Astarot’s “Free Knowledge”
Among the numerous Demons known to the Magi of Europe, only one, besides Lucifer, is mentioned in virtually every Grimoire — from the “Lemegeton”, the “True” and the “Great” Grimoires, to the “Book of Dr. Faust” — Astarot.
The masculine hypostasis of the great Astarte, the Black Mother of Phoenicia, and like Ishtar, of the entire Near East, Astarot occupies a unique position in the demonic hierarchy.
A mighty Demon of Wednesday, the most mysterious of weekdays (unsurprisingly did the Germans dedicate Wednesday to Wotan, the Greeks to Hermes — gods of wisdom and magic), Astarot is mentioned throughout grimoire literature as holding a key position in the demonic hierarchy. The Lemegeton and the “Great Grimoire” call him a “powerful Duke”, and the True Grimoire includes him among the trio of highest Demons (together with Lucifer and Beelzebub). A duke when the Grimoires were written denoted a tribal prince, and during feudal fragmentation, a major territorial ruler ranked just below the king in the military-feudal hierarchy, emphasizing Astarot’s high rank.
His principal subordinates (according to the “Great” and the “True” Grimoires) are Sargatanas and Nebiros. The first of these is a demon of clarity, the second of necromancy (since Astarot’s wisdom, like that of his hierarchy, is sepulchral and stagnant).
When he appears, Astarot holds a serpent in his hand — on the one hand a symbol of wisdom, on the other a symbol of death.
Interestingly, magical traditions ascribe to Astarot a dwelling in both spheres, in the sphere of Mercury and of Venus (since Astarte was venerated on Friday), indicating the dual, androgynous nature of this Demon. At the same time, Astarot’s duality is unrealized: he is precisely the male aspect, not the goddess’s consort — that is, the realized expression of her power.
Appearing as a beautiful naked angel, Astarot is capable of misleading even a sage.
One of Astarot’s attributes is an inverted book inscribed “Liber Scientia” (“Free Knowledge“). Free — that is, independent, self-sufficient; unstable.
The Lemegeton asserts that Astarot “can endow people with a beautiful knowledge of all the free sciences“, “gives true answers about matters” and “can reveal all secrets“.
Although any of these abilities is possessed by a number of other bottle spirits, their combination is characteristic only of Astarot.
At the same time, Astarot’s breath is “foul” — that is, what comes from his mouth is far from the truth. Like all Demons, by abandoning binaries, Astarot makes intelligence one-sided and therefore corrupt.
Thus, Astarot’s association with Wednesday and the above-mentioned distinctions show that he is a Demon of false wisdom.
In what, then, lies the falseness of Astarot’s wisdom?
First of all, Astarot is a demon of demagoguery. He delights in lengthy disquisitions: “he gladly tells how the spirits fell [and also about their creation], and, if you wish, the reasons for his own fall,” yet his whole account yields no understanding, though it creates a powerful illusion of wisdom and near-revelation.
It is very characteristic of Astarot to imitate understanding, inviting an analogy between this demon and the image of the modern psychoanalyst, humming with an air of wisdom during the patient’s psychological striptease.
The most important thing about Astarot’s “wisdom” is that it is cold. There is not a trace of feeling, spontaneity, nor a trace of inspiration — only cold logic, a “coercive logic”. No wonder Astarot’s garb is black-and-white, as is his logic.
He is deft at constructing causal chains, locating in the past the causes of present troubles, again making no allowance for leaps of thought.
Skillfully manipulating the listener and driving him into a corner with his arguments, Astarot achieves a single aim — to close off the possibility of development, to create the illusion of wisdom and greatness that stifles the need for a way and for questioning.
It is precisely the substitution of understanding with repetition of glib formulas, and of life by “practices”, that enables Astarot to halt movement under the guise of “activity”.
Interestingly, the True Grimoire assigns America to Astarot’s power, and the “Book of Dr. Faust” and the “Black Raven” likewise associate Astarot with the rulers of the West. Indeed, U.S. state policy in the area of “spiritual culture” corresponds very closely to Astarot’s character — “about everything and about nothing.” It is hard to find another country with such a wealth of schools, orders and sects, yet with such a superficial level of understanding.
Therefore, Astarot was opposed by Solomon’s Hexagram, which acknowledges the world’s duality, its dialectic, and Archangel Raphael, who is paired with Astarot, is also the Archangel of the soul’s health.
