Demon



A is  a supernatural being, typically associated with evil, prevalent historically in religion,, , , mythology.

In and in the, including ancient and medieval , a demon is considered a harmful spiritual entity which may cause demonic possession, calling for an exorcism. Large portions of the Jewish demonology, a key influence on and, originated from a later form of , and were transferred to Judaism during the.

In Western and, which grew out of an amalgamation of , Jewish  and Christian demonology, a demon is believed to be a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. The supposed existence of demons remains an important concept in many modern religions and occultist traditions. Demons are still feared largely due to their alleged power to possess living creatures. In the contemporary Western occultist tradition (perhaps epitomized by the work of ), a demon (such as, which is Crowley’s interpretation of the so-called “Demon of the Abyss”) is a useful metaphor for certain inner psychological processes (inner demons), though some may also regard it as an objectively real phenomenon.

The original Greek word  did not carry negative connotations. The word δαίμων  denotes a spirit or divine power. The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the works of, where it describes the divine inspiration of. In Christianity morally ambivalent daimons were replaced by demons, forces of evil only striving for corruption. Such demons are not the Greek intermediary spirits, but hostile entities, already known in Iranian beliefs.

Etymology
The word δαίμων ' denotes a spirit or divine power, much like the  ' or . Daimōn most likely came from the Greek verb daiesthai (to divide, distribute). The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the works of, where it describes the divine inspiration of. The original Greek word {{w|Daemon (classical mythology)|daimon]] does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the {{w|Koine Greek|Koine}} {{lang|grc|δαιμόνιον}} (daimonion), and later ascribed to any cognate words sharing the root.

The Greek terms do not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. In fact, {{lang|grc|εὐδαιμονία}} {{w|eudaimonia}}, (literally good-spiritedness) means {{w|happiness}}. By the early {{w|Roman Empire}}, {{w|cult image|cult statues}} were seen, by {{w|Paganism|pagans}} and their Christian neighbors alike, as inhabited by the numinous presence of the gods: “Like pagans, Christians still sensed and saw the gods and their power, and as something, they had to assume, lay behind it, by an easy traditional shift of opinion they turned these pagan daimones into malevolent ‘demons’, the troupe of {{w|Satan}}..... Far into the {{w|Byzantine Empire|Byzantine period}} Christians eyed their cities’ old pagan statuary as a seat of the demons’ presence. It was no longer beautiful, it was infested.” The term had first acquired its negative connotations in the {{w|Septuagint}} translation of the {{w|Hebrew Bible}} into Greek, which drew on the mythology of {{w|ancient Semitic religions}}. This was then inherited by the Koine text of the {{w|New Testament}}. The Western medieval and neo-medieval conception of a demon derives seamlessly from the ambient {{w|popular culture}} of {{w|Late Antiquity}}. The {{w|Hellenistic period|Hellenistic}} “daemon” eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}

The English use of demon as synonym for devils goes back at least as far as about 825. The German word (Dämon) however, is different from devil (Teufel) and demons as evil spirits.

Ancient Egypt
Both deities and demons can act as intermediaries to deliver messages to humans. Thus they share some resemblance to the Greek daimonion. The exact definition of “demon” in Egyptology posed a major problem for modern scholarship, since the borders between a deity and a demon are sometimes blurred and the ancient Egyptian language lacks a term for the modern English “demon”. However, magical writings indicate that ancient Egyptians acknowledged the existence of malevolent demons by highlighting the demon names with red ink. Demons in this culture appeared to be subordinative and related to a specific deity, yet they may have occasionally acted independently of the divine will. The existence of demons can be related to the realm of chaos, beyond the created world. But even this negative connotation cannot be denied in light of the magical texts. The role of demons in relation to the human world remains ambivalent and largely depends on context.

Ancient Egyptian demons can be divided into two classes: “guardians” and “wanderers.” “Guardians” are tied to a specific place; their demonic activity is topographically defined and their function can be benevolent towards those who have the secret knowledge to face them. Demons protecting the underworld may prevent human souls from entering paradise. Only by knowing right charms is the deceased able to enter the . Here, the aggressive nature of the guardian demons is motivated by the need to protect their abodes and not by their evil essence. Accordingly, demons guarded sacred places or the gates to the netherworld. During the and, the guardians shifted towards the role of  and they were the focus of local and private cults.

