|
|
HOUSE OF CONTRADICTION
ANGELS AND DEMONS
I was always interested with angels and demons and as such had copied this down from another site.
It gives a lot of details and information pertaining to angels and demons.
I had forgotten where I got this from and would give credit to the one who did it if I remembered who it was.
Please enjoy reading.
demon also spelled daemon respectively,
any benevolent or malevolent spiritual being that mediates between the
transcendent and temporal realms.
Throughout the history of religions,
varying kinds and degrees of beliefs have existed in various spiritual beings,
powers, and principles that mediate between the realm of the sacred or holy—i.e.,
the transcendent realm—and the profane realm of time, space, and cause and
effect. Such spiritual beings when regarded as benevolent are usually called
angels in Western religions; those viewed as malevolent are termed demons. In
other religions—Eastern, ancient, and those of nonliterate cultures—such
intermediate beings are less categorical, for they may be benevolent in some
circumstances and malevolent in others.
The term angel, which is
derived from the Greek word angelos, is the equivalent of the Hebrew word
mal'akh, meaning “messenger.” The literal meaning of the word angel
thus points more toward the function or status of such beings in a cosmic
hierarchy rather than toward connotations of essence or nature, which have been
prominent in popular piety, especially in Western religions. Thus, angels have
their significance primarily in what they do rather than in what they are.
Whatever essence or inherent nature they possess is in terms of their
relationship to their source (God, or the ultimate being). Because of the
Western iconography (the system of image symbols) of angels, however, they have
been granted essential identities that often surpass their functional
relationships to the sacred or holy and their per formative relationships to the
profane world. In other words, popular piety, feeding on graphic and symbolic
representations of angels, has to some extent posited semi divine or even divine
status to angelic figures. Though such occurrences are not usually sanctioned
doctrinally or theologically, some angelic figures, such as Mithra (a Persian
god who in Zoroastrianism became an angelic mediator between heaven and earth
and judge and preserver of the created world), have achieved semi divine or
divine status with their own cults.
In Zoroastrianism
there was a belief in the amesha
spentas, or the holy or bounteous immortals, who were functional aspects
or entities of Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord. One of the amesha spentas,
Vohu Manah (Good Mind), revealed to the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (6th century BC) the true God, his nature, and a kind of ethical
covenant, which man may accept and obey or reject and disobey. In a similar
manner, about 1,200 years later, the angel Gabriel
(Man of God) revealed to the Arabian prophet Muhammad (5th–6th century AD) the Qur'an (the Islamic
scriptures) and the true God (Allah), his oneness, and the ethical and
cultic requirements of Islam. The epithets used to describe Gabriel, the
messenger of God—“the spirit of holiness” and “the faithful
spirit”—are similar to those applied to the amesha spentas of
Zoroastrianism and the third Person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit) in Christianity.
In these monotheistic religions (though Zoroastrianism later became dualistic)
as also in Judaism,
the functional characteristics of angels are more clearly enunciated than their
ontological (or nature of Being) characteristics—except in the many instances
in which popular piety and legend have glossed over the functional aspects.
Various religions,
including those of nonliterate cultures, have beliefs in intermediary beings
between the sacred and profane realms, but the belief is most fully elaborated
in religions of the West.
The term demon is derived
from the Greek word daimon, which means a “supernatural being”
or “spirit.” Though it has commonly been associated with an evil
or malevolent spirit, the term originally meant a spiritual being that
influenced a person's character. An agathos daimon (“good
spirit”), for example, was benevolent in its relationship to men. The Greek
philosopher Socrates, for example, spoke of his daimon as a spirit
that inspired him to seek and speak the truth. The term gradually was applied to
the lesser spirits of the supernatural realm who exerted pressures on men to
perform actions that were not conducive to their well-being. The dominant
interpretation has been weighted in favour of malevolence and that which forebodes
evil, misfortune, and mischief.
In religions of nonliterate
peoples, spiritual beings may be viewed as either malevolent or benevolent
according to the circumstances facing the individual or community. Thus, the
usual classification that places demons among malevolent beings is not totally
applicable in reference to these religions.
