Against Demonolatry

“Over each one of us, being born and made alive, the dæmons take hold on, which were in service at the moment of our nativity and who are ranged under each one of the stars. ... But the soul’s rational part is set above their lordship, designed to be receptacle of Divinity. Who then has a Ray shining upon them through the Sun within their reason? But in those few [who know this and practice such abiding] the dæmons do not act; for no one of them or any deity has any power against one Ray of God.” ~ Hermes Trismegistus, Sermon to Asclepius, §15 - 16

A core tenet of Hermetic spirituality, hence ancient Hieratic religion, was striving in the remediation of those "demonic" natures inherent within our mortal incarnation. This was not a Christian invention, but an appropriation from Egypt through Gnosticism. Taken together, the rites of exorcism and the Orthodox concept of theosis may be a near analogue to teachings of Iamblichus and the Corpus Hermeticum. Egyptian sages and itinerant priests were living holy life in the deserts long before the Gnostics and Desert Monastics; as early Christians, they no doubt learned from these mystics while mapping their zeal onto scriptures like the Books of Enoch. It is from vantage of their saintly victories and spiritual tribulations against archons and fallen angels that we must approach Paul's comment in Ephesians 6:12, saying: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

It is a little known fact that the fell-king called "Lucifer" was born of nothing but a shadowy eisegesis; as such, it is a relic with no inherent personhood apart from a title declaring narcissistic grandiosity. Similarly, we understand the demonic as being firmly rooted in the idolatry of pride or false ego. This is why cooperating with "demons" inflames the self-concept, inspiring selfish materialism and inhumane appetites of more or less wicked aim. Humanity only manifests such depravity and states of depression based on its affection or willful assent to demonic attitudes of being. The more we participate in unwholesome ways of mentality or relating, like living out of hatred or self concern, the farther our minds fall into hell and enter the communities there; in consequence, we become haunted with harmful ideation, like the internal voices commonly mistaken as "intrusive thoughts" or tendencies toward "self-deprecation." In Islam these were known as "shaitans," evil spirits which commonly plague and whisper lies unto the faithful. 

Categorically, we understand "demon" to be a general term denoting the diabolical character of both "devils" and "satans," which are both diametrically opposed to altruistic principles by definition. Classically, daimons (a general Hellenic term for "spirits") were understood to be either benevolent or malefic characters individually; over the centuries, the term became confused by translators due to the original use of Greek within the Christian dispensation. While ambiguities were preserved for tricky creatures like the Djinn and the Fae, who are said to have their own religions and societies, moral and wicked alike, Daimons as a species didn't survive into modernity as anything less than a wholesale category of evil. Alas, this can never be undone; no amount of etymologically pedantry will be helpful in remediating people's opinions on this. For the sake of conversation, we must accept the common convention that: an angel is a spirit of eudaimonia (a "good spirit" or mind of benevolence, in virtuous activity or happiness, literally, a messenger or good-counsel) whose advice and presence are a guard against demons, or those which harbor malice against the good-will of humankind.

Many current practitioners who are busy with the revival of grimoires scoff at such terms as implicitly antagonistic and invented by Christian authors; some insist that working with infernal hierarchies is a right of passage or, so harmless in and of itself, that we may omit explicit details of procedure or offer the same reverence to those spirits as we would a cultic deity. While it is true that we cannot really ascertain the nature of any spirit by means of such a whitewashed tradition, we would do well to just avoid the shade of those manuals entirely. It is just a simple fact that communion with anyone, human or otherwise, has untold repercussions within our life. Until sufficient spiritual intuition is developed, we truly cannot know where any such allies are likely to lead us. It is more than a travesty that many who come into occultism through these books seek partnership with notorious spirits simply out of curiosity...

For that reason, we also eschew barbarous invocation of the dead and unknown gods, especially within the scope of public ritual; practitioners may of course maintain their personal devotions, barring sacrifice of any sort, but their studies will seriously reflect on how inventions of fear become subsumed in mythological guises. Guild protocol simply insists that we do not operate on the basis of fear relationships, which are inevitably implied by goetic theory and the general rhetoric of conjure.

