Demonology

The study of Demonology deals with beliefs about demons or demons.

It is a supernatural branch of theology where the emphasis is on the study of beings which are not gods. It deals with malevolent beings of all kinds, including those which have no circle or with a limited circle as to be under the ranks of the gods.

Every religion and culture have its own supernatural entities which are considered either evil or malevolent. Forces of nature like hurricanes are considered by some cultures as evil while other cultures believe that fertility gods or goddesses are the entities which are evil at times. Other systems believe that this malevolent are evil spirits which make one’s life miserable.

Here are some of the list of demons and destructive entities which are believed to bring destruction or harm to individuals and some of the ways in which they were countered.

Ancient Semitic Defenses Against Demons

The Assyrian, the Babylonians, and early Jews had to get a way of dealing with the many demons which were tormenting their people. The main way in which they used to protect themselves included having on them amulets such as inscribing of various symbols, rings, or numbers of tablets or discs.

The Jews were not left behind and they too devised ways of dealing with the menace. They hang cacti or aloes from the arch of their doorways in order to repulse evil spirits. Some of them turned to God for prayers.

Abaddon

It is a demon well known in the Judeo-Christian tradition as a personified entity of destruction and a place of destruction. The word means “To destroy” in Hebrew and it is used six times in the old testament. In the New Testament, Revelation talks about Abaddon as a bottomless pit who commands locusts to come and devour the people on earth. There may still be a connection between Apollo of the Wiccan and the Abaddon. Apollo is known to be a god of law, prophecy, and purification who in his earlier accounts could set plague on men and later on cure them.

Babylonian and Assyrian Demonology

All cultures do believe in both good and evil, which is a belief that dates back to many years ago. The two types of evil spirits are nonhuman spirits and the departed human spirits. The humans who died at times came and tormented the living. Some of the spirits were hostile while others were friendly, depending on how they died and buried. The haunting was either on friends or strangers. There were cases when the spirits of the dead could come to haunt a friend or family. There was no rhyme on how they reacted.

There are the non-human spirits which are believed to have never been human and they could either be hostile or friendly and in most cases, they took a form of serpents, reptiles, antelopes, lizards, anthropoids, crocodiles, and jackals.

The Assyrian and Babylonians gave these spirits names like Alu to mean demon; utukku to mean spirit; Lilu to mean a ghost. They had this belief that, there were so many spirits who swarmed all over in the space.

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