Well, its hard to make friends in your 30's, haha.
Besides, getting a demon (or a spirit, more generally) to assist in a magical working is easier, for relative beginners at least, than doing it all yourself. Understanding astral magic, mineral / herbal correspondancies, becoming proficient in methods of divination and the like, requires a lot of specialised knowledge and skill. Having a guy come do it for you can be very appealing; like hiring a housekeeper or handyman butler, I suppose.
Another perspective, more common in Demonolatry than in traditional Solomonic Goetia, is that the demons are not just servitors but spiritual partners with potential beneficial relationships to be had with them, whether as tutors, guides, companions and protectors or as objects of religious devotion.
Lee W Johnson put it well when he said in a video on Demonolatry (I'm paraphrasing here) "when you develop a relationship with the demons, it's like being in the gang: you have their back and they have yours. A bond with demons is an intimate connection with material and spiritual benefits"
>what do we bring them?
I cant say for certain. Perhaps it's the engagement (respect, attention, association, "small talk", or whatever), the benefits and pleasures of knowing somebody.
>What would be their benefice?
I've been shown things; sigils, invocations, herbal knowledge and more esoteric things than that. Having a spirit you know can help in banishing other spirits, in divination, in performing magick and casting spells.
Like having a friend who is a programmer / plumber / etc. Likely as much us for them as them for us.
What makes you think that I'd attach my soul to something, that I have a platonic soul in the first place, and that demons arent native to this reality like ourselves?
Why not ?
Share a cup of coffee, read books together, cast a spell whether that be for gardening help, wealth gains or hexes, ~~spend 3 hours in the middle of the night talking about philosophy together,~~ the possibilities are endless.
Spirit classifications are subjective. Demons are spiritual beings, the same way Angels and Gods are, so you can do spîritual stuff with 'em :)
In goetic medieval magic and early medieval angelology and demonology, angels and demons sort of took over where tutelary gods and spirits of pre-Christian religions held sway. In a monotheistic culture, they couldn't have tutelary gods for this and that so it became more acceptable to believe in and address tutelary angels --and demons. Demons were interpreted as fallen angels (per apocryphal mythology such as the Book of Enoch) and early medieval Christians were in the habit of creating compendiums of angel and demon names. How these names were chosen or created is another topic for discussion.
Again, in line with the mythology, many demons/fallen angels were sort of neutral and presided over certain skills and could teach people those skills (at the cost of loss of innocence, according to the mythology). Demons also could be *compelled* to obey the requests and orders of a magician because the magician would command the demons to do so by saying that he was speaking through the authority of God--and the demons had to obey God. This is somewhat similar to --but not the same as-- Egyptian magic whereby the magician would speak *as* the commanding deity as if to trick a lesser spiritual being to obey.
Whereas medieval goetic magicians would compel a demon to do their bidding by saying they must by the authority of God, these magicians would evoke angels as intercessors and benefactors, seeking blessing and favor from them.
A good book to read for background research for your writing endeavor is Grimoires A History of Magical Books by Owen Davies. You may want to check out the youtube channel Esoterica and find some episodes on Solomonic magic for information as well.
You are very welcome. I will add that several folks here are commenting that goetic demons (the demons listed in grimoire on Solomonic magic and medieval necromancy books) are "really" daemons(or the idea of daemons) adapted from classical Greek spirituality. This is incorrect except for maybe nomenclature. The idea of (malific) demons was widespread in the ancient world--and the concept of angels and demons that was adapted in Judaism and then Christianity and Islam--mostly came by way of earlier Semitic cultures (Babylonian). The Greeks also held ideas about angels (heavenly messengers) and good and bad daemons (calodaemones and cacodaemones). In late pre- and proto-Christian Greece, the idea of the daemon began to change and overall began to take on a more suspect quality whereby some people began to question whether they should allow themselves to be influenced by daemons. Greek philosophers were very much involved in the development of standardized Christian ideas and so Greek nomenclature got adapted into early orthodox Christian thought.
The names of demons found in the medieval and early to mid Modern Era (Renaissance) compendiums and Solomonic texts are a mishmash of names of ancient foreign pagan deities, variations of spellings of such deities so that they become regarded as several different beings, mashups of word forms from different languages, and sometimes just garble. Angel names are often description words with the suffix "el" (of God) appended to them. Alternate spellings of some angel names also sometimes become regarded as separate beings.
First, "Demons" are not quite what you think, to quote from myself:
>"Demon" comes from "Deamon" which just comes from the Greek Word for "spirit", "divine power", etc...
>I.e. as the middle ages progressed, Western culture lumped all the old spirits and gods into one category "deamon" as a catch-all, and then "demons" became to be viewed universally as a collection of innate evil by the propaganda created during the rise of the medieval Christian Church who demanded a monopoly on all the spiritual things that humans could do that were allowed to be thought of as "good" or even "okay" by the rest of society.
Some of these thus labeled beings are actually pretty helpful and friendly. The most extreme example of such possibly being Stolas who seems to primarily be there to teach you things about herbs, astronomy, stones, etc..., he apparently doesn't even need a summoning circle but will respect it if you command it, and is generally a friendly enough tutor that he is the subject of many [r/occult memes](https://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/10ev0qn/a_small_doodle_of_stolas/) to that effect.
