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Demonology, the systematic study and classification of demons and evil or unclean spirits, carries a live tie into six religions in this atlas, tied for the strongest open convergence candidate at this tier: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Luciferianism, Mesopotamian Religion, and Modern Satanism.

Three Traditions of Named, Ranked Spirits

Demonology's own record names three of the six directly: the fallen angels and devils of Christian theology, and the jinn and shayatin of Islam, catalogued in exhaustive detail by the Western grimoire tradition's most famous work, the seventy two spirits of the Goetia in the Lesser Key of Solomon, each given a rank, a number of legions, a seal and the powers it can impart. Judaism supplies the frame that grimoire borrows without saying so outright: Solomon, the king it is attributed to, and the older Testament of Solomon behind it, both draw on a tradition, native to Second Temple era Judaism, of a king who could name and bind spirits by ring and seal.

The Oldest Root and the Newest Reading

Mesopotamian Religion supplies the oldest of the six: cuneiform exorcism texts named and catalogued harmful spirits such as Pazuzu and Lamashtu long before the Goetia's seals were drawn, the same practice of naming a spirit in order to master it that the discipline's own record calls a shadow companion to angelology. Luciferianism and Modern Satanism supply the newest, and read the whole category differently again. Luciferianism's own record holds that it reveres Lucifer as a figure of knowledge and self-liberation rather than of evil, with no central authority, no agreed canon and no reliable membership count. Modern Satanism's own record is more pointed still: in its principal forms, neither the Church of Satan nor The Satanic Temple holds that Satan exists at all, both using him as a symbol of rebellion against arbitrary authority and both explicitly rejecting devil worship. Six religions, and by the newest two accounts, the demon they are named for is not a being being studied but a symbol being read.

Where To Read More

• DemonologyCosmological DisciplinesThe discipline itself, tied for the strongest open convergence candidate at six religions
• ChristianityAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Named directly by the discipline's own record: fallen angels and devils
• IslamAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Named directly by the discipline's own record: the jinn and shayatin
• JudaismAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Supplies the Solomon frame the Goetia borrows without saying so
• Mesopotamian ReligionPolytheistic (Historical)The oldest root, naming demons in cuneiform exorcism texts
• LuciferianismLeft-Hand PathReads the demon as a figure of knowledge rather than evil
• Modern SatanismLeft-Hand PathIts principal forms do not hold that Satan exists at all