Thursday 15 April 2021
your daily demon: valefor
The next spirit ruling from today until 19 April is an infernal duke that appears as a chimera with the body of a lion and head of a donkey and commands ten legion who are thick as thieves. A faithful familiar, Valefor tempts people into stealing and other criminal acts and fosters honour among robbers—at least until pressed and caught in the act. Able to bestow dexterity and skill in pick-pocketry, Valefor is opposed by the seraphim Lehahel.Saturday 10 April 2021
liber legis
Though with the arrival of the รon of Horus humanity is supposed to have spiritually evolved to the phase where the precept and obligation to oneself and others was to “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” Aleister Crowley (previously) in 1904 along with his new bride, Rose Edith Kelly, was accountable for a bit more clarification and codification as mediums for a supernatural visitor—a disembodied voice—called Aiwass whom dictated to the newly married couple on their honeymoon in Cairo the three chapters of The Book of the Law of Thelema. Thankfully, each day from the eighth through the tenth of April, sessions only lasted an hour from noon, concluding the with the final volume published five years later, with the couple able to resume their vacation once Crowley emerged from his trance in the part of the hotel suite designated as the “temple,” though it seems that they had already done quite a bit of sight-seeing at this point, with a night spent in the Royal Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza two weeks earlier having the spirits in the first place. While the messenger for the whole of the transcript was Aiwass, each separate character was the first person narrative of the avatars represented by the Egyptian goddess and gods Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khnuit and despite the title contain more revelations and prophesies rather than anything proscriptive, with Crowley claiming to disavow the magical document and only having it published to exorcise the weight it held over him.
Friday 9 April 2021
your daily demon: marbas
Governing from today through 14 April, this fifth spirit and infernal president, ruling thirty-six legions, presents as a lion until brought under the control of the exorcist—whereupon Marbas dispenses wisdom on mechanical conundrums and has the potency and power to both cause and cure disease, leading some to source the name to barba, Latin for beard as well as the plant hellebore—a toxic herb used in witchcraft to summon (and banish) demons.
Sunday 4 April 2021
your daily demon: samigina
Presenting as a pony until compelled into human form by an exorcist and ruling thirty legions, this fourth spirit also known as Gamigin is an infernal marquis whose office is teaching the liberal arts and can speak for those souls who died in sin. Governing from today through 8 April, Samigina is opposed by the angel Ieuiah.
Wednesday 31 March 2021
satan’s sneakers
While we don’t claim to comprehend exactly what is going on here, a string of double standards is underpinning the career of Nas X, in saying that his Country and Western song didn’t qualify for the genre (because of the identity of the artist) and now his music video tie-in with some unauthorised limited edition trainers, replete with pentagrams and other demonic symbolism plus the signature swoosh is painted with human blood has prompted the athletic shoe company to sue the artist and his collaborators, though an earlier edition of Jesus Shoes—white and containing holy water—didn’t raise the same level of objection over infringement. What do you think? More images at Dezeen at the link above, and we especially liked the attention paid to the shoebox—a collectors’ item itself I suppose with the detail from the lower half of Jan van Eyck’s (previously) Diptych with Calvary and Last Judgement (Diptiek met kruisiging en laatste oordeel) printed on the inside, with a warning from verse Matthew 25:41 inscribed along death’s head and wings Ite vos maledicti in ignem eternam—Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, which fits with all the other embedded messages and Easter eggs in the sneakers and associated video.
catagories: ๐จ, ๐ถ, ๐ณ️๐, ๐
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