Thursday 25 March 2021
your daily demon: aguarรจs
catagories: ⚖️, ๐, myth and monsters
Sunday 21 March 2021
your daily demon: bael
The first Goetic spirit listed on the calendar of demons, the infernal and principle king that commands sixty-six legions and rules from this day, the beginning of Aries, until 25 March, is probably a syncretism of the Canaanite deity Ba’al and presents in the forms of a cat, man or toad simultaneously. Sometimes conflated with Beelzebub—Lord of the Flies—Bael’s office is to impart the power of invisibility to the exorcist and is countered by the Shem HaMephorash angel Vehuiah.
Tuesday 16 March 2021
your daily demon: andromalius
Friday 12 March 2021
the anathema of zos
Among the youngest artists to exhibit at the Royal Academy and securing an art scholarship and associated with occult figures like Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare (*1886 – †1956) is virtually unknown despite his contemporary presence—possibly for his departure from other esoterics by turning inward to uncover hidden knowledge by engaging his atavistic subconscious psyche. Accessing his portfolio full of Art Nouveau grotesques and echoing the style of artwork of Aubrey Beardsley through his self-published grimoire Earth Inferno, inspired by Dante’s epic trilogy. Eventually accusing other magicians as only concerned with self-aggrandisement and harshly critical of Nazism’s flirtation with the occult, Spare’s subsequent works articulated the process of automatic writing and mediumistic sketching, a method to produce the sigils that summon spirits, and analysing the output. Modified by later adherents and evangelisers, Spare’s techiques and theories were transferred to a movement broadly called chaos magick. More to explore at the link up top with the content warning that some of the imagery verges on the sexually domineering and violent.
Thursday 11 March 2021
your daily demon: dantalion
Saturday 6 March 2021
your daily demon: seere
Ruling from today to the tenth of March and into Pisces, this seventieth spirit is an infernal prince that presents as a man astride a flying steed. The first demon we’ve encountered described specifically as benevolent and having no truck with evil, Seere is a master of transportation and can appear anywhere on Earth in a matter of seconds and reveals hidden treasure. Governing twenty-six legions, Seere is opposed by the angel Jabamiah, whose corresponding invocatory verse is Genesis Book I, Chapter I.
Tuesday 2 March 2021
bacchanal
Spelunking through the Atlas Obscura archives with Boing Boing (always an advisable pursuit) we discover the glorious albeit short-lived Italian broadcast satanic variety show Stryx from the autumn of 1978. Featuring performances by Amanda Lear, muse to both David Bowie and Salvador Dalรญ, Grace Jones and Patty Pravo, a diva whose signature look was an homage to the above Bowie, the show was a departure from the usual milquetoast affair that made up most TV variety hours hosted by the devil himself with goblins, mock torture and sacrificial rites, medieval tropes and gratuitous nudity. Stryx was cancelled with only six episodes broadcast with only a few music segments surviving. More clips are available at the links above.
Monday 1 March 2021
your daily demon: abraxas
An aspect of Christian godhood of Gnostic traditions, we have encountered this sixty-ninth spirit beforehand, who also goes by the name Decarabia, and was thought to govern three-hundred sixty-five skies with as many virtues. In demonology, Abraxas (ฮฮฮกฮฮฮฮฃ and the related incantation abracadabra) is an infernal marquis who controls thirty legions and rules from today through the fifth of March and is considered, according to some sources including our sometimes illustrator Jacques-Albin-Simon Collin de Plancy, responsible for the figure of Jesus Christ, dispatching Him to Earth as a benevolent ghost and is described as an anguipede deity, that is a chimera with snakes for feet and the head of a king. Abraxas is opposed by the angel Rochel and has power over birds and herbs.
Friday 26 February 2021
pandemonium
In a pioneering paper outlining the principals of neural networks and parallel processing, Oliver Selfridge (*1926 – †2008), a founding proponent of artificial intelligence and called the Father of Machine Perception, proposed in 1959 an architecture of distributed demons that underpins our ideas about machine learning and adversarial behaviour. The model was realised in a 1977 psychology textbook illustrated by Leanne Hinton as a flow chart for both biological and computerised analogues. Learn more at Mind Hacks at the link above.
Wednesday 24 February 2021
your daily demon: belial
catagories: ๐, myth and monsters
Friday 19 February 2021
your daily demon: amduscias
With a charge and a voice like a thunder-clap, this infernal duke governs from this day through 23 February, the first part of the sign of Pisces, Amdusias presents in the form of a unicorn and is the Kapellmeister of Hell, responsible for the cacophonous music of the dread realm and can manifest and possess other instruments. Opposed by the Angel Eiael, this sixty-seventh spirit controls twenty-nine legion and can reportedly bend trees at his will.
Sunday 14 February 2021
your daily demon: kimaris
Among our most scholarly encounters yet, this infernal marquis mounted on a black steed teaches those who summon him grammar, logic and rhetoric (the trivium) and is the finder of lost treasures. This sixty-sixth spirit is an infernal marquis governing twenty demons whose name and identity may be derived from the Egyptian scarab-faced creator god Khepri or from the Assyrian war-like and nomadic people the Cimmerians who were said to dwell in perpetual darkness. Ruling from today through to 18 February, Kimaris is countered by the angel Manakel.