I can’t say they are generally helpful or friendly. Western Christian dogmatic traditions not withstanding. Sure some are, most seemingly are as flawed and maladaptive as a garden variety person. Full of shit and onerous agendas.
Certainly not all of them. My point was some of them can be. Not all of these things are buddies obviously, my point was not all of them are going to go try and burn down all of existence the moment you evoke them which is the perception people have.
**EDIT:** I think it is also worth adding that how helpful and friendly they are is dependent on how well they know you. When you first meet most of them you are just some obnoxious person bothering them -- you don't get a lot of friendly or helpful results on first contact. If you build a bit of a relationship with them most of them can be very friendly and helpful.
I totally agree, with all that. To me, I just wanted to contrast a simple truth, maybe helpful for people recognize/remember a line in the song sympathy for the devil, specifically the part about, “well learned politics”.
I think you understand what I am talking about.
It depends on how you contact them.
I am pretty bad at all of this, so I sure as heck can't actually manifest anything to save my life -- i.e. I have never once managed evoke anything into observable or even auditory existence. There are definitely those who have claimed to, plenty of them on this subreddit, so you should ask them about that not me.
That said, doing the right ritual but failing to evoke them in the moment sometimes leads them to try and respond to you later in dreams, which, if you are like me, is not a very effective way to learn in a structured or useful way but is a thing that can produce some interesting "food for thought."
Beyond that, many of them have specific ways to get ahold of them more easily. In the case of Stolas he is supposedly relatively easy to contact through mirror scrying (I wouldn't know, its just what I hear.) For such an approach one would do something like (the following is not actual proper detailed instructions but a summary thereof): use a natural rock formation out somewhere as an an alter, put an appropriately constructed talisman or whatever with his sigil properly rendered upon it, burn his incense (cedar), light an appropriately colored candle (blue), say an appropriate evocation (see the Goetia,) maybe use a few other things to enhance the experience (like say pick the right dates and/or times: for Stolas that would certain dates in March, preferably on a Thursday, hour of Jupiter in the daytime) and then stare deep into your black scrying mirror maintaining a strong mental intent to contact him and holding some thought of him (like say the memorized image of his sigil) in your mind throughout. Then, while maintaining your mental intent and sigil image, if you relax your eyes and stare "beyond or through" the image in the scrying mirror and everything else was done correctly you are supposed to see an image of him "beyond" the mirror surface, and if quiet be able to hear him in your head. You may then ask questions if he is so amenable. As with all things "magick" though, doing any of the above without the appropriately roused "excitement" or energy, and done with anything less than perfect confidence in and yet no lust for a result, won't get you anything. Doubt, to a reasonable approximation, is being confident in failure and is likely to produce that exact result. Telling yourself that you are not doubting, are confident, and not lusting for results is not at all the same thing as doing any of those things even though you might feel certain in the moment that it is -- that is my usual point of failure.
Personally I usually make contact through astral. There are all sorts of techniques for astral travel, the ones I use aren't terribly effective but they are what I have and what work for me. To get a particular entity while you are busy having your self-guided out of body experience, use something like burning the right incense with the right intention of finding said something with enough known about said thing and focused on it sometimes gets an audience of sorts. If you can land that then they mostly talk and interact as you might expect with some exceptions. The most interesting things I have learned have been through this approach. The problem with Astral is you can get a lot of reflections from your own mind and thoughts or even random entities claiming to be things they are not. As such when using astral you have to "trust but verify" everything or you are going to be taking made up things as truth from stuff in your own head or entities that were cosplaying as something far more significant than they actually are just for attention ... or whatever motivates them to do this.
Again, I'll be the first to tell you I am really bad at this. With one major exception I haven't gotten much interesting or worth writing about or discussing as far as contacting significant beings. You would be much better served by asking others on here who claim more successful experiences than me (which should be like 99% of the people on this sub.)
Demons are powerful in many ways. People summon them to ask them to do things. This could be something like "kill/curse my enemies", "make the woman I love fall in love with me", "give me a familiar spirit", or "answer these questions I have".
One classic example would be Solomon, who was said to have bound demons to his service in order to build a temple using their powers.
Others may be looking for deeper knowledge of magic and the occult which they believe the demon can guide them towards, or they may be in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment or a greater understanding of the spiritual world. They also may simply be doing it for novelty (as was somewhat common amongst the aristocracy for a while).
I see several explanations of past traditions so to give it a more post modern spin, here’s some other reasoning behind why people summon demons.
1- the “as above so below”: some people subscribe to a concept of there being multiple layers of consciousness/reality where there exist beings of higher and lower vibration. We tend to attribute more positive and “godly” (in a more western/Christian sense of the word) qualities to “high vibrational” beings, and more negative and “evil” qualities on “low vibrational” beings. If you apply the idea of “as above, so below” to this, then we mere mortals presumably would appear demonic or evil to those beings above us we would refer to as angels. Therefore, if what we call a “demon” is looking up at us, we presumably appear more angelic to them. But I’m sure you’re asking why then would someone who believes this summon lower vibrational “demons” to enact their will? Without going into more theory a TLDR would be that lower vibrational entities bring about results in a different way than a higher vibrational one might. This may yield quicker or more effective results for a magician who subscribes to this theory.