It is clear that for any Magus, and indeed for any person who examines himself and his surroundings, Astarot’s lie is one of the chief dangers because people will not fight for what they believe they already possess, and Astarot convinces him that he already has understanding when in fact it is only a cloud of empty words.
At the same time, overcoming and subduing Astarot gives the Magus victory over the illusion of clarity and once again makes the world what it is — a magical tale, full of riddles and poetry, an eternally unpredictable dance of awareness.
I’m again going to butt in with Castaneda… (sorry), but the last two articles are exactly the description of the first two enemies that the Warrior faces on the Path.
The first is Fear, which cannot be defeated, only overcome, and the second is Blinding Clarity… However, I have never thought of the analogy between parasites and the effects of Fear; what remains is to reveal the face of the third enemy.
Did I understand correctly that any excessive confidence and categoricalness should be alarming in this context? Is a worm of doubt always necessary to avoid stagnation?
Yes, doubt is always needed. Without it, evolutionary movement is impossible.
If we consider the evolution of consciousness as a process of neutralizing binaries through their synthesis, then categoricalness is equivalent to taking positions at one of the poles… which represents a dead-end option and a stop. On the other hand, a certain degree of categoricalness is appropriate for fully revealing one of the poles, with the intention of then manifesting doubt, thereby revealing the second member of the binary in full and transitioning to their synthesis one evolutionary step higher.
The absence of doubt, as well as the “whole picture of the world” completely denies “evolutionary movement”, in my opinion. And categoricalness is not at all “equivalent to taking positions at one of the poles”. If I, within the framework of a black-and-white picture of the world, for example, am categorically sure that everything is gray, what exactly is meant by taking one of the poles of the binary “black-white”? And the idea of a “step up” is also, in my opinion, doubtful…
>Jam
We’re talking about something a bit different… our consciousness, in general, deals with manifestations (phenomena) of some principle. The principle, in turn, is expressed by binary relations. The poles of the binary are opposite qualities synthesized by the principle, while the phenomenon is a certain mixture of the qualities of the binary poles. The transition from the phenomenon to the principle is achieved through synthesis; to do this, some qualities are highlighted in the phenomenon and maximized along the chosen axis. Thus we obtain one of the extreme points (the pole of the binary), at which point “categoricalness” is needed… and then it is necessary to move to the binary pair through the negation of the identified and maximum qualities, at this point, “doubt” is needed. Ultimately, the binary pair must be reduced to a point by decreasing the “arms” of the binary and thus produce a “synthesis”. The transition from the phenomenon to the principle is a level up 🙂
p.s.
Within the framework of a black-and-white picture, there is only black and white 🙂 and if we speak about a picture in shades of gray, categoricalness is not needed to assert that everything is gray but rather to acknowledge that on the luminosity axis, gray changes towards the bright side and reaches its maximum in white, to which the binary opposite is the absence of illumination and dark gray (black).
p.p.s. It is very likely that we understand “categoricalness” a bit differently… but from the expanded example, it should be clear what I mean.
Therion, shades of gray exist only in computer graphics, and black is not “dark gray”. The point is that no matter how much we reduce brightness, in life, unlike in a computer, we will only asymptotically approach black without reaching it. Therefore, in shades of gray, everything will always be gray, and can only become black or white as a result of a leap, a transcensus, and indeed this leap is precisely what formal logic, Nahash, prevents.
I agree, for synthesis both reason and the beginning of intuition are necessary… however, we have long since gone far from doubt 🙂
Greetings.
A practical question:
“The stench emitted by Astaroth is protected only by a magical ring that the magician must keep near their face” – which ring is being referred to? (I was unable to find descriptions) It is presumed that this is either a ring with a hexagram design, or, who knows, a ring with the same seal of Astaroth, but this is already completely from the realm of fantasy, however, other options seem even more fantastical, including the standard ones.
It is about Solomon’s ring.
I noticed that some people see positivity throughout their lives, while others relate negatively and see the dark side. Can one say that the consciousness of some is more enslaved by Astaroth, or is it something else? For example, such a viewpoint – the reason for failures in life, making mistakes.
In my opinion, pure consciousness would mean balance (being on the edge), an unbiased attitude towards the manifestation of life processes.
