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The Book of Demonic Names: Infernal Spirits, Hidden Meanings, and the Dark Hierarchies of Hell
Every demon was named for a reason. That name encoded a fear, a function, a theological verdict, or the memory of a god whose worshippers had been defeated. The Book of Demonic Names traces those names across five thousand years of religious history, magical tradition, and human terror to reveal what they actually mean and where they actually come from.
This is the definitive guide to the named inhabitants of the infernal world, from the predatory wind spirits of ancient Babylon to the seventy-two kings, dukes, and presidents of the Ars Goetia. From the adversarial figures of early Jewish scripture to the great fallen sovereigns of Christian demonology. From the erotic night terrors that haunted the beds of sleepers across the ancient world to the folk devils who lurked at crossroads and thresholds in the villages of Britain and Europe.
What this book covers:
- The oldest demon names in the written record — Lamashtu, Pazuzu, the gallu, and the lurking rabisu of ancient Mesopotamia, with full analysis of what their names meant in the cultures that feared them
- The major figures of Jewish demonology — Satan, Azazel, Mastema, Belial, Lilith, and Asmodeus traced through the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Kabbalistic tradition
- The great adversaries of Christian tradition — Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Abaddon, and the theology of cosmic rebellion that made these names unforgettable
- The female and erotic demons — Lilith in her fullest mythological form, Naamah, Agrat bat Mahlat, Eisheth Zenunim, the succubus tradition, and the nightmare spirits of European folklore
- The full Ars Goetia — all seventy-two named spirits with their ranks, legions, offices, and the infernal bureaucracy that gave ceremonial magic its distinctive architecture
- The demonised gods — how Astaroth, Beelzebub, Belphegor, Dagon, and Moloch began as objects of worship and ended as princes of hell
- The folk tradition — Old Nick, Puck, the mare, the black dog, and the vernacular vocabulary of ordinary people who named their night terrors without the help of any grimoire
- Its linguistic origin and what the word actually meant
- The textual tradition that gave it supernatural weight
- The historical process that transformed it across centuries and cultures
- Where the meaning is certain, and where scholars still disagree