2- the “Spicy Psychology”: In the post modern era with reductive materialist science causing the world to re-examine and debunk aspects of strongly held religious beliefs and our understanding of reality, magicians have had to similarly adapt with the times. There is a rising school of thought that looks at old occult practices through a psychological lens. Magick becomes more of a form of mind hacking, where you are attempting to manifest your will via the placebo affect and quantum entanglement. Under this lens entities like angels, demons, and other such spirits are more like imaginal representations of your psyche, a way for you to interact with your own mind. These need not be the judeo Christian angels and demons, they could be aliens, cartoon characters, whatever floats your boat. In this view of magick, one would summon demons as a symbolic manifestation of their subconscious to interface with it.
Now obviously those don’t apply universally, and some people believe in both, or still hold to old traditions, but I hadn’t notice anyone mention those two yet.
In many cases they are not. They are summoning daimons, also known as paredros in Ancient Greek. They are supernatural helpers who can help accomplish everything from becoming wealthier to curing a toothache. In Theurgical practice they are summoned assistants in rising though the various realms to become purified and ultimately achieve Oneness with the Primordial Fire. The Christians turned it into a bad thing and the word changed to demons, associated with all things evil.
For a very thorough explanation I recommend "Low Magick: It's All in Your Head..." by Lon Milo DuQuette. Its about 200 pages but a very quick read. A short answer would be that if you are thinking about spirituality beyond the confines of a Judeo-Christian mindset the concept of what a "demon" is starts to become less of an embodiment of evil and more of a general powerful spirit.
There’s so many different reasons why.
It really depends what you’re trying to revolve your story around. Frankly, you could summon one for just about anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone summon one simply because wanted an audience while pleasuring themselves. (Not speaking from personal experience here)
Trigger warning: my reply may offend.
There will be many reasons, mostly connected to feeling powerless/weak on the material plane and wanting more control over their lives/loves/outcomes.
Why do almost all human beings “summon demons” by way of our normal every day thoughts and feelings?
Because we don’t know any better. That’s why. We think there is something to be gained by doing so.
What people actually do, and why, is always a mystery. I would say most aren't as informed as many of the others here who have responded thus far.
As to why would anyone NEED to summon a demon when it obviously seems safer to use angels or simply... Law of attraction? It's because they are themselves unable to simply manifest the result. Either the request is of a dark nature (look up the emotional scale), or the magician themselves has a limiting belief about the subject, so.. Again look at where the items falls for you when you think about it. On the emotional scale. You may be asking for money, but flavoring it with your aversion to your debt.. So the money is being attracted with a feeling of lack.. You get more debt.. And you lack the connection to divine energy like a fallen angel/demon.
Think of the logic like this.
An angel won't help because the work is yours to do.. Get good on the item you request and it will be granted. Money so you can responsibly get your life back in order feels different and night happen. It's as simple as that.
The other way is to ask a demon.. You give it good energy and like the money changers good money is used for a bad purpose.. Your good energy allows the demon to do your bidding... At a cost.. A debt is formed. A debt that likely aids the demon in 'helping' others.. For an energetic profit of course.. Evil is perpetuated in you and through you because of it and you sink further into the dark.. You can still be successful.. But at a cost. And more becomes naturally inaccessible to you..
An angel can command a demon to do good and bind them to do so in a way that does no harm, so why not go that route is always the question.. But in terms of your story... The degradation to following this path might be interesting.. I look at the Luciferian element of this to be improving with malice and pride rather than virtue of accomplishment... Hope there is something there for you in all that.
Some would say that's how magic is done. You summon and bind a demon (so it can only speak the truth), have it perform the supernatural task, and then seal it. Specific demons have various specialities, like medicine, or astronomy, or strategy and stuff like that. Depends what you want.
Check out donolotsry practice or demonology. Ive heard of spells were people use angels to bind demons when summoned. Also heard of working with our inner demons. Heard people that get possesed by demons manifested them unconsciously to distract them from there kwn pain.
I do it to gain wisdom, insight, advice, about anything that I want it on. For me, it is absolutely no differant from somebody asking Yahweh, Buddha, or Allah about the same things or praying to them. Some I don't even need to summon, they are just always kinda there.
To bind them, to ask questions, and to get them to do what you want (get you stuff, curse people, etc)
Traditionally you call up a demon to basically tell them "stop fucking with me, get out of my way, and do what I want". Usually this is in the form of calling God and angels and stuff to compel the demon or bind the demon. It's like being a cosmic Karen and telling the demon "if you don't do what I want, I'm gonna tell the angels and they're gonna come fuck you up". The demon then usually does what you tell it to or tests the limits to see if you'll really follow through. Sometimes they'll try to renegotiate the terms or get something out of it, but you're not supposed to let them (traditionally speaking). Demons are lower beings in the big spiritual hierarchy, this treating them as greater than humans or equal to humans is a modern take on it. You're still supposed to be nice, polite, and even have sympathy for them, but not to worship, beg, or serve them. The magician is the boss in the operation traditionally speaking. Other practitioners hold other views, of course.
