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Diaryland
The Aerial Spirits are evil? August 14, 2008 @ 1:16 a.m.
Wanted to come back and give you guys an update on my studies in this
area.
Jake was really right on with what he said:
I seem to recall theological schemas where most if not all Satan's
little helpers were aerial - these systems may not have approved of the
elemental spirit concept anyway.
I'm finding that to be more and more true on so many levels. I got a
hold a little while back, of a copy of Skinner and Rankine's Summoning
the Solomonic Archangels and Demon Princes. Its a bloody expensive
book, and if you've got a copy of Adam McLean's much more affordable
Angel Magic then the majority is redundant. So if anyone ever needs some
info or citations from it I'm happy to help. Anyway, the third part of
the book, on the demon princes, was what really drew my attention, as
its previously unknown material has really helped me fill in the gaps
and, together with Jake's notes and other sources, come to an
understanding that most of the demon princes are, in fact, aerial
spirits:
The third spirit is called Sat'an, who was before his fall of the order
of Cherubim, and it is said that because he fell not of his own will,
therefore he abides obscurely in the air, and so is called the Prince of
the Air, under whom are four princes or kings, bearing Rule in the Air,
and have power given and permitted them, to coruscate and disturb the
air, whereby many mischiefs befall the earth, doing great hurt, and it
was this spirit that tempted our forefathers in the wilderness to
disobedience.
This really surprised me. I had always figured that the lords of hell
hung out... well.. in hell. They might send their minions out to run
around the earth and cause trouble, and maybe even get up there
themselves on a frequent basis - perhaps to enjoy their timeshares. But
they were basically infernal... right? Well, there's one more cultural
assumption to shatter - apparently, they fly through the air with the
greatest of ease, and might just downright prefer it to that stuffy
furnace down there. It reminds me of that scene from the Testament of
Solomon where Soloman has to get Ornias to explain how supposedly
"fallen" spirits are able to run around the atmosphere.
The first book, Janua Magica Reserata, contained some key explanations
that further help to put things in context. "Having briefly treated of
the celestial hierarchies of good angels" in the first part of the book,
the author tells us that "we shall in the next place treat of those
spirits commonly called aerial, terrestrial and infernal...". Ok, sounds
good.
And then the morality bomb gets dropped.
Wherefore, that we may distinguish, light from darkness, truth from
falsehood, and good from evil, lest through ignorance any mistake should
be, etc: it is to be understood, that as the numbers of good angels
(according to their legions) transcends human capacity, so likewise does
the number of unclean spirits; for as many pure spirits as there are in
the superior or celestial world: so many unclean spirits are there in
the inferior or terrestrial world. And now we shall show forth some
several of the hierarchies... and derivations of the aerial, terrestrial
and infernal spirits.
This is an announcement: apparently, not only is hell under the
jurisdiction of evil, but apparently the entire earth and the air are
too! And this sweeping inclusion includes the elemental and nature
spirits. Go figure [:p]
The next session is a recounting of the 9 counter-orders of demons that
mirror the 9-fold hierarchy of the angels. And sure enough:
The sixth order is called aerial powers, whose prince is Meririm, raging
in the south, a boiling spirit, whom St. Paul to the Ephesians calls the
prince of the power of this air, and the spirit which works in the
children of disobedience; those join themselves to thundering and
lightning corrupting the air, causing pestilence and other evils,
amongst whom are the four angels mentioned in the apocalypse, to whom
power is given to hurt the earth and the sea, holding the four winds,
from the four corners of the earth.
And after the description of the 9-fold hierarchy completes:
Furthermore, there are other particular spirits, both aerial,
terrestrial, and infernal, of several degrees, natures and offices, some
whereof are according to the four parts, angles or divisions of the
compass, east, west, north, and south; called or said to be aerial
powers, or spirits of the air, of which are many legions, who by nature
and office, are said to be both good and evil, as particular messengers,
attending divine pleasure in fulfilling the sacred will and executing
the judgment of the Highest, when commanded or appointed.
That sounds like a direct reference to the Theurgia-Goetia. But here's
where things get interesting:
Of those are four great monarchs, or kings, as principal governors, set
over many other legions of spirits of different and several degrees from
superior to inferior natures, order and qualities, as comparitively from
great princes, and so gradually to the most inferior and meanest pisante
[peasant?], whose names are as follows.
And who are the four aerial kings? None other than our cardinal
direction "demons" - Oriens, Paymon, Egyn, and Amaymon. Are these the
apocalyptic riders? The demon princes text also includes a list of
their "presidential counselors" and "messengers" which contains a lot of
unfamiliar names but also numbers among them Barbas, Vassago, Baal, and
even Belial.
