Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Demonic Agendas

In his Archonology post, Gordon recently presented the following sidebar:
Sidebar: it does, however, fascinate me that contemporary western occultism can display such a sad, trainspotty obsession with the lineage of grimoiric demons and stress over the most precise ways in which we ‘should’ contact ‘them’… but little thought is actually given to what these things do when they’re not appearing in your living room. Beings that apparently command vast ghost armies and give nightmares to kings are just… what? Sitting patiently in the metaphoric drive-thru window just waiting to help you get that 5% payrise? Or are they skinriding the brutal oligarchs bringing destruction and penury upon the world just for the lulz? Are you sure you’re even interesting enough to warrant a demon prince’s attention?
Hee hee! I love Gordon.

He's right, of course, there's not enough understanding of the framework of the spirits of the "demonic" grimoires among the traditionalist and fundamentalist movements in the practical occult. I classify all the grimoires of the Renaissance as being, pretty much, Hermetic in fundamental nature. They are founded on the principles of the Hermetic cosmology.

Hermetics has a rich landscape of spirits. There are the Celestial spirits of the heavens, the Terrestrial spirits of Nature, Elemental spirits, and Infernal spirits from the underworld. We are related to all of them, via our parents, First Father and the Spiritus Mundi. We are kith and kin to them all.

In the grimoires, the spirits that get classified as "demons" most often (i.e. when I think about them) are the spirits of the Lemegeton's Goetia, maybe the Theurgia Goetia, the spirits of the True Grimoire, the spirits of the Testament of Solomon, and some of the spirits you run into in the Clavicles, maybe. Oh, and the demons of the Abramelin rite, which was entirely about conjuring demons for money and happiness and not at all interested in happy illumination or enlightenment. Money. Power. Influence. Happiness. That's what the Abramelin rite is about, and it's demons that get it for you.

Now Jake Stratton-Kent has gone over it in awesomely better detail in Geosophia and True Grimoire, so I'll refer you there for more information about these next bits if you have questions. I'm summarizing and possibly paraphrasing, and probably changing some stuff to make it fit. But the gist of it is that the Demons are Elemental Spirits, for the most part. The four demonic kings are the kings of the elemental Kingdoms, and everyone else is a servant of them.

That's it, folks. Most of the "demons" you hear so much about are Elementals. Bet you didn't know every time you did an Elemental Kingdom rite you were conjuring demons, eh? Well you were! You're a Goetic Magician now, man, it's all over for you. You might as well be calling up the spirits of the dead, you damned necromancers!

So anyway, not a big deal, really. Demons are elemental spirits. That's the Terrestrial realm, mostly. So why the evil reputations? Let's not blame the Christians entirely, though they can carry a great deal of the blame. If you look at elemental spirits in many cultures, it's not long before you see that they are often up to no good. Faeries and sprites, leprechauns and dragons, the interactions between the two rarely end well. They have a reputation for mischief, the painful kind, disease-spreading, and strife-causing.

Now nature spirits are worker bees, just like the planetary governors of the allegedly celestial spheres. They are the Intelligences of the forces that oversee. They create reality, like blue-collar workers. They can be crass, opinionated, and bitter. They can also be the intelligences of disease, overseeing the manifestation of the common cold, or cancer. They are the spirits responsible for creating the things that come from nature that we don't like as much as the things that we do like.

So when they aren't in the circle or triangle, they are off overseeing the things over which they rule. They have legions of helpers because think about how many forces are interacting at once to maintain this universe. Legions and legions. And we can tap their forces if we want, but it's not guaranteed to be any entity who likes you, and you can't expect not to be impacted by what they are also lords over. Like if you conjure a apirit known to be a liar, don't be surprised if you, even though you've bound the spirit to tell the truth, become a liar yourself for a bit after working with him. They rub off on us.

It's no big deal, they aren't "bad." They just manifest things we don't like. You have to be really careful to understand the nature of the spirit you're working with when you do material magic so you can understand how it will manifest your results.

But on the other hand, these spirits are wicked smart when it comes to learning how to manifest things ourselves. They can teach us the nature of things, the correspondences of different elements, and how to combine them in neat ways to create specific results in our magical activities. We can get serious skills in mastering the manifestation game from them, if we ask for learning, teaching, education, information, skill, and talent in the spheres they rule. They can teach us how to "phrase" things when we speak them into existence.

And when they're done with us, they go back to their business, manifesting whatever needs manifesting wherever it's necessary. They aren't planning anything evil (except the one who are supposed to, and still... "evil"), they aren't riding politicos (except the ones who do) or running multi-generational experiments on human genetics (except ... well... it's a secret...).

So no need to worry about those demons and whatever they might be up to when they aren't around.

Everything's just fine.

