DEMONOLOGY

Shedu / shedim
from a Babylonian term
initially palace guardian spirits; later malevolent storm spirits
sometimes benign/neutral nature spirits
basically run the gamut

Shedim
Can be good or bad in Jewish sources
Sometimes said to power golems
Mastema
Angel of Death in Moses/Plagues myth
Asks God for 1/3 of the souls of dead children as servants
Does God agree?
Belial
Leads armies of people against God
Earliest association of demons + temptation
- Ashmodai / Asmodai / Asmodeus
Book of Tobit
Raphael comes to see Tobit, tells Tobit about fish liver incense (ok?) to wa
rd off Asmodeus
Binds Asmodeus in the desert with chains
Samael / Sammael
Originally serves God (killing and destroying things)
Doesnt ask for the souls of Egyptian children
In later sources, leads demons and rebels against God
Azazel
Entity? Concept?
Accepts sacrificial goats? (Scapegoats)
Responsible for disease
sometimes classified as one of the seirim

DEMON comes from Greek word DAIMON

Gods ordered humans(people) of the First Age to become Daimones
Eudaimonia having a eudaimon (good demon) as a protector; evil demons Kakodaim
on
Cult worship in Greece and Rome: When a person dies & a cult forms around them,
what is being revered is actually their daimon, protector spirit
Plato is the first Greek to suggest Daimones can be dangerous or evil
Demons are intermediate between Mortal and Divine
ANGELOS translates Malakh (Hebrew word)
Demons foreign gods, natural disasters, vicious animals
ADAMIC origin of evil
Transgression, serpent in the garden, etc., etc.

ENOCHIC origin of evil

LUCIFER
OT: Lucifer refers to a Babylonian King
NT: Lucifer refers to the planet Venus (celestial body)
GRIGORI (Watchers, Awake aware)
angels who came to Earth in defiance of God; led by Belial and Azazel
produced Nephilim
In some text, God allows 1 in 10 Nephilim to survive the flood and continue li
ving on
Earth (implied: being evil)
Early Christian sources: Demons associated with disease, temptation to sin
Desert followers (early ascetics): St Anthony
Argue demons necessary for salvation because one must be tempted to be sav
ed; cannot deny temptation if youve never faced it
Demons first understood to be servants of Satan
Prior to this, Satan an angel in the service of God
Being a dick in the service of God becomes being a dick and opponent/adversary of
God
Almost all demonological sources into medieval and renaissance period written by
clergyman

Medieval period! + Renaissance

Fascination with demons
Demons develop very diverse + specialized abilities and associations as a conseq
uence of more people interested in and writing about them
Ex. Larage causes gangrene in arrow wounds
Ex. GlasyaLabolas can reveal thoughts of enemies and friends to caster; author an
d captain of murder and manslaughter
Texts:
Lemegeto / Lesser Key of Solomon
Source of most images and names associated with demonology
Picatrix
Sworn Book of Anorius / Gram Grimoire / (Veritable) Red Dragon
The Book of Agramelin
The Key of Solomon
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum
Ars Goetia
the conjuring of demons; not an evil act forcing demons to work for summoner,
acting divine will
Theurgy
Summoning angels & compelling them to do things for you

Enoch, Solomon, Agramelin: Names & figures that authors slapped onto medieval te
xts to add legitimacy
Typically three parts to conjuring a demon:
Summon demon into the circle; call it by name
Curse demon: threaten to imprison them in a tiny box with smelly awful things un
til they show up
Is it an empty threat? Were medieval magicians really arrogant? Who knows?
Then you start being nice again because hey, a demon actually showed up, heck fr
ick

MODERN SOURCES:
19th century revival of interest in occultism
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (no relation to Greek fascist group)
Aleister Crowley briefly seizes headquarters of OotGD but gets kicked out
Academic occultism
Ceremonial magic
DEMONOLATRY Worship of demons
Basically: You should offer to serve demons instead of threatening them, insulti
ng them, torturing them