OW

Demonolater Blog A Student of Stolas and Follower of Andras

[owthedemonolater]

Introduction

Hello, my name is OW and I have been a demonolater for 4 years and am on the path to preistess-hood to help spread the teachings of Prince Stolas. I also work with Marquis Andras but have worked with him for only two years. Besides demonolatry, I am also an omnist and animist. I do not refer to myself as pagan but I am okay with people referring to me that way. Feel free to ask me any (respectful) questions and I will do my best to answer. In this blog I will be documenting my journey of preistess-hood and spirituality as well as things to look out for and my every day life working with those called demons. Please do not interact if you do not believe in appropriation, do not believe in decolonizing your practice, believe that jewish people are "unfairly gatekeeping Kabbalah"(that is their practice, not yours), if support racism, white supremacy, nazi, xenophobia, colonization, LGBTQ+phobia, antisemitism, islamiphobia, and similar bigotry. Also specifically NSFW blogs, not that I think there is anything wrong with them I just get paranoid and would prefer to not interact with them.

[todayontumblr]

Monday, January 22.

All 13 full moons of 2023.

A year is a mighty long time. You folks went through quite a few phases in the last year, year number two thousand and twenty-three, to be precise. You met and parted with mini variants of yourselves, like Russian dolls. A few skins were shed, one might say. Well, we've got news.

It seems you're in good company: the moon, our celestial neighbor, did just the same thing. Over 12 months, there were 13 moons. One each for each month, the whole year round, and one to spare, you know. Just in case of emergencies.   

With that in mind, we thought we would take the chance to celebrate this most mysterious friend that decorates the sky each night—and marvel at its unattainable beauties.   

All 13 full moons of 2023 | by Ivana Fanti, @moonwise8 (@fillielitsa)

[owthedemonolater]

"Humanizing Deities"

I hear this a lot in the online paganism and witchcraft circles. And honestly, this phrase is so over used and misunderstood. If there is a video about a follower/worshipper/which ever else title talking about how their deity showed just about any emotion to them or if they are worried about something they did wrong, I see a lot of comments saying "stop humanizing deities" or "they can never be mad at you, stop projecting human emotions". Deities are not emotionless, completely perfect, always just, and always kind beings (most of them at least). Obviously a lot experience and show them differently than people, but to just throw on the blanket statement that they have no emotions/show no emotions and are the glittering image of perfection is very much wrong.

Sometimes I also question peoples knowledge on certain deities when they say this. For instance, there was a video talking about how a practitioner made Athena disappointed. Much of the comments were saying that the practitioner was "pushing human emotions onto her and humanizing her". If you actually read her lore however, you will know that this is anything but impossible. Not saying humanization cannot happen and does not happen, it certainly does in some cases. Deities can be angry, disappointed, and upset. Deities are not beings that can be put in one box on things like this. But saying that deities showing any emotion towards their followers, especially if the emotion is negative, is automatically humanization is very incorrect.

[owthedemonolater]

Mentorship Experiences

Even though it has been a few years, I am still deeply upset about how multiple people over a time period came to me and said they would mentor me if I helped them with certain things, and after I helped they no longer spoke to me. I still feel like I had to have done something wrong but I am still not sure what. It mostly happened when I felt more drawn to the death path and so many death witches offered me help intern that I helped them yet none ever followed through. At this point I want to give up on that path. My worst experience was this man who said that I had to help his girlfriend because she was homeless, but he actually just had me attempt to manipulate her with various types of magic. I realized it was wrong after a while, I was 13 at the time so I was not very educated on situations such as this, but I still feel tainted to this day because of it. That was my first "mentor". Maybe because of him that situation left a sort of mark on me driving others away. Maybe he did curse me for running. It still keeps me awake at night. I hope his very ex-girlfriend is okay.

[czortofbaldmountain-deactivated]

People will use Mesopotamian paganisms as an argument why Lilith is not closed and then conceptualize her in a way that appropriates specifically Jewish lore (and mostly one specific midrash that isn't even that old).

