Adramelek is a chthonic king of the Qliphoth, the adversarial shells of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The name derives from the Ammonite deity Adrammelekh (meaning "king of fire" or "magnificent king"), which appears in the Hebrew Bible as a god of Sepharvaim, associated with child sacrifice (2 Kings 17:31). In later grimoire and theurgic tradition, Adramelek is ranked as the Great Chancellor of Hell, overseer of the infernal council, and is often depicted as a mule-headed, peacock-feathered being—a grotesque inversion of royal and solar splendor.

Position on the Tree of Life

Adramelek is assigned to the eighth sphere, Hod (Splendor), on the Qliphothic Tree. In the unholy trinity of the Qliphoth, Hod corresponds to the demonic prince Samael, and Adramelek functions as one of its infernal rulers. This placement situates him in the realm of intellect, illusion, and rigid structure turned to falsehood, where the forms of Hod are twisted into oppressive, fire-based delusion.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

Mercury, the planet of Hod in the Qabalistic system, finds its Qliphothic shadow in the realm of Adramelek. Where Mercury governs communication, commerce, and cunning, Adramelek represents the corruption of these faculties into slander, fraud, and destructive debate. His fire aspect (rooted in the name's meaning) suggests a volatilizing, consuming force within the mercurial sphere.

Historical Context

The earliest textual identification of Adramelek beyond the Bible occurs in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (1818), which lists him as the Grand Chancellor of Hell and president of the High Council of Devils. The description as having a mule's body, a human torso, and a peacock's tail (borrowed from Milton's depiction of Moloch) became standardized in 19th-century occultism.

In the Lemegeton (The Lesser Key of Solomon), Adramelek appears under the name Adramalech as the eighth of the nine demon kings of the Goetia, ruling over the order of Furies. He is said to appear with a face of a man, a body of a lion, and wings of a griffin—a martial variation on his later, more bureaucratic form.

The Qliphothic correspondences of Liber 777 synthesize these sources, assigning Adramelek to the Prince of Qliphoth at the Hod sephira. In this table, he is the eighth step of descent into the shell-world, following the pattern: Kether (Satan, Moloch), Chesed (Lucifuge), Tiphereth (Belphegor).

In Liber 777

In the table, Adramelek appears at the eighth step of the Qliphothic Princes, aligning with Hod. The sibling cells list Satan and Moloch at Kether (scale step 1), Lucifuge at Chesed (step 4), and Belphegor at Tiphereth (step 6), creating a descending hierarchy of infernal royalty at key sephiroth. No further correspondences (planetary metal, number, plant) are assigned in the source row for this entry; the focus is on the title alone.