Thank you, Enmerkar. I believe I did not accidentally come here, catching this article with my own vision. Perhaps the Lord God himself pointed me to it. Recently, this demon’s personality has quite intrigued me… Tell me this. Can conscious lies in his style indicate possession?
Conscious submission to a demon is not yet possession; it is simply service to him. However, supreme demons are not particularly interested in seizing the entire being of a person – for such a person, whose conduits are unprepared for functioning with such an entity, is doomed to perish, and the demon loses strategic nourishment. It is much more convenient when a person remains a person, but serves as a constant support, food for the demon.
I understand that the literary prototypes of the characters Mephistopheles and Woland were this very demon? There is something about it in the philosophy of ‘free masons’ and Descartes’ rationalism as well. To be more precise, for them – from him.
It seems to me that this demon is not entirely evil. He tests our Faith – with deceitful words, and only the most steadfast can withstand his test… for strength… This is the essence of it. The function of demons is to test us, not to tempt us.
Indeed, opposing demonic currents contributes to development.
By drawing a Polygamous myth of the Macrocosm on a Monogamous basis of my Psychocosm, I received an image of multiple Gan Edens based on the Microcosm of a person living on Earth. In each Gan Eden, there is its own Snake breaking the Psychocosm of Creation. In each manifested Gan Eden on Earth, there is a woman and a man, or more precisely, a woman who refuses to taste the fruit from the tree of knowledge because it is not sweet for her. The topic of keepers of seals and the Holy Grail arises again. Amazing in this publication…
As TAROT… Through TARO, one can enter the endless World, “full of mysteries and poetry,” with the “eternally unpredictable dance of awareness”.
Or one can, with the help of TARO, “discover a specific future”.
We have read almost all your articles from the ‘Demons’ section. Undoubtedly, many things are very wisely noted by you, but there is one huge ‘but’ from our point of view. You write about the negative impact demons have on a person, but unfortunately, you have not once mentioned the possibility of forming a temporary alliance/symbiosis with them. As one of our acquaintances says: ‘Stop vilifying demons; the church has been doing that for centuries.’
Just one trip to hell And strike a daring deal, And gain many benefits, And come out clean from the deal. How simple, right? But, no, not simple! And the demon will smirk, pleased, How quickly he deceived you. You will become his involuntary slave. And benefits are decay, and poison in blood And blackness will flood into the soul at once. The locks of shackles will snap shut. Do you think he will let you go so easily?
Praise the Lord in Jesus Christ! Only in Him is truth and eternal life for every soul!
They are all spirits for service, and regardless of whether they want to or not, serve Him and the Father Almighty! Amen♥
Max G: ..”Can you provide an example of neutralizing a destructive matrix?”
EnMerkar: “There cannot be a universal way of neutralization..”
En Merkar: “The destructive matrix is an obsession with the Mind. When creating the essence of things, an external logic different from the essence is formed. Depriving a being of a manifestation of a world picture, locking it within its own picture and forcing it to act within the bounds of that picture.”
Is this you, En?
Numen, is it possible to distinguish worldviews? In the sense that if we see something, describe it, and try to explain, understand what we see, we are only at the stage of choosing the way of description the moment we can allow options, and when we understand (even if it’s just one of the options), we deprive ourselves of stability and will flail from one option to another… This will further lead to instability, to the field of activity of destructive elements. Perhaps it’s better to live one picture after another as options for manifesting desires, rather than running from one to the other in diversity? After all, we describe to act within this system, and the more accurately we describe, the more effective the actions? Or not?
And secondly, if the participants of the process adhere to this picture, there will be complete chaos if everyone sees something of their own?
Every being, as it develops its consciousness, sees its own picture. The more connections there are, the broader the description, the richer the energies, and the more interesting the perspective. I do not understand what “the picture changes” means. As consciousness develops, the interaction with the world increases, and the perspective (the picture) widens.
Each new interaction temporarily strips away the foundation, but as experience suggests, the foundation is restored and new points of interaction are created. Consciousness has an interesting property—it seeks, discovers, understands, defines a place, consolidates it, and then seeks something new…
To be honest, sometimes I get annoyed with myself when I see that I’m stuck in one place. This makes me angry, and I push away fear and do what I previously hesitated to do. Because standing still is just… Ugh, repulsive.
A new Russian series has recently come out, ‘The Thirteenth Clinical’, where the main character is Astaroth’s bet.
thank you for your invaluable work