Whether you explicitly identify as Christian or not, Emanuel Swedenborg's visions must be brought into a dialogue concerning the metaphysics of evil and domains of hell:

“People in the Christian world are totally unaware that heaven and hell come from the human race. They actually believe that angels were created in the beginning and constitute heaven, and that the Devil or Satan was an angel of light who became rebellious and was cast out together with his faction, and that this gave rise to hell. Angels are utterly amazed that there can be this kind of belief in the Christian world, and even more so that people know absolutely nothing about heaven, even though this is a primary doctrine of the church. Knowing that this kind of ignorance is prevalent, they are profoundly delighted that it has now pleased the Lord to reveal to us so much about heaven—and about hell as well—and so as much as possible to dispel the darkness that is rising daily because this church is drawing to a close. So they want me to testify on their behalf that in all heaven there is not a single angel who was created as such in the beginning, nor is there in all hell a devil who was created as an angel of light and cast out. Rather, all the people in heaven and in hell are from the human race—in heaven the ones who have lived in heavenly love and faith, and in hell the ones who have lived in hellish love and faith. Hell as a whole is what is called the Devil and Satan. [There is no one single king or ruler of hell; out of its sense of autonomy and through self-love and materialism—through hatred, in other words—it forms a single monster with a single animus, so it looks toward a single goal: the destruction and damnation of all to eternity]. The hell at the back, where the people called evil demons live, is the Devil [and composed of devils, all of which generally delight in evil, live for themselves alone, or if for others, it is solely on account of themselves], and the hell that is in front, where the people live who are called evil spirits, is Satan [and composed of satans, all of which generally delight in falsity, love the world only, and love themselves because of the world]. We will describe later what each hell is like (Full text). They insisted that the reason the Christian world has adopted this kind of belief about people in heaven and people in hell is that they have taken a few passages of the Word, understanding them only in their literal meaning, with no enlightenment or instruction based on genuine doctrine from the Word. Yet the literal meaning of the Word, without the light of genuine doctrine, leads the mind astray in all directions, giving rise to ignorance, heresy, and error.”  ~ Heaven and Hell, §311 [with a few further quotes for clarity]

"We do evil from hell and good from the Lord. However, since we believe that whatever we do comes from ourselves, the evil we do clings to us as though it were our own. This is why we are at fault for our evil, never the Lord. The evil within us is hell within us, for it makes no difference whether you say 'evil' or 'hell.' Since we are at fault for our evil, it is we, not the Lord, who lead ourselves into hell. Far from leading us into hell, the Lord frees us from hell to the extent that we do not intend and love to be absorbed in our evil. Our whole volition and love stays with us after death. People who have intended and loved what is evil in the world intend and love what is evil in the other life, and then they no longer allow themselves to be led away from it. This is why people who are absorbed in evil are connected to hell and actually are there in spirit; and after death they crave above all to be where their evil is. So after death, it is we, not the Lord, who cast ourselves into hell." ~ Heaven and Hell, §547

