Smile Like You Mean It: Fearlessness in a Medieval Conjuration
The surviving literature of spirit conjuration often places considerable emphasis on the authority of the conjurer. The spirit is commanded, bound, threatened, and compelled to appear. Furthermore, the practitioner must demonstrate that he possesses both the ritual authority and the personal strength necessary to control the being he has summoned.
One medieval Hebrew-Arabic conjuration makes this requirement unusually explicit. The practitioner is instructed: Smile at the spirit.
The smile is not an attempt to befriend the spirit in the modern sense, nor does it transform the operation into a gentle or noncoercive encounter. On the contrary, the spirit is still commanded, bound, threatened, and prevented from leaving until it obeys. The purpose of the smile is much more direct. The conjurer must show the spirit that he is not afraid and full of courage.
Manuscript
The conjuration survives in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. hebr. 214, a fifteenth-century Hebrew composite manuscript catalogued as German-Italian in origin. It consists of 162 written leaves made from both paper and parchment. Rather than being a single-purpose grimoire, it brings together works concerned with several overlapping fields of learned knowledge, including astrology, alchemy, medicine, poisons and antidotes, natural magic, material related to the Picatrix, and portions of a work known in Latin as the Liber vaccae.
The conjuration appears on folios 154r–156v under the title Maʿaseh Bilar melekh ha-shedim, which can be translated roughly as “The Account of Bilar, King of the Demons.” Gal Sofer identifies this text as one Hebrew witness, designated LB2, within the larger textual family he calls the Liber Bileth.
Raphael Patai published the Hebrew-Arabic text with an English translation in 1980 under the title “The Love Factor in a Hebrew-Arabic Conjuration.” Patai was particularly interested in the affectionate language used alongside the more familiar commands and threats of spirit conjuration.
Bilar, Ramrami, and the Authority of Solomon
The work begins with Bilar, a demonic king whose ancestry is traced back to Ashmodai, the king of demons whom Solomon subdued and forced to serve him. The spirit directly summoned in the operation is Ramrami, another member of this demonic lineage.
This genealogy is important in my opinion.
The conjurer is not just calling an unknown spirit and hoping that it responds. He is addressing a being whose ancestors were already subjected to the authority of Solomon. By recalling Solomon’s mastery over Ashmodai, the operation establishes a precedent for Ramrami’s obedience.
The implication in the text is clear: Ramrami’s ancestors submitted to Solomon, and Ramrami must now recognize the authority of a conjurer working within that Solomonic inheritance.
The practitioner, however, cannot rely on the name of Solomon alone. He must demonstrate that he is the kind of person capable of exercising that authority. The text says that Bilar will deliver himself only to someone possessing a strong and powerful soul. When summoned, he first assumes frightening forms in order to test the conjurer.
The spirit wants to know whether the person commanding him is actually worthy of being obeyed.
Preparing for the Spirit
The practitioner is instructed to fashion a metal seal and keep it in a box among pleasant fragrances. He prepares a clean room, burns spices, and sits within a ritual circle. If he fears being harmed, pieces of deer antler may be placed around the circle in the four directions, beginning in the east.
Ramrami is commanded to appear as a beautiful young man with long hair, white clothing, a golden crown, and a rod of fire. He is repeatedly told to come:
“Pleasantly and not wrathfully, joyfully and not in fear.”
The spirit must appear in his proper and favorable form rather than in an ugly or terrifying shape. He is invited to sit beside the conjurer and rest near him. The operator tells Ramrami that he has sought his well-being, prepared his seal, and placed it among pleasant scents.
Patai saw in this language an attempt to create a quasi-love relationship between the conjurer and the spirit, carrying what he described as faint erotic overtones. He drew attention to Ramrami’s appearance as a beautiful youth, the repeated references to his extremely long hair, the declarations of love, and the praise directed toward his appearance.
There is certainly an unusual intimacy in the operation. Ramrami is perfumed, praised, welcomed, and invited to sit beside the conjurer. The operator wants something more than reluctant obedience. He wants the spirit to become reconciled to his authority and eventually to serve him willingly.
I am not convinced, however, that eroticism is the best way to understand this language, and I personally don’t believe the text itself supports it either.
The relationship is not one of friendship between equals or chiefly erotic. The conjurer is attempting to impress upon Ramrami that he is strong, composed, and worthy to occupy the position of master. The affection being sought may be closer to favor, loyalty, reconciliation, or willing allegiance than to either romance or friendship as modern practitioners might understand those terms.
The conjurer is not trying to become Ramrami’s companion.
He is trying to become the kind of person Ramrami will recognize as worthy of obedience.