The “wanderers” are associated with possession, mental illness, death and plagues. Many of them serve as executioners for the major deities, such as or, when ordered to punish humans on earth or in the netherworld. Wanderers can also be agents of chaos, arising from the world beyond creation to bring about misfortune and suffering without any divine instructions, led only by evil motivations. The influences of the wanderers can be warded off and kept at the borders on the human world by the use of magic, but they can never be destroyed. A sub-category of “wanderers” are nightmare demons, which were believed to cause nightmares by entering a human body.

Mesopotamia


The ancient Mesopotamians believed that the was home to many demons, which are sometimes referred to as “offspring of arali”. These demons could sometimes leave the underworld and terrorize mortals on earth. One class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld were known as ; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe the galla dragging the god into the underworld. Like other demons, however, galla could also be benevolent and, in a hymn from King of  (c.  2144 – 2124 BCE), a minor god named Ig-alima is described as “the great galla of ”.

was a demonic goddess with the “head of a lion, the teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, hands stained (with blood?), long fingers and fingernails, and the feet of .” She was believed to feed on the blood of human infants and was widely blamed as the cause of miscarriages and. Although Lamashtu has traditionally been identified as a demoness, the fact that she could cause evil on her own without the permission of other deities strongly indicates that she was seen as a goddess in her own right. Mesopotamian peoples protected against her using amulets and talismans. She was believed to ride in her boat on the river of the underworld and she was associated with donkeys. She was believed to be the daughter of.

is a demonic god who was well known to the Babylonians and Assyrians throughout the first millennium BCE. He is shown with “a rather canine face with abnormally bulging eyes, a scaly body, a snake-headed penis, the talons of a bird and usually wings.” He was believed to be the son of the god. He was usually regarded as evil, but he could also sometimes be a beneficent entity who protected against winds bearing pestilence and he was thought to be able to force Lamashtu back to the underworld. Amulets bearing his image were positioned in dwellings to protect infants from Lamashtu and pregnant women frequently wore amulets with his head on them as protection from her.

’s name means “youthful brilliance”, but he was not envisioned as youthful god. According to one tradition, he was the consort of Ninhursag, a tradition which contradicts the usual portrayal of Enki as Ninhursag's consort. In one Sumerian poem, offerings made to Šhul-pa-e in the underworld and, in later mythology, he was one of the demons of the underworld.

According to, originally published in 12 volumes from 1901 to 1906, “In n mythology the seven evil deities were known as , storm-demons, represented in ox-like form.” They were represented as , derived from the colossal bulls used as protective of royal palaces.

Judaism
There are differing opinions in Judaism about the existence or non-existence of demons (' or '). There are “practically nil” roles assigned to demons in the. In Judaism today, beliefs in demons or evil spirits are either midot  (Hebrew for “customs of the pious”), and therefore not , or notions based on a superstition that are non-essential, non-binding parts of Judaism, and therefore not normative Jewish practice. That is to say, Jews are not obligated to believe in the existence of shedim, as rabbi  points out.

Hebrew Bible
The mentions two classes of demonic spirits, the se'irim and the shedim. The word shedim (sing shed or sheyd) appears in two places in the Hebrew Bible. The se'irim (sing. sa'ir, "male goat") are mentioned once in :7, probably a recollection of n demons in the shape of goats. The shedim, however, are not pagan demigods, but the foreign gods themselves. Both entities appear in a scriptural context of animal or child sacrifice to non-existent s.

From Chaldea, the term shedu traveled to the. The writers of the Tanach applied the word as a to.

There are indications that demons in popular Hebrew mythology were believed to come from the nether world. Various diseases and ailments were ascribed to them, particularly those affecting the brain and those of internal nature. Examples include, headache, epilepsy and nightmares. There also existed a demon of blindness, “Shabriri” (lit. “dazzling glare”) who rested on uncovered water at night and blinded those who drank from it.

Demons supposedly entered the body and caused the disease while overwhelming or “seizing” the victim. To cure such diseases, it was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, at which the excelled. , who spoke of demons as “spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them”, but which could be driven out by a certain root, witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor and ascribed its origin to. In mythology, there were few defences against. The mythical mace had the power to slay demons such as, a legendary  or  of hideous strength.