The positions of spiritual
beings or entities viewed as benevolent or malevolent may, in the course of time
be reversed. Such has been the case in the ancient Indo-Iranian religion, from
which evolved early Zoroastrianism and the early Hinduism reflected in the Vedas
(ancient Aryan hymns). In Zoroastrianism the daevas were viewed as
malevolent beings, but their counterparts, the devas
in ancient Hinduism, were viewed as gods. The ahuras of Zoroastrianism
were good “lords,” but in Hinduism their counterparts, the asuras,
were transformed into evil lords. In a similar manner, Satan, the prosecutor of
men in the court of God's justice in the Old Testament book of Job, became the
chief antagonist of Christ in Christianity and of man in Islam. Many
similar transformations indicate that the sharp distinctions made between angels
as benevolent and demons as malevolent may be too simplistic, however helpful
such designations may be as indicators of the general functions of such
spiritual beings.
Because man is a being much
concerned with boundaries—i.e., what makes him different from other
animate beings, what makes his community (and thus his world) different from
other communities (and other worlds)—his view of the cosmos
has influenced his understanding of what are called angels and demons. The
cosmos may be viewed as monistic,
as in Hinduism, in which the cosmos is regarded as wholly sacred or as
participating in a single divine principle (Brahman, or Being itself). The
cosmos may also be viewed as dualistic, as in Gnosticism
(an esoteric religious dualistic belief system, often regarded as a Christian
heretical movement, that flourished in the Greco-Roman world in the 1st and 2nd
centuries AD),
in which the world of matter was generally regarded as evil and the realm of the
spirit as good. A third view of the cosmos, generally found in the monotheistic
religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, centered on
a tripartite universe: celestial, terrestrial, and sub terrestrial. This third
view has influenced Western man's concepts of angels and demons as well as his
scientific and metaphysical concepts.
In the biblical,
Hellenistic (Greco-Roman cultural), and Islamic worlds of thought, the
terrestrial realm was a world in which man was limited by the factors of time,
space, and cause and effect. The celestial realm, generally composed of seven heavens
or spheres dominated by the seven then-known planets, was the realm of the
divine and the spiritual. The sub terrestrial realm was the area of chaos and the
spiritual powers of darkness. At the highest level of the celestial sphere was
the ultimate of the sacred or holy: e.g., Yahweh, the God of Judaism,
whose name was so holy it should not even be spoken; Bythos, the unknowable
beginning beyond beginnings of Gnosticism; the heavenly Father of Christianity,
known through his Logos (the divine Word, or Reason, Jesus Christ); and Allah,
the powerful, the almighty, and the sublime God of Islam.
In order to reveal the
purpose and destiny of man—the highest being of the terrestrial realm—the
ultimate of the celestial sphere enabled man, according to such views, to come
to a knowledge of who he is, what is his origin, and what is his destiny through
celestial messengers—angels. The message, or revelation,
was usually focused on the identity of the source of the revelation—i.e.,
the ultimate being—and on the destiny of man according to his response.
Because of a cosmic rift in the heavenly sphere prior to the creation of the
world or the announcement of the revelation, angels, depending on their
relationship to the Creator, might attempt to deceive man with a false
revelation or to reveal the truth about man's true nature (or identity), origin,
and destiny. Angels who attempted to pervert the message of the ultimate
celestial being in order to confuse man's understanding of his present boundary
situation as a terrestrial being or his destiny as a supraterrestrial
being—though not always termed demons—are malevolent in function. Included
among such malevolent angels are the devil of Christianity and Judaism or Iblis
(the Devil) of Islam, who, in the form of a serpent in the biblical story
of the Garden of
Eden—according to later interpretations of the story—attempted to
disrupt man's understanding of his creaturely boundaries, or limitations. He did
this by tempting man to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil
so that he might become like God (or the divine beings of the heavenly court).
In Zoroastrianism, the Evil Spirit (Angra Mainyu, later Ahriman)
attempted—through subservient spirits such as Evil Mind, the Lie, and
Pride—to deceive terrestrial man so that he would choose a destiny that was sub terrestrial—punishment in a chasm of fire.
In the aftermath of the
16th-century Copernican
revolution (based on the theories of the Polish astronomer Copernicus), in which
man's view of the cosmos was radically altered—i.e., the Earth was no
longer seen as the center of the cosmos but, instead, merely as a planet of a
solar system that is a very small part of a galaxy in an apparently infinite
universe—the concepts of angels and demons no longer seemed appropriate. The
tripartite cosmos—heaven above, Earth in the middle, and hell below—appeared
to be an anachronism.
