Working with the Daemons, Article by Athena Options

Here is quite a different yet very affective and workable approach to working with the Daemons. I find the methods to use more CM aspects then Satanic aspects so I have posted it here.

For example ceremonial magicians will call up the Daemons as per the grimoires by threatening them with names of of Deities and angels that they just don't get along with. Apparently it is still of the light and still for spiritual growth if one doesn't get too close to the Daemons. There is a nice safe circle and a constraining triangle involved. Whilst the Daemons are very patient (something about living for thousands of years can do that to you), this approach is just plain rude! The Demonolators on the other hand (well the one's with a web presence anyways) also use a lot of modern ceremonial magick symbolism, but they honor and worship the Daemons that they call. I am sure that the Daemons are much appreciative of this approach However, they shun any practical work or evocation with the Daemons. It is all for worship and spiritual development.

So what is a LHP practitioner to do if they want to be respectful as well as get some good ol tangible real life results? Well fortunatly there is still a lot of information in those old grimoires. It is not like one needs to use the prayers that Christian magicians decided needed to be in there. There are plenty of workable methods sans the prayers. One good example is the Grimoirum Verum and the Gran Grim. Yes they do contain the odd prayer here and there, however that is not the majority of the book. Also, those prayers can be changed to suit the practitioner. Even the Goetia with all it's prayers still contains much information, especially when combined with the Greater Key of Solomon to be able to work evocation. There are also the stories about older magicians and how they worked with the Daemons. For example in the old paintings of Faust, he is usually not in a magical circle, and the Daemons or whomever he has called generally aren't in triangles. Also, there are many other old paintings that portray the calling of Daemons, and barely any of them have a circle involved. In one painting of Faust and his assistant, it looks as though 2 Daemons are fighting over some crown, and a couple of others are playing with a ball They are all scattered about his study.

If we are going to have the Daemons help us with our everyday lives, it seems silly, well at least to me, to keep them so distant from ourselves. Only calling them up once for an hour to demand of them what we want done, then never talking to them again except to maybe give the reward. Even when we do call them we are safely in our circle surrounded by names of the opposing (to them) force. That just doesn't seem right for a LHP approach. I have seen some other LHP methods for calling the Daemons, such as just call upon Satan and have him send one of his Daemons to you, well that can work obviously, however if one wants a stronger manifestation, or to form a working relationship more steps and ideas are needed. I have also seen downright odd methods, such as someone recommending that a newbie (I don't know if this guy had even been practicing magic for more then a month and he did not know his path yet) to put his own blood into a bowl with the Daemon seal in it! Well sure, if you are experienced, know what you are doing, are friendly with that particular Daemon perhaps, but new to the art and a random Daemon? I think not! Well I guess some folks don't mind sleeping for a week!

OK stop babbling and give you the how to's right? <g> Well the first thing to do is to pick a Daemon to work with. Most of us have already worked with a few, or at least read up on some. Choose one that appeals to you. One method for doing this is to open a book of seals, such as the Goetia, and run your hand overtop of the page and see if any sort of "jump out" at you. Be sure to only pick one that is friendly feeling towards you, to start off with. Once you have gotten good at these methods you can always venture over to the ones that seem less friendly, but why start with a bad experience? There are many many Daemons, might as well start with one that you get along with. I am assuming here that you already know how to meditate. If you don't, go learn to meditate then come back to this article.

Now that you have chosen a Daemon, do some research. Go onto the internet, as well as get some good ol' ink and paper books and do some research. Of course you are going to check out the Goetia or other grimoire they are in, then perhaps other versions of that grimoire. You might also look up some older sources of where that name appears. I also recommend stopping by Wikipedia.com since they have some good articles on the Daemons. Also, many of the Daemons are/were old Pagan Deities, so if you can find that link through research all the better. Of course if all you can find is their listing in the Goetia, well better then nothing.

The next step is to draw their seal onto a natural piece of cloth or leather. I recommend practicing the seal a couple of times first on paper beforehand. To draw the seal on the fabric, do a light sketch of it in pencil, then trace over it with a darker and more permanent ink. Painting also works for this. You may also wish to again trace over it in magical ink after the pen ink dries. For the following exercises, paint the seal on both sides of the fabric, or use 2 pieces of fabric and sew them together if your fabric is thin and the ink bleeds through. While you are drawing out the Daemon's seal, be sure to only be focusing on the Daemon. Of course no one is perfect, the odd thoughts of other things might creep in, just bring your mind back to the task at hand and the Daemon. The artwork does not have to be perfect, but do try your best. When drawing the Daemon seal be sure to include the versicle (the ring around the seal) with the Daemons name in it. There are some versions of the seals that do not contain this ring, however it is essential for most workings.