Talmudic tradition and Midrashim
In the, notions of shedim (“demons” or “spirits”) are almost unknown or occur only very rarely, whereas in the there are many references to shedim and magical incantations. The existence of shedim in general was not questioned by most of the Babylonian s. As a consequence of the rise of influence of the Babylonian Talmud over that of the Jerusalem Talmud, late rabbis in general took as fact the existence of shedim, nor did most of the medieval thinkers question their reality. However, rationalists like, and  and others explicitly denied their existence, and completely rejected concepts of demons, evil spirits, negative spiritual influences, attaching and possessing spirits. They thought, the essential teaching about shedim and similar spirits is, that they should not be an object of worship, not a reality to be acknowledged or feared. Their point of view eventually became mainstream Jewish understanding.

Occasionally an is called  in the Babylon Talmud. But satans do not refer to demons as they remain at the service of God: “Stand not in the way of an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns”.

tales from the Persian tradition describe the shedim, the  (“harmers”), and the ruḥin (“spirits”). There were also  (“night spirits”), ṭelane (“shade“, or “evening spirits”), ṭiharire (“midday spirits”), and ẓafrire (“morning spirits”), as well as the “demons that bring famine” and “such as cause storm and earthquake”. According to some aggadic stories, demons were under the dominion of a king or chief, usually Asmodai.

Kabbalah
In, demons are regarded a necessary part of the divine emanation in the material world and a byproduct of human sin. However spirits such as the shedim may also be benevolent and were used in kabbalistic ceremonies (as with the of Rabbi Yehuda Loevy) and malevolent shedim (, from the root meaning “to damage”) were often credited with possession.

Second Temple Judaism
The sources of demonic influence were thought to originate from the or, who are first mentioned in  and are the focus of  Chapters 1–16, and also in  10. The Nephilim were seen as the source of the sin and evil on Earth because they are referenced in Genesis 6:4 before the story of the. In Genesis 6:5, God sees evil in the hearts of men. refers to Genesis 6:4–5, and provides further description of the story connecting the Nephilim to the corruption of humans. According to the, sin originates when angels descend from heaven and fornicate with women, birthing giants. The Book of Enoch shows that these fallen angels can lead humans to sin through direct interaction or through providing forbidden knowledge. Most scholars understand the text, that demons originate from the evil spirits of the deceased giants, cursed by God to wander the Earth. disagrees with this interpretation, arguing that the ghosts of the Nephilim are distinct. The evil spirits would make the people sacrifice to the demons, but they were not demons themselves. The spirits are stated in Enoch to “corrupt, fall, be excited, and fall upon the earth, and cause sorrow.”

The Book of Jubilees conveys that sin occurs when accidentally transcribes astrological knowledge used by the Watchers. This differs from Enoch in that it does not place blame on the angels. However, in Jubilees 10:4 the evil spirits of the Watchers are discussed as evil and still remain on Earth to corrupt the humans. God binds only 90% of the Watchers and destroys them, leaving 10% to be ruled by. Because the evil in humans is great, only 10% would be needed to corrupt and lead humans astray. These spirits of the giants also referred to as “the bastards” in the apotropaic prayer, which lists the names of demons the narrator hopes to expel.

To the community during the, this apotropaic prayer was assigned, stating: “And, I the Sage, declare the grandeur of his radiance in order to frighten and terri[fy] all the spirits of the ravaging angels and the bastard spirits, demons, Liliths, owls” (Dead Sea Scrolls, "Songs of the Sage," Lines 4–5).

Hinduism
beliefs include numerous varieties of creatures with materialistic or non material form such as s, and. and are demons

Asuras
Asura, in the earliest hymns of the, originally meant any supernatural spirit, either good or bad. Since the /s/ of the Indic linguistic branch is cognate with the /h/ of the Early Iranian languages, the word Asura, representing a category of celestial beings, is a cognate with Old Persian Ahura. Ancient Hinduism tells that (also called suras) and  are half-brothers, sons of the same father ; although some of the Devas, such as, are also called Asuras. Later, during age,  and  came to exclusively mean any of a race of anthropomorphic, powerful, possibly evil beings. Daitya (lit. sons of the mother “Diti”),, Rakshasa (lit. from “harm to be guarded against”), and Asura are incorrectly translated into English as “demon”.

