The word “demon”
The word “demon” in this context should be emptied of much which later enters into it. When it begins to be used in the New Testament, there is no sense in which it means a fallen angel or is synonymous with “devil” or that a demon is a minion of Satan. In fact, Jesus states otherwise (Matt. 10:25). A “demon”, before the dominance of Christianity, is practically neutral (see, for instance, Plato and Apuleius). Even in the New Testament, where demons are enemies, they are treated by Jesus almost as pitiable (Matt. 8:28-34), certainly by his disciples as hucksterish (Acts 16:16-18). We may be closer to the connotation of the word daimon if we were to think of it as similar or synonymous with “sprite,” “fairy,” “boggart,” or "longaevi," etc. If this strikes you as a dangerously innocuous portrayal of something truly frightening, then you have not read a real fairy tale. I cannot think of anything more demonic than the Snow Queen or the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell—both of whom exhibit the “demon heuristic” above and both of whom sound right at home in an ayahuasca trip.
~ Robert Cotton