The license to depart is often quoted as a polite final sentence. In the Goetia it performs more work. It reviews the claimed exchange, directs the spirit to leave without harm, preserves future availability, keeps the operator inside the circle until departure is judged complete, and ends with prayer. Comparing its relatives shows how a short inherited formula became a fuller closing protocol.
- Goetia action
- Dismiss, wait, give thanks
- Earlier parallel
- Heptameron
- Witness question
- How much closure is inherited
Departure reverses the logic of arrival
The first conjuration specifies where and how the spirit should arrive: before the circle, visibly, peaceably, in an intelligible form. The welcome then forbids departure until the requested work is completed. The final license reverses those conditions one by one. Continued presence becomes authorized withdrawal; the demand for peaceful arrival becomes departure without injury; compelled attendance becomes readiness to return when called again. The rite closes by undoing a temporary relation that its earlier speeches created.
This symmetry explains why the dismissal belongs to communication history rather than ceremonial housekeeping. The text imagines a bounded interval in which a named respondent can be questioned. Opening and closing sentences mark who controls that interval. Without the license, the narrative would end while the welcome’s command to remain was still active. The conclusion therefore resolves a contradiction generated by the ritual’s own grammar.
The Goetia adds actions after the sentence
Sloane MS 3825 says that because spirit N has answered diligently and came willingly, it may return to its proper place without harm to human or animal. It is charged to withdraw quietly and remain ready for a future call. The rubric then tells the operator not to leave the circle until the spirit is gone and until prayers and thanks to God have been made. Claimed communication ends through observation, waiting, and devotion as well as words.
The gratitude is hierarchical. The spirit is thanked indirectly for answering, but God receives the final prayer for granting desires and protection from malice. This maintains the same Christian authorization used in the summons. The operation begins by claiming divine power to command and ends by attributing the safe result to that power. Whether or not anyone enacted it, the literary frame prevents the demon from becoming the highest authority in the scene.
Worked comparison: the Goetia expands the Heptameron dismissal
The Heptameron’s dismissal is compact: in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the spirits are told to go in peace to their places, keep peace with the operator, and be ready when called. It follows immediately after the instruction to command what is desired. The sentence contains place, peace, and future availability, but it does not narrate a review of the individual respondent’s diligence or tell the operator to wait inside the circle.
The Goetia preserves that core while personalizing it. Spirit N is addressed in the singular, its answers and prompt arrival are mentioned, harm to people and animals is forbidden, and post-dismissal waiting and thanksgiving are added. The result fits a catalogue in which one named spirit has just been selected from seventy-two. The Heptameron speaks to weekday spirits as a company; the Goetia adapts the formula to the conclusion of an individualized interrogation.
The Key of Solomon offers another related form: spirits return to their places in peace, then the participants recite Genesis, leave the circle in order, wash with prepared water, change clothing, and resume ordinary activity. Here closure expands into human reintegration. The three witnesses share a peace formula but attach different consequences. The comparison demonstrates transmission through modules: a short dismissal can be copied into a larger book and made to close a different ritual architecture.
Variant endings reveal editorial boundaries
Peterson notes that the Heptameron dismissal is absent from one witness and that its placement helps identify where an earlier form of the work may have ended. In the Goetia, a note about commanding spirits into the brass vessel follows the license before the first part closes. In the Key, dismissal sits among instructions for leaving the circle. A heading that looks identical in a modern contents list can therefore occupy a different textual boundary.
The 1904 Goetia printing regularizes the language and makes “The License to Depart” a memorable standalone heading. That visibility helped the passage circulate independently, but an isolated quotation hides the arrival, welcome, and waiting rules it resolves. Reading the complete sequence shows that courtesy and coercion coexist: the spirit is wished peace while still being ordered, watched, and kept available. The page is evidence for a historical model of closure, not a guarantee of safety or efficacy.