The notion of making deals and pacts and agreements with demons came later. It's debatable whether this was because the church accused people of it falsely or because people were actually doing it and the church was just documenting it. Either way, it ended up in popular tales like that of Faust and has continued into popular culture. I lean more towards it being an invention of the church that was later adopted by practitioners who based their practices off the church's writings and the popular stories that grew out of it. In my opinion, you shouldn't make a deal or pact with a demon. They should be compelled or bound.
More contemporarily there is a growing group of people who worship demons (sometimes called demonalators) and don't follow the traditional methods of binding and compelling them. These people, in my opinion, are wrong but they do exist and will continue to regardless of my disagreements.
Some people also take a more psychological approach, viewing the demons and part of the unconscious mind. Thus the summoning and binding of them, to these people, is the controlling of their own desires, urges, and tendencies. I don't hold this view personally, but it's out there.
Hope that helps. Good luck with your story.
Solomons ring. (The ring controlled Demons and DJINN) If you can conqueor your demons than your wishes will be granted.
Translation : If you can overcome the bad parts of yourself then your desires will more likely come true.
Its a metaphor for personal demons. But people dont like words like "Metaphor" and will use "Real" or "True" or "Fact" and they will call you an idiot for saying otherwise.
Because they are helpful beeings.
I owe them some of the most amasing transformations in my personal development. People would give milions of dollars to acomplish those transformations.
Demons are real spiritual beeings, and in my experience closest to humans.
They are not so much friends as more agents of development , growth and wisdom.
I am gratefull that in this age, better ever than never, I was able to find these beeings.
Crowley did it because of his background. He came from a very conservative christian family. I think that's why he opposed it with embracing the opposite of that believe system.
It's about control and power. People are trying to work with the demons to achieve some sort of goal. They have to be "powerful" enough to "control" the demons and not let it destroy them. Aka... they have to have balance in the chakras and in the 5 elements in the body to do magic. What's happening is the user is using negative or chaos energy to accomplish some sort of goal I would assume. One could evolve spiritually on the left hand path by using chaos. It is about using chaos only for your higher good and not abusing its power. It is very dangerous and I don't recommend it to anyone unless they know what they're doing. Most people pick the right hand path which is light magic.
Among the other stuff said here: Occasionally to convert or heal them (See Buddhism and Hinduism for stories of converted Rakshasa, also many common Daoist temples of Matzu feature two demons she converted, who are now the guardians).
And sometimes they get brought in by teachers as a test.
There could be a lot of reasons, really.
I bear Valefors sigil on my skin out of resonance and impulse. That pretty much made me start going down the Left Hand Path more consciously than before. Trust is essentially the first step towards realization.
This is the only decent answer here.
I’m not responding to you Wisdom and Effort.
King Solomon didn’t use them to build the temple. They had to be bound and kept away, in order to build a holy place. Some of you do realize that demons are representative of sins…right? Could Solomon theoretically build a home with an impure soul? No.
Believing the nonsense that a demon can assist you with anything is based in literal deception. You will only bind your soul.
Because they are no different than a hammer or a screwdriver to me, and tools are never not helpful.
Edit: people that "work" (big emphasis on quotations) with demons are dorks holy shit lmaooo read the shit you're writing. Tea parties, late night talks about philosophy, what a great laugh.
Each demon has certain purposes. Most people that are deep in that life make a living from it. So they have certain demons they deal with & will charge a fee to people that might want revenge on a person, love spells, money spells. They are used as a tool or shortcut for ppl to acquire their earthly desires
Hidden or divine support and assistance. Get the gig, get the girl, become a metaphorical god, climb the ranks etc... why does some one pray, seek a therapist, knock on wood? Belief in influencing or changing destiny and fate. Demon, angel, tulpa, spirit watever, a human seeks outside usually for help.
To call upon for assistance in agency towards what it is that you are wanting. If someone is willing to do that, then chances are they walk a left handed path.
Demons are real. Meaning that when you talk to you realistic. They tell you the truth. They do not hide things, and they tell you exactly what they want, please, they are fantastic creatures.
Well, its hard to make friends in your 30's, haha. Besides, getting a demon (or a spirit, more generally) to assist in a magical working is easier, for relative beginners at least, than doing it all yourself. Understanding astral magic, mineral / herbal correspondancies, becoming proficient in methods of divination and the like, requires a lot of specialised knowledge and skill. Having a guy come do it for you can be very appealing; like hiring a housekeeper or handyman butler, I suppose. Another perspective, more common in Demonolatry than in traditional Solomonic Goetia, is that the demons are not just servitors but spiritual partners with potential beneficial relationships to be had with them, whether as tutors, guides, companions and protectors or as objects of religious devotion. Lee W Johnson put it well when he said in a video on Demonolatry (I'm paraphrasing here) "when you develop a relationship with the demons, it's like being in the gang: you have their back and they have yours. A bond with demons is an intimate connection with material and spiritual benefits"
It feels great to have a demon buddy !
Especially one that cares for you. Unlike those succubus spirits that come and go, a spirit companion is an experience on a different level.
I do photobooth reels with mine
My demons and I all got matching tattoos.
A question, as I don't know much about them and that way of practice... what do we bring them? What would be their benefice?
