Demons, Christianity, Thelema: My own jumbled thoughts.
I have been working with so-called demons for years, never extensively, but on and off. Recently I have been experimenting with the Black School techniques of Jason Miller- a course I went through originally years ago but never really did much with. I still had a lot of internal prejudice towards Christianity and I felt Cyprian to be quite cold towards me. I now know this was my own projection, but at the time I didn't feel confident in calling demons using his name because I was worried he wouldn't actually act as an intercessor!
Anyways this all changed earlier this year and I began experimenting again. This course approaches spirit work in a different way to traditional spirit work. There are evocation procedures but there are other protocols to do first which make the spirits more amenable, and evocation is really only recommended on a need to basis if the spirit is not being cooperative or there is an actual need to have it manifest closer to this plane. Prior to this to work a ritual that essentially baptises a spirit. That is brings it towards the light. The way I see this is that you are invoking LVX and spreading this to the spirit which makes them more amenable towards working with you, and also shows your own spiritual authority.
It is not done in a disrespectful way. There are no curses. There are no threats. There are offerings in fact. It is very much so the way I approach all spirits- out of mutual respect and in a business exchange kind of way. Don't get me wrong, there can be times when a spirit is a bit of a prick at first, but I find this to be a rarity than the rule. Always have your wits about you, but if you go into an operation defensively you are already closed off to interacting with the spirit.
Recently I baptised a spirit of the Goetia, I am not going to say which one, but I began sensing their presence the first day. This is a three day process and by the third their presence was really intense. Not in a threatening way, but the ritual room was buzzing with magical force. I reached out using some subtle body techniques taught in the course and I received communication. More importantly I saw an image of the spirit which will not leave me and serves as sort of an astral interface I can utilise to tap into the spirits frequency.
He wasn't ugly or grotesque, I did not need to command him to change his form. He appeared in modern dress if I am honest. Well- a nice suit. To think spirits will always appear in medieval garb or in their traditional forms is ridiculous to me. If humanity have advanced why wouldn't they? In truth, I believe they utilise our own minds to manifest a form of themselves which clicks into place for our own needs for communication. Everyone will receive their own keys despite utilising the keys of others to unlock the initial lock.
I asked him to perform a task, normally you would perform another rite to do this after the baptism. But he smiled and nodded. He told me none of the rites were necessary and if I wanted his help all I needed to do was ask. He was really amenable, and I personally thought that at this point my own subconscious mind was projecting what I wanted on to the experience. I became untrusting in the spirit, because everybody wants something!
24 hours later I begin to see results. I brush it off as coincidence. The results keep showing. What I requested is an ongoing situation, and nearly every day I see progress in the right direction. Sometimes I feel that spirits energy in the background, I will sometimes see glimpses of him in my minds eye. I know he is helping. I have made offerings out of gratitude to him, and he continues to help. No evocation necessary, no curses necessary.
He is more than happy to perform the work with which his office is associated with. I sense no evil in his presence and I am truly grateful for all that he is doing for me.
This lead me to some thoughts. I believe as witches, a term I personally identify with for multiple reasons, we identify with outcasts and the misunderstood. There is an otherness to our existence, and as such we approach the otherness of the spirit world in a more nuanced way than ritual magicians (which is something I associate myself with too!). I also think being a queer witch helps too- just because something is called evil or demonic for simply expressing its nature does not mean it is inherently evil. I am sure some of the spirits are, however, I would say my experience has been 90% positive so far.
I don't believe in the fall in heaven, I don't believe in demons in the Christian sense, and I don't believe in Hell. These spirits are older, they are often spirits of the stars, they are spirits of the Earth. They are closer to humans than angels are. They understand us better. What did the so-called fallen angels do? They gave us fire, they gave us knowledge, they gave us witchcraft. Humans were the original outcasts when we were banished from Eden, drowned in a flood, and separated by language. We have more in common with these beings than we think.