With the emergence of
modern Western psychology and psychoanalytical studies in the 19th and 20th
centuries, however, the underlying principles of beliefs in angels and demons
have taken on new meanings. Many Christian theologians have found some of the
concepts of psychoanalysis helpful in reinterpreting the meanings underlying
primitive and traditional beliefs in angels and demons. The tripartite cosmos
was re-mythologized into a tripartite structure of the personality—the
superego (the restrictive social regulations that enable man to live as a social
being), the ego (the conscious aspects of man), and the id,
or libido (a
“seething, boiling cauldron of desire that seeks to erupt from beneath the
threshold of consciousness”). Thus, demons—according to this
reinterpretation—might well be redefined as projections of the unregulated
drives of man that force him to act only according to his own selfish desires,
taking no account of their effects on other persons. From a social point of
view, demons might also be defined as the environmental and hereditary forces
that cause man to act, think, and speak in ways that are contrary to the
well-being of himself and his community. A modern French writer, Denis
de Rougemont, has maintained in his book The Devil's
Share that the devil and the demonic forces that plague the modern world
can be well documented in modern man's return to barbarism and man's inhumanity
to man. In the 2nd century AD,
Clement of
Alexandria, a Christian philosophical theologian, pointed toward a
psychological interpretation of demonic forces by stating that man was often
captivated by the inner appetitive drives of his passions and bodily desires.
The Freudian “myth” of the human personality and other psychological studies
have thus initiated a new dimension in the study of angels and demons. Medieval
iconography, which graphically depicted angels and demons as hybrid creatures
that often defied even the most vivid imaginations of the persons who viewed
them, has been supplanted by psychological, psychoanalytical, and modern
mythological symbolism coupled with theological reflection.
In religious traditions
that have viewed the cosmos in a dualistic
fashion, such as Gnosticism, angels were believed to be celestial beings who
controlled certain spheres through which a soul was to pass as it freed itself
from the shackles of its material existence. Knowledge of these angels and their
names was a necessary prerequisite for achieving eventual union with the
ultimate spiritual reality. Included among various lists of the seven angels
ruling the seven planetary spheres are Gabriel, Adonai (Lord), Aariel (lion of
God), and others. The angel of the creation of the world of matter, Yahweh
(sometimes called the Demiurge,
the Creator), was evil, in the Gnostic view, not only because he was the Creator
but also because he tried to keep spiritual men from knowing their true origin,
nature, and destiny.
Manichaeism,
a dualistic religion founded in the 3rd century AD by Mani, an Iranian prophet, like Gnosticism divided the world into
two spheres—Goodness (Light) and Evil (Darkness). These two principles are
mixed in the world of matter, and the object of salvation
is to unmix the material and the spiritual so that one may achieve a state of
absolute goodness. Highest in the celestial hierarchy are the 12 light diadems
of the Father of Greatness and the Twelve Aeons,
the “firstborn”—angelic figures that are divided into groups of threes,
surrounding the Supreme Being in the four quarters of the heavens. Because the
Devil, the Prince of Darkness, desires the advantages of the Kingdom of Light,
in an ensuing battle between the celestial forces Light and Darkness are mixed,
and the world of matter and spirit is created. Unaware of his spiritual nature
and constantly tempted by the demons of the Prince of Darkness, man is
eventually led to understand his true nature through the activity of angelic
beings called the Friends of the Lights and the Living Spirit and his five
helpers: Holder of Splendour, King of Honour, Light of Man, King of Glory, and
Supporter.
Those who view the cosmos
as basically monistic—such
as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism—generally have no belief in angels, who
function mainly as revealers of the truth. This function is performed by other
beings, such as avataras
(incarnations of the gods) in Hinduism,
tirthankaras
(saints or prophets) in Jainism, or bodhisattvas
(Buddhas-to-be) in Buddhism.
Because such personages generally are viewed more in terms of exemplifiers of
the holy life than as conduits of a revelation (except in the case of several avataras
and bodhisattvas), they are not to be regarded in terms of the typical
Western conceptions of angelic beings. These religions do, however, have
widespread beliefs in demons.
Belief in demons is not
connected with any particular view of the cosmos. Demons have a very wide
geographical and lengthy historical role as spiritual beings influencing man in
his relationship to the sacred or holy. They may be semi human, nonhuman, or
ghostly human beings who, for various reasons, generally attempt to coerce man
into not attaining his higher spiritual aspirations or not performing activities
necessary for his well-being in the normal course of living. The ancient
Assyrian demon rabisu
apparently is a classic prototype of a supernatural being that instilled such a
fear in men that their hair literally raised from their bodies when confronted
with knowledge of the rabisu's presence.
