I can’t seem to locate anything that explains why some spirits are depicted as being part animal. I would like to get a general idea as to why this is. If any of you have an ideas or sources mY I please have them?
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That’s a good question and one that I’ve wondered about myself. I think for whatever reason the spirit is just comfortable in that form. It could also have to do with the correspondences involved. If anyone else has a different take on it I’d be interested to hear.
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Suppose you found out that stick figures drawn on paper were conscious and self aware. Explaining how you are connected to them would be difficult. A explanation would lead to more questions.
Suppose you showed them, by drawing, a circle. “I am a circle.” That two dimensional circle may be the closest way to explain, in a way comprensible to them.
I think demons showing animal aspects is akin to the two dimensional circle.
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You can shapeshift into anything in the etheric and astral planes, and save multiple forms much like ‘skins’ in a video game. I have several of my own (human mixed with part animal) that I designed and had Marbas and Buer do the energy work on them. Furfur also shapeshifted me into his deer/human hybrid form as part of a demonstration during a 100% conscious etheric projection, and it was nearly instantaneous, almost like how saving/loading a custom avatar in a video game works. The five physical senses, including touch, were also there.
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It is a symbolical representation of their areas of expertise and/or the virtues they represent or consider important for progress in said areas. Some examples:
- Marbas, who is usually depicted as a man with a lion’s head, represents the nobility of spirit that an aspiring healer, doctor or nurse should have. It is also a throwback to one of his names (Barbas) because he appears as a thoughtful bearded man. On the other hand, lion symbols are also a hint to thrive for excellence in the things you pursue.
On a side note, it reminds me of Sekhmet, Egyptian lion-headed goddess, whose ferocity was such that she could scare away the demons responsible for illnesses or possession (two things that were simultaneous or interchangeable back in the medicine of the day). Could be a cultural note related to that, but knowing that Marbas is very adept at casting curses and illnesses on behalf of the magician, a lion’s ferocity also represents the intensity with which you should pursue someone’s death. All in all a powerful spirit!
- Valefor: A lion with a donkey’s head, meaning that “excellence is achieved through persistent labour”. All what he teaches (a she sometimes to me) is based in doing every day chores that accumulate over time, warning against doing rituals in the spur of the moment, but above all, dedicating yourself to a single goal for a month, moar time even, until you achieve it.
The things Valefor has told me (cannot reveal - too personal) demanded I observe rituals that slowly increase in intensity, provided all steps have been accomplished first. This is why Valefor is often maligned and told to tempt the magician with ruinous propositions, because the things Valefor can show you are often things we want here and now but cannot be achieved without careful planning and work. Anything too fast and it will not end well.
An example is when Valefor suggested that I could allow/force certain entities within my dogs for better communication. I said this was not negotiable, and while Valefor did nothing to try to convince me, it was a proposition that more than one magician would consider.
On the things I can speak of, Valefor protects the magician well and teaches him good on vampirism. He is excellent in giving you incredible solutions to your spiritual problems, but you should only pursue them if you truly can.
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This is related to the issue about whether entities have their spiritual forms, or the operator provides them. Perhaps ancient magicians had random thoughts of a toad or a cat etc., saw these actual animals nearby or had the impression of seeing such forms either in blood’s vapor or smoke from burned herbs… Although, once again, did their minds invent the spirit appearances, or they experienced some manifestation?
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That’s very interesting about Valefor. Thanks for posting. This is turning into an interesting thread.
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I do something like this as well. For me its both symbolic as well as pleasurable.
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I appreciate you all giving your opinions. Perhaps I should ask some spirits my self. It could be quite interesting
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They are just as real as we are. The forms that they take on are solid/tangible forms that appear invisible to us on the physical plane, but visible once we project to their plane. It’s kinda like how radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, dark matter, and all that fun shit is invisible to us. It’s all there, but our eyes/brains/bodies aren’t built to detect it in normal modes of operation.