>what do we bring them? I cant say for certain. Perhaps it's the engagement (respect, attention, association, "small talk", or whatever), the benefits and pleasures of knowing somebody. >What would be their benefice? I've been shown things; sigils, invocations, herbal knowledge and more esoteric things than that. Having a spirit you know can help in banishing other spirits, in divination, in performing magick and casting spells. Like having a friend who is a programmer / plumber / etc. Likely as much us for them as them for us.
What do you think will happen after your physical body dies and your soul is attached to the bidding of a demon in their realms?
What makes you think that I'd attach my soul to something, that I have a platonic soul in the first place, and that demons arent native to this reality like ourselves?
Why not ? Share a cup of coffee, read books together, cast a spell whether that be for gardening help, wealth gains or hexes, ~~spend 3 hours in the middle of the night talking about philosophy together,~~ the possibilities are endless. Spirit classifications are subjective. Demons are spiritual beings, the same way Angels and Gods are, so you can do spîritual stuff with 'em :)
In goetic medieval magic and early medieval angelology and demonology, angels and demons sort of took over where tutelary gods and spirits of pre-Christian religions held sway. In a monotheistic culture, they couldn't have tutelary gods for this and that so it became more acceptable to believe in and address tutelary angels --and demons. Demons were interpreted as fallen angels (per apocryphal mythology such as the Book of Enoch) and early medieval Christians were in the habit of creating compendiums of angel and demon names. How these names were chosen or created is another topic for discussion. Again, in line with the mythology, many demons/fallen angels were sort of neutral and presided over certain skills and could teach people those skills (at the cost of loss of innocence, according to the mythology). Demons also could be *compelled* to obey the requests and orders of a magician because the magician would command the demons to do so by saying that he was speaking through the authority of God--and the demons had to obey God. This is somewhat similar to --but not the same as-- Egyptian magic whereby the magician would speak *as* the commanding deity as if to trick a lesser spiritual being to obey. Whereas medieval goetic magicians would compel a demon to do their bidding by saying they must by the authority of God, these magicians would evoke angels as intercessors and benefactors, seeking blessing and favor from them. A good book to read for background research for your writing endeavor is Grimoires A History of Magical Books by Owen Davies. You may want to check out the youtube channel Esoterica and find some episodes on Solomonic magic for information as well.
Thank you for writing this. Take all of my poor mans gold 🥇🥈🥉🏅🎖️🏆
Much appreciated sentiment.
Super interesting but it makes sense.
Damn well done and saved me a lot of effort!
This has been an excellent read and I'll look into these recommendations, thank you so much
You are very welcome. I will add that several folks here are commenting that goetic demons (the demons listed in grimoire on Solomonic magic and medieval necromancy books) are "really" daemons(or the idea of daemons) adapted from classical Greek spirituality. This is incorrect except for maybe nomenclature. The idea of (malific) demons was widespread in the ancient world--and the concept of angels and demons that was adapted in Judaism and then Christianity and Islam--mostly came by way of earlier Semitic cultures (Babylonian). The Greeks also held ideas about angels (heavenly messengers) and good and bad daemons (calodaemones and cacodaemones). In late pre- and proto-Christian Greece, the idea of the daemon began to change and overall began to take on a more suspect quality whereby some people began to question whether they should allow themselves to be influenced by daemons. Greek philosophers were very much involved in the development of standardized Christian ideas and so Greek nomenclature got adapted into early orthodox Christian thought. The names of demons found in the medieval and early to mid Modern Era (Renaissance) compendiums and Solomonic texts are a mishmash of names of ancient foreign pagan deities, variations of spellings of such deities so that they become regarded as several different beings, mashups of word forms from different languages, and sometimes just garble. Angel names are often description words with the suffix "el" (of God) appended to them. Alternate spellings of some angel names also sometimes become regarded as separate beings.
It seems to help people’s creative writing on Reddit
For the same reason people call on plumbers and electricians. Demons tend to be experts in a field.
It's easier than the alternative.
First, "Demons" are not quite what you think, to quote from myself: >"Demon" comes from "Deamon" which just comes from the Greek Word for "spirit", "divine power", etc... >I.e. as the middle ages progressed, Western culture lumped all the old spirits and gods into one category "deamon" as a catch-all, and then "demons" became to be viewed universally as a collection of innate evil by the propaganda created during the rise of the medieval Christian Church who demanded a monopoly on all the spiritual things that humans could do that were allowed to be thought of as "good" or even "okay" by the rest of society. Some of these thus labeled beings are actually pretty helpful and friendly. The most extreme example of such possibly being Stolas who seems to primarily be there to teach you things about herbs, astronomy, stones, etc..., he apparently doesn't even need a summoning circle but will respect it if you command it, and is generally a friendly enough tutor that he is the subject of many [r/occult memes](https://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/10ev0qn/a_small_doodle_of_stolas/) to that effect.
I can’t say they are generally helpful or friendly. Western Christian dogmatic traditions not withstanding. Sure some are, most seemingly are as flawed and maladaptive as a garden variety person. Full of shit and onerous agendas.
