Thoughts on planetary spirits?

[xhpvp]

Hi, all.

I was thinking about how Steiner classified Sorath, Agrippa's planetary spirit of the Sun, as a sort of demon, and was thinking about how iffy spiritual taxonomy can be. Would you be in agreement that planetary spirits (as opposed to planetary intelligences) classify as demons? If so, what's your rationale, and if not, what do you think they qualify as? Personally, I think it's arbitrary, but I wanted to see what other people here thought.

 

[armageddonz1]

Spirits are the ones who actually do the tasks. Therefore, in my opinion, they are those beings that can closely influence the material world. Typically, spirits closer to material plane like demons or djinns or shadow people or other similar beings are better able to influence the material world than angels. Thus i feel the planetary spirits are one of these beings. But this also means that working with them alone might not be as safe without calling upon the rulers and intelligences of the planets first.

 

[solxyz]

Hi, all.

I was thinking about how Steiner classified Sorath, Agrippa's planetary spirit of the Sun, as a sort of demon, and was thinking about how iffy spiritual taxonomy can be. Would you be in agreement that planetary spirits (as opposed to planetary intelligences) classify as demons? If so, what's your rationale, and if not, what do you think they qualify as? Personally, I think it's arbitrary, but I wanted to see what other people here thought.

Spiritual taxonomy is indeed quite iffy.

It is made particularly iffy by the fact that our taxonomic terms never seem to have particularly fixed meanings. For example, "demon." What does it mean to you for a being to be a demon? What did it mean to Steiner? A spirit that is in explicit rebellion against the nature of being itself? A spirit that has some degree of self-interest? A spirit that is fiery and potentially dangerous to work with? Any kind of spirit that is less that a deity (as per the greek)? Etc. Etc.

It is made even more iffy by the fact that one's stance toward a given spirit highly impacts the experience you will have with that spirit. For example, it is well known that you will have very different experiences with the goetic spirits if you approach them through pact making rituals than if you put them in a triangle and try to command and compel them.

But this is not to say that taxonomy is totally useless. There are tribes, hierarchies, and patterns in the spirit world. On the whole I think it best to seek to understand the traditional taxonomy that applies to a given spirit and the particular cosmology in which that taxonomy finds its meaning, and then leave it at that.