The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

138 Kabbalah
created the world out of himself but is not diminished in
any way through the act of creation; everything remains
within him. The aim of human beings is to realize union
with the divine. All things are reflected in a higher world,
and nothing can exist independently of all else. Thus,
humans, by elevating their soul to unite with God, also
elevate all other entities in the cosmos.
One of the mysteries of the Kabbalah is why God
chose to create imperfect, lower worlds, though it is held
that he did so because he wished to show the measure of
his goodness. He created the world by means of 32 secret
paths of wisdom, which are formed of letters and numbers:
the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and 10 sephirot
(from the Hebrew word for sapphire), which are vessels
bearing the emanations of God, or are expressions of
God. They form a language that substitutes for God. The
sephirot are the source from which all numbers emanate
and by which all reality is structured.
The sephirot comprise the sacred, unknowable, and
unspeakable personal name of God: YHVH (Yahweh),
the Tetragrammaton. So sacred is the Tetragrammaton
that other names, such as Elohim, Adonai, and Jehovah,
are substituted in its place in Scripture. The letters
YHVH correspond to the Four Worlds that constitute the
cosmos:
• Atziluth is the world of archetypes and emanation,
from which are derived all forms of manifestation.
The sephirot themselves exist here. Atziluth is the
realm of contemplation.
• Briah (also Beriyah) is the world of creation, in
which archetypal ideas become patterns. The
Throne of God is here, and God sits upon it and
lowers his essence to the rest of his creation. It is
the realm of meditation.
• Yetzirah is the world of formation, in which the patterns
are expressed. It is the world of speech and
the realm of ritual magic.
• Assiah is the world of the material. It is the realm of
action in daily life.
Demonology in the Kabbalah
Most of the demon lore is part of the Practical Kabbalah,
a syncretic blend of Talmudic and Midrashic lore, and
adapted Arabian, Christian, and Eastern European demonologies
and folk beliefs. As in most demonologies, there
are contradictions about demons, their nature and duties.
Various texts have long lists of individual demons and
types of demons.
Demons are made of fire and air and live in wastelands.
They are associated with cold and the north. They
have subtle bodies that allow them to fly through the
air; they occupy the space between the Moon and Earth.
They have life spans and die, but they live much longer
than human beings, especially their kings and queens.
Some, such as LILITH and Naamah, will live until Judgment
Day.
Demons are often described as under the direction
of SAMAEL. Demons gather at nocturnal revelries, where
they have intercourse with Samael, similar to the SABBATs
attended by witches in Christian demonology.
Other demons are under the direction of Ashmedai
(ASMODEUS), whose name in gematria means “pharaoh.”
Demons also are linked to the left-hand, or evil, side of
the sephirot of the Tree of Life (see later discussion).
Sexual activities between demons and humans are
prominent. Demons cannot reproduce on their own.
Through sex, demons can multiply and take on physical
form. Adam spawned a hybrid human-demon race, which
has continued on down through the ages through the sexual
intercourse between humans and demons. Adam and
Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel, were tainted with the impurity
of the SERPENT who slept with Eve and spawned demonic
children as well.
The hybrid demon-human children who continue to
be born are banim shovavim (mischievous sons). When a
man dies, they attend his funeral, lament him, and claim
their inheritance. They will even injure the legitimate
sons in order to get what they want. In the 17th century,
folk customs arose to repel these demons. Sometimes legitimate
sons were forbidden to accompany the corpse of
their father to the cemetery. The illegitimate demons also
were repelled by circling a grave.
Demons are assigned to all things in creation, with
angels as their counterparts. They can be summoned,
commanded, and repelled in magical rituals according to
their hours, days, months, planetary aspects, fumes, and
SEALS.
The Tree of Life
The sephirot form the central image of kabbalistic meditation,
the Tree of Life, a ladder map that depicts the descent
of the divine into the material world, and the path
by which humans can ascend to the divine while still in
the flesh. The sephirot channel streams of divine light
that become denser and coarser as they near the material
plane. The divine light flows both down to the material
world and up to God along these paths.
Organization of the Tree Each sephirah is a state of consciousness
and a level of attainment in knowledge: mystical
steps to unity with God. The 10 sephirot are arranged
in different groups, which facilitate the understanding
of their meanings. The first sephirah, Kether (Crown), is
the closest to Ain Soph and is the source of all life and
the highest object of prayer. Malkuth (Kingdom) penetrates
the physical realm and is the only sephirah in direct
contact with it. The lower seven sephirot are associated
with the seven days of creation. Another division splits
them into two groups of five, the upper ones representing
hidden powers and the lower five representing manifest
powers.
In another division, the top three—Kether, Chockmah
(Wisdom), and Binah (Intelligence)—are associated