Demonology

Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent beings of all kinds. The original sense of "demon", from the time of Homer onward, was a benevolent being, but in English the name now holds connotations of malevolence. (In order to keep the distinction, when referring to the word in its original Greek meaning English uses the spelling "Daemon" or "Daimon".)

Demons, when regarded as spirits, may belong to either of the classes of spirits recognized by primitive animism; that is to say, they may be human, or non-human, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, several African groups, and others; the Arab jinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls; at the same time these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g. diseases.

Demonology

Orobas
Dagon
Culsu
Ravana
Naberus, Incubus, Drekavac
Armaros, Oriax, Pythius
Rusalka, Ukobach, Botis
Vassago, Astaroth, Labal
Sekhmet
Abaddon
Rahab
Ninurta
Earth and sky, winds and clouds
Ruled and perceived by their elements
Demons of earth which dwell in fields
Demons of sky, which lurk in thunder
Take the hand and walk the garden, see if it's lying
Someone sees a garden, someone sees a flame
Performing the mortal sin, their edicts of objection
The flames of corruption, astray, deception
Then come the rulers of the gates
Lucifer; the gate of pride
Mammon; the gate of greed
Asmodeus; the gate of lust
Leviathan; the gate of envy
Beelzebub; the gate of gluttony
Satan; the gate of wrath
Belphegor; the gate of sloth
In evening's limpid air
What time dew's sooth
Unto earth' downpour
Invisibly unheard
A brute insidious
Circumambling
On fabricated
Word bridges
Confusedly shouting
From mask of fool
That age must lie, That age must lie
Round us roving, round us soaring
Banished by the clergymen
The only demons
The eternal plunge
The unseen fable
The mysteries of ascent
All spinning into a big maze
Evoked and raised in the brass vessel
Fiendish deeds of Aži Dahāka
Reintegration and the liberation
The shepherd sets the sheep on his right
And he'll mark all goats onto his left
Thus spake the conscientious one
Of stolen suns
Still from the desert
Hail to the fishlike
Hail to its belly
Here do I sit now
In the smallest oasis
By the flying insects
Your moral roaring
As a virtuous lion
Bushyasta
Haagenti
Baphomet
Surgat
The clouds are lurking
The mountains are whirling
The higher we're tumbling
The further we're yearning
As the surface gets red
We're still drown in fled
The time will lead us
To another playground
A bigger maze perhaps
When the cold touches us warm
The beauty murders
The danger will cuddle
This field remembers me
Of a time not so far
The moon is cool
The wind is still
The weakening of the breath
Flees at Mithra's mace
His glance dull
His tongue falter
From blazing lakes
All frost and freeze
The judas goat
Duality
Defiance

photo: AP / Stephen B. Morton