Certainly not all of them. My point was some of them can be. Not all of these things are buddies obviously, my point was not all of them are going to go try and burn down all of existence the moment you evoke them which is the perception people have. **EDIT:** I think it is also worth adding that how helpful and friendly they are is dependent on how well they know you. When you first meet most of them you are just some obnoxious person bothering them -- you don't get a lot of friendly or helpful results on first contact. If you build a bit of a relationship with them most of them can be very friendly and helpful.
I totally agree, with all that. To me, I just wanted to contrast a simple truth, maybe helpful for people recognize/remember a line in the song sympathy for the devil, specifically the part about, “well learned politics”. I think you understand what I am talking about.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
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It depends on how you contact them. I am pretty bad at all of this, so I sure as heck can't actually manifest anything to save my life -- i.e. I have never once managed evoke anything into observable or even auditory existence. There are definitely those who have claimed to, plenty of them on this subreddit, so you should ask them about that not me. That said, doing the right ritual but failing to evoke them in the moment sometimes leads them to try and respond to you later in dreams, which, if you are like me, is not a very effective way to learn in a structured or useful way but is a thing that can produce some interesting "food for thought." Beyond that, many of them have specific ways to get ahold of them more easily. In the case of Stolas he is supposedly relatively easy to contact through mirror scrying (I wouldn't know, its just what I hear.) For such an approach one would do something like (the following is not actual proper detailed instructions but a summary thereof): use a natural rock formation out somewhere as an an alter, put an appropriately constructed talisman or whatever with his sigil properly rendered upon it, burn his incense (cedar), light an appropriately colored candle (blue), say an appropriate evocation (see the Goetia,) maybe use a few other things to enhance the experience (like say pick the right dates and/or times: for Stolas that would certain dates in March, preferably on a Thursday, hour of Jupiter in the daytime) and then stare deep into your black scrying mirror maintaining a strong mental intent to contact him and holding some thought of him (like say the memorized image of his sigil) in your mind throughout. Then, while maintaining your mental intent and sigil image, if you relax your eyes and stare "beyond or through" the image in the scrying mirror and everything else was done correctly you are supposed to see an image of him "beyond" the mirror surface, and if quiet be able to hear him in your head. You may then ask questions if he is so amenable. As with all things "magick" though, doing any of the above without the appropriately roused "excitement" or energy, and done with anything less than perfect confidence in and yet no lust for a result, won't get you anything. Doubt, to a reasonable approximation, is being confident in failure and is likely to produce that exact result. Telling yourself that you are not doubting, are confident, and not lusting for results is not at all the same thing as doing any of those things even though you might feel certain in the moment that it is -- that is my usual point of failure. Personally I usually make contact through astral. There are all sorts of techniques for astral travel, the ones I use aren't terribly effective but they are what I have and what work for me. To get a particular entity while you are busy having your self-guided out of body experience, use something like burning the right incense with the right intention of finding said something with enough known about said thing and focused on it sometimes gets an audience of sorts. If you can land that then they mostly talk and interact as you might expect with some exceptions. The most interesting things I have learned have been through this approach. The problem with Astral is you can get a lot of reflections from your own mind and thoughts or even random entities claiming to be things they are not. As such when using astral you have to "trust but verify" everything or you are going to be taking made up things as truth from stuff in your own head or entities that were cosplaying as something far more significant than they actually are just for attention ... or whatever motivates them to do this. Again, I'll be the first to tell you I am really bad at this. With one major exception I haven't gotten much interesting or worth writing about or discussing as far as contacting significant beings. You would be much better served by asking others on here who claim more successful experiences than me (which should be like 99% of the people on this sub.)
Demons are powerful in many ways. People summon them to ask them to do things. This could be something like "kill/curse my enemies", "make the woman I love fall in love with me", "give me a familiar spirit", or "answer these questions I have". One classic example would be Solomon, who was said to have bound demons to his service in order to build a temple using their powers. Others may be looking for deeper knowledge of magic and the occult which they believe the demon can guide them towards, or they may be in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment or a greater understanding of the spiritual world. They also may simply be doing it for novelty (as was somewhat common amongst the aristocracy for a while).
I see several explanations of past traditions so to give it a more post modern spin, here’s some other reasoning behind why people summon demons. 1- the “as above so below”: some people subscribe to a concept of there being multiple layers of consciousness/reality where there exist beings of higher and lower vibration. We tend to attribute more positive and “godly” (in a more western/Christian sense of the word) qualities to “high vibrational” beings, and more negative and “evil” qualities on “low vibrational” beings. If you apply the idea of “as above, so below” to this, then we mere mortals presumably would appear demonic or evil to those beings above us we would refer to as angels. Therefore, if what we call a “demon” is looking up at us, we presumably appear more angelic to them. But I’m sure you’re asking why then would someone who believes this summon lower vibrational “demons” to enact their will? Without going into more theory a TLDR would be that lower vibrational entities bring about results in a different way than a higher vibrational one might. This may yield quicker or more effective results for a magician who subscribes to this theory. 2- the “Spicy Psychology”: In the post modern era with reductive materialist science causing the world to re-examine and debunk aspects of strongly held religious beliefs and our understanding of reality, magicians have had to similarly adapt with the times. There is a rising school of thought that looks at old occult practices through a psychological lens. Magick becomes more of a form of mind hacking, where you are attempting to manifest your will via the placebo affect and quantum entanglement. Under this lens entities like angels, demons, and other such spirits are more like imaginal representations of your psyche, a way for you to interact with your own mind. These need not be the judeo Christian angels and demons, they could be aliens, cartoon characters, whatever floats your boat. In this view of magick, one would summon demons as a symbolic manifestation of their subconscious to interface with it. Now obviously those don’t apply universally, and some people believe in both, or still hold to old traditions, but I hadn’t notice anyone mention those two yet.