In 17th-century Europe,
various demons were cataloged according to their powers to entice men to indulge
in what were called their basic instincts or desires. Included in such lists
were nightmare demons, demons formed from the semen of copulation, and demons
who deceived persons into believing that they could perform transvections
(nocturnal flights to sites of sabbats, alleged rites of witchcraft).
According to some authorities in the 20th century (as well as early Christian
polemicists), the alleged demons noted by the prevailing religions of the world
are the former gods or spiritual beings that succumbed to or were overpowered by
the dominant doctrinal views of a conquering people. Thus, the Teutonic, Slavic,
Celtic, or Roman gods either were reduced to demonic antagonists of Christ, his
saints, or his angels or were absorbed by the cults of Christian saint figures.
Followers of the ancient but no longer influential deities were often subjected
to persecution as advocates of witchcraft, especially in Christian Europe (see
also witchcraft).
Angels and demons, as noted
earlier, have been categorized as benevolent, malevolent, or ambivalent or
neutral beings that mediate between the sacred and profane realms.
Benevolent beings, usually
angels but sometimes ghosts of ancestors or other spiritual beings that have
been placated by sacrifices or other rituals, assist man in achieving a proper
rapport with God, other spiritual beings, or man's life situations. Angels, for
example, not only act as revealers of divine truths, but they also are believed
to be efficacious in helping man to attain salvation or special graces or
favours. Their primary function is to praise and serve God and do his will. This
is true of angels in both Christianity and Zoroastrianism, as well as in Judaism
and Islam. As functional extensions of the divine will, they sometimes
intervene in human affairs by rewarding the faithful and punishing the unjust or
by saving the weak, who are in need of help, and destroying the wicked, who
unjustly persecute their fellow creatures. In the intertestamental book of Tobit
(an apocryphal, or “hidden,” book that is not accepted as canonical by Jews
and Protestants), the archangel Raphael
(God Heals), for example, helps the hero Tobias, the son of Tobit, on a journey
and also reveals to him magic formulas to cure his father's blindness and to
counteract the power of the demon Asmodeus.
Angels also have been
described as participants in the creation and the providential continuance of
the cosmos. Clement of Alexandria, influenced by Hellenistic cosmology, stated
that they functioned as the movers of the stars and controlled the four
elements—earth, air, fire, and water. Many angels are believed to be guardians
over individuals and nations. The view that there are guardian
angels watching over children has been a significant belief in the popular
piety of Roman Catholicism. Angels are also regarded as the conductors of the
souls of the dead to the supraterrestrial world. In the procreation of men,
angels are believed to perform various services. This is especially noticeable
in the instances of angels announcing the births of divine figures or special
religious personages, such as Jesus and John the Baptist in the New Testament.
Though the function of
angels is of primary significance, theological reflection and popular piety have
placed much emphasis on the nature of angels. In early Judaism angels were
conceived as beings in human form: the angel who wrestled with the patriarch
Jacob, as recorded in the book of Genesis, was in the form of a man. In Judaism
of the Hellenistic period (3rd century BC
to 3rd century AD),
however, angels were viewed as non corporeal spiritual beings who appeared to man
in an apparitional fashion. Their spiritual nature had been emphasized earlier
by Old Testament prophets, such as Ezekiel and Isaiah, in their visionary
descriptions. The cherubim
and seraphim,
two superior orders of angels, are described as winged creatures that guard the
throne of God. The use of wings attached to various beings symbolizes their
invisible and spiritual nature, a practice that can be traced back to the
ancient Egyptians, who represented the battling sun-god Horus of Edfu as a
winged disk. In Christian iconography
the spiritual nature of angels has been almost universally represented—until
the 20th century—by winged human figures. Their spirituality and, therefore,
their non corporeality led to various kinds of speculation among theologians and
common people about the nature of the appearances of angels, which has been
recorded in both Scripture and legends based on popular piety. Some theologians,
such as Augustine
in the 4th and 5th centuries, stated that angels, who have ethereal bodies, may
be able to assume material bodies. This problem, however, has not been solved to
the satisfaction of later theologians.