In post-Vedic Hindu scriptures, pious, highly enlightened Asuras, such as and, are not uncommon. The Asura are not fundamentally against the gods, nor do they tempt humans to fall. Many people metaphorically interpret the Asura as manifestations of the ignoble passions in the human mind and as symbolic devices. There were also cases of power-hungry Asuras challenging various aspects of the gods, but only to be defeated eventually and seek forgiveness.

Evil spirits
Hinduism advocates the reincarnation and transmigration of souls according to one’s. Souls of the dead are adjudged by the  and are accorded various purging punishments before being reborn. Humans that have committed extraordinary wrongs are condemned to roam as lonely, often mischief mongers, spirits for a length of time before being reborn. Many kinds of such spirits (s, s, ) are recognized in the later Hindu texts.

Zoroastrianism


The in demons () had strong influence on the s, especially  and. The daevas seem to be a Zorastrian interpretation of the. Particularly, one of the most eminent individual deities of , is portrayed as a malicious force only next to , the principle of evil (devil).

But daevas are not merely the false gods of a past religion, but also embodiment of vices and fierce side of nature. slays the daeva, a serpentine or dragon-like creature with three heads. Thraotona’s victory over a serpentine or dragon-like creature with three heads, is not the victory of a great warrior, but to show that people who live in accordance with  can overcome evil. , a demon of wrath and destruction, appears to be the direct forerunner of  (Sakhr in Islam) from Abrahamic religion. too became associated with one of the daeva.

In ’s personal revelation, there are no individual Daevas. They are always referred to as in a group and their worshippers are associated with violence and destruction: "“but ye Daevas are all spawned from Evil Thought/ as is the grandee who worships you, and from wrong and contempt... ever since you have been enjoiing those worst of things that mortals are to do/ to wax to the daevas’ favor retreating from Good Thought/ losing the way from the Mindful Lord’s wisdom and from Right.”-Yasna 32.3-4"

In their state of wickedness, they lead mankind into sin and death: "“So ye lure the mortal from good living and security from death/as the Evil Will does you who are daevas, by evil thought/ and that evil speech with which he assigns the deed to the wrongfil one's control.”-Yasna 32.5"

The daevas however, are merely subordinate to the absolute power of evil, the Evil Will, embodied in Ahriman/Angra Manyu. The daeva are thus both corrupted by evil, but also evil themselves. People who worship them are blamed too. in the Gathas, the primary way for demons to corrupt humans and cause suffering, manifests through their worshippers. The (Law against Daeva) is mainly concerned to ward off the daevas. It offers laws for general ritual purity. Not only acts in favor for the demons might increase their power, but so does any act against Ahura Mazda. Cutting one's hair or nails and keeping them on the ground can be considered a sacrifice to the demons. As the demon's power increase by human’s acts of wickedness, they are weakened by good deeds, especially performance of invocation of Ahura Mazda. The Vendidad further explores the possibility for humans to become a daeva. A human who performs sexual immoralities and/or worships the daeva, becomes one themselves after death. During life, the person is considered to be equal to them, but turns truly into one after death.

The gives an overview about the creation of demons. The text explains that Ahura Mazda and Ahriman existed before the material world, one in light and the other in the abyss of darkness. When Ahriman assaulted Ahura Mazda, Ahura Mazda created a world as a battle place and Ahriman could be defeated. The first beings created by Ahura Mazda were the six, whereupon Ahriman counters by creating six daevas. The demons are not tempted but directly created by the principle of evil. According to the Bundahishn, the demons revive Ahriman, whereby calling him their father: "'Rise up, thou father of us! for we will cause a conflict in the world, the distress and injury from which will become those of Ohrmazd and the archangels' (Bun 3.1)" Daevas assault the souls when passing the. While virtuous people ward them off and succeed on entering heaven, wicked souls fail and are seized by the demons. In hell, daevas continue to torment the damned.

Manichaeism
In demons had a real existence, as they derived from the Kingdom of Darkness, they were not metaphors expressing the absence of good nor are they s, that means they are not originally good, but entities purely evil. The demons came into the world after the assaulted the Realm of Light. The demons ultimately failed their attack and ended up imprisoned in the structures and matter of the contemporary world. Lacking virtues and being in constant conflict with both the divine creatures and themselves, they are inferior to the divine entities and overcome by the divine beings at the end of time. They are not sophisticated or inventive creatures, but only driven by their urges.