In many cases they are not. They are summoning daimons, also known as paredros in Ancient Greek. They are supernatural helpers who can help accomplish everything from becoming wealthier to curing a toothache. In Theurgical practice they are summoned assistants in rising though the various realms to become purified and ultimately achieve Oneness with the Primordial Fire. The Christians turned it into a bad thing and the word changed to demons, associated with all things evil.
is there a catch with summoning daimons? Do they ask for something in exchange?
There are rites you can use to summon them. They do like incense and some form of sacrifice, usually a gesture of thanks.
The results are great if you know what you are doing.
For a very thorough explanation I recommend "Low Magick: It's All in Your Head..." by Lon Milo DuQuette. Its about 200 pages but a very quick read. A short answer would be that if you are thinking about spirituality beyond the confines of a Judeo-Christian mindset the concept of what a "demon" is starts to become less of an embodiment of evil and more of a general powerful spirit.
There’s so many different reasons why. It really depends what you’re trying to revolve your story around. Frankly, you could summon one for just about anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone summon one simply because wanted an audience while pleasuring themselves. (Not speaking from personal experience here)
This is an exceptional answer, unfortunately it’s very very true.
I got around to reading all the answers, thank you for all the help!!! What a lovely subreddit, thank you guys so much.
Have you never heard of Faust?
Goethe’s view of demons is hard to decider, but you get out of it what you put into it. No easy way. Always a price.
I'd try asking this in the Witchcraft sub too.
Trigger warning: my reply may offend. There will be many reasons, mostly connected to feeling powerless/weak on the material plane and wanting more control over their lives/loves/outcomes.
Why do almost all human beings “summon demons” by way of our normal every day thoughts and feelings? Because we don’t know any better. That’s why. We think there is something to be gained by doing so.
What people actually do, and why, is always a mystery. I would say most aren't as informed as many of the others here who have responded thus far. As to why would anyone NEED to summon a demon when it obviously seems safer to use angels or simply... Law of attraction? It's because they are themselves unable to simply manifest the result. Either the request is of a dark nature (look up the emotional scale), or the magician themselves has a limiting belief about the subject, so.. Again look at where the items falls for you when you think about it. On the emotional scale. You may be asking for money, but flavoring it with your aversion to your debt.. So the money is being attracted with a feeling of lack.. You get more debt.. And you lack the connection to divine energy like a fallen angel/demon. Think of the logic like this. An angel won't help because the work is yours to do.. Get good on the item you request and it will be granted. Money so you can responsibly get your life back in order feels different and night happen. It's as simple as that. The other way is to ask a demon.. You give it good energy and like the money changers good money is used for a bad purpose.. Your good energy allows the demon to do your bidding... At a cost.. A debt is formed. A debt that likely aids the demon in 'helping' others.. For an energetic profit of course.. Evil is perpetuated in you and through you because of it and you sink further into the dark.. You can still be successful.. But at a cost. And more becomes naturally inaccessible to you.. An angel can command a demon to do good and bind them to do so in a way that does no harm, so why not go that route is always the question.. But in terms of your story... The degradation to following this path might be interesting.. I look at the Luciferian element of this to be improving with malice and pride rather than virtue of accomplishment... Hope there is something there for you in all that.
Boredom?
Some would say that's how magic is done. You summon and bind a demon (so it can only speak the truth), have it perform the supernatural task, and then seal it. Specific demons have various specialities, like medicine, or astronomy, or strategy and stuff like that. Depends what you want.
Conjuration of demons is one specific skill set in an extremely wide range of magickal practices
It sure is, I was just answering the question.
"An idle brain is the devils workshop."
Check out donolotsry practice or demonology. Ive heard of spells were people use angels to bind demons when summoned. Also heard of working with our inner demons. Heard people that get possesed by demons manifested them unconsciously to distract them from there kwn pain.
Demons are neutral energies not evil. They help you obtain things you want
From my personal experience, once the fun is over , the real torment begins. Don't do it . who am I to gain the whole world, but lose my soul.
I do it to gain wisdom, insight, advice, about anything that I want it on. For me, it is absolutely no differant from somebody asking Yahweh, Buddha, or Allah about the same things or praying to them. Some I don't even need to summon, they are just always kinda there.
