Enchantment, Emergence, and Egregores: Part 5, There Are No Good Demons

For most of this series we've been thinking of egregores as an emergent phenomenon arising from a social collective that comes to exert downward causation upon the group. This approach to egregores is disenchanted. One doesn't need to believe in anything supernatural or occult going on to recognize that macro-level and trans-personal forces can arise from groups and organizations and that these forces can have significant moral effects upon the individuals within those groups. 

And yet, in esoteric and occult spaces there is a more spooky and enchanted view of egregores. A group can, with collective magical intent, will an egregore into existence. And by "existence" we mean a real entity--psychic, astral, or spiritual--possessing purpose and will, albeit an entity dependent upon the group. This raises the question, are egregores real? Real in the spooky sense. This more enchanted and occult perspective of egregores is controversial in Christian circles, so I'd like to take this final post to explore it.

In Meditations on the Tarot Tomberg leaves open the possibility that egregores are real, that groups can intentionally conjure, in his words, an "artificial demon." "Artificial" as opposed to the real demons we read about in Scripture, the fallen angels or spirits who had been created by God. As Tomberg was quoted in the last post, esoteric orders and fraternities try to create these entities to gain a magical ally. This would be a "positive" egregore, an entity that aids and helps the group. And on this point Tomberg is clear and firm: There is no such thing as positive egregores. As he writes, "good 'artificial demons' do not exist, i.e., one cannot engender positive egregores." Also: "If there are egregores of initiation orders and religious--and other--communities, they are always negative."

In short, if you're messing around with this stuff you're messing around with demons. 

Still, can a group manifest an "artificial demon"? Can such an entity be "created" by humans? 

Tomberg seems to think so (e.g., "one can certainly engender demons"), but that belief is controversial. Only God, it will be maintained, can create something out of nothing. Humans cannot magically conjure spiritual entities into existence. A safer, more orthodox view of egregores would be that a group trying to engender or conjure an egregore is, in the end, only summoning a demon, not creating one. Of course, the dark entity that shows up might let you think you created it to do your bidding, but the purported servant will, in the end, flip the script to become the master. The group will become collectively and individually possessed.

An esoterist might want to push back and say that humans, via biological processes, give birth to persons. So why couldn't some merging of consciousnesses on the astral plane give birth, via some metaphysical logic, to another sort of "person," an egregore? Why couldn't the egregore be real? 

For my part, I can't answer that question. And nor do I want to expose myself to the world where such a question could be explored. I think curiosity here is a temptation. Because I think Tomberg, who is a good guide on these sorts of topics, is exactly right. Even if artificial demons are real, you're still dealing with a demon. 

And there are no good demons.