Simultaneously, the Manichaean concept of demons remains abstract and is closely linked to ethical aspects of evil that many of them appear as personified evil qualities such as:
 * Greed (desire for wealth)
 * Wrath (desire for destruction)
 * Envy
 * Grief

The, another group of demonic entities, known from the , appear in the canonical. The Watchers came into existence after the demons were chained up in the sky by. Later, outwitted by, they fall to earth, there they had intercourse with human women and beget the monstrous. Thereupon they establish a tyrannical rule on earth, suppressing mankind, until they are defeated by the angels of punishment, setting an end to their rule.

In the Shahnameh
In, written by the Persian poet between c. 977 and 1010 CE the term div (from the  Daeva) includes both demons as well as evil humans. The divs of might reflect human enemies of Iran. , inspired by the daeva  Azhi Dahāka, is not a degraced deity, but a human tyrant, identified as an Arab, who slayed his father in exchange for power. It is only after he was tricked by the devil for power, he grows serpentine heads on his shoulders and becomes less human.

Divs are often black, long teeth, claws as hands; a monstrous but humanoid shape. Despite their human form, many divs are masters of supernatural sorcery, reflecting their former associations with the daevas. , leader of the divs, is both an outstanding warrior and a master of magic, who causes storms to overcome hostile armies. After divs are defeated, they might join their enemy.

The poem begins with the kings of the. They defeat and subjugate the demonic divs. commanded the divs and became known as dīvband (binder of demons). , the fourth king of the world, ruled over both angels and div and served as a high priest of Ahura Mazda (Hormozd). After a just reign over hundreds of years, Jamshid grew haughty and claims, because of his wealth and power, divinity for himself. His people get unsatisfied with their king and Zahhak usurps the throne, aided by demons. Jamshid dies sawn in two by two divs. Tricked by Ahriman (or Iblis), Zahhak grew two snakes on his shoulders and becomes athe demonic serpant-king.

The King fails to conquer the legendary Mazdaran, the land of divs and gets captured. To save his king, Rustam takes a journey and fights through. Divs are among the common enemies Rustam faces, the last one the Div-e Sepid, the demonic king of Mazdaran.

Wendigo
The people traditionally believe in a spirit called a. The spirit is believed to possess people who then become. In folklore, there is a belief in, a similar cannibal spirit.

Old Testament
The existence of demons as inherently malicious spirits within Old Testamental texts is absent. Though there are evil spirits sent by, they can hardly be called demons, since they serve and do not oppose the governing deity. First then the, the “gods of other nations” were merged into a single category of demons (daimones) with implied negativity.

The Greek Daimons were associated with demi-divine entities, deities, illnesses and fortune-telling. The Jewish translators rendered them all as demons, depicting their power as nullified comparable to the description of shedim in the Tanakh. Although all these supernatural powers were translated, none were angels, despite sharing a similar function to that of the Greek Daimon. This established a dualism between the angels on God’s side and negatively evaluated demons of pagan origin. Their relationship to the God-head became the main difference between angels and demons, not their degree of benevolence. Both angels and demons might be fierce and terrifying. However, the angels act always at service of the high god of the Israelites, differing from the pagan demons, who represent the powers of foreign deities.

New Testament


The Septuagint refers to evil spirits as demons (daimon). Through the New Testament, demons appear 55 times, 46 times in reference to demonic possession or exorcisms. As adversaries of, demons are not morally ambivalent spirits, but evil; cause of misery, suffering and death. They are not tempters, but cause of pain, suffering and maladies, both physical and mental. Temptation is reserved for the devil only. Unlike spirits in pagan beliefs, demons are not intermediary spirits whom must be sacrificed for appeasement of a deity. Possession also shows no trace of positivity contrary to some pagan depictions of spirit possession. They are explicitly said to be ruled by the devil or. Their origin is unclear, the texts take the existence of demons for granted. Many early Christians, like, , and  assumed demons were ghosts of the Nephilim, known from Intertestamental writings. Because of references to Satan as the lord of demons, and evil angels of Satan throughout the New Testament, other scholars identified fallen angels with demons. Demons as entirely evil entities, who have been born evil, does not fit the proposed origin of evil in free-will, taught in later Christian Theology.