When Christ was born on Earth he bled on to the Earth, he bled on to the bones of Adam redeeming humanity. He descended into Hell- did he redeem that place too? He then ascended into heaven. If you don't believe in an actual human being called Christ does it matter? His myth is largely a collection of other Gods- you are tapping into a force using the name Jesus- a name that holds a lot of power. In a magical sense it is clear that he has dominion over heaven, dominion over Earth, and dominion over Hell. He is lord of all these abodes. The spirits obey him, humans obey him, Angels obey him. Why would you not want that authority.
As a Thelemite this does sometimes feel all 'old-aeon' but in truth I think needn't do so. It is all about approach and understanding. Jesus is no longer the dying God, he is the ascended Lord that holds dominion over all planes. He is the crowned and conquering child, the eternal morning star. I also believe that he is Lucifer- but that is a discussion for another time! In this aeon we are not binary, there is no good and evil, there is simply cause and effect. Thelema is post-christian as opposed to anti-christian. It is a new form of gnosis that needn't reject what has come before it, but simply develop it. Thelemites can't play nicely with Jesus because it's Jesus, but will happily perform and LRP calling upon God and Archangels a billion times a week. At that point the cognitive dissonance is rife.
In my own unverified personal gnosis I like to think of Heru-Ra-Ha as the ascended Jesus- the crowned logos, quite literally the crowned and conquering child. Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Jesus prior to this, the one who carried a sword, the one who was throwing over tables in the temple, the one who descended into Hell and conquered all planes. The active voice of the world- Jesus was in some senses the prototype of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The lord of the Aeon is not necessarily a different lord, simply an extension, an evolution of what came before. This leaves us with Hoor-Paar-Kraat. Lucifer. Heru-Ra-Ha is the balance of these two forces.
It is important to note that when Thelemites refer to these Egyptian Gods- more properly Egyptoid- they are not Egyptian proper but derived from Egyptian mythology- they refer to principles. They are not necessarily personal Gods- they are expressions of forces within the individual and the Universe. Heru-ra-ha for example represents unity and balance between the two extremities of passive and active forces within an individual. The union of the unconscious and hyperconsciousness. A symbol truly of the Holy Guardian Angel. In the previous Aeon this would have been typified by Jesus.
Not much has changed in the spiritual world really, the New Aeon is not about changing the spirits or what came before. It is about humanity's own evolution of understanding in regard to our own relationship with the internal, mundane, and spiritual worlds.
After all this I must say I am not a Christian, it is not the framework in which I perform most of my rituals. But I can do so if it makes sense. Being a Thelemite doesn't automatically make me want to evoke demons using the god name of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. I believe it could be done, Jake Stratton-Kent wrote a procedure for it. But the question is- is it necessary? If the wheel isn't broken, why bother to fix it?
The Gods and even the spirits have been passed from culture to culture, from religion to religion and have gone by many names. To believe there is an us vs them approach in the spirit world is ludicrous to me. Everyone is 'pagan' if you go back far enough. There is no war in spirit world, there is no Hell, and the spirits permeate all cultures because a lot of the time, not always, at their root they are the personifications of forces- that is not to say they do not take on form and personality, but it would be like saying Gravity will not work because you believe in x. Gravity works regardless if you are a Thelemite, a Christian, a Muslim, or a worshipper of the Daedra!
The spirits do not care, all spiritual paths are wrong, flawed, and incorrect. But they all seek to do similar things. As long as you are performing good works and seeking to be the best person you can be- the spirits do not care what name you call your God. They just recognise some names as authorities better than others when approached within specific frameworks. It is easier to plug in to Christianity because we have a lot of Christian magic left.
That is enough rambling from me. All of the above is personal opinions based on my own experiences. They are very much so subject to change- a lot of what I have written on here in previous years has changed as my experiences have changed. So if you happen to find this four years later I may completely disagree with everything I have said!
