I just wondered, given the Church's stance on otherkin and such things.

What do you consider a demon to be?
or indeed a deity?

Zygo

Demons...Well, that depends how far back you want to go.
The ancient Greeks thought they were an embodiment of spiritual force, the middlemen between the gods they worshiped and their own mortal existence.

The Christian and Jewish Churches describe Demons as an evil spirit capable of seducing, afflicting, or possessing humans, in order to cause chaos and bring death and destruction.
Interestingly enough the Christian church considers Fallen Angels to be Demons.

Personally I don't think there are such things as Demons. Only misunderstood creatures who would be and could be kin if only they could find someone to help them not be afraid of the things they are capable of.


Deity.... Hmm. To me this means a supreme being who is worshiped for fear, greed or need.
So really when I say Deity... Well I don't have one of those.

Darke.

my first encounters with the idea of deities and demons (where I actually grasped what was being said) generally involved the greeks, so my idea of deities and demons all have a mortal-esque flavor to them. To me a demon is a being who takes a disgustingly large amount of pleasure from harming another creature and will go out of their way to do so, and a demon can be any type of being, kin, human, whatever. a deity always seemed like more of a guide who seemed to know everything, or at least enough to point you in the right direction.
I believe in a higher power but i've never thought of it as a deity because i also think of deities as beings who like to be noticed and worshipped while the higher power is simply a power, i believe it has consciousness but it isn't like ours and doesn't have hubris like most deities seem to have.

In a lot of cases a demon appears to be a scapegoat for the humans to blame their bad deeds on, and a Deity is someone they invented in order to have someone to thank for all the good things in their lives and to blame for all their misfortunes and all things they don't have.

I think that's maybe a little over simplified Jardinn.
But essentially that is what they appear to have become to many members of today's society.
I don't have much personal belief in either deities or demons, but some people need to have a belief in a higher power to hold onto, to comfort them in their times of trouble, and to give them a reason to celebrate good fortune without appearing to brag or boast.
If you throw a party to celebrate your great good fortune or immense luck then you are bragging. If you throw a party to thank a Deity for giving you this great good fortune, then you are grateful.
Demons on the other hand seem to have controlled the uncontrollable and unexplainable. If anything happened, an unfortunate occurance or some inappropriate behaviour then the demons were in charge of it. Blame demons or possession by Demons.
It is perfectly understandable really, after all it is more comforting to have the idea of someone powerful and kinldy watching over you from on high, and certainly more comforting to have someone to blame for all the bad things that happen to you. It makes you feel like you have at least some control over the things that happen to you and someone/something to fight when things aren't going right.
No-one wants to think they are powerless to decide what will and will not happen to them. No-one wants to feel helpless against the force of something they cannot fight.

My four year old after spending 3 hours at a birthday party overdosing on sugar and excitement.

THAT'S A DEMON!

posted by Katie.

That is pretty close to my definition of a demon.

Also, God is a being of supreme good, "angels" are the dedicated servants of that being. Now, everything MUST have an opposite. Therefore, the Adversary is a being of supreme evil, and "demons" are the servants of that being.

However, i think "demon" is a bit of a misnomer. I know some 'kin who call themselves "demon", and describe themselves as beings of chaos, not evil, but chaos. I think another term for them would be "chaos entities".

"Demon" is just a word, used in many different contexts through the ages.

I choose to apply the word "demon" to entities in the service of the Adversary, who take immense pleasure in causing spiritual, physical, and mental pain to whomever they perceive as against them. They can take over the physical body of a person, thereby causing even more pain, and receiving more pleasure from that act. They feel no remorse for the wrong they do, no regret for the innocent people they help to destroy. I will fight those beings will everything I have. NO ONE deserves the sort of pain those entities put them through.
If they don't bother me, I live and let live, and let them be. But if something attacks me or an innocent person, with the sole intent of causing harm, they'll get what's coming to them.

I must admit I don't do deities and demons but I was interested to see everyones take on the subject.
There are people I look upto and would go to for advice but I live and work amongst them.
Some of them would be quite appalled to think I thought of them as deities and to label them as demons would be wholly unkind and extremely rude...

So i don't do that.

Zygo

Demons are not all evil my good friend Garugamesh has taught me to fear hardly anything.

A Demon to me is a creature with the possibility to be anything contained within them.
A creature with both good and evil inside, and the ability to learn whatever is learnable, and do whatever is do-able.
In other words they are creatures just like us, that some call Demons and others call by other names.
'Demon' is just a name that in and of itself means nothing at all.

Lady C.

Camille, If that is your definition of Demon. Then that sounds a lot of me lol. Also, where you stating that the name "demon" means nothing. Or that names mean nothing, because I would beg to disagree on the latter.

~Legitimize

You disagree with someone?? NO!

I agree with you Camille. A name is just a name.

I find difficulty with names. Who decides what a thing is called?
Them that's who. And being one of us and not one of them, of course I have a hard time with their labelling methods.

Demon is just a word, and whilst names may have great power, it is perception and individual belief that gives them that power. Not the name itself.
A famous person is only famous to those who have heard of them no?

Shade, do you have a problem with me? Have I done something to annoy you? If so. I would love to know what it is.
~Legitimize

Erm. Nope.

Don't think about you much at all.

You got pms dude? Your sense of humour seems to be, er, absent?

Well, you jumped down my throat in the other thread. I was just making sure. Sorry for my lack of humor, I usually have one.
~Legitimize