"Our inner self is in the spiritual world and our outer self is in the physical world. We have been created with this nature so that we can be associated with spirits and angels in their world and be able to think analytically as a result, and also so that we can be transferred from our world to the other world after we die. 'The spiritual world' means both heaven and hell. Since our inner self is present with spirits and angels in their world and our outer self is present with people, clearly we can be associated with spirits from hell and with angels from heaven. This faculty and ability differentiates us from animals. The way we are in our inner self is the way we truly are. We are not necessarily the way we appear on the outside. Our inner self is our spirit. It acts through our outer level. The physical body that our spirit wears in the physical world is something added on so that we can reproduce and so that our inner self can be formed. Our inner self is formed in our physical body like a tree in the ground or a seed in a piece of fruit. What evil people are like in their inner self and what good people are like in theirs can be seen from the following brief description of hell and heaven: Evil people’s inner selves are connected with demons in hell. Good people’s inner selves are connected with angels in heaven. Because of the loves it has, hell enjoys the pleasures of all kinds of evil; that is, the pleasure in hatred, in revenge, in killing; the pleasure in looting and stealing; the pleasure in verbal abuse and blasphemy; the pleasure in denying God and desecrating the Word. These pleasures lie hidden in cravings on which we do not reflect. Evil people burn with these pleasures like torches on fire. The pleasures just listed are what the Word means by hellfire. The pleasures in heaven, on the other hand, are the pleasure in loving our neighbor and the pleasure in loving God. Since hell’s pleasures are opposite to heaven’s, there is a huge gap between them. The pleasures of heaven flow down into this gap from above and the pleasures of hell flow up into it from below. While we are alive in the world we are in the middle of this gap so that we can stay in balance and in a state of freedom to turn ourselves toward heaven or toward hell. This gap is what is meant by the great gulf fixed between the people in heaven and those in hell (Luke 16:26). These points show us the nature of the bond of love between evil people. In their outer selves, evil people simulate morality in order to expand their social network and explore where a potential exists for enjoying the pleasures that they love and that set their inner selves on fire. The only thing holding them back and limiting their actions is fear of the law and fear for their reputation and their life. Their friendship then is like a spider in a sugar bowl, a viper in a loaf of bread, a baby crocodile in a honey-cake, or a worm in spices. This is the nature of the friendship that evil people extend to anyone. The friendship between blatantly evil people, such as thieves, robbers, and pirates, is like family, as long as their minds have come together to target something to steal. During that time they kiss each other like kin and enjoy each other’s company with dining, singing, dancing, and plotting someone else’s ruin. But in fact, deep inside themselves they all regard their companions as their enemies. Clever thieves see this enmity in their companions and are afraid of it. Clearly, then, there is no friendship between them; there is instead a deep hatred." ~ True Christianity, §454-5

"Seen in any of heaven’s light, all the spirits in the hells appear in the form of their own evil. Each one is in fact an image of her or his evil, since for each individual the inner and outer natures are acting as a unit, and the deeper elements present themselves to view in the outer ones—in the face, the body, the speech, and the behavior. So you can tell what they are like by looking at them. In general, they are forms of contempt for others, threats against people who do not revere them; they are forms of various shadings of hatred, of various forms of vengefulness. Savagery and cruelty show through from within. When others praise them, though, or revere and worship them, their faces compose themselves and look almost happy and gratified. There is no way to describe briefly all the ways these forms look, since no one is just like any other. There is only a general likeness among people who are absorbed in similar evils and are therefore in the same hellish community, a similarity that acts like a common background that gives the individual faces a kind of overall resemblance. In general, their faces are frightful, as lifeless as corpses. Some of their faces are black, some like little torches, some pimply, with huge ulcerated sores. In many cases there is no visible face, only something hairy or bony in its place, while with others only the teeth show. Their bodies are equally misshapen, and their speech seems to embody wrath or hatred or vengeance, since all their articulation comes from their false perception and all the tone comes from their evil intent. In a word, they are all images of their hell." ~ Heaven and Hell, §553

A memorable relation, from True Christianity, §661:

Once, when meditating upon heaven and hell, I began to wish for a universal knowledge of the state of each, knowing that one who knows universals is afterwards able to comprehend the particulars, because the latter are included in the former as parts in the whole. With this desire I looked toward that tract in the northern quarter near the east where the places of [angelic] instruction were, and by a way then opened to me I went there [in spirit], and entered into a college where there were young men. I went to the head teachers who were instructing them, and asked them whether they knew the universals relating to heaven and hell. 

They said, “We have some little knowledge of them; but if we look toward the east to the Lord, we shall be enlightened and shall know.” 

This they did, and then said, “The universals respecting hell are three, but they are diametrically opposite to the universals relating to heaven. The universals relating to hell are these three loves, the love of ruling from love of self; the love of possessing the goods of others from love of the world; and scortatory love. The universals relating to heaven opposed to these are the three loves, love of ruling from love of use; love of possessing the goods of the world from the love of being useful by means of them; and true marriage love.” 

When this had been said, after wishing them peace, I went away and returned home. And when I reached home, it was said to me out of heaven, “Examine those three universals that prevail above and below, and afterward we shall see them on your hand.” They said “on your hand” because anything that a man examines with his understanding appears to the angels as if written on the hands; and this is why it is said in Revelation that they received a mark on the forehead and on the hand.