Malevolent beings—demons,
fallen angels, ghosts, goblins, evil spirits in nature, hybrid creatures, the daevas
of Zoroastrianism, the narakas (creatures of hell) of Jainism, the
oni
(attendants of the gods of the underworld) in Japanese religions, and other such
beings—hinder man in achieving a proper relation with God, the spiritual
realm, or man's life situations. Some angels are believed to have fallen from a
position of proximity to God—such as Lucifer (after his fall called Satan by
early Church Fathers) in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—because of
pride or for attempts to usurp the position of the Supreme Being. In their
fallen condition they then attempt to keep man from gaining a right relationship
with God by provoking men to sin. Some medieval scholars of demonology ascribed
to a hierarchy of seven archdemons the seven
deadly sins: Lucifer (Pride); Mammon (Avarice); Asmodeus (Lechery); Satan
(Anger); Beelzebub (Gluttony); Leviathan (Envy); and Belphegor (Sloth). Besides
tempting men to sin, the fallen angels, or devils, were believed to cause
various types of calamities, both natural and accidental. Like the demons and
evil spirits of nature in primitive religions, the fallen angels were viewed as
the agents of famine, disease, war, earthquakes, accidental deaths, and various
mental or emotional disorders. Persons afflicted with mental diseases were
considered to be “demon possessed.”
Though the functions of
demonic figures, like those of fallen angels, is of major significance, the
nature of demons has been of concern to theologians and persons infused with
popular piety. Like angels, demons are regarded as spiritual, non corporeal
beings, but they have been depicted in religious iconography as hybrid creatures
with horrifying characteristics or as caricatures of idols of an opposing
religion. In the early church, for example, there was a belief that pagan idols
were inhabited by demons. The horrifying aspects of demons have been represented
in the woodcuts of medieval and Reformation artists and in the masks of shamans,
medicine men, and priests of primitive religions—either to frighten the
believer into behaving according to accepted norms or to ward off
ritualistically the power of the demonic forces loose in the terrestrial or
profane realm.
Ambivalent or neutral
spiritual beings are usually not found in Western religions, which usually
divide the inhabitants of the cosmos into those who are either allied with or in
opposition to the Supreme Being. Islam, however, classifies spiritual
beings into angels (mala'ikah), demons (shayatin),
and djinni, or genies.
This last category includes spiritual beings that might be either benevolent or
malevolent. According to legend, the djinni were created out of fire
2,000 years before the creation of Adam, the first man. Capable of both
visibility and invisibility, a djinni could assume various forms—either
animal or human—and could be either a help or a hindrance to man. By cunning,
a superior use of intellect, or magic, a man might be able to manipulate a djinni
for his own benefit.
Various minor nature
spirits—such as the spirits of water, fire, mountains, winds, and other
spirits recognized in primitive religions—are generally neutral, but, in order
to keep them that way or to make them beneficial to man, proper sacrifices and
rituals must be performed.
Intermediate beings between
the sacred and profane realms assume various forms in the religions of the
world: celestial and atmospheric beings; devils, demons, and evil spirits;
ghosts, ghouls, and goblins; and nature spirits and fairies.
In the Western religions,
which are monotheistic and view the cosmos as a tripartite universe, angels and
demons are generally conceived as celestial or atmospheric spirits. In the
popular piety of these religions, however, there is a widespread belief in
ghosts, ghouls, goblins, demons, and evil spirits that influence man in his
terrestrial condition and activities. The celestial beings may be either
benevolent or malevolent, depending on their own relationship to the Supreme
Being. On the other hand, the demons and evil spirits that generally influence
man in his role as a terrestrial being (rather than in his destiny as a
supraterrestrial being) are viewed in popular piety—and somewhat in
theological reflection—as malevolent in intent.
