Abutes
Abutes (Demonic Servitor)
Abutes is a lesser-known spirit named in S. L. MacGregor Mathers’ influential English translation of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage (often shortened to The Sacred Magic of Abramelin). In Mathers’ rendering, the name Abutes is interpreted as meaning “bottomless” or “measureless”—a definition that immediately frames the entity in symbolic terms: an intelligence associated with vastness, excess, infinity, and unbounded depth.
Within the Abramelin system, Abutes does not appear as an independent “great demon” with a fully developed mythos, but rather as one of the demonic servitors listed under the authority of higher-ranking infernal powers. In the hierarchy presented by Mathers, Abutes is counted among those spirits said to be subject to the arch-demons Asmodeus and Astaroth—two major figures frequently appearing in European ceremonial magic and demonological literature. This placement suggests that Abutes functions as a subordinate force, part of a structured chain of command within a ritual cosmology where spirits are categorised by rank, office, and obedience.
Occult Meaning and Symbolism
Although Abutes has little surviving folklore outside the Abramelin tradition, the translated meaning of the name provides rich interpretive terrain. “Bottomless” and “measureless” imply:
The endless appetite (insatiability, compulsions, excess)
Limitlessness (loss of boundaries, overwhelming magnitude)
Depth without ground (the abyss, the void, spiritual vertigo)
The unquantifiable (forces that cannot be contained, counted, or controlled)
In an esoteric psychological reading—common in modern occultism—Abutes may symbolise states of being that spiral, where desire becomes hunger, thought becomes obsession, or curiosity turns into dangerous fascination.
Role in Ritual Context
In the Abramelin tradition, spirits are not approached casually. The system is fundamentally focused on attaining Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and the demonic hierarchy appears largely in the context of subjugation, where the magician—after achieving spiritual authority—compels obedience from infernal entities. Abutes’ inclusion as a servitor indicates that the name functions primarily as part of a ritual catalogue: a spiritual “index” of forces that may be commanded once the operator is properly prepared and properly protected.
Because Abutes is tied to Asmodeus and Astaroth in this framework, it is often interpreted as reflecting their spheres:
Asmodeus: lust, domination, disruptive passion, temptation, the burning intensity of desire
Astaroth: deception, seductive knowledge, spiritual corruption through false illumination
Thus Abutes may represent an extension of their influence—a lesser force expressing “limitlessness” in the realm of desire, indulgence, fascination, or spiritual risk.
Occult World Note
Abutes stands as an example of how grimoire spirits can exist primarily as names within systems rather than as fully formed mythic beings. Yet in occult traditions, names are rarely meaningless: even obscure spirits can serve as powerful symbols—a word of power pointing toward a specific current. In Abutes’ case, that current is the terrifying allure of the infinite: that which has no bottom, no end, and no measure.
SOURCE:
The Dictionary of Demons written by Michelle Belanger
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