Atembui is an infernal spirit of water and storm, whose name derives from the Babylonian demon Atembu or Ataḫbi, ultimately from Sumerian A.DIM₂, meaning 'water-demon' or 'flood-bringer'. In the Goetic and Qabalistic traditions synthesised in the 1904 manuscript of Liber 777, Atembui embodies the turbulent, destructive aspect of water—rain turned to deluge, or the poisonous flood that overwhelms the boundaries of life. The name appears in several late antique and medieval demonological lists, always among the 'spirits of the waters' who serve under the infernal princes of the cardinal points.

Position on the Tree of Life

Atembui is placed on Path 29 of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, the path that connects Hod (Splendour, 8th Sephirah) to Malkuth (the Kingdom, 10th Sephirah). This path is attributed in the Hermetic tradition to the zodiacal sign Pisces and to the element of Water in its receptive, overflowing form. As a 'cadent' column figure (in the astrological house system used by 777), Atembui represents the scattered, formless power of water that has no fixed shape but can fill every hollow—often with corruption or dissolution.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

While the planet Mercury rules the Sephirah Hod, the path itself is under the sign Pisces (the Fishes), and Atembui thus carries the watery, mutable, and psychic qualities of this sign. In the system of Liber 777, the demonic correspondences for this path emphasise the 'evil' or unbalanced form of the planetary and zodiacal forces: Atembui corresponds to the deluge, to stagnant or poisoned water, and to the spirits of madness born of flood.

Historical context

Atembui first appears in cuneiform sources from the Neo-Assyrian period, where it is listed among the utukkū lemnūtu ('evil demons') that bring plague and flood. The name is usually written as Ataḫbi or Atembu, and it is addressed in the great incantation series Utukkū Lemnūtu (Tablet IV–VI) as a demon 'that comes from the river, that has no hands, no feet, but swallows the fields.' The demon is specifically invoked in rituals to avert flood-damage or to curse enemies with drowning. The figure passed into Aramaic and Syriac magic bowls (5th–7th centuries CE) as Atembya, a water-spirit bound by Solomon's seal, and from there into the medieval European grimoires (e.g., the Lemegeton and the Steganographia of Trithemius), where it appears as a 'duke' or 'president' over fifty legions of water spirits. In the Renaissance demonological schemata of Agrippa and Weyer, Atembui is placed among the spirits of the North (the watery quarter) and is said to teach the magician how to still or summon storms.

In Liber 777, Crowley and Neuburg compiled these disparate threads into a single correspondence table, drawing from the Goetia (where the name appears as 'Atembui' in some manuscripts) and from the Qabalistic attributions of the 29th Path. Atembui there stands as the 'evil' or 'cadent' expression of the Piscean water which, when unbalanced, becomes the poison that drowns reason.

At the step of Path 29 in the column 'As Col. CXLVIII (Cadent)' of Liber 777, Atembui is one of the 'demons of the waters' listed alongside other infernal names such as Thuismis (path 18) and Homoth (path 26). Its inclusion underscores the presence of watery, chaotic, and often malevolent forces on paths that mediate between the lower sephiroth—here, the unstable spirits that spring from the ruins of form.