Demons. The very word brings to mind images of evil: nefarious conjurers, pentagrams and ancient grimoires. Unholy spirits called forth from some dark, nether region to do the bidding of wicked men and women. But what truth lies behind this Hollywoodish imagery? Are there really such things as demons? And if so, what exactly are they capable of?

The word ‘demon’ comes to us from the Greek daimon, which means spirit or intelligence, but it hasn’t always beared the strictly infernal connotations that it now has. The Greek daimones could be evil in nature, true, but others were good and often called upon by people for information or assistance. They were more like minor gods, if you will, and this is indeed what many of today’s demons once were, the pagan gods of yesteryear. For example, in many of the early writings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, especially in those that reference the Apocalypse, we now find demons carried the names of former Mesopotamian, Persian and Semitic gods once worshiped prior to the advent of monotheism. In fact, demons themselves only began to play a significant role in the cosmology of Judaism after the first diaspora, when the influence of Zoroastrianism, with its intrinsic duality of good and evil, became intermingled with early Semitic beliefs.

And for as long as there has been belief in demons, across every culture, from the shaytan of the Muslims to the asuras and raksasas of Hindu tradition, mankind has devised or discovered magical means with which to control them. Undoubtedly, one of the most famous of these people was the legendarily sagacious King Solomon. Solomon was the second son of King David and the third King of Israel who ruled in the 10th century B.C. Religious writings from the Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic and Hebrew traditions during his rule regarded him as a master magician, second to none. He was said to possess a magical ring bearing a seal that gave him power over the spirits (demons) whom he compelled to do his bidding, including the construction of his ever-famous temple. The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius recalls an incident in the first century A.D. when a contemporary of his named Eleazar came into possession of Solomon’s ring. Eleazar used the powerful talisman to expel a demon before the stunned Roman court of the emperor Vespasian.

Josephus also mentions the existence of a book, its authorship attributed to Solomon, which contained incantations and instructions for the summoning and controlling of demons. While some more credulous occultists certainly believe this to be the first historical reference to the magical text, or grimoire (from the Latin for ‘grammar’), known as Clavicula Salomonis (The Key of Solomon the King), it is doubtful that the book, at least in its current form, was conceived by Solomon or anyone even remotely from his time.

For one thing, as occult author Richard Cavendish states in a modern preface to the manuscript “...he [Solomon] is unlikely to have shared the Key’s concern with demons who inhabit a hell of a much later date.” In fact, while some claim that the book’s origins predate the 12th century A.D., there is no definite historical mention of the grimoire until 1456. Nevertheless, The Key of Solomon and its companion volume The Goetia provide a standard for demon summoning generally unparalleled to this day. The Goetia (from the Neoplatonic term meaning “low magic”), in particular, reads like a compendium, replete with evil spirits and their sigils (symbols used in the invocation of the demons).

One of the primary goals of a goetic magician is to summon forth the particular demon they are invoking ‘unto physical appearance’. Said entities usually appear within the billowing smoke from a censer burning incense within the ritual chamber or area. The demon is then held within a restrictive space, generally a magical triangle, to prevent its escape, and to prevent it from destroying the magician as he or she enlists its knowledge or aid.

By some accounts the demons are metaphorical, or thought of as elements of the unconscious mind of the magician. Therefore, to be ‘destroyed’ by a demon is more akin to falling prey to one’s own ego, or to losing one’s mind, than it is to actually being torn asunder by some Stygian creature. The infamous British magus Aleister Crowley contends in an introductory essay to a modern edition of the Goetia that “The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain.” However, he also speaks to the holographic paradigm by effectively saying that this makes them no less “real” than what we typically consider our “objective” reality as “...all sense-impressions are as much as “realities” are, in the class of “phenomenon dependent on brain-changes.”

Whatever the case may be, the demons contained within the Goetia, and in other grimoires such as The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage and the 6th and 7th Books of Moses, are not things to be taken lightly or dabbled with by the untrained and foolish. The 6th and 7th Books of Moses (which, like The Key of Solomon are named after but surely not created by their Biblical eponym) are considered particularly dangerous. They are often used by followers of the Vodun/ Obeah religion, claimed by some to retain portions translated from the Cuthan-Samaritan language, extinct since the 12th century A.D. In more superstitious circles, it is thought that if they are kept within a home a great tragedy will soon befall that house, most likely death.

The most potentially powerful, and subsequently most dangerous, of all the magical systems that deal with demonic forces is that of the Enochian. The Enochian language is said to be the language that Adam spoke before the biblical ‘Fall’, allegedly rediscovered in the late 1500’s by John Dee and his associate Edward Kelley. Dee was the official court Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth the I, while Kelley was a soi-disant psychic medium who claimed to receive visions through a magic crystal given to him by an angel. Kelley was said to have dictated to Dee, while in a state of trance, the entire Enochian language, complete with syntax. Dee was also able to receive through Kelley’s mediumship The Book of Enoch and the secrets of Enochian Magick.