After this I examined the first universal love of hell, which was the love of ruling from love of self, and then the universal love of heaven corresponding thereto, which was the love of ruling from the love of uses; for I was not permitted to examine one love apart from the other because the understanding has no perception of one apart from the other, for they are opposites. In order therefore, that a perception of both may be obtained, they must be contrasted one with the other; as a beautiful and well-formed face is brought out more clearly by placing an ugly and deformed face beside it. While I was studying the love of ruling from love of self a perception was given me that this love is in the highest degree infernal, and therefore prevails with those who are in the deepest hell; and that the love of ruling from the love of uses is in the highest degree heavenly, and therefore prevails with those who are in the highest heaven.

The love of ruling from the love of self is in the highest degree infernal, because ruling from love of self is ruling from what is one’s own [proprium / ego], and what is one’s own is by birth evil itself, and evil itself is diametrically opposite to the Lord; consequently the more men enter into that evil the more they deny God and the holy things of the church, and worship self and nature. Let those, I pray, who are in that evil, examine themselves, and they will see. Moreover, this love is such that so far as loose rein is given it, which is done when no impossibility is in the way, it rushes on from step to step, and even to the most extreme; neither does it stop there, but if no further step is possible it grieves and groans. 

With politicians this love so exalts itself that they wish to be kings and emperors, and if possible to rule over all things in the world, and to be called kings of kings and emperors of emperors; while among ecclesiastics the same love so exalts itself that they even wish to be gods, and so far as possible to rule over all the things of heaven and to be called gods. That neither of these in heart acknowledge any God, will be seen in what follows. But on the other hand those who wish to rule from the love of uses, have no wish to rule from themselves but only from the Lord, since the love of uses is from the Lord and is the Lord himself. Such regard dignities only as means of performing uses; which they place far above dignities, while the others place dignities far above uses. 

While I was meditating upon these things it was said to me through an angel from the Lord, “Now you shall see, and it shall be proved to you by sight what that infernal love is.” 

Then the earth suddenly opened on the left, and I saw a devil coming up out of hell having on his head a square cap pressed down over his forehead even to the eyes, a face covered with pustules like those of a burning fever, his eyes fierce, and his breast swollen out into great prominence; from his mouth he belched smoke as from a furnace; his loins were actually on fire; instead of feet he had ankle bones without flesh; and from his body there exhaled a foul smelling and unclean heat. 

At the sight of him I was terrified, and cried out, “Do not come here; tell me where you are from.”

He answered hoarsely: “I am from the lower regions, where I live in a society of two hundred, which is preeminent over all other societies. All of us there are emperors of emperors, kings of kings, dukes of dukes, and princes of princes; there is no one there who is merely an emperor, or merely a king, duke, or prince; we there sit on thrones of thrones, and send forth mandates therefrom to all the world and beyond.” 

I then said to him, “Do you not see that from your hallucination about preeminence you have become insane?” 

He answered, “How can you talk so, since we both actually appear to ourselves to be such, and also are acknowledged to be such by our companions?”

On hearing this, I did not care to say again, “You are insane,” because he was so from hallucination. It was given me to know that this devil when he lived in the world, was merely the steward of a certain house; and that then he was so elated in spirit, that in comparison with himself he despised the whole human race, and cherished the hallucination that he was nobler than a king or even an emperor. Owing to this pride he had denied God, and regarded all the sacred things of the church as of no moment to him, but as something for stupid common people. 

At length I asked him, “How long will you two hundred thus glory among yourselves?” He said, “Forever; but those among us who torture others for denying our preeminence, sink down; for we are allowed to glory, but not to inflict evil upon anyone.” 

Again I asked, “Do you know the lot of those who sink down?” 

He said that they sink down into a certain prison, where they are called viler than the vile or the vilest, and are compelled to labor. 

I then said to him, “Take care then, lest you sink down also.”

After this the earth again opened, but at the right, and I saw another devil rising out, upon whose head was a kind of miter bound around as it were with the coils of a snake, with its head standing out from the top. His face was leprous from the forehead to the chin, as were both of his hands also; his loins were bare and as black as soot, while through the blackness a fire like that of a hearth gleamed duskily; his ankles were like two vipers. 