There are countless planes of existence other than our own physical plane. Think of them as parallel universes, but not really in the sense of alternate timelines. It’s like an extra (5th) dimension that ranges from more physical and less mental, to less physical and more mental in nature as you ascend to higher planes. There are many astral planes and sub-planes, and when you astral project (or die) you can visit all or at least most of the astral planes, as well as the etheric plane.
The etheric plane is considered the highest physical sub-plane, and since it touches and overlaps with our physical plane, it allows spirits who operate on the etheric to manipulate matter on the physical via telekinesis. In the book Astral Dynamics, Robert Bruce refers to the etheric as the “real-time-zone” but it’s the same thing. It’s typically the plane where projectors go first, and almost a perfect copy of our physical plane, albeit with occasional differences here and there such as rearranged objects. Most people who astral project are in reality etheric projecting. The astral planes themselves usually take a bit more work to reach.
Whenever I’ve projected onto the etheric while 100% conscious, it looked and felt just as real as the physical, but that’s because it essentially is another physical plane. It’s more maleable than the physical, but less ‘sandboxy’ than the astral. Think of the etheric as kinda in between survival (physical) and sandbox/creative (astral) mode.
The astral (spiritual) planes are something else entirely though, and it looks/feels/sounds/smells/tastes so much more vivid, colorful, sharp, and real than the physical or etheric planes. It is quite literally magical and unforgettable when one achieves a real astral projection. And the Goetic spirits have solid, defined forms on these higher planes of existence. My mind has never played any part in determining how they appeared. They have their own favorite forms that they shapeshift into, just as I have mine.
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Hmmm… it seems that the Greeks had a term for this. Theriomorphism
Its alot easyer to find what your looking for when you know words.
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It’s a tradition that goes back to the Egyptian pantheon and pagan spiritualities where the animal represented certain aspects of being.
Personally, not a single entity has ever appeared to me in an anthropomorphic form. I get human, orbs, surreal messes made of eyes, single eyes, mists and shadows. So my guess sis this was all symbolic and part of meaning for teaching purposes rather than meant to be taken literally.
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Thats interesting. If thats correct,i guess their true forms are beyond 3D human understanding as if they have more than 3 spatial dimensions to their forms.
Belial sometimes appears as a cat. I think that is because he wanted to emphasize to me how cats make up their own minds about people and do not take the opinion of others into consideration. Cats like who they like and that is it.
Astaroth is another one who is notorious for tempting the magician. I thought, yeah like that’s really going to happen. Grandiose depictions of becoming a goddess, I knew it was bullshit, but I eventually allowed it because my ex going insane and leaving me was just too painful.
That is how Astaroth drove me insane, my mind was on etheric, but my body was on the physical. I had this copy of my cell phone, but I call it the hell phone, and there were sights and sounds and things that weren’t real, but they were real to me. My ex, who is insane didn’t realize how out of it was I was because his mind was there, on some kind of messed up copy of the plane. That is where the doppelgangers are telling him what to do, but he thinks that it is real.
Imagine if sleep paralysis did not happen. Yes, you would be totally psychotic and walking around like that.
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It’s probably a mixture between certain animals having symbolism (like lions symbolizing strength)… And also spirits appearing in ways that our human ape minds can comprehend. Remember we are also animals.
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You can’t really shapeshift into whatever you want etherically. Anything done etherically is usually done based on practice whereas astral you can become whatever your imagination desires. The entities depicted as part animals like the Egyptian Gods usually from my etheric experiences with them have been their armor usually looks like that animal in some way or they can shapeshift to it. Nor is the etheric a copy of our physical not at all really but all planes in a way overlap, whether you think they are ontop or another or simply occupy the same space and vibrate within their own density spectrum. But they aren’t copies or anything they have their own climates, flora/fauna, and civilizations.
Or The demon Baal he doesn’t look like a spider, man thingy whatever it’s suppose to be (he actually looks heavy draconic for me) but he does have various symbolism to the spider, cat, and frog.