g'day, Jake!
Jake Stratton-Kent <[log in to unmask]>:
> That's right, the spirits were reclassified to a degree, though strong
> traces remain in - say - Agrippa. There and elsewhere the 'demons' are
> referred to not only as 'Fallen Angels' but also as 'aerial spirits',
> which is part of the old Orphic/Neoplatonist view, after Hades was
> shifted from underground to overhead (the milky way and zodiac
> representing underworld rivers, and so on). In this view these are
> spirits of the dead, including mythical personages like Heroes and
> others. Aside from the lower categories, 'angry ghosts' etc, they are
> capable of evolution, a feature shared with the dead in African
> Traditional Religions in the New World and indeed other traditions.
> This specific distortion in western magic has made it less receptive
> to cross cultural exchange on a meaningful level.
<snip>
as had ever been my expectation given that the number of
spirits in this grimoire/directory is sesigesimal (72).
I understood that they must have been subsumed to some
rationalist system if they ever came from elsewhere
and presumed this had an astronomical/astrological basis
(cf. also "Hamlet's Mill" in association of gods/zodiac).
one or two at least are also godnames, and have been the
focus of worship by some modern ceremonialists/Neopagans
-- notably Carroll 'Poke' Runyon and his OTA (Order
of the Temple of Astarte, worshipping Baal/Ba'al and
Ashtoreth/Astarte; cf. http://www.templeofastarte.com/
and consult "The Book of Solomon's Magick") / Church
of Hermetic Sciences (CHS).
kind regards,
nagasiva yronwode ([log in to unmask]), Director
YIPPIE*! -- http://www.yronwode.org/
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*Yronwode Institution for the Preservation
and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
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