It makes me shake my head to realize just how adversarial a relationship
to nature the medieval mindset had. People weren't content to only
demonize the earth and nature; they had to reach up into the air and
declare that Satan's territory too. Heck, even the heavens themselves
weren't looked on too kindly in a lot of lore - the waters above broke
through and flooded the world, and the stars fell to earth and destroyed
everything in their path. [Aaron reminded me later on in another post that the Gnostics went even further and demonized the first 7 heavens too!]
In Janua magica reserata, there's an important section entitled "Of
Angels good and bad their degree and offices". I reproduce the first
page here because it is so instructive to the nature of the worldview
we're dealing with:
Lucifer and those other angels that offended with him in ambition and
pride fell not altogether into the very Abysm of Hell, though they all
fell into the truest Hell which is punishment. Those which remained in
the places between, was because they had not offended with so
determinate and obstinacy and vehemence as the others had, and they
remained also there because it was necessary and convenient for our
merit, that we should have spirits for our enemies, and in such place
where they might vex us with their temptations, for which cause God
permitted a great part of them to remain in the air, the earth and the
water, where they shall continue till the Day of Judgement, and then
they shall be all damned into the very dungeon of Hell: so that we have
with them continual war: which though they be in the places aforesaid,
yet are they not out of Hell in respect of torment, for their pain is
all alike. See Aquinas, Questions. 64
The difference of the degrees of spirits is rehearsed by Gaudentius
Merula taking the same out of Psellius who makes six kinds or degrees of
spirits between heaven and hell.
The first are those that remained in the highest region of the air, he
calls angels of fire because they are near unto that region and
perchance within it. The second kind, saith he, is from the middle
region of the air downwards towards the earth. The third on the earth
itself. The fourth in the waters. The fifth in the [subterranean] caves
and hollow vaults of the earth. The sixth in the very dungeon and
[infernal] abysme of hell. In such sort, that they are as it were
interlinked one with another, but all these spirits have duties and
offices of divers sorts...
This is an extremely powerful insight that gives context and
understanding for how solomonic magicians worked with the demonic
hierarchy. Though the religious castigation declares everything below
the sphere of the moon to be satan's territory (the prince of this
world), the "evil spirits" are still the operative spirits who get shit
done. So whether a faustian negromancer makes a pact, a solomonic
magician makes an offering, or a sacred mage ala abramelin draws upon
divine and celestial authority, they all employ the services of "evil"
spirits to create their legendary paranormal and supernatural effects,
as well as gaining the whole range of practical effects and knowledge.
And if everything is "up in the air" anyways as far as morality, the
fall/descension, and the nature of these beings, then even Bardon's
recognition of the hundreds of spirits subservient to the demon princes
in Abramelin as 360 heads of the zone girdling the earth can still make
sense. And if you've read about them and what they can do in The Practice of Magical Evocation, you know its powerful, powerful stuff.
I think a lot of us not only here on the site, but in the greater magical community, are still very scared of all this, and reluctant to deal with the demons and their hierarchy. But the more I study this, the more I think that there's stuff going on here that is being dismissed too quickly and off-handedly. I think its time that we take a closer look not only at the lemegeton and its spirits "partly good and partly evil", but at those grimoires we've prematurely dismissed because of
their openly 'satanic' nature: the grand grimoire, honorius, the black raven of faust, etc. These grimoires were not created as forgeries or mockeries of the celestial grimoires we're all so familiar with - they are, in essence, the missing half of our magical system.
We need not try to distance ourselves from these works and their
authors. Though their spirituality is still something we don't really
understand, we can appreciate their sheer gutsiness for openly working
with spirits the rest of the culture condemned as horribly dangerous and
evil, and they did it retaining the worldview and framework of the
church.
I've learned enough to know that there's some kind of bigger truth going
on behind the mythology of the fallen spirits, and there is enough space
and repetitive mention of it in the grimoires to indicated that
something is going on. I don't think its necessarily the way the church
outlined it - probably not even close - but the spirits are frequently
called on to explain the nature of the Fall, and many express hopes of
eventually returning to Heaven.
If we're to understand and use this magic completely, we need to get to
the bottom of what the Fall really was, and why the demonic spirits play
such a prominent and indispensable role in these traditions of magic.
"Details in the Fabric" - May 31, 2009
Not So Quick Questions - April 6, 2009
The Morning Stars - Lords of the 15 - April 9, 2009
Sincerity and Faith in Magic - April 10, 2009
Not So Quick Questions (2) - April 14, 2009
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