While many historians believe Kelley to be somewhat of a charlatan and a rogue, it may be true, in fact, that he did actually possess some form of second sight, as the poetry and complexity of the Enochian conveyances went far beyond the abilities of a simple huckster. In addition, as many a magician can corroborate, the system not only works, but works well. The level of danger involved in practicing Enochian magick is well documented, as many of the forces therein are truly destructive. Chief amongst these is the demon Choronzon.

Choronzon is the lord of illusions, a demon of chaos, dispersion and malice. In the writings of John Dee, Choronzon is synonymous with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and it is Choronzon that may have caused Dee and Kelley to fearfully abort any further explorations into magick. Choronzon is also associated with the Biblical ‘Legion’, as his is not one personality but the infinite shifting forms and babbling minds of the Abyss. Crowley, paraphrasing Kelley (whom he believed himself to be a reincarnation of), refers to Choronzon as “the first and deadliest of all the powers of evil...” and goes on to describe him thusly in his book The Vision and the Voice.

In Crowley’s Thelemic system of magick, which relies heavily on the Enochian system, Choronzon exists as a final obstruction on the path to enlightenment, the Abyss that must be traversed in order to achieve true mastery. One interpretation that many magicians subscribe to is that Choronzon, while perhaps still very much a part of a collective unconscious “reality,” is the manifestation of the individual ego that must be destroyed so that true consciousness can ascend. Peter J. Carroll, and fellow chaos magicians like him, tend to believe that Choronzon is more akin to the amalgamation of all the negative psychic residue floating about the aether. Whatever the case, there is one thing that is for certain, many magicians attempting to control the power of Choronzon have wound up either injured or going completely insane. Crowley, himself, encountered the dangers of Choronzon in North Africa in 1909.

Crowley and his disciple Victor Neuburg had been wandering through Northern Africa invoking the Enochian Aethyrs, which are the higher planes of consciousness (existence) within the Enochian system. On December 6, 1909, in the dessert near Bou-saada, in what is now modern-day Algeria, Crowley elected to invoke the 10th Aethyr, the dwelling place of Choronzon. Crowley and Neuburg constructed a magical circle for protection and a magical triangle to contain the demon. It was Neuburg, however, who took his position within the protective circle, acting as the ‘Scribe’. Crowley, who bore the title of ‘Seer’ for this working actually took his place inside the triangle, completely covered by a black robe.

The intention, it seemed, may have been to evoke Choronzon from Crowley’s own unconscious in order to confront him, and if being successful in that endeavor, to reach ascension. Three pigeons were slaughtered at each angle of the triangle, their blood serving as a physical link between the worlds of spirit and matter. During the course of the invocation, Neuburg was able to physically observe the demon’s manifestations. It took on the form of a woman he once loved, and then became a monstrous serpent with a human head. It also would speak to him in Crowley’s voice but he claimed that it never once assumed Crowley’s form. All the while, the demon attempted to coax Neuburg into leaving the circle.

When the demon was unable to accomplish this feat, it begin to recite garrulous bits of poetry in order to distract Neuburg who was transcribing all that transpired. While he was busy writing, the demon (perhaps facilitated by the physical hand of a ‘possessed’ Crowley, it is unclear from the writings) began to throw sand onto the circle. Once the circle was partially destroyed, the demon, in the form of a fanged savage, rushed into it (apparently unable to be held by the magical triangle) to attack Neuburg. He managed to fend it off, wielding a magical dagger, and then set about repairing the circle.

Crowley’s writings concerning the incident seem purposefully ambiguous, but Israel Regardie, Crowley’s secretary and biographer, brings to light some interesting questions and theories in his book The Eye In The Triangle. He writes, “But what did really happen here? Was Victor the victim of hallucination? Or did he actually perceive phantoms that were evoked out of Crowley’s psyche, and rendered objective by the use of blood and incense and ectoplasm? Or did Crowley, out of his mind temporarily, actually attack Neuburg?”

It is said by many occult scholars that Crowley, and certainly Neuburg, never fully recovered from the encounter with the demon, although Crowley in his writings clearly believes he reached ascension. Still, his immense ego never subsided and his later writings became more and more convoluted and insane; factors which lead one to believe he never truly overcame the ordeal.

So then, Demons. Figurative or at least in some sense real? There certainly seems to be something to all of this fascination with contacting and controlling these dark forces. Men and women have spent their entire lives in pursuit of such magicks. Have they wasted their time with lunacy or have they achieved results with frightening connotations? Wherever the answer may lie, it might not be a place you want to go looking.