The Origin of Demons

Religious traditions that recognize the reality of demons as a distinct group of beings usually assign them the role of “tempters” of humanity, holding that they, directly or indirectly, caused the “fall” or “darkening” of people. This view implies that demons were an “evil” component of reality that arose before humankind and was opposed to it from the outset. At the same time, esoteric notions, beginning with Hermeticism and Kabbalah, suggest that the “fall” of the demons themselves occurred, if not after, then at least simultaneously with the appearance of humanity: for example, Kabbalistic and Islamic traditions say that Satan (Iblis) was “cast down” or “banished” from heaven for refusing to “bow” or acknowledge the perfection of Adam — the new creation of the Most High.

The Hermetic myth goes even further, viewing demons from two perspectives — as destructive tendencies of the psyche and as special vortical structures, originally intended for the “bringing down” of creative energies into the “lower” or “dense” layers of the universe. At the same time, the process of distortion of matrices, occurring in consciousness, and the “fall,” that is, the inverted vortices acquiring a predatory nature by inverted evolutionary vortices in the environment of telesma, are also regarded as two sides of the same phenomenon.

Let us recall that, epistemologically, originally (although ontologically this process did not take place in time) evolutionary vortices, which later came to be known as “demons,” arose during the natural cosmic balancing process and did not involve ‘predation’ or negative influence on other beings. At the same time, within the ascending vortex itself (that is, in the force that creates a “force of attraction” drawing down creative energies) two poles or movement types form — inverted, destructive (originally only dissolving) and “direct,” “storming” (coagulating), the latter ensuring the natural impulse to overcome limitations. At this “intermediate” stage, a pair of “demon” and “Genius” arises, and both components are still exclusively potential and represent “bare tendencies” in the development of the cosmos.

However, in parallel with this, a similar process also takes place in the structure of the mind: it lapses into ignorance, “shifts its gaze” from its unity to its differentiation, and then — to the opposition of each individual aspect (“monad”) to all the others. At this stage, the “light of Lucifer” — the force of individuation — acquires its destructive character because it “erases” the aspect of unity from the individual stream of consciousness, replacing true unification with absorption. And it is precisely this absorbing side that finds an “ally” or “host” in the form of the above‑mentioned ascending vortical structures. Therefore one can say that Lucifer is the father of “human lies,” that is, the inner destructiveness of consciousness, and Lilith is the “mother of demons,” the source of structures that “anchor” and “support” that destructiveness. From this perspective it is clear that demons do not “serve Lucifer”; they arise where the Luciferian principle — individuation without accompanying responsibility — creates a stable distortion in the stream of consciousness.

This is how two kinds of distortions appear: on the one hand, conscious individuals (“people” in the broadest sense of the word) become inefficient at transforming energy, dissipating a significant part of it, and on the other, “absorbing” structures are formed, ready to consume this energy. In fact, one can say that not only do “demons tempt people,” but also “people generate demons,” because it is precisely the massive flow of libidinal energy released by people that becomes the “food” which turns impersonal vortical structures into conscious predators reliant on that energy. Therefore, demonization is not so much an act of attack on a person as it is an act of self-blindness. When the inverted vortex (natural in origin) joins with human ignorance and repression, an effect of “mutual fixation” arises, whereby a cosmic structure acquires a specific image and the human structure acquires an “external source” for its own tendencies.

Let us repeat — the processes in question did not occur in time: there was no moment when demons were replaced by Genii, nor a time when people fully belonged to the Pleroma; what is meant are precisely the inner regularities of a process which, in manifest reality, already appears in its “completed” form as a set of producers and consumers of energy.

In addition, as we recall, in parallel with the process under consideration (and likewise outside of time) the formation also took place of an environment conducive to destructive behavior — gemarmena — and the formation of a second group of energy “redistributors” — the Archontic hierarchy. This process can also be considered on two levels, and it too begins with ignorance, though here it is different.

At the same time, the Archons form the structure of the environment in which demonic matrices gain stability. If demons are dynamic vortices, and fomors are biopsychic predators, then the Archons are stabilizers of the environment; they condense perception into rigid forms, creating overly hard “crystals of reality,” around which the matrices of demons, and the habits of mind supported by them, then become fixed. Therefore, liberation from demons requires partially overcoming archontic structures that hold the mind in a state of inertia.

Thus, the study of demons — the goetic approach to the development of consciousness — is by no means “a way to shift responsibility” or a “search for an external culprit.” On the contrary, it is a strictly practical discipline aimed at studying the destructive agents in consciousness with the goal of liberation from them. To be liberated, make an accurate diagnosis, to know the nature of the illness, its origin, and the character of its development.