Tuesday 9 February 2021
your daily demon: andrealphus
Possibly conflated with a similarly plumed Babylonian god called Adrammelech whom apparently was only appeased by child sacrifice, this sixty-fifth spirit and infernal marquis ruling thirty legions presents as cacophonous peacock. Once in control of the exorcist, Andrealphus’ virtue is to make people wise in geometry, mensuration and astronomy and can also conjure others into the form of a bird. Governing from this day until 13 February, Andrealphus’ foil is the Gabrieline archangel Damabiah.
catagories: ๐ญ, ๐ฆ, ๐, myth and monsters
Thursday 4 February 2021
your daily demon: haures
This sixty-fourth spirit—also known as Flauros probably on account of a scribal error, and presents as a svelte leopard, probably our most Furry-like infernal encounter yet judging by written depictions but you’ll need to use your imagination, is a great duke and if summoned correctly will reveal the truth about all things—elsewise he equivocates and lies just as convincingly. Commanding thirty-six legions and governing from toward until the eighth of February and is opposed by the archangel Mehriel. Incidentally, the names of the corresponding angels are derived from a “seventy-two fold name,” a Kabbalistic cipher describing a hidden name of God—the Shem HaMephorash ( ืฉื ืืืคืืจืฉ), which is some forms of Satanism is ritualistically employed in the form “shemhamforash” as anti-hallelujah or amen and understood as “Hail Satan.”
Saturday 30 January 2021
your daily demon: andras
This infernal marquis who controls thirty legions of spirits and rules in the demonic calendar from this day to the third of February presents as an angel with the head of an owl, riding a fierce black wolf and wielding a mighty sword. Andras’ office is to sow discord and strife, and for the first time in our summoning we encounter a stark warning that this spirit will not hesitate to kill those who call on him carelessly.
Possibly inspired (in name, at least as our heroine prayed to a rabbit deity) by the Celtic goddess of war called Andrasta—the very one invoked by Boudica to fight Roman occupation, our Andras is countered by the archangel Ananel.
catagories: ๐, myth and monsters
Thursday 28 January 2021
the wise wife of keith
Garrotted and burned at the stake for witchcraft on this day in 1591 on the order of James VI and said to haunt the halls of Holyrood as a naked ghost, Agnes Sampson was a healer and midwife and one of the more notable defendants of the well documented North Berwick witch trails.
The Scottish king inspired by his experience in the court of Denmark-Norway, visiting his in-laws on the occasion of marrying Anne of Denmark, and accounts of witch-hunting and practicing the dark arts—convinced during a fraught return voyage that a curse was responsible for the stormy passage. Subsequent arrests and interrogations conducted by the king himself in a specially convened tribunal was covered by a contemporary pamphleteer in the Newes from Scotland, which contained proceedings and quoted Sampson’s litany of confessions, implicating others and admitting with a seemingly taunting air that she had tried to drown the newly-weds and another had fashioned a charm out of a toad to make the king impotent. Reportedly James had been willing to declare Sampson innocent until her final confession which detailed the nuptial night of the James and Anne in Oslo with accuracy only one in communion with the devil could know. The writer with the by-line, James Carmichael, of the reportage later advised James on his other famous book (besides his patronage for the Bible), Dรฆmonologie.Monday 25 January 2021
your daily demon: valac
Progressing through the House of Aquarius, this sixty-second spirit rules from today to 29 January presents in the form of a cherub—with horns, astride a two-headed dragon, until tamed by an exorcist with his sigil and can be compelled to reveal the location of snakes and hidden treasure as well as dispense lucky numbers and coach for a job interview. Foil to archangel Iahhel who commands thirty legions, Valac—at least in name—makes numerous popular culture cameos, including various video game series, Sabrina, Hellboy, The Nun and The Conjuring.
Wednesday 20 January 2021
your daily demon: zagan
This sixty-first infernal king and president is also known by the name Dagon, possibly inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian deity interpreted as a fish-god or merman, but presents as a bull with griffin wings. When invoked, Zagan’s virtue is in making men witty, the alchemy of any base metal into valuable specie and can turn wine into water, blood into wine, wine into blood and also water into wine. Governing from this cusp day through the twenty-fourth of January, Zagan’s position is in the first degrees of Aquarius. Ruling thirty-three legions, Zagan is opposed by the angel Umahel.
Sunday 17 January 2021
temptation of saint anthony
Venerated on this day, itinerant and chief amongst the Desert Fathers, Saint Anthony of Alexandria, has had his enduring supernatural visitation during his sojourn through the wilderness of eastern Egypt depicted in many forms, giving way to lurid and bizarrely embellished interpretations beginning in medieval times up to the present day with greater emphasis on the mental states of individuals over demonic temptation.
One of the most iconic portrayals, aligned with the fantastic and nightmarish landscapes of Hieronymus Bosch (previously) is the 1650 work by Flemish painter Joos van Craesbeeck of Brabant, who had produced many a quick and circumspect study of the dissolute and down-and-out with his cautionary tavern scenes. A colossal screaming head—that resembles Craesbeecck’s self-portraits, spews forth an allegory of obscenities, the meanings lost to the ages and the symbolism subject to guesswork whilst Anthony calmly is seen on shore trying to keep his sanity.
Saturday 16 January 2021
your daily demon: vapula
This infernal duke and sixtieth spirit of the demonic calendar occupies the zodiacal position between 25° and 29° of Capricorn—corresponding to this day until 19 January—presents as a fierce lion with the wings of a griffin and specialises in teaching crafts and handiwork. Ruling thirty-six legions, Vapula is countered by the archangel Mitzrael under the leadership of Michael.
catagories: ๐