Reader Question: Working With Demons

A friend/reader asked me to post about my work with demons.

My experience with them is a bit different than other folks. From what I have been told their work is immediate. I have also been told working with them evokes some sort of internal crisis. I have had neither.

The exception to that was that I did have one immediate effect but the effect I experienced was not the intended object of the operation. The noticeable earthy impact occurred before the operation. Given it was my first time, there were expenses. The spirit in question, apparently not wanting to be evoked, stole my wallet. This made it difficult to obtain the needed supplies. I looked everywhere for that wallet. This included scouring the car multiple times.

I did find the money to purchase the needed supplies. I was living with My Gal (now known as Sorer Gimel) at the time. She had a little money and I had some of my emergency cash laying around. So, the tools did get created but I am pretty sure the operation had not taken place. This is an old story so I could be wrong.

Soon after I completed the tools, I had a spooky confirmation that the demon was indeed the culprit. I had just spoken at the local Pagan Pride Day event.  The only pen I could find to take to the event in case I needed to take notes at another talk was bright pink. After the event, I placed the pen in a little cup just behind the gear shift  and My Gal and I went for either an ice cream or smoothy. This is in dispute as the stores are right next to each  other.

When we arrived at the destination, I looked down and didn't move. My Gal asked what was wrong. I pointed to the console. There was my wallet -- on top of the pen! Cue the twilight zone music. Given the size of my wallet, the size of the receptacle and the location of the pen (directly beneath the wallet) there is no way that wallet was in that location when I put the pen in the holder.  The spirit had simply given up. The purpose to keep the wallet became mute once I had purchased all the needed supplies.

As far as results, I have never achieved immediate results with workings from the Lesser Key of Solomon (Goetia). However, over the long term, I have always obtained the desired result.

Perhaps the reason that I do not experience a crises nor short-term result is that I do not see the so-called demons the way others do. I see them as creatures that want to be helpful but simple are too fractured and ignorant to be so*. They need to be given instruction.  The problem with that theory is that takes away their objective existence. If everyone else finds them unruly, difficult, spiteful  and the like, while I find them to be mostly amusing and friendly, then my attitude must result in their behavior being different than others experience.  Oh wait, isn't that how life often works with people? So maybe they are more like us than we care to admit?

Frankly, I find these ontological questions enjoyable but they also make my head hurt.

I offer them no threats. I do not say that I will put them in a brass bottle for 1,000 years if they do not help. I show them respect. I do give them a time line to show me a sign they are working but never one telling them how soon I must have the absolute result. The 'confirmation' I receive is always suspect. Most would say that I am doing it wrong. Maybe, but like I said, I always get the result and never get the psychic shock either. I have never felt threatened by them.

There was one evocation where I received no result whatsoever. Though, that was asking for something extraordinary and unlikely. I do plan to evoke that one again for a more reasonable undertaking in the future. Oh wait, two...but I think that one will come through in the relatively near future.

The other reason for my unusual results is that I stretch the metaphor quite a bit. For instance, if a demon is said to be able to obtain keys to secreted objects, I will ask for the keys that open my perceptions to the created universe. If the power is to gift the practitioner with the skills of a fine artist, I may ask for the ability to appreciate the fine art of creation.

Maybe it is my slightly unusual take that obtains my slightly unusual result. Maybe I am just a poor magician when it comes to working with such spirits. I will leave that judgement up to you good folks.

*I do believe some of them are really nasty in their own right. I simply haven't run across those yet. I also feel that some are more nasty when the magician has an associated psychological issue that contributes to or is the compliment of the spirit's unruliness. Given that I have not had such experiences, this is an educated guess on my part.