Our latest reading for the week talks
about the collaboration with demons magic and witchcraft is often
associated with. Particularly with necromancy, demons do seem to play
a rather powerful role in magic. The question, I suppose, would be as
to whether or not they can be trusted.
In our readings it explains that many
magicians claim that they can control the demons long enough to
perform, and then banish them back to hell. However, Bailey is sure
to clarify that demons are very tricky little creatures. "Demons
could either alter their own forms or they could affect human
perception so that people thought they saw a horse, a boat, a
banquet, or anything else the magician might desire" (Bailey
105). If a demon can trick the common audience, then who is to say a
demon cannot trick the magician into thinking that he does have
control over it?
It is no wonder that authorities at the
time tried so very hard to condemn dealing with demons, seeing as it
always ends badly for the person conversing with demons. In her book,
Page mentions the story of Theophilus, who made a deal with the devil
and, though he redeemed himself spiritually by praying to the Virgin
Mary, met his death very soon afterwords (Page 56).
It's a hard question to ask when one
cannot really prove the existence of demons, but I suppose it is
always interesting to wonder if demons could be controlled to even
trusted in any way?
Bailey, Michael. "The Rise of
Demonic Magic." (2007) Print.
Interesting blog Sarah. I find it fascinating that some people believed that they could have beneficial dealings with demons. This was not unique to the Christian West. For another history class (HIST 109 w/ Dr. Chin), I have read some Hindu stories and I have found that there were demons and dealings with evil gods as well. Much like in the Western accounts, the people who intermingled with these sinister 'things' did not truly profit in the end from their dealings.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, I like your point in the second paragraph, how could they not be sure that they really did control the demon? I think back to watching The Vampire Diaries, when vampires could control the thoughts of humans and makes me think why couldn't a devil in that time period control a magician?
ReplyDeleteLet's take it a different direction: why are God and the devil linked in theory (Kors and Peters)? I mean, God's in charge right?
ReplyDelete