Pseudepigrapha and deuterocanonical books
Demons are included into biblical interpretation. In the story of Passover, the Bible tells the story as “the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt”. In the, which is considered canonical only by the , this same event is told slightly differently: “All the powers of [the demon] Mastema had been let loose to slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt. And the powers of the Lord did everything according as the Lord commanded them.” (Jubilees 49:2–4)

In the the author explains how God was noticing “how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways”. In Jubilees the sins of man are attributed to “the unclean demons [who] began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them” (Jubilees 10:1). In Jubilees, Mastema questions the loyalty of Abraham and tells God to “bid him offer him as a burnt offering on the altar, and Thou wilt see if he will do this command” (Jubilees 17:16). The discrepancy between the story in Jubilees and the story in Genesis 22 exists with the presence of Mastema. In Genesis, God tests the will of Abraham merely to determine whether he is a true follower, however; in Jubilees Mastema has an agenda behind promoting the sacrifice of Abraham’s son, “an even more demonic act than that of the Satan in Job”. In Jubilees, where Mastema, an angel tasked with the tempting of mortals into sin and iniquity, requests that God give him a tenth of the spirits of the children of the watchers, demons, in order to aid the process (Jubilees 10:7–9). These demons are passed into Mastema's authority, where once again, an angel is in charge of demonic spirits.

The, written sometime in the first three centuries C.E., the demon explains what he is the son of an angel and a human mother. Another demon describes himself as having died in the “massacre in the age of giants”. Beelzeboul, the prince of demons, appears as a fallen angel not as a demon, but makes people worship demons as their gods.



Christian demonology
Since, demonology has developed from a simple acceptance of demons to a complex study that has grown from the original ideas taken from Jewish demonology and Christian scriptures. Christian demonology is studied in depth within the, although many other Christian churches affirm and discuss the existence of demons.

Building upon the few references to daimon in the New Testament, especially the poetry of the Book of Revelation, Christian writers of from the 2nd century onwards created a more complicated tapestry of beliefs about “demons” that was largely independent of Christian scripture.

While daimons were considered as both potentially benevolent or malevolent, argued against  that daimons are exclusively evil entities, supporting the later idea of (evil) demons. According to Origen’s cosmology, increasing corruption and evil within the soul, the more estranged the soul gets from God. Therefore, Origen opinned that the most evil demons are located underground. Besides the fallen angels known from Christian scriptures, Origen talks about Greek daemons, like nature spirits and giants. These creatures were thought to inhabit nature or air and nourish from pagan sacrifices roaming the earth. However, there is no functional difference between the spirits of the underworld and of earth, since both have fallen from perfection into the material world. Origen sums them up as s and thus equal to demons.

Many s, like Origen and, described demons as psychological powers, tempting to evil, in contrast to benevolent angels advising good. According to Life of Anthony, written in Greek around 360 by, most of the time, the demons were expressed as an internal struggle, inclinations and temptations. But after Anthony successfully resisted the demons, they would appear in human form to tempt and threat him even more intense.

described evil as “defiancy” and does not give evil an ontological existence. He explains demons are deficiant creatures, who willingly turn themselves towards the unreal and non-existence. Their dangerous nature results not from power of their nature, but from their tendency to drag others into the “” and the unreal, away from God.

proposed the existence of several types of demons, deeply influenced by the material nature of the regions they dwell. The highest and most powerful demons attack the mind of people using their “imaginative action” (phantastikos) to produce illusions in the mind. The lowest demons on the other hand are almost mindless, gross and grunting spirits, which try to possess people instinctively, simply attracted by the warmth and life of humans. These cause diseases, fatal accidents and animalistic behavior in their victims. They are unable to speak, while other lower types of demons might give out false oracles. The demons are divided into: Invocation of Saints, holy men and women, especially ascetics, reading the Gospel, holy oil or water is said to drive them out. However, Psellos’ schemes have been too inconsistent to answer questions about the hierarchy of fallen angels. The devil’s position is impossible to assign in this scheme and it does not respond to living perceptions of felt experience and was considered rather impractical to have a lasting effect or impact on Christian demonology.
 * Leliouria: The highest demons who inhabit the ether, beyond the moon
 * Aeria: Demons of the air below the moon
 * Chthonia: Inhabiting the land
 * Hyraia/Enalia: Dwelling in the water
 * Bypochtbonia: They live beneath the earth
 * Misophaes: The lowest type of demon, blind and almost senseless in the lowest hell

