What is a demon?
I’m aligned with what FireBorn said, and that is people often reduce demons to archetypes. In practice, “demon” is an umbrella label that gets applied to a wide range of beings, really anything perceived as dark or evil, spirits people don’t understand or can’t identify, and sometimes even entities people are simply afraid of, etc. Because it’s used so broadly, you’re always going to see different definitions depending on who’s speaking and what framework they’re using.
Why would anyone choose to make a pact with a demon?
Out of desperation, and I said that for people who don’t work with demons and don’t really understand them. Some will jump in believing demons will automatically grant their deepest desires, and in that mindset they may even ask someone else to make a pact or deal on their behalf.
In contrast, people who already work with demons typically don’t make pacts. For many, it looks more like an exchange based relationship, or sometimes a relationship where no exchange is required at all. And because these connections are personal, I’m not going to try to list what they should look like. I’d say at least almost all don’t make patcts, because they believe it’s something scary and shouldn’t be made with a demon.
Agreements vs. contracts vs. pacts
What gets lost in these discussions is that working with any spirit usually involves an agreement, even if it’s never spoken out loud. There’s often an unspoken understanding to be civilized with each other and to define what the work involves, on your side and on theirs. A lot of people don’t realize it, but spirits can treat that as a kind of nonverbal agreement in principle.
I have worked with contracts (not the nonverbal agreements we all doing without knowing) and they’re cool. They don’t gain anything from me in case you wonder, not even blood sacrifice or any sacrifice either. That said, contracts are simply more explicit and more serious, and both parties agree to clear terms. Whether you need one depends on the kind of work you’re doing. In my experience, most practitioners don’t need contracts at all, which is why people sometimes assume contracts are automatically “bad,” or that only the demon benefits, when that isn’t true. People might call it “transactional,” but that’s not really accurate. It’s something that goes beyond what your existing relationship or connection already provides, and it’s something both parties have to explicitly agree to.
Pacts are a different category, and they’re typically more serious than contracts. If you’ve never worked with or even encountered a spiritual contract in any way, then a pact probably isn’t necessary for what you’re doing. A pact can be a very positive thing for you, but I’d urge real caution if you don’t know what you’re doing. Because details can be obscured, and you may not catch what you’re agreeing to. That isn’t something I’ve personally run into, but it’s still worth saying as a general warning in case someone reaches the point where a contract is being offered or discussed.
Most of what I see in practice is simply us practitioners who enter nonverbal agreements and individualized relationships, and the word “pacts” and “contracts” are being overused too much with different concepts, and mixed up.
