Demons Help Those Who Help Themselves

There's a useful idea that emerges out of Thai Buddhist Sorcery that suggests that if a being of the celestial realms won't respond to your prayers and supplications, a demon most likely will.

Like most magickal traditions that have retained some degree of esoteric authenticity, the location of the human being within this kind of cosmology is complex. The quick read is that those beings of the sub-lunar realms are closer to human desires and so more likely to respond to our requests. If we layer this idea over with exoteric religious overtones — Eastern and Western — the implication is that these spirits lead us further away from divinity.

The logic seems relatively obvious from a traditional Buddhist perspective, where desire is viewed as a hindrance to enlightenment, or a Christian reading, where sin leads us away from a relationship with God. From a more functional sorcerous perspective, things are not so simple.

Understanding Desire

If we understand desire to be the whisperings of the infinite to the limited perspectives of our flesh-bound psyche — which I do — perhaps it's possible to have a mature discussion. By "desire" I mean something similar to the way Ken Wilber uses Eros in terms of "spirit in action" or as the primary driver towards greater complexity and self-transcendence as an unending trajectory rather than a fixed point.

This perspective reframes desire as a vitalising component of the cosmos in which we all are invited to participate. Extending Crowley's Thelemic Will, Jack Parsons understood this as the Creative Will of the individual which is "one with the force that makes the birds sing and the flowers bloom: as inevitable as gravity, as implicit as a bowel movement, it informs alike atoms and men and suns."

From this perspective, human desire then becomes one of the ways in which Chthonic spirits tend to relate to and participate with Divine Will. Rather than tempting humans away from the Heaven realms, they serve to expand desire through the material world. I'm simplifying but not overly.

What About the Dangers of the Demonic?

In my way of thinking this does help explain many of the perceived dangers and challenges of working with spirits of a Stygian flavour. Whilst they are more willing to get behind something with a lot of passion involved, the onus of responsibility falls back on us to discriminate between superficial wants and the creative desires that communicate the wishes of the infinite.

This is hardly a revolutionary idea. The Temple of Apollo at Delphi proclaimed the maxim — "Gnothi seauton" or Know Thyself. The implication being, as Pythagoras suggests, that by knowing ourselves we shall come to know the Gods. Simple in theory, right?

The top-down approach to this in magical thinking is to get your divine hookup on board before bossing around demonic spirits for fun and profit. Knowing and chatting with your Angel, Head Spirit, etc. The bottom-up approach is to recognise that there is an arc of desire(s) that runs through the trajectory of your life. Things that you want to be known for, experience, or become. The starting point for those of a mystical inclination is typically the first approach, for those of a magical inclination, the latter. Neither approach is infallible.

As it concerns enlisting the aid of sub-lunar spirits, Michael Bertiaux describes the innate ability of the "Work Loa" to recognise sincerity of desire.

The call carries with it the secret colours of true petition if it is a sincere call for help. If it isn't, then the colours will be absent and other colours will indicate deception. ...Therefore be perfectly honest with them and you will be helped. (Lucky Hoodoo — Lesson 2)

It's worth pausing to acknowledge the primacy of honesty — particularly self-honesty — in works of practical magic more generally and spirit work more specifically. In the perennial occult search for evermore arcane knowledge, the simplicity of pure sincerity often gets pushed to the side as if the correct pronunciation of a barbarous word will somehow overcome glaring personal flaws.

It's from this point that many of the apparent problems with dealing with spirits of a broadly demonic nature emerges. These kind of spirits will tend to back most things where lots of desire is involved but if that desire has nothing to flow into you can get into strife. Strong desire is categorically different from kinda liking the idea of something.

This doesn't mean the magick won't work, just that it can cause problems. Case in point, I've managed to conjure at least two six-figure-plus businesses out of seemingly nowhere with no starting capital or experience. The first one made me realise that I had no idea what I was doing along with how much I hated doing anything remotely administrative — it eventually crashed.

I could go on and on about these types of things, but I think possibly the best thing is to suggest the safeguards I recommend putting in place before enlisting the spirits of the elder dark. Given that these spirits are attracted to the desires of the human heart, the first and perhaps most important task is to identify your "true desires."

A way to understand this is that desire that wells up from that infinite part of you will always seek expansion. Transient wants and wishes, by comparison, can be discerned by a tendency towards wanting to take without giving. That said, these sorts of things are generally concealing our deeper desires.

If we take, for example, the desire for greater sexual experience, the spirits Frimost, Sitri, Beleth and Guedhe are always DTF and will help out. Where it becomes problematic is that results don't exist in a hermetically sealed vacuum. Real people will be involved which could put you in situations you do not actually want.

The reframe is to look for ways in which these spirits can help you become the sort of person who naturally attracts those experiences. The deeper desire here might be towards wanting to become someone who can freely express themselves sexually. This involves personal transformation and the alignment of your actions and words with that of the spirit. This is where asymmetrical results from working with demonic spirits can actually take place.

My experience is that many (not all) of the spirits closer to the earth want to get involved with people who actually want to do stuff. For instance, if you look at the range of influence of Goetic spirits linked with wealth you'll also note they are brilliant at teaching you skills and abilities. The same spirit that can be called on for a million dollars can more effectively be called on to help you become the sort of person who attracts millions of dollars.

Before petitioning anything of the elder dark, sit with these questions. Write the answers down. The spirits will know if you haven't.

• Will pursuing this desire allow me to become more the sort of person I really want to be?

• Am I asking something for nothing? If so, how can I rephrase this so I can expand or transform myself?

• What are the secret desires that I am afraid to admit?

• What could I lose if I attained this desire now? Am I prepared to lose it?

• Can I describe this desire in a way in which other people can benefit aside from myself?

• Would I work for this desire even if I knew magick would be no help?

  
  

There's no scripted right or wrong, the point is to try to get you to come to terms with the real desires that want to become manifest in your life. However, the last point deserves emphasis. There is something of an assumption here that you will have tried or are trying to achieve something of value. Robert Johnson didn't just stroll on down to the crossroads one night having never played a guitar and demand fame and success as a musician. He was already working in that field, his passion was music, he would have played anyway.

Johnson was already a musician when he went down to the crossroads. The pact didn't replace the work — it transformed the man doing it. That's the asymmetry available when desire, identity and action line up, and it's the reason spirits of the elder dark will back you at all.

It's also the entire operating principle behind Body Alchemy: A Practical Grimoire for Physical Transformation — twenty years of applying exactly this logic to the most intimate material you own: your physical body. The desire, the identity installation, the congruent action, the spirits who assist. If this piece resonated, the book is where the method lives.

BODY ALCHEMY GRIMOIRE