The contemporary Roman Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that angels and demons are real beings rather than just symbolic devices. The Catholic Church has a cadre of officially sanctioned exorcists which perform many exorcisms each year. The exorcists of the Catholic Church teach that demons attack humans continually but that afflicted persons can be effectively healed and protected either by the formal rite of exorcism, authorized to be performed only by bishops and those they designate, or by prayers of deliverance, which any Christian can offer for themselves or others.

At various times in Christian history, attempts have been made to classify demons according to various proposed demonic hierarchies.

Mandaeism
In, the (alma d-hšuka), also referred to as , is the underworld located below  (Earth). It is ruled by its king  and its queen, mother of the  and. The great dark (or Suf) lies in the World of Darkness. The great dividing river of, analogous to the river in , separates the World of Darkness from the. Prominent infernal beings found in the World of Darkness include , nalai (vampire), niuli (hobgoblin), gadalta (ghost), satani and various other demons and evil spirits.

Gnosticism
Examples of portrayals of demons can  be found in the  in which they are said to have helped construct the physical  and in Pistis Sophia which states they are ruled over by Hekate and punish corrupt souls.

Islam
Shayāṭīn (or  of Indo-Iranian religion) are the usual terms for demons in Islamic belief. In demons try to lead humans astray from God, by tempting them to sin, teaching them sorcery and cause mischief among humans. albeit not forbidden per se, may include conjuring demons, which requires acts against and are therefore, such as illicit blood-sacrifices, abandoning prayer and rejecting fasting. Based on the Islamic view on, who is widely believed to have been a ruler over genies and demons, Islam has a rich tradition about conjuring demons. Among the demons are the devils (shayatin) and the fiends (div). Both are believed to have worked for Solomon as slaves. While the devils usually appear within a background, the div frequently feature in beliefs of Persian and Indian origin. But it is to be noted that in Islam both angels and demons are considered to be the creatures of God and so God has ultimate power over all of them.

According to the devils are the offspring of  (Satan). They are said to live until the world ceases to exist, always shadow in humans (and jinn) whispering onto their  to lead them astray. Prayers are used to ward off their attacks, dissolving them temporarily. As the counterpart of the, they try to go against God’s will and their abode in is pre-destined. They lack free will and are bound to evil. The and  are more powerful classes of devils. Jinn are different from devils in that they have free will and not all of them are wrongdoers.

According to ’s work on the history of the world, explained that the  were the first beings created by God. Some argue the devils were created good, but turned evil by Iblis’ act of arrogance, the div were created as vicious creatures and embodiment of evil. When Iblis was still among the angels, he led an army against the spirits on the earth. Among them were the div, who formed two orders; one of which sided with the jinn and were banished with them, condemned to roam the earth. The other, treacherous div joined Iblis in battle, and exiled to Hell with him. The div are often depicted as sorcerers whose misdeeds are not bound to temptation only. They could cause sickness, mental illnesses, or even turn humans to stone by touching. While the devils frequently appear to ordinary humans to tempt them into everything disapproved by society, the div usually appear to specific heroes.

Baháʼí Faith
In the, demons are not regarded as independent evil spirits as they are in some faiths. Rather, evil spirits described in various faiths’ traditions, such as Satan, fallen angels, demons and jinn, are metaphors for the base character traits a human being may acquire and manifest when he turns away from God and follows his lower nature. Belief in the existence of ghosts and earthbound spirits is rejected and considered to be the product of superstition.

Ceremonial magic
While some people fear demons, or attempt to exorcise them, others willfully attempt to summon them for knowledge, assistance, or power. The ceremonial magician usually consults a grimoire, which gives the names and abilities of demons as well as detailed instructions for conjuring and controlling them. Grimoires are not limited to demons – some give the names of angels or spirits which can be called, a process called theurgy. The use of ceremonial magic to call demons is also known as goetia, the name taken from a section in the famous grimoire known as the .

Wicca
According to, “Demons are not courted or worshipped in contemporary and. The existence of negative energies is acknowledged.”

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