Hey, I am working on a story with demons and I am wondering what exactly their weaknesses would be. I know like Vampires, they don't like crosses, holy water, etc. Or do you treat demons the same way as you would a vampire? Thanks!
You do whatever you want really. Just make sure it makes sense in your Universe. In Fright Night, crucifixes ward off vampires, but only if you have faith in them. But Anne Rice's vampires aren't affected by them at all (well, according to the film at least-Louis even found the legends about crucifixes amusing and liked them.) So I'd say for demons, search the wide lore in the public domain, find what works for you, and maybe even come up with your own lore.
That said, this is an interesting question I'd be interested in learning the answer to. What were demons actually weak to in the "canon lore" of the Bible? Considering the Bible has things like God not being able to inflict divine wrath on anyone riding a chariot made of iron, something tells me this question would have some rather amusing and weird answers. There's probably something even more patently ridiculous than the lore that vampires have OCD and have to count anything you spill on the floor in front of them.
I will say this though: weaknesses of demons aren't really well known/discussed in Christian circles. The only thing that comes to mind, and I was raised in a somewhat religious family, is that demons sometimes possess people and can be exorcised (the 'We are Legion') story. Unless you count the Nephilim, which is not really that well known among even some 'religious' people. But I don't recall any weaknesses of them except they can't breath underwater . It's possible some of the Apocryphal works have more demon related stories but I wasn't raised Catholic so I wouldn't know. My point is that even if there are some details in the bible, they aren't likely to be as well known as sunlight weaknesses of vampires, etc. But they could be good for inspiration.
By the way, I was reading about demons in the Apocryphal texts and found this passage about Asmodeus on Wikipedia (I'd look at the other Apocryphal books): When Solomon interrogates Asmodeus further, the king learns that Asmodeus is thwarted by the angel Raphael, as well as by sheatfish found in the rivers of Assyria. He also admits to hating water and birds because both remind him of God. Asmodeus claims that he was born of a human mother and an angel father. From the Book of Solomon (not Canon in Protestant Churches, not sure about Catholic or Anglican). off topic: So demons may be thwarted by sheatfish, which I never heard of, but sounds like what we Americans call catfish. No wonder the devil lost that fiddle contest in Georgia!
In movies (and in Ash vs Evil Dead) people always make a circle of salt. As long as you stay inside the circle, or summon the demon inside it and the circle remains unbroken, it can't hurt you.
King James mentions some of the standards: shunning the cross, being unable to hear God's name, fear of holy water. But he ascribes those to signs mentioned by "Papists" and kind of mocks the idea of it all. I'd have to look at what original texts he was seeing. He didn't like Catholics, to say the least. "Devils cannot cast out devils, because then Hell would be divided." haha This is from King James's book, Daemonologie (1597). Really, that's more about witches than demons though. He does talk a bit about possessed people in it. He had witnessed a few cases of possession. In one a guy would sort of jump up in his sleep and hit the ceiling. He was as strong as "six men" or something along those lines. This book formed the basis for how witches were treated for quite some time. Interestingly, King James debunked many witchcraft cases too. He went to investigate a case where a boy had accused all these women of possessing him (9 had already been put to death, I think), and he took one look at the situation and told the people to let the rest of the women go. The kid was faking it. (This would make an interesting book. He's like Van Helsing.) I guess you really want the Testament of Solomon. I don't think it was really written by him though. No one's that sure about it. Probably some joker assembled it after the fact.
Also, although it deals primarily with witchcraft, 'The Hammer of Witches' (Malleus Maleficarum) does discuss remedies for Incubi or Succubi but most have already been mentioned: https://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02b01a.htm However, there are still some means by which these devils may be driven away, of which Nider writes in his Formicarius. He says that there are five ways by which girls or men can be delivered: first, by Sacramental Confession; second, by the Sacred Sign of the Cross, or by the recital of the Angelic Salutation; third, by the use of exorcisms; fourth, by moving to another place; and fifth, by means of excommunication prudently employed by holy men. It is evident from what has been said that the first two methods did not avail the nun; but they are not on that account to be neglected, for that which cures one person does not necessarily cure another, and conversely. And it is a recorded fact that Incubus devils have often been driven away by the Lord's Prayer, or by the sprinkling of Holy Water, and also especially by the Angelic Salutation. For S. Caesarius tells in his Dialogue that, after a certain priest had hanged himself, his concubine entered a convent, where she was carnally solicited by an Incubus. She drove him away by crossing herself and using Holy Water, yet he immediately returned. But when she recited the Angelic Salutation, he vanished like an arrow shot from a bow; still he came back, although he did not dare to come near her, because of the Ave MARIA
I suppose that line is taken from the Gospel of Mark: "And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 'He is possessed by Beelzebul,' and 'by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.' And he called them to him and said to them in parables, 'How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.'" The verse about the iron chariots doesn't mean that. Anyway, the Bible doesn't really consider kinds of demons; the one time I can think of when it does is when Christ's disciples fail to cast out a demon from someone, and he says, "this kind can be cast out only by prayer," or something to that effect. The general pattern in the Gospels and Acts is that a demon is confronted in a person, and either Christ casts out the demon because he's the son of God and everything, or the apostles cast out the demon "in the name of Christ" in the same way as all their other miracles (see the story about Paul and the demon possessed girl for an example). The main point of demons in the Bible seems to be that they are very bad, but there's not a tremendous amount of detail on them. Mind you that's directly from the Bible; of course there's all sorts of tradition regarding demons.