When the former devil saw this one he threw himself upon his knees and worshiped him. I asked him why he did so. He said, “He is the God of heaven and earth; he is omnipotent.” I then asked the other, “What do you say to that?” 

He replied, “What shall I say? I have all power over heaven and hell; the fate of all souls is in my hand.” 

I asked further, “How can this one who is an emperor of emperors so humble himself, and how can you receive his worship?” 

He answered, “He is still my servant; what is an emperor in the sight of God? The thunderbolt of excommunication is in my right hand.”

I then said to him, “How can you rave so? In the world you were merely an ecclesiastic; and because you labored under the hallucination that you had the keys, and therefore the power to bind and to loose, you have worked up your spirit to such a height of madness that you now believe that you are God himself.”

Being angry at this, he swore that he was God, and that the Lord had no power in heaven “because,” he said, “he has transferred it all to us. We need but to command, and heaven and hell reverently obey; if we send anyone to hell the devils at once receive him, as the angels do anyone we send to heaven.” 

I asked him further, “How many are there in your society?” 

He said, “Three hundred; and all of us there are gods, but I am the God of gods.” 

After this the earth opened beneath the feet of them both, and they sank down deep into their hells; and I was permitted to see that beneath their hells were workhouses, into which those fell who did violence to others. For his own hallucination remains with everyone in hell, and also his glorying therein, but he is not permitted to do evil to another. Such are those in hell, because man is then in his spirit, and when the spirit has been separated from the body it enters into a state of full liberty to act according to its affections and the thoughts therefrom. 

After this I was permitted to look into the hells of those spirits; and the hell where the emperors of emperors and kings of kings were, was full of all uncleanness, and they appeared like wild beasts of various kinds with fierce eyes. I looked also into the other hell, where the gods and the God of gods were; and in this the terrible birds of night, called the ochim and ijim appeared, flying around them. Thus did the images of their hallucination appear to me. 

From all this it was clear what the political love of self is and what the ecclesiastical love of self is, that the latter makes men wish to be gods and the former to be emperors; and this they wish for and strive after, so far as loose rein is given to those loves.

Another memorable relation, from True Christianity, §504: 

I was once in that interior spiritual sight in which the angels of the superior heaven are, but I was then in the world of spirits. And I saw two spirits not far away, standing apart from each other; and I perceived that one of them loved good and truth, and was thereby in conjunction with heaven, while the other loved evil and falsity, and was thereby in conjunction with hell. I approached and called them; and from their tones and their replies, I gathered that one could perceive truths as well as the other, could acknowledge them when perceived, could thus think from the understanding, and direct his intellectual faculties as he pleased, and his voluntary faculties as he wished; consequently that they were in like freedom of choice in rational matters. I observed, moreover, that from that freedom there appeared in their minds a lucidity extending from their first sight, which was that of perception, to their last, which was that of the eye.

But when the one who loved evil and falsity was left to his own thought, I noticed that a kind of smoke arose from hell, and extinguished that lucidity which was above the memory, so that there was a thick darkness in him there like that of midnight; and also that the smoke ignited and burned like a flame, which illuminated the region of his mind below the memory, and this caused him to think enormous falsities arising from the evils of the love of self. 

But when the other, who loved good and truth, was left to himself, I saw, as it were, a gentle flame flowing down from heaven, which illuminated the region of his mind above the memory, and also the region below it even to the eye; also that the light from that flame shone brighter and brighter, in proportion as from the love of good he had a perception and thought of the truth. From seeing this, it was made clear to me that every man, good and evil alike, has spiritual freedom of choice, but that hell sometimes extinguishes it in the wicked, while heaven exalts and enkindles it in the good. 

Afterward I talked with both of them, first with the one who loved evil and falsity, and when, after a few words about his lot, I mentioned freedom of choice, he fired up, and said, “What madness it is to believe that man has freedom of choice in spiritual things! What man can acquire faith of himself, or do good of himself? Does not the priesthood of today teach from the Word that no man can receive anything unless it be given him from heaven? And the Lord Christ said to his disciples, ‘Apart from me ye can do nothing.’ To which I will add, that no man can move hand or foot to do any good, or move his tongue to speak any truth from good. Therefore the church by her wise men has concluded that man can no more will, understand, or think anything spiritual, or even adapt himself to willing, understanding, or thinking truth, than a statue, a stock, or a stone; and therefore it is God who according to his good pleasure inspires faith, to whom alone belongs most free and unlimited power; and this faith, without any labor or power of ours, under the operation of the Holy Spirit, produces all that the unlearned ascribe to man.” 