The form that the spirit is being asked to take, according to my estimation, isn’t being chosen because it is sexually or erotically pleasing, but because it is pleasant and agreeable.
The Spirit Is Still Coerced
It is also important to remember that the affectionate language does not remove the coercive structure of the conjuration. This is not an example of what many modern practitioners try to accomplish with spirits. Ramami may become an ally, but he is a conquered one, bound to obey, and his love may only be of how a slave might love a kind master.
Ramrami is adjured through divine names that he is said to fear. The operator threatens to write the names of the spirit’s servants and cast them into the fire. He declares that Ramrami’s body and deeds are sealed and forbids him from leaving until he appears, speaks, and fulfills the conjurer’s requests.
The spirit is warned about names whose power is compared to fire. Male and female forms of fire and flame are called against spirits who hear the conjuration but refuse to obey. Ramrami is also reminded that Ashmodai, despite being king of the demons, was compelled to submit to Solomon.
The spirit may be welcomed, but he is not free to ignore the conjurer. Though there is praise in the conjuration, Ramrani is still bound.
He may be encouraged to come willingly, but the consequences of disobedience remain present throughout the entire operation.
The smile must be understood within this structure of command and threat.
Why the Conjurer Smiles
The text explains the instruction directly:
“Make sure that you smile, so that he may see that you are not afraid of him.”
It goes on to state that Ramrami tests those who attempt to control him. The spirit initially tries to frighten the practitioner in order to determine whether he is strong-hearted or weak. If the conjurer demonstrates strength, the spirit will respect him, become reconciled to him, and fulfill his needs. If the conjurer appears weak or overwhelmed, the spirit will disregard his words.
The smile is therefore not an invitation to affection or seduction proposed by Patai; it is a ritual performance of fearlessness.
The conjurer must show that the spirit’s appearance has not overwhelmed him. He must demonstrate that he can remain in control of himself while standing before the being he has summoned.
The smile communicates something to Ramrami:
Your appearance has not overcome me. I remain in command of myself and of this encounter.
This does not necessarily mean that the conjurer experiences no fear internally. Courage is not always the absence of fear. It can also mean refusing to allow fear to control one’s behavior. It is a matter of acting the opposite and performatively showing courage when fear may be present.
The text is primarily concerned with what the conjurer displays before the spirit. Even if he feels fear, he must remain outwardly composed. He must sit firmly, speak clearly, raise his eyes deliberately, and smile.
The expression itself becomes part of the ritual.
Courage as a Ritual Technique
This is what I find most compelling about the conjuration.
Modern magicians frequently discuss the importance of courage, confidence, persistence, and composure during spirit work. A practitioner may possess the correct tools and memorize every word of an operation, but none of that guarantees that he will remain steady when something unexpected happens.
The Ramrami conjuration demonstrates that this concern is not exclusively modern.
Here, courage is incorporated into the procedure. The conjurer is given a specific physical action through which courage is demonstrated:
A Smile.
The practitioner prepares the room, constructs the circle, burns the incense, handles the seal, recites the divine names, commands the spirit, and then regulates his own expression.
The ritual is directed not only toward controlling the spirit but also toward governing the conjurer.
What modern magicians might describe as confidence or magical authority is expressed here through the body. The conjurer does not only claim to be fearless, but he also performs fearlessness in the presence of the spirit.
Concluding Thoughts
The conjuration tells the magician to sit with “a strong and firm heart,” like a brave man with a drawn sword, and not to fear. While I am focusing on the “smile,” I want to place it in the broader context of this conjuration and Hebraic culture before I conclude.
I find the sword imagery interesting, since this language reflects the Book of Joshua, where Joshua assumes leadership to carry out the divine authority. It implies fortitude and strength to carry out the mission until it is completed. Likewise, the conjurer is also expected to remain persistent. He repeatedly declares that he will not move until the spirit appears, speaks, and fulfills his request. He must remain within the circle, continue the conjuration, and refuse to allow fear or delay to make him abandon the operation. The strong heart is therefore more than boldness in the moment of manifestation. It includes patience and endurance to see the work through to completion.
The smile becomes the visible expression of that strong heart.
And maybe a little bit of bodily ritual tech.
So smile like you mean it! Hopefully, someone gets that song reference.
Bibliography
Patai, Raphael. “The Love Factor in a Hebrew-Arabic Conjuration.” The Jewish Quarterly Review 70, no. 4 (April 1980): 239–53.
Sofer, Gal. Solomonic Magic: Methodology, Texts, and Histories. Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 11. Leiden: Brill, 2025.
