On facing one's demons
In traditional and contemporary folk religions, demons are the relatives of the devil- they are personifications of evil forces, of alien and destructive influences and impulses. They are definitely regarded as something outside of us, something not-self. In primitive or native cultures, living in a state of 'participation mystique' with Nature, demons, like giants, often represent the destructive, violent energies of hurricanes, storms, lightning, wildfires, avalanches, floods, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. By inventing or imagining living beings, whether spirits or demons, who guide these forces, their terrifying character is somehow made more tolerable.
Conversely, our own inner states may at times feel to us to be out of control, like the forces of Nature. We then find it natural to describe these inner states as analogous to these forceful aspects of Nature. We speak of someone as a tempestous character, or of being in a stormy mood, or flooded with grief, or having a volcanic explosion of temper. Our inner life, like Nature around us, seems at times to be dominated by violent, clashing energies that seem alien and overwhelmingly powerful to us. This is one aspect of the experience of the demonic.
In the East, both Hindu and Buddhist mythology offer a somewhat different perspective on demons, or asuras, also known as 'angry gods.' or 'titans.' In many myths, the asuras are seen as playing a kind of counterpart role to the good gods, the devas. They are the opponents of the gods, analogous to a kind of cosmic Mafia, with values opposite to those of normal humans and gods. In the Buddhist Wheel of Life, which symbolically portrays six different types of lives one can be born into, the world of asuras is one of the six worlds, one possibility for existence. Buddhists say these demons are dominated by feelings of pride, jealousy and anger, and are engaged in perpetual competitive struggle and conflict.
From a psychological point of view, we are in this world of demons when we are dominated by feelings of pride, jealousy, anger, and competitive struggle. The mythic picture of the asuras is shown to us as a kind of reminder of how our feelings, our thoughts, and our intentions create the kind of reality in which we live. The chaotic, murderous existence of the demons and of humans dominated by demons, is an external consenquence of an inner state.
In Western culture the concept of demon has an interesting history. For the Greeks and Romans, the 'daimon' (Latin: genius) was not evil at all, but was a protective spirit, a divine guardian, something like what later European folklore called the guardian angel. Socrates was one to say that he would converse with his daimon in order to obtain guidance. It is only under the later influence of Christianity that the word demon came to connote something malevolent or destructive. As is well known, Christianity tended to turn old pagan gods such as Pan and Dionysus into devils or demons.
Generallys peaking, there appears to be a much greater tendency in the Western, Judaic-Christian tradition to polarize good and evil as absolute opposites. Only the three monotheistic religions have a concept of an evil deity-- the devil or Satan, who opposes God and the spiritual aspirations of human beings. In the Asian traditions and in the Egyptian and Greek polytheistic religions, we more often find a pluralistic view that accepts a multitude of different perspectives and states of being of various origins and values. And although there may be numerous harmful spirits, demons, and enemies, there is not one personification of evil. There are gods of death-- Hades, Pluto, Yama, Mara-- but these are not like the devil or Satan.
The figure of Satan, at least in western culture, has all the traits and qualities that are part of our shadow or unacceptable side. He is the liar, the slanderer, the destroyer, the deceiver, the tempter, the one who brings guilt and shame, the adversary, the unclean and dark one, who denies and negates everything that enlarges and enhances life, who opposes everything that we value and hold most sacred.
In Jungian terms, the devil represents or embodies the collective shadow of the entire Western Judaic-Christian civilization. He is an amalgamated projection of the shadow image of all the thousands and millions of individuals who have believed in him through the centuries. As with other projections, by attributing dark impulses and feelings to the devil, some not-self, one is relieved of any responsibility for them-- as expressed in that most classic of all excuses, -- "The devil made me do it." Satan exists in the same sense that the ancient gods and goddesses exist and live in the psyches of individuals who express their qualities and characteristics, whether consciously or unconsciously. The legion of forms and names that the devil can take, the many variations on this theme of clashing opposites, are a tribute to the creative imagination of human beings.
This is the multifarious figure whose features can be detected somewhere behind the persona-mask of every man and woman. It is the beast that haunts every beauty, the monster that awaits every hero on his quest. But if we recognize, acknowledge, and come to terms with it, a great deal of knowledge, formerly hidden, unconscious, in the shadows, becomes conscious. When we recognize this devil as an aspect of ourselves, then the shadow functions as a teacher and initiator, showing us our unknown face, providing us with the greatest gift of all -- self-understanding. The conflict of opposites is resolved into a creative play of energies and limitations.