For the first exercise and getting to know the spirit, one simply burns incense (such as frankincense), and meditates while holding the seal in your hands. To do this, you can sit in a chair or cross legged, place your hands on your lap palms upwards, and place the seal in your hands. Since you have made a double sided seal, one of the seals is touching your palms, while the other one is face upwards that you can see. Concentrate on what the seal looks and feels like for a few moments, then proceed to meditate with your eyes open and looking at the seal, or closed and you feeling the energies of the seal. During this exercise you may get impressions, images, feelings, a presence, or many other interesting affects. You are essentially making very light contact with the Daemon. Depending on how the exercise goes, repeat each day or every few days until you have done this 4 or 5 times with one Daemon. Do not switch around at first, focus just on one Daemon.

The next exercise is dreamwork. Hold your seal just before going to sleep and ask that the Daemon appear in your dreams. An example of this would be "I ask that you spirit N appear to me in my dreams in a form I can understand and to teach me about yourself". Then place the seal under your pillow and drift off to sleep. Be sure to write down your dreams, even if they seem unimportant at the time. I recommend only doing this for a night or 2 in a row at first. Once you get more used to it you can try it for a week straight. I do not recommend any longer then 7 days without a good break though. Also, with the 7 day version, ones dreams can get very disturbing depending on which Daemon that you are working with! If you are doing a multiple day dream exercise, and your dreams start to get disturbing, you can either stop, or you can hold the seal and ask the Daemon to please go a little easier on you. This works very well. After you have tried this dream working out a few times. Place a candle and some water out on your nightstand, and a duplicate copy of the seal between them. Then place your seal under your pilow as usual.

Skrying is the next step one can take for working with Daemons. Be sure to check out my skrying section on the how to's of skrying. I am convinced that everyone can skry. You will need either a bowl of water, a black skrying mirror (I sell these), a crystal ball, an obsidian ball, or other skrying device. I have found that an obsidian ball works best, with the black magic mirror coming in second. Of course these are not absolutely necessary, the bowl of water works as well. If you are using a bowl of water I recommend either putting some dittany of crete in the water, or some of my skrying mix that I sell (email for details). For this exercise you sit in a comfortable position, with the skrying device in your hands on your lap. If you have opening or standard rituals, you can of course do these beforehand. I of course recommend my Enochian opening ritual. Place the seal underneath your skrying implement. Be sure to light a candle and place out a glass of water for this working. When you are settled, have the candle lit, and have your skrying device in your hands ready to start, be sure to do a statement of intent. An example of this would be "This ritual is to receive images of N, to learn about N, and to better get to know N". I will not include skrying instructions here as they are in my section on skrying.

Next you will want to figure out which plants, incenses, stones, food, booze etc. that the Daemon prefers. Tables of correspondences are useless in this case. There are a few reasons for this. For one those tables of correspondences are all lumped into elemental and planetary (and sometimes astrological) categories, not very personal at all. Another reason is that the tables of correspondences are still relatively new compared with the age of the Daemons. The current correspondences in use are from about 1900, whereas the Daemons are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Before the Golden Dawn and Crowley alchemical correspondences were used, and even before that, things were not lumped into categories, but seen in their own right. One example of this is that I am a Pisces, but I just don't like the look of or feel any draw to aquamarine whatsoever! With the Daemons it is more about personal preferences then about tables of correspondences. The modern Goetia has lumped the Daemons into planetary ranks, and everyone seems to think that if the Daemon is a King for example everything must be of gold, and solar correspondences. Well that may work for some, but not as a general rule. Also, say a certain Goetia King happens to like habinaro peppers? You would be doing them a disservice by only putting out oranges.

So I have come up with a very novel concept about how to figure out which foods, booze, incenses etc. that a particular Daemon likes. Ask them. It is that simple. During your meditation, your dream work, and your skrying exercises, you have most likely come up with a good list of possibilities of things that they like from your notes. For example if you "smelled" a certain incense scent while you were skrying. Or "felt" a particular gem in your dream, or perhaps saw the Daemon holding that gem. Or is it possible that by now the Daemon you are working with has actually told you which offerings he or she preffers. One handy method of figuring out which offerings they like is to do the dreamwork, meditation or skrying work, but beforehand state that it is to find out which offerings they prefer during the rites. Be sure to write down ALL of the impressions and images that you get, no matter how silly they seem. You see, our mind likes to play the "it's unimportant" game so that we get less info that makes it uncomfortable, ie: non-mundane.

After you have acquired your lists of items that the Daemon most likely would like as offerings, get out your pendulum. For this technique you simply purchase or make a pendulum, and put it over top of the Daemon seal while asking your question. To make a pendulum you can simply tie a ring to a piece of string. I will not cover any more on pendulums as there are numerous websites and books that cover this fully. Basically one direction is a yes, and the other is a no. You decide on first use which is which, or ask the pendulum which is which. Be sure to take notes. Another good method of coming up with ideas for rites and offerings to particular Daemons is to look up their Deity lore. Many of the Daemons were or are known ancient Pagan deities. One famous example of this is Astaroth being known as Astarte. So in this case, one would look up lore and rites for Astarte for some ideas of how to work with Astaroth, and some offerings that Astaroth would particularly enjoy. Of course you can always double check any information that you find using the pendalum method. I will discuss how to work with the Daemons as Diety and Daemon later in this article.

My next article will be on evocation of Daemons....

Athena

When shall it be?