Demons

Demons                            Segment 12

                                                     

Throughout religion, folklore, mythology and occultism, a demon is a supernatural being described as something not quite human. In ancient Near Easter religions and Christian demonology, a demon is believed to be an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession. Therefore, an act of exorcism would be necessary to draw the spirit out. In Western occultism, a demon is a supernatural being with the ability to be conjured and controlled. In literature, many demons were once fallen angels, while others were said to be forged in Hell itself.

Some believe a demon refers to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with good beings who have no worshippers or limited to a rank below the gods, and with evil beings of all kinds. The original sense of "demon," from the time of Homer onward was that of a good being; but in English the name now holds the distaste of evil beings believed to take the form of "demons" in many forms of religion are:

1.  Angels in the Christian belief who fell from heaven (grace),
2.  Human souls said to be genii or familiars,
3.  Deceased family members that have continued existence and/or possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living,
4.  Ghosts or other malevolent visible ghost or animated corpse.

Often souls dwelling in another world are not counted in the demon list. Gods are often not necessarily seen as being entirely spiritual and may come in fleshly bodies. Demons are often seen the same as both spiritual and corporeal. Vampires are often seen as another form of said demons along with incubi and Succubi. Incubi and Succubi have been noted to produce offspring; though often deformed. Belief in demons, demonology, goes back many millennia and may be as old as man andd often older. The Zoroastrian faith teaches that there are 3,333 Demons that live among us and are responsible for such things such as war, starvation, sickness etc

According to the Book of Revelation (Rev 12:9), demons are the angels that fell from heaven with Satan when he chose to rebel against God. In the 15th century, it was estimated that 133,306,668 angels fell from the Heavens in a total of 9 days according to the Bishop of Tusculum (c. 1273), and this was reaffirmed by Alphonso de Spina (c. 1460).
Justin Martyr, a Christian who lived circa 150 AD, believed (based on Gen 6:2-4) that demons were the offspring of angels and men. The Greeks viewed demons as the spirits of wicked dead men (Heb 9:27).
In John 8:44 Jesus calls the Devil "the first homicide" ("he was a murderer from the beginning" in the King James Version), perhaps referring to the murdering of Abel by Cain, a liar, and father of all lies.

According to Christian tradition, demons can be angels, are spiritual, immutable and eternal. Demons are not omniscient, but each one has a specific knowledge (sometimes on only one subject, sometimes on more than one). Their power is limited to that which God allows, so they are not omnipotent. No reference has been made about omnipresence, so it is as yet unclear if they can be in different places at the same time, but according to the tradition of the medieval witches' Sabbath, two conclusions can be reached: either Devil can be in different places at the same time, or he sends an emissary in his name, but it seems that the only 'omni' thing they are is malevolent; it is deducible from some passages of the Bible that they are not omnipresent.

Demonic supernatural powers are believed to include Fabrication, Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Levitation, Cryokinesis, Biokinesis, Divination, Demonic possession, seducing spirits, ESP, telepathy, mind probing, witchcraft, curses and hexes, as well as binding, magnification, and making contracts, weather control, animal control, and provacation. Demons use variants and combinations of these powers to harass, demoralize, confuse, and disorient the victim, or the willing subject of demonic interest. Demons are believed to have the power to physically or mentally hurt people. Demons can destroy anything material on the earth. Often Demons are said to creating negative emotions, wrecking havoc, ensuing chaos, and disrupting peace.

Demons can take any desired appearance, even that of an "angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). Nevertheless, they were generally described as ugly and monstrous beings by Christian demonologists. Many of these descriptions have inspired famous painters like Luca Signorelli, Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goya, the artist that made the drawings for the Dictionnaire Infernal, and others.
Incubi and Succubi are described as being beautiful in order to accomplish their mission of seduction.
However, according to Nicholas Remy, the figure of the demons is imperfect, which he deduced from the descriptions given by those accused persons interrogated during the witch trials; he wrote:

"...that proves how marvellous God's love is, even for the most miserable human beings, being that demons can never take a human figure in a perfect form, and so the most stupid people are able to discover them".

The idea that demons have horns seems to have been taken from the Book of Revelation 13:1 (here it seems that John the Evangelist was inspired by Leviathan) and 13:11. The book of Revelation seems to have also inspired some absurd depictions of demons (Revelation 13:1-2). This idea can also been associated with the depiction of certain ancient gods like Baal, Moloch, the shedu, etc, which were portrayed as bulls, as men with the head of a bull, or wearing bull horns as a crown.
While there is no conclusive theory about why the Devil appears with a tail, the trident attributed to him as his "sceptre" may have been inspired by early contact between Christians and Hindus. In Hinduism, the trident is Shiva's weapon.

Some historians of times past believed that there were cycles during which demonic activity increased, and used this theory to explain various occurrences, much in the same way as today's economic historians might explain historical events in terms of trade, productivity and other factors.  These older historians saw a rise in demonic activity accompanying such occurrences as the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of Rome and the French Revolution, and would in all likelihood also have viewed the demonic theory at work in relation to the rise of Nazism and World War II.



http://www.hellhorror.com/demons/demonology_alpha/A/  List of Demon Names
http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=List_of_specific_demons_and_types_of_demons Another list