To bind them, to ask questions, and to get them to do what you want (get you stuff, curse people, etc) Traditionally you call up a demon to basically tell them "stop fucking with me, get out of my way, and do what I want". Usually this is in the form of calling God and angels and stuff to compel the demon or bind the demon. It's like being a cosmic Karen and telling the demon "if you don't do what I want, I'm gonna tell the angels and they're gonna come fuck you up". The demon then usually does what you tell it to or tests the limits to see if you'll really follow through. Sometimes they'll try to renegotiate the terms or get something out of it, but you're not supposed to let them (traditionally speaking). Demons are lower beings in the big spiritual hierarchy, this treating them as greater than humans or equal to humans is a modern take on it. You're still supposed to be nice, polite, and even have sympathy for them, but not to worship, beg, or serve them. The magician is the boss in the operation traditionally speaking. Other practitioners hold other views, of course. The notion of making deals and pacts and agreements with demons came later. It's debatable whether this was because the church accused people of it falsely or because people were actually doing it and the church was just documenting it. Either way, it ended up in popular tales like that of Faust and has continued into popular culture. I lean more towards it being an invention of the church that was later adopted by practitioners who based their practices off the church's writings and the popular stories that grew out of it. In my opinion, you shouldn't make a deal or pact with a demon. They should be compelled or bound. More contemporarily there is a growing group of people who worship demons (sometimes called demonalators) and don't follow the traditional methods of binding and compelling them. These people, in my opinion, are wrong but they do exist and will continue to regardless of my disagreements. Some people also take a more psychological approach, viewing the demons and part of the unconscious mind. Thus the summoning and binding of them, to these people, is the controlling of their own desires, urges, and tendencies. I don't hold this view personally, but it's out there. Hope that helps. Good luck with your story.
demons are srsly misunderstood/slandered creatures
To basically have self gain like cheat codes in a video game
Start with Bune
Solomons ring. (The ring controlled Demons and DJINN) If you can conqueor your demons than your wishes will be granted. Translation : If you can overcome the bad parts of yourself then your desires will more likely come true. Its a metaphor for personal demons. But people dont like words like "Metaphor" and will use "Real" or "True" or "Fact" and they will call you an idiot for saying otherwise.
I suspect the majority is most likely for some sort of sense of self identity, validation.
Only demons that exist are in one's own head.
Because they are helpful beeings. I owe them some of the most amasing transformations in my personal development. People would give milions of dollars to acomplish those transformations. Demons are real spiritual beeings, and in my experience closest to humans. They are not so much friends as more agents of development , growth and wisdom. I am gratefull that in this age, better ever than never, I was able to find these beeings.
Crowley did it because of his background. He came from a very conservative christian family. I think that's why he opposed it with embracing the opposite of that believe system.
Because they're either desperate stupid want something that they can't get on their own or they mess up another ritual and want inhuman guidance
It's about control and power. People are trying to work with the demons to achieve some sort of goal. They have to be "powerful" enough to "control" the demons and not let it destroy them. Aka... they have to have balance in the chakras and in the 5 elements in the body to do magic. What's happening is the user is using negative or chaos energy to accomplish some sort of goal I would assume. One could evolve spiritually on the left hand path by using chaos. It is about using chaos only for your higher good and not abusing its power. It is very dangerous and I don't recommend it to anyone unless they know what they're doing. Most people pick the right hand path which is light magic.
Among the other stuff said here: Occasionally to convert or heal them (See Buddhism and Hinduism for stories of converted Rakshasa, also many common Daoist temples of Matzu feature two demons she converted, who are now the guardians). And sometimes they get brought in by teachers as a test. There could be a lot of reasons, really.
What a silly question? Do get something they want of course.
there are people who were meant to be in this path, demons will help you just like jesus or Yahweh
I bear Valefors sigil on my skin out of resonance and impulse. That pretty much made me start going down the Left Hand Path more consciously than before. Trust is essentially the first step towards realization.
I always wanted to summon glasya labolas
Money, power and sex. They gain the world and they lose their soul.
This is the only decent answer here. I’m not responding to you Wisdom and Effort. King Solomon didn’t use them to build the temple. They had to be bound and kept away, in order to build a holy place. Some of you do realize that demons are representative of sins…right? Could Solomon theoretically build a home with an impure soul? No. Believing the nonsense that a demon can assist you with anything is based in literal deception. You will only bind your soul.
For fun and profit
Because they are no different than a hammer or a screwdriver to me, and tools are never not helpful. Edit: people that "work" (big emphasis on quotations) with demons are dorks holy shit lmaooo read the shit you're writing. Tea parties, late night talks about philosophy, what a great laugh.
Each demon has certain purposes. Most people that are deep in that life make a living from it. So they have certain demons they deal with & will charge a fee to people that might want revenge on a person, love spells, money spells. They are used as a tool or shortcut for ppl to acquire their earthly desires
Do you know what demonic tutor can do for you? https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Ultimate+Masters/Demonic+Tutor#online
maybe they're lonely.
Hidden or divine support and assistance. Get the gig, get the girl, become a metaphorical god, climb the ranks etc... why does some one pray, seek a therapist, knock on wood? Belief in influencing or changing destiny and fate. Demon, angel, tulpa, spirit watever, a human seeks outside usually for help.
Edgy attitude
To call upon for assistance in agency towards what it is that you are wanting. If someone is willing to do that, then chances are they walk a left handed path.
How do I get started into summoning demons?
Demons are real. Meaning that when you talk to you realistic. They tell you the truth. They do not hide things, and they tell you exactly what they want, please, they are fantastic creatures.
Well it started off with me just needing a little poo and the next thing ya know...
Cuz fun
Curiosity, specific intention, naivety, inadvertently
They are just more fun to hang out with;)