9 comments:

  1. Couldn't disagree more. In terms of history Agrippa and other Grimoires that deal with them treat elementaries and nature spirits as a separate neutral issue rather than demons.

    Demons were specifically sought after because they were:

    1. Thought to be more powerful than ordinary spirits of nature, yet because of their demonic nature, more ready to grant boons of wealth and pleasure.
    2. Thought to be causing mischief when not bound. The reason that you bind the demons after Abramelin is to give them a place in your personal kingdom rather than let them run amok. The demons in the Testament of Solomon all stem from a single demon that was exorcised from a possessed boy.

    Thats why the operator in these grimoires is so often called Exorcist.

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  2. Agrippa's scale of the number four, book 2, chapter 7 demonstrates the four "princes of spirits upon the four angles of the world" (Oriens, Egyn, Paymon, and Ayomon) are separate entities differentiated from the four princes of devils, (Sammael, Azazel, Azael, and Mahazael).

    The princes are pretty clearly elemental. Yet they are still cast in the same "Infernal realm" as the princes of the devils.

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  3. I'm not going to rewrite jake's books, they're referenced though. The demons are pretty clearly elemental spirits when you track them down, and the satyrs, nymphs, gnomes, etc. are part of their kingdoms. Different aspects, different parts of the spectrum, but the same types of entities.

    And I said they were doing mischievous things that people don't like when we're not looking, I thought. :)

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  4. According to Hindu tradition demons engage in great "tapasyas" (penances, spiritual and ascetic practices) for years or millenia to please various divinities (such as Shiva and Brahma who are easily pleased) and to get spiritual boons from the gods or to develop siddhis (powers) and recharge their batteries. So they may be some of the greatest disciplined spiritual practitioners in the universe when they are not engaged in creating havoc and destruction in the world! They work hard and they play HARD! ;)

    Adesh!
    -Aghor Pir

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  5. Why do I hear Randall's voice from Time Bandits when he's talking to Robin Hood's thugs..."Summoning Goetic demons, conversing with the spirits of the dead? All the time, pal! Argh!"

    Jake.

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  6. I think both (Jason and RO) say the truth but from different points of view. I resolve by Islam. Both, the elemental spirits and the infernal spirits are considered jinn (or demons if preferred), only those who Jason is concerned are called shayateens. In fact, Agrippa calls both type of spirits "daemons"(I'm not thinking about Christian pejorative word), but with the difference between the demons of nature or elemental beings, and which he calls subterranean or underworld demons.

    And, yes, the Hindu view of Aghor consistent with Buddhism,where they are considered great ascetics, but this refers to the shayateens or asuras, not genii elementary. And even in Islam by saying that Iblis was the champion in devotion and effort to his Lord.

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  7. I continue a bit with my previous answer. The problem of the Church is not the be considered "demons" to the spirits who are not angels, but to apply this word in the sense that they are only shayateens, ie that there are no spirits who do not obey the hierarchy of Iblis or Lucifer, and that all demons should be considered as infernal, subterranean or underworld.

    And yes, RO, there are those who are also half way so to speak. I do not remember which of the four elemental kings (or all four?) comes from the seed of Iblis, I think Paymon, (Maymon, Meymoon, or as you like).

    In Islam what the Romans called genius locii, is called Amir or Amaar, a resident jinn.

    I prefer to call agathos-daimon only to angels, since they can not disobey God making us some trick or evil, because they have no free will. Then the others are not pure evil wicked demons, but for their ability to do evil. Like us, people!
    I remember the words of Jesus when speaking of his humanity said: Why do you call me good?
    Although I prefer the geniuses that are not shayateens(devils), much less fire and heat to contend with. lol

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  8. I also disagree.

    If you also notice (in Agrippa Book II, Scale of Four) you will see that the rulers of the elements also appear in the intellectual world. Does that mean the angels of the intellectual world are elementals? Absolutely not.

    If you look at the intellectual world and the infernal world you will see they are opposite reflections of each other. For instance:
    Four Angels ruling over the four corners of the world
    Four Angelic rulers of the Elements
    Four princes(which also means ruler) evil in the elements
    Four princes ruling over the four angles of the world.

    That tells us that the Demons/Infernals are not elementals any more than Angels are, only that the elements have roots in both directions from the elementary world (the realm of generation and corruption).





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  9. Hi Beneath, there's a lot more to get into than I have time to get into it.

    That's why I referenced Jake's works as well. I will have to revisit this when I've got more time, but you're totally right, the argument from the scale of the number four is not enough.

    Check out Faust's latest for more insight here:

    http://vonfaustus.blogspot.com/2013/04/daimonic-agencies.html

    and here:

    http://vonfaustus.blogspot.com/2013/04/regarding-elementals.html

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Thanks for your comments, your opinions are valued, even if I disagree with them. Please feel free to criticize my ideas and arguments, question my observations, and push back if you disagree.