128- Do the beings we call angels, archangels and seraphim form a special category that is different in nature from that of the other spirits?
“No, these are the pure spirits: those at the highest degree of the hierarchy and inwardly perfect in every way.”
The word angel usually rouses the idea of moral perfection; however, it is frequently applied to all beings – good or evil – that are beyond the human sphere. We say a good angel, a bad angel, an angel of light, an angel of darkness. In this case, the term is synonymous with spirit and is used here to refer to the good beings.
129- Have the angels also passed up through all of the degrees?
“They have passed up through all of them, but as we have already said: some accepted their mission without grumbling, and thus were able to arrive more quickly; others took a longer or shorter amount of time to reach perfection.”
130- If the opinion holding that there are beings that were created perfect and superior to all others from the start is erroneous, how does one explain their presence in the traditions of nearly all cultures?
“You need to understand that your world has not existed from all eternity, and that long before it existed there were already spirits of the highest degree; hence, people assume they have always been perfect.”
131- Are there demons in the usual sense of the word?
“If there were demons, they would nevertheless be the work of God. But would God be just and good in creating unfortunate beings that are eternally turned towards evil? If there are demons, they reside on your less evolved world and on other similar ones: they are the hypocritical men and women who portray a just God as an evil and vindictive one. They are those who imagine they can please God by the abominable behaviors they commit in the divine name.”
Only in its modern meaning does the word demon imply the idea of evil spirits, because the Greek word daimon, from which it derives, means genius or intelligence and applies to all good or evil incorporeal beings without distinction. According to the common meaning of the word, demons are essentially malevolent entities, but like everything else they would have to be one of God’s creations. God is supremely just and good, and could not have created beings predisposed to evil by their very nature and condemned for eternity. On the other hand, if they were not one of God’s works, they would be eternal like God, in which case there would be many sovereign powers.
The first condition for every doctrine is that it be logical; therefore, in its absolute meaning the doctrine of demons lacks this essential point. In the beliefs of less evolved cultures that do not understand the attributes of God, it is conceivable that alongside their evil deities they also believe in the existence of demons. Nevertheless, for those who accept the goodness of God as an attribute par excellence, it would negate the divine goodness and be illogical and contradictory to suppose that God would have created beings dedicated to evil and destined to indulge in it forever.32 Proponents of demons find support in the words of Christ, and we will certainly not contest the authority of his teachings – we would like to see them more in individuals’ hearts than on their lips. But can they be certain of the meaning he attributed to the word demon? After all, do we not know that the allegorical form is one of the characteristics of his language? Should everything contained in the Gospels be taken literally? We need no further proof beyond this passage:
“Immediately after those days of affliction, the sun shall be darkened; the moon shall not give its light; the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away before all these things are fulfilled.” Have we not seen the form of the biblical text contradicted by science where it refers to the creation and movement of the earth? Could it not be the same regarding certain figurative expressions employed by Christ, who had to speak according to the time and region in which he found himself? Christ could not have consciously made an erroneous statement. Therefore, if in his words there are things that seem to contradict reason it is either because we have not understood them or because we have wrongly interpreted them. Humans have treated demons the same as they have treated angels. Just as they have believed in the existence of beings perfect from all eternity, they have also taken the least evolved spirits as beings who will be evil forever. The word demon should therefore be understood as referring to impure spirits, who often are no better than the beings normally designated by that name, but with this difference: their state is only temporary. They are the imperfect spirits who protest against their trials, and as a result they will have to endure them for a long time. Nevertheless, they will finally arrive at perfection after having made the decision to do so. We might accept the term demon with this restriction, but because it is generally understood according to its exclusive meaning nowadays, it could lead to error and give credence to the belief in the existence of beings created especially for evil.
As for Satan, it is obvious that he is the personification of evil in allegorical form because it is impossible to believe in a malevolent being who fights on par against the Divinity, and whose sole concern is to contravene God’s designs. Since humans need images and figures to impress their imagination, they have depicted incorporeal beings with material forms, endowed with attributes that portray their qualities or defects. Thus, in wishing to personify Time, the ancients pictured it as an old man with a scythe and an hour-glass. In this case, it would have been contrary to common sense to portray Time as a youth. The same was true of the allegories of Fortune, Truth, etc. In modern times, humans represent the angels or pure spirits as radiant beings with white wings, symbolizing purity, while they portray Satan with horns, claws and other bestial attributes, symbolizing the passions. Common folk, who are prone to take things literally, see real entities in these symbols just as they formerly regarded Saturn as the allegory of Time.
32 In the book Heaven and Hell, pt. 1, chap IX, Kardec deals at length with the Church’s traditional view that the demons and Satan were formerly a group of angels of light who subsequently rebelled against God, fell from grace and turned to evil. Here, the author is simply concerned with presenting a brief sketch of the Spiritist view of what demons in fact are. – Tr.
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