If there is a heavenly hierarchy, must there also be an infernal one? Many authors between the Middle Ages and the modern era answered yes, and they built lists, classifications and veritable organisation charts of demons. Studying these texts today does not mean believing their descriptions, but understanding how a culture tried to bring order to its fears. In this respect demonology is a chapter in the history of ideas.
From foreign gods to demons
Many names of classical demonology derive from deities of peoples neighbouring Israel. The history of these names shows a frequent process: the other people's god becomes a demon in one's own world.
| Name | Origin |
|---|---|
| Beelzebub | Baal-zebub, deity of the Philistine city of Ekron; in the Gospels «prince of demons» |
| Belphegor | Baal-Peor, Moabite deity mentioned in the book of Numbers |
| Asmodeus | demon of the book of Tobit, who kills Sarah's husbands |
| Leviathan | sea monster of the Psalms, Job and Isaiah |
| Mammon | Aramaic word for «wealth», personified later |
In the case of Mammon the shift is especially clear. In the Gospel the saying «you cannot serve God and Mammon» uses a common noun; only later tradition turned it into a personal demon.
Medieval classifications
In the Byzantine world a treatise on the operations of demons circulated, attributed to the philosopher Michael Psellus, which divided them according to the elements and the places they inhabit:
- fiery demons, in the highest regions of the air;
- aerial demons;
- earthly demons;
- water demons;
- subterranean demons;
- demons that flee the light.
This classification was very successful in the Renaissance, because it joined demonology to an ordered vision of the cosmos based on the elements.
Demons and vices
A second path was moral. Demons were associated with the capital vices, so that each sin had its tempter. The best-known scheme is linked to the German theologian Peter Binsfeld, author of a treatise on the confessions of witches at the end of the sixteenth century.
| Vice | Associated demon |
|---|---|
| Pride | Lucifer |
| Greed | Mammon |
| Lust | Asmodeus |
| Wrath | Satan |
| Gluttony | Beelzebub |
| Envy | Leviathan |
| Sloth | Belphegor |
The scheme shows clearly how these systems worked: traditional names were distributed according to an already existing structure, that of the seven vices, to make it more vivid.
Mirror hierarchies
Other authors imagined that demons, being fallen angels, kept the order of the choirs they came from. Thus arose infernal hierarchies modelled on that of Dionysius the Areopagite, with demons assigned to each of the nine choirs. The French Dominican Sébastien Michaelis proposed a scheme of this kind at the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the context of a famous case of alleged possession.
Weyer and the Pseudomonarchia
A very particular case is that of the physician Johann Weyer. In his De praestigiis daemonum he argued that many women accused of witchcraft were sick or deceived rather than guilty, and he sharply criticised the trials. In a later edition he added an appendix, the Pseudomonarchia daemonum, which listed demons with names, ranks and legions, drawn from magical manuscripts.
The title itself is telling: the «false monarchy» of demons. Weyer declared that he was publishing it to show the vanity of such claims. By an irony of history, his list became a source for later grimoires, such as the Ars Goetia, the first part of the Lesser Key of Solomon, which describes seventy-two spirits.
The Dictionnaire infernal
In the nineteenth century the Frenchman Jacques Collin de Plancy gathered a great deal of material in the Dictionnaire infernal, a dictionary of demons, superstitions and beliefs. A later edition was illustrated with engravings that gave the demons faces destined to become famous. Many modern images of demons derive from these illustrations rather than from ancient sources.
How to read these texts
The Studio Esoterico Cornelio approaches demonology as a historical and symbolic document. A few criteria help to avoid misunderstanding it:
- distinguish the ancient source from the modern reworking;
- recognise that many names arise from the deities of other peoples;
- consider that the hierarchies reflect the social structures of their time, with kings, dukes and marquises;
- read the demons associated with the vices as images of the inner forces that the spiritual path must recognise and set in order.
From this perspective, the infernal hierarchies say far more about the human mind that built them than about the invisible.
In short
- Many demon names derive from deities of peoples neighbouring Israel, such as Beelzebub and Belphegor.
- Medieval classifications ordered demons by the elements, as in the treatise attributed to Psellus.
- Binsfeld's scheme associated a demon with each of the seven capital vices.
- Weyer published the Pseudomonarchia to criticise it, but his list influenced later grimoires.
- Studying demonology means reading the history of a culture's fears and structures.