Angels are generally
grouped in orders of four, six, or seven in the first ranks, of which there may
be several. The use of four, which symbolically implies perfection and is
related to the four cardinal points, is found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Early Zoroastrianism, much influenced by the astronomical and astrological
sciences of ancient Iran, coordinated the concept of the seven known planetary
spheres with its belief in the heptad (grouping of seven) of celestial beings—i.e.,
the amesha
spentas of Ahura
Mazda: Spenta Mainyu (the Holy Spirit), Vohu Mana (Good Mind), Asha (Truth),
Armaiti (Right Mindedness), Khshathra (Kingdom), Haurvatat
(Wholeness), and Ameretat (Immortality). In later Zoroastrianism, though
not in the Gathas (the early hymns, believed to have been
written by Zoroaster, in the Avesta, the sacred scriptures), Ahura Mazda
and Spenta Mainyu were identified with each other, and the remaining bounteous
immortals were grouped in an order of six. Over against the bounteous immortals,
who helped to link the spiritual and the material worlds together, was the
counterpart of the Holy Spirit, namely Angra Mainyu, the Evil Spirit, who later
became the great adversary Ahriman
(the prototype of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Satan), and the
daevas, who were most likely gods of early Indo-Iranian religion. Allied with
Angra Mainyu against Ahura Mazda were Akoman (Evil Mind), Indra-vayu
(Death), Saurva (a daeva of death and disease), Nañhaithya (a daeva
related to the Vedic god Nasatya), Tauru (difficult to identify), and
Zairi (the personification of Haoma, the sacred drink related to the sacrifices
of both ahuras and daevas). Among other demonic figures is Aeshma
(violence, fury, or the aggressive impulse that consumes man)—who may well be
the demon Asmodeus of the book of Tobit, Az (Concupiscence or Lust),
Mithrandruj (He Who Lies to Mithra or False Speech), Jeh (the
demon Whore, created later by Ahriman to defile the human race), and many others
(see also Zoroastrianism).
Angelology and demonology
in Judaism became more highly developed during and after the period of the
Babylonian Exile (6th–5th centuries BC),
when contacts were made with Zoroastrianism. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is
called the Lord of hosts. These hosts (Sabaoth) are the heavenly army that
fights against the forces of evil and performs various missions, such as
guarding the entrance to Paradise, punishing evildoers, protecting the faithful,
and revealing God's Word to man. Two archangels are mentioned in the canonical
Old Testament: Michael,
the warrior leader of the heavenly hosts, and Gabriel,
the heavenly messenger. Two are mentioned in the apocryphal Old Testament:
Raphael, God's healer or helper (in the book of Tobit), and Uriel
(Fire of God), the watcher over the world and the lowest part of hell (in II
Esdras). Though these are the only four named, seven archangels are noted in Tob.
12:15. Besides the archangels, there were also other orders of angels, the
cherubim and seraphim, which have been noted earlier.
Under the influence of
Zoroastrianism, Satan, the adversary, probably evolved into the archdemon. Other
demons included Azazel (the demon of the wilderness, incarnated in the
scapegoat), Leviathan and Rahab (demons of chaos), Lilith (a female night
demon), and others. To protect themselves from the powers of the demons and
unclean spirits, Jews influenced by folk beliefs and customs (as with Christians
later) often carried charms, amulets, and talismans inscribed with efficacious
formulas (see also Judaism).
Christianity, probably
influenced by the angelology of Jewish sects such as the Pharisees and the
Essenes as well as of the Hellenistic world, further enhanced and developed
theories and beliefs in angels and demons. In the New
Testament, celestial beings were grouped into seven ranks: angels,
archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, and thrones. In addition
to these were added the Old Testament cherubim and seraphim, which, with the
seven other ranks, comprised the nine choirs of angels in later Christian
mystical theology. Various other numbers of the orders of angels have been given
by early Christian writers: four, in The
Sibylline Oracles (a supposedly Jewish work that shows much Christian
influence); six, in the Shepherd
of Hermas, a book accepted as canonical in some local early Christian
churches; and seven, in the works of Clement of Alexandria and other major
theologians. In both folk piety and theology the number has generally been fixed
at seven. The angels receiving most attention and veneration in Christianity
were the four angels mentioned in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Michael
became the favourite of many, and in the practice of his cult there was often
some confusion with St. George, who was also a warrior figure.
Demonology experienced a
renewal in Christianity that probably would have been acceptable in
Zoroastrianism. Satan, the archenemy of the Christ; Lucifer, the fallen Light
Bearer; and the originally Canaanite Beelzebub, the Lord of Flies (or, perhaps,
Beelzebul, the Lord of Dung), mentioned by Jesus, are all devils. The concept
and term devil are derived from the Zoroastrian concept of daevas and the
Greek word daibolos (“slanderer” or “accuser”), which is a
translation of the Jewish concept of Satan. As a singular demonic force or
personification of evil, the devil's chief activity was to tempt man to act in
such a way that he would not achieve his supraterrestrial destiny. Because
demons were believed to inhabit waterless wastelands, where hungry and tired
persons often had visual and auditory hallucinations, early Christian monks went
into the deserts to be the vanguard of God's army in joining battle with the
tempting devils. They often recorded that the devil came to them in visions as a
seductive woman, tempting them to violate their vows to keep themselves sexually
pure, both physically and mentally.