Lilth (supposedly!) being a part of Mesopotamian demonology is just an excuse here.

Like. Idk how to tell you that none of the Mesopotamian demons historically associated with Lilith was ever a rebellious wife of Adam and then in relationship with Asmodeus or Samael (nor Lucifer when people choose to apply culturally Christian lenses and bring him into it...).

The only common Mesopotamian element of modern Lilith worship is the Burney Relief and the idea that it depicts Lilith is an old debunked theory.

[creature-wizard]

So just a PSA, if a gentile says they work with Lilith, then one of the following is most probably true:

They're extremely new to witchcraft/demonolatry/whathaveyou.

They believe in the extremely antisemitic narrative that Jewish tradition interprets Lilith "wrong," and believe that they understand Lilith better than Jewish people do.

If you see somebody claiming that they work with Lilith, and it's obvious that they aren't new at this, well. Now you know what's most probably going on here.

[thejewitches]

Antisemitism Education

As antisemitism is rising globally. And as a result, it is swelling online. It is a duty for not just the Jewish community, but for the peop

As a reminder, we have a page dedicated to learning about antisemitism, particularly how it appears online. It includes:

Slurs

Numerical Dogwhistles

Dogwhistles

Terms

Common Conspiracy Theories

Christian Specific Antisemitism

Antisemitic & White Supremacist Imagery

General education on how to identify antisemitism

If you're online, you need to be able to identify antisemitism and root it out wherever it festers.

[mamaangiwine]

I saw an anon somewhere on here say something along the lines that no one should work with demons, and that "people have always feared them for a reason". Others have said this anon is clearly apart of a larger harrrasment effort- but none the less, it made me realize that just because I feel the history of demons is common knowledge, it doesn't mean that there aren't people who are unaware of that history.

No. People weren't always afraid of "demons". Especially not in ancient Greece where 'daemons', or 'daimons' (the spelling varies), were considered "lesser beings". This wasn't to imply that they were 'evil' or 'lowly', but rather they were a less powerful spirit than that of a god. They were formidable entities who could either do great harm or help. In fact, some daemons could be a positive force; attached to an individual from birth they, ironically, could act as a kind of "guardian angel". Socrates at one point even suggested, with credit to the priestess Diotima, that love, Eros, might be a "a great daemon...for everything daemonic is between god and mortal".

So, no. People were not always afraid of d(a)emons.

[evilios]

Genuinely this.

The fear of “daemons” is a much younger concept than many people in the community tend to think.

I recommend checking out Greek Magical Papyri which gives a detailed explanation on how daemons looked and what they were. For example, they could be “heavenly or aerial or earthly or subterranean or terrestrial or aquatic”, possess “aerial bodies” much like ouranic nymphs or even angels, or change forms. Not all daemons are terrifying in looks or behavior.

To go on, both the papyri above and Corpus Hermeticum point out that daemones’ main function might have been to assist Gods in breathing Divine breath into mortals and demigods alike (since daemons were believed to be mainly the beings occupyng the space of air while existing in other elements). The examples of this can be found in texts like the Iliad and Odyssey where heroes are “filled with Divine breath” - through assistance of daemons. 

Of course all texts note the are some daemons that are nasty and naughty, but to say people always feared them... that’s just ahistorical fearmongering.

[judaicsheyd-deactivated20240609]

When it comes to demons (not daemons, but the later on conceptions) they weren't even seen as all bad within Judaism, the root of the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, lesser demons are explicitly like humans, neither inherently good nor bad. They live, fall in love, eat, have children, and die just like us. There's even a folk story of a lesser demon either converting to Judaism or just being taught under a rabbi (I need to find the exact tale). Ashmedai (Asmodeus) is even a very funny and almost pleasant character in some texts, and in others literally follows the laws of the Torah by quoting them and refraining from certain activities. One rabbi writes that there should always be an opening somewhere in the household so that demons are free to come and go as the everyday parts of life that they are. Demons have always been understood to be multifaceted beings.

[deadpoetsgarden]

That’s my favorite photoset now!

Lilac are my favorite flowers! 🔮