Demonology, The Occult, etc

Demonology</u>

Demonology, the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is also an orthodox branch of theology.

It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals with both benevolant beings that have no circle of followers or do but very limited so that it is below the rank of gods, and with malevolant beings of all kinds. Please note that the word "demon" from since Homer onward was used to describe a benevolent being. The English term and usage of course describes a "demon" as a malevolant being. Demons, when called upon as spirits, can belong to either of the classes of spirits regarded by primitive animalism, that is to say that they may be human or non-human, separable souls, or disincarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notebly by the Melanesians, the West Africans and the others; the Arab djinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls; at the same time these classes are frequently concieved as producing identical results, eg, diseases.



Types

Under the head of demons are classified only such spirits are believed to enter into relations with the human race, the term therefore includes:

~ angels in the Judeo-Christian tradition that fell from grace

~ human souls regarded as genii or familiars

~ such as recieve a cult (eg, ancestor worship)

~ ghosts or other malevolent revenants



Excluded are souls concieved as inhabiting another world. Just as gods are not necesarily spiritual, demons may also be reguarded as coporeal. Take vampires for example. They are often described as a human figure with appended entrails, which issue from the tomb to attack the living during the night.



The so-called Spectre Huntsman of the Malay Penninsula is said to be a man who scours the firmament with his dogs, vainly searching for what he could not find on earth-a buck mouse-deer pregnant with a male offspring; but he seems to be a living man. There is no information of him dying nor yet that he is a spirit. The incubi and Succubi of the middle ages are reguarded as spiritual beings but they were held to give proof of their bodily existance such as often deformed offspring.



Prevalance of Demons

According to some societies, all the affairs of life are supposed to be under the control of spirits each ruling an element or object and themselves in subjunction to a greater spirit. For example, the Inuit are said to belive in the spirits of the sea, earth and sky, the winds, the clouds and everything in nature. Every cove of the seashore, every point, every island and prominant rock has a specific guardian spirit. All are potentially of the malignant type, to be propritated by an appeal to knowledge of the supernatural. In Korea, spirits are said to inhabit any and all household items and are present in all locations and seek out travelers by the thousands.



In Babylonian times, this theology had an influence on even the most mundane elements of life. From petty annoyances to the emotions of love and hatred. The numerous demonic spirits were given charge over various parts of the human body, one for the head, one for the arms and so on. In present day Egypt, the ubiuitous jinn are belived to be so densely distributed that acts of pouring water unto the ground are accompanied by seeking the permission of a potentially dampened spirit.



Grrek philosophers such as Porphyry, who claimed influence from Platonism, the fathers of the Christian Church, held that the world was pervaded with spirits, the latter of whom advanced the belief that demons recieved the worship directed at pagan gods.



Demons in religion</u>

Zoroastrian

Ahura Mazda~ force of good Spenta Mainyu, will be victorious in a cosmic battle with an angry force known as Angra Mainyu or Ahriman.



Jewish

Judaisim never officially recognized a rigid set of doctrines about demons, many believe that it is post-exilic concepts of eschatology, angelogy and demonology were influenced by Zoroastrianism. However some believe that these concepts were recieved as part of the Kabbalistic tradition passed down from Adam, Noah and the Hebrew patriarchs.

The Talmud declares that there are 7,405,926 demons, divided into 72 companies. Indeed, some commentors hold that Satan was a prosecutor of God in early Judaism and somewhat a minor angel at that. While most people believe that Lucifer and Satan are different names for the same being, not all scholors subscribe to this view.

There is more than one instance where demons are said to have come to be, as seen by the sins of the Watchers and the Grigori, of Lilith leaving Adam, of demons such as vampires, the dmon-locusts from the Book of Revelation, impure spirits in Jewish folklore such as the dybbuk and of wicked human that have become demons as well.



Christian

Christianity is wary of the study of Demonology ["It is taught by the demons, it teaches about the demons, and it leads to the demons."~Albert Magus]

The most extensive exposition of the Christian demonology are Heinrich Kramer's Malleus Maleficarium, once thought to have been co-written by Jacob Springer, and Nicholas Remy's Daemonolatreiae libri tres, both assuming the reality of witchcraft and it's capability of posing a threat to the Roman Catholic church.

In Christian traditions, demons are fallen angels, so demonology could be considered a branch of angelology and vice versa. The grimoires of occult magic are the tomes that contain the lore of this version, containing instructions on how to summon them and hopefully bend them to the conjour's will.

In the 15th century, it is said that and estimated 133,306,998 angels fell from Heaven in a total of 9 days according to the Bishop of Tusculum (c. 1237) and this is reaffirmed by Alphonso de Spina (c. 1460)

I am sure that this number astounds even the most open minded. I myself was not suprised by the total figure of fallen angels. I expected the number to be very big for the simple reason that it is reported that the number of angels is very big and that one third of them fell, so this third should be very large figure also, but I was also was and still am very skeptic about the accuracy of this number when I first came upon it.</i>

On another note, The Book of Enoch an apocryphal text, tells of 200 "sons of God" (angels) who became enamored with "daughters of men" and coupled with them and were therefore banished from heaven. Hence the range between 200 and 133,306,668 is one estimate number of demons at least according to some sources.

The New Testament explicitly affirms existance of lesser adversarial spirits [Luke 4:41, 10:17-20; Ephesians 6:12; James 2:19; Revelation 16:13, 14] In Christianity, Satan is the leader of a force of evil opposing the all goods of God.



Islamic

The devil Iblis (Satan/Lucifer for Christianity) was not an angel but of a different kind, the jinn. [Humans are created from Earth, Angels from Light, and jinn from fire.] They are not evil, but could be good doers or sinners like humans. Since jinn and humans have the will to follow what they choose, the followers of Iblis can be jinn or human. The angels, on the other hand are sinless and must follow the will of God.

In the Qur'an, when God ordered those witnessing the creation of Adam to kneel, Iblis chose not to and was therefore damned for refusal to follow God's order.



Buddhism and Hinduism

Some branches of Buddhism affirm with the existance of Hell, peopled by demons who torment sinners and tempt mortals to sin or seek to thwart their enlightenment with a demon named Mara as chief tempter. Hinduism contains traditions of combats between it's gods and various adversaries, such as Indra and the asura Vritra.



Credit to: Wikipedia.org for all info.

I paraphrased all this to the best of my abilities. It is kind of hard to type all this in the middle of the night and not add in stuff from the main article.