I have encountered and I know very little about the
etymology, but it reminds me much of the geomantic rune Puer, latin for ‘boy’. This spirit is strongly
associated with Sagittarius, representing the philosophical aspects that come with it. As such, President
Buer can be a very verbose and long-winded spirit. This is a daemon who likes to think himself into holes,
and then think himself out again– in the way that many philosophical minds do. I have a hard time
determining the origins of this creature, but I will say he feels occidental at least, and reminds me of
the culture of old European witchcraft. His personality and intellectual nature is very human, and he
speaks with the same wisdom as someone who is very, very old might, potentially hinting at a once-mortal
existence.
Buer was the first illustration I made for the series of Goetic portraits I would undertake many years
later. Like Dantalion, Buer was illustrated for my earlier project █VFWS, where he can be found in the
tracts of the pyramid. When interacted with, he spits out a few lines of verbose and scalding philosophy
that I had channeled directly from him. His art has since been remodeled, sporting a face I thought would
suit him better. Buer does not usually have a very visual presence in my experience, but I find the face
of this lion creepy in a way that reminds me of him.
Some early and alternative versions of Buer.
Buer is one of if not the first spirit I had ever intentionally made contact with from the Goetia.
I had been surrounded by many kinds of spirits for much of my childhood prior, but I had spent most of
it unaware of what I was doing. I was still a teen at this point, and very fledgling into my own
awakening of these esoteric interests. It was so long ago that I can no longer relate to my mindset
from these times. As a young’un I carried a lot of loathing… I was largely devoid of empathy and my
senses were dull. The memories I have from this chapter of my life are grey and bleak, as I was very
disassociated and my mind was cruel. I had grown this way as the price of survival, and given the early
childhood I had endured prior I can only count my lucky stars for being alive. I can’t recall what
specifically led me to President Buer, but somewhere in my occult studies I had encountered his
Dictionnaire Infernal rendition, and I had found the illustration so striking that I did a study of
it with my favorite set of micron pens. Some time passed, and I had encountered the name Buer several
times after that. Eventually I felt it apt to reach out to this spirit and pay my respect, and even at
this age I felt the Solomonic method of conjuring and forcibly binding a spirit to be contemptible.
Despite proverbially raw-dogging this first evocation, I was still somewhat wary, so I made it a
personal point to go into the evocation with no intention other than to pay due respect to this spirit.
There was nothing I wanted from President Buer, and I had no desire to strike a deal or make contracts.
My first contact was not too eventful, I only felt a sense of polite acknowledgement from Buer as he
seemed to appreciate the respect I gave him. This opened the door for a comfortable familiarity that
grew over the years, as my interactions with Buer remained sparse but friendly. I began to talk to him
about my qualms in life, and he would speak to me like a crotchety old man, providing me with his
brutally cynical philosophies as I listened to him ramble.
Buer as depicted in the Dictionnaire Infernal.
I often see President Buer cited as being able to treat those afflicted by mental illness. In fact,
I have seen Buer take a shining to the mentally ill on numerous occasions, appearing in synchronicity or
being sought out by those afflicted– some of these people needed his help a lot more than I ever did. I
myself am no stranger to the plights of the neurodivergent mind, and in the worst of my teenage depression
I found comfort in Buer, as both an old friend and a therapist of sorts. It makes me think of something a
friend told me, that for most people a $300 session with a shrink is about as therapeutic as a $50 night on
the town with a good pal. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is listen to them. In that sense,
I consider Buer to be like a mirror of dark philosophies, the voice that affirmed and validated many of the
pains I had at the time. Many of the perspectives President Buer expressed were a lot more pessimistic and
cynical than I would find myself agreeing with now, however I believe these were things he told me not
because they are true per se, but because I needed to hear them at the time. He spoke against love, and was
rather misanthropic, mercilessly critiquing the banalities of mortality and the weaknesses of being
flesh-and-blood creatures forever doomed to swoon over the reflections in each others’ eyes… Though harsh,
he said many things that remain true, though in the same way old people might say these things to stamp out
the foolish dreams of youth.
Old illustration of a dream from my early teenage years. Though I had not been involved in the Goetia at this time, I now believe this dream to have been my first contact with President Buer. The dream was about a board game of some sort, where you had to spin a top and start a timer, and the value of the clock was somehow used. I had spun the top and started the timer, and the digits all appeared as upside-down twos. I read this as an imminent omen, and soon after a bipedal lion figure barreled into the room and caused me to wake up with a start.
After I began interacting with Buer, I remember seeing several pieces of media with Buer represented in them,
which I have since been unable to find again. In one of them, I remember a video of a bald man performing a
channeling of the spirit, and I watched as his body language, voice, and personality transformed, and even
his face seemed to age as he began to espouse philosophies beyond my level of understanding at the time. It
was a chilling sight, and while I cannot remember the contents of his words, the image of the man’s visage
changing as Buer spoke through him still sticks with me. I was later lent a zine from a witch who heavily
kindled my interest in the Goetia, and while I have tried and failed to find the name of the publication I
do still remember some striking details from it. It was a tasteful story, of a medieval witch performing a
spell of some sort. The way it was illustrated felt like a portal into the past, as even the people in it
had the look of people from an age long ago. There were themes of eroticism, that felt viscerally real and
smutty to read, in the way that these sort of zines often have a knack for. In one of the scenes, after
collecting the seed from a hanged murderer, the witch throws all sorts of poisons into her cauldron– and
an apparition of Buer materializes. He spoke in a way that felt out of place amidst the rest of the writing,
and spoke on many things that deeply resonated with my own philosophies of the time. It was reality-bending
to read, as the thoughts I had grappled with on my own were being read to me from this apparition of Buer.
Unfortunately with the sources of both of these lost medias being memory-holed over the years, I have nothing
else besides my spotty recollection of them– and can provide you with nothing more than my hazy account.
Still, these are the associations that my mind has made with Buer, and I feel that although incomplete they
are worth sharing.
Some simple illustrations of the two aforementioned lost medias. Memory is an unreliable thing after many years, so I’m sure the original medias look wildly different but these are (roughly) how the snapshots appear in my mind.
Nowadays, I no longer relate to the blackpill-heavy philosophies I remember of Buer, and I in fact have
little taste for philosophy in general after making myself sick of it in college– However I still think
fondly of this spirit and exchange the occasional niceties every now and again. Buer is, to me, like one
of those friends that you can have a two-minute conversation with once a year and still have fondness for
one another. In writing this I have had a bittersweet feeling, reminiscing on a much darker time in my
life and unearthing lost memories, and in a way I feel more grounded for it. President Buer is a spirit that
feels loveless and lonely to me, and while he might not admit it, I think he desires to be listened to as
much as anyone else does. In a way he reminds me of the cranky elderly in geriatric homes, unpleasant and
opinionated, but only because they’re lonely and their joints hurt and everyone they know is dead. I have
found this spirit to be verbose and talkative when the mood is right, and very appreciative of gestures of
goodwill. Even if the things he says are grouchy and bitter sometimes, he means well enough and can provide
relief to those in need of a confidant, or just a stable grounding rock.
Ave President Buer!
– KK