An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Demonology

A knowledge of demonology, or the supposed science of the study and classification of demons, was considered in times past to be essential to the investigation of witchcraft. This followed logically upon the Church’s doctrine that all witchcraft, and indeed all rival cults to that of Christianity, were inspired and directed by Satan.

This attitude is exemplified by the fact that in medieval times Mahound, a popular form of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was another name for the devil.

The whole doctrine rested upon the Biblical references to the fallen angels, who were supposed to have been cast out of heaven, together with their leader, Satan or Lucifer, and thereafter to have become the implacable enemies of God and mankind. It is doubtful, however, if the ancient Hebrews originally meant anything like this by their references to Satan. In the Book of Job Satan figures as a sort of heavenly agent provocateur, employed by God to test people’s faith. He enters boldly into heaven among the sons of God, a term used in Genesis to refer to the angels. The word satan means an adversary.

An echo of this doctrine is found in the Lord’s Prayer, in the rather puzzling words “and lead us not into temptation”. The famous French occultist Eliphas Lévi has pointed out that if the Devil exists, he must be a Devil of God. Lévi had to write in an obscure manner to avoid offending the Catholic Church, of which he was a member; but he protests in his chief work, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (Translated as Transcendental Magic by Arthur Edward Waite, George Redway, London, 1896), against the ideas of the demonologists. He accuses them of setting up Satan as a rival to God, and derives their beliefs from the Eastern doctrines of Zoroastrianism rather than from true Christianity. Zoroaster postulated two great powers, one of light and one of darkness, between which the rulership of the universe was divided.

The identification of Satan with Lucifer rests upon a text in Isaiah, Chapter 14, verse 12: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” Early Biblical scholars connected this with the story in Revelations about the great star that fell from heaven, and with the words of Jesus in the Gospel of St Luke, Chapter 10, verse 18: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Yet it is obvious from the context of this passage from Isaiah that the prophet is not referring to Satan at all, but to a proud and oppressive king of Babylon. The Hebrew word translated as ’Lucifer’ means ’shining one’, one of the stars of heaven. Out of such doubtful beginnings did religious doctrines grow, with the assistance of pious and semi-literate demonologists.

One of the chief source-books for the story of the fallen angels is The Book of Enoch, a collection of pre-Christian fragments which enlarge upon the strange story about the sons of God who “came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis, Chapter 6, verses 1—4). The Book of Enoch tells how, in the days before the Flood, some 200 ’angels’ descended upon Mount Hermon, and took wives from among earthly women. The ’angels’ not only interbred with the people of earth, but also taught them all kinds of knowledge they had never possessed before. For this, they were punished with great severity, and God sent the Flood to destroy the dangerous hybrid race of ’giants’ which had resulted from this forbidden mating. (The Book of Enoch, translated by R. H. Charles, S.P.C.K., London, 1970.)

In the days when these accounts were written, the earth was thought to be the centre of the universe, the only place inhabited by men; and any other beings who descended from heaven could only be either angels or devils. Today, with our beginning of space travel and our knowledge of other possible worlds inhabitated by intelligent beings, perhaps more advanced than ourselves, we can see quite a different explanation for these traditions.

Some extra-terrestrial beings may have come to this earth in the far-distant past, sufficiently like ourselves to mate with human women and produce children, yet more advanced in knowledge and civilisation. The ordinary men of earth would naturally have been jealous and suspicious of these interlopers, and when the flood that drowned Atlantis took place—an event of which there are many traces in legend—they would have blamed it on the newcomers, with the old argument of post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

However, to the demonologists of the Middle Ages, the subject of the fallen angels was of great importance. In the notorious grimoire called The Goetia, or Lesser Key of Solomon, we are given the names and descriptions of seventy-two fallen angels, each of whom is a ruler over legions of spirits. We are told that King Solomon, by his command of magic, confined these demon rulers within a vessel of brass, which he then sealed with a magical seal and cast into a deep lake. Unfortunately, the people of Babylon, thinking the vessel contained treasure, drew it out and broke it open, so that all the demons escaped again. Nevertheless, by means of the magical sigils and instructions derived from Solomon, the magician may command these spirits and make them obey him. The same theme is repeated in other grimoires.

Another view of demons is that they are not fallen angels, nor created wicked, but rather the personification of blind forces of nature. Alternatively, they may be regarded as non-human spirits of a violent, capricious nature, often hostile to man, but of inferior mentality to him, and therefore able to be commanded by a powerful magician. This latter concept of demons is one which prevails among practitioners of magic all over the world.

The Victorian novelist Bulwer Lytton, who was the leader of a secret magical circle, tells us in his occult novel A Strange Story:

In the creed of the Dervish, and of all who adventure into that realm of nature which is closed to philosophy and open to magic, there are races in the magnitude of space unseen as animalcules in the world of a drop. For the tribes of the drop, science has its microscope. Of the hosts of yon azure Infinite magic gains sight, and through them gains command over fluid conductors that link all the parts of creation. Of these races, some are wholly indifferent to man, some benign to him, and some deadly hostile.

Such is an initiate’s view of demons, namely that some spirits may be dangerous for man to meddle with, not because they have been created for the purpose of tempting and tormenting, but in the same way that a wild animal is dangerous.

This is a dark and difficult subject. Nevertheless, demonologists in years gone by undauntedly drew up the most precise, detailed and fantastic list of demons, and their various powers and offices. The legions of hell were believed to be everywhere, and witches were their agents. These beliefs undoubtedly contributed much to the panicking of public opinion, until people unthinkingly acquiesced in the cruellest persecutions of the days of witch-hunting. (See DEVIL.)