During certain periods in
Christian Europe, especially the Middle Ages, worship of demons and the practice
of witchcraft
brought about the wrath of both church and people on those suspected of
practicing diabolical rites, such as the Black
Mass. One formula from the Black Mass (the mass said in reverse and with an
inverted crucifix on the altar) has survived in popular magic:
“hocus-pocus,” an abbreviated from of “Hoc est corpus meum” (“This is
my body”), the words of institution in the Eucharist, or Holy Communion.
Witchcraft and sorcery have been closely associated with demonology in the
thought of Christianity,
especially in the West.
In the second half of the
20th century, in connection with a renewed interest in the supernatural, there
has been evidence of a revival of demon worship and black
magic, although this has generally been restricted to small cults that have
proved to be quite ephemeral.
Angelology and demonology
in Islam are
closely related to similar doctrines in Judaism
and Christianity. Besides the four throne bearers of Allah, four other
angels are well known: Jibril (Gabriel), the angel of revelation; Mikal
(Michael), the angel of nature, providing man with food and knowledge; 'Izra'il,
the angel of death; and Israfil, the angel who places the soul in
the body and sounds the trumpet for the Last Judgment. Demons also contend for
control of men's lives, the most prominent being Iblis (the Devil), who
tempts mortal man, or Shaytan, or Satan (see also Islam).
As noted earlier, the
function of angels in Eastern religions was carried by avataras, bodhisattvas,
and other such spiritual beings who were extensions of God or the sacred. Belief
in demons was and is very widespread, influencing various rituals and practices
to counteract the forces that are hostile to man and nature. In Hinduism,
the asuras
(the Zoroastrian
ahuras) are the demons who oppose the devas
(the gods). Both vied for the homa, or the amrta (the
sacred drink that gives power), but the god Visnu (the preserver),
incarnated as a beautiful woman (Mohini), aided the gods so that they
alone would drink the amrta, thus giving them power over the
demons. Among the various classes of Hindu asuras (demons) are nagas
(serpent demons); Ahi (the demon of drought); and Kamsa (an archdemon).
Demons that afflict men include the raksasas,
grotesque and hideous beings of various shapes who haunt cemeteries, impel men
to perform foolish acts, and attack sadhus (saintly men), and pisacas,
beings who haunt places where violent deaths have occurred. Buddhists
often view their demons as forces that inhibit man from achieving Nirvana
(bliss or the extinction of desire). Included among such beings are Mara,
an arch tempter, who, with his daughters, Rati (Desire), Raga (Pleasure),
and Tanha (Restlessness), attempted to dissuade Siddhartha Gautama,
the Buddha, from achieving his Enlightenment. As Mahayana (Greater
Vehicle) Buddhism spread to Tibet, China, and Japan, many of the demons of the
folk religions of these areas were incorporated into Buddhist beliefs. The
demons of Chinese
religions, the kuei-shen, are manifested in all aspects of nature.
Besides these nature demons there are goblins, fairies, and ghosts. Because the
demons were believed to avoid light, the Chinese who were influenced by Taoism
and folk religions used bonfires, firecrackers, and torches to ward off the kuei.
Japanese religions
are similar to Chinese religions in the multiplicity of demons with which men
must contend. Among the most fearsome of the Japanese demons are the oni,
evil spirits with much power, and the tengu,
spirits that possess man and that generally must be exorcized by priests (see
also Hinduism; Buddhism;
Jainism;
Shinto).
The spiritual beings of
nonliterate religions of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas are generally
viewed as malevolent or benevolent according to circumstances rather than
because of their inherent nature. Eshu,
a god of the Yoruba of Nigeria, for example, is looked upon as a protective,
benevolent spirit as well as a spirit with an evil power that may be directed
toward one's enemies. These beings possess what is called mana
(supernatural power), a Melanesian term that can be applied both to spirits and
to persons of special status, such as chiefs or shamans.
In nonliterate religions, the spirits of nature are generally venerated in
return for certain favours or to ward off catastrophes, much in the manner of
the religion of ancient Rome. Ancestor gods abound, and thus the ghosts of the
dead must be placated, often with the performance of elaborate rites (see also shamanism;
ancestor worship).