Are Demons Real?

Last updated on: April 9, 2020 at 12:54 pm by Brandy Williams

Are Demons Real? 2020-04-09T12:54:38-07:00 Brandy Williams

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What are demons?

This question comes up for me because of my birthday Tarot reading. Every year I consult the cards to get a hint of the themes the year will bring. This year the cards reassured me that I am balanced in the powers of air, fire, water, and earth, I know who I am and have the strength to face the circumstances life throws at me.

Then the cards told me that I would be facing every unresolved fear and karmic debt and demon of my life.

That’s a daunting prospect. I’m rolling up my sleeves and figuring out what that means. After a few decades of living I’ve got a pretty good handle on my fears. I think karmic debts you just deal with as you go, that’s part of life’s journey. But what’s a demon?

It’s a fair question. Many Pagan traditions don’t recognize demons, but my tradition does; demonology is part of Ceremonial Magic.

European (Graeco-Roman) Paganism acknowledges the existence of spirits. “Demon” derives from the Greek word “daemon”, a spirit midway between people and deities. Daemones could be either hostile or helpful to people. The Latin word “angelus” described the same sort of spirit; this word passed into English as “angel”. Eventually “angel” came to mean helpful spirit and “demon” described a hostile spirit. Contemporary ceremonial continues that division, with angels treated as powerful beings friendly to humans, while demons are lesser beings, indifferent or mischievous or actively hostile.

Medieval grimoires treated demons as fierce spirits with powers that could be harnessed to the magician’s will through compulsion. This is called “goetic” magic and has its own rituals, tools, invocations and banishings. The most famous and popular book of goetic magic is the Lesser Key of Solomon the King which lists 72 demons who can be invoked to assist the magician in specific tasks such as finding lost items, telling the future, locating a fortune, and procuring love. Other demons have loftier powers such as teaching the sciences and mending friendships. The demons are described in meticulous detail; they are expected to physically appear to the magician in the course of the operation.

Twentieth-century editions of goetic grimoires treat these demons as figments of the mind. Crowley arguably started the trend with his version, edited by Lon DuQuette and Christopher Hyatt as Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia: Sexual Evocation, where Crowley says bluntly, “The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain.”

In psychologized magic a demons are projections of our unresolved issues and repressed selfish desires, embodying the infantile need to have what we want immediately. In the culture at large demons have also come to represent internal processes; we often say someone who committed suicide was “tortured by inner demons”.

Twenty-first century Pagans are challenging the psychologization of the gods. Deities are not just aspects of the universal human mind, archetypes, but are living beings with an external reality beyond the human psyche, capable of entering into relationship with humans. If this is so, if the gods are real, what about the other spirits that earlier Pagans treated as having independent reality? Doesn’t the de-psychologization of deity at least imply the de-psychologization of demons?

If demons are real, how do we deal with them? I’ve done a bit of goetia, and I find myself uncomfortable with the whole apparatus of threat and compulsion. A more contemporary approach treats the demon pretty much like an untrained dog. Instead of the fierce punishments of previous generations, the modern magician uses firm discipline to teach the demon, correcting unwanted behavior and rewarding the desired behavior. The magician works with the demon to become useful, and the demon gets to progress up the developmental ladder, so that both are uplifted at the same time.

As a theurgist I know that the Chaldean Oracles counseled the magician to protect herself from the demon-dogs who sought to disrupt her spiritual operations. This seems to me to be prudent, and the known apparatus of circle and talisman seems up t the task. I wear a protective amulet every day and use specific protections while performing theurgic evocations.

Whether the demon is be a projection of mind or a lesser spirit progressing spiritually by working with a human, neither case seems to be adequately described by the medieval imagery of a wolf with a serpent’s tail vomiting flames, or the power to turn up chests of gold. It seems to me that those descriptions need updating. That seems like one of those major tasks that could take the operator into some very dark places. I’m not volunteering for the task, but I’m interested in the work of anyone who wanted to take it on.

For myself, I am aware of the possibility that the demons I face are real, while remaining open to what they mirror to me in myself. If I can learn to treat demons with gentle respect maybe I can acquire a gentler respect for my own shortcomings; if so, that would be a year well spent.

Personal magic

Previous Post

August 12, 2014

Is "Do What Thou Wilt" a moral code?

Next Post

March 30, 2015 L. Ron Hubbard and the O.T.O.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Activism Book review Conferences Esotericism Golden Dawn Interfaith O.T.O. Personal magic Ritual Tantra Thelema Theurgy Uncategorized Witchcraft Women

Select a Month September 2025 May 2025 January 2025 December 2024 August 2024 June 2024 March 2024 December 2023 July 2023 May 2023 February 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 July 2022 May 2022 January 2022 November 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 July 2018 May 2018 March 2018 October 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 February 2016 November 2015 October 2015 April 2015 March 2015 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet was a shepherd and a sycamore-fig farmer?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Joel Daniel Amos Micah