I then talked with the other, who loved good and truth; and when, after a few remarks about his lot, I mentioned freedom of choice, he said, “What madness it is to deny man’s freedom of choice in spiritual things! Who is not able to will and do good, and think and speak what is true of himself from the Word, thus from the Lord who is the Word? For he has said, ‘Make the fruit good,’ and ‘Believe in the right,’ and ‘Love one another,’ and ‘Love God,’ and also, ‘Whosoever heareth my precepts and doeth them, loveth me, and I will love him’; besides thousands of like sayings throughout the Word. What then is the Word good for, if man has no power to will and think, and from that to do and say what is there commanded? Without that power in man, what would religion in the church be but like a wrecked vessel lying at the bottom of the sea, with the captain standing on the very top of the mast and crying out, ‘I can do nothing’; while he sees the crew in the small boats with sails spread and sailing away? Was there not given to Adam the freedom to eat of the tree of life, and also of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? And because from his freedom he ate of this latter tree, smoke from the serpent, that is, from hell, entered his mind, on account of which he was cast out of paradise and cursed. And still he did not lose his freedom of choice, for we read that the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub, and unless this had been done, he might still have wished to eat of it.”

At these remarks the other, who loved evil and falsity, said, “What I have heard, I pass by; what I before advanced I still adhere to. But who does not know that God alone is alive and thus active, while man is of himself dead and therefore merely passive? How can a being who is in himself dead and merely passive take to himself anything living and active?” To this I replied, “Man is an organ of life, and God alone is life; and God pours his life into the organ and into every least part of it; as the sun pours its heat into a tree and every least part of it. It is also God’s gift that man should feel that life in himself as if it were his own, and it is God’s will that he should so feel it, in order that man as if of himself may live in accordance with the laws of order, which are as numerous as the precepts of the Word, and thus may dispose himself for the reception of God’s love. Nevertheless, God perpetually holds with his finger the perpendicular above the scales, and moderates man’s freedom of choice, but never violates it by compulsion. 

“A tree cannot receive anything that the heat of the sun brings to it through its roots, unless it grows warm and is heated in every least fiber; nor can the elements rise up through its roots, unless every least fiber gives out heat from that which it has received, and thus contributes to the passage of those elements. Man does likewise from the heat of life that he receives from God; but unlike a tree, man feels the heat as his own, and yet it is not his own; and while so far as he believes that it is his and not God’s, he receives the light of life, he does not receive the heat of love from God, but the heat of love from hell; and this being gross obstructs and closes the purer branchlets of the organism, as impure blood clogs the capillary vessels of the body. Thus man from being spiritual makes himself merely natural.

“Man’s freedom of choice is from this, that any life in himself is felt as his own, and that God leaves him so to feel in order that a conjunction may be effected between them, which is not possible unless it is reciprocal; and it becomes reciprocal when man acts from freedom altogether as if of himself. If God had not left this to man, he would not be man, neither would he have eternal life; for reciprocal conjunction with God is the cause that man is man, and not a beast, and also that he lives after death to eternity. This is the effect of freedom of choice in spiritual things.” 

After hearing this, the evil spirit removed to a distance, and then I saw upon a certain tree a flying serpent, such as is called a fiery serpent, which held out to somebody fruit from the tree. I then drew near in spirit to the place, and instead of the serpent a monstrous man was seen there, his face so covered with beard that only his nose was visible; and instead of the tree there was a burning stump, near which stood the man whose mind the smoke had formerly entered, and who had afterwards rejected the idea of freedom of choice in spiritual things. And just then a similar smoke came out of the stump, and enveloped them both; and as they were thus taken out of my sight, I went away. But the other spirit, who loved good and truth, and held that man has freedom of choice in spiritual things, accompanied me home.