I'd suggest briefly:- This topic needs book research: a library's worth, just like they always show in movies It varies between different denominations and time periods The bible doesn't say all that much about them They might not be particularly corporeal: their antagonism is usually verbal rather than physical Jesus warned the disciples that some of them have to be driven out by prayer Possibly all of them do, or it might be that just arguing with them works most of the time In the OT there might be a bit more physicality, but bear in mind it might be poetic e.g. the jam jar lid was stubborn because 100 demons were holding it There is more physicality in stories that didn't get into the Canon. And this might be part of why those stories don't get into the canon: the family of religions might have generally resisted characterising demons as having weaknesses since early on In the gospel of Thomas there is a good verse about how when you drive out demons, it can be like sweeping a house: they go away and wander and soon they come across the same house again and decide "that's a nicely-swept place, let's move in". Ashmedai in the Talmud is a physical antagonist to Solomon (chucks him 400 miles), but that isn't a comic book conflict with Solomon finding a weakness I think the Legion story makes most sense if Jesus and the audience are using the idea that knowing a demon's name is important From an NT perspective, I'd suggest the weaknesses might be:- - they don't have a relationship with G-d or are outside the covenant - they are only all-powerful in a limited and temporal world - perhaps they are blind to their own absurdity - perhaps they have to crawl: the glory they crave has to be vicarious through human puppets And personally I think that makes them challenging and fun to write. Character flaws are interesting, where weaknesses are likely to be dull plot devices. And I think it's to the credit of the scriptures authors that their concept of demons has been so lasting without giving them all names and backstories. They were good writers.
If we're talking about what they actually represent then it's the same as Satan, but less powerful. All Satan could really do was tempt people away from god, ie away from their best judgement or what they know in their heart is right. It's the temptations toward the physical pleasures or the empty meangingless ones—the temporary pleasures that steal away your chance at long term goodness. God is the symbolic representative of the Good and the Devil of Evil. And they both have their minions. At first Satan was only the Antagonist, that which stands against you or against God, or the Slanderer, that which speaks evil of people and things that don't deserve it. And he could essentially show up as anyone, sort of like Agent Smith in The Matrix. Someone near you suddenly just becomes the antagonist (your antagonist, or the antagonist of the God in you, that part which knows right from wrong). He didn't really have any particular form until some of the later stories. These terms were symbolic of that which moves you away from the Good (God). Most of the lore around the devil, including his familiar form, really comes from the Medieval period, when theorists developed elaborate fantasies about Hell and damnation and demons and Satan/Lucifer/The Devil etc. Those terms didn't necessarily all refer to the same being originally but were sort of rolled into one by the medievalists. The Devil and various demons mostly if not all began as gods or powerful figures in earlier religions. Satan was largely made from Baal aka Beelezebub, called the Lord of the Flies, which means the fliers, because his demons had wings. I believe they were also commonly assumed to be able to turn into insects, possibly swarms of them, as well as mist or smoke, something like vampires. This would be because the things they represent are slippery—problems can take so many different forms. It can be simply tiredness or irritation, or any other distractions that can cause you to do things you know aren't right. You can be plagued by lots of small problems, aka things that bug you. Bugs can definitely be irritants, and make a perfect symbol for all those little irritants that together can drive you completely crazy. Bugs in dreams often represent exactly this in fact, and the symbolism of religious systems is derived from that of dreams. Religious revelations often came in the form of dreams or waking visions, which are essentially dreams so powerful they break through into waking consciousness. In fact demons began as daemons or daimons, which were neither good nor evil, but they could plague people if they felt like it. This was back in the days before religions had evolved into monotheism. It's thought that we hadn't yet really found morality as we know it today. But as we gradually learned about morality all the various gods merged into a single one, and he was split in two, a good side and an evil one. Early in the Old Testament, God was both the good and the evil, but gradually the Antagonist and the Slanderer merged and became Satan or the Devil, and God became more unambiguously good. Then of course in the New Testament God was completely good and the devil the source of all evil. Interestingly the evil side was cast down into the pit. From the vantage point of a Heaven above (symbolically) our world would look a lot like a pit. Plus Satan is often referred to as the Prince of This World, (meaning our world). Indeed, temptation is everywhere. And that's all he can do is tempt people to do things they know in their heart is wrong. So I would think his minions the demons could do no more than that, and their weaknesses would be things that remind people of the right way to live, the Godly way. That's why crucifixes, prayers etc drive them away or weaken their power. Somewhere above somebody mentioned that birds and water can drive them off or weaken them. Jesus was strongly associated with water. He walked on it, made it into wine, and was often called the Living Water. He was also represented by the symbol of a fish. This was partly to help bring in worshipers of the fish god Dagon, a cult that existed alongside Christianity. Gods and figures of these other religions would be brought into Christianity in order to bring in their worshipers or to literally 'Demonize' the gods. As for birds, well, they can fly up to heaven.
Like how "Ba'al Zebul" was distorted into "Beelzebub", turning "The Lord on High" into "The Lord of the Flies"?
Exactly! In fact I kept editing the above post and added that info to it, or part of it—I wasn't aware of the Ba'al Zebul part or that it meant The Lord on High. Thanks for that. Lol, also I didn't notice I had misspelled worshipers until I saw it in your quote. Fixed it, so thanks again. I mess up so much when I start typing fast!!
They do seem to be compelled by the power of Christ. I can't speak for the Bible, but they are traditionally constrained by magic circles.
Vampires that don't like crosses or holy water are non-Biblical characters.While demons are Biblical. The Bible never says that crosses or holy water are the weaknesses of demons. But first into the origin story of demons;they are actually fallen angels who fell from Heaven and became demons. Like how Lucifer was a fallen angel when he lost the rebellion. But I don't know if the "origin story" is Biblical. Demons can who have possessed a human host be cast out in Jesus' name. That is if the one doing the driving out are the Apostles or a Christian who has really accepted Christ. If somebody who doesn't believe in Jesus tries to use his name to cast them out the demon will kind of say something like "I know Jesus but who are you?". Paul's handkerchiefs had the power to heal people who had illnesses caused by demons. Also it is important to understand that a demon is NOT a ghost although some tv shows(who try to make their own origin story of Biblical demons) like to say that ghosts who have been tormented by years of anger end up becoming demons.
The bible's commentary on demons relates mostly to Jesus' miracles. Most of the biblical information describes what they do to humans such as foaming at the mouth and falling down, a man living among tombs and cutting himself. Also that they knew and spoke through the human host and caused people to act violently. One interesting point was when Jesus sent the disciples to cast out demons on their own. They came to him with a demon that they couldn't cast out, and he said that this could only be done with "prayer and fasting". All the stuff about magic circles and using crosses and all of that is not biblical. (There may be other cultures in which those things apply...) Direct Quote of an interesting passage regarding demons: And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? 30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 33 And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 34 And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.
None of them are any match for the name of Jesus - unless they recognize you're an unbeliever using it like a magic word. There's some guys who tried it out in Acts and one of the demons gets his host to pounce on the guy and beat the heck out of them. I think they managed to actually drive out spirits even being unbelievers but they came across one demon that called their bluff -- Acts 19 - Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
@Gravy Aside from Catholics and a few Evangelicals, no one in Christian circles really believes in demons anymore. The Catholic Church still practices exorcism, which is a highly formalized ritual that may only be performed by a bishop or a priest who has permission from his bishop. If you've ever seen The Conjuring, there's a goofy scene in which one of the main characters decides to perform the exorcism because the priest has been incapacitated or whatever. A demon would laugh at that. Not how it works. For your research, I would recommend Fr. Gabriele Amorth's book An Exorcist Tells His Story and its sequel. They're both relatively short and stacked with good material. He covers everything from what a demon is to what it can do and how to drive it out. If you want folks who believe in demons to find your story credible, it's a must-read. If you don't care about that, then you might as well make up your own lore.
I must be one of the rare ones. For me there's either a spiritual dimension or there's not. You also might try the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis which I thought was from the viewpoint of a demon. I read it when I was a teen and thought it was good but I don't recall it too much.
There's a saying, 'if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.' This seems to be the case when it comes to demons. No one knows anything about demons so they just speculate, and they favor their own preferences. If reciting formal prayers is their thing, that's the way they'll claim will exorcise demons. If it's faith in Jesus, then making commands in the name of Jesus is the way. If it's reciting passages from the Bible in Latin, then that's the way. If they want to promote the church, only an ordained priest has the power. So, in your story, the assumed weakness of the demon is actually the devotional preference of your protagonist. If that doesn't work and you have a real demon turning up, you could have your MC trying all manner of random things until they find something that works.
The reality is that many of the demons and such were inventions during the medieval times. So you need to think later.
I was going to mention this. There are very few actual demons in the Bible. And even the ones that were didn’t have any real religious significance, demons were just evil spirits, and no associated with hell or the Devine or anything like that. Pretty sure what ancient Jews called a demon we would call a jinn. Stories about Jesus encountering demons I think I remember came about well after the fall of Rome. Christian, especially early ones were more into mysticism and the like, but even they did not associate demons with hell until deep into the Middle Ages. Don’t forget there were other religions that were more dominate at the time. Monotheism is fairly recent, they worshiped one god, and had no others above him, but he was not the only god. Even Lucifer, at the time of the Roman’s, had nothing to do with hell, Lucifer was actually their god Venus. There are actually several entities in the Bible that seem demonic now that were really just Roman/